“When I retire in 2021, I will support The Luke Commission. I like helping people, just like you do,” said Reuben Dlamini, an agriculture teacher at Endzingeni Primary School.
Indeed, teachers at rural Eswatini schools can have a beneficial influence on TLC’s mobile outreaches. If they choose to pitch in and help, that is. Reuben did!
The Luke Commission came to his school one rainy morning. As the TLC team worked here and there and everywhere, Reuben was here and there and everywhere, too.
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Before the team arrived, Reuben said he made certain all the classrooms were vacated and cleaned and chairs organized for TLC’s nine departments. Outdoors, he asked students to arrange some chairs for the elderly to sit, while waiting for Room 1 staff to register their medical concerns.
Reuben popped in and out of places where children were waiting in the pharmacy queue, the eye-testing queue, and the shoe line. The school has more than 600 students, and a nearby school had joined the others for medical help and new shoes. That’s a lot of youngsters to corral and guide.
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With a circus-plus-carnival atmosphere, children ran and laughed and celebrated the long-anticipated day when The Luke Commission visited them. Reuben was gentle yet firm with them.
“When you pack up the trucks this evening, I will still be here. I’ll run this right up to the end,” he declared.
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“I even made sure the drains were cleaned of dirt and debris,” said Reuben, as he pointed to the rain-filled cement ditches surrounding the classrooms.
Thirty-five years ago, Reuben started his teaching career at this very school. “I have been here the whole time,” he explained proudly. “I love teaching agriculture.”
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Married and the father of five grown children, Reuben appreciates that his children also have pursued careers that puts others first, such as teaching and doctoring. His wife teaches at the same school with Reuben. “I like that,” he smiled.
The third year Reuben had taken such an active roll in volunteering to assist The Luke Commission, he wondered aloud what more he could do.
“I am available. I am willing.”
by Janet Tuinstra for the whole team, including Reuben
PS TLC appreciates all those teachers who, over the years, have given of themselves when The Luke Commission visits their schools once a year.