April Trip to Godenu

It was Another great trip to the village on April 4, 2016. On this trip, three friends joined the found, Darlene Murphy; Elaine Lewis (Director), Rosemary Mark and her daughter, Ariel Mark. We spent three days and two nights in the village and were able to share in many different experiences from teaching in the classrooms to having dinner with the people in the village. Between all of us we brought three suitcases of goods to the village that were donated. Per the request of the teachers, we taught the teachers and women from the village how to knit. We brought yarn and needles and had two days of knitting lesson to encourage the women to knit either for their families or to be able to sell what they knit to earn money. It was exciting to see the children who were watching, pick up the needles and yarn and start knitting all on their own. We also passed out 42 tee shirts that was donated by "All Start Sports" in Pleasanton to the smiles of many children. In addition, we passed out 50 dress for the little girls that were made by the foundation "Dress a Child Around the World". In each dress there was a pair of panties and the little girl were delighted in receiving them as much as the dresses. Kathy Harris, donated her handmade hand bags to all the teachers with several pieces of extra material for the women to make clothes. Thanks to "Fashion Knit" in Walnut Creek, CA. for putting WAVE in their newsletter, that a fun project for knitters would be to knit "wash clothes" for us to bring to the village. We collected over 100 and passed them out amongst the people in the village. You can see their excitement in the picture below. All of this, plus the numerous school supplies we brought to the village school, indeed made our trip very rewarding.

Besides all the material donations, it was amazing to see all the work that had been completed with all the monies received to help improve the school. The KG build had a new roof installed in order to keep the classrooms dry and free from bats. This project completed the construction of the school buildings. Now we can focus on building toilets for the children.

Facts we learned on this trip:

1. The village school is currently ranked #1. Seven years ago it was at the bottom in the region.

2. The boys who attended the school in the past, advanced to the finals in Soccer and won the division championships.

3. Attendance is currently at 250 students. Seven years ago it was 85. Students from other villages want to attend our school.