Learning Under a Tree

Celestine Owiti, this is a name I will never forget. Not only for her big heart, kind nature and welcoming spirit, but for her perseverance and and strong will to help others.
Celestine is the principal of Masinde Primary School. The school started 1 year ago in 2012 when it was merely a block of land with a tree and a blackboard.

Celestine Owiti

The story began when Celestine was granted a small amount of money by the government to start a primary school in the struggling town 'Sawagongo'.

The community decided they needed learning facilities closer to home due to the long distance that young children needed to travel for education. A new school was the perfect solution. Many of the children were starting school too late due to the distance which was too far for the younger ones. The kids would have to wait until they were old enough to make the journey on their own. This was setting the children too far back in their schooling and creating big learning problems for them when they started to attend class.

Being a local, studying teaching at university and having aquired many years of experience Mrs Owiti was the perfect woman for the job. To begin with Celestine was forced to hold classes in a local mans backyard, with no facilities and many outside interferences from locals and traffic.

Celestine knew this would simply not work and set out to find land begin what would soon be a 1.3 acre friendly and welcoming learning place for children with a 2 minute walking distance from their homes.
She looked for land by foot, scouting the region for cleared land where she could begin to build a school. Once she found this land she purchased it using the money provided by the government, however the funds granted were not nearly enough to build adequite facilities for learning. Once the land was purchased she would hold 5 classes under the shade of a small tree, shifting positions as the sun direction would change. She utilised one blackboard between all 5 classes by having each class wait for her to finish using the blackboard with the previous class. Once she finished she would wipe down the board and then start all over with the next class. The children were learning in difficult conditions, they had no chairs and had to sit on the grass all day rain or shine. the teachers were given old sheets to sit on.
On one occasion Celestine and her pupils were lucky enough to be accompanied by a snake, which they call 'The Black Mamba'!!!  Needless to say they screamed and quite quickly migrated to the opposite side of the block.

Eventually Celestine was able to source the funds to erect a small tin shed with three classrooms, and four stand over drop toilets (basically just a hole in the ground with a bit of shelter). However, the classrooms had no flooring, just mud which resulted in many of the children becoming infested by jiggers. The rooms had no tables or chairs, they were completely empty.

This is what the pupils use to wash their hands

Pupils at the school

One of the unfinished classrooms

A view of the school

Luckily in June last year a World Youth International volunteer came along to offer her time and services to the School. Her name was Anya and she worked at the school for 3 months. In this time she donated cement floors for two classrooms, tables and chairs, an office / storage room, then used her funds to register the school!! Thats not all though, she also provided a water tank and text books. These small things that we take for granted every day have made a monumental difference for the children at the school. She provided the children with the tools to learn and flourish.

There are so many schools in Kenya that have classrooms and kitchens with mud floors, unfinished classrooms, children without shoes, no text books, no play equipment and not enough teachers. These schools are in dire need of the most simple things and the government will not provide them with the sufficient funds or tools to aquire them. No, the government wont give them what they really need, however they are more than happy to plan on supplying the schools with top of the range laptops!!!! Really??!! Laptops! Most of these schools don't even have the power source to keep computers running, or the security to stop them from being stolen. The government actually took funds away from Celestine's project to fund these computers. They could have given text books, paper, pencils, pens or even provided scholarships for children who cant afford schooling!! They really need to come to the rural areas and see the schools for themselves before they decide what they need, but as a lot of people here would agree, the government just isn't interested, and every decision is a political move. The facts are laptops are more 'sexy' and appealing to the public and will be noticed more then pencils and books. A hand out of laptops will give them more recognition then supplying a school with a chicken coup that would actually sustain the school in the long run and provide income. The schools need funds and tools to become more self sufficient, not fancy laptops they can't even use!

This is me, reading with the children

Celestine is currently still principal of the school and has so many plans to brighten the future for all of her pupils. However there is still so much the school needs and she needs our help!! She is one of the most trustworthy people I have met so far in Kenya and has pure and genuine intentions with these children. She has made the most of everything given to her and has not passed up a single opportunity. She is proactive and passionate about the school and I am so grateful the children are under her care.

This is an image of the kitchen in another school i visited 'Jans school'

This is meant to be the food storage room at Jans School. 

Because of the mud floor and lack of proper shelter,

too much water gets in and makes the maize go rotten

I am racking my brain trying to think of ways these schools can get on their feet and become self sufficient in the future.

Oriti!!!!  Thankyou for reading!!!!!!

Kenyan kids are tough

Let me introduce to you 2 brave brothers; Julius Otieno (8 years old) and Kennedy Omondi (9 years old).  

Julius, Kennedy and their mother are currently living with the boy’s very elderly grandmother. This is because their father is in jail and their mother is too severely brain damaged to look after them. The reason their father is in jail?? It is because he was arrested one night after he had come home and beat both boys over the head with a hammer. The mother has also fallen victim to the father’s violence.

                                         Julius and Kennedy in their school uniform

As a result of the attack, Julius is now epileptic. This means he suffers from seizures that lead to memory loss and permanent brain damage. The severe side effects from the seizures make it extremely hard for Julius to learn at school and hold him back from entering the next grade.

Both boys still have the scares from the attack.

                    

                                             Just a few of the scares from the attack

                      

                                            Just a few of the scares from the attack

The boys both attend Masinde Primary School, which is where I met both of them and their grandmother.  When the grandmother walked in she was using a walking stick. She looked frail and unfit to be taking care of herself, let alone 2 boys and their mother. She visited the school to discuss school fees with the Principal and try to extend her extremely overdue payments.  She owes 130Ksh for each child per month, which is around $1.50 each. The grandmother is simply not able to fund the boy’s education and she has not paid their fees in over 3 terms. She is too old and physically inept to work and earn money. She can’t even afford shoes for herself or the boys, leaving them susceptible to being infected by jiggers (a bug that enters the body through the feet and hands. It eats through the flesh and eventually makes its way to the brain).

Celestine (the principal), quite often has to pay the fees to make sure there is money to pay the teachers, although she is on an extremely basic Kenyan wage herself.

I am unsure what will happen to the boys when they are old enough to attend High School. Not all schools will allow pupils to attend without paying their school fees. Celestine is hoping to one day have a means of income for the school. This is so she can cover school fees and give scholarships to children showing academic excellence.

If these kids want a shot at a healthy life or feed themselves and their families one day, they need an education.

A Different Culture

So, it's Sunday (usually my lazy day) but today I have decided to spend some time with the women and children attending weekend school at the local Resource Centre. The Resource Centre is a non profit organization that focuses on the development, improvement and basic needs of the local community.

I sat in on their classes to see how I could be of any help. I also wanted to learn about the ways in which the Centre is helping the local community. The first lesson I attended was Science where the children's age ranged from about 9 -11 years old. In the short period of time I spent there, I noticed a few things that concerned me. Firstly I noticed that a number of children were head deep in water and were not remotely competent of the task in front of them. They couldn't keep up with the pace of the teacher, understand what he was talking about or even understand what they were writing. I'm 99% sure that the words they were writing on their notepads meant absolutely nothing to them. They were simply just a jumble of letters. However, there were a few students who showed they were much more capable than the others and were in the right room!! The majority of students I spent time with needed to be in a lower grade, learning the basics. They needed to improve on skills like their spelling and learn what the words they were being taught actually meant.

I spoke with Walter (the founder and owner) about my concerns. He agreed 100% that yes, the children desperately needed to be split up into more grades. He also said that there was simply not enough classrooms, facilities or teachers to provide this for these children. In other words; there's not enough funding. Walter finds it to be such a difficult task to find funds for the Centre. He has ongoing development projects that have been implemented by himself or past volunteers and he can't even sustain the majority of them.

To make myself useful I sat with the children who were struggling and tried my best to help them catch up and keep pace with the rest of the class.

A poster I spotted in one of the classrooms

After lunch I thought I would stay a little longer and attend a different class with some of the older pupils. The subject was 'Social Studies.' I was really interested to hear how they were resolving their cultural differences and also see what the children were being taught.
The topics for this lesson were 'Democracy' and 'Human Rights.' The teacher began explaining the meaning of Democracy and the importance of Human Rights. He went quite deeply into the subject and described equality of all people, discrimination and 'freedom of choice.'
On the blackboard he had clearly written "Human Rights - The equality of all people regardless of race, religion, tribe or... GENDER." There was a student that was obviously struggling and was still writing the paragraph of a previous topic. The teacher turned to this student and very abruptly said; "You are too slow, hurry up, you have problem, too slow, C'mon you are a MAN!!!! Not a woman!"
Not only did the teacher embarrass and humiliate the pupil but he also degraded the gender of women ... In a Social Studies class... I think my point is made!

So silly me forgetting to keep my western views to myself blurted out; "are you implying women are not smart?" After my little word vomit, most of the kids just giggled and the teacher shrugged it off.

I discussed this later with a friend and local who explained this was the typical culture and attitude. She said that Kenya's progression regarding cultural beliefs was very slow moving and in every way a 'long term goal.'

If there is one thing I have learnt by now in this Country, it is the importance of education. Education is the long term solution that will bring this Country forward and change Cultural behaviors and tribal conflicts that are currently holding them back.

Kisumu!! Sleepy!! Violent Riots!!!

Kisumu - 29/10/13

Today Fred picked me up from the Kisumu airport and drove me to my accommodation. It was very very basic and both beds had huge mosquito nets "malariiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaa", "malaaaaarrriiiiiaaaaaaaaa" repeated over and over in my head, almost like a really catchy but terrible song. I had not yet taken any Malaria medication but had been advised to swallow a few drops of Eucalyptus oil in the mean time. Well I tried that and nearly punched myself for doing it, I really wish I had just vomited because it was horrendous!!!!!!! Needless to say I took refuge in those mosquito nets fro the entire sty in Kisumu.

When I had finished gagging and asking myself why I necked a bottle of euc oil I decided to have a quick nap. Fred was going to pick me up at lunch time so that was plenty of time to re energise yeah??!! Well lunch time came around and I felt like a zombie loaded up on Codeine and I must have looked like one too because when Fred opened the door he said "Ill give you more sleep shall I?"
So another 2 hours pass and Fred knocks on the door again, I open the door and he says quite confidently "Ok I will just see you tomorrow morning"

Never have I ever slept so much nor appreciated a hard single bed with starchy sheets and stains on the pillows....in my life.

A road somewhere between Yala and Kisumu

The next day a had a massive sleep in and woke up feeling quite meh, but better then the day before.  One of the organisers 'Eliza' was suppose to pick me up at 10am but there was no sign of her. after waiting for an hour Eliza and Molly (another volunteer) knocked on my door. They explained to me that they were an hour late because they ran into a bit of trouble between Yala and Kisumu.

The story went like this.....

On the way from Yala to Kisumu somewhere in between the girls and their taxi driver were caught in  a very violent riot. It was a large group of Uni students outraged by the drop in security levels at their university. Apparently a male student had been beaten to death the night before and a girl raped a week earlier. What I found very strange is how they chose to rally against these 2 horrendous acts of violence. They decided terrorising, screaming, shouting, throwing rocks and threatening to stone people  would help their cause. One of the uni students approached the driver of the girls car and demanded money, he said they would need to pay him 50 shillings or he and a friend would stone them. The driver had no money and after scurrying through her pockets Eliza found 50 shilling and gave it to him. regardless of the bribe another student threw a rock at the car and shattered the back window, spreading glass all through the girls belongings.  The driver did not react as he knew this would outrage them even more and would put his and the girls lives at risk. Once the car was let through they had to drive through residents backyards and gardens to avoid more violence and stone throwing. They had escaped the boys threats with a measly 50 shilling, this is no more then 60 cents AU!!!!!!!

At the end of the day what I could not quite digest was the fact that these kids were protesting against violence by causing more violence....Seems a little contradictory to me!!!!