Jenni Wilson, volunteer in late 2005, sent this welcome report:

My time working at IBC School was a very happy one. I have never looked
forward to getting up in the mornings at 6am so much. Their excited little faces greeting me as the car pulled up every morning made my daily welcome extra special and every day hoards of children would be almost fighting each other, each desperate to take my bags as a mark of respect.

Once I had been working a couple of weeks I was getting presents from the children almost daily. Standard 5 was especially generous and after spotting a child with a big grin on their beautiful face suddenly an egg would pop up from behind a desk, and then a pineapple, and then some cinnamon and so on. These gifts were really from the heart and were very big and expensive gifts for them to give me so I felt very appreciated and very humbled by their generosity.

My favourite experience at the school was their very first sports day. This was a joyous event in which not only the pupils but also the teachers, bewildered yet enthusiastic, threw themselves into. We awarded the winners medals made of card and string with rather cool sparkly stickers on them and afterwards they wore these medals with pride for days, weeks actually.

Lunchtime colouring club was also a huge hit. The children had to be taught from scratch to colour in as they had never done so before, not having access to crayons or coloured pencils. At first they just used to trace the outlines but once shown how to colour properly there was no stopping them. Hoards of children used to peer in through the windows desperate to see what wonders were occurring in the classroom. The only difficulty was limiting the class to 20 per day, no mean feat when you have hundreds of desperate pleading children wanting to join in.

What struck me most about the school was the lack of basic facilities. There were under half the amount of desks needed, children used to sit on the floor trying to write. Many didn't even have pencils and as for text books, they were so few that only the teacher could realistically use one.

With the help of my colleagues from England, Florence Gauvin and Helen Blackburn, the fundraising began. Florence and Helen worked extremely hard to help raise some money to equip the school but I had no idea quite how successful they would be. They raised a massive amount. Enough to furnish the school with all the desks needed, stationery packs for every student, text books and even a pair of flip flops for everyone to prevent them having to go bare foot. So much money has been raised that there will be enough left over to help Amani school as well, which is the other school that Tukae works with. This money will make a very real difference to the schools and I am very grateful to each and every person who kindly donated.

My time at IBC School was so joyous and I yearn for the children now I am parted from them. If you are a potential volunteer reading this article, I would urge you to give teaching with Tukae a try because it really was the most rewarding experience of my life and reminiscing about it brings tears to my eyes every time.