Simple Chalkholder

In the States most schools no longer use chalkboards and chalk. Why? It is messy, dusty and seems to cause allergy and breathing problems in both students and teachers. With the prevalence of asthma, schools have switched to white boards that use special markers or use technology such as smart boards or overhead projects to display information to get rid of the health hazard. We don't have that luxury in Kenya. Here it is a common practice to shake hands with a person the first time you see them each day. Often, a fellow teacher doesn't offer his/her hand to shake in the usual way because it is covered with chalk dust. Instead they offer the back of their hand to touch. I have often joked when this happens, "I can tell that you have already been hard at work this morning." One of the items we asked Andrea and Melissa to bring to us last month was a chalkholder. It is a simple tool that holds a piece of chalk. Only a small amount of the chalk is exposed at one time like the lead in a pencil. You hold onto the chalk holder rather than the chalk so that your hands don't become entirely covered with chalk dust. They kindly obliged and brought one for each of us. I've been teaching for a week now. No one has seemed to notice or commented on it until yesterday. One of the Form IV girls asked, "What happens when you run out of chalk?" When I showed them how it works, pushing on the end to move the chalk forward, they were amazed. I showed them how you could remove the chalk and simply insert a new piece which even increased their awe. At that point I had to go around the classroom to show them up close. Isn't it amazing how something so simple that we take for granted and really don't use anymore because it is outdated can cause such a reaction in Kenya.

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.

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.”