It has been an interesting week so far in the nursery. Very early Monday morning, Sabina passed away. She was very premature, obvious by her low weight (only 4.4 pounds) and constant coughing due to underdeveloped lungs. It was probably for the best because she always seemed to be struggling, but I was still very sad. Tuesday morning started well. I sat feeding Tavin thinking how well he was eating and how hungry he must have been. Unfortunately for me, all that “good eating” ended up all down the front of me when he began to projectile vomit. Gotta love babies! Today, a family came in to adopt Morgan, another of my favorites because he is always smiley in the mornings. I’m sad he’ll be leaving, but knowing he’ll have a family made me smile this morning. Another family came and took Vicksila as well so we were down two babies this morning.
I have gotten to know a lot of students and staff at Divine Providence this week. I have had multiple good conversations with teachers in the staff room and talked a lot about the American education system, what I like about Kenya, and what I want to do with my life. The teachers have been inviting me to eat lunch with them and always go out of their way to make me feel welcome in the staff room. They ask me to take more bread and tea during the breaks. I now have another group trying to make me constantly eat! I have had a Q and A about myself and America with each of my classes and allowed them to touch my hair, which is always entertaining because they marvel over my muzungu hair. They have taught me some more Kiswahili, although I have to ask them the same thing for a few days to really get it. I really do love walking around and having so many people greet me by name, although with most of the kids I can’t return the favor yet. I went to all school mass this morning (in English!) and I loved seeing how into the songs all of the kids start. The priests, even at St. Joseph’s in town, always start the homily with “God is good”. There’s always a hearty response from the congregation for their all the time response. “All the time, God is good.” I liked being able to observe the students in a slightly different environment.
My host mom Immaculate has been gone to evaluate another school district so it has been just Sarah and I all week. I have loved getting to talk to her more. On Tuesday, her friends Agri and Gabriel came by and I got to know them better. Gabriel is one of 20 kids, from his dad’s 4 wives. That just blew my mind. We walked to the market in the dark joking the whole way. There’s very little light around so I can see why FSD recommended not walking at night. I have also met a lot of Sarah’s friends over the phone. It’s nice to know that I’ll be able to make friends my own age without that much effort. Also, the neighbor boy Bryan who’s 2ish is too cute! He doesn’t really talk, but giggles and smiles all the time. The other day, Sarah and I were sitting having tea after I got back from work and he opened the door, but then hid for the next 10 minutes. He finally came in when I went over but then just looked at me grinning and giggling when I would react in any way. He likes to move between chairs to get attention and finds it hilarious. He has made my day a lot with those smiles and giggles!
I made a tentative work plan that included my nutrition project, a sponsorship program, and a plan to organize their records electronically. I’m still waiting to hear back from the nutritionist, but plan on resuming work on that next week. I’m beginning to look into starting a sponsorship program for the students going to secondary school. Kenya has free primary school (through 8th grade), but students must pay to go to high school. The sisters have expressed the difficulty of paying the fees, making it hard to fund the operation of other parts of the home. If you would be interested in helping please let me know. Finally, I am working on scanning and reorganizing files so that they can be handled electronically. A tech guy who came to work on the computer today mentioned working on an application for it so we’ll see if anything comes of that. For now, I’m just working on making a massive spreadsheet with the critical data on all of the kids.
Random observations I have yet to comment on:
The weather: It rains everyday from about 4-5. It is not nearly as hot as most people would think being just north of the equator. Also, at night there is almost constant lightning that is absolutely beautiful. The stars are also quite striking with so little light around.
Kenyan education: The main thing that really strikes me about education in Kenya is the grading. There is no grade inflation like in the states and the majority of the kids get in the low C range. I have seen lists of all of the student’s grades in the secondary school and there will only be 10 or so kids in the A and B range! I was pretty shocked the first time I saw that. Getting As and Bs is a huge achievement. Students receive no grades for homework, quizzes or participation. Their grades are based solely on their performances on tests which are bought from companies that tailor them to be similar to the KCPE, the major test all students must take at the end of Standard 4, Standard 8, and at the end of primary. These tests completely determine the path you can take in life. If you want to go to university (a least a public, affordable one) you must score at least a B-. There is definitely no sugar coating. If you don’t meet the standards and work hard you absolutely will fail. The information that they are expected to know, especially in science, is very detailed. They will have to know grazing patterns, crop pests, specific parts of the body, disease specifics, plant and animal adaptations and functions, etc. I often can’t answer the questions I see on their science tests. However, mental math barely exists. The expertise of the students in some areas and inabilities in others always surprise me. The other thing that blows me away is how much more motivated the kids are here. I have had one of my math classes tell me to give them more homework! They really want to learn it so they can do well on their tests. Once the next teacher didn’t show up so they asked me to teach them science even though they had a lot of other homework they could have worked on. They want to be taught and to learn.
Hope you’re having a good week!
Kelly
i cant believe you had a baby throw up on you! ps. looking good in the fro :)
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