Magome Day 4

Our last day in Magome :(. In the morning, J.R. and Dave finished the work on the solar lights. Everything should be running at sunset! While they were working hard, Mary Lou sat with the cooking ladies and journaled - with all the action she had fallen behind. The rest of the Salem crew gathered up a bunch more school supplies and visited the Magome primary school (sorry, no pictures, I was work on the solar lights - others have pictures, but their out shopping right now). The soccer game two days ago was played at the primary school, so we had been there before, but now everyone got to meet teachers and students. Again, we presented them with a big bag of school supplies: pencils, pens, markers, colored pencils, notebooks, calculators, etc. We even brought a couple of whistles for the teachers to help them keep order...

After the gang returned from the primary school, there was just enough time for Sandy and others to set up the Dispensary in the pastor's office building. Then, it was time to say goodbye to most of the people of Magome. We dressed in the wonderful shirts/wraps we had been given as gifts and headed to church to say goodbye. A picture of Jack in full garb is to the right. There was even more singing and dancing (they do that a lot here :) ). The pastor read a letter of thanks to everyone and then we were each presented with letter an individual letter - written in english! Afterwards, we gathered on the bus with the pastor and three other people from Magome and headed out of town.

The pastor and three other people of Magome were coming with us to Iringa and then on safari with us.

After we left Magome, we headed to Pommern Secondary School. There is one student sponsored by Salem at Pommern, so we brought another gift package for her. School had just started two days ago, so at first, they thought the student had not yet returned to school (fairly common). However, we did find her eventually and I believe Jack took a picture of her as well for her sponsors.

At Pommern, we were greated by the assistant headmaster and given a short tour. They have a computer lab with 17 computers (all laptops) powered by solar power. Unfortunately, the power source is not good on the computers, so they only have 3 working computers - the rest have bad screens or other problems. Pommern was definitely a larger school than Lutangilo. I think the total student count was 800-900 students. During our tour, all the students gathered at the steps of the headmaster's office. We returned there and met the headmaster and there was another brief welcome and hello ceremony. We are all learning to say "My name is" is Swahili. Pronunciation is a hurdle, but we should have it figured out, just in time to leave. Below is a picture of the students of Pommern, or at least as many as I could fit on camera.

After Pommern, we headed back to Iringa. To pass the time, Sandy taught the back of the bus the game of cows - be the first to see a cow or herd of cows, yell "Cows!" and get one point. There are more rules, but that is the basics. Due to a lack of cows, additional points were allowed for other more common Tanzania things during the trip. By the end of the drive, most of the bus was involved in the game ... an excellent way to pass the time on a road trip. We got back to Iringa just as the sun was setting.