Form I Student Selection

Our principal and three teachers have spent the past two days in Eldoret for Form I student selection. When they returned to school today they were ecstatic. Jomo, the Academic HOD said, "We are the hot cake." I had to ask what that meant.

First a little background . . .
When Standard 8 students (8th graders) take the KCPE (Kenya Comprehensive Primary Exam) they indicate three secondary schools they would like to attend. Their scores determine whether they are able to attend one of their choices. The Department of Education looks at this information when assigning students to schools, but in the past their personal choices really had little weight. This year, however, they gave students to their first choice schools if they had a high enough score on the exam. I guess there were even some schools in our area that didn't have any students request them! How embarrassing would that be!

We were given 184 students who scored high enough to qualify for our school and listed us as their first choice. The best news is that their scores are higher than we've ever received before. In the past our KCPE scores were in the 320s to 370s. This year the lowest score to be admitted to St. Monica's is 357. We even have several that scored above 400 out of 500 marks.

In the past there have always been several no shows basically because they don't like the school they were assigned to and want to find a better one. Last year we had over 50 no shows probably because parents didn't want their young daughters to be so far away from home during the election. Since all 184 students requested St. Monica's that means they'll show on the first day unless there is a problem with fees. That means we can start classes with them immediately and have high expectations of them from the very beginning.

"We are the hot cake" means we have arrived; we are the hot item, the hot seller, the popular choice. People are seeking us out and want their daughters to come to our school. It's a reflection of our 2012 KCSE scores. We really can say we are one of the top schools in our area.

You can sense an excitement, a sense of pride in both the girls and staff. Last year’s Form IV was a difficult class with many discipline problems. This year’s Form IVs, are motivated and well behaved students. They are true leaders. We expect even higher scores from this group than in 2012.


Meanwhile, we are waiting for the Form Is to arrive on February 6th.

Christmas in Nigeria

We were able to spend two and a half weeks with Katrina in Nigeria for Christmas. She kept us busy with all kinds of activities: a wedding, ultimate football, cricket, a baby naming ceremony, the psychology department Christmas party, greeting her colleagues, lunch out, shopping, visits to a tailor, Christmas concert, and Christmas services. However, the best part was being able to spend quality time with our daughter.

To see more photos click here.

The Gift of Bread

I just unintentionally gave the monkeys a nice gift. I've been sitting out in the banda reading since I've been home from school. It's only about 12 feet from the back door of the house. I'd seen and heard monkeys in the trees by the fence and had seen that they had even gotten as far as our water tank.

I don't know what made me look over at the house, but I saw a tail of a monkey in the kitchen window! I looked down on the ground and saw that they had gotten the loaf of bread I had left out on the counter from making my lunch. The electricity is currently off and I didn't want to open the fridge door to put it back in yet.

I ran in and found one monkey sitting on the counter. Needless to say, I shooed him out as quickly as possible. I can't believe they were so quiet. I was sitting on the kitchen counter to take these pictures. The monkeys were less than 10 feet away.

Perched on the clothesline

This flower pot is about 4 feet away from the door

Looking up for bread crumbs falling from the back porch roof

There is the last of our bread

On the back porch

In the banda

Sitting at the edge of the kitchen garden about 5 feet away.

At one point one even climbed up to look in the window where I was sitting. We both were surprised!

The song "Ten Little Monkeys jumping on the bed" has a new more personal meaning!

Nakuru National Park

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We spent two relaxing days on safari in Nakuru National Park. (The word safari actually means a journey or trip.) The permanent tented camp that we stayed at was called Flamingo Hills Camp. It was the perfect place for us: a small camp with only 28 tents. Since it was the low tourist season, there were very few people there and we got the deluxe treatment.

Nakuru National Park is most famous for lesser flamingos. At one point in time it was estimated that over 2 million, 1/3 of the world's lesser flamingo population, lived on the lake. Lake Nakuru doesn't have an outlet, so its water level fluctuates. This causes the birds to migrate to other nearby lakes when there isn't enough food in this soda lake. Even today with a greatly reduced flamingo population, it is still an impressive site to see in the distance pink water, water covered with flamingos.

It is a beautiful park with plenty of wildlife. On our two game drives we saw impala, baboons, vervet monkeys, Rothschild's giraffe, both black and white rhinos, waterbuck, cape buffalo, warthogs, jackals, zebra, dik-dik, Thomson's gazelles, malibou storks, and white pelicans.

We'd recommend this park and tent camp to anyone.

If you'd like to see more photos click here.

MKLM Regional Meeting

Once a year the Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kenya have a regional meeting in Nairobi. Kitale is an 8 hour bus ride northwest from Nairobi while Mombasa is 9 hours to the east.



Back row: Judy, Curt, Russ, Susan, John
Middle row: Margaret, Anita, Cindy, Coralis, John
Front row: Rhema, John

Each evening we had entertainment written and produced by the younger members with a little help as extra cast members.

The first day and a half we had a retreat led by the Maryknoll Peace Team Sisters that live in Nairobi based on conversations. It was an outstanding two days spent on spiritual reflections and conversations. All agreed it was probably the best two days of our time in Nairobi.

The Peace Team Sisters are Therea from the US, Sia from Tanzania, and Giang from Vietnam. They work in areas where people are in conflict helping to bring about dialogue and understanding. Currently they are spending quite a bit of time in the Tana River delta where the two tribes are shedding a lot of blood over the issue of land ownership.

The final two days was spent discussing MKLM business. This is the only time of the year where the two MKLM communities are able to get together and spend some quality time. I think everyone enjoys it as much as we do.

Thanksgiving with the Nuncio

It is traditional that the Maryknoll Lay Missioners celebrate Thanksgiving with the Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers and Sisters. Guests are also often invited. Father Lance, who can be quite funny and irreverent, sent an email about two weeks that said the Nuncio would be joining us saying the Mass and for dinner. (A nuncio is an ambassador from the Vatican to foreign countries.) The email told us that he could be a hoot, but we needed to be on our best behaviour and act Catholic. Now, what exactly does a Catholic act like?

The nuncio lives just down the street on the same block as the Maryknoll Fathers. When the Fathers celebrated the centennial of the Maryknoll Society two years ago, the nuncio came, said the Mass and joined for the meal afterwards. At that time the nuncio was from France, a very formal and conservative man. You did need to be on your best behaviour.

Recently an new nuncio from the US had been appointed to Kenya. None of us knew what to expect. It was probably the most memorable Thanksgiving we have ever had.

We first heard this deep booming voice outside the chapel.

As you can see from the photos, he is a large man. In fact, you could say he is larger than life. He had a very nice Mass with humour and laughter telling stories about growing up in New York.

After Mass we had the usual Sundowner at 6:00 that included snacks and drinks. It was a beautiful evening sitting outside with all the guests. Everyone could hear the nuncio's voice laughing and telling story after story during this time and during the dinner. He was thrilled that there was turkey and pumpkin pie!

It has been a nightly activity for Rhema and Bethany, ages 7 and 8, to have a show in the library after dinner. The nuncio wasn't in any hurry to leave and was glad to continue the evening's ambiance.

After the girls' Thanksgiving puppet show, they wanted to play Musical Chairs. The nuncio was an eager participant.

Then the singing of songs began. We haven't laughed so much as a group in a long time. The MK priests and well as all of us couldn't believe how informal and down-to-earth he was.

As he left for the evening, we all joined in singing "So long, fare well, auf Wiedersehen . . ." from The Sound of Music. What an amazing evening.

Maize Harvest

One of the tasks that students at St. Monica's must do after exams are completed is harvest the maize. The school has a shamba (farm) of seven acres where they grow maize to help with food expenses. They hire day labours to do the majority of the work: clearing the fields, planting, hoeing, and cutting the maize and placing it in shocks to dry. However, it the students responsibility to do the actual harvesting: removing the cob from the corn stalks and carrying it to the store (storage shed).