Albert's school

Mike and I were invited by a man I had gotten to know through one of my church visits to visit his school. This year he became the principal of a primary school in Mitume, one of the poorer areas of Kitale. We were asked to speak to the children as part of their Christian Religious Education class, which ended up being a few hundred students form grade 4 to 8. They were so attentive, it was really great. They almost died of shock and laughter when Mike sat down and I started talking to them in Swahili. ha ha ha.

We talked about the story in the book of Daniel in the Bible where three men stood for what they believed in and stood up to peer pressure because they didn't believe what everyone else was doing was right, even though it meant that they would be burned alive. In the end of the story, God saved the men who weren't killed, or even burned, and they got promoted to some high government posts. It was meant to encourage the students to stand up for what they know is right, even in the midst of unspeakable adversary.

Considering what kinds of things these kids are faced with each day just to meet the basic needs to survive, it was quite a humbling experience to talk to them about this topic. It was not unusual for kids to drop out of grade two or three to earn a few shillings a day hauling water for a shop keeper to help their over-burdened parents. There was an unusually high number of single mothers of children in this school, as well as a large number of internally displaced people, refugees from their hometowns during the recent violence (the school grew from 600 to 800 students within a month). We were told the fastest and most reliable ways to make money as a single woman in this area were prostitution and beer brewing, so likely many of the mothers and older former and current students would be employed this way.
The outside of this new building block looks very nice. It was paid for in part by a visiting group of Americans. Each door leads to a classroom, and the last one leads to a staff room.

The grade eight class. This class had the fewest number of students in it. Really, a miracle that they made it this far, by the way Albert was talking about the challenges they face as soon as they leave the school grounds! We tried to encourage them that they were doing a really great thing by staying in school and congratulated them for coming this far, and wished them good luck for their exams.
Grade six class. Mike wanted pictures of the kids in their classes, so we went to each class and taught them some French, so that they would know Mzungus spoke more than one language. When asked, most kids would just say 'Mzungus speak kiMzungu' ('white people speak the white people language'). These kids loved to laugh. It was really fun to visit them all.
Grade four class with kids (above) and without (below). These kids thought more creatively. When asked what words they wanted to learn in French, instead of saying hello/ how are you/ good bye like the other classes, they wanted to know 'learn' 'write' and 'read'. Cool. I congratulated them for thinking outside the box. I don't see that encouraged very much here.

This is the remedial class for grade 1-3. Most grade 1-3 were sent home at lunch time, but these ones needed extra help. And extra desks. And chairs wouldn't hurt either. To be fair, this class is just under construction as their previous one had been washed away by a mudslide from a big storm. I wished I could have spent more time at the school. I really love kids a lot, and given the workloads of teachers, it wouldn't hurt to have extra adults around to smile and talk with.