From Fairport to Kenya: A new life and a new world

On that day, Cala, his wife, Joanne, a former school counselor, and Jim Nowak, a retired Fairport social studies teacher, spoke a few words to more than 500 students at Mbaka Oromo Primary School, near the Kenyan village of Maseno.

(March 28, 2006) — Last Oct. 26 was the day that changed his life forever, says William Cala, the superintendent of Fairport schools, but not for long.

"I did my little four-sentence speech in Swahili," Cala says, "and we taught them a song. Then the principal brought two orphans forward. Each told the story of his life. They ripped my heart out. Their lives have been ravaged by poverty. Their parents have died with AIDS, and they both asked, 'Why me?'"

No one, he says, could have that experience and then go back to life as usual.

So after a decade as superintendent, and 36 years in education, Cala will retire at the end of the school year and devote himself to giving the children of Mbaka Oromo the tools they'll need to overcome poverty.

At Rochester's School Without Walls last week, Cala told his story. "There are 514 students at Mbaka Oromo," he explained, "and 180 of them are orphans. A whole generation has been lost to AIDS." There is poverty here, he agreed, but "it's nothing compared to Kenya."

He showed the students pictures of the children with no shoes, ragged clothing, and barely a thing to eat. He showed them a picture of a first-grade girl writing with a pencil stub no longer than her thumb. She had learned to split it apart, push a little lead through the open end and bind it up again.

The school buildings are made from mud, with tin roofs and cow manure floors. Periodically, he explained, students are told to bring buckets of manure, which is watered down and spread to make a new floor. In hours, Cala, said, "it dries rock hard." The Rochester students groaned.

"Joining Hearts and Hands" is the organization the Calas and Nowak have started to raise money for the children. They've already raised enough money to build a couple of school buildings and provide 11 scholarships for high school kids.

"The government only pays for school up to eighth grade," he says. But $400 will cover tuition for one student for a year. "They have to have a high school education or they're dead," he says.

So they'll raise some money and take it back to Kenya. They've already learned that you can't just send money or supplies because there's no guarantee it will arrive. They'll visit regularly, hire contractors and oversee the construction of additional classrooms, bathrooms, a library and a kitchen. They'll foster intercultural relationships between Maseno and Rochester.

"We're not going to branch out," Cala says. "We'll stay with this school and this village until we've done all we can." Eventually, he says, they want to build a community center with some medical facilities.

When people die of AIDS, Joanne Cala says, "there is a belief that you cannot touch even the coffin without getting the virus."

They have so little, she says. "And yet, there's joy on their faces and they thank God for what they have."

Serving them, William Cala says, sure beats "buying things to make myself happy."

Source: www.democratandchronicle.com