Friday, February 26.2016

Sorry for the delay, but we're in Kenya.  Although the modem that I purchased worked perfectly in Kisumu, it's horrible here. The wifi that they have available at the camp reception is spotty, at best.  I've been wasting time trying to include pictures, but there's just no time to load with the poor internet connections.  I think the pictures are important, but they're just going to have to wait.  Here are my words... photos to follow...

We’re taking a drive to Kakamega today to look at an primary (elementary) school that is in need of some assistance.  I haven’t been given any information besides that, though, so we’ll have to do an investigation while we’re there.  Our friend Noelle Shinali is meeting us en route to ensure that we find the school without getting lost. We had some visitors at breakfast, though.  This monster spider came down from the ceiling, then we saw some nasty wasps that Job told us to avoid at all costs.  He then added that if we get bitten by one, the remedy is to, “pour the urine of an old lady on the bite.”  Note to self: avoid the wasps at all cost.  Then we saw more angry bees outside!  It was a day full of critters!

First, though we’re going to Agulu Primary School.  It’s become one of my favorite spots in Nyanza.  The teachers are wonderful and the children are even better.  The headmistress showed me a trophy that she won for being the Most Child Friendly School in the district, and it shows!  We talked with the staff for a while before touring the grounds and speaking to the students in their new classrooms.  It was wonderful.  The classrooms were immaculate with no broken window-panes!  The children were respectful, polite and engaging.  We walked around a bit and talked to some of the children playing in the courtyard.  There was a young boy sitting alone on the veranda in front of the ECD building.  He was clearly sick... runny nose, bloodshot eyes; the poor boy just looked so sad.  I sat down next to him and place my head on top of his head and spoke softly in his ear telling him how beautiful his school was and how smart he and his friends were.  He remained expressionless as I continued.  Although I've been to the school many times, some of the students are still a bit uneasy around white skin.  I continued on to other students playing with them, saying "Gota" (go-tah) and giving fist pumps.  "Gota" means "hit," so in essence, we're telling them to give me a fist bump.  It's a got it's own little twist, though, because the larger the child, the harder the "bump."  I would pretend that they hit would hurt me because they were so strong, and that would usually cause them all to laugh out loud and point at me.  That's always a show stopper.  We returned to the main office where I was given a present – a large quantity of a very ornate material with traditional Kenyan design.  It was so that I could have a shirt made for me, and a dress for Andrea.  “Break out the sewing machine, honey!”   Oh, I almost forgot! John taught them how to play thumb war.  You should have seen it; it was awesome.  They were saying, “One, two, three, four, I declayah ah thumb war!”  Seconds later, there was a winner and a loser… and much laughter from the participants and the onlookers.  John was calling me the pied piper after I finished juggling for the children, but he had a bigger crowd listening to his instructions intently, and cheering with laughter when it was over.  They send their well wishes to my family and our donors, and then we were on our way to Kakamega.

Before starting the long journey, we thought we save time and stop at the equator since we were driving by.  This marking for the equator used to be a large monument erected by the Lions Club of of Kisumu. Now, however, there’s a restaurant, a car wash, and a couple of guys that show you how the water on one side of the equator flows down a drain counter clockwise, while it flows clockwise on the other.  We snapped some pictures and went back to driving.

We drove for an hour with intermittent phone calls from Noelle letting us know where she was and where we’d meet her.  We pulled off to the side of the road to check for directions before moving further.  Job went in to a store to grab some cold waters while John and I dealt with a drunk looking for money.  We tried to carry on a conversation with him, but he didn’t speak English.  Much of his dialogue was relegated to, “I’m hungry,” “Whiskey,” “America,” “Whiskey,” “Whiskey,” “I need work,” “Whiskey.” That went on for about 5 minutes before Job emerged and we continued on.  We drove for another 15 minutes to the spot where we to find Noelle.  We did not find Noelle.  We tried calling, but she wasn’t answering.  By the 5^th attempt we were getting frustrated, then we learned why she wasn’t answering the phone; she drove right past us on a motorcycle – never even pumped the brakes.  We pulled out of the lot we were in and began the chase, honking our horn as we got closer.  We finally caught up to her and jammed her into the back seat with John and Job.  Kenyans are used to tight quarters, especially when it comes to mass transit, so although I’m sure she was comfortable, I’m not so sure John would say the same.  Even if it upset him he wouldn’t say anything.  He’s pretty open to just about anything and has been an absolute joy to travel with… we’ve been laughing a lot.

We finally made it to the school, and much like when we first came to Mbaka Oromo, the students were very apprehensive.  The more rural the school, the greater the likelihood that they haven’t seen white people.  Such was the case here.

The grounds were owned by the church, which also served as an office for the teachers.  They are currently only teaching through form 7 (7^th grade).  They have 4 classrooms that are in good shape, and 3 that are absolutely horrible.  They were given land about 100 yards away where the government constructed 3 much larger classrooms, although one of them was being used as an office for the headmaster.  Actually, things didn’t feel quite right.  Why weren’t the new classrooms being utilized?  Why were they building latrines near the classrooms that weren’t utilized? If 300 students were registered, why did we only see about 50?  Why was the headmaster’s office 100 yards away from the vast majority of students?  Why wasn’t there much teaching going on?   Why couldn’t the headmaster provide me with test scores for the enrolled students?  There were way too many questions left unanswered.  Unfortunately, that’s the way it goes sometimes.  We’re not going to spend money just because we have it.  It doesn’t work that way.  The foundation for our work is finding very high performing schools in deplorable, unsafe conditions.  We also require the community to participate, and this schools participation rate is below 20%.  I’m not sure this one fits the bill.  John gave some unsolicited comments later in the evening, and they did nothing but support my position.

Everyone got back into the car and we dropped Noelle off closer to her home.  We talked about the pad project en route.  This will require some more investigation, but it would appear that they’ve hit a snag regarding materials.  Wicking cloth is just not available, yet that’s what works best.  I told her I’d be talking to her within a week to get more information and resolve any issues.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to Maseno.  I’m writing this on Sunday, and to be honest, I have no idea what happened next.  I think we ate dinner at the Peacock but I’m not 100% sure.  I know I was falling asleep on the way home because I woke up when Job and John tried to take my picture.  At this point, let’s just move on to Saturday.