By Kasia Mychajlowycz

On July 27th, MWEDO* staff, Maasai women community organizers, and girls sponsored by MWEDO’s scholarship program arrived at the Maasai Women Secondary School to celebrate the completion of its first phase of construction. We volunteers were all still scrambling around to put the finishing touches on the building, staging a dormitory room and a classroom to show the women what the furnished school would look like, carefully cleaning windows set in putty that was not yet dry, or laboriously sweeping and cleaning two months of construction dirt and dust from the floors of the rooms.

As the ladies drank sodas and ate snacks under a tent set up in the courtyard, we all hurriedly changed into the clean clothes we had brought, our arms, hands, feet and hair still covered in paint and dust. We were all exhausted, having worked twelve-hour days all week to complete the project on time. In the last weeks of construction, the volunteers never left the site before dark, painting, grouting and cleaning by the generator’s lights or their own headlamps, or even the moon. Still, the overall effect was presentable. The women, of course, were dressed in their finest Maasai garb, huge earrings weighing down the tops of their ears, flat, wide collars dancing up and down on their shoulders as they danced and sang.

When all the volunteers joined our visitors, the ceremony began. Ndinini Kimesera, co-founder and head of MWEDO, spoke about the future of the school. Frédérique spoke about the construction and process of building, giving special thanks to the many supporters of ROTH both in Canada and Tanzania, and the volunteers. Finally, Josephine, a MWEDO Board member, thanked ROTH, presenting each of the volunteers with a kanga (intricately decorated cloth, used as skirts or shawls), and Frédérique with the traditional sign of leadership in the Maasai community, a beaded stick of ebony called a rungu.

The women were then invited to see the classrooms and dormitory for themselves. The girls sat at the desk in the staged classroom while the older women walked around, dancing, laughing and literally singing their approval. Then they moved to our dormitory, which now proudly displayed the name Sasha Hall, chosen by two of our donors. As the women and girls walked through the Hall, seeing the bedding, toiletries, mosquito nets, suitcases and beds that will be given to each student, their screams of excitement could be heard on the other side of the site. They especially liked the bathroom, with its private toilets and full-length mirror.

As they emerged from the other end of Sasha Hall, on to the foundation of the future kitchen and dining hall, many of the older women were crying. These are women who had no reason to believe that a girl’s education would ever be a priority in their community, and now here was a brand-new school dedicated to that purpose. They thanked each of the volunteers and the MWEDO staff with handshakes and hugs. After weeks of work with no breaks, close quarters at the ROTH volunteer house, the same food almost every day, and all the dust, paint, dirt and harsh sun that goes with working on a construction site in Africa, this recognition and appreciation from the community made all the work worthwhile. 

There is still a lot of work to be done at the Maasai Women Secondary School. MWEDO will open the doors in January of 2011, pending certification from the Tanzanian Ministry of Education, which one inspector we invited assured us would be forthcoming. MWEDO is in the process of connecting the School to the water main and the electricity grid. ROTH will continue fundraising for the next phases of construction, beginning with the vital kitchen and dining hall, then continuing to expand the school’s capacity to accept more girls.

Like with ROTH’s other projects, the organization will stay involved with the project in partnership with MWEDO to ensure the sustainability of the School and to ensure its success. You can’t build a school in Maasailand and then say you’ve developed the area; it’ll take a long and hard-working relationship with MWEDO, the Maasai people and the community. ROTH’s experience from its other projects, and the drive and motivation of its founders and supporters, are ready for the challenges and successes to come.

*Maasai Women Development Organization, ROTH’s partner in Tanzania, who will be running the school’s administration and admissions.