Bowlerama!

Yesterday evening was our first volunteer/ teacher outing-we took the teachers from Precious and Olives to the bowling alley. We were a bit apprehensive at first, not sure if they would turn up, but just as we were about to give up Mr Tony arrived with a bunch of Olives teachers, including Madam Rukia with 2 year old Hassan strapped to her back. On the journey there one of our regular boda boda drivers, Bonnie, mentioned that bowling is his favourite game; so our night out with the teachers ended up including a baby and a boda driver. :)

It was awesome. Madam Jane bowled the way she does everything else-aggressively, enthusiastically and at top volume. You could hear the bowling ball thud every time she hurled it towards the skittles. She got quite a few strikes! Mr Julius was a bit nervous having never played before, we were all very reassuring until he beat us soundly and said smiling proudly "I think this is a good game, I will play again!" Mr Tony was so chuffed at coming 2nd that he printed out the results and took them home and Bonnie trounced everyone on his team and drove us home with a massive grin on his face. I kept missing my go cos I was playing peekaboo with Hassan. I was getting pretty into it but he was totally unimpressed and just munched his popcorn while eyeing me suspiciously. I made some progress when I introduced my elephant bag but I've a feeling he was just starting to pity me.
After the game the teachers all went home except Mr Tony who came to Cafe Mocha with us. We ended up chatting about the kids and he told us that he understands them because he went through the same hardships. It was really humbling to see how passionate he is about his work and to realise that the wage he gets paid every month (when he does get paid) is less than my weekly budget out here. The teachers start work at 6.30 and stay in school til 6pm. Mr Tony does tuition after school and doesnt get home til 9pm.
He wasnt looking for sympathy, he was just telling us in a matter of fact way what the realities of his life are. He sees all the stuff we don't: the kids who are too hungry to stay awake in class, the kids who come in with marks of abuse, the kids whose parents abandon them.He earns almost nothing and works himself to the bone because he genuinely loves them. We swan in for a couple of months, have a life changing experience and get applauded by our friends and family for our "sacrifice" while people like Mr Tony-and there are a lot of them-just quietly carry on devoting their entire lives to helping others. It's a privilege to get to work with people like him.

Mr Tony dancing with kindergarten.