Flat Tyre

It's not at all uncommon to have a puncture (flat tyre) here. We've probably had at least eight in the two years we've been here. The roads are terrible and tyres take a lot of abuse. The last half mile to St. Monica's is unpaved. There is a trash heap beside the road where the entire neighbourhood deposits their trash. At times it covers almost half of the road. Occasionally someone lights it to burn as much as possible. Once or twice a year a road grader comes along and levels it spreading the trash into the road for all to walk and drive over.

Wednesday I needed to dash to town between classes to run a couple of errands. Well, I wasn't able to exactly dash because I had a puncture. Years ago my father was very wise. He wouldn't let us drive by ourselves until we had proved that we could change the tyre. I don't think I've ever had to change one since then but I proved once again that I can do it.

Many of the teachers had gone to a funeral of one of our student's parent so there weren't many male teachers around that afternoon to ask for help. So, I changed it by myself. I got the car jacked up but didn't think I was going to be able to get the lug nuts off. I struggled and after several attempts got them off. (John later said it looked like that tyre hadn't been changed in years.)

By that time, Mr. Okello had gone to the restroom by the parking area. He saw what I was doing and came over to investigate. He had never changed a tyre before and didn't know how to go about doing it but offered to help. After watching for a couple of minutes he helped me jack the car a little higher in order to get the tyre off and then put on the new one. I still did most of the work.

Okello is a humourous man. He'll say something he thinks is funny and just laugh and laugh at his own joke. He was so excited and tickled to learn how to change a tyre he was laughing away. I doubt there has ever been a person who was so excited to change a tyre before!

There were two nails in the tyre that had caused the puncture. I'm guessing they came from the recently leveled trash heap. Okello was thrilled to learn how to change a tyre and I appreciated the help.

Fruit from our Compound

One of the benefits of living in Kenya is all the fresh produce. We are able to enjoy plenty of fruits and vegetables as they come available in season. I'm assuming because they are able to ripen on the plants rather than being picked early and shipped to the market, foods are so much sweeter than you would find in the States. Sunday night our supper consisted of mango shakes made out of yogurt I semi-froze mixed with plenty of mango. It rated right up there with Juice Stop!

When we got home from school earlier this week, Nicholas, our day guard, informed us that we had some bananas ready to be cut. We didn't even realize there was a producing banana tree on the compound. He cut the bunch off and they will be ready in eat in a couple of days. They are the small variety, only about four inches in length, but they are the really sweet kind.

Right outside our living room window is an avocado tree. We love being able to eat its fruits about every six months. It won't be long before we'll have plenty to share. Yum!

KCSE Results

KCSE Results

Form IV students (seniors) take an exam called the Kenya Comprehensive Secondary Exam in November at the end of their secondary education. Students are tested in each of the eight subjects they have taken. Each subject has three exams, so it takes three weeks to take the exams with two exams per day. This exam is much more important than the ACT or SAT. Students who score a B mean grade are admitted to university. Their score also determines what their major will be once they get to university.

Trained teachers spend the month of December marking the exams at a central location. During the months of January and February results are sent to the universities for admission, and there is an analysis of results to rank and evaluate secondary schools. Parents want their children to go to schools with the best scores possible. The more successful the school, the more likely it will be that their child will be able to attend university. Results of the KCSE are then released to the public in late February.

Wednesday was the big day. As this was John and my second time to experience this announcement, we were a little better prepared to understand and appreciate the significance.

At 10:00 on national television the Permanent Secretary of Education began his speech. It was broadcast live. I’m sure all schools with televisions in the staff room were tuned in. We sure were! This speech lasted about two hours giving the top 100 schools in the country,the top 10 boys and girls and a few other “brief” remarks about education in general.

About noon telephone lines were opened up to allow people to find out results of individual students. People were able to SMS (text) the student’s testing number and then a return SMS would then be sent with the information.

As you can see from the photos, all eyes were on the television during the speech listening for the top schools. As the day progressed, teachers had rosters of last year’s students they were filling in as the SMSs came in with scores. Last year we were disappointed with our results as they had dropped from the previous year. The reputation of our school was on the line and we needed to improve.

I’m afraid that I didn’t stay around all day to see how St. Monica’s did. As I haven’t had any Form IV students until this year, I didn’t have a vested interest in the results. I’m happy to report that our school did well and obtained the best scores ever in our history. After students finished taking exams Wednesday afternoon, they took to the streets to celebrate. I wish I had been there for that. I did hear them while I was at home that afternoon. I’m guessing that they were about half a mile away, so you can guess how enthusiastic they were.

The following morning Bishop Crawley came by to congratulate the girls. He is giving money for us to feast to celebrate the results. Our day of celebration will be on March 10th when the girls return from half-term break. One of my fellow teachers told me, “You need to sharpen your teeth for the feast. There will be much meat.” Another said, “Many goats will lose their lives for our benefit! We will eat well on that day.”