Buigairi Blind School

We are beginnning to get even less organised in the mornings now, and for 7 people sharing one house, it seems impossible to get ourselves ready on time for anything!

Several of us got very little sleep last night - we left the back door unlocked and the guard kept rattling it to draw attention to the fact! Eventually, I felt brave enough to get out of bed and check what was making all the noise, but I didn't go into the kitchen where the door was! What with that and the noise from assorted cows, dogs and cockerels, it was a restless night. John, Trevor and I ended up getting up really early and drinking tea to while away the time before breakfast, and then got a bit carried away and ended up being late as usual!

The guard dog was living up to it's name where chickens are concerned and managed to bag itself a whole one, which it was munching on when we arrived home last night, a bit later than anticipated, since John, Trevor and I walked and got lost!!

This morning, we were off to the blind school and Mandy fell asleep while the head master was talking to us - fortunately for us, he is blind and Mandy managed not to snore! It is very hot in Dodoma, and we are all pretty tired to be fair to Mandy!

The school, like most projects here is underfunded, although they do some of their own fundraising. They just can't raise the sort of sums they need to do the work required. It is hugely expensive to have a book translated into braille. The head master has integrated children from the surrounding villages into the school and they teach in English where possible. The children and blind, partially sighted and fully sighted children from the village. There is a larger portion of Albino children at the school - John says that blindness often goes with albinoism. They were really badly sun-burnt, so John suggested hats and trousers rather than shorts.

One of the classes sang their school song for us and then launched into a brilliant rendition of 'Lord I Lift Your Name on High', which chocked me up a bit!

We visited the craft lesson, where all the kids learn weaving and were making mats. The headmaster informed us that once blind children have an education, they are able to go into all kinds of work, secretarial, office work and therefore are able to support themselves.

The school is very keen on music and is very proud of their choir, which the headmaster reckons is the best in the area! They always need instruments so John left them his violin, after he had instructed the headmaster how to look after it properly and given him a quick lesson in how to play! It was a touching moment - the violin has become part of the group having been wangled onto the plane as hand luggage, and sentences such as 'who's got the violin' and 'someone's left the violin under the bench' wre often to be heard on our travels. Small children would often sidle up and want to walk alongside us and carry the violin in it's case. John found it quite hard to part with it, but we think it went to the right place. It will be well used and appreciated and there is a man at the Cathedral in Dodoma who plays the violin at the English service, so he will be able to give lessons.

We've just had a massive lunch of rice and chicken (John had goat - there was no stopping him!) at a cafe run by a Muslim family and I think we're going to squeeze in some food shopping before we head home. I heard a rumour of a shop that sells nice biscuits and I think we need a treat at this stage in the trip. Everyone is tired and it's very hot.

Tomorrow we are off to Msalato Theological College, which will be interesting, seeing the building work that has been done since we were there four years ago.

Julie Whitfield