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.
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