My last week in Kenya

     “The students were very happy,” were the teachers’ reports when we met in final sessions after the three days of training.  The cause of students’ happiness was their teachers using some of the new strategies in their classrooms that they had learned in the training.    As you can imagine, the teacher reports made Nancy and me very happy, as well.

    The teachers who attended the seminars had received the new strategies with enthusiasm, but the proof is always in the actual application for each teacher in each classroom.  The seminars were scheduled with three days of training and two to three days for teachers to try out something that they learned, and then a final meeting day to share the outcomes. 

    First of all, Nancy and I were impressed that each teacher had implemented several things in the few days that they had between the three day training and the final session.  Teachers shared how they had used the strategies in creative ways with a wide variety of subjects.  And with success!  All the songs that Nancy had taught the teachers were immediately passed on and now hundreds of Kenyan children will be forever singing “Fish and Chips and Vinegar” in rounds and “Who Stole the Ugali from the Cooking Pot.” A group photo, presentation of certificates, and exchanges of email addresses completed the satisfying experiences of working with some outstanding Kenyan educators.

     I have never had the challenges that my Kenyan colleagues face every day in their overcrowded classrooms with few resources.  Most children, especially in rural schools, do not speak English in their homes, yet the curriculum and the government student exams are in English.  I think that one of the biggest challenges for the newly trained teachers will be to return to their schools and continue to try the new student centered strategies, while all around them their colleagues will be doing things the old way which is often punitive.  When I read the evaluation responses from the teachers, they gave me great hope that the 2012 teacher trainees are prepared to overcome all the challenges in front of them.  This is what one teacher wrote to Nancy and me:

I found Mary’s and Nancy’s approaches in teaching quite useful because of the way they were patient and appreciated all our answers.  I wish to be patient to my learners and appreciate their responses.  This will encourage them, because I too was really encouraged.

            I have had the great satisfaction of accomplishing what I came to Kenya to do, and Jim and I have enjoyed our month here very much.  We leave Saturday for Lisbon, Portugal for a belated 45^th wedding anniversary trip before we return to California.  Once home, I will post some photos of the people and sights of Kenya.

            Thank you for your interest, prayers and comments to us.

Mary

Saturday at Phoebe House

Come with us for a visit to Phoebe House—a women’s shelter and orphanage

 

      The drive was pleasant through lush green hills, small farms dotting the hillsides and little market places along the road. We arrived in Luanda on a busy Saturday market day and came to Phoebe House in the center of town. We were not even out of the car when the door opened and Gladys and Caroline stood there with arms open. We entered to a ceremony—children presented Jim and me with “flowers” which are tinsel leis that are given to people at times of celebration.

 

      Introductions were made and we met the children one by one. I recognized many of the children and immediately noted the changes in them since we saw them last year. The little ones who had sores on their heads are now healthy and all of the children were smiling and eager to shake our hands. Next we met the four mamas who are also part of the Phoebe House family. These mamas first arrived with their children because they were widows who were HIV positive and shunned by their families and communities. They, too, look well and now play an important role in helping to care for all the orphans who live at Phoebe House—fourteen in all. There were other orphans besides the fourteen, and they are those who have a guardian such as a grandmother with whom they stay, and the guardian receives food and encouragement from those of Phoebe House.

 

     A tour of this commercial building which is now Phoebe House revealed a bedroom for two mamas and their children, a boys’ room, and a girls’ room that once housed a grinding mill for maize. The girls’ room has no windows and is very dark, and they must always use a kerosene lamp, but it is big and accommodates all the girls who outnumber the boys. There is a kitchen and corner for the charcoal stove. The latrines are in the back. One room is a small office for Gladys. The building is one story and one room wide and very long. There is only a narrow sidewalk at the side of the building from which all rooms are reached and that serves for an outdoor playing place for the littlest ones.

 

      En masse the adults and all the children took a short walk to the nearby primary school and the large grass field. The children played for a while and then we adults joined the game—one big circle with lots of laughter and running about. Lunch was next back at Phoebe House, and it was obvious by the chicken, rice, beans, cabbage, and sliced tomatoes that we were honored guests.

 

      Gladys and Caroline, the two Kenyan women who lead Phoebe House, met with Jim and me at the end of the afternoon. We talked about their budget and the needs of Phoebe House and there are many. The children need new school uniforms at fifteen dollars each, the bedding is wearing out, the rent is always due, and food is a continuous need. We talked about sustainability and Caroline and Gladys have some ideas and think that the four mamas are ready. The seed money will be needed for any business venture. There are three orphans in secondary day school who each need about one hundred and twenty-five dollars for school fees. A Phoebe House orphan named Delvo is waiting to be accepted for Form 1 (freshman year) in a local high school and will require the one hundred and twenty-five dollars, also. There is no padding in any of this and there are certainly no frills.

 

     Imagine that you had been with us at Phoebe House–that you saw for yourself children thriving and women safe and strong. Imagine that you kept watching one girl in particular who last year had been newly placed at Phoebe House after it was discovered that she was the only one to care for her younger brothers and was being abused by a grandfather, and today you watch her how the year in Phoebe House has transformed her back into a child who can smile and play. Imagine that you sat with Gladys and Caroline and were asked for advice and help to raise fund,  Imagine…

On a lighter note-shopping Kenyan style

You are not in Kenya long before you want an African dress—one made of brightly colored, graphic prints that are the hallmark of African fabric in one of the styles that are worn by women here.  Nancy, my co-presenter, and Caroline, a Kenyan friend and guide for this expedition, and I headed to the tailor’s on Monday with the mission of ordering dresses.

A short taxi ride took us to the center of Kakamega’s shopping area with its rows of small, overflowing shops, street vendors selling produce from rickety carts and wheel barrows, and a tangled congestion of pedestrians, bicycles, motor bikes, and trucks that seem too big to make it down the narrow streets.  Caroline led us to a three story building and up uneven steps to the third floor and through a maze of halls with all manner of businesses tucked behind doors and in corners until we arrived at the tailor’s shop—well actually a room that is about ten by twelve crowded with treadle sewing machines and a work table. 

We met Dennisl and Dennis’s brother and son, all tailors and all working in this small space.  When asked if Dennis had daughters who are tailors, he laughed and said, “No, they all ran away.”  I know that Dennis does not mean that they literally ran away, but that they chose not to be tailors like their father.

Choosing fabric is the first order of business, and Dennis took the three of us back out onto the street to visit shops that sell fabric.  The shops are housed in buildings that remind me of a ship container or very big dumpster.   The entrance is two big metal doors which are open during business hours and become a place to display goods.  There is no electricity so the open doors provide the only light. 

We are given much attention by the shop owners, and they gladly begin putting fabric on the counter for our inspection.   We found nothing we like in the first shop and move to the second shop.  By then I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the choices, and it was hard to imagine myself in some of the very bright prints.  Caroline showed me fabric with large birds, and I shook my head as I imagined the  finished dress which would mean these large birds would be on different part of my anatomy.  Then I spy fabric with caramel colored background and white and black abstracted flowers as the print.  It is made of polished cotton and the sheen of it recalls being about twelve and the fabric that I chose for the dress that I made for my 4-H project.   I liked it, and Caroline and Nancy agreed that it suited me.

Back at Dennis’s shop with our fabric, he carefully measured each of us and recorded the figures in a notebook—metric, course.  The critical time had arrived which was the decision on the style.  I confess that I already have an African dress hanging in my closet at home.  I had it made when we were here for three months in 2010, but did not have the help of a translator when I talked to the tailor.  There is a style with very puffy sleeves, over the top puffiness, and my first dress has such sleeves, although I had tried to be clear in my request that the sleeves not be puffy.  I do not want to repeat this, and I was grateful to have Caroline’s advice and Swahili.

Dennis has posters on the walls of his shop showing styles of dresses, so it made it easy, and combined with his sketches I left the shop feeling confident that I will like the dress.

The Saturday excursion to pick the dress – Love it!!

Next blog I will chose a less light topic instead of shopping, but the experience was fun and I thought you might find it interesting.  By the way, the dress with fabric and the tailoring cost the equivalent of twenty-five dollars.

Next week there are nonstop teacher seminars.  I’ll check in later.

Fondly,

Mary

Goodnews to share…

 

The news from African countries is often sad and depressing, but we received some pieces of news that are uplifting.

The first is from South Sudan and Hope and Resurrection Secondary School.  Two of the three young women who were in December’s graduating class are now employed in local communities.  Deborah is working for the medical clinic six miles from the school.  This medical clinic is near and dear to our hearts, since they are the people who nursed Jim and me back to health when we were so ill.  It is a good place and she will be mentored well.  Mary is to become deputy head teacher of a local primary school, which is a position that holds much prestige.  Deborah and Mary have already broken the mold by earning a secondary education rather than being married at sixteen for the bride price of a hundred cows.  That they are employed as independent educated women will offer an example of an alternative to a girl having to marry in her mid-teens, and therefore ending her opportunity for education.

The second piece of information is that of the thousand dollars that was donated by Faith Episcopal Church in Cameron Park, California for repair of a special education building at a Kenyan primary school, there was three hundred dollars left over.  Patricia Crossley, the Canadian missionary who hosts the teacher seminars, has been holding the three hundred dollars and asked us what we wanted to do with it.  Of course, Patricia also had a suggestion, and it was to send two students to their freshman year of day secondary school.  In fact, she had two young people in mind.  Gladly we agreed and see it as the best possible investment.  A very little money by our standards does a very lot of good in Kenya.

The third thing that we learned in our first days here, is that standardized test scores were improved by some of the schools who sent their teachers to the teacher seminars last year.  That feels like hitting a home run.

So far we have worked on recovering from the 27 hour trip by getting some extra sleep.  Jim was a guest at a ceremony of a new well being turned over to a grateful community with all the singing and dancing that accompanies such a happy event for the people involved.  I met with Nancy Carson, this year’s co-presenter, and we have a common vision for the seminars and had a good time getting acquainted and determining the plan for the reunion seminars which begin on Jan 10^th.  Today we attended the English speaking service at the Anglican Church a short walk from where we are staying.  I love to listen to the African voices sing a song from my early Sunday school days “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”  The focus of our being here begins this next week when we meet the teachers from last year’s seminars.

All is well with us and we send you our prayers and good thoughts for the week ahead.

Mary

A trip to Kenya is about to begin

 

I can finally stop holding my breath…

And holding my breath about this trip to Kenya is what I have been doing for the last six months for many things happened that made the trip seem tentative.

 First of all, we had to make the difficult decision not to include going to South Sudan on the way to Kenya.  The class of students with whom Jim and I began Hope and Resurrection Secondary School graduated on December 20, 2011.  We wanted to be there very much, but there were so many complications that we decided that it was not meant to be.  Another thing that challenged this trip was that my friend and co-presenter from last year, Sue Dauer, had to have hip surgery and could not be a part of the 2012 teacher seminars.   After having such an outstanding partner, I felt some reluctance to go it alone, because it seemed a compromise to the quality of the seminars.    The solution is that a retired Canadian teacher, Nancy Carson, and friend of the Canadian missionaries hosting us came forward to be my co-presenter.  Jim’s accident with the table saw in mid October and the resulting surgery and physical therapy also gave us pause. Yet here we are with tickets in hand and bags just about packed, leaving on January 4^th. 

This year’s seminars have been expanded from three days to four.  We will also have a reunion day with each of last year’s three groups of teachers.  I look forward to hearing how the strategies that we presented have been working in their classrooms and offering some new things for them to try.  The 2012 seminars were revised based on the teachers’ response and interest, and one of the things that the teachers requested is demonstration lessons.  I can’t blame them, for a demo with real wiggly, giggly kids is really the proof of how well a strategy will work.  Two years ago I spent time in a Kenyan sixth grade classroom and discovered the universality of sixth graders around the world.  Nancy and I have decided to do poetry for the demo lesson and use all the rhyming and rhythm in the poems for oral language development.  I can already picture the kids’ shy smiles that can be coaxed into big grins.

Last January when we returned to St. Phillips Theological College in Maseno, Kenya we were greeted by Kenneth, a man with whom we worked the previous year.  Kenneth said to me, “You do care for us—you came back.”  In that short, simple statement Kenneth summed up the compelling pull that Africa and Africans have on me.

After experiencing the many possibilities of the trip not happening, Jim and I embrace this January in Kenya as a gift.  We invite you to accompany us via this blog.  I am not sure what this trip will bring, but as we meet people and learn their stories and see the sights, I will share them with you.

Excited to be off…

Mary

Photos to share…

Kenya is a beautiful country.

Curious students gather around us.

The welcoming party at Kakamega Airstrip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             

Meeting with Bishop Oketch

 

Teachers participating in the training seminar

Group picture of teachers in the lst seminar

Teacher working together on trying a new instructional method

Our final week in Kenya

The last seminar…

The last teacher seminar took us to a remote rural area.  We bumped along dusty dirt roads past small homes, gardens and cows.   It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, but all of that changed as we rounded a curve and entered the village of Musoli on a busy market day.  The car could barely pass through the crowds selling vegetables and goods and the congestion of bikers and shoppers walking from stall to stall.

This time the host school for the seminar was a girls’ Catholic primary school, and the teachers who attended taught at nearby rural schools.  It is not a stretch to say that rural schools are the poorest of poor in resources and student populations,  and perhaps that made the teachers all the more eager to try the instructional strategies that we modeled and taught.  One strategy was two column note-taking.  Most African teachers write lengthy notes in paragraph form for weary students to copy, but not necessarily understand.  Two column notes are a departure from this style in every way, and it has been very popular with the teachers at the seminars.  The second day a teacher named William was late in arriving, and explained that he had stopped by his classroom to get his students started one two column notes before he came to the seminar.  The third day William brought his students’ exercise books with their first attempts at two column note-taking.  William was proud of the results and his enthusiasm was contagious as we all examined the good work of his students.  You can imagine that this experience with William’s success was very gratifying for Sue and me.  The last seminar was just as fun as the first one had been.

A visit to a Mothers’ Union Orphan Feeding Program…

I wanted to show my co-trainers, Sue and Jinx, a Saturday Orphan Feeding Program and friends from our last year’s stay helped arrange a visit.  If you scroll down the blogs to last year, you’ll see that I wrote a great deal about my admiration for the good work that the Mothers’ Union does in local Anglican churches each Saturday to help orphans.

We hired a driver and car and followed the directions to the church about twenty minutes out of the town of Kakamega.  We were greeted by women whom I recognized from last year and taken to see the vicar of the church and have tea.  On our tour we saw the children doing their lessons and visited the smoky room which served as the kitchen where a big kettle of beans bubbled away on a wood fire for the children’s lunch.  Two women were also plucking chickens, and I knew immediately that they were preparing them for our lunch.  Chicken is considered the food of hospitality, but we had not wanted this special attention or had planned to stay the several hours until lunch.  Obviously people had called ahead to tell of our coming, and now that it was being treated in such a special way, we were obligated to accept graciously.  In a quick conversation with Jim, Jinx, and Sue, we decided to go along with the events and see how it would unfold.

What unfolded was quite wonderful, because as soon as I abandoned my preconceived schedule I was able to enjoy the unhurried conversation with the ladies working that Saturday. We talked about their lives and their commitment in answering the call to help the orphans. Once again, I was humbled and inspired by how these women live out their faith.  The morning returned me to the lesson that I often have to revisit—that the most important gift that we have to give is ourselves—our time and attention.   It was a mutual exchange for we offered our encouragement, and they in turn sang for us and said eloquent prayers for our safe travel.  And yes, we had a lunch of ugali and chicken and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Some closing thoughts…

Jim and I brought over a thousand dollars of donations with us for helping in Kenya.  Over half of it has gone to help fund the expenses of the teacher seminars in the form of copying, food for teacher lunches, and fuel to travel from place to place.  We have given some to Phoebe House and Gladys, the director, was grateful for the help.  The Sunday school children of Faith Episcopal Church sent us with their Advent offering, and it will go for much needed repairs at a primary school.  I look forward to sharing the photos with them.  I believe that we have spent it well and the donations will help many people.

On Tuesday, February 1^st we leave Nairobi for London and have four days there to celebrate our anniversary and my birthday.  We are looking forward to this.

Thank you to all who have sent encouraging comments to us.  We liked hearing from you very much.  It has not been possible to post photos from here, but I am anxious to share some with you when I am back in California.

Home on Feb 6^th…..

Fondly,

Mary

 

A homecoming in Maseno

A homecoming in Maseno

Last Monday we returned to Maseno, the place where Jim and I had spent three months last year.  I have been anticipating this homecoming, and I was not disappointed.  We were heartily welcomed by all—the students and staff of St. Phillips and especially Nancy Hardison for whom we had worked during our previous stay.

The teacher training seminar in a nearby school went much like the first one with the teachers being receptive and enthusiastic about the instructional methods that we shared.  It was another good week for us.

With the emphasis on the teacher seminars, I was not sure if there would be time and opportunity to see some of the friends I had made in the Maseno community, but it turned out that I was able to re-connect with many.  The person whom I wished to see the most was Gladys of Phoebe House, and it is that visit which I would like to share with you.

Phoebe House

Last March I wrote a lot about Phoebe House.  To refresh your memories, it is a half way house to restore women and their children back to health after a hospital stay for HIV-Aids related medical incidents.  These women, most often widows who contracted HIV-Aids through their husbands, are shunned by their families and villages.  When we were here last year, Phoebe House was in its first few months of operation with its first two clients, Phoebe and Violet.

To return to Phoebe House and witness how it has evolved in a year was wonderful.  As Gladys, the director, explained, “We have four mamas and eighteen children.”  Each women and child has a story, and the stories are sad ones.  Here are two of them…

Jessica’s story:   Jessica is a widow, and she and her mentally challenged teen age son were destitute.  The dirt floor of her hut harbored jiggers, and both she and her son were afflicted by them.  A bad case of jggers (a small burrowing insect) can leave one severely sick and lame.  There were those in her community who stole from her, and she was often a victim of rape.  Gladys and the Board of Directors of Phoebe House rescued her and in a year’s time, Jessica’s son has been placed in a special school and is doing well.  During our visit, Jessica stood before us looking healthy and assured.  Nourishing food, positive socialization and personal safety has restored Jessica to wellness, and she is a participating member of Phoebe House.

The story of four orphans: Gladys introduced us to four orphan siblings living at Phoebe House.  The oldest child is a girl about eleven and she has three younger brothers.  The girl found Gladys and begged for food, and after seeing the appalling situation in which the children lived, Phoebe House took them in.  The mother of the children died and the father ran away.  There was no grandmother to take over which is often what happens.  The grandfather was a drunkard and abused the children.  The eleven year old girl was trying to find food and take care of her brothers.  Things have been very different for them since coming to Phoebe House.  The day we visited, the girl and two of her brothers had just returned from primary school.  They looked cared for in their school uniforms, and it was unimaginable to think about the precarious life from which they had been rescued.

A new role model: On the wall of the office of Phoebe House there are hand lettered posters which tell of the mission of Phoebe House—to help the marginalized of the community.  Gladys was eager to share the accounting book with us which shows how the monies were spent that Faith Episcopal Church of Cameron Park sent last year.  She is proud of the Kenyan Government certificate that makes Phoebe House officially an NGO.  Jim and I are impressed by the careful record keeping and transparency in which Phoebe House is being run.  In a country where the poor and marginalized are disregarded and shunned, Phoebe House stands as a role model in their vision to make a difference for people who have no place to turn.

The future goals: The next phase of Phoebe House is to develop training for the women who stay there, so that when ready, they can be trained for a job or starting a small business and become independent and on their own.

Jim and I were inspired by the compassionate work of Gladys and the Board.  Mother Theresa is credited with saying “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”  How accurately that quote describes what is evolving at Phoebe House.

One more teacher training to go.  We leave this afternoon for another part of the Anglican Diocese.  All is well with us and we pray for you, also.

Mary

 

 

 

Reflections on our first teacher training

Last Wednesday, five months of planning came together and with some nervousness Sue, my co-trainer, and I began the first day.  We found that the teachers were eager and glad to be with us.  Their willingness to participate in the lessons contributed to a classroom culture that was dynamic and interactive.  The teachers came from several different schools and some had taken more than one bus to be with us each day.  Armed with handouts, chart paper, and chalk for the well used black board, Sue and I led lessons on teaching vocabulary, making nonfiction and fiction comprehensible and using graphic organizers to help sort and understand information.  The teachers themselves became writers, as we assigned writing topics and modeled how to create peer writing groups.  The time passed quickly and the days were truly fun.

During the second day, I was demonstrating on the board how to create a concept chart to help students understand a big idea.  From a fictional story, we had chosen the topic of migration.  The concept chart includes examples and non-examples, and one of the examples of migration given was wildebeest.   By accident, I wrote “wildebreast” much to the amusement of all of us.  There is nothing like shared laughter to create a sense of community.

At the end of the training, teachers remarked that they were amazed that Sue and I never “collided” with one another.  What they meant was how seamlessly we work together, taking turns presenting and adding remarks.  The compatibility between Sue and me is a bonus that has added much to this experience.  I didn’t know that coming to Kenya would result in finding a new friend from Oregon.

Sue and I had many opportunities to talk to teachers one on one about their schools and classrooms.  One woman has over fifty 1^st graders, but shared this without complaint and commented that it was difficult, but that the children were good.  Spoken like a true teacher.  In fact, that was the attitude of all the teachers—it is very difficult, but they care for their students and enjoy what they do.

Once again, Kenyans humble and inspire me.  Last year it was the ladies of the Mothers’ Union and their work with orphans that I admired so much, and now it is the teachers and their dedication.  I am grateful for this opportunity to be in Kenya.

Sending you my good thoughts and prayers,

Mary

Settling into our visit to Kenya

“Thank you for uplifting my community with clean water…”

The above words were expressed by a group of families last Sunday who were beneficiaries of a new well.  We were invited to come along with Rod and Patricia Crossley, our hosts here in Kenya, to the ceremony where a new well was officially handed over.  We were greeted with songs, prayers of thanksgiving, and speeches expressing gratitude.  Before this well was installed, women and children had to walk far from home for water of very poor quality.  The Crossley’s nonprofit organization known as TEMBO—the African word for elephant and also the acronym for teaching, empowering, mentoring and building opportunities–had provided the expertise, labor, and materials for the new well.  In return the community assumes the responsibility for the well’s future upkeep.  There were enthusiastic cheers when the first jerry cans of water were collected.

We were not done celebrating though, and proceeded farther taking turns which led us down increasingly narrow dirt tracks until we arrived at a compound of mud houses with an eager crowd waiting for us.  More prayers and speeches and orange Fanta soda began another ceremony of handing over a well.  This time the well benefits thirty-six families, with each family assessed a small fee for monthly maintenance of the well, but with the fees waived for widows and orphans.

What a full and feel good Sunday it was, this first Sunday since returning to Kenya.  It had begun by our going to church with great top tapping, hand clapping music, and followed by being witnesses to the joy of two communities receiving clean water.  In the speeches this joy was expressed by saying that the well had uplifted them to clean water.   Seeing two groups of people have their lives changed by assessable, clean water was uplifting for us, also.

Monday, Jan 10^th began with appointments to the offices of government officials to be introduced.  First stop was the mayor’s office for speeches, and the meeting and greeting of many members of the city council, as well as the mayor who is addressed by the title of “your worship.”  Next stop was the office of the Provincial Education Minister.  By the end of the day, we had been totally and officially introduced and welcomed, and now it feels like the real work can begin.

Sue, my co-presenter for language arts, and I have been gathering impressions and information about schools, and today revised some of our plans for the teacher training seminars to fit the new information that we have discovered.  We are ready and anxious to begin on Wednesday, knowing that we will learn as much as we teach.

In closing, I will share a funny moment.  In the midst of the many speeches today at the mayor’s office, Pat and Rod Crossley were told by the City Clerk that TEMBO, the name of their NGO, besides meaning elephant in Swahili also means any kind of alcohol.  That was new and surprising information to Pat and Rod.