At least we are able to use the nead of water from botn
mills which will give us adequate power even in the dry
season.

Quite the major event of the last six months has been the
taking on of the first apprentices. We made it known that
we were ready to do this, and we planned a series of simple
tests so as to select the best six to start with. A simple
dictation to be read back, and basic maths. Most of them
had done 7 years of primary school and we learned about
education in a place like this. One boy, who did not seem
to be sub-normal, could not write his name after five years
at school, and others could only just write their names
after 7 years. we also gave manual tests for hand and eye
co-ordination.

I was saddened to think of these children sitting at a
desk for 7 years and learning only how to stifle natural
curiosity. If they could have been taught things they so
badly need to know: elementary hygiene,the desirability

of covering human excreta and not just leaving it in the
streets outside the houses as is the current practice,
something could have been gained; but education has been
imported, Western model. It Fits neither the needs nor the
situation very often, so that many of the children would
have been better off without education, watching their
animals and helping in the home. It is impossible to know
how much to lay at the door of the teacher (one,asked why
his pupils only learned as far as their 3 times tables,
Said, "well, if I could do more I wouldn't be here.", how
much to their protein deficient diet (or coca) or how much
to heredity.

In the end we selected 5, and they were to work for the
workshop in the mornings, practice on the wheel in the
afternoons, and each day receive an hour of theoretical
instruction (e.g. to divide a decimal figure by 100 you

do not have to do long division). They were to receive
enough pay for them to be able to feed themselves, this for
three months, after which they would be confirmed (or dis-
missed) and receive a higher grade. One never turned up,
and it soon became apparent that two boys were very un-

.