John Johnston has had his share of wild experiences as his comic alter-ego Johnny Bagpipes, from chance encounters with Neil Armstrong, Terry Bradshaw and Anderson Cooper to fending off transvestite prostitutes during a lucrative outdoors Dewar’s scotch-tasting gig in Kuala Lumpur. Nothing, however, compares to the labour of love the towering Langford funnyman and his wife, Marianne Schaubeck, launched 15 years ago — building preschools for impoverished children in rural African villages.
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When you consider how often “It’s for the kids!” has been used as a punchline, it’s hard not to laugh when John Johnston says it while talking about a charity event.
Johnston, 53, is a comedian, after all. But he wasn’t joking as he waxed enthusiastic about a life-changing labour of love that he and his wife, Marianne Schaubeck, undertook in January of 2001.
Through their charity, the African Preschools Society, the West Shore couple’s mission was to build and maintain pre-schools in impoverished rural African villages where such facilities aren’t government-funded.
Working with local chiefs and council members, their objective was to provide education, basic health care and nutritious food in a safe environment for youngsters deprived of such things.
Fifteen years later, “the kids” — 400 preschoolers — are benefiting from the first phase of the couple’s dream come true in Lillydale B, a dirt-poor community in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
On land donated by local chiefs, the impoverished youngsters are getting their first taste of education at Mazinyane Preschool, a community project built by villagers that has amenities most of us take for granted — electricity, running water, 14 flush toilets, playground equipment, a kitchen with appliances and a vegetable garden.
The school, which officially opened May 16, 2002, and won Mpumalanga’s Best School Award for 2014, is operated by a staff of 18 whom Johnston and Schaubeck meet with during their annual trips to Africa.
When they visited last year, they were heartened to see the first phase of their new project, a nursery for 100 babies, completed with some financial aid from Sabi Sabi, a private game reserve.
With the foundation laid and outer walls built for the nursery, which they estimate will cost $200,000, construction can start on the roof while they continue to sustain the preschool financially.
“Sometimes you’ve got to pinch yourself and say: ‘Holy smokes, I can’t believe we’ve done this,’” Johnston says. “So many South Africans said it will never work. But it is working, and it makes you feel really good.”
To raise more funds, Johnston, who makes his living on the corporate and cruise-ship comedy circuit, will do a “back in the hood” standup show April 22, 8 p.m. at Langford Legion, Branch #91, 761 Station Ave.
Proceeds from Comedy for a Cause ($30) will also benefit West Shore Literacy Programs and Rotary Club of West Shore, which Johnston joined after Rotary International donated $15,000 for the school’s fence.
“They’re local and global,” said Johnston, who hopes the show’s locale will also encourage supporters to discover the Legion. “Our charity is in Africa, but I wanted to do something in our own community.”
It will be the first time in 15 years he has appeared in Langford as Johnny Bagpipes, his kilted alter-ego whose jokes alternate with amusing bagpipe renditions of tunes from AC/DC hits to the Star Wars theme.
While Johnston’s showbiz pursuits are worlds apart from the couple’s humanitarian adventures in Africa, they feed his passion, and vice-versa — as a means to raise funds and generate new material.
One tradition the schoolchildren cherish most is when the couple, who fly to South Africa each year at their own expense, revive their annual ice-cream day.
“We buy 500 ice-cream cones and ice cream and drive like mad to get to the school before it melts,” said Johnston with a laugh, adding Marianne often gets the lion’s share of accolades from the kids.
“They all want to high-five you, and you’ll hear them talking about ‘Marianna,’” he says, recalling the opening for a second school. “They gave her this Princess Leia-type Zulu clothing, and I got nothing.”
She certainly deserves the attention at the school they’ve spent $500,000 on, including salaries for nine people, including kitchen staff, security guards, principal Luzeli Khosa and head teacher Fanikie Sibiya. Operating costs average $60,000 annually for the five-classroom school, which accommodates children from Lillydale B and other villages.
It was Schaubeck, a travel-industry veteran, who planted the seeds for the project a few years after she founded Reservations Africa, an agency that packages customized trips to southern and East Africa.
She was inspired by Victoria residents Kathleen and Arnie Smith, who, while driving through the rural community bordering Kruger National Park, spotted schoolchildren seated in plastic chairs outside a tiny church.
After agreeing to deliver a package of school supplies on the concerned woman’s behalf, Schaubeck pledged to give back somehow to the country from whose magnificence she makes a living.
Rather than just making a donation and walking away, Schaubeck and her husband made a commitment to provide ongoing funding with help from clients, sponsors and community partners here and abroad.
Their goal was to create something that would empower the rural area’s chiefs, council members, labourers and educators to maintain the preschool and its supplies and services.
“My theory is that if we all do a little, it gets big,” says Johnston, adding they use whatever money they have in the charity’s account to fund construction of more facilities by local labourers.
That’s what happened in 2009, when their charity donated $85,000 for construction of another preschool attended by 200 children in Mdazawana, outside of Sodwana Bay National Park in Kwa Zulu Natal.
Construction of the new nursery began the same way as the Mazinyane Preschool concept that triggered their initial campaign, which raised $46,000 in 2001. It was at the request of the villagers.
“Babies are having babies. It’s just a fact,” says Johnston, referring to 14-year-old mothers who have to quit school. “So the nursery lets them further their education and get a job.”
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