Back Home in Kasigau - Week Three

Our third week in Kasigau included a variety of local activities on the week-end, and the second week of teaching in Makwasinyi and Kiteghe, the schools on the back side of the mountain and farthest from where we live. Last Saturday many of us went to market in Voi, courtesy of Eliud and his matatu. There was much shopping done and much good food consumed. We all took turns on the fast internet in town, mailed letters, bought school supplies, and generally got hot and sweaty for the long ride home. Ken met us in Voi on his return from taking Claire to the Nairobi airport for her trip home, and we packed our Probox and Eliud’s matatu with people, supplies, groceries, and 600+ pounds of porridge flour for the Kasigau schools, one of our host Abs’ ongoing projects.

Ken and I stopped in Jora to leave a message for Jenny and Macaela, and the battery in the Probox died! In very short order there were many people (read men) trying to jump a charge between two batteries with two wrenches, then one wrench, then a bus stopped on the way back from a huge funeral and offered to push, but the car is an automatic transmission. Finally the Minister of Parliament for the area came by and had jumper cables, which did the trick once a battery was carried from his car to ours. Meanwhile I sat with the local women, took photos, and learned how to say “How many men does it take to fix a car?” in the local Taita language.

Sunday most of us went to church, which was a colorful and joyous affair with fantastic musical entertainment from men, women, and youth choirs, an auction of non-cash offertory, and a very long and enthusiastic sermon. We’ve gotten a song book from the pastor to learn some of the music for next week. It is difficult for some of us not to be able sing along when everyone is singing out, dancing, and generally rocking along to the new electronic piano and sound system.

After the service we were invited to chai (tea) at the home of Eunice, Eliud the matatu driver’s mother and a long time friend of mine. We are sisters, as you can see by our matching lesos (sarong type wraps) in the photo. In the family compound there were a number of adults, and many children, welcoming us to their family compound for tea, ground nuts, and cake.

Following the hot but somehow refreshing chai on a very hot day, we went to the Bungule basket weavers and interns bought the first of what I predict will be many baskets in villages around the hill. A couple days later in the week Ken, Liesl, and I made a visit to the women’s bakery in Rukanga, a project Ken and I supported from its inception in 2010. They have a very large oven in a very small building and bake cakes, scones, and bread for sale locally. Ken says they could almost bake outside the oven, it is so hot in the little bakery! Many of the women are also basket weavers and after serving tea and cakes and selling us a few beautiful baskets, the group treated us to a group singing parade out to the road on our departure. It was a purely African women’s experience, and a highlight of our week.

Interns are finishing up the time at their first school assignments, and summarizing improvements for the teachers. It is truly remarkable how many skills have been taught to so many struggling students in the 10 short days since we started.

Sara and Tara are working at Kiteghe Primary, where both the village and the school have the reputation of being the quietest of all places “around the hill”. The two were introduced to the entire assembly of students on their own and despite a rather cool reception and start, have now been seeing/hearing their teaching techniques being used throughout the Kiteghe classrooms. Sara said climbing Kasigau was the worst day of her life, but nonetheless was up long before dawn the next day for safari and hit the ground running on the first day of school in Kiteghe.

Tara’s stomach was quite unhappy for a number of days following the mountain climb and safari, but she missed only one day of school. Both young women are calm, steady, and effective teachers whose classroom is bright and welcoming. I suspect they are each called “Sara and Tara”, in the same way that both Ken and I are called “Kris and Ken”. On their last day the teachers are preparing a going away lunch, and I know everyone will be impressed with the progress Kiteghe students have made.

.Liesl, Keenan, and Katy are at Makwasinyi, the largest and loudest of all the schools and villages in Kasigau. They were welcomed at Makwasinyi as experts in remedial instruction and pretty much left to their own devices by the teachers. Their classroom is enthusiastic with all three sometimes teaching at once to students across the age range from early primary to middle school. By her own admission Liesl is spoiling her older students with sweet treats now that time is short, and so far most everyone in Kasigau calls her “Lisa”. Katy’s young primary students have been so intent on their lessons that they are hanging over the table to see, and her own two young daughters are attending school each day in Bungule. Keenan as the lone male looks the most like a Kenyan teacher, is a great role model for the middle school boys, and tends to be called “Kenyan”. All three are energetic and successful teachers, and Makwasinyi students have also made great progress in the last two weeks. (That is Katy behind her students.)

Jenny Mae and Macaela are the independent operators in the group, and moved last week to the Jora Community Banda. They were joined this week by Molly and Jake. Molly was here with us in 2010, and has an amazing memory for the names and faces of her students from 18 months ago. She has brought Jake this trip, an especially welcome addition the morning there was a large, red spitting cobra at the door of their washroom. Jenny and Macaela have been working at the Jora preschool mornings, and with Molly and Jake are completing a pilot survey project on orphans in Bungule and Jora.

This group of interns is just amazing in all respects. They have learned local greetings and use them regularly, learning new words and phrases, and making new friends every day. In schools, students are drawn to the libraries where interns are teaching, coming long before and after their scheduled times for instruction. All schools are having special activities on the last teaching day, and teachers are eager about learning new instructional techniques. Tonight the interns are summarizing improvement data and making cards for each student they have worked with, bookends for the professional and personal interactions and experiences they have brought to Kasigau schools.

On the home front, everyone sleeps with bugs and/or nets, uses the outdoor facilities, and eats whatever is prepared with many compliments for Grace Chari, our cook (whose course of study has been sponsored by friends Fran and Jim in California, and well-worth it from the empty plates each meal). Everyone seems to have adopted the Kasigau approach to communication and transportation, which is to have alternative plans, make best possible use of any available resources, patch together long strings of contingent possibilities, and “hakuna matata” when things don’t work out quite according to any of the plans. Truth is, it always seems to work out in good enough time and with much attendant personal interaction.

We are always thinking and talking of friends and family at home, and miss you all here where some days the time seems to be going by much too quickly, and occasionally some hours crawl by very slowly. As Liesl says, “Every day here is an adventure where something new happens.”

Bedai (“later”, I think)

Kris