“How can children who have nothing be so happy, warm and welcoming?” (From York Press)

“How can children who have nothing be so happy, warm and welcoming?”

9:40am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Features

Former York teacher John Hall relays his African adventure with orphans in Tanzania to MAXINE GORDON.

JOHN Hall kept a diary during his visit to an orphanage near Mwanza, deep in the Tanzanian bush, on the south eastern tip of Lake Victoria.

As a former teacher, his task had been to assess the education at the orphanage’s school.

Beside notes on activities in the classroom, John’s log captures the colour and drama of life in a world so different to ours.

Now back home safely in Stockton-on-the-Forest, John, 72 and a grandad of nine, said: “I might as well have been on Mars, it was just so different!”

The orphanage, run by the charitably Christian organisation, The Bethany Project, cares for some 110 children.

It was in the middle of nowhere, said John, with the nearest neighours living in mud huts and where farming maize, raising goats and cattle and fishing were the local livelihoods. People were poor. They went barefoot, or wore flip-flops, often in various states of disrepair, he added.

The children in the orphanage were better off than the village kids, said John. They had three meals a day, clean drinking water, and attended school where they were taught in English rather than their native Swahili.

“The villagers sometimes pretended their children were orphans to try to get in,” said John.

Even so, life at the orphanage was hardly luxurious. Here John describes his routine, which was bookmarked by a religious assembly morning and night: “6.30am: cold shower 7am: breakfast – water and bread roll 7.30am: morning tasks 1pm: lunch – potatoes and cabbage (quite tasty actually) 2pm: afternoon tasks 5pm: supper – rice and beans 8pm: cold shower 9pm: bed”

John took some teabags, Cup-a-Soups and Oxo with him, which livened up the restricted menu. Even so, he still lost half a stone in weight during his 15-day visit. He also had to wash his own clothes, Tanzanian style, with water and soap and using his bare knuckles. And he tried his hand at pounding maize, the staple grain that is used as flour and to make gruel.

John described the school as “Dickensian” with a lack of equipment and a shortage of pens, paper and pencils.

At the secondary school, not run by the charity, pupils had to take brooms with them to clean the classroom before lessons. Some rooms had been colonised by bats. “The smell of bat urine was overpowering,” said John.

As a lover of nature, some of John’s most treasured memories are of his daily visits to the lakeside. He spotted a crocodile, a magnificent sea eagle, with a two-and-a-half metre wing span, and with the help of a 13-year-old boy, Shadrak, found some hippo poo and tracks.

Often, John would watch the local fishermen. “They worked with nets about three-quarters of a mile long. They were put out by two boats and it took two teams of men, pulling and chanting, to bring them in. It was like a biblical scene.”

He also met a village boy who worked as a goat herder while barefoot and dressed in rags. “He used stones to herd his goats. He was a good shot,” said John.

The children loved some of the ‘games’ John brought with him. “I taught them paper, scissors, stone and they thought it was magic and played it all the time.”

He also took some bubble blowers over, which the children loved. “By the end of the week they had used up nearly all their stocks of washing-up liquid.”

He also discovered some common ground: a passion for Manchester United. John played football on the school’s pitch – not the lush green field of Old Trafford dimensions, but an unforgiving brown expanse of hard-baked earth. “Most of my life I was a goal keeper, but there was no way I was going down on that stuff,” said John with a soft chuckle.

One night, recalled John in his journal, everyone was excited because Man U were about to play Arsenal.

“I couldn’t help noticing evening worship was a shortened version and was astounded when one of the older girls said the closing prayer which ended with ‘and please, dear Lord, let Manchester United win’.”

The centre had a satellite link and staff projected the game on to a big screen, in between power cuts. “We managed to see parts of the game,” wrote John. “And when Man U got the winning goal, the place went mad!”

As a keen am-dram performer (he played God in the 2000 Mystery Plays), John particularly enjoyed the children’s singing. He took some video footage, which can be viewed on our website (thepress.co.uk).

John had to be careful not to fall ill during his visit. A note in the briefing document for volunteers warns: “Hospitals are places to be avoided – therefore be extra vigilant with regard to safety – avoid accidents.”

John was also careful to avoid mosquito bites and one of his jobs during his visit was to help check the condition of the children’s nets – all 110 of them.

One health hazard caught his eye, which he brought to the attention of the authorities during his stay. Two taps by the play area carried lake water earmarked for irrigation, but the young children sometimes drank from it instead of using the clean water source.

One six-year-old girl became ill with malaria, typhoid and an UTI after drinking the water and John suggested they box in the taps or mark them more clearly so children didn’t make a mistake again that might cost them their lives.

The climate in the Magu district, where the orphanage lies, is equatorial. It was the rainy season while John visited, although it was unusually dry, he noted. The temperature was in the 30s and reached the 40s in Mwanza, 100 km away. The children tended their own small holdings, growing cabbage, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, maize, avocado, paw-paw and passion fruit.

They used anything they could to make a container, even plastic bags, said John. “One day a boy called Charma spotted my empty Cup-a-Soup packet and asked if he could have it. Before I left, I spotted it; he had opened it up to make a round, plant-pot shape, put soil and a seed in it and that seed had germinated. They are just so resourceful.”

Now back at home, John is putting finishing touches to his report. His main recommendation, he said, was that they could introduce topic-based teaching. “When I was there, I did a topic-based project on water, showing them how science and maths can be linked in and even art and English. They appeared quite keen.”

Reflecting on his visit, he thinks many teenage children in the UK would benefit from spending time with poverty-stricken children in Africa.

“It would be great for them to realise that not everybody’s expectations are for an expensive pair of trainers and the latest mobile phone; it was being alive and having food the following day. They could go out there and get a reality check.”

• To find out more, or give financial support to The Bethany Project, contact John on 01904 400182. John is also willing to give an illustrated talk to local groups about his visit.

John's diary ...

A flight delay meant John and his travelling companion, David Borland from the Bethany Project, missed their connection to Nairobi. They eventually land in Tanzania, two days after leaving the UK.

Here are some extracts from John’s log…

• Day 3 Friday, January 13
Land at Mwanza airport, 100km from the orphanage “The terminal building was small and the inspection of Yellow Fever certificate, visas and passport seemed to take an age – but finally we were through! Relief was short lived, however, when we found that they had they had lost our luggage… I realise that today is Friday the 13th; nothing else could go wrong could it?”

• Day 4
“The children were all anxious to introduce themselves and to show me things, I felt like the Pied Piper… how can children who, in material terms, have nothing, be so happy, warm and welcoming?”

• Day 5
“Sportsfield this afternoon. Played football with the boys and the girls taught us a game similar to Piggy In The Middle, but more energetic. My room is comfy but I am sharing it with a fairly large lizard.”

• Day 6
“The monastic existence is strangely becoming the norm and a cold shower followed by bread roll and water seems to start the day well. Bed at 10pm but the campus dogs make a hell of a racket… don’t know what was out there (African nights are as black as pitch) – so just kept my head down.”

• Day 8
“I set off for the lake… one 13-year-old boy, Shadrak, was a kindred spirit, he was a nature boy, he found birds nests in the trees and long grass, he knew which ants bite and which don’t… he pointed out some hippo poo and tracks.

“Put Oxo in my rice and beans tonight… fantastic!”

• Day 9
“We went down to the shore… close to a clump of reeds was my first sight of a crocodile! Only a small one, about 12 inches long, but I brought the children away just in case any adults were around. The children weren’t the least bit concerned.”

• Day 12
“Some of the older girls invited me to walk up to their secondary school… it was very primitive… in some rooms the children shared the space with colonies of bats. They smelled strongly!”

• Day 13
“Had meat for first time today, rice and goat. Think I prefer the beans! The air was filled with moths and mosquitoes tonight – like a snowstorm in my torch beam.”

• Day 14
After a six-year-old child becomes ill with malaria, typhoid and UTI from drinking lake water from a tap near the play area, John investigates… “Rebecca [the nurse] assured me all the children are warned about the dangers of drinking from these sources, but the little ones don’t always appreciate the danger. These water outlets should be boldly marked with warning labels/colours.”

• Day 15 – going home
“I will be sad to leave these inspirational children but I am desperate to see Rhona and my family.”