Thanksgiving for KCSE Results

Students, as well as schools, live and die by the results of the KCSE (Kenya Comprehensive Secondary Education) exams. All secondary education is focused on it. Those of you that know education in the States know how stressful the state assessments are. That is nothing compared to the KCSE.

School's reputations are totally based on the KCSE results. If the school obtains good results, students want to attend and are willing to pay the school fees. The higher your test scores the better quality students you can attract. The higher your test scores, the higher the fees can be. A student's future is based on how well they do on the KCSE. If you can score a mean grade of B, the Kenyan government will pay your tuition at university. Your major at university is based on the KCSE scores. There is such a thing as a parallel program in which you can attend university, but you must pay all expenses. The majority of Kenyans are not able to afford this. In 2010 the KCSE scores at St. Monica's dropped from the previous year. To put it mildly, this was a disaster. Parents were concerned and upset. Teacher's reputations were on the line. We had many a staff meeting about what changes needed to be made to increase test scores. Several meeting were held with students about what they needed to do to score well.

We had great news when the KCSE score were released in late February. (See the previous blog.) Our scores were the highest they have ever been. We had many alum stop by to congratulate us. Bishop Crawley who is on our Board of Governors stopped by to offer congratulations. He also donated $200 to celebrate with a feast. As he is a busy man we had to wait almost a month until his schedule was free so he could hold a Thanksgiving Mass with us on our feast day. It was indeed a day of celebration. The day started with a Mass celebrated by the Bishop, Fr. Peter (the students' favourite), and Fr. Maurice, our new school chaplain. We had singing, dancing, poetry and drama presentations and ended with a feast. For additional photos click here.

Easter 2012

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. We went to our typical 7:00 am Mass at Immaculate Cathedral. Typically the Bishop Crowley says this Mass. The church was decorated beautifully with yellow bunting and ribbons. You can see the heads of some of John's Weaver Bird students in the foreground of the picture.

We invited Joe and Nancy, our compound neighbours over for brunch after Mass. I tried making my mother's egg casserole. Things just taste different here. It was OK, but we sure missed the Velveeta! However, the fruit salad accompaniment was something we couldn't have had in the States: fresh mango, banana, pineapple, and cashews.

That evening the Maryknoll Lay Missioners gathered at Kathy's house for an Easter feast. We invited several other guests: Terry, an Australian lay missioner, Jacinta, a Dutch lay missioner, and Lilly and her husband, Swedish lay missioners. We had a great evening with plenty of good food, great companions and conversation.

May you all have a blessed Easter season.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is celebrated here with a little more gusto than in the States. There is a real procession of the palms. Of course the weather here is a little more conducive to beginning the ceremony outside at this time of year.

We attended Mass at St. Monica’s yesterday to celebrate Palm Sunday. The girls themselves went out and cut the palms on Saturday for Mass. We gathered on the lower athletic field for the blessing of the palms. Father Maurice, our school chaplain, began the ceremony. After the blessing, palms were distributed to the students. Then we began the procession to the dining hall for Mass.

Mass was the regular Palm Sunday Mass with the reading of the passion of Christ. Just as in the States, many of the girls had taken part of their palm and already made crosses out of them by the end of Mass.