Isaac came to Tanzania seven years ago to escape the violence that was happening in the country. He stayed with family friends here in Arusha and started going to the church in the local Sakina maasai community (where Hill Crest is). There he met Elizabeth while they were directing a youth program together. He asked around town about her and everyone said she was cursed. They started meeting outside of church as they began developing feelings for one another and Isaac found out that while he was figuring out ways to get to Tanzania, Elizabeth was running away from her sixth arranged marriage. Her first marriage was at age 11, as Elizabeth is Maasai and that’s the culture. She didn’t want to be married so she ran away. Then when she came home, she was arranged into another marriage, and so it continues. She refused to get pregnant by anyone she was arranged to marry and when she kept running away, the community came to believe she was cursed and could not bare children. They shunned her from the community and she found refuge in the church where she and Isaac met.
Musa! He is the sister to Sarah. His father abandoned the family after Sarah was born. His mother is very sweet but they only have two changes of clothes and get maize and beans at home every other day. He is Maasai.
Alpha is an orphan, he lives with his grandmother who spends her days roasting maize on the street for money. Sometimes they have 1,000tsh/day (about $0.75usd) or sometimes they have 5,000tsh (just under $3usd). He is a pistol in class but so cheeky.
Clara is another contributor. She is only a year and a half years old so she is just there to help Hill Crest and fill the class. She can't do anything yet, but she is so good at giving us love!
Chire is the sister to Lembris (my favorite) and just started in school about three weeks ago. We're working on her alphabet and holding a pencil so we can get her writing soon. She loves attention and will always run up to me, grab my hand and start speaking swahili to me. She's a Maasai.
Grati is Isaac and Elizabeth's daughter! She is two and a half and is only in school right now because there is nobody at home to take care of her. She is so sweet.
Chris is a contributor. He is one of the happiest and most hard working kids in the school, he loves to be held or play motorcycle on my leg. I love him so much! He's so cute. Both of his parents are alive and well.
Umbeni is one of the students who only gets the school meal each day. He's Maasai and comes from a very thankful family. His father died of HIV leaving Umbeni and his two brothers to his mother. He's such a sweet heart, always smiling and works so hard in class. Our new volunteer is going to sponsor his family.
Petro is the twin brother to Yohana. He needs a lot of individual attention but tries really hard in class. He's very sweet and always takes care of any of the kids that get hurt on the playground. His father died of HIV and the mother cracks rocks every day as her job.
Noella :) This girl. She can snuggle. When she sees me walking up to school (her house is on the way) she comes at me full sprint, I throw her up into the air and she grabs around my neck as she comes back down, resting her legs comfortable on my chest so she can put her face right against mine until I pull her off of me. She is the oldest of three, her mother can't be older than 19. Her father is still around but leaves them for any amount of time whenever he feels like it. She's so bright and such fun to have in class, and gives the best hug of them all.
When Isaac heard about her being cursed and unable to bare children, he didn’t care and went on courting her anyways. Shortly after they were married and she told Isaac that if they were to be blessed with a child, she wanted to give thanks to God and open a free school for kids growing up in bad situations, like hers when she was young. Two years later they got pregnant with their daughter, Gratitude (isn’t that just the sweetest!). As soon as they got pregnant, they opened a school in the church because they couldn’t afford any permanent buildings. At this point Isaac still had a job so Elizabeth was running the school by herself with a bit of help from the church. January 2012 they were able to afford a building, so they moved into the place we’re in now and spread the word about the school and began accepting more and more students. Elizabeth was still doing it on her own as Isaac needed to keep working so they could afford the rent. In March, Elizabeth got pregnant again (YAY!) and life continued, Elizabeth at school, Isaac at work. Hill Crest got their first volunteer in April and helped the program so much, supplying them with wall posters and help with basic structure and a supply of exercise books and pencils, as before the students were just repeating the alphabet, and doing whatever they could without resources. Come May, Elizabeth became very ill with Malaria. She was hospitalized for a month and because of that, Isaac had to quit his job to keep the school running. At this point there were 17 students, all with bad past and current situations which ultimately meant nothing good for the future either. Elizabeth was between the hospital and home until my second day at Hill Crest on August 17th. The entire time Isaac was operating the school with the help of a constant flow of really really amazing volunteers (from what I hear).
We now have 25 students and Elizabeth is much better but still not her best because she is very pregnant and still very weak from being sick for so long. Until two weeks ago, the students were only eating half of a mug of porridge. I always knew this was a problem, but since I’m raising and saving for a bigger and better future Hill Crest, I figured it would be better to just fix the problem when the new Hill Crest is built. We know for sure that two of the students were Only getting that porridge every day, but we realized later that many of the kids weren’t eating daily either.
I started working on August 16th, the day the previous volunteers left. With Elizabeth feeling better but still not well, she did not do very much and Isaac had to go out to find a day of work to get enough money to pay rent. My day at Hill Crest for the next three weeks looked like this..
Leave the volunteer house at 7:30
Pick up Gracious and Junior on the way to school.
Get to Hill Crest by 8:15
Drop of Gracious, Junior and my bag at Hill Crest then go get Clara, Junior and Flora.
Back to Hill Crest by 9:15
Lessons and class work from 9:20-10:30
Let the kids out to play
Retrieve water
Prepare homework
Build fire
Boil water
Prepare porridge
Organize the classroom so all the kids sit at a table
Call in the kids at 11:30
Wash their hands
Distribute porridge
Prepare the washing
Wash the dishes as the kids finish
Pass out backpacks and homework
Send the kids home
Finish dishes
Prepare the next days classwork
Sweep and mop the classroom
Take Clara and Junior home
Back at the volunteer house by 2:30
Long days. But in all that time at Hill Crest, I got to ask Isaac and Elizabeth questions about their goals for the school. That’s when Isaac told me about Elizabeth’s past, how she would spend nights in sewers to escape and the exile from the community because she “couldn’t” get pregnant. Now that she has had children, her family has taken her back in but the community is still in disbelief that she has had one child let alone is pregnant with another. They’re so grateful to God for blessing them with children, and Elizabeth has a degree in teaching so they really want Hill Crest to grow into a big school to help all the kids in need in the community, and ultimately help the community as well. That’s when I decided to take a big step and try to make their dreams come true by building them a real school with a room for orphans so it can be a school/orphanage for the community and the kids that need not just education but a home and food to eat.
We got two new volunteers from Utah at Hill Crest and they helped make a good system but the kids were still only getting porridge and the structure still wasn’t perfect. It was nice to have help with everything around the school though :) And 3 weeks ago, we got two more volunteers from Mexico. The came in and asked me about Isaac and Elizabeth so I told them everything- and especially what amazing people they are. They decided to do something for the kids and school, so they went out one day and bought a stovetop, cooking utensils, 3 months worth of petrol, 25 kgs of rice, beans, flour, sugar and pasta, and new cooking vessels. They got shelves installed and set up a bank account for “current” Hill Crest that they will be putting money into every month for rent and food when it’s needed. On their last day, Lillian and Celia sat me down and told me how much I inspired them to do something for Hill Crest. They said their first day was the day I told Isaac that Pip would be helping fundraise also, and he yelled and jumped on me with excitement and thanked me the rest of the day and talked about how bright the future for Hill Crest was. Apparently that made them see how great Isaac and Elizabeth truly are and they needed to do something big for them and the school as well. For two weeks now, our kids have been eating vegetables and meat and carbs every day. We don’t serve them baby portions like we should considering they’re all under 6 years old. We give them bigger plates than I could eat and some keep eating through three helpings. Isaac is so excited to see their health change, Umbeni and Obedi (the two that only get those meals) are already putting on weight, and our kids already have more energy and just look healthier. The first day with the kitchen, the parents came and thanked everyone and cried and blessed us for helping the kids, it was so beautiful.
Hill Crest is at a very good place right now. We have about 3x as many dishes to wash, and the floor is always extra dirty because there isn’t enough room on the tables for the plates and the kids, but Clara and Junior are starting to walk themselves to school sometimes and our newest volunteer is just incredible. Pip is back so we can start talking future, I’m going to see St. Jude this week and Isaac is going to be working on what he wants the school to have, and we have lots of help from outside sources now. Shedrack is getting a bed (thank you Freeda) and Glory has been coming to school every day. The kids are happy and healthy, the parents are even more so. The community is so thankful for the volunteers and for Isaac and Elizabeth that it’s becoming a “must visit” place for the volunteers that are Not at Hill Crest. Everyone wants to come visit because we come home every day so happy and raving about how amazing it is. While some people just sit in the back of the class room and mark homework, we are actually making a difference to an entire community. Fetching water, cleaning, getting dirty, and teaching. It’s everything anyone wants when they decide to volunteer in a third world country.
This is probably a better time than ever to introduce my babies :)
Below is Casto, he has both parents and comes from a good family. He's very smart and is a "contributor" meaning he could afford an established school, but his family donates what they have when they can. Money, maize, porridge, vegetables, they help when they can.
Junior is one of the kids I pick up every day. His mother sells maize on the street like Alpha's grandmother. Junior's father died of HIV, and his mother is hoping to remarry as she is only 23. He's SO smart, I teach him vocabulary on the way to school and every day he remembers it all. Such a treat to have in class.
Lembris :) My personal favorite. His face is just too cute to resist. He works so hard in class and eats SO much now. He is Maasai and the brother to Chire, above. He always has a smile on his face and wants to do so well in school. I just love him.
Njayo. My rasta. She is 6 and So keen. Also a contributor, but she wears the same thing every day. She helps me out So much in the baby class when I can't get them under control. She is such a doll and just needs love. She's so good in class it's unbelievable.
Winnie!! My girl. Winnie is 6, she is also a contributor and just a doll. She's very smart, we have to do special work with her because she catches onto things so quickly and she helps keep the baby class under control. I just love her.
Yohana, the twin sister to Petro. She is just like Petro in that she cares a lot about the people in school and she works very hard. She is in the older class because she does so well in school without the need for individual attention like Petro.
Sarah, sister to Musa, is an absolutely beautiful girl. She's such a smart child but kind of a bully. She spends more time in time out than the rest, but it's because she's too smart for her own good. She has the most beautiful features and really needs a lot of love.
Flora is another favorite. She is SO good in class, so good at giving me love, and so excited to see me every day. I always see her on my way to pick of Clara and Junior and she also runs at me full sprint and holds me with everything she has in her. Anecdote time- last week Glory got to me first so I picked her up and Flora immediately sobbed uncontrollably, she couldn't catch her breath and had snot bubbles and was just crying. All because Glory beat her to me. IT WAS SO CUTE even though she was sad. She's an amazing student all around. She still has both her parents, her dad walks her and Glory to school every day and he is so sweet.
Obedi! Obedi is a maasai who only gets the school meal each day. His father died of HIV and left his mother with him. He is so sweet and has become less of a bully than when we got there, I think he was a bully because he was always hungry. Now that we're feeding them, he has already become much more pleasant to everyone and is working harder than ever.
Elisha is a new student, I don't know much about his background yet..
Erick is the son of Isaac's pastor, also a new student. I don't know about him either!!
Glory lives about an hour and a half walk from school so she used to only come once or twice a week, but it's so far Isaac can't get mad about her not coming to school. Her father died of HIV right after she was born and her mother remarried. They are in one of the worst situations of all the kids financially and they live in a mud hut that we can't even stand up in. Her step father is a very sweet man and it's so clear he cares so much about his wife and the kids and he does whatever he can to supply for then. She tries hard in school but needs a lot of individual attention.
Missing is Ima, Clara, Junior, Furaha, and Samson. I'll post pictures of them soon!
Below is our class, it's about 8x9 feet with chalkboard paint on one wall and sponges for erasers. We are working on redoing the posters and stuff on the walls because they are getting old and don't look so good. On the wall that isn't pictured there is a bench that we put some of the kids on because the class is too full and there aren't enough chairs.
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