Students will be picking us up from Mary’s every morning & we
met our handsome guides, Joseph & Nicholas today. We got to the school & jumped right into
teaching. I taught 7th &
8th graders about the environment and couldn’t believe how smart
they are! They knew nearly everything
I’d prepared! But they all participated
really well and were a great class, helping to ease my fear. I had a phy ed class with 2nd – 6th
graders & it was so much fun!! Then
we had two women’s health classes which also went really well. Believe it or not everyone….I had a blast! The children are so grateful, loving &
happy as any I’ve ever seen.
Just for a little background, there are private & government
schools in Kenya....and there are also thousands of families that can't afford
to send their children to either. So for those kids, if they're lucky,
they have the opportunity & proximity to be able to attend a community
school like St. Frank. The school is free to attend, the teachers there
work for no salary. They are only able to stay afloat by donations that
they receive from people and that is barely enough to provide
supplies for the students. Despite that, they are full of joy, laughter
and generosity. Pretty incredible.
We made a $75 donation today (Many thanks to Mama & Papa Haas for
the donation money) & Joseph immediately went to the market & bought
supplies for the school. It was enough to provide one booklet &
one pen or pencil for each student in the school, as well as chalk for the
teachers. They were so thankful that
they had paper again to be able to take notes in class.
We talked with the girls about healthy relationships &
respecting themselves. At the end of
each discussion we asked for questions and welcomed them to write down any
questions that were personal and we would go talk to them privately later in
the day. They had a few general
questions but had a couple of tough questions right off the bat. Ann wanted to know what she should do if her
boyfriend wanted to have sex, what would happen if they didn’t have a condom,
would she get pregnant, etc. Consolata
wanted to talk about her relationship with her Dad….they fought a lot, he
didn’t support her going to school, and he sometimes beat her &/or her Mom
for various reasons. Wow. I’m not the most emotional person, but it
took everything I had not to break down hearing these personal stories. They were crying out for help & willing
to share it with perfect strangers in order to get some. We talked through it all, did our best to
provide support, promised to continue to work with them on these things, &
they were thankful that we were there to discuss it with them. In the second class (same group) when we
asked for questions, tons of girls were writing things down. We were thinking Oh Crap, I’m not sure we’re
ready for this. When we opened them up
they were all notes just saying thank you, please stay and work with us, it’s
God’s work you’re doing, and it means so much because many girls wouldn’t know
this information if we weren’t here to teach them. It was one of the most powerful moments of my
life and one that I’ll never forget. It
was a really great ending to an amazing day, and I’m super excited to come back
again.
Joseph walked us home after work (He of course was going to head
back to finish his typical 13 hour (unpaid) day running the school). On the way home he asked if we wanted to see
his house because he lives just down the street from us. We walked in to an 8X8 foot room that he
shared with the four siblings that he cares for. There is one bed, two tiny couches, an extra
sleeping pad they put on the floor & a sheet covering the door
opening. There was a pit in back that
the community used as a bathroom and a pot they could put coal in to cook
on. That was it. And he couldn’t have been more proud that he
was able to support his family with this home.
The county supplied drinking water to them…sometimes. He said it was dropped off for the community
to share, every 2 weeks if they were able to bring it. If they didn’t get it they would have to buy
it & it was very expensive. When we
asked how much, he said 50 schillings for
5 gallons. 50 schillings is
around 75 cents. We thanked him for
showing us his lovely home & walked home a little bit in awe.
I’m sure on some level this is helping you to understand my
culture shock…..but I promise you it does no form of justice to the level of
poverty & need that there is in parts of Kenya. That said, I’m already finding Kenya to be an
incredible place and am back to being grateful for this opportunity and looking
forward for what is to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment