A note from Iain:
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.
