Our experience with the Taata Kids organization has been...I'm still deciding on the appropriate word.
All of the staff is continuously shaking our hands with a big smile and a "you are welcome here" or a "welcome back", even if we were only gone for ten minutes. They continue to make it known that they are so grateful for our presence alone, and so hopeful in this school's future. I have to agree that their visions are beautiful. And I want them all to come true as badly as they do. After spending a week getting to know the ins and outs of Taata Kids, I can assuredly say this: It is going to be a lot of work.
The school is made up of mostly tin slabs and bits of timber and cement. The gashes in the infrastructure let the unwelcome rains pour into the offices and classrooms, and the material of the slabs get too hot to touch under the African sun. One classroom is next to the makeshift kitchen, and when the cooks burn the firewood for the meal prep the class fills with smoke that makes breathing and seeing a luxury. This small kitchen is where the two cooks prepare porridge for breakfast and beans and posho (corn flour and water) for lunch. The bathroom is a pit latrine in the back corner of the small lot, and the younger boys just pee outside of it. Over 250 students in levels pre-k to grade four cram into this small space, which is being leased at a hefty monthly price from the widow landowner. The teacher prep books are battered and incomplete, and the student workbooks are hardly sufficient and always in shortage. The children's shoes (those children that have any) rarely match their gender or size, almost in worse shape than their clothing.
This whole project is really hard to maintain positivity with. I'm getting more frustrated/overwhelmed/disheartened the more time I spend here. Long story short:
-They're currently renting a very small amount of property which is costly
-The cost of land about 5 km outside of town is at least $12,000 (plus, we haven't gotten a firm answer on what will be done to get the kids not living in the school out there to the school and thus maintain/increase enrollment)
-Once the land is purchased, the amount of money needed to build on it, plus the continued costs of the current location until the new location is ready....that's A LOT LOT LOT of money.
-The current conditions of the structure (dangerously sharp, falling apart tin slabs, falling apart benches/desks, crammed spaces (40 kids squeezing on 6 tiny benches), poorly set up and maintained outhouse which the younger boys just pee in front of anyway, low quality chalkboards and drastic shortage of essential teaching and learning materials, and so much more)
-the quality of teaching is pretty much encompassing everything you only do as the most lazy teacher that undoubtedly allows most students to fall behind (one teacher is fantastic, the remaining 6 are stressing me out)
-actual confirmed plans and details critical to a successful fundraising, partnership, setup for recurring donors, etc is too minimal for me to feel comfortable setting it up and marketing it, especially for the amount of money that our fundraiser is going to be for ($12,000)
-and the mountain of things that will be needed once we leave and that will require time and skills of I do not know who (English is still a struggle for most of the staff, as well as knowledge of what is going to be needed)
I'm just at a loss. The list of what is needed even within the very near future is only growing by the minute. And on top of that, super spotty internet access is making all essential research to do ANYTHING nearly impossible. So, we end up just sitting around all day. There is SO much that is needed and it all seems so far out of my reach. And Abraham is asking for my counsel in everything. I was the one to speak with the bankers, I'm the one doing most of the research and brainstorming what's needed and how to have any hope of getting it, I'm the one he asks to explain and confirm every detail in the Board of Directors meetings, and I'm the one he's starting to run everything by. I've become the ringleader and I just got here and don't even know what I'm doing. Not to mention I won't be here THAT long, so what's going to happen once I leave?
I'm stuck and worried I won't be able to get out of it.
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