2 Schools, 2 Very Different Problems

 

On Friday, away from our usual placement work, we visited a school with a lady, Anne, whom we had met 2 weeks prior and had suggested we accompany her to see the state of the school which she trying to help.

When we arrived at Msisinenyi Primary School we saw a small building and adjacent to it another building made out of mud and other recycled old materials. We were greeted by children playing outside and going through scout-like exercises.

The school has kinder garden classes 1 to 3 and primary school from class 1 to 4. However the environment in which they are learning was quite shocking, particularly the class 4 ‘room’.

In the main building there were two classrooms, however within each there were three different learning levels. The rooms were divided into three, where class 1, 2 and 3 would all learn together. The room was partitioned using iron sheets and the students would be taught altogether sharing the same black board, tables and learning environment.

Then there was the class 4 room. The parents of the children had got together to make this area so that their children could progress from class 3, but the state of it was terrible and an imaginable space for pupils to learn in. Despite this, the class 4 students were recently awarded as the best performing class in the district.

Further,  good news is that the school recently got funding from the county government to build three new classrooms, where the children can have a much better learning environment.

Then yesterday we visited another school, however this one suffers from an entirely different problem; WILD ANIMALS.

Imagine waking up every morning and having to go school with the chance a buffalo or an elephant had crossed your path on the walk to school or when you arrived there was the danger of the same wild animals.

To an outsider this might sound like a pretty great experience, but this dangerous problem puts these pupils and staff at risk. Anne once told me a story when a young boy was walking home from school, when he encountered an elephant. The elephant, feeling threatened came towards the boy, and as it charged he threw his bag to distract the elephant and ran behind the elephant and waited behind a bush. He spent the whole night there because of the threat of the wild animal.

The problem also means that the school does not run a normal school day and instead they have to send the children home earlier to reduce the risks.

There is also a watchman who keeps sight of any animals nearby and before the school day he must ring a bell at 6 am to let the nearby homesteads and people know that he is still there and there are no animals. However, if he doesn’t ring the bell then they know there’s trouble.

Visiting these schools highlights some of the problems that are faced by schools and barriers to education for many young children in the area.

 

 

Jambo Bana, Taita Taveta!

A hotel with no WiFi and having no Kenyan Sim card has deprived us of communication with the outside world… but finally after 2 days we finally have use of our phones! But the view from our hotel in Wundanyi has more than made up for that…

After a surprisingly pleasant 7 hour minibus journey, travelling from Nairobi to our destination, we got to our hotel where we were greeted with the most beautiful view! 😍

We found our rooms, I am sharing a nice little 3 people apartment with  2 Kenyan volunteers- Eddie Bana and Geoffrey Bana, and then spent the night together. Before going bed I had a really awesome chat with my roommates who have really opened my eyes as to some of the problems facing the youth in Kenya and the reasons why.

One of the reasons Eddie spoke about was corruption and he used a really interesting analogy as to why there is corruption… he compared corruption to  a swimming pool: A swimming pool has to have an inlet and an outlet in order to keep the water clean and fresh otherwise it gets dirty and contaminated, the same is with politics- except people want to get in, but when they are in they can’t/ don’t want to get out (greed, selfishness, money etc)… creating a bad environment. The problem here is that Politics and politicians can have damaging consequences for those it/they control when it becomes contaminated, all for greed and money.

We got up fairly early for breakfast ahead of an 8.30 start, Mandazi for breakfast is the best! The day has included some more training, and with talks such as about Sustainable development goals, and we found a lot more about our placements.

Towards the end of the night, we tried to learn and practice some Swahili with our Kenyan counterparts. My grandparents, who are from Uganda, have said that when I go back we will only speak in Swahili!

Tomorrow we will be leaving hotel life and moving in with our host families, which I’m really excited for and start our placements on Wednesday, but for now…
Lala Salaama!
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Hussein