Pierre and Rentia Visit!

Pierre, Rentia and their son Pieter, visited our school while they were in the States! They will be our hosts while we are in Zimbabwe. (See earlier posts to find out more about them.) I (Melissa) was their tour guide for the afternoon. It was a very humbling experience to take them around our lovely facility. They pointed out many differences between our school and the school we will be serving in Zimbabwe. One in particular was; their schools are about the size of 4 or 5 of our classrooms, and each have almost 400-500 students! Each teacher can have as many as 50 students in one classroom, with only one or two textbooks to share among all the students. As we walked around the school I was reminded at how fortunate I am to be able to work in such an amazing school with the amount of resources we have, even here in the States. It also makes me more excited to go and partner with the schools in Zimbabwe. On the tour Pierre was so excited that our school is sending us to Zimbabwe to potentially partner with some of their schools.

On another note, Pierre was amazing with the students. First, he met with the 6th graders. They are learning about several countries in Africa, so it was a treat for them to met someone from Zimbabwe and South Africa. They asked so many good questions about life in Zimbabwe! One student asked Pierre to describe the typical day of a Zimbabwe child in the Matopo Hills area. He told about the dirt floor hut where they live with no electricity. They sleep on the ground, sometimes next to their chickens. The hut is very smokey because there is a fire and they have no ventilation so all the heat is trapped in the hut to the family warm at night. A child will get up early in the morning, boys tend to the cattle or livestock, and girls carry water to their home in jars on their heads. Then they walk two to three miles to school, barefoot! Once they get to school, they stay all day because all their supplies are at the school. Then they walk the two to three miles back home. What a different life they have! They also met with the 2nd graders. They had a lot of good questions too and Pierre shared the same information about a Zimbabwe child with them. It was good for all the students and teachers to hear examples of how other people are living differently from us around the world.

Afterwards Pierre, Rentia, and Pieter were able to meet up with several group members they have not met yet. That was very fun! Seeing and talking to them made all of us even more excited to go!

We are still in need of funds for our trip. If you have not made a donation please consider donating to help us. Remember, it's tax deductible, just click on the pay pal "donate" button. If you would like to write a check, just contact one of our group members. Thank you in advance!

-Melissa