Tropical Ice Safaris - Timboni School

A note from Iain:

January, 2005

For the past 25 years I've regularly driven the road which connects Tsavo East to the Indian Ocean town of Malindi. It is a narrow dirt road, which crosses flat parched country, and I've never paid a great deal of attention to it. Whenever I make this drive the safari in Tsavo is over and my focus (and that of my clients), is to get to the coast as quickly as possible.

The first sign of human habitation one sees is about 30 miles from the edge of Tsavo, where during the past five years or so I've been following with interest and curiosity the growth of a small school. I've always wondered how anyone could live in this uncompromising country, far less build and sustain a school; the annual rainfall of the district is little more than 15 inches.

After completing their Great Walk safari with me in February, 2004, Ed and Julie Wilkins presented me with a sizeable package of school items, which they had brought over from the United States. They asked me if I knew of a place where it might be appreciated and I thought of the school on the edge of Tsavo.

The next time I was in Tsavo my clients flew back to Nairobi from the park, and I drove the road to Malindi on my own. When I reached the school I drove in to hand over Ed and Julie's package. The headmaster introduced me to the kids, who sat on small wooden benches in the dark mud-walled, tin-roofed classrooms and he chalked my name on the blackboard. As I looked at the beaming faces of the children, I remembered what an English friend once told me about how pleasurable teaching in Kenya was when compared with his experiences in Britain. Kenyan kids arrived in the morning tingling with excitement, sponges eager to learn everything they could; school for most British kids was a chore.

I recently finished two books which I regard as perhaps the most important I've ever read; one was Jared Diamond's "Collapse", and the other was Jeffrey Sachs' "The End of Poverty." I believe these two books complement each other, and should be read together.

In "The End of Poverty" Sachs describes the meaning of extreme poverty in the context of the rungs of a ladder:

"If economic development is a ladder with higher rungs representing steps up the path to economic well-being, there are roughly one billion people around the world, one sixth of humanity, who are too ill, hungry or destitute even to get a foot on the first rung of the development ladder. These people are the "poorest of the poor", or the "extreme poor" of the planet. They all live in developing countries (poverty does exist in rich countries, but it is not extreme poverty). Of course, not all of these one billion people are dying today, but they are all fighting for survival each day. If they are the victims of a serious drought or flood, or an episode of serious illness, or a collapse of the world market price of their cash crop, the result is likely to be extreme suffering and perhaps even death. Cash earnings are pennies a day."

"A few rungs up the development ladder is the upper end of the low-income world, where roughly another 1.5 billion people face problems...These people are "the poor." They live above mere subsistence. Although daily survival is assured, they struggle in the cities and countryside to make ends meet. Death is not at their door, but chronic financial hardship and a lack of basic amenities such as safe drinking water and functioning latrines are part of their daily lives..."

Sachs continues..."Another 2.5 billion people are up yet another few rungs, in the middle-income world. These are middle-income households, but they would certainly not be recognized as middle class by the standards of rich countries. Their incomes may be a few thousand dollars per year."

"The greatest tragedy of our time is that one sixth of humanity is not even on the development ladder. A large number of the extreme poor are caught in a poverty trap, unable on their own to escape from extreme material deprivation. They are trapped by disease, physical isolation, climate stress, environmental degradation, and by extreme poverty itself. Even though life-saving solutions exist to increase their chances for survival - whether in the form of new farming techniques, or essential medicines, or bed nets that can limit the transmission of malaria - these families and their governments simply lack the financial means to make these crucial investments. The world's poor know about the development ladder: they are tantalized by images of affluence halfway around the world. But they are not able to get a first foothold on the ladder, and so cannot even begin the climb out of poverty."

Jeffrey Sachs' book opened my eyes, made me realize that the road from Tsavo to the Indian Ocean was more than I'd previously seen or understood: it was a sixty mile perfect example of the development ladder, and it's first rung lay beyond the region of the Timboni School.

I've now made frequent visits to the school and I try to take there every group I travel the road with to meet the headmaster and the children. The school is elementary level (ages 5 to 12), and has between forty and sixty students. These kids live within a five mile radius of the school and commute each day by walking along bush trails. Some begin their walk at 5.30 in the morning, and the teachers never know how many will turn up each day. I was told that lack of food at home sometimes means they haven't the strength to make the walk. The school has a daily water roster when two kids ride a donkey five miles to the nearest bore hole (well), then walk it back with filled containers. The school tries to provide lunches every day but it is simply not possible; they average three meals a week.

There are no short-term solutions to the problem, but even though this is new territory for us, we at Tropical Ice want to make a start. We are not looking for cash. Hopefully this will come later. We intend to feel our way carefully one step at a time; to give too much at once would be overwhelming. After discussions with the headmaster, and the committee of local elders (chiefs), we feel that an initial list of priorities would be:

Basic school amenities (note pads, blackboard chalk, books, pencils, pens, crayons etc).
Basic classroom furniture which can be bought in Nairobi or Malindi.
The building of a bore-hole (well), which would probably cost in the region of US$ 40,000.00 (an unconfirmed quote, it might be less). This would do more than allow the kids access to water, but also provide the means to grow vegetables etc. Bore-holes however, require expensive up-keep in the form of a pump and diesel. If there's one thing I learned from Jared Diamond's "Collapse" it's better to be self-sustainable if possible. It might be that wind turbine or solar power for the pump would be best.
A school bus to enable easier access for the children. Again, this would require long term support in the form of a salary for the bus driver, as well as fuel and vehicle maintenance - all these areas however, are open to corruption. It would have to be monitored carefully. Another reason for us taking it slowly, one step at a time.
If we touch again on one of Diamond's themes in "Collapse", we can look further down the road and see that a school bus could also be used for allowing the kids access to Tsavo East National Park, where they might learn to appreciate nature, wilderness, wildlife. Their present view is more likely to be one-sided in favour of the extermination of wildlife, particularly elephants, which have a tendency to raid encroaching settlements where they destroy sorely needed crops.

We intend to initially concentrate on points 1 and 2.

I'd like to end this with a last quote from Jeffrey Sachs' book: "When people are poor, but not utterly destitute, they may be able to save. When they are utterly destitute, they need their entire income, or more, just to survive. There is no margin of income above survival that can be invested for the future."

Education is one of the contributing factors, which can ultimately lift a people onto the first rung of the development ladder; please help us to achieve this in the remote Tsavo region, by helping the Timboni School.

MOVING FORWARD

In the year since I wrote the above, our visitors' response to the Timboni School project has been overwhelming.

Over 200 Tropical Ice clients have visited the school this past year, and many have brought with them packages containing notepads, crayons, pencils, blackboard chalk, and various items of clothing. These have been gratefully received.

Earlier this year we formed the FRIENDS OF TIMBONI FEEDER SCHOOL, which was incorporated in the state of California on March 15, 2006. Our current directors are the following:

Iain Allan (Nairobi)

Anne Walton (Nairobi)
Margaret Watson (Seattle)
Nancy Scott-Rogers (San Francisco)
Lori Stasukelis (San Francisco)
Heather Aveson (Boston)
Regina Ridley (San Francisco)

We have decided to raise money for the construction of the bore-hole, which I mentioned in my earlier notes above. Providing the school with easily accessible water will be a huge step forward; drinking water, and the potential for growing vegetables (corn, beans, potatoes), will be a worthy start.

It is my intention that neither the school, nor the community, will ever see hard cash. My meetings with the community elders have been encouraging, and they are unanimously in agreement with this. The funds that we raise will enable us to contract the Nairobi-based water engineers that will carry out the initial survey, then the future construction of the well. We will keep all our donors up-dated on this website, on how the funds are being spent.

Friends of Timboni Feeder School is now officially a 501c3 non profit corporation, as of March 21, 2007.

To contribute, please go to www.friendsoftimboni.org or send contributions directly to:

Friends of Timboni Feeder School
P.O. Box 31083
San Francisco, CA 94131-0083
USA

I would appreciate it if all donors would advise me of their contributions, on the Tropical Ice email address: tropice@africaonline.co.ke I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lisa Seran for the fabulous work she did in setting up our accounts, and applying for 501c(3). It's greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: February 13, 2007

"...if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing..."

"...Should I consider that I am less obliged to pull the drowning child out of the pond if on looking around I see other people, no further away than I am, who have also noticed the child but are doing nothing? One has only to ask this question to see the absurdity of the view that numbers lessen obligation. It is a view that is an ideal excuse for inactivity; unfortunately most of the major evils - poverty, overpopulation, pollution - are problems in which everyone is almost equally involved."

These words, written by Princeton philosopher, Peter Singer, in his book "UNSANCTIFYING HUMAN LIFE" (Blackwell Publishing, 2002), caught my attention. To me, they refreshingly "simplify" so many of our problems today. Singer also says..."if it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything else morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it."

The kids at Timboni School have been fortunate to meet over the past two years many of Tropical Ice's visitors, some of whom have made the decision to "wade into the pond". In the past six weeks we have received US$ 17,410.00. This is fantastic, and on behalf of the Timboni Board, I'd like to thank you for yougenerous donations.

From these donations we have paid US$ 3,270.00 to the company Groundwater Survey (Kenya) Ltd, and they have now carried out their initial site survey. We have their report, and it is encouraging; there is water. We have sent copies of the report to several geologists in the United States, as well as a few people with bore-hole drilling experience. If anyone is interested in reading the report please contact Lisa Seran.

Groundwater Survey are now in the process of writing up the Environmental Impact Assessment, which will then be forwarded to the Kenya government. Once this formality has been completed, we will be in a position to initiate Phase Two of the project, which is the drilling, and this cannot be activated until we have received sufficient donations to cover the work.

We need about US$ 20,000.00 more.

Finally, let me again thank everyone for their support. We're on our way to making water for the kids at Timboni.

Iain Allan

"WINE INTO WATER"
CONN CREEK WINERY, NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
TIMBONI SCHOOL FUNDRAISER

May 5th, 2007, will always be one of the most special days in my life.

Thanks to the remarkable efforts of the Safari Sisters, of whom I feel honoured to have on the board of Friends of Timboni School, the first fundraiser on behalf of Timboni took place at the Conn Creek Winery in Napa Valley. The venue could not have been bettered, the sun shone, 130 people came, wine flowed, and...it was my birthday.

For me, simply being in California was exciting enough, but as I gazed over the faces in the crowd, I felt I was a character in some glorious fairy-tale. I thought about how extraordinarily short the journey had been from the day I first drove into Timboni with a suitcase full of school books and crayons (graciously donated by a client), to this event at Conn Creek.

Some of the finest wineries in Napa offered their wines for tasting, and auction; there were delicious appetizers (expertly cooked by Pat who was hidden behind the back hedge); and a Silent and Live Auction. From the start the atmosphere was celebratory; from the moment the first guest arrived, the outcome was never in question. Everyone understood the significance of the event, they had grabbed the moment, and what I witnessed was an overwhelming display of American generosity.

When I arrived in America at the end of April, Timboni School's account had a balance of slightly over $20,000.00; when I left at the end of May, we were just under $100,000.00.

To say that I couldn't have done this alone is about as big an understatement as it possibly could be. I suspect the people I want to mention would be appalled by the attention I'm about to give them, but, Sorry ladies, you're out of luck! Heather, Debbie, Regina, Pam, Nancy, Rebecca, Margaret and Lori, your work in bringing it all together was outstanding; I'd never imagine it could be done.

Lisa, you deserve a paragraph to yourself. During the weeks leading up to the event, you did the work of ten people. You found us a venue, you gave us so much of your time, meticulously choreographing every inch of the way. You brought your countless friends in Napa together for us, from the owners of the finest wineries, to your postman who graciously handed you a ten dollar note. Your name will always be a part of Timboni.

And a very special thanks to the following:

Julie (without you we'd never have hit the ground running.)

Karin (for Maggie.)

Ren (who deemed me worthy of a dinner engagement in November.)

Peter (who thankfully decided Timboni’s children could benefit best by him taking another safari.)

We now have the funds to complete the well by the end of this year, and we can also begin Phase 2, which will be the buying of classroom furniture and the construction of environmentally acceptable toilet facilities.

Iain