So, I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in such a long time!!!
A lot has happened: I went into the bush and saw a lot of really awesome animals, I went to a local celebration called African Child’s Day, I’ve started teaching at my school, I moved into a home and I’m living with a family, and so much more. So I’m just going to talk about some highlights of the past few weeks. And from now on I will be updating more often!
First: the African Child’s Day. A few weeks ago we went to this international celebration of African children, which highlights the problems they face. Rosina did a lot to plan the celebration in this district, and luckily Global Roots was able to help out by chipping in some money for the fuel to get all the children together from their many schools and buy milk and bread for all of the children who came. The day consisted of many presentations by the schools that attended. These presentations included poems, songs, traditional dances, speeches and skits; about half and half of the presentations were in English and the others were in Swahili.
It was so inspirational to see these students get up in front on over a thousand people, and with loads of confidence, talk about the injustices that they face and how they will stand for it no longer. They spoke of issues such as HIV/AIDS, incest, early marriage, child labor, the right to an education, abuse and gender discrimination against women and girls.
One girl in particular left a deep impression on me. Her name was Betty, and she was about 12 years old, and was one of Rosina’s orphans. Both of parents died due to HIV/AIDS, but because of Rosina’s program she and her caregivers are able to receive support in the form of new school uniforms, and occasional monetary support for other school fees and food. Betty was one of the strongest, most confident 12-year-old girls I have ever met. She was the honored child that day and performed two speeches that nearly made me cry. The vocabulary she used and the topics that she addressed were so beyond her age, but seemed so natural to her. I dearly hope that she is able to continue with her schooling, because I see this young girl going very far in life, despite the cards she was dealt.
Next: teaching at Mtito Andei Primary School! So the past two weeks I’ve started working at the school; in the first week I just observed classes, and the next week I started teaching. I teach two classes: Standard 6 and Standard 7 English. I will try to paint a picture of the school and my classes: The ages of the students are fairly independent of the grade because of the way the Kenyan school system is set up. This is because at the end of each grade students take a test, and they must get above a certain score to move on to the next standard. So my two classes are composed of about 45 students each, from about 11 years old to 15 years old. The school consists of a few small buildings and one large L-shaped building that house the classrooms. Inside of a classroom, depending on the grade, there are about 35-55 students. The classrooms consist of a cement room, with a tin roof, and cracks in the ceilings and walls. There are windows with bars and no glass, and sometimes there are doors, but most of the time the doors have been ripped off their hinges. There are probably about ten to twelve wooden, broken down, desks in each class, and about three or four students to one desk. The books are kept in the staff room, and before each lesson a student runs down to get the box of books. If you’re lucky, the class can have about eight very old, very torn, books, but usually there are about six or more students crowding around one book. In my Standard 6 class right now, we can’t find the books, so there are none. There is a blackboard painted onto one of the walls, where I do most of the teaching; especially in the Standard 6 class, I do a lot of writing on the blackboard.
I remember the classrooms and schools in the states and it is a stark difference. I think of schools in the states where every classroom has a smart board and multiple computers, and the injustice of it all really hits me.
But sadly, that is only one very minor form of the unfairness that children here face.
In the house I am living in now, I live with a woman named Alice and her son Abel. They run a pretty big bakery business, and because of this Abel works nights and Alice works days. Abel told me about one early morning recently when he was about to go to bed. He went outside for a smoke, and saw about three children picking through the burning trash that litters the side of the road for food. He went inside and got them a few loaves of bread, and when he approached them they ran away because they thought he was going to yell at them and beat them. The next day he was able to give them the bread, and he asked them why they weren’t getting ready for school, and they didn’t answer him.
Most likely, even though Kenyan primary school is compulsory and “free” (I say “free” because there are still fees involved for books and uniforms), these children do not go to school. In a lot of cases, children do not go to school because their parents can’t afford the very nominal fees, or the parents put their children to work to support the family. In fact, at Mtito Andei Primary the ratio of boys to girl is about 3 to 2. This is because some families think that educating girls is not worth it, and/or because the girls are required to stay at home to do the housework and take care of their younger siblings.
Kenya is a beautiful country, rich in natural resources and amazing people. But sadly, in a lot of ways it has been robbed and taken advantage of, and is now very behind and has a long way to go. A lot of the times the problems here seem insurmountable, but all we can do is continue to try. When I was talking with my mother about all of this, she reminded me of something Mother Theresa once said: “We cannot do great things, only small things with great love.” And that is what I strive to do everyday.
If you would like to help, we can always use more books, clothes, medicines, used electronics, and more. Kenyan people are very resourceful, and if you have something you’d like to donate, I’ll bet we can find a use for it. Email me at etk@bu.edu if you are interested in mailing something.
