Joseph

You may remember that I once wrote about a student in our school called Joseph. I have meant to update my blog about Joseph’s situation but it has been ongoing and as yet is unresolved. I have been waiting for my happy ending (ever the idealist) but I don’t know what will transpire, so instead, I’ll update you as often as possible on his situation.

Joseph is on the left hand side of this photo.

Joseph was in my class last year. He is around eleven years old. He’s quite tall for his age though it’s entirely possible that he’s older than he admits to. He’s fairly quiet though after almost a year in the school, he was coming out of himself by around August, September and making a LOT of progress. He was around tenth position in a class of twenty nine and that’s pretty good considering most of the other children had been in the school for a year longer than him.

All of the above may sound fairly ordinary but when you consider that Joseph had been lying in a bed beside his mother a couple of years ago and witnessed her murder, as thieves cut her to death. He then had to learn that his father had hung himself after discovering he was HIV positive only a few short months later.

Joseph and his elder sister were sent from Moinze (around ten hours away from Arusha) to live with their aunty a few miles away from our school. Somehow Joseph got through our rigorous exams and got a place in Standard 2 (most of the children we take are in Standard 1 – we only allow around 30 exceptional children into Standard 2 every year as their classmates have quite advanced English by then, so it’s hard for newcomers to catch up). Nonethless Joseph got one of the coveted places and was doing fine.

Near the end of the year, Joseph missed a week of school and then returned. Then, near the end of the term, in November, he missed another week. I noticed this fairly quickly, given his previous recent absence. I asked the Deputy Headmaster to go to his house to find out what was wrong but when Joseph saw Ben coming, he ran away and hid. His auntie promised that he would return to school the following day but he didn’t.

I decided that I would go to the house with another teacher and try to coax him back to school. Eventually and in spite of everything, we found Joseph and his house (remember, this is a country where there are no street names beyond the major arteries that run through the towns). Indeed, our only directions were “they live in the house near some cows in a field”. After a discussion with Joseph, who was petrified of his aunt because she said he didn’t deserve to come to school because he woke up late some morning, he agreed to return to school which he did two days later.

I felt that there was a distinct lack of love for Joseph in the home, so I asked our “Parents 'committee” to investigate. In this case, one or two parents of our students who have been elected to this committee, go out to a house and assess it from a local perspective. They often speak to neighbours, the village chief and do whatever else is necessary to try to find out what’s really going on.

The report that came back said that Joseph was being mistreated, that he was sleeping outdoors, undernourished and it recommended that we find him a more suitable home.In this case the parents' committee find a family with another child in the school, and they house an extra child, often at no charge. The child stays there during term time and then, where possible, goes home for holidays. The parents' committee recommended this course of action for Joseph. Although it's rare, if there is an objection by the child's family, they show them the report and tell them they will go to the police if they do not let the child stay with another family.Mostly the families are happy to have one less mouth to feed but in the case that a child is a "workhorse" they are often reluctant to let them go. I suspect Joseph is one of these cases. In any case, we are led by our Parents' Committee so we agreed to find Joseph a suitable hom in January since we received the report just before the Summer holidays in December.

When Joseph’s aunt came to collect his school report in December, before school holidays, she talked about her schitzophrenic son and her chronic back pain. I think I might have felt sorry for her were it not for the fact that she showed utter disinterest in Joseph and no pride in the fact that he had passed his exams, despite missing three weeks in the last six weeks of term. We told her that we would find Joseph a house closer to school so that he could get there on time, and so that she wouldn’t have as man “stresses” in her life. She didn’t seem very happy with the offer though Joseph seemed pretty excited.

When I returned from Ireland last week, it was the beginning of the second week of school. I was anxious to have Joseph placed with a local family who would care for him more. But I couldn’t find Joseph anywhere. He hadn’t returned to school at all.

So, Peter our Deputy Welfare teacher and I returned to Joseph’s house to find out the situation. But Joseph wasn’t there. His aunt explained that he had gone to see his family in Moinze and that there had been a hurricane while he was there and had not returned. It was an odd story, littered with contradictions but we humoured her. We explained to her that Mama (Gemma who rns the school) wanted him to live with her for a while and that he was very important to the school. We also repeated the point that St Judes was a certain way that Joseph would get a priary, secondary and if he chose, a tertiary education. In so doing, Joseph could then repay her love when he got a good job since he could support her in a country that has no social welfare or means to care for the eldery. The thought of her nephew living with a woman who has a LOT of kudos in Arusha, along with the prospect of having a breadwinner in the family, seemed to change her attitude. She got on the phone to Moinze promptly and told the family to send him back. They told her he had problems with this teeth but we said we would take care of that. She then said that she had a pain in her ear. We listened sympathetically but weren’t drawn in.

That was last Tuesday. The chairperson of our Parents' Committee called her on Thursday and I called her on Friday. We were reassured that Joseph was coming on the bus. When I called last night, they said that he was on the bus but it had broken down and he was due later that night or today. It’s entirely likely the bus did break down since it travels along the worst road in Tanzania. Today, aunty called and said Joseph was home. I offered to go and get him immediately but she said he would come tomorrow.

So tomorrow morning, we are going back to the house to take Joseph and his few belondings to the school. If he is indeed there, and we can take him, he will stay with Gemma for a few weeks and then stay with a local family. Auntie isn’t keen for him to stay with just any family, especially if they are Masai. We’re just going to take it one step at a time. On the strength of our Parents’ Committee report, we will go threaten to go to the village chairman and police and tell them how he had been mistreated and that should be enough to keep the aunty quiet.

I have no idea how guilty this woman is. I'm sure that she has a very tough life. And hopefully she doesn't have malevolent intentions toward the boy. After all, her sister was brutally murdered. I don’t know what to believe anymore and I can't judge people when I have NO IDEA what it's like to live their life. I just care about this boy getting a chance in life, after the hideous start he has had. He’s clever and although emotional happiness is far more important than intellectual ability, this is a start. We are not just a school that focuses on academic learning. We try to teach self-confidence, morals and ultimately, that through education you are automatically advantaged. We also now have the benefit of two trained psychologists who come on a weekly basis and they will be able to give Joseph the counselling he has never ever had.

I’m afraid to be hopeful because this has been an uphill battle all the way. But, I won't give up. So cross your fingers, say a prayer... whatever... that Joseph will be in school within twelve hours from now and sleeping in a warm bed tomorrow night.

I’ll update this in the next couple of days. Please keep him in your thoughts.

Joseph, December 2006 (centre, smiling)