Last Friday we had our first trip to the slum schools. Everyone gets really excited about the slum schools, I suppose it's because they're so different from the village schools we all go to. The head teacher at Mukeu once tried to explain the difference to me, saying that a lot of people opt to move into the city in search for better paid work, but to afford it they have to live in the slums. His opinion was why would anyone want to give up the fresh air and space of the village for a slum?
The slums are exactly as you would expect, like the shanty towns you learn about in school. They are built on a rubbish tip, and all houses are made of corrugated iron. It's dirty and smelly and feels claustrophobic. We walked down the main street, then we stopped by a small hole in the corrugated iron. The teacher lifted up the flap and we all went inside to where the tiny school was - over 100 kids. The children were quite well dressed, all in school uniform and their uniforms weren't ripped at all. The older children could all speak English quite well and they were even doing multiplication - that's the first time I’ve seen it in a school - their education is so much better than in village schools. They also did a little dance for us, which is hilarious - I can't really describe it, it is essentially a bum wiggle for the girls and a sort of haka for the boys - brilliant.
After maths we went to 'the field' for sports. We walked up the street with all the kids to the field, which was, a rubbish tip. And I don't mean it was a field full of rubbish, I mean it was actually a landfill site with diggers shifting rubbish around. The smell was really bad at this point and I felt a bit sick. We played duck duck goose with the kids and we sort of danced around (which is what they do quite a lot in schools). Then they split the boys and girls, and the girls played skipping, and the boys played football... I went with the boys and played football, but every time someone would get a goal the ball would go into the rubbish and we had to get one of the locals to get the ball because the kids and we weren't allowed near the rubbish because it was so dangerous. Every now and again a loose goat would join us in the game of football. The day was really crazy and I’m not sure I really like the slums, everyone else really loved it though and are looking forward to the next visit.
On Saturday we climbed mount Longonot. I was very excited about this climb as I drove past it every day I went to Mukeu - it's a volcano in the heart of the Great Rift Valley so the views were going to be spectacular. There were 6 of us climbing that day with varying degrees of experience. What I would say to anyone considering the climb if they come out here, is, don’t underestimate the climb – it’s hot, it’s practically vertical and it takes time to climb. Bring proper walking shoes, 50+ sunscreen, food and at least 2 litres of water (preferably 3). Some of the girls got sick or exhausted, but I had a fantastic day, the views were incredible and the walk was just perfect once you got to the top. Kenyans were literally running past us, some had no water either!
Saturday night some of the girls had planned to go out clubbing in Limuru. I opted to stay in the lodge with some of the other girls and we had cake and popcorn and watched sex in the city (the only DVD we have over here), it was a great night.
On Sunday I went to the Baby Orphanage -Angels. 6 babies live here, and they are orphans because they were either dropped off without a note, left at the hospital because the mum couldn’t afford the price of giving birth (800 shillings – 8 pounds) or the product of a rape. It's heartbreaking to hear and I nearly cried a few times if I thought about it too much. As soon as we got there we were hands on - getting them up, then fed, then we bathed them - I’ve never done more than nervously held a baby before this so for me it was a crash course in babies! I absolutely loved it. I bathed three of the babies including one little girl called Joy who was crying her heart out, I think she had a fever, but not knowing anything about babies I wasn’t sure. I just did what I thought was best and took her by a window with a breeze to cool her down until she stopped crying, then dressed her. I then had to feed and clothe and play with the other babies all afternoon. It was so awesome but exhausting, by the end I had to put my head down on the play mat and fell asleep! The driver Benard picked us up but as he was driving a donkey had run in front of the van causing him to drive the van into a ditch - so we had to wait to get 7 men to literally lift the van out of the ditch!
Monday I went to Hope school, for the first time without Lisa. I came in and the kids were all sat down quietly, and the teacher said to me "I've written work into their books already so they can get started right away" - brilliant news. Then at lunchtime we had a game of duck duck goose, it's always good when you have organised games, it stops them all from jumping on you, plaiting your hair, pulling your watch off etc. In the afternoon they played with the coloured stones Lisa and I made, not sure if they totally got the hang of it but they liked to count them which is always good. As we now have chicks on site, we spend break times with the chicken feed tray on our laps, going through it and picking out the wood chippings, and sometimes little chicken poos. So that's always a nice healthy break from kids jumping on your back... That evening I went for a run, which is the first since I’ve been ill, really glad to be getting back into it.
On Tuesday Mary had gone to Limuru so it was just Esther and I, so I had to take the class by myself again. Seeing as I did such a good job last time I taught ‘chaotic colouring’ again, but this time I was a little more forceful with the naughty kids and had a lot more energy so I just about kept up with it and it didn’t turn into a nightmare like it did last time. First break we sifted the chicken feed from the chicken poos, one of my favourite tasks, then back to class where we used some worksheets I’d had printed up which let the kids trace the letters of the alphabet dot-to-dot style. They love these sheets and already I’ve seen an improvement in their abilities as a result. I asked if I could take the big class the next day, and teach them geography. I just fancied a change from colouring and thought that geography was the only thing I had to offer really. They liked the idea and said that was fine. At lunch time a sheep poked his head into the gates and loudly started to baa - the kids started baa'ing back and we had a hilarious situation for about 5 minutes where the sheep would baa, then the whole school yard would baa back in unison, cracked me up.
That afternoon I got to work on my world map. I'm pretty pleased with the result, though no-one should look too closely at Europe - the placement of some countries is laughable, and Japan looked very odd, and there were some of the 'Stan' countries missing because I couldn't be bothered to put them on, oh yeah and Africa is enormous and so is Kenya, but apart from that the map does look great I promise! I drew and coloured it sat under a tree, and there was an unfortunate incident where a bird crapped on the Philippines, and also a massive drop of water took out half of Eastern Europe, but again, apart from that it looked great!
The next day I took the map into school and they loved it! I also took what I thought was a blow up globe, thinking I could start with an explanation of the earth being round and rotating etc, but unfortunately I blew it up and it was more like an inflatable pillow. I used it anyway, mimicking a globe shape and span it round - I hope the kids don’t currently think we live on rectangular shaped planet... Then I showed them the map and told them about where they lived, and where I came from, then we talked about some big countries and which were hot and which were cold etc, they didn’t really get it but they seemed to be entertained. More chicken feed sifting, colouring and letter dot-to-dots that day, then I got picked up at 2pm an hour early, which was a nice change, so I went home, sunbathed and later took another run.
My last day at Hope school was Thursday and it was eventful! In the morning Gillian and Megan came with me to school to teach the kids fire safety (Gillian's a fire-fighter at home). We went through their first aid kit and made a note of fire hazards and planned a day next week where Gillian will teach them how to put fires out. I adapted the London's burning song so we can teach that to them to help understand, so now it goes "School is burning, school is burning, call the teacher, call the teacher, fire fire! fire fire! pour the water, pour the water." with little hand actions. I was pretty pleased with myself for thinking of this :) The girls helped out in class a bit and the kids behaved impeccably, so they were both impressed. Then at lunchtime I had brought a massive box of biscuits (no sweets as the little ones can choke on them) they all loved the biscuits and have enough for the following weeks. I also brought my ipod and docking station as I wanted to try to have a little party - the party was a massive success as the kids absolutely loved the music!! They were all dancing around and following dance movements we were doing. We started off with Paul Simon which I thought was appropriate, then put on some Rusted Root which has an African beat. Back in the UK I had mused with my friends, if you had to play one song to Africans that depicts Western music, what would it be? Of all the songs we talked about, the very last on my list was the one that they loved the most - Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce (please don't ask me why I have this on my ipod). As it had a fast pace they LOVED it, we danced around like crazy for ages and the kids hummed along to the tune, a little girl called Joyce who is a great African dancer and smiles all the time was just loving the music - I will take that image with me forever.
On the weekend the girls and I will be going to Mombasa, another little trip we booked through African Impact. After that I will be travelling straight to Moshi to climb Kilimanjaro!! I can't wait for the Kili climb, but I also am starting to miss home. I LOVE it here but I miss my family and boyfriend, I miss English cheese and cups of tea with cold milk, I miss chocolate... I want a change of clothes and to update my ipod and to watch a film other than sex in the city... and I miss hair conditioner. But I’ll miss the girls here, I’ll miss my uninterrupted, peaceful sleeping, I’ll miss the running track and the weather, and the kids, and the variety and unpredictability of every day and I’ll miss teaching!!
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