Return to Soweto

(journal excerpt of River Copeland on 11 Sep 2007)

Today we went back to Saint Arnold Janssen school in Soweto.  School has started back after August vacation.  We had arranged with the headmaster to come today to buy food for the children for two weeks.  I was really excited to go.
    Once we got to Jacaranda, we walked into Soweto.  There was this man we saw on the way.  He was talking crazy and stuff.  My mom, my dad, and Skytt all stood between him and me and Forest.  They were watching him as we went.  He walked on by and didn’t bother us.  It was really muddy in Soweto today!  It rained last night.  The smell was really bad today!  It was even worse than it was last time.  The sun was out.  It was really hot in the sun.  But, it was nice to be in the sun.  My mom and Skytt had arranged for us to visit another school in Soweto before we went to Saint Arnold Janssen.  This school is called Saint Veronica.  It has children from pre-school through standard grade six.  They were waiting when we got there.
    The school was made out of tin sheets.  It was really muddy, too.  The kids were there and they started singing and dancing for us as soon as we walked in.  We took lots of pictures of there songs and dances! 
    The school has 140 students.  They are mostly AIDS orphans and vulnerable children.  I don’t really know what that means.  But, my mom said that it means that they have problems that make them more likely to do drugs, crime, and not be in school.  All of the children there are from the Soweto area.  Parents, relatives, or neighbors bring the children to the school and talk to the headmistress.  She finds out about the children’s situation and problems.  She usually goes to visit their homes to see what kinds of problems they have at home.  When the children start coming to school there, their families are supposed to pay 300 shillings per month in school fees.  The school also feeds the children lunch each day.  The children are not allowed to leave the school to get lunch.  They are supposed to pay 150 shillings each month for food.  The headmistress said that half of the children there can’t pay the fees.  My mom asked her what happens when they can’t pay.  She said that they never turn the children away!  They are always allowed to come to school and eat even if they can’t pay.  The school also counsels the children and their families to help them deal with their problems.  The ones who are sick are taken to see doctors or nurses.  The school also helps train mothers in bead working.  The mothers can then make necklaces, AIDS pins, and things like that to sell to help support the family and pay the school or food fees. 
    The headmistress says that they have many problems keeping the school going.  It costs about 1400 or 1500 shillings a day to feed the children.  That is about $ 23.  Not all the children can pay.  The school is always looking for help to feed the kids.  They also don’t have enough textbooks for the kids, desks for the kids to sit at, or paper and pencils for the kids to write with.  They have to pay 12,000 shillings each month for rent on the building. 
    The children were really nice.  Most of them were wearing clothes with holes and tears in them.  Many of them had shoes that were too small and full of holes!  We took a lot of pictures to show everyone when we get home.  My mom wanted to go buy every child there a new pair of shoes!  We are running low on Caring Across Continents money.  But, my mom got their contact information and explained to them that it might take us a few months to get back in touch with them.  She told the headmistress that we wouldn’t forget them.  I don’t think I will ever forget.  There are so many children here who need help!  My mom wants to buy their AIDS pins and sell them back home to raise money to send to the school.  I think it is a wonderful idea!  She is going to check to see how much money Caring Across Continents has left.  She said we might could come up with the money ourselves to help them some. 
    After that, we went to Saint Arnold Janssen.  The headmaster was waiting on us in his office.  We sat down and explained to him what we wanted to do and how much food we wanted to buy.  He was very happy!  He thanked us over and over.  He took us to meet the priest in charge of the school.
The priest who is the director of the school took us in his truck to buy the food today.  There was a lot of food to buy and that way we didn’t have to hire a cart pusher to take the food back to Saint Arnold Janssen.  The Father (that is what you call priests) drove.  My dad sat in the front seat with Father.  Forest, my mom, Skytt, and I all sat in the backseat.  The headmaster and an assistant sat in the back of the truck – in the truck bed.  We went to places locally to buy the food.  That way, we could get good prices, not have to travel far, and it would help support local businesses.
    The first place we went sold things like rice and beans.  The lady who owns the shop is named Josephine.  She wanted to charge my mom 2000 Kenyan shillings for each 50 kg bag of rice instead of 1800 for each bag.  My mom wasn’t going for it!  My mom haggled with her.  She told Josephine that the food wasn’t for us, it is for the school.  She also said that we only have a certain amount of money and need good prices.  The better the price we get, the more food there will be for the children.  After that, Josephine wanted to charge 1900 per bag.  Then, my mom told her that she was a student, not a rich mzungu (white person) and that my dad isn’t even working.  Josephine came down to 1850 for each bag.  She said she had to pay her rent and couldn’t sell it for less.  But, my mom already knew that the school bought the rice normally for 1800 per bag.  Finally, my mom said, “Here is the bottom line.  In America that is what we say to mean this is the deal.  You can sell us five 50 kg bags of rice for 1800 each and take that 9000 shillings, or we can go someplace else.  You can have the 9000 or nothing.  It seems to me that 9000 will go a lot further to pay your rent than nothing will.”  Josephine decided to sell us the rice for 1800 for each bag.  We bought 250 kg of rice. 
    Josephine also had beans.  We bought four 90 kg bags of beans for 2700 shillings per bag.  That mean we bought 360 kg of beans for 10,800.  My mom paid Josephine 19,800 for the food.  She went to weigh the food and prepare the bags with the assistant while we went somewhere else to buy ugali. 
    The store that sells ugali (maize meal) was not far away.  But, it was closed.  We drove to another store, which didn’t have enough ugali right then.  We went back to the other store, which was open by the time we got back.  The man who runs the shop, whose name I don’t know told us that each 50 kg bag of ugali was only 900 shillings!  That is half what we had planned on paying for it.  We decided to buy 10 bags instead of 5, since we brought enough money for that.  My mom paid the man 9000 Kenyan shillings while he had other men start loading the 500 kg of ugali into the back of the truck.  By the time we were done with that, Josephine had the rice and beans ready for us.  We gathered that and went back to the school.  We found out that the school normally buys their fresh vegetables (potatoes, carrots, and green vegetables) from a lorry that comes by a few times a week.  It is much cheaper to buy them directly from the lorry than from people on the street.  Also, the people who sell them on the street do not have enough for us to buy too much at a time.  We gave the director of the school the money to buy 4 sacks of potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and green vegetables, which was 9000 shillings.  He promised that he would show us the receipts later so that we could see that he had bought the food with our money.  We also gave him 2000 shillings to buy enough coal to cook lunches for two weeks.  In all, we spent KSh 39,800.  That will feed all 547 children at Saint Arnold Janssen lunch for two weeks!  It was a lot of food!  We took pictures of the food.  We even took pictures of the food with some of the school children there!  I will show everybody when we get home.