So last time I wrote it was just before my family came and
we had a crisis with one of the students. My mom, brother and I had a great
time together (Philip’s first time!) and we dealt with the student crisis with
loads of support. Now sweet Remy is at Ujamaa Children’s Home – check them out.
Instead of looking back at the last couple months which have
been fairly uneventful, I figured it’s time to start giving you all some
insight on the forward motions I’ve made. For months and months now I’ve been
trying to create a vision. I have to go from small scale to big scale thinking,
as I have Hill Crest and the project and another piece of land to play with
soon! I have spent time in the community and realized that a great way to use
the next piece of land will be to build a community within the community. A big
center for adults to come learn English (an idea I stole from a school my
friend volunteered at), take general health and first aid courses, learn about
managing money, sustainable farming, a study center for children from unstable
home environments to come and do their homework and get tutoring, and anything
else that may pop up along the way. I thought building a school was dreaming big
so this is next level! But I also believe it’s a completely attainable goal,
especially because we can start…NOW! The project has one massive room that
could be split into two classrooms but then I thought, why not use that to
teach adults?! We have four classrooms already which will very comfortably hold
around 125 children so we can use our massive room to start having English and
Health Education classes! I also changed one small spare room into a sewing
room because it is very small. This means we can hire a woman from a sewing
training center (somewhere that finds widows and teaches them to sew so they
can get a job and make an income) in Kisongo and hire her full time to make the
school uniforms and even sew our very own items for me to take back to the US
and sell! We will give her a nice cutting table and a quality sewing machine to
work on. I’m so excited!
I’m really hopeful about this. I like the changes that I’ve
made. They’re manageable and will make a difference and I won’t have to wait
anymore! The project (name of school is still undecided, I’m open to
suggestions hehe) will open as a school in January, giving me time to furnish
the building, find students, find teachers, go home for a month, then hit the
ground running to prep for our opening. But in the mean time we can start with
the adults and I’m thrilled about that! I’ve been lucky enough to recruit
friends to help me. A nurse is setting up the health education and first aid
program, another friend just got her masters in ESL so she is going to lead our
English classes, and another amazing woman is a social worker in the US and has
been here several times and wants to move here long term, so she will be
heading up our investigations/community outreach division! Then, as we feel
things out and make sure we are running smoothly at the project, we will look
into all the other programs and how we can build the community center to move
the English and Health courses there and kick off the other programs as well.
Oofta! I’m really lucky to have these friends on board to help me. They are
just as excited as I am, are very supportive and will be amazing to work with. While
I’m setting all these programs up, I’ve hired another friend who is a teacher
in Denmark to take over at Hill Crest for a few months! Again, someone who has
been here already and wants to spend more time here. I’m excited and know that
she will bring new ideas and energy to Hill Crest and help make our teachers
even more incredible humans than they already are.
Wait…are things looking up? Is that what you’re reading? A
positive post?! Cue the sigh of relief, yes. Things are looking up. (touch
wood) I’ve moved on and see a future here that has me very excited. Instead of
being awake at night stewing about how horrible everything is and trying to
convince myself that things will be okay, I’m up planning and thinking about
other programs we can do and the products I want our seamstress to make and
places in the US that can sell them and partnerships and volunteer
opportunities and possible internships we could host and EVERYTHING! Because
finally, I believe with every fiber of my being, that everything is okay and
better than ever. Don’t get me wrong, I still get a little bit overwhelmed when
I think about the fact that I was supposed to go home for good in January 2016
and yet two weeks ago I signed a two year contract for a house here…but I am so
thrilled with the way things have progressed and so so SO excited for the
future of Hill Crest, the project and the future community center! To do all this, I had to register a company
so look out for the website launch and your opportunity to sponsor any of the
over 200 students that will be under our wings!
Love from TZ,
Kat
