Flowering Trees in the Dry Season

It is currently the dry season, but there are many flowering trees and shrubs. I don't know the names of most of them, but I thought you might like to see some that I saw on my walk this morning.

Valentine's Day Kenyan Style

Thursday mornings at 7:30 is time for class meetings. It is a chance to once a week discuss issues that arise among the students. I, as class teacher of Form III East, often attend.

When I walked in the door of that classroom I was treated to a visual delight! The room was decorated in red and pink flowers. Almost every single girl had picked red and pink flowers on the compound and used them to decorate for that special day. Some girls had flowers in their hair, others used containers to create vases for their desks while still others had a garland of flowers across the top of their desks. Viola, a girl that sits in the front center row and even used some kind of gold glitter to highlight the edges of her flowers. Don't ask me where she got the gold glitter (someone's make up perhaps, which is forbidden) or how she was able to so delicately spread it on the tips of the petals.

I don't think there was a single bush that still had a bloom left on it. As a teacher, I was given several blooms by the girls. My Form II West sent several for Mr. Korb so he wasn't left out.

Form III Academic Day

Yesterday the Form III parents were invited to school for an Academic Day. The purpose of this special day is to update the parents on the progress of their daughters, explain school policies and expectations and allow parents and teachers to discuss student progress. It's similar to our parent teacher conferences.

When the parents arrived, they first went to the registration table. There they met their daughters and were given a schedule for the day, a checklist of items their daughters were supposed to have, and a copy of the latest exam results for all the Form III students.

They then went into the classrooms for a desk inspection using the checklist of items each student is expected to have.
Any items that were not found, are to be purchased when the girls go home for midterm break in about two weeks. Items included notes starting from Form I in all subjects, copies of past exams that have been corrected, extra assignments done,revision books, ruler, pens, etc.

After 10:00 tea teachers were available to meet with parents. Tables were set up in the grassy area for this purpose. It was in a nice shady part of campus with a cool breeze coming through. Just like conferences in the US, parents traveled from teacher to teacher to discuss their child.

In the afternoon, a general forum was held in the same area. The deputy principal spoke as did the president of PTA, the class teachers, and several other teachers. My job was to give the vote of thanks at the end.

Of course the highlight of the day as far as the girls were concerned was the food their parents brought as well as shopping. The only food girls can keep at school are bread and fruits, but on this day, there parents are allowed to bring in any food that they like. The rule is that the girls must eat all of it that day. Nothing can be saved for another day if it isn't fruit or bread. Many of the girls were thrilled to be able to enjoy chips (french fried) and chapati.

Lunch was then served for parents and daughters. I'm guessing not too many girls ate the school lunch!

Observations since returning to Kenya

My colleagues seem genuinely surprised that I have returned. I know that before we left many of them asked if we would be returning. Even though I assured them that we would be back, they didn’t seem to believe me.

We wanted to see snow while we were in the States so we could take pictures to show our students and fellow teachers. Andrea and Melissa were great and helped us take several. Upon looking at the photos of us dressed warmly and standing in the snow, even John holding a snowball, they asked, “How can people survive there?” Keep in mind, they don’t have any way to heat their homes here. I’m sure they are thinking it must be a cold inside our houses as it is outside.

I was told it wasn’t appropriate to tell someone how many children that you have. Instead you simply say you have many children. How many times I have broken protocol because when I introduce myself I usually tell that I have two daughters!

It is considered indecent to expose your knees and shoulders. One day at school the sleeve of my dress had flipped up so that the top of my arm was exposed. A woman coworker caught my attention and motioned for me to pull down my sleeve so that my upper arm wasn’t exposed.

There is a mama who sells fruit to our girls during lunch time. I understand she had a daughter who attended St. Monica’s. Every day she brings a large basket balanced on her head filled with mangoes or avocados or whatever fruit is in season. Sometimes she hires a bicycle to bring more fruit than she can carry on her head. She is a kind woman and always has a smile and greeting for me. Her English is limited as is my Kiswahili. Even though, we still communicate as well as we can. The other day I asked to buy some avocados from her. She sold me the avocados but then gave me some bananas in addition. She wouldn’t take any more money for them. She exemplifies the generosity of so many Kenyans. They have so little, but are willing to give so much.

I had a Form II student ask to see me earlier this week. I told her she was able to come and see me any time. We scheduled an appointment for the next day during lunch. As we chatted, she revealed that her family wasn’t able to pay school fees for this term. In fact, they haven’t paid all of last year’s fees. When it was time for her to return to school this year, they were only able to scrape together about $3 for her to do her back to school shopping. Of that $3, she had earned almost half of it herself by doing a neighbour’s washing. She had no pocket (spending) money and was out of toilet paper, Vaseline, sanitary pads, and someone had stolen two pair of her socks. She asked if I would help her out and get her those few things. Of course, I did. She was so appreciative.

New Year's Greetings

We just returned from a wonderful visit in the States being able to celebrate the holidays with family. It was also good to reconnect with friends and spend time catching up with the latest that is going on in their lives.

Now it is time to think as much as we can like a Kenyan.

One of the “traditions” in Kenya is sending New Year greetings through text messages on phones. Here is one that I received from one of my coworkers.

May God mark you for glory,
Tick you for honour,
Note you for blessings,
Name you for favour,
push you for wonders
till you fall into plenty of happiness.
Wish you and your family a blessed 2013!

Now that's a New Year's greeting!

St. Monica's Day 2012

Our school is named after St. Monica, our patron saint. Unfortunately the feast day of St. Monica is on August 27th when we're not in school. So we celebrate it in third term before the KCSE exams begin.

Our school is under the patronage of the Catholic Diocese of Kitale. That hasn't always been the case. We used to be known as Kitale Girls. At that point, it was a day school and had a poor reputation. The Board of Governors asked the diocese to take it over to help make improvements both morally and academically. We are currently one of the top three girls schools in the area. St. Monica's Day gives us an opportunity to remind ourselves of our history, successes, achievements and future goals.

Bishop Maurice Crawley is the chairman of the Board of Governors and we can't celebrate without him. He has been welcomed at the gate and escorted to the administration building with singing and dancing.

Of course there are the customary greetings to be exchanged before any meeting or celebration can begin.

Construction on a new classroom was just completed, so the day began with a dedication of the new building. We then moved to a shady area for Mass. This was followed by entertainment, a speech about St. Monica, a history of the school, and recognition for achievements this past year.

The day ended with a football (soccer) game between the teaching staff and students. The girls are proud of the fact that this is the third time they have successfully beat the teachers!

Click here to see more photos.

Maize Harvest

We live in the maize (corn) basket of Kenya. The ground is very fertile and we get plenty of rain. The growing season is now over. People are wanting the rain to stop so the maize can start drying and they can harvest. Currently the fields look like this.

The first step in harvest is to cut the maize and put them in shocks for drying.

After the maize has adequately dried, the cobs are twisted off the corn stalks. Then kernels are removed from the cob and set in the sun to further dry. It's a common sight to see tarps on the ground with the maize spread out. You can see women sitting amid the kernels sorting and cleaning. When it clouds up men put the maize into large sacks or move it to the center of the tarps which are wrapped up to protect it from rain. The men sitting under the porch are in charge of this maize. Can you see the empty bags the maize is stored in on the left hand side of them?

Saturday we drove to a nearby town on a shopping expedition.

This is passion fruit. Andrea calls them snot fruit. That's an apt description of the texture of the fruit inside. It is tasty if you can get over the look and texture.