A week off

This week has been interesting. The Members of Parliament voted as to whether laptop funds should be reallocated to teachers' salaries, and voted against it 98-75.  No end in site. Some students have started study groups to teach themselves so they don't fall behind private schools. Some classrooms have been filled with cows as students are made to work for their parents during their time off.

On the other hand, I've discovered I get a little homesick when I'm in a foreign country and am not kept busy. And when all of the other interns leave for 10 days, it gets worse. Well, Monday I'm back at Logos, and that'll keep me occupied until everyone is back.

I was actually able to do something yesterday. I went to a developing day care in Dandora, a part of Nairobi with the highest crime rate. The daycare, run by Nairobi Chapel, is the type of place I would actually really love to work with. It hasn't been around long-- they are trying to buy a new plot of land to expand from Preschool-8th grade. Right now they've made it up to 2nd Grade.

Since it is a private school, the students pay tuition to go and the school gets no money from the government. They hope, with the new plot of land, to become self-sustaining in time. Right now every student has to pay 200ksh a month, the equivalent of $2.33. The school is located in an area that this is actually a struggle for some parents to pay. The money doesn't actually fund much at the school, but it holds the parents responsible for their kids' education.

Besides that, Emily and the rest of the interns at Nairobi Chapel (ie all of my friends here) have gone for a 10 day missions trip to Kitale. It's made my time off even more boring... but a 40 minute FaceTime with the family is always good for boosting the spirits. The extra sleep has been ok too.

Strike!

Well my internship has taken an interesting turn. I have been in schools for the past month... and now the teachers are on strike. Every public school in Kenya is closed (and the Private school I was at is on midterm break.)

There are 2 unions in Kenya-- KNUT (Kenya Union of Teachers) and KUPPET (Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers). Kuppet called a strike last week for secondary schools. Many teachers listen to them, but if KNUT calls a strike, everyone listens. If a school tries to continue holding session after KNUT calls a strike, they will have people protesting outside the school. Yesterday began KNUT's strike for all Primary schools. 12 million children are now not going to school.

Many of the students who aren't going to school now don't live in places that they really want to spend all day. That puts them out on the street, which is exactly what the government has been doing a good job at stopping. 10 years ago they enacted free primary education, and it's gotten a lot of kids off the street. But right now they don't really have anywhere to go. Walking to and from the mall yesterday, there were a lot more kids out begging than there usually are. 

Loosely the way school works here: pretty much upper class kids go to British or American schools, Upper/Middle class goes to Private schools, and everyone who can't afford that goes to public school. So it's only really the lower class kids who are out of school now-- the underprivileged kids who don't have an equal chance to begin with.  

So why are the teachers protesting? It's only slightly complicated. They want money. They've been trying to get increased stipends for housing, commuting, and medical expenses. They now know that the money exists because the Government has started a laptop program for students and has set aside a good amount of money for that program. The program, though, is a little reckless. It is rather haphazardly giving laptops to every form 1 student and teachers are afraid of what will happen with those laptops. It is likely they will end up stolen, mistreated, lost, or sold. Instead of giving the students laptops without a plan, the teachers want more money for themselves, or for the government to hire more teachers. They think that with the increase of teachers, or with teachers paid more, the students could actually use the laptops and be trained how to take care of them.

These strikes have lasted for long periods of time before, even to the point of interfering with national tests. There's a chance this one will go on even longer. KNUT has had 6 strikes and subsequent talks with the government since 1997. Each time they've been promised more money, and each time the government hasn't followed through. The teachers have promised not to go back to school until this is actually resolved. But, of course, the government is saying that KNUT has "unsustainable demands" and that there is a "huge budget deficit".

We'll see how long this lasts this time. I'll go back to Logos Christian School, the Private school, on Monday and be there until this strike ends or I go home. I'd really like to see more of Kawangware Public, so hopefully it won't last too long. Watching the news about all this is really interesting though. 

I also spent this last weekend in Mombasa and just posted about it if you're curious :)

Mombasa! (Ooh, say it again!)

Mombasa!! Emily (my roommate and fellow intern) and I went to Mombasa this weekend. Mombasa is a coastal city, a vacation spot, and also a tourist place. The first night we got in late and headed to a hotel. It was a really nice place we let ourselves splurge a bit to get. I had my first shower with running water in a month, we had Wi-Fi, there was a pool, it was on the beach, the food was fantastic… We went to the restaurant attached to the hotel and had dinner. We stayed there until late, and then decided to go swimming at 1:30am. People thought we were crazy (it’s winter here) but it was a warm night and we had fun. Made it to bed by 4am.

Sunday we went to church at Trinity Chapel, a church plant of Nairobi Chapel. Emily knows people from there, other interns that used to work at Nairobi Chapel. We met up with some of them and went to the beach. I’ve now been in 3/5 oceans of the world and Emily and I ran into the Indian Ocean. We also pet a camel, wandered the beach for a while, and then headed to town. We wandered around town for a while, did some tourist-y things. Then we went back to a friend’s place, watched a movie, and had dinner. It was an incredible way to spend my 21^st birthday.

The next day we started off our day in the sunshine, tanning. I got a bit of color, but it rained most of the rest of the day. We went to Fort Jesus, and old British Fort built a long time ago. We had a tour guide take us around Old Town. He showed us the old slave tunnel, the ports, told us the history of the area, and then took us to some cool shops. Emily and I both got a pair of Masai sandals and some other trinkets. Because of the rain, we skipped the ferry and went to the market, stopping for coconut along the way. Picked up some snacks for the journey home (peanut butter Oreos!) and headed back.

All in all, the weekend was absolutely incredible. I took about a million pictures (check Facebook for some of them) and had a bunch of new experiences. I had so much fun and am so glad that I got to go. 

A New Role

For my first week and a half at Logos, I worked in my Grade 2 class, observing, teaching, learning. The past 3 days I've worked with the older kids.

Wednesday I was at 2 different schools-- a public school where I spent time with grade 8, and a private high school where I interacted outside the classroom with a bunch of students.

Thursday and Friday I was with Grade 7 and taught an hour of science to Grade 6 (with only 20 minutes prep, I'll have you know.) Friday I wasn't planning on being with them anymore, but my Grade 7 grabbed me and told me they were making a chocolate cake on a giko (basically a small gas stove that uses charcoal). I was fascinated to see how it would turn out, so I tagged along and helped out. And I must say, though it took longer than it otherwise might have, it didn't turn out bad! They also might have followed the recipe closer, but it was fun. After a morning spent baking cake (and sitting in on the rest of their lessons), I had a meeting with their principal, Ms. Clara, whom I've met with before. 

Ms. Clara is the one who has helped me organize this internship at the school and is the primary person I emailed while still in the states. She knows a lot about the Kenyan education system (obviously) so I've learned a lot from her. We talked for over an hour yesterday (and even longer the Friday before) about it and I have such a deeper understanding because of it. Talks with her have been invaluable.

Fridays we get out of school early and I was so exhausted I was excited to get home early. With an exclamation from one of the teachers, "Let's start this weekend early!" we pulled out of the school, up the road, and the bus jerked a few times and broke down. Hooray. A few minutes of keeping the kids entertained later the other bus pulled up and we packed it full with all the kids. It was so crowded and we eventually surrendered to the noise. We then had twice the number of kids to drop off and my stop is one of the last stops. So much for getting home early.

Monday I start at a new school, a public school in the slum of Kawangware, so that'll be interesting. Prayers please for that experience. And for energy-- I'm sleeping 8 hours most nights and am still exhausted by the end of each week. Other than that, I'm giving thanks for the incredible opportunities I've had and for the things I've learned.

(This is a giko)

2 weeks in!

My time here is flying by! I feel like I've been here for a year and also like I've been here for a day. But I'm 1/4 done with my time here, and that's weird too.

I've now been in Logos Christian school for a week and a half, and will be there for two more days before I move to a different school in Kawangware. I'm also starting to experience different grades and classes, which has been nice. I will be in a class 8 on Friday, teaching science (eek). This morning I was in a different school with Emily, teaching Bible in a class 8 public school.

On Sunday we (Emily, Mark, Jerry, and I [Mark and Jerry are interns at Nairobi Chapel]) went to the Global Gospel Assembly in Uhuru park downtown, which was cool. Daniel Kolenda, part of Christ for All Nations, was preaching to the 220,000 people in the park. He prayed for healing over the crowd and then had testimonies come forward from people who have been healed (this has been going on all week.) We heard from a woman who was cured of AIDs, of someone who received sight, and from a woman healed of breast cancer! The crowd was going crazy, but we didn't get to stay and hear more-- it was getting dark and we needed to get home.

Sunday morning I helped in the Sunday School class-- it's a little different from Lighthouse, which I'm used to. There were 42 kids in the class I was in charge of, and the tent we were in was prone to birds wandering in. I can deal with kids, but that many 4-5 year olds made me crazy.

I'm excited for the exposure to a public school which I get starting next week. I've also learned a bit about Special Education and what they call "Special Schools" here-- and I want to learn more. Most schools will turn away a student with disabilities, and Special Schools are not a place any parent would want their child. Logos has some special ed students, and those students are generally in the classroom (they use an immersion-type learning) but have a few hours in a special ed setting each week.

Prayer points: My stomach decided to throw a temper tantrum on Monday. It's ok now, but I'm being careful about what I eat. I also want to be able to explore Special Education more here and how it is handled. If you would pray that I could see what these children suffer through, that would be incredible.

Monkeys in the Schoolyard!

I started school this week!

On Monday I went to Logos Christian School, which is a Private Christian school that was started by Nairobi Chapel. They're pretty independent at this point, though. I'm in Ms. Elizabeth's grade 2 class of 20 7 and 8 year olds. They're awesome.

I wake every morning at 5:40 (I know, crazy. It's summer!) to catch the school bus by 6:40. We get to school by 8am, when school starts. Class all day, then we get out at 3:20. I'm usually home by 5 (again with the long school bus ride). I'm hoping to start taking public transport in the afternoons, but Mama Kate hasn't shown me how to get back from there yet, and that's part of the city I don't know. It is, however, right next to the State House where the President lives! I'm actually about 2 blocks from the equivalent of Penn. Ave! Today we were stuck on the bus an extra 30 minutes because everyone had to clear the road so he could drive past!

I've taught some (mostly English and Math. Seriously. Math.) and yesterday Ms. Elizabeth was feeling sick, so I got the class for the end of the day. Eek! But they're all so well behaved it wasn't a big problem. Also, as of yesterday afternoon, I know all of their names (yes, even Nyaboke and Kwambata!). (also, check out my facebook album for pictures of all of them!) I've been able to fall into a bit of a routine with the school already, which has been nice as well. Time with them is already flying!

The kids are also teaching me some Kiswahili, which is going as slowly as children teaching someone who doesn't learn languages easily is expected to go. But I'm learning!

I also got to talk with Ms. Clara, the principal, today for over an hour about schools and Kenya and the education system.

I get to stay here for another week, then I'll move to a public school in the slum of Kawangware for 2 weeks. My last 3 1/2 weeks I will decide what I want to do-- I'll probably spend one more week with Kawangware and my last 2.5 weeks with Logos again... but we'll see!

We also finally have running water for the first time since before I got here. Apparently a main water line to the city burst and there's been no water to most of the city for almost 2 weeks... and life went on.

I expect to have internet on Wednesdays, and either Fridays or Saturdays (I probably won't do both.) Don't hold your breath for me, but you might see me around in the morning for you (it's evening for me). But the sun is setting and I should get home for dinner! (I'm crossing my fingers for Chapatti!)

AFLEWO

Last night, Emily (my roommate) and I headed out with some other interns and attended an all night worship session called AFLEWO (short for Africa Let's Worship, an annual worship session). It began at 4pm last night, we got there at 9pm, and it went until 6am. We left around 5:30am. It was pretty incredible.

It was in the Winner's Chapel (awesome name, right?!), which seats about 27,000. And it was full to the brim-- there were people standing in the aisles and the back. There was a lot of singing, but also a good amount of prayer, of blessing the country in it's year of Jubilee, and of commissioning the people to go out. I am not sure if I was hearing people speaking in tongues at points, or if there were just so many different African languages being spoken that I couldn't differentiate between them.

Speaking of languages, about half the songs that we sang were in Swahili, which I understood approximately 0% of. That's not true. I understood Baba (father), Yesu (Jesus)... and I think that was it. Now, however, I have a handy translator app on my phone, right next to the currency exchange app. Huzzah for technology!

Today is a pretty awesome day as well. It's the 50th birthday of the Nation of Kenya, as well as the birthday in the year of Jubilee. Kenya has declared this whole year a new year, a new dawn, in the nation. With new leadership (and a transition that didn't include violence!), Kenya is trying to make this year something special. It's so cool to be a part of that!!

Well I gotta head back for dinner soon (I know, some of you are probably getting breakfast now), but check out the pictures in my album "There and Back Again" on facebook to see a few shots of the place. It was pretty incredible. I have videos of it, which I'll try to upload later! Also, if you want to know more about AFLEWO, check out the link below.

http://www.aflewo.com/2013/