Olng’arua School Photo Journal

Follow this valley down and you will eventually come to Olng’arua School, it is in the distance down on the far plains.

Olng’arua boys. A sometimes cheeky, but largely cheerful lot. I admire the older ones in particular, for coming to school each day, when there is so much pressure on them from outside to skip school and be ‘men’. That generally means herding livestock but can also end up turning into doing bad things, and trouble. …

A group selfie from Irene who was teaching at the school today.

The school lost its vehicle and all its buildings. So every morning Maryanne has to carry to the school all the food she plans to cook that day. Her home is an hours walk away.

The kids miss their school. Many of them have been coming every day that they see staff members there, and getting involved in the clean up.

Charred remains of the two burnt cars, leaving glass and shards of metal all over the ground, which is a disaster for bare little feet.

Women from the community and school staff meeting at the school. Everybody want the school up and running again as soon as possible.

The kids waiting outside one of the burnt classrooms are all asking the same questions. I like that they don’t seem to doubt that it will. Now all we have to do is live up to the trust they put in us.

All those glorious books gone! Each classroom was packed with beautiful books. Carefully chosen and sent from all over the world, for the joy and education of our children here. Such a self-defeating waste.

We got to see the camels of Mongolia and find out about cold deserts. The television is bringing the world to us.