So much depend upon a bathroom pass

5 Red Girl out for Biological Nature Call

My class of fifth graders may remember this photo that I took three years ago while working at the Bondeni School in Kenya. I thought it was a funny bathroom pass so I took the picture. I showed it to my class because of that and also because I thought the smiling boy in the background might be Anthony, the boy my family sponsors in Kenya. I wasn't sure about this so I stuck the photo in a book of photos I was bringing to Anthony this trip to see if it was him.

Then a funny thing happened. The first Sunday in Kenya we went to visit the boys and girls schools in Joska. These school are about an hours drive from Nairobi and allow 7th-12th grade grade students to be taken out of the slums and attend school in a primitive boarding school setting. Joska is where Anthony is attending school. The school has been split into a boy's and a separate girl's school, about a 10 minute bumpy car ride apart. We first visited the girl's school. The were having a Sunday service and we were seated in the front three rows. I immediately started looking around at the 400 or so girls looking for familiar faces that I might have taught in Bondeni. As we were singing songs, I noticed a lot of familiar faces directly behind me. I filmed some of the singing including the girls getting a bit rowdy and taking off their ties to whirl around during the song. One of the girls gave me her tie to join in. I was signalling to the girls that I remembered them and couldn't wait to talk with them.

I pulled out my photo album a little while later during the service and when the singing had stopped and showed a couple of the girls photos I had brought that had their pictures in them. One was the girl with the bathroom pass. You can see her in the above video very briefly on the right side (as I am facing the row of girls).

 She was giggling and amazed that I had her photo (she wasn't the only one). After the service I got together with the girls and talked with them with the short time that we had. Here is a photo of Naomi and me holding the bathroom pass photo from three years earlier.

That was fun and I really was thrilled to have met my former students. As we were in our bus a short while later to go visit the boy's school, Naomi came up to my window and asked if I was going to come back. I had to say, "No, but three of my teacher friends will be staying at Joska for the week while I return to the Mathare Valley to teach at the Area 2 School." She told me to look for her mother. At first I thought this was silly as hundreds of thousands of people live in the Mathare Valley and how could I find her mother in all that humanity? She then told me that her mother, Esther, was the cook at the Area 2 School.

Of course one of the first things I did after showing up at the Area 2 School was to look for Esther. I saw a women right away in the "kitchen" (a small room down some steps) and she had the biggest smile in the Mathare Valley. I asked one of the social workers if this was indeed Esther, the mother of Naomi, and I was told yes and that we could be introduced.

I told her about meeting her daughter again three years after meeting her at Bondeni and gave her a second picture of Naomi. I was told Naomi had a twin brother at the Joska boy's school. For the rest of the week, Esther had gigantic smiles for me and I hoped that I had made her week by connecting with her and her daughter. I also observed how hard Esther worked at the school throughout the week. Not only was she the cook, but she would water down and mop the classrooms and walkways throughout the day and empty the trash bins. I think she was also the janitor and "do everything" person. On the last day she was organizing plastic chairs to bring down the treacherous steps to the new school. I was able to take the last bunch of chairs to carry down for her and relieve her of that duty. She did everything with a smile. One thing I have learned is how hard the people of Mathare Valley are willing to work and to serve their community and the joy that they have knowing that they are a small part of the success of Missions of Hope.

This is the treacherous path between the Area 2 old school and the new school
down below. We had to walk these multiple times a day trying not to fall
into the sewage ditch on the side as well as not being scraped by the sharp tin walls
that protruded into the walking path at one point. On the two rainy days it was
very slippery.

Katherine and Kim, a daughter and mom on our trip, making
their way down the steps. 

At the end of the week, when my three Joska teammates got back from Joska, I was handed a few notes from these girls I had met. Here is the note from Naomi.

 I don't think meeting Naomi again was a coincidence. I hoped meeting her encouraged and cheered her and her mother up, as much as it did for me!

By the way, the photos with me in a bow tie are sort of a joke, the only reason I can see to wear any sort of tie is to take it off and wave it around in the air while singing a song!

Inspired by of one of the poems "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams that I used to teach poetry writing while at the Area 2 School and at New Searlesl. I wrote a new poem.

The Bathroom Pass

So much depends 

upon

a bathroom 

pass

written in red

pen

around a girl's 

neck