Day 5: Introducing the Give Hope, Fight Poverty: “Malindza
New Hope Primary School” for orphans!
Coming up with a name for our school was a headache. We were definitely opposed to anything that
was affiliated “HIV/AIDS” or “orphans”.
We also did not want any of our personal names or the name of the
organization to be in the title. Maseko
(Malindza community liaison and GHFP partner) came up with our school’s name
and I love it!: Malindza New Hope Primary School. It will mean that although the kids have
become orphans at an early age and many have lost hope, we will help them find
new hope again. We are having a party on
Saturday with the children and their caretakers (mostly grandmothers but also
some older siblings) to celebrate with a braai (cookout).
We are also proud to report that our eLangeni Primary School
was the top performing public school in the country and even beat out some of
the expensive private schools in their 7th grade exam scores!! We
only had one student fail the merit exam – this is VERY good!! It’s so exciting
to see the hardwork of GHFP volunteers and the donor’s funds showing significant
results. This primary school has come a
LONG way in the last 5 years we’ve helped support them. The children now eat school lunch every day
(thanks Foodom), have access to a computer lab equipped with laptops and
desktops (thanks Franklin Energy), have a full children’s library with
educational and picture books and have a brand new pit latrine and sanitation
program. We are so proud of the students
and the teachers!
Last night we had a “crossover” party with the orphans. This
was our second annual. Word got around
that we are a fun group (haha) so we had a few new kids join us this year. One was only 5 years old and no one had any
idea who his mom was (or if he even had one).
He came up to me and grabbed my hand and didn’t let go the whole way to
Njabu’s house. I kept asking the girls
to ask him where he was supposed to be, but he said he had nowhere to go. Done, he’s coming with us. Mazwi also brought his little dancing friend –
the more the merrier! It was a blast as
always! I bought a bunch of “crickets”
(fireworks) and the kids had a blast lighting them off. Every
single one of them scared the heck out of me – they were the HUGE fly way into
the sky and explode kind…and I kept saying prayers that they weren’t going to
fly straight into any of our kiddos or explode anyone’s hands off. So dangerous but the kids loved it and were
fearless. GHFP volunteer Makinzie
brought pirate eye patches and silly old man masks from Target and they were a
huge hit with the kids also. As I was
walking the kids back to our car (to drive them home) I was reminded of how
dark it is at night in the village.
There are no street lights (no streets!!) and there isn’t even any
residual light from anyone’s houses (no electricity!!). Imagine locking yourself in a dark closet and
closing your eyes. It’s probably even
darker than that! The GHFP volunteers all turned the flashlight app on their
iphones on, but had it not been for that, I am not sure how we would have made
it down the mountain. Even with the
flashlight apps on, Kailey jumped when a large stray dog went running
past. If anyone has any hiking headlamps
or any small but bright flashlights PLEASE consider donating them to the
children. I hate to think of them
walking home alone in the darkness…
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