Teacher, students bring Tanzanian boy to PVMS

Before March, 17-year-old Andrew Nickson had never left Africa. He had worked for the past several years selling necklaces to visitors on the streets of Arusha, Tanzania.

Today, Nickson (pictured with his first snow ball) is visiting Sun Prairie and will spend the next month as a guest student at Prairie View Middle School and Sun Prairie High School. He will also visit DeForest High School and will see other sites around the area.

Nickson is not part of a formal student foreign exchange program. Instead, his visit to the United States is the work of teacher Lena Mayfield and her class of 6th grade reading students. 

Karen and Rick Klemp, founders of Hope 2 Others, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping meet the needs of the Tanzanian people, were also instrumental in making Nickson's visit possible.

Nickson's story of how he came to visit Sun Prairie began when Lena Mayfield met him on her first day of a church mission trip to Tanzania this past summer. Over the next three weeks of her trip, Nickson and the members of Mayfield's group became good friends. 

Nickson had met and helped various members of the group at different times during their trip -- usually when they were most in need of help. 

"It was amazing," said Mayfield. "We'd be lost and looking for someone to help us with directions and Nickson would show up at very that moment." 

He had helped other members of the group as well, never expecting anything in return. "It wasn't until we were all sharing our stories of this amazing young boy who had helped us that we realized, in every instance, it was Nickson that we had all met," Mayfield said.

Book inspires students to help

When Lena Mayfield returned to Prairie View Middle School this past fall, she and her class read Ryan and Jimmy: And the Well in Africathat Brought Them Together, the story of a Canadian boy named Ryan who connected with a boy from Uganda. In the book, Ryan's teacher discusses countries without clean drinking water and Ryan becomes determined to raise money to build wells.

In the process, Ryan meets and befriends Jimmy, a boy from Uganda who lives in the city where the first well is drilled.

Mayfield's students were inspired by the story of Ryan and Jimmy. They had heard her talk about Nickson and her trip to Tanzania. The students decided they wanted to send Nickson to school -- the New Life Band School, which Lena had helped to build. 

The students raised the $600 Nickson needed for tuition, as well as an additional $100 for him to buy other things he would need. As a result of their efforts, Nickson was the first student enrolled in the new school, which opened in January.

"Nickson had dreams of going to school and of one day coming to the United States," said Mayfield. "He is 17 and should be in school instead of selling necklaces on the street, but he couldn't afford to go." 

Nickson is the middle son of five children. His mother and two younger siblings live in a mud hut in Tanzania. 

"The students were so excited to help," said Mayfield. "Their spirit of giving throughout this process has been inspiring."

New friendship becomes a class project

A large bulletin board in Mayfield's classroom is filled with pictures of Nickson taken in the streets of Arusha and at his new school. 

A map of Africa and facts about the country is also posted on the bulletin board. Mayfield's students have been learning about Nickson and the life of other African children as part of their reading lessons.

Students correspond with Nickson via e-mails that Mayfield sends for them. Nickson has access to the Internet at a local cafe in his city and will write back to the students with one- or two-line sentences, answering their questions or asking his own. 

"He doesn't get much time at the Internet cafe, but responds when he can," said Mayfield. "That connection between Nickson and the students has been very special."

Trip to U.S. happened sooner than expected

The trip to Sun Prairie was something Mayfield had hoped would happen within the next few years.  Karen Klemp, however, didn't want to wait. She and her husband spent the past month in Tanzania and made arrangements for Nickson to get a passport  --  a difficult task since he didn't have a birth certificate or other necessary documents.

Mayfield sent letters to Tanzanian authorities requesting a passport and included letters from Prairie View Principal Nancy Hery and Sun Prairie District Administrator Tim Culver.

To leave Tanzania, residents must go through an interview process when they apply for a visa.  Nickson and Klemp traveled nine hours for the visa interview only to be turned down. 

Klemp diligently called various government agencies and groups asking them to reconsider Nickson's visa.

Her tenacity paid off. One week before Klemp was leaving to return to the U.S., she was told that Nickson would receive another interview. After another nine-hour trip for the interview, Nickson's visa was approved.

Nickson arrived in Madison March 27.  He will return to Tanzania April 30. 

During his visit to Sun Prairie, he will spend one week at Prairie View Middle School learning about school in the U.S. He will then spend several days at Sun Prairie High School with Mayfield's daughter, Kayla, a freshman.

"This is a fantastic, cross-cultural opportunity for our students, as well as for Nickson," said Culver. "Lena Mayfield and Karen Klemp have shown extraordinary leadership in making this connection between our students in Sun Prairie and this young man from half way around the world." 

After his time in the Sun Prairie schools, Nickson will speak to students at DeForest High School and will spend a day with Mayfield's son, Ryan, at UW-Whitewater. He has also been invited to several of Mayfield's students' homes for dinner during the next month.

In addition, two area doctors have offered their services and will provide free medical check-ups for Nickson. They are pediatrician Dr. Yu of UW Healthcare and Dr. Struck of the UW Medical School Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science. Sun Prairie dentist Dr. Stevens will provide a free dental check-up for Nickson.

The Mayfield and Klemp families paid for most of Nickson's $2,200 ticket to the U.S. and the many costs associated with securing his visa, with the help of donations from several individuals and organizations. 

Anyone interested in helping with Nickson's trip may send a tax-deductible donation to "Hope 2 Others," an approved 501(c) 3 organization, c/o Karen Klemp, 913 Davis Street, Sun Prairie, WI  53590.   

Donations will pay for expenses for Nickson and clothes, since he did not bring any with him on his trip. Mayfield and Klemp had told Nickson not bring clothes since those he has would have been too light for Wisconsin weather.

The Mayfields and Klemps plan to take Nickson shopping for the clothes he'll need for his visit.

Mayfield and her family enjoyed their time with Nickson during spring break and were anxious to introduce him to her students.

"It's a full circle experience for my students and I'm so excited for them to meet Nickson," she said. "I'm also thrilled that it was a book that inspired them to make this experience happen. As a reading teacher, it's special when a student is affected by a book. 

"In this case, all of my reading students were affected by the story," she said. 

"When they meet Nickson, I think it will really sink in that even a small group like our class can change someone's life."