This is most likely the last blog entry from here in Kenya. We have all been really tired after we get back to the place where we are staying, so we have been keeping up with the blog as well as we should be.
Anyways enough with the excuses; lets start with Friday. Considering the fact that we culminated all of our activities with the women’s rights organization and FIDA on Wednesday and Thursday, we spent the entire day working with the kids at the school on Friday. The first think that really struck me was just how long the children are actually in school. They get there at 8:00am and school is not over until 4:00pm. I don’t ever remember my school days being that long when I was that age. I also find it very interesting how eager the kids are to learn. Whenever you put up some sort of problem on the board, they just want to keep working. For instance, today lunch was delayed for the class that we were working with for 20 minutes because they wanted to keep working on the problems that were put up on the board. I have worked with kids in the USA, and they generally don’t seem that excited about learning.
Although things are different in many ways, they are also remarkably similar. One of the girls that Chris was working with had great answers to the questions that were being presented during a class session, but she was really shy about presenting them in front of her classmates. The same sort of thing happens, with our conflict resolution program that we do at a middle school back in Philadelphia. The great thing about us being here though is that because there are so many of us, we can help the teachers recognize which of there students are really gifted.
There was nothing particularly notable about Thursday’s work at the school, but lunch was very interesting. Since it was our last day working with the kids at the school, the staff wanted to send us off with a special farewell. They slaughtered two chickens right there in front of us, and that was our lunch. Lunch was actually bittersweet though. Although the food tasted great, Jacob, the director of the program, was explaining to us that many of the kids won’t have the opportunity to eat chicken a single time this year. Many of them only have the one meal a day that the school offers and nothing else. Jacob also explained to us the high prevalence of HIV in the school, that most of the children are orphans and most of their families have no access to income. With that in mind we ate to be respectful, but tried to leave a lot of chicken, so that the kids or the staff could get some.
We interviewed two of the teachers, once school was over and prepared to make our way back into town. In order to get back and forth, we have to ride in this large van that acts as a taxi (Matutu) and then take a ferry across some body of water. I think its a part of the Indian Ocean. Today, when we got out of the Matutu, where we catch the ferry, Chris realized that he had left his wallet in the vehicle. The Matutu disappeared and he chased after a few Matutus but never found his wallet.
We went back into town and played some cards. Then we came back to Jacob’s house for dinner. We had some really good crab. The crab here is really inexpensive when compared to prices in the states and more fresh. Everyone was really full after dinner, so we hung out for a little while and then prepared to go on Safari Today.
Today’s Safari was a lot of fun. We got the opportunity to see a bunch of different animals, including lions, giraffes, warthogs, gazelles, antelope, ostrich etc. Although it was really cool to see the animals in their natural habitat and get that close to them, the most interesting experience of the day, was visiting the village of one of Kenya’s indigenous people. They are called the Maasai people. The locals here in Kenya describe the Maasai as warriors. From visiting their village, I can see why. They live in very primitive homes that they build from sticks cow dung and dirt. They also make fire without any matches or lighter and one of the men was explaining, that once men turn 30, they are taken out into the Bush to kill a lion. To do this they use a spear, a knife and a club made of wood. The man that we were talking to, boasted that he had killed two lions in his life time.
If you are interested in learning more about the Maasai people there is an interesting link here:
After the Safari and visit with the Maasai, we came home and are resting. We plan on doing an interview with Jacob tonight for the documentary we plan on making and then going out for one last time. Then tomorrow our flight leaves at 3:30 in the afternoon and we will begin our 27 hours of travel.
Its been an unbelievable experience. We came here with the idea of teaching the people, but I think that we have learned a lot from being here. There is so much poverty here, and people are trying to find out a way to get by. Of course there are people begging, but there are also a lot more people out there trying to figure out some way to get by no matter what it takes. For instance, every day we see men who run barefoot and shirtless through the streets pulling a wheel barrel full of water containers that they sell for the equivalent of a couple of dollars. Many can’t find work but they come across on the ferry everyday to try to find something that they can do to provide for their families. It has been a privilege being here and we hope that this will be the beginning of a prolonged relationship between UPenn BLSA and the people of the Mtongwe community. Kenya has a progressive constitution (and bill of rights), but in the end, without help to implement the document, it amounts to nothing more than words on a piece of paper. There is work to be done and I think we can and should help.
This is “THE CREW” signing out from Kenya.
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