Hamjambo,
Last night, we arrived in Bungoma after two days of traveling! The directors, Stephen and Teresa, are such incredible people and so welcoming. They and their nine children have gone out of their way to make us feel comfortable in their home. I have a roomy single (while the girls have to share a similar sized room, ha). The food they prepare for us is delicious. They actually slaughtered one of their cows for us, and every meal has multiple fruits and vegetables along with it. The only not adequate facility is the bathroom, but who really cares when you’re in Kenya?
Our trip went extremely smoothly. When we arrived in Britain, Laura and I decided to go to London for a few hours. We visited Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the War Cabinets, and Trafalgar Square. We didn’t have time to visit museums and go on a guided tour, but we did pay a cab driver a few pounds to take us to the major sites, and I feel we did as well as possible considering the limited time. We celebrated the New Year on the plane to Nairobi. The view on plane ride from Nairobi to Kisumu was beautiful. Don’t worry; it was not too small (it had more than one engine), and the pilot and crew were very good. The takeoff and landing were the smoothest of all the flights.
Unfortunately, Wema’s bus broke down so Stephen and Teresa arrived a few hours late to pick us up from the airport in Kisumu. Next to the airstrip is a town square where children gather and play. We all decided to wait there and play with the children. Word about us spread, and over fifty children joined us. I took out the football I brought, and we and the children started passing it rugby style. We also played card games with them and met some of their parents. Everyone was so thankful for our time, and many kept saying “don’t forget us.”
When Stephen and Teresa arrived with their friend and his car, there was not enough room for all of us so I went with Stephen and Teresa back on six different vans to Bungoma. The vans, which were meant to hold about 12 people, were filled to the max. The most crowded one I traveled on had 22 people with several hanging out the windows. The roads are terrible and have huge potholes, and the trip took over four hours. I actually enjoyed it, as I’ve never had that wild a travel experience.
On the trip Stephen and Teresa explained to me the history and current state of Highway Academy and Wema. Stephen and Teresa, both teachers, established Highway Academy in 1999 because they found the conditions at the local public schools terrible. The average class has 120 students, and students become discouraged from attending. Their goal at Highway Academy was to provide smaller classes (of around 30 students) where students are encouraged to learn in a supportive environment that stresses education is the key to their success. In the early 2000s, the AIDS crisis hit Western Kenya, and many of the students attending the school became orphans. Stephen and Teresa bought five more acres and built new facilities.
Today, the facilities are inadequate, and their only funding is from parents who can afford to pay and their own funds. Wema's main goal is to build new boarding facilities because many of the students live in the school, which is illegal and the government has requested they build dorms as soon as possible. They would also like to build a dining hall. Currently, they have 106 orphans and approximately 300 more day students. There are about 30 teachers. In 2010, one of their students was the top scorer in the Western Province on the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. Overall, they were the second highest scoring school in Western Province, and in 2009, they were third.
Today, we discussed what we could contribute to the school. We plan on creating a Paypal account so that they can accept donations. We think that a sponsor-a-child program for the orphans could be very successful. We intend to start contacting NGOs from whom they have previously applied for aid. Wema has never received funding from an NGO since most are unwilling to trust a school run by Africans.
Tomorrow we start teaching academic classes. It’s the first day (the school year starts in January). We will start a leadership program, where the top students in each grade will learn about HIV/AIDS prevention from us and then teach their fellow students. We hope that this can continue when we leave. We’re working on translating all of their documents into good English. We’re going to institute an arts and crafts program (the girls brought supplies), and a revamped PE program. We’ll teach the directors how to use a computer (their eldest two children in university are the only ones who know how to use it well) so that they can update their website and correspond with different organizations. We will also teach the eldest students computer literacy, as it’s a necessary skill to get a good job in Kenya, and we hope that they will teach the younger kids when they leave. The school has a few old computers.
We attended the orphanage’s church service. It was wonderful. The children sang many songs, and Stephen, who also acts as the reverend, praised the Lord for bringing us here. I have never received such elaborate and undeserved praise, but I did slightly enjoy hearing it. We were formally introduced to the kids, and Meredith played the guitar and sang while Sara read her favorite verses from the Bible. We went into town to buy internet cards. In Kenya, you pay for the amount of time you spend online and the number of downloads you complete. The internet is expensive and very slow, so I’ll have to download photos separately, and I may only download a few when I’m here.
When we came back, we played sports with the orphans. I introduced American football to the kids who love it. We also played baseball with the kids, taught them games like Duck Duck Goose, and competed in relay races. I had so much fun. It’s similar to being a camp counselor, though ten times harder and tiring, because there are so many kids. We took a break and went on a run with Abraham, Stephen’s and Teresa’s oldest son, who is eighteen, and I’ve become very good friends with. Many children, some of whom were extremely young and barefoot, joined us as we ran past their houses. The young ones alternated holding my hand the entire time during the approximately 5 km run. I have never enjoyed a run so much in my life, and as we passed people they smiled and cheered us on. By the end of our run, there were over fifty children with us. There also must be something in this water because some of these children were as young as three, and they were able to keep up with us the whole time.
I want to apologize for the typos and grammar in the blog. I have limited time, and the internet is slow and very difficult to navigate. Also, I’ve received many questions on how I got involved with Wema. Laura befriended Stephen’s brother, who was the security guard for her Yale summer school program in Mombasa. The guard arranged for Stephen to meet Laura, and he begged her to visit the orphanage with her friends. I promise I’m as safe as I have ever been so please don’t worry at all. I’m having such a great time, and wouldn’t trade this weather for anything.
Wako mwaminifu,
Alex
No comments:
Post a Comment