Worthwhile Cause

 I visited a deaf school for children. The boy on the left got so excited when I signed my name. He started screaming with excitement. Then I wrote down that I was from America and he started jumping up and down and showed me the sign for airplane. The man in the middle is the head master of the school. He is from India and I forgot the Brothers name but I wrote it down and got his information. The school isn't just for the deaf. They have regular students as well. There is 7 deaf students ages 7 to 14 yrs old. These two boys live with the brother because they are from Songea which is about 700 km away. The other 5 are from morogoro so they go home everyday. There are a lot of kids that want to come from all over but they don't have a dormitory for them. That is the biggest problem. Parents won't pay for the deaf children to go to school because they think they can't do anything. There is really no support here for the deaf community. If you are deaf you stay at home with home and try your best to help out around the house. These two boys were very excited to be there away from home and learning. This school does not charge any of the children for there education. Every school you have to pay no matter what grade you are in. This Brother has also taught the deaf children how to sew. Sewing is a skill you see in town. People tear there clothes and want them fixed. I asked him how much it would cost to build a dormitory for deaf students. He said a 50 room place would cost about 200,000,000 TShilling that is about $130,000 USD. I think this would be a worth while cause to donate to. I think this school instills confidence in the deaf children that there not stupid they just can't hear.  However nothing is simple in Tanzania. The way things work around here is you take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Lets say you build the school. Maybe you can't get electricity or water or maybe there is not enough funding to feed the children once the school is built. I don't mean to be negative but in my experience here nothing seems to run perfectly smooth. There is always a complication. For example the College here in 5 years want to raise funds to build a college. Well say everything works out but then they don't have an ambulance so how are the patients going to get to the hospital if they live off campus. They cram into a van with 30 people and there sick or they hope on the back of a motorcycle and hang on for what strength they have. There seems to always be something that complicates. I will get more information and see what I can do about getting a dormitory built,

 I ate here with some students we had kiti Moja which means hot seat. It is prok. They call it hot seat because the muslims will eat it but the can't be caught eating it so they are on the edge of there seat. Or hot seat.

 Sunflower field

 Ants. You had to keep moving in the banana fields or the ants got you.

 Harvesting bananas

 Tasty.

 This the new Dormitory at the college that is about to be finished that I am standing in. THe picture is of the whole campus. The dormitory is for girls.

This is one of the classrooms in the deaf school. I think the most unique thing I have eaten is Minnows. It is lent and that is what we had for dinner with rice and beans. They do cut the heads of the minnow and eat the entire thing. I had a couple. The taste wasn't too bad. Lots of the students love it.