Gifts for locals
According to tauck guide we should bring something for our visit to a local school. Our traveling friends are bringing 4 soccer balls of 2 different sizes. If we bring soccer balls I think this is overkill. What else can we bring?
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Comments
I took this trip in September and it was fantastic. Seeing the students and their outdoor school was an amazing experience. The Masai village educates their children age 4-9 in a village school run by a volunteer teacher named Bismark. The older children walk several miles to a state school. The village school gets no money from the government and is run by the village with donations primarily from Tauck guests and tour directors. They currently meet in a grove and sit on logs. They have few books. The village is building a one room school nearby. I am told they will have a blackboard and maybe desks. They need everything. I would suggest paper, pencils pencil sharpeners and basic supplies. They also needs books.Any children books appropriate for preschool through 4 the grade would be wonderful. The younger kids are taught mainly in Swahili but also English as higher levels are taught exclusively in English. Right now they basically have no books. In addition, we are trying to get childrens tennis shoes. Most of the kids are barefoot. Any size shoes you can throw into your suitcase would be greatly appreciated by the kids. They do not need to be new. One of our travelers would like to send a shipment of shoes to the village. Shipping and duty makes this problematic. If Anyone flying business can take an extra bag we will fill it with shoes and other essentials.
Note: all schools are a bit different, but not likely much different.
1. It is "suggested" not required/mandatory.
2. A significant number of folks on our tour did not bring gifts.
3. The ones who brought the most (usually school supplies) typically were former teachers.
4. While soccer balls are always a big favorite with the students, school supplies are arguably needed more. Remember, this is arguably Tauck's most popular tour and groups pass through every few days.
5. The school will accept money, but it is not possible to designate how it will be spent, so it is best to give it to Tauck to administer. One classroom building had a plaque attesting to the fact that a couple (and Tauck?) had funded its construction.
6. When the administrators/teachers are asked what they need, the first answer is "anything and everything." That was clearly evident by what we saw during our visit. The classrooms were stark- with well-worn, simple, multi-student wooden benches and desks, few and often no maps, writing guides, or charts of any kind on the bare concrete walls, no heating, no lighting, a few broken window panes. Each student came to school carrying one or more sticks- not to play with or to build something, but to fuel the fire that would cook their noon meal. We were told Tauck was funding a small cafeteria building that was scheduled to be built there. Based on what we saw, you could easily envision that it would be a simple concrete, single room building, with simple wooden or concrete tables and stools, possibly a wash sink and simple propane cooker or wood-fired stove.
7. Also, priorities and what they need and want vs what they can actually use can be quite different. Case in point-
When asked by a couple in our group who offered to buy something substantial, the school official on our visit said they really wanted/needed a (Xerox type) copier. At first, to us that sounded like an excellent item and was something the generous couple would be more than willing to purchase. What school or teacher can survive these days without a copier? However, we were quietly informed by our TD that the school had no source of electricity whatsoever- no power lines (none nearby), no solar, no generator, so they would not be able to operate the copier!! Supposedly a solar array was in the early stages of planning. When and if it would become a reality was anyone's guess.