I'm not sure quite how the government came to the following arrangement, it still baffles
me, but here's the story. My school is in a zone of about 20 schools. Of these 20, they
decided to fund a health project for just 8 of those schools. The project included free
health talks (HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, periods, etc) for students, which included the talk,
counselling and free resources for each student at the conclusion of the presentation. Great
program..yes..slightly unfair that less than 50% of students received the information..
yes. Doesn't quite add up to me!
So, as a result of this and after consulting with my school principal, myself and another
volunteer arranged to go to the 12 schools that missed out on the free health talks and
offer them ourselves, free of charge. We have hour long sessions for girls aged 12+ and
half hour sessions for boys aged 12+ (girls get longer because we talk about periods for half an hour). This has been underway for about a month now, and we are receiving really great feedback from the schools.
We cover three main areas, each which I have a fair bit to comment on myself. The first is
about the menstrual cycle...periods. We only cover this with the girls..I wonder why haha.
For girls back home in Aus, or for any in a first world country, getting your period is..
well..annoying. Really only annoying as we have full access to the necessary items such as
sanitary pads, painkillers, etc. Here in Kenya, the girls have none of the above. They use
anything they can find..and when I say anything..this usually means it has been used and
discarded...old rags, old mattresses, school uniforms, etc. It is a huge problem as many
girls are forced to stay home and miss days of school each month because they have their
periods and nothing to use for it. Suddenly annoying seems ok.
We introduce the girls to re-usable sanitary pads. Ew..right..it's what I thought when I first
heard about them..genius it actually is. The pads are sewn by a local women's group at a
resource centre (thus when purchased, it supports these women) and are fantastic. There is
a section that buttons up around the undies and a removable rag (or whatever you chose to use) that is used to absorb everything. The girls simply remove the used rag, wash it and replace
it. They cost about the equivalent of $1 per girl. So far we have handed out about 200
pads to girls in two different schools. It was like they were receiving a TV or tickets
to the grand final, the smiles on their faces were priceless..pretty awesome. I have
uploaded lots of pictures of the girls from my primary school with their pads so the photos
will hopefully make more sense now!!
We then talk about STIs. At school, the acronym ABC is drilled into the kids (ABSTAIN, BE
FAITHFUL, USE A CONDOM). Great idea in theory, not so much in practice. The majority of
kids we talk to (keep in mind they are 12, 13, 14 and 15) are already sexually active.
At the end of the presentation, we do an anonymous question/answer box where the kids
write questions and then we answer them..SO many questions about STIs, what to do, etc etc.
It was a scary realisation for myself..not that they are sexually active, as I expected that,
but their complete lack of knowledge about STIs. I hope that our talk has increased their
knowledge base a little more.
The final section of out talk, the most exciting part of the talk for the kids..based on their
reactions..is the section on protection. Condoms. We talk about them, how to use them,
why we use them, what they prevent, what happens if they break, everything..and then we
do a demo and get a few kids to have a go also up the front. This is a common topic that
gets kids back home going crazy, let me tell you, it's no different here. They love it!
Both the students and teachers have been really receptive to our talks. Most schools are able
to afford to subsidise the pads for the girls, but some schools are just sooo poor that we
are buying the girls. We are supporting the poorer schools who are unable to support their own
children - here's an example of one such case. On Thursday we went off to a school to do a talk.
Most schools are either on or close to the main road..probably most importantly because the main
road provides access to food and resources that communities cannot. Thursdays school was a half
hour motor bike road on tiny, wet, muddy, bumpy red dirt path. It was SO far away..and this
is from where I live, which is very rural to begin. The school is inaccessible when it rains, which
practically accounts for half the year. Meaning the kids and their families have no access to resources outside of their community..things that can be grown int heir fields or stockpiled during the dr season. The school is small in population, with about 40 in each class. The classroom ground is a floor of uneven dirt, they don't have the money or resources to cement their floors. There are no windows, and have no access to running water, nothing. Imagine having your period out there! We are re-visiting the girls on Thursday to hand out their pads and to show them how to sue them, it should be fun.
So that is another project I am involved in out here in Kenya. I have been using some of the
money that I raised to help support the schools and kids in need..I will actually write a
fundraising blog soon :). I really feel that the talks are helping, even if each kid takes
away one thing from the talk, I will be happy. It's so interesting comparing the knowledge
of our kids back home to the kids in the rural villages here in Kenya. One thing has been
firmly cemented in my mind - kids are kids no matter what country you are in.
Hope you enjoyed reading again and you are all well and enjoying the lovely weather I keep hearing
all about:)
Lots of love from Kenya,
Lucy xxx.
Sunday 22 April 2012
Saturday 7 April 2012
Rangala Baby Home
As well as working at the primary school, I am also voluneering at a baby home
about half an hour from home. I'm actaully spending more time with the babies than at school
because in Kenya they like to can school on sport days and any other PD day that arrises.
Rangala Baby Home is a home for abandoned and orphaned children, from 1 day 4 years old.
They have a capacity for about 40 kids, but at the moment I think they have somewhere around
50 kids living there. The children are divided into four rooms..the first being admission,
there are 10 babies in here all unedr the age of 1. In the 2nd room there are another 10
and they are betwwen 1 and 2. When they reach 2.5 to 4 years of age they move up to the
final two rooms, but I've been working mostly with the tiny babies in admission. Each of
the babies have a different story..some of them very sad. Some of the kids ahve been
found dumped by their parents, very sad, one little baby was found in a toilet..another
was found in the garbage. It really angers me because ALL the loacls know about the baby
home and they know that they can just give their baby up there and it will be cared for,
but the choose to dump it somewheer and leave it for dead. Depressing yes, but the
communities are pretty good at reporting babies and the sisters go out and collect them
and bring them home, which is good. I suppose alot of the mums who dump their newborn kids
they ahve no other option..most are from things like rape or from mums that arean't ready
to be mums..they're just kids themselves (like 12 year old girls). Alot of kids are also
orphans..the mum unfortunatley passes away during chid birth or has HIV and is too ill
to look after the kid. Anywho, they all have a story.
I will tell you the story about our newest arrival - Elsie Nicole. Elsie arrived at the baby
home a week and a half ago as a two week old baby. Her mum is HIV positive and has
TB, she is bedridden and very very ill, poor thing. For the first two weeks of her life,
little Elsie was taken care of by her 8o year old grandmother. Her father was MIA. As the
story goes, her granmother was unable to look after her and she was brought to the RBH.
She is the smallest little thing in the world..when I first picked her up I thourght I was
going to cry..which is unusaual as not many things actualy get to me over here..this tiny
little precious bundle of life in my hands. Her legs are slightly bigger then my thumbs,
with her calves being the same size as them. She is super skinny and has a swolen tummy
because of malnutrition (don't think she got a whole lot to eat in her first two weeks).
Anyway, she's doing fine now. We took her for an HIV test the other day and a weigh in, she's
put on weight..she now weighs 1.9kg. To put this in persective..the average aussie baby comes
out at 3.5kg..at 1.9kg, she should be back in the hospital in a warm little bunk putting
on weight..but that is not the reality here. Her ersults wont come back for about a month, but
it's so frustrating because there is no need for her to even have a possibility of contracting
HIV. If the mum had taken the correct drugs during pregnancy and childbirth, she would
be fine. But once again, that is not the reality in Kenya...so many people can't afford
drugs or even if they are free afford to travel to the appropriate location where the drugs
are..sad. Elsie is so gorgeous..when she suckles she looks up at you with these huge gorgeous
eyes..so beautiful. I hope that she will put on some weight soon :). There are lots of
photos of little Elsie on my facebook if you want to see what she looks like!
I mostly work in admission with the babies. There are 11 babies there at the moment. They
each have a metal cot they sleep in, and spend the majority of their time in. Apparently babies are
supposed to sleep for 20 hours a day and should not be overly cuddled..I disagree and take
them outside to play more :) There are 3 tiny babies..Elsie is the smallest..with 2 others
that were both born in Nov/Dec - Martin and Lillian. Lillian worries me because she doesn't
feed ver well and with 10 brothers and sisters competing for feed time, she needs to start
drinking and putting on weight. The other babies - Derrick, Nicholas, Eric, John, JJ
(Joh joseph), Lewis, Joseph and John - are all aged up to a year old. Above their cots
they have DOB/DOA (DOA = date of admission). Some of the abies were admitted at 2 days old,
so sad. Better then not surving though, which is the aternate to the baby home! Each morning
we bath and change the kids, then we feed them, play with them, hange them, put them to bed,
feed them, change, play, feed, sleep, chenge, etc..it's quite repetitive..but good for the
kids. The babies are well looked after and are happy, especialy when they get cuddles.
The home is run my nuns and sisters..I've always wanted to work with sisters..like in the
sound of music..ha that sounds really lame.but it's cool. The sister in charge..Sister
Ester and the second in charge..Sister Bridgette, both wear veils on their heads and
the full outfit. The love the kids. The other sisters wear long work clothes. Most of the sisters are lovely. I have found that when there are white volunteers there (aka myself and another
volunteer I work with) particular sisters seem to go missing for a few hours and leave
everything - meaning the care of 10 babies - up to me..another slightly concering
feature of the baby home.
I get two breaks per day..which usually wittles its way down to one shortened break..but I
don't realy mind, I love the babies, get more cuddles and it's wayyy to hot to drink hot
tea when its 33 degrees and like 85% humidity and worse inside!! All the kids sleep
between 1 and 3pm, which is nice, because all of a sudden the non-stop screaming ceases
and it's really silent. This is until about 2:30 when the kids begin to wake up, scream
and begin to wake everyone else up! The kids in the second room (1-2 year olds) have taught
themselves to rock their beds back and forth, which makes thi horrendous noice of metal
screeching across the floor..which proceeds with the entire 10 kids being woken up and
joining in on the procession of rockers. Funny if your watchignt hem through the glass which
I nrmally do from my baby room, not so funny when you have to deal with the noise haha.My kids
are so gorgeous when they wake up, they're all quiet, smiley and just want to feed and play.
I get TOTALLY filthy when I work there..as you can imagine. I wear an apron, which somewhat
protects me from the vomit, poo, wee, food, bannana, etc haha. The other day I was
feeding little Eric and he was sucking away rapidly..a little too rapidly because when
I was giving him a pat on the back he began projectile vomitting not only what he had
just drunk, but the remains of his lunch (more milk and some smashed avocado)..awesome!
I continously smell like baby!! I sit down for dinner back at home completley exhausted,
afetr bathing and this waft of baby drifts scross you..all you can do is laugh!
So I'm mostly with the littlies, but I'm going to do something for the oler kids because their
day time is pretty miserable. When they have been fed, they spend their day on this outside
concrete area which is caged in, litterally It's uite big but there is not alot to do
their. They have broken most of their toys and the ones they ahve left they literally
pick and up toss around..usually hitting another kid. Lots of them fall over and there are
always a few kids with scratches :( SO..with a bit of money I'm going to re-paint all the
walls, paint some games and pictures on the ground and buy them some balls (as it's hard
to destroy balls!). On the ground I'm going to paint things like hopscotch, ladders,
snakes, rainbows, etc..hit me up with any ideas!! I'm going to paint their gross walls
with lots of different colours and pictures..at least then they will have something to look
at and amuse them for awhile instead of plain, wee infested concrete. Depressing!
Today is easter sunday..which doesn't really seem to be a massive thing here..I thourght
because the people are so religious they would all be home from work and with their families..
nope..buisnesses are fully operational! Funny..anywho me and the other volunteer here are
going to throw the kids some fun for Easter. We are going to have a disco for the kids,
bring speakers and make things like fairy bread and cookies, with cordial..don't think
they would have head any of them before so they will be on one massssive sugar high!!
We are doing this tomorrow..easter mondey, so that should be fun!
Anywho, I have once again tottled on for way too long. Thanks for reading if you're still
here with me. Hope you all have a lovely easter break and enjoy holidays! Miss you all,
lots of love, Lucy xxx.
about half an hour from home. I'm actaully spending more time with the babies than at school
because in Kenya they like to can school on sport days and any other PD day that arrises.
Rangala Baby Home is a home for abandoned and orphaned children, from 1 day 4 years old.
They have a capacity for about 40 kids, but at the moment I think they have somewhere around
50 kids living there. The children are divided into four rooms..the first being admission,
there are 10 babies in here all unedr the age of 1. In the 2nd room there are another 10
and they are betwwen 1 and 2. When they reach 2.5 to 4 years of age they move up to the
final two rooms, but I've been working mostly with the tiny babies in admission. Each of
the babies have a different story..some of them very sad. Some of the kids ahve been
found dumped by their parents, very sad, one little baby was found in a toilet..another
was found in the garbage. It really angers me because ALL the loacls know about the baby
home and they know that they can just give their baby up there and it will be cared for,
but the choose to dump it somewheer and leave it for dead. Depressing yes, but the
communities are pretty good at reporting babies and the sisters go out and collect them
and bring them home, which is good. I suppose alot of the mums who dump their newborn kids
they ahve no other option..most are from things like rape or from mums that arean't ready
to be mums..they're just kids themselves (like 12 year old girls). Alot of kids are also
orphans..the mum unfortunatley passes away during chid birth or has HIV and is too ill
to look after the kid. Anywho, they all have a story.
I will tell you the story about our newest arrival - Elsie Nicole. Elsie arrived at the baby
home a week and a half ago as a two week old baby. Her mum is HIV positive and has
TB, she is bedridden and very very ill, poor thing. For the first two weeks of her life,
little Elsie was taken care of by her 8o year old grandmother. Her father was MIA. As the
story goes, her granmother was unable to look after her and she was brought to the RBH.
She is the smallest little thing in the world..when I first picked her up I thourght I was
going to cry..which is unusaual as not many things actualy get to me over here..this tiny
little precious bundle of life in my hands. Her legs are slightly bigger then my thumbs,
with her calves being the same size as them. She is super skinny and has a swolen tummy
because of malnutrition (don't think she got a whole lot to eat in her first two weeks).
Anyway, she's doing fine now. We took her for an HIV test the other day and a weigh in, she's
put on weight..she now weighs 1.9kg. To put this in persective..the average aussie baby comes
out at 3.5kg..at 1.9kg, she should be back in the hospital in a warm little bunk putting
on weight..but that is not the reality here. Her ersults wont come back for about a month, but
it's so frustrating because there is no need for her to even have a possibility of contracting
HIV. If the mum had taken the correct drugs during pregnancy and childbirth, she would
be fine. But once again, that is not the reality in Kenya...so many people can't afford
drugs or even if they are free afford to travel to the appropriate location where the drugs
are..sad. Elsie is so gorgeous..when she suckles she looks up at you with these huge gorgeous
eyes..so beautiful. I hope that she will put on some weight soon :). There are lots of
photos of little Elsie on my facebook if you want to see what she looks like!
I mostly work in admission with the babies. There are 11 babies there at the moment. They
each have a metal cot they sleep in, and spend the majority of their time in. Apparently babies are
supposed to sleep for 20 hours a day and should not be overly cuddled..I disagree and take
them outside to play more :) There are 3 tiny babies..Elsie is the smallest..with 2 others
that were both born in Nov/Dec - Martin and Lillian. Lillian worries me because she doesn't
feed ver well and with 10 brothers and sisters competing for feed time, she needs to start
drinking and putting on weight. The other babies - Derrick, Nicholas, Eric, John, JJ
(Joh joseph), Lewis, Joseph and John - are all aged up to a year old. Above their cots
they have DOB/DOA (DOA = date of admission). Some of the abies were admitted at 2 days old,
so sad. Better then not surving though, which is the aternate to the baby home! Each morning
we bath and change the kids, then we feed them, play with them, hange them, put them to bed,
feed them, change, play, feed, sleep, chenge, etc..it's quite repetitive..but good for the
kids. The babies are well looked after and are happy, especialy when they get cuddles.
The home is run my nuns and sisters..I've always wanted to work with sisters..like in the
sound of music..ha that sounds really lame.but it's cool. The sister in charge..Sister
Ester and the second in charge..Sister Bridgette, both wear veils on their heads and
the full outfit. The love the kids. The other sisters wear long work clothes. Most of the sisters are lovely. I have found that when there are white volunteers there (aka myself and another
volunteer I work with) particular sisters seem to go missing for a few hours and leave
everything - meaning the care of 10 babies - up to me..another slightly concering
feature of the baby home.
I get two breaks per day..which usually wittles its way down to one shortened break..but I
don't realy mind, I love the babies, get more cuddles and it's wayyy to hot to drink hot
tea when its 33 degrees and like 85% humidity and worse inside!! All the kids sleep
between 1 and 3pm, which is nice, because all of a sudden the non-stop screaming ceases
and it's really silent. This is until about 2:30 when the kids begin to wake up, scream
and begin to wake everyone else up! The kids in the second room (1-2 year olds) have taught
themselves to rock their beds back and forth, which makes thi horrendous noice of metal
screeching across the floor..which proceeds with the entire 10 kids being woken up and
joining in on the procession of rockers. Funny if your watchignt hem through the glass which
I nrmally do from my baby room, not so funny when you have to deal with the noise haha.My kids
are so gorgeous when they wake up, they're all quiet, smiley and just want to feed and play.
I get TOTALLY filthy when I work there..as you can imagine. I wear an apron, which somewhat
protects me from the vomit, poo, wee, food, bannana, etc haha. The other day I was
feeding little Eric and he was sucking away rapidly..a little too rapidly because when
I was giving him a pat on the back he began projectile vomitting not only what he had
just drunk, but the remains of his lunch (more milk and some smashed avocado)..awesome!
I continously smell like baby!! I sit down for dinner back at home completley exhausted,
afetr bathing and this waft of baby drifts scross you..all you can do is laugh!
So I'm mostly with the littlies, but I'm going to do something for the oler kids because their
day time is pretty miserable. When they have been fed, they spend their day on this outside
concrete area which is caged in, litterally It's uite big but there is not alot to do
their. They have broken most of their toys and the ones they ahve left they literally
pick and up toss around..usually hitting another kid. Lots of them fall over and there are
always a few kids with scratches :( SO..with a bit of money I'm going to re-paint all the
walls, paint some games and pictures on the ground and buy them some balls (as it's hard
to destroy balls!). On the ground I'm going to paint things like hopscotch, ladders,
snakes, rainbows, etc..hit me up with any ideas!! I'm going to paint their gross walls
with lots of different colours and pictures..at least then they will have something to look
at and amuse them for awhile instead of plain, wee infested concrete. Depressing!
Today is easter sunday..which doesn't really seem to be a massive thing here..I thourght
because the people are so religious they would all be home from work and with their families..
nope..buisnesses are fully operational! Funny..anywho me and the other volunteer here are
going to throw the kids some fun for Easter. We are going to have a disco for the kids,
bring speakers and make things like fairy bread and cookies, with cordial..don't think
they would have head any of them before so they will be on one massssive sugar high!!
We are doing this tomorrow..easter mondey, so that should be fun!
Anywho, I have once again tottled on for way too long. Thanks for reading if you're still
here with me. Hope you all have a lovely easter break and enjoy holidays! Miss you all,
lots of love, Lucy xxx.
Monday 2 April 2012
School Life
SCHOOL LIFE..one for the teachers…
If kids thought they had something to complain about in Melbourne..they only need to spend a week in a Kenyan school to see how easy they have it. Kids start school at 8am each morning. At 8am the entire school lines up in perfect lines for the morning assembly. The morning assembly includes rants from the teacher in charge..usually about how kids haven’t paid for things or how they don’t have their hair shaved and the consequences associated with not complying with the teachers. After the rants about 12 kids line up and raise the Kenyan flag..it’s actually really cute..they take it so seriously and have a whole routine planned..always saluting everything. They then sing/chant their morning song (ADORABLE) and then say prayers…they do this covering their faces with their hands..oh it is so cute..the big kids are really good and keep their faces hidden but the little ones are always looking around and a bit confused.
After assembly the day begins. The day comprises of 8 classes..the classes are 35 minutes long, with two breaks and lunchtime included. Lunchtime goes for an hour and twenty minutes, such a long time I thought..until I noticed the kids running from the school to get lunch and returning back to school in the nick of time..no canteen lines here! The ages here are slightly different..primary school begins when the kids are 5 (class 1) and runs until they are about 14 (class 8..equivalent to year 8 back home). Although ages are not strictly adhered by, like if they don’t pass their exams, the kids are kept down and have to stay there until they pass so there are different ages in all classes. These 8 classes finish at 3pm. From 3pm until 4pm there is ‘recreational time’..what a joke. If you’re unlucky you’re put on cleaning duty..kids have to sweep and scrub the floors each and every day. If you’re lucky enough not to be on cleaning duty then you’re out doing \recreation’. For the boys, this means running around on rocks kicking a hand-made rubbish ball. They actually love it so that’s great. The girls play elastics (remember that game!!)..although their elastics comprise of either thread they have found on the ground or lots of elastic bands ties together. Elastics are definitely the first thing on my lest to buy! At 4pm school is officially over, although the kids are not allowed to leave..they have to stay until 5:30pm to do homework/study or do extra classes with their teachers. And they have more homework when they get home.
So as you can imagine, by the end of a day at school I’m EXHAUSTED. Lucky me..I’ve normally had a few classes off and get to go home to guaranteed food and water..not so lucky for the village kids..it’s now time to plough the fields and feed and water the stock. Life is tough in Kenya!
The school I’m at is called Mwadi Primary School. It’s a village school located about 1km from the main road that leads from Kisumu (city) to Uganda. Each morning I walk about 20 minutes down the highway and then another 10 minutes through a small pathway to get to school. The pathway is my favorite part of the walk..it’s a red dirt path that twists its way through little communities, red fields of ploughed dirt and countless numbers of crops. There’s always people in the fields working away who stand up and greet me..in either broken engligh or Luo (their native language). It’s funny..I know how to say ‘Hi, how are you, I’m good’..so apart from that if they talk to me in Luo I’m like ahh no I only speak English..haha. The morning walk is different each day..it’s nice and cool in the morning so it’s the only time really when exercise doesn’t kill you because of the heat. The other morning I was walking behind a guy carrying a huge knife that all the locals use to cut crops and stuff with..didn’t make me too nervous as he turned off and every second person carries one around.
The school is extremely under resourced and poor. The kids do have notebooks and pens, but they are so thin and all have warning written across htem like ‘Don’t steal my book..or else I’ll get you’..it’s so funny. I am teaching Science, Maths, English and PE. In each class I have about 50-55 kids..the classrooms are dirty and they sit on these tiny wooded desks that would surely give them knee problems! The cane is also enforced at the school..the other day I saw a little girl getting smacked across the bum..she was jumping and squeeling in pain. I also had a girl some up to me with a giant welt on her arm..it looked like she had fallen down and broken her arm..no..she revealed whilst bawling to me..she was caned by her teacher. Awful teachers..I’ve only seen the men doing this. I spoke to some of the men the other day about it and asked them what gets kids the cane (not doing homework, doing poorly in a test, getting to school late, etc). I found out that the cane is actually illegal in Kenya..after asking why they still do it (and being laughed at by the teachers when I gave them alternated to hitting the kids), they told me (and I quote) “They like being caned. If we do not cane them, their grades will go down and they will riot and burn the school down.” Wow. And kids back home thought detention sucks!!
DESPITE all this..the lack of resources..the horrendous hours..the cane..the horrid teachers..the kids have a passion for education and are infectiously happy. They are so happy to come to school each day and sit in the same spot for 7 hours without food or water (I forgot to mention there is no water there..so they bring it in container from home to share and clean with). Each time I walk into the classroom or through kids, their smiles and laughter remind me of why I came to Kenya in the first place. It’s so funny..at uni we leant about alternate forms of learning..encouraging the kids to think for themselves..etc etc..this is just non existent in Kenya..and after 3 years of not thinking about teaching this way (we do it naturally in Aus), I am forcing the kids to think differently..it’s very interesting. This is where I’m thinking of spending some of the fund raised money..I’ll keep you posted .
Anyway I have once again typed for way too long..hope you enjoyed at least a part of it and I’ll write again soon.
Lucy xxx
If kids thought they had something to complain about in Melbourne..they only need to spend a week in a Kenyan school to see how easy they have it. Kids start school at 8am each morning. At 8am the entire school lines up in perfect lines for the morning assembly. The morning assembly includes rants from the teacher in charge..usually about how kids haven’t paid for things or how they don’t have their hair shaved and the consequences associated with not complying with the teachers. After the rants about 12 kids line up and raise the Kenyan flag..it’s actually really cute..they take it so seriously and have a whole routine planned..always saluting everything. They then sing/chant their morning song (ADORABLE) and then say prayers…they do this covering their faces with their hands..oh it is so cute..the big kids are really good and keep their faces hidden but the little ones are always looking around and a bit confused.
After assembly the day begins. The day comprises of 8 classes..the classes are 35 minutes long, with two breaks and lunchtime included. Lunchtime goes for an hour and twenty minutes, such a long time I thought..until I noticed the kids running from the school to get lunch and returning back to school in the nick of time..no canteen lines here! The ages here are slightly different..primary school begins when the kids are 5 (class 1) and runs until they are about 14 (class 8..equivalent to year 8 back home). Although ages are not strictly adhered by, like if they don’t pass their exams, the kids are kept down and have to stay there until they pass so there are different ages in all classes. These 8 classes finish at 3pm. From 3pm until 4pm there is ‘recreational time’..what a joke. If you’re unlucky you’re put on cleaning duty..kids have to sweep and scrub the floors each and every day. If you’re lucky enough not to be on cleaning duty then you’re out doing \recreation’. For the boys, this means running around on rocks kicking a hand-made rubbish ball. They actually love it so that’s great. The girls play elastics (remember that game!!)..although their elastics comprise of either thread they have found on the ground or lots of elastic bands ties together. Elastics are definitely the first thing on my lest to buy! At 4pm school is officially over, although the kids are not allowed to leave..they have to stay until 5:30pm to do homework/study or do extra classes with their teachers. And they have more homework when they get home.
So as you can imagine, by the end of a day at school I’m EXHAUSTED. Lucky me..I’ve normally had a few classes off and get to go home to guaranteed food and water..not so lucky for the village kids..it’s now time to plough the fields and feed and water the stock. Life is tough in Kenya!
The school I’m at is called Mwadi Primary School. It’s a village school located about 1km from the main road that leads from Kisumu (city) to Uganda. Each morning I walk about 20 minutes down the highway and then another 10 minutes through a small pathway to get to school. The pathway is my favorite part of the walk..it’s a red dirt path that twists its way through little communities, red fields of ploughed dirt and countless numbers of crops. There’s always people in the fields working away who stand up and greet me..in either broken engligh or Luo (their native language). It’s funny..I know how to say ‘Hi, how are you, I’m good’..so apart from that if they talk to me in Luo I’m like ahh no I only speak English..haha. The morning walk is different each day..it’s nice and cool in the morning so it’s the only time really when exercise doesn’t kill you because of the heat. The other morning I was walking behind a guy carrying a huge knife that all the locals use to cut crops and stuff with..didn’t make me too nervous as he turned off and every second person carries one around.
The school is extremely under resourced and poor. The kids do have notebooks and pens, but they are so thin and all have warning written across htem like ‘Don’t steal my book..or else I’ll get you’..it’s so funny. I am teaching Science, Maths, English and PE. In each class I have about 50-55 kids..the classrooms are dirty and they sit on these tiny wooded desks that would surely give them knee problems! The cane is also enforced at the school..the other day I saw a little girl getting smacked across the bum..she was jumping and squeeling in pain. I also had a girl some up to me with a giant welt on her arm..it looked like she had fallen down and broken her arm..no..she revealed whilst bawling to me..she was caned by her teacher. Awful teachers..I’ve only seen the men doing this. I spoke to some of the men the other day about it and asked them what gets kids the cane (not doing homework, doing poorly in a test, getting to school late, etc). I found out that the cane is actually illegal in Kenya..after asking why they still do it (and being laughed at by the teachers when I gave them alternated to hitting the kids), they told me (and I quote) “They like being caned. If we do not cane them, their grades will go down and they will riot and burn the school down.” Wow. And kids back home thought detention sucks!!
DESPITE all this..the lack of resources..the horrendous hours..the cane..the horrid teachers..the kids have a passion for education and are infectiously happy. They are so happy to come to school each day and sit in the same spot for 7 hours without food or water (I forgot to mention there is no water there..so they bring it in container from home to share and clean with). Each time I walk into the classroom or through kids, their smiles and laughter remind me of why I came to Kenya in the first place. It’s so funny..at uni we leant about alternate forms of learning..encouraging the kids to think for themselves..etc etc..this is just non existent in Kenya..and after 3 years of not thinking about teaching this way (we do it naturally in Aus), I am forcing the kids to think differently..it’s very interesting. This is where I’m thinking of spending some of the fund raised money..I’ll keep you posted .
Anyway I have once again typed for way too long..hope you enjoyed at least a part of it and I’ll write again soon.
Lucy xxx
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