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Travelogues

Africa makes a different impression on everyone. Not even two persons can tell the same way what they have seen. Through our diary you can see how this magnifique country influenced the tourists with its unique culture and beautiful landscapes. The humanitarian tourists will share their experiences, their thoughts and feeilings just like the colleagues of the Foundation for Africa who have been working here since longer period.

The second week

2010. August 29.

It’s Sunday and since we’ve got a lot to do, we are working at the school. We are organising an open school day for next Tuesday so now we are making preparations for it. In the afternoon we had a very useful meeting about the preparations and we managed to draw a questionnaire up. We will ask parents to complete it personally. This questionnaire aims to find out how parents, living around the school, relate to their children’s education, what their basic principle is when choosing a school for their kids, etc. This questionnaire will serve our professional goals but it is also a great chance to demonstrate our College Othniel, its educational and social opportunities. So the questionnaire can be regarded as a guideline targeting on parents living in the neighbourhood of the school.

Now I’m giving a report beginning with last Wednesday – I finished off my last report at Tuesday.

So on Wednesday we’re working at school. The fact that our solar panel is not working makes our job even more difficult because we have absolutely no electricity, so we can solely rely on the electricity which is generated by our aggregates. But this is expensive and very loud. But we can still get along. With the help of Toto, our computer engineer, we could improve our new student administration system and we started a new brochure (in French and Linguala) for the parents. This brochure is going to be distributed when we visit the families and it also helps us to advertise our College by a loudspeaker around the school on the last week of summer holiday. So we would like to encourage parents to register their children sooner because in most of the cases they only do so in the very last moment or some weeks after the start of the school. Here school starts on 6th September so we still have one week left for preparation.

On Thursday I again checked the results of last school year because some pupils have successfully passed their re-take exams or unfortunately failed them since the end of the second term. Every pupil’s results should be closed till the start of the next term because if they have not taken an exam yet, they have to repeat the year. This is of utmost importance when introducing our privilege system because pupils’ privilege status depends on whether they passed or failed the exams in the previous school year.
France met the leader of plastic converting factory in the city to introduce waste collection at the school as soon as possible. They agreed that we won’t get a container for the time being, because the container didn’t prove well for them when it was raining as every collected waste got filled with water. So they asked us to collect waste in sacks and bring it to the accepting place when a lager amount has been collected.

This year we really want to introduce our new plan which means that poor parents may enjoy free education if they collect plastic rubbish in response. This is not at all difficult as in Congo waste literally lies in the street and most of the household equipment such as furniture and kitchenware is made of plastic. The goal of this project is to shape African people’s views, to be more environment-conscious. We also would like to make them get rid of their old habits meaning if you have no money, you feel helpless, and you grow to feel that you have the right for being lazy and relying on external help.

The sewing-machine mechanic came to size up the condition of our 12 sewing-machines and to repair them if necessary before the start of the school year. This will cost approximately 100$. We are very grateful for any financial help which comes from Hungary.

On Friday we registered Oliver to kindergarten. This is important for all of us, because we can focus on our job while he has fun. We are going everywhere together, right now he is sitting in my lap and while I am writing this report, he is watching “Kisvakond” (Little Mole) in a separate window, that’s how we share the screen of the computer.
Fortunately, we could find a very good kindergarten in the neighbourhood so we will leave him there with a serene heart. Kindergartens are usually open only for half a day, Oliver is going to be there until 12.30 when his aunt, Mamye, who cooks for us, will go for him and be with him until we get home.
On Friday we started our day in the school where France held a meeting about what preparations should be made before the start of the school. In the afternoon we went to the city where first we met the leader of our Foundation in Congo (SG) and one of our tender managers and finally we met a lady from Congo who lives in Brussels but now staying in Congo. We were invited to her wedding in July and she and her new husband offered a part of their wedding gift for our Foundation. (We have not received it yet.)
This “I am coming across with this and that” kind of afternoon can be very frustrating in the city centre of Kinshasa. If you are less prepared for such encounters – so was I – because you haven’t fixed a concrete time with anybody, when you arrive, nobody may be there and you have to wait for them. And all of a sudden you can get into a traffic jam in the centre or you can have an “affair” with the local policemen or if these are repeated continuously as you have to go to so many places then you can tell it by the evening that you could do hardly anything but got very tired of waiting and doing nothing. “This is Africa.”
But you can kill time very effectively. You may do some phone calls, discuss some questions or work on your laptop till you are able to.
One more personal experience…On Thursday we are meeting again the builder of the sanitary unit, Papa Nico, who when I asked him how he was doing replied to me, almost with a poker face, though you could see tears in his eyes, that his two sons died. His four-year old son died because he was ill. Although he got blood transfusion, it could not help. His 23 years old son was hit by a motorbike and when he fell, a car drove through him. In the hospital there was no doctor to treat him and since he was lifted to the hospital not by his own relatives who could hasten the medical staff, nobody cared about him, and he died right there. I could not believe to my ears since I had never heard of such terrible tragedy in a family before. We could barely find some words to comfort him. We are very grateful for Papa Nico who is very industrious and reliable, a very rare kind of person in Congo. Unfortunately, I have to admit that these terrible incidents can happen in Congo quite frequently, there are numerous examples of who lost his or her children and how.
And once again I start thinking about why people want to have six or eight children with earning only 100$. Well, nobody can foresee these tragedies, that is for sure. So we strongly believe that it is our duty to educate and enlight people in this way as well. If you wish to help Papa Nico, you can transfer your donation to our. We gave 50$ to him, unfortunately, that was all we could afford.



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