We made our first visit to Lubhoo School, one of the six schools that we work with, on Day 2 of our visit. It was about a forty minute drive from our hotel through the busy streets of the city, negotiating our way through the traffic along with the numerous scooters and motorbikes. As we pulled up at the gates of the school there was a large welcoming committee made up of pupils, teachers and school board members. I found it all overwhelming being whisked through the school yard treated as a very honoured guest and being ushered to our seats at the front of a small stage area. There wasn’t even time to stop and take a photo. We were then treated to various performances ranging from traditional dancing to class 1 singing their practised song for us. It was a delightful experience seeing the small children singing their hearts out and enjoying being on stage. We then had various small speeches from the head and some members of the board thanking KIKN for its contribution to the school. We were then able to wander through some of the school buildings to see how the school is developing and expanding to over 500 pupils now and to see some of the elements funded by KIKN projects such as their computer room and nursery furniture.
Tiffin (or breakfast club as we know it) then started for the smaller children in the yard and it now being break time for everyone, numbers of the older children took the opportunity to pactise their english and fire some questions at their guests. Common questions for Janet and I being where were we from? and how old were we? It was great to be able to wander around and see everyone enjoying themselves in a relaxed manner.
Eventually time came for us to leave for our second visit of the day. We had been invited to the home of Nita, one of our sponsored pupils. Her home was a short drive higher up in the valley. KIKN had previously contributed to the building costs of what is known as a zinc house – in reality a corrugated roof over two rooms with lots of holes for the cold weather to get in. We met Nita’s mum and saw their home which was two very small rooms for four people with a small bathroom outside as a separate out building. They told us they are hoping to build a kitchen on a tiny piece of waste ground just outside their current home. It was certainly an eye opening way to end our visits for day two. You can see lots of photos below of both our visit to Lubhoo School and to Nita’s home.