School life

A bit off-kilter, this was taken by someone who didn't know how to handle a camera. Note the teenage students sitting two to a desk, in an unlit classroom. The students & parents here are pioneers- education is not highly valued in their community, where everyone feels life is complete as long as you have a collection of cows, land to graze them on, and piles of kids of your own. Many of the students want to learn so badly they are finding their own fees through very scarce after-school jobs.
I have no idea what the teachers do in schools when it rains. When I was at this scool, I had to stop my lesson all together. I got all the students (luckily only 25 of them in the whole school- it's public but it's just starting out- <10 students in each class) to come make a semi circle at the front of the class, with me and a section of the chalkboard in the middle. This worked well as the lesson was on ukimwi (HIV/AIDS), a delicate subject here.

One day I noticed almost every child in a class had carried with them a small plastic container. I asked why, and someone said, "oh- to carry water for smearing the classroom." "What the heck does smearing the classroom mean?" I asked innocently, in kiswahili. Here are some students smearing... this creates a solid sheet over the dirt floor, to cut down on dust. The process is done on walls, floors, etc of all buildings a few times a year. The other component of 'smear'? Cow dung. Yummy. At least they are being resourceful!!!