First Week in Kenya

This is my first blog post from Kenya and I have been here for a week. It has been incredibly busy and most of my posts will be written after I return home.

Walk through the slums with some Nashua teacher friends. The Kenyan
man in the photo is named Robert. He was a fifth grade teacher when I
worked at Bondeni three years ago. Now he is a head social worker. He is
a great guy and I spent a lot of time with him this week. He is also the proud
owner of "the" bow tie!

We flew over 20 hours to Nairobi, Kenya and arrived last Friday evening. On Saturday we had an orientation and a walk through the slums.

On Sunday we drove out to the boarding schools in Joska. It was almost an hour drive away from the slums. This is where kids in grades 7-12 are taken out of the slums to concentrate on studying. We went to a service at the girls school and were seated in the front three rows. We did a lot of singing and as I looked around I saw girls in the row behind me that I instantly recognized as girls I had taught when I taught at Bondeni three years ago when they were in fifth grade. I have some amazing stories to tell about these girls in another post another day. I also met the boy I sponsor, Anthony, at the boy's school, but I only got to spend about five minutes with him.

Anthony and I meeting at Joska

Monday was an unplanned day. Because of tension in Kenya, we were paying close attention to whether it was even safe to go right up until the last few days. Monday was a Kenyan holiday and there were some political rallies planned in Nairobi. There was concern for our safety, if we traveled out to the slums and they wanted us to stay in our hotel. It was a completely relaxing day, except no one wanted to be relaxing. We wanted to be in the slum teaching and working with the children. It felt like a wasted day, but it was the right decision for our safety. Nothing bad happened that day, but the city was on alert.

Tuesday through Friday we taught at the Area 2 School. I was unsure if I could get all the lessons done that I had planned. Let me tell you, the kids were awesome. They loved learning the poems. There were two class (Grade) 5 classrooms and we did "The Irish Dancer", "I am Nobody", "The Red Wheelbarrow", and "The Tyger". Surprisingly, the one that worked best was the hardest poem, "The Tyger". The kids did not waste any time in writing poems once they got the hang of being more creative than they are used to. The first day, when I taught "The Irish Dancer" they spent about 20 minutes writing poems and then I had to leave on break. When I came back, they were sitting at their desks writing. I was thrilled they kept writing poems, but when I looked down, they were copying all of the poems written by my New Searles' students. I told them that they were keeping all the posters you made and that they should write their own poems next time they have free time.

Red class 5 reciting "The Tyger"

This is Mary making her poster sitting next to Brian who is full of shenanigans. 

In the end, every kid (over 50) in the fifth grade wrote an animal poem about an African animal based on "The Tyger" and made a poster of that poem. Some of the poems were amazing. One girl, Mary, wrote this gem:

Poem: Kifaru by Mary Waithera

Rhino, Rhino How are you?
In the grasslands of the day
How frightening you are
Could you someday be a friend? 

In the tallest grass
Just to lay all day long
But nobody will ever come near you
Could you someday be a friend? 

So big and so strong
Wonder where you might come from?
Your sounds are so frightening
Could you someday be a friend? 

Your skin so hard
Where was it made from?
And your horns are so big
Where did you get all that from?

You eat the grass till they are over
You don’t ever invite other animals to your meals
How fast can you run?
Could your ever be a friend? 

So heavy like a mountain
If you are so heavy like that
How much will your child weigh?
Could you someday be a friend? 

Rhino, Rhino the huge animal
On the forest of the day
How frightening you are
Could you someday be a friend?

Mary is a gem. Thirty minutes after seeing Tangrams for the first time, she could make a square without looking! My students may remember me telling them about a little second grade girl that went missing the last time I was in Kenya three years ago. She had wandered away, got lost, and was not found for three days. That girl that got lost was Mary! Can you believe that? I talked with the head social worker that works with the schools and told her about Mary's poem. She said that Mary lives in a tough family that doesn't spend much time or give much concern for Mary. She then said that some of the best students come from the toughest situations. That is the toughest situations of those living in one of the worst slums on the planet! They just know they have to work harder to get out of their situation, just like when solving a puzzle! Here is Mary with her Tangrams. She stopped and looked for a short time, then I stopped recording, but she went back and finished it!



I will write more later, but it has been an amazing time, and just like I predicted they loved reading and seeing the posters and poems that you made. They enjoyed seeing your photos and learning a little about you, too! Hey class, you are authors and your poems have made it across the ocean and have been read my many fifth graders in Kenya of all places!