Our trip to Soweto

Originally posted by Forest and River on Caring Across Continents

We visited a school in Soweto slum on Monday, 30 July 2007. The school is called Saint Arnold Janssen. He is a German Catholic saint. We are going to look him up and find out more about him. We met the headmaster of the school. His name is Charles. This school has a pre-school, primary, and they are starting a secondary school there.
The kids were at recess when we arrived. There are more than 500 children at the school and they all wanted to ask us, "How are you?" and shake our hands or touch our hair. They wear school uniforms - sweater, shorts, pants or skirt and black shoes. Some of the kids were in blue and others in green or pink. We think it depends on the grade level. Also, the headmaster told us that some of the kids can't buy the uniforms. They may just wear whatever color they can get. One child only had one shoe. We don't know if he had another shoe somewhere or only had one to wear. We talked to the headmaster about the school and the feeding program they have there. They try to cook lunch for the kids each day. The children have to pay 250 Kenyan shillings each month for lunch. But, if they cannot pay for food, the school takes them and tries to feed them anyway. Most days, they get lunch there. But, the headmaster told us that sometimes the school doesn't have food to cook to feed the kids. They worry about the children because they know that some of them will not have food at home. They want to feed them once a day so that they know the kids get at least one meal a day. This also helps make sure that the kids keep coming to school and can learn because they have food and do not have to spend time in the streets looking for it.
We found out that many schools release the kids (even the little ones) at lunchtime to go home to eat. But, mommy and the headmaster told us that this is a problem because those kids who don't have food at home will stay in the street and beg for food or money. Kids can be hurt that way. So, this school stopped releasing the kids at lunch and tries to feed them.
We talked to the headmaster about how much food it takes to feed more than 500 kids each day and how much that food costs. We made plans with Bwana Charles to come back to his school on September 11th. On that day, we are going to use some of the money we raised to buy enough food for 1 or 2 weeks for those kids. We will go with them there in the slum to buy the food and help transport it back to the school. We will also visit the classrooms that we would be in for our grade on that day and tell the kids about our school and find out about theirs.
Also, we found out about a little girl at that school whose family has had bad trouble and can't pay the school fees for the next term (Sept-Dec). The fees are 1500 Kenyan shillings for the next term and 750 for lunch fees. We are going to sponsor this child and pay her fees for that term. It will give her mom a chance to save the money and be able to pay the fees in Jan.
We rode a matatu for the first time to get there. It was as crazy as mommy said it was! We walked through part of the slum. It was really dirty and there was sewage. In some places, there was a lot of plastic bags/garbage. There isn't any electricity or running water. The buildings are mostly made out of a small wood frame and covered in tin. Some of the buildings were covered in plastic instead of tin. We don't think it would be good to live there. I (Forest) don't think I could live like that.
When we left, there were many children around from the schools that release kids for lunch. They talked to us and followed us around as walked through people selling fruits, vegetables, and many other things.
We didn't take many pictures today, but we will when we go back. We think it was a good thing that we went. Mommy says that more than half the people in Nairobi live in places like that. We will be glad to help them and learn from them. Oh, there were goats, chickens, sheep, ducks, and people all walking around. Some of them were in the garbage. Others were in the streets and just around.
It was a lot to see and take in in one day. We will let you know how it goes when we go back.