Tumaini Center

Our Swahili teachers took us on a "field trip" to the Tumaini (Hope) Center, a refuge for pregnant teenagers with nowhere to go.  Here they find not only a place to live, but also some vocational training.  The girls learn to make various handcrafts--I've seen them for sale in town.  They also learn basic computer skills and other things to qualify them for getting jobs.  We really enjoyed our visit--everyone from the woman in charge to the students themselves were welcoming and happy to show us around.

Here a couple women (former students, I think) work on making dolls and animals out of brightly colored scraps of material.  (The scraps are the leftovers from tailors' shops in town.)

The girls had a break from class, thanks to our visit.  Both students and visitors introduced themselves, and their questions led to us teaching an impromptu foreign language class.  (We represtented Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and the USA--me.)  André started them off with an impossible-to-pronounce Dutch word--it actually means "terrible"--and that led to each of us sharing some oddball word or phrase from our own language.  (I showed how the Southern US has solved the problem of lacking a separate pronoun for you-plural by introducing "y'all".)

Here the weaving teacher demonstrates his craft.  But first he showed us the many steps necessary before the actual weaving can take place (spinning, etc.)... what a job!

The girls showed us their pottery workshop, also.

A big highlight of the visit was visiting Tumaini's little school, where former students (and others) can send their children.  We visited two classes and were serenaded by each.  Listening to all those shrill voices chant or sing in (almost) unison, I couldn't stop grinning.  They're so cute!  Here are some of the kindergarteners.  The short little girl in the center with her smiling mouth wide open really got into the performance, motions and everything.

The first grade class also showed us their math lesson.  They were doing simple addition using bottle caps as counters.  Here is one of the volunteers working a problem from the blackboard.

These girls were a little shy at first, but after they heard us commending the work they'd done in their notebooks, they started showing us every assignment they'd ever done.  From their expressions, I think they were either surprised that we were speaking to them in Swahili, or else they were clueless as to what we were trying to say!