Home Again, Kasigau Schools, & How You Can Help

HOME AGAIN

Now we have been home in Bellingham for a week and are over jet lag and slowly re-entering our lives and work here. I'm still dreaming of Kenya every night and wake up thinking of the life and people there. There is certainly something about the simple life style of Kasigau that agrees with me. I was telling my mother last night that never once did I miss the TV or any of the usual food, pasttimes, or conveniences. It's hot there so cool showers and open air buildings are just fine. Eating pretty much the same food every day was also just fine. Maybe the visual and social aspects of life in Kasigau are so rich that it is easy to settle in and just coast from day to day. And there is a deep connection to the land and the place. The colorful flowers and unfamiliar variety of plants and trees, the ever present mountain making its own weather in the background, and just knowing that there are such wonderful animals so close out in the bush (of which a small herd of elephants charged Ken & the students, resulting in the demise of our little car - I'll let him tell that story).

KASIGAU PRIMARY SCHOOLS

I wanted to write a bit more about the schools where we worked, because that was the main purpose of the trip. Each of the five villages has a primary school that includes grades 1-8, and a preschool with two classes on each campus. There is one class and one teacher at each grade level, no matter how many students are enrolled. The largest class we saw was a class 1 with 61 students!

Students are required to wear uniforms, and each school has their own colors. There is a complex system of handing down uniforms within and between families, because they constitute an additional expense. As a result, uniforms are in various states of repair/disrepair depending on how many older siblings a student has, and sometimes girls can be seen wearing shorts instead of the usual skirts/jumpers. And sometimes students are attending schools in Kasigau without uniforms, although this is technically not allowed.

There is a critical shortage of teachers in Kenya in the government supported primary schools, and seldom was the day we were at a school when all teachers were present. Headmasters (principals) are also teachers full time, and there is no system of substitute teachers in Kasigau. When teachers are absent, other teachers cover the class for short periods, but mostly the students sit in the classroom and copy work off the board, read from texts that they share two or three to a book, and help one another. Attendance is good even when teachers are absent because schools always provide a corn porridge lunch.

There are a number of new school buildings in Kasigau of late, including libraries, but still a shortage of basic school supplies, text books, and teaching aids. Our interns made everything they used to teach, and the boys in the photo here are sharpening pencils with double-edged razor blades. There is electricity in three of the five towns, but schools are being wired classroom by classroom starting with upper primary grades. In the vast majority of classrooms, teaching and learning is accomplished without benefit of electricity, and dominated by teacher questions and choral response. The students who have the answers lead the response and it is often difficult to tell who is not getting the content being covered. All instruction except Swahili language is in English, so everyone is teaching and learning in their third language. There are no special education services, and little capacity for individualized attention or remediation if students are struggling. In a very few days, our 6 interns taught new skills to those students at each grade level who were performing lowest in math, reading & writing English, and showed impressive gains in end of term exam scores. Most students with more significant cognitive delays or hearing/vision loss stop going to school, although we did meet teachers who were studying special education topics, mainly emotional disturbance (which struck us as odd since we saw very few instances of even mild misbehavior).

In Kasigau there are many barriers to quality education, but attendance is valued by parents and teachers alike. Schools seem to be the central location for community initiatives related to health, sports, arts, and conservation, as well as academics. One current project sponored by donors in Kasigau schools is to provide porridge and shoes for all the preschoolers so they can begin school with full tummies and without contacting the many parasites that live in the ground.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Our host Abs (right in the photo below) has a goal that students from each village in Kasigau will go forward into secondary school, and on to university. He works tirelessly with coordinators in each school to manage a number of separate projects, including the shoes and porridge, incentives for high scores on term exams, sports events, and high school sponsorships. If you have read this far on the page you won't be surprised to find that I'm ending with an appeal for financial support. Anyone willing to contribute can tell me where you would like your donation to go, and I'll make sure it gets there. Even a one time donation of $5 will provide pencils and sharpeners for the early primary students, or pens for teachers, or incentives for IMPROVEMENT in exam scores (as opposed to highest scores). Larger amounts will be combined to support our three young men to continue at university to become doctors & engineers, or to support new secondary school students, or to provide additional training for teachers, or to wire classrooms for electricity, or sponsor a system of substitute teachers. The need is great and the opportunity equally great for small amounts of funds to go a very long way toward changing lives and building a more sustainable educational system in Kasigau.

Thanks from Kris & Ken, shown here en route to supervising interns in Kasigau.

LEAVING KASIGAU

We left Kasigau on 31 July with many people giving us gifts and "a push" (seeing us off), after a couple days of good-byes all around. It is difficult to leave knowing it will be a long time before we return to see the new babies now on the way, young children growing up and starting school, school children finishing primary school, secondary students graduating, and our adult friends moving forward with their lives. The interns we took to Kasigau have become well-know and well-loved throughout the villages, and known as the teachers who have improved performance for many children in primary schools. In the photo here are Amy, Madeline, Chanda, and Molly on our last evening in Bungule, at Stanley the community librarian's house for tea.

Our little Rav 4 had become well-known as the "Bungule ambulance" because there are still very few cars on the roads in Kasigau and we always had a full load of passengers who were mostly on their way to the health clinic in Rukanga, 8 km away. We met a lot of people and made some good friends in the car, from newborn babies to grandparents. This was very welcome for me because I was reluctant to leave off walking everywhere for fear of missing out on the social aspects of going around Kasigau on foot and greeting everyone. Kenyan driving is on the left side of the road, which meant I only drove on the Kasigau roads where there was no traffic beyond cattle & cattle carts & bicycles.

LAMU
After leaving Kasigau we spent a week in Lamu on the north coast of Kenya, along the Indian Ocean. It is a beautiful seafaring town of about 18,000 people and 4,000 donkeys. We only saw two motorized vehicles - one tractor and a three wheeled ambulance. The seafood is fantastic and the population is 90% Muslim, so we are used to hearing the call to prayer many times each day. We were connected in a roundabout way (a friend from Nairobi we met in Kasigau called a friend of his in Mombasa who called a connection in Nairobi who called a former employee in Lamu) with Omari, who has been our companion and guide for the days in Lamu.

He found us a wonderful place to stay in an old Swahili multi-storied house called Wildebeast. We have a two-level apartment with a rooftop sleeping room and terrace. The place is also an art gallery with many interesting displays throughout the apartments and in the gallery itself.

The big news while while we were in Lamu was the referendum on August 4th for the proposed new constitution. There was a hard fought campaign on both sides, and the YES vote took it more than two to one. We were glad because everyone we knew in Lamu and in Kasigau was in favor of the new constitution. Ken and I watched the results come in with other Lamu political types in a rooftop bar with a big screen TV and many celebratory Tusker beers.


Omari also arranged a dhow boat tour with his cousin and we visited the village on a neighboring island where coral bricks are cut from the earth, one by one with hand tools. Coral in one form or another is used in construction of all buildings in Lamu, along with wood from mangrove trees and mortar to hold it all together. All I could think was that in the Pacific Northwest, these buildings would melt from the rain.

Lamu was a wonderful place to close out our trip to East Africa. We were fortunate to have met so many good people, updated friendships, seen a variety of animals and geography, and had student interns who were enthusiastic, resilient, and good travellers. I'll post more specifics about the Kasigau schools when I get home and have a more reliable connection.

Yikes, we're getting ready to leave!

Well, this is our last week in Kasigau and although we are ready to travel around Kenya for a bit, it suddenly seems like there is too little time and too much to accomplish before we leave. We have been on a game drive and Ken had a run in with some elephants, three intens, and a rental car. There are many good stories and photos, but no good way to post to the web and no time to organize.

The best news this week is that the primary schools where we have been working have just completed their second term exams, and the students identified 6 weeks ago as "slow learners" have shown greatly improved perfomance. In schools where teachers have worked side by side with our interns, some students have actually doubled their scores, and exam scores are the most important single factor in detemining a child's educational future.

The three young men we have been sponsoring at Moi (with support of many blog readers) are all lovely guys who would like to continue their education at university to become doctors and engineers. (John I think would like to pursue a career in tourism management, a 2 year program.) We would like to support them because they have consistently performed in the top of their class and are very hard workers, often rising at 3am fo 2 exta hours of studying before morning preps begin. We are interested to know how many people might be interested in contributing even small amounts of financial support, and also any ideas you may have for how to set priorities. For instance, we could collect as much sponsorship as possible and divide it between the three of them equally, or offer half to the highest performer and split the remaining half between the other two, or...Univesity is more expensive then high school in Kenya, but still inexpensive by American standards.

I know you have to have a Google account to post comments, so if anyone would like to support a few bright university students in Kenya you can let me know at Krister1@comcast.net. We are also collecting names and information for potental high school sponsorships, especially for girls. School year starts in January, so we have time to get organized.

Thanks for reading the blog. I know the appeal for funds is a bit uncomfortable fo me, so if it is the same for you, just ignore that last paragraph. We are experiencing a bit of "compassion fatigue" ourselves. We're heading for Lamu on Friday and it is a tourist town so maybe there is better internet options. I'm ready for a real vacation with some free time!
Kris

Students at Moi High School

Many of the blog readers are among the group of sponsors who have been supporting tuition and fees for students at Moi High School in Rukanga, the largest of the Kasigau communities. One student John, graduated in December 2009; 3 are in Form 4 (seniors) and will graduate in December 2010; two are in Form 1 (freshmen), having just started high school in January of this year. I’m including a photo of myself with the students still attending Moi, and individual photos of each of the six our group of friends, family, and students have been supporting with annual donations. From left...Holiness, Sylvia, Kris, Phillipe, Beja, & Albert






John is the first student we sponsored, beginning in January of 2006. He graduated with a high school diploma last December and was contemplating what to do with his future very seriously the entire time we were in Kasigau. John has a single mother, grandparents in their 80s, and three younger siblings, so as the eldest responsible son he has had many family obligations during his studies. As a result his grades were lower than anticipated, which has limited his options for continuing his education. The Kenyan system is quite regimented, with exams in all subjects each term, and one set of final exams at the end of high school that determines an average grade for the 4 years. And like American higher education, in Kenya each major or program has entrance requirements. John's family commitments and his mother's illness resulted in poorer performance than he was happy with, so he is returning to high school because he wants to repeat and improve his final exam grade and go on to university. Way to go, John!



Phillipe, Albert, and Beja are the other three young men our family and friends have been supporting since 2007. They are in their last year and all are very good students. All three are from very poor families and quite appreciative of the support. These three often get up two hours earlier than required to have extra time for studying. This means they are getting up at 3am, since the entire school is up for morning preps at 5am! They have all impressed the head teacher and the headmaster, and were lovely to meet with…Ken and I have committed to seeking support for these three to continue at a public university.
Phillipe (left) has earned the highest marks of all these strong students, always in the top 5 with A & B marks in all subjects. He wants very much to join the university and earn a degree in medicine. He is a serious student but has a mischievous smile and I suspect a great sense of humor. Phillipe comes from a family with two parents who are “only working at manual jobs now and then”, and five siblings: two older brothers and two younger brothers, plus two younger sisters. He has impressed the headmaster and his teachers with his strong opinions and a sense of justice and fairness that reminds me of Dustin.

Beja (right above) wants to be an electrical or mechanical engineer, and has shown strong academic performance, always in the top 10 of his class of 80 since Form I. He comes from a family of 6, with two parents who sometimes work at manual jobs but are currently unemployed. There is no work for the majority of Kasigau residents; the best estimate I’ve seen is that about 60 in 1,000 have paying positions. The remainder farm small plots and hope for rain so there is a crop for market. Phillipe has two older brothers and one younger brother who is in class 6.



Albert has an interest in electronics and wants to study electrical engineering at university. He has also consistently also performed at the top 10 of the class, and is a very serious student. Albert has a 5 year old brother, and his mother is a single parent who has moved away to Voi for work. As a result, Albert lives with his grandmother in Rukanga when not boarding at Moi.






Sylvia and Holiness are getting used to being away from home and living at Moi, and their first term marks came back as average. Our host at the banda, Abs, gave them a pep talk about the importance of working harder and performing well. He will be monitoring the performance of each student at the end of each term, so that sponsors’ support can be contingent on performance. The girls are also from families with very low incomes. Sylvia has three brothers and one sister, and lives with her parents in Bungule when not at school. Holiness lives with her great-grandmother and her grandmother, having been orphaned at an early age. She has three sisters and one brother, and is a very serious young woman. It took me three weeks to get to her smile back at me!

All students we have supported will need support to even consider continuing to university, and all are well-known at the school as being very motivated and hard workers. The government has started subsidizing secondary school, and Moi now enrolls “day students” from neighboring villages, for $150/year (versus $450 for boarding students). It’s over an hour’s walk from Bungule, though, and over half that from Jora. The matatu busses take student riders for free, and they leave at 5am from Bungule, and it is very heartwarming to see everyone making room in any way possible to support education in the community With our limited time left here we are struggling to set priorities for continued sponsorships. There are certainly more students and teachers in need at all levels than are possible to support, but on the other hand $150 goes a long way toward giving a village student a future beyond poaching and burning charcoal for livelihood here.

Flora and Fauna

Kasigau is beautiful and very diverse with plants and animals, all living in the many ecological niches of the mountain from which the area takes its name. There are two tame cats at the banda, and almost every evening a large troop of baboon on the rocks up and behind us. Ken likes to sit up there and wait for them to come by, for a close up view. They are probably so interesting because they seem so human. There is an abundance of small creatures, of which we have not one good photo: rock hyrax squirrel and fox like creatures, mongoose, and very many beautiful birds. Some very large turtles have crawled by; many lizards large and small scurry around; we have seen some very quick snakes; and there are more insects (ants of all sizes, scorpions, cockroaches, spiders, huge grasshoppers, dragon flies, praying mantis) than most of us are used to. And of course the various noisy monkeys that live close by.

There are huge baobab trees, many different thorny trees and shrubs, cactus, delicate and colorful flowers, and quite a few fruit trees. Much of the vegetation looks like Arizona with cactus, acacia trees, and many thorny bushes. The “shamba” (farms) grow primarily maize and also pumpkins and melon. There are a great many mystery fruits, flowers, and vegetables, and a few known favorites. All in all with the many shades of green, the red dirt, the blue sky and white clouds, Kasigau is a very beautiful and interesting place when it comes to plants and animals.

We have been on game drive and seen many large animals, which I will try to post separately.

Kris

The Banda

I’ve had a few questions via email about our daily life here in the Kasigau bush. The banda where we live is owned and operated by Ibrahim (Abs) Jumapili. He built it just a couple years ago, and like almost all structures in Kasigau, the construction is of timbers harvested from the local forests, bricks fired from red dirt on the immediate premises, and thatch from indigenous grasses. He has imported stone from a quarry also in Taita Taveta, the area between here and the coast of the Indian Ocean.





We have fresh water from the mountain for drinking, washing, and showering, and power for lights and recharging batteries, depending on the weather (no cloud cover = more power). There is a separate building with two loos and two showers, with warm water on occasion. At night the loo building and the paths are lit by kerosene lamps if there has not been enough sun for power to be stored.




The food is fresh from the market in Voi each Tuesday (a two hour ride on a “matatu” van) and our cook Lucy is very talented at making it stretch all week. We have chicken a couple times each week, lots of cabbage and kale cooked African style, chapatti, beans, maize (corn), toast, pancakes, the works. In town the menu for lunch is fruit, chapatti bread, and beans. And always “chai”, the Kenyan black tea with milk that some of us have become addicted to and others never drink.


We each have a bed, Ken and I in one room, away from the main facility, three women interns in one room, two in another, and Jesse (the lone male intern) and John (our Kenyan student) in a separate room. Each bed has a mosquito net but not everyone uses theirs as it is a cumbersome and not always comfortable procedure to get in and out of bed.

As one photo shows, the banda is quite private and isolated at the end of a road/path. We mostly hear birds and monkeys and baboons and bats that make a pinging sound, very rarely a motorized vehicle. It is about a 20 minute walk to Bungule, and we are often accompanied by school children as we walk to and from the village. In East Africa greetings are a major aspect of the social structure, and we have been learning all the appropriate greetings in Taita (the mother tongue of the Kasigau region) so that we can participate. Life here is simple and good, beautiful and friendly.





We are all excited to be headed to Mombasa, and next week I’ll post about that trip, and try to introduce the high school students we have been sponsoring, the town of Voi, and more local news.
Kris

Settling Into Kasigau

I'm sitting in the late afternoon sun in Rukanga, the biggest of the Kasigau villages with the most shops and activity. There is a revival meeting across the street, with loud music and bright blue chairs, more indications of an increased standard of living and even some expendable income. The interns have begun their first week of full time teaching, after twice around the mountain to meet at length with each of the five schools and determine equitable schedules for their work. I've posted one photo that shows how easy our supervision task is since the interns and a few Kenyan friends slid to their demise on a mountain climbing expedition last week-end. :)


Our constant companion is John Mwambuso Kapombe (2nd from the right in the sliding photo and third from the left in the standing group), whose name many of you will recognize as the first of the high school students we sponsored at Moi High School. He has grown up and provides entertainment, interpretation, and instruction on all things Taita. He is staying with us in the banda and gets along famously with the interns, especially Jesse. We have visited his family and he accompanies us to town each time we go. Everyone listens for his voice and his laugh especially.

Everyday I see evidence of the dramatic improvements in the community here. There are more shops with more goods and more food. People who were ill are better; there are many new buildings, more solar power in the bush communities, more kerosene, more motor bikes and cows and carts for carrying water. On our way to Voi today in the predawn, we even saw lights in the darkness once we came to Rukanga. Still, we ride around in the only private vehicle I've seen in Bungule, and life is far from easy for those who live here.

It is an unusual and not altogether comfortable experience being a "mzungu" in the midst of the Kenyan bush. We stand out by our appearance and our western ways. Our skin is pale and we appear sick to the little kids, or just plain scare them at first. There are expectations about our financial resources, easy to understand but wearing to experience day after day.

Stay tuned for more photos and check previous postings for photos, as there is a lag between writing, getting to town, and getting the photos into shape for posting. We'll be posting stories and photos of the other students we have been supporting at Voi, the schools, and the people in this fantastic place.
Kris