Remember the ‘story’ your Grandma or
Grandpa told you about how they walked to school 5 kilometres (uphill - both
ways)?
What was the last time you walked 5 kms
(not trying to log steps on your Fitbit)?
What about 5 kms twice in the same day?
What about your young child – have they
ever walked 5 kms?
Can you imagine them walking – alone, or
with a friend or two of the same age – 5 kms to school at 9 am; then 5 kms home
at noon; then 5 kms back to school at 3 pm (in temperatures of +35 degrees
Celsius); and finally 5 kms home again at 5 pm just as dusk is starting to set
in?
That was one of the common themes we came
across this distribution – how far the kids travel to get an education. To
arrive at a one-room hut with little wooden desk. No air conditioning. No interactive devices. Just a basic notebook and a pencil. Not all schools are this way, there are some
schools made of brick, and have chalkboards (ok, maybe that’s a stretch – it is
a part of the wall painted with green ‘chalk’ paint). Most don’t have electricity. So while the kids want to stay to learn, and
the teachers want to stay to teach, they can only use the tools they have, so
as daylight departs so must they.
For some of the kids, the benefit is that
they will go home to a bedkit. A
mattress to rest their tired little legs.
A mosquito net to protect them a buzzing nuisance all through the night,
and allow their young mind to rest peacefully.
All in preparation for the start of their next round of 5 km walks the
next day. And the day after. And the day after that.
Others are not as fortunate – they have not
received a bedkit. But they will trudge
on – 5 kms at a time, perhaps in the hope of being one of next year’s bedkit
recipients.
