A quick thank you

As the year ends, and given Leboy's immense progress and success this first year, I would like to write a thank you note to everyone who has believed in this wonderful project and helped out one way or another. Leboy would not be where he is without your support. I would encourage you to spread the word and keep getting involved. Thank you for a wonderful year. :)

End of Standard 1 - Success!

Leboy's first year in St Thomas School has come to an end, and he has done spectacularly well! His end of year report is in, and *on average* he has all As and Bs for the year. If you'll look a bit closer at the report card (click image for full size), he actually achieved very high marks in his third term, which shows that Leboi has been been quickly improving since his arrival in Arusha. He is now ranked 9th, which is incredible progress if we remember where he started.
Leboy is now on some well-deserved holidays, and will resume school as a second-grader in January. Well done, Leboy!

Some more pictures of Leboy

Some friends from Yale were in Arusha over the summer and were kind enough to go visit Leboy and take some pictures of him and his work. Thank you, Emma and Alex, for the wonderful pictures.

Second Report Card - Incredible Progress

Leboy's second term report card is in, and he has made such incredible progress! He now has all As and Bs except for French, which he is still failing (click picture for full size). I don't really understand why he is made to learn French when already he has to cope with Ma, Swahili, and English. It's not too surprising he's struggling with his fourth language at this age. Still, we should be very proud of the incredible progress he has made since April. He is already 13th in the rankings and it looks like it is only going to get better. Well done, Leboy! Keep it up!

First Report is In!

Good news! Leboy's first term report is in. We can finally see how he is doing (click the picture for full size). From the report card, the results are not very encouraging. He has failed everything except science, in which he got a B. Interestingly, they rank their students, and out of 21 he is 19th...
However, Corneille, my contact in Arusha, has told me that Leboy's teachers are very impressed with his progress so far. We must remember that Leboy is making a very big change in his life, going from the village life of Esilalei to an urban setting away from home. We must have faith in that Leboy will come through and show us what an amazing student he can be.

Date Auction for Leboy!

Last Friday the Yale International Students Organization and the Yale Chapter of Party for a Cause put on a date auction to raise money for Leboy's education. Some of the hottest international students on campus offered to put themselves up for a date with the highest bidder. The "exotic" event, held at BAR, was super well-attended and super fun. Best of all, we managed to raise... over $1800!!!
A big thank you to ISO, PFC, and all the sexy international people. You guys are hot.

Some pictures of Leboy in St. Thomas

Corneille sent me some pictures of Leboy in St Thomas School. So serious! Hopefully we will soon see his lovely smile.

About Leboy

Leboy is a Masai child. He lives in a small village in the middle of the Tanzanian bush called Esilalei. Today, he will go to school.
Leboy is six years-old. At least, that's what his friends say. He maintains that he is seven. No one is really sure, here in Esilalei.

This won't be Leboy's first time in a school. He has been attending a makeshift school in Esilalei that has been set up by Art in Tanzania, a local NGO. In the beginning, the school wasn't much: the children of the small village would sit on rocks by the shadow of a baobab tree and receive their swahili and mathematics lessons from Regina and Pascalina. Regina and Pascalina, the two teachers, live an hour's walk away, and they go to work every day through the bush looking out for elephants and hyenas instead of cars and trucks. The children, meanwhile, change out of their traditional Masai clothes, put on their tattered uniforms, and march up the hill to the school.



Later, Art in Tanzania built a hut out of sticks, and that became the school. However, it was too small, and the teachers were hard-pressed to control the 120 children between the ages of 3 and 12 that filled the one classroom.



Out of these 120 children, Leboy stood out. He wasn't the one who knew the most, but that is because he was one of the younger students. He was, however, very bright. He understood concepts much more quickly than his peers. More importantly, he wanted to learn. He would seek out his teachers after class and ask them questions, absorbing as much as he could.

It was precisely this attitude that started this project. Leboy deserved to go to a top school in the region. He had earned it. It would be a good chance for him to fulfill the potential he so obviously had. Which is why today, thanks to all your efforts, Leboy will go to St Thomas School in Arusha.