Visiting Another School

I had the opportunity to join a few year 7's on a school trip to a school in the Kibera neighbourhood. The students had made educational posters they wanted to bring and there were some desks in the back of the truck. It was a very good place to experience. In some ways, it couldn't have been more different than Canada, but in other ways it was really the same.

We drove as far in as the truck and van could go, and then we walked the rest of the way to the school. Through out the walk, we were greeted with a chorus of "How are you? How are you?" from many cute kids. Most people were very friendly and welcoming towards us, and I got to practice a little bit of my kiswahili.

The house contruction is very innovative - some buildings were made of branches as reinforcing rod and mud as concrete, while others were made of every different kind of scrap metal you could imagine with plastic bags to fill in cracks. The colours we passed as we walked would be beautiful in an oil painting: the yellow bananas, green hills in the distance, rust on the grey metal, the array of colours painted on the houses, and the red red dirt tying everything together. I couldn't bring myself to photograph any reference pictures for a painting, however, because something about photographs felt disrespectful - it would have been as if I was reducing a person to some advertising image for an ngo. So I just walked and greeted the people I met with my shaky kiswahili.

The damage we do as humans to our world was not covered up here. At home, I make all sorts of garbage, but I put it in a neat black bag and it all disappears magically on wednesday mornings. In Kibera, the option of making our waste invisible isn't there. The smell of burning garbage sending dangerous fumes up to the ozone and the piles of plastics that will take hundreds of thousands of years to decompose in nature reminded me to pay more attention to how I treat the world that God has given us to be stewards of.

On our way to the school, we stopped at a place where people were making beautiful bone carvings. They buy the bone that would have gone to waste at a restaurant, cut it, grind it down into the desired shape, dye it and polish it. They are very skilled artisans who are not paid nearly enough for the quality of their work. I have a lovely little giraffe to show you from them when I get home.

After a bit, we arrived at the school. Three local teachers were in the middle of lessons with a group of very sweet children. A bit of a funny story - they were showing us around and telling us about the improvements that had been made - the roof had been added, the dirt floor had been replaced with a nice concrete one, etc. But the funniest improvement they pointed out was the corner of the main classroom - apparently an old woman had used to live there, and they'd finally convinced her to move out, lol. I can just picture it - this little old lady living in the corner of the school.

The school was very simple with the same architecture of the houses, so it didn't look like a Canadian school of course. But the neat thing for me was that the smiles on the kids faces and the looks in their eyes were full of the same hope and care for eachother that kids can have anywhere in the world. And maybe that's all we really need in education and in life - hopeful eyes and care for eachother.

Impending Good-byes

I'm trying so hard to imagine that I have more than two short days left at Brookhouse - I really don't like good-byes. I'm going to miss all the little ones in year one and reception who give me the best clump hugs. I'll miss my little year one boy who has autism and gives me the biggest smiles when I walk into his classroom, reaches up so sweetly for my hand, and teaches me how to jump over cracks. I'm going to miss my year 4 boy with down's who is always excited to help teach his class. And I'll miss my students from out-of-class learning support who throw themselves 100% into my ridiculous literacy games and drawings and don't give up even when when I give them tough material. I'm really going to miss all the wonderful teachers who welcomed me so kindly to Brookhouse. Everyone made me feel so at home in such a different school than I'm used to.

I'm especially going to miss Irene, Mumo, Mwema and Jayna. I couldn't have stayed with a kinder family.

 Irene and Mumo have bent over backwards to welcome me and show me their lovely country. They've taught me so much about the culture, and even encouraged my feeble kiswahili attempts. They've also really encouraged me in my faith - they are such wise Christians, and I've learned so much from watching how they live their life following Christ even in the short time I've stayed with them.

I'm really going to miss Jayna's perpetual laughter about everything she sees. She is such a fun bright and sweet girl. It was so great to cheer her on at the swimming gala today - she was the only competitor that had a huge smile on her face the whole time she was swimming.

I'm very much going to miss Mwema's inquisitive mind and quiet sense of humour. I really think that Mwema must be related to me and Dave - he reminds me so much of Dave and I as kids. He has a "torch" (flashlight) collection, not for the purpose of using the torches, but for the purpose of taking them all apart and figuring out how they work. He's constantly exploring and finding out what happens if... He also loves art, and learns so fast - he's truly the ideal student - he's creative, bright, inquisitive and loves to learn. It will be so hard to say good-bye to such a wonderful family - it makes me sad already.

But at the same time, I also miss my wonderful Kels, my fabulous family, lovely housemates, and my dear friends at home in Canada and Janet in the UK too. I wish we could shrink the world a little more and see all these wonderful people often. I feel like my heart is stretched across the ocean and it's a bit sore from the stretching.

Lovely Lakes and Wildlife

Thursday was an interesting day for teaching. In one of my morning classes, I had a challenging situation with a student that left me feeling pretty down about my teaching ability. However, one of my year 3's cheered me up in the afternoon. He searched all over the school to find me because I wasn't teaching in his class that particular day, he had to give me a birthday gift bag because it was his birthday. It was very cute, and reminded me of the side of kids that I love.

Now, before I go on, I must correct myself - Jayna taught me the other day that I have been saying "Ken-ya" rather than the correct pronunciation "Ke-nya", so I shall try to think the right pronunciation as I type from here on :) On Friday, I got to join Jayna and the other year 1's on their class trip to Bomas of Kenya (pronounced correctly this time). Bomas had various examples of some of the different types of traditional homes in Kenya. The kids were very funny and cute - it was lots of fun to explore a new place with them.

 

Of course, I also couldn't help but photograph some of the beautiful trees here as well:

Right after school, we left for Lake Naivasha! I took a few photos of the drive - the first photo shows a bit of my daily drive to school and the beautiful red dirt that you can see everywhere here (Dad, you would love this dirt for your garden!). The second photo is one of the many Nairobi artisans who have shops on the sides of the road. The third is one of several little towns we passed on the highway to Naivasha. The last is the great rift valley as we drove down from Nairobi into the valley.

As we were driving to our campsite, we saw my first giraffe standing right on the edge of the road happily munching away. He was so stately and beautiful.

We arrived at Fishermans camp right on the edge of Lake Naivasha just after the sun went down. And I discovered a very interesting thing about camping in Kenya - it never dawned on me the great advantage of late evening daylight for camping in Canada. At home, it's never an issue to set up tent and prepare dinner before the sun goes down because if you're camping in the summer, it will be light out quite late. But here, the sun sets at the same time every day, and it was quite a challenge to get set up and cook in the dark!

That evening, three hippos came right up to the electric fence around our campsite! They are such funny animals - grunting and munching under the stars. It was my first night to see the stars as well! It's been cloudy most nights, but it was finally clear, and the sky was very beautiful. Orion was in the middle rather than on the horizon, and all the stars sparkled beautifully looking up through the acacia trees. It was one of those evenings when I missed my favourite Kelsea a lot.

The next morning, we were woken up by a gazillion different birds chirping away. The campsite was lovely in the morning sun.

After a very tasty breakfast, we drove to Hell's Gate National Park. As soon as we drove through the gate into the park, we were greeted by three ostrich, who stayed in that same field all day to say goodbye as we left. Just around the bend, we came across a herd of buffalo, some thompson gazelle and a warthog family all together. I was so surprised to see how comfortable the animals are with eachother.

The rock formations were incredible there as well as the animals.

After the lovely drive, we arrived at the gorge where we could hike. I was fortunate to have my hiking boots as the gorge was a little muddy and the terain a bit of a challenging climb. The rocks were absolutely incredible. The way the water carved the rock was absolutely phenomenal.

I need to look up the type of rock when I get home - it's very soft almost like chalk and yellowish. Mwema carved his name into the rock the last time he was here, and he was actually able to find his name again! 

 Throughout the gorge were also many amazing hot springs - and "hot" was no exaggeration! I couldn't keep my hand in the water for more than a second!

The clouds started to gather and we heard thunder. It's a scary feeling to be in the base of a gorge with an impending rain storm, so we quickly headed out of the gorge. The view from the top was equally beautiful to that at the bottom. And we made it nearly all the way back before the large drops of rain started to fall. We had to run the last little bit to escape the rain, so now I can say that I have run with Kenyans - which means I must be really fast, right? I even piggybacked a Kenyan runner... (we can leave out the part about her being six years old, hehe)

 

We continued to drive through the park as it began to rain. Everything was just as lovely in the rain as it had been in the sunshine earlier that morning, and my skin appreciated the break from applying sunscreen every hour.

We saw a few more animals in the rain. Unfortunately, these giraffe were a little scared of these weird creatures holding umbrellas. 

Here, they call pedestrian crossings on the road "zebra crossings" because of the painted stripes on the road. So of course, I had to photograph a zebra crossing :)

And we saw this hartbeast stuck on a very steep part of the hill trying to scramble up. He was so embarrassed to have been noticed in such an awkward position that he quicking sorted himself out and hurried to the top of the hill, where he glared at us for catching him at the wrong moment.

Eventually, the sun came out and there was a lovely rainbow over the mountains.

On the way out of the park, Jayna and Mwema practiced for their 16th birthday...

And a few baboons bid us fairwell at the gate.

Soon we were on our way back to our campsite for dinner. The landscape was so beautiful as we drove away.

The next morning, we got up early, packed up our tent and drove to Lake Nakuru. It's funny how quickly things become normal. We passed the usual cattle on the side of the road, donkeys with no obvious owner, 2 adults and 3 children all piled on one tiny motorcycle with the oldest child driving - and it doesn't stand out the same way it did when I first arrived. We were joking that when I go back to Canada, I'll see all these animals behind fences and think "Why can't those poor animals roam free across the roads at their leisure?" 

With the bumpiness of the roads, my stomach had some trouble, but Mumo was very kind and let me drive to help my stomach feel better. So I got to try driving on the wrong side of the road through the busy streets and over the challenging roads in the park. Dave - with the way you navigate snow and ice, you would have had a lot of fun figuring out how to make it up the loose rock and dirt on steep hills.

The gate to Lake Nakuru was a bit tricky to find, but Mumo explained that the lack of signage is really a benefit to Kenyan culture - you have to stop and talk to people. You can't live your individual life without ever encountering another person. So we asked various people, and eventually found our way.

The parking lot was full of monkeys! They were quite skilled at sneaking into vehicles to steal food, so we had to be very careful. And we could see the lake right away through the trees!

Right inside the gate, we met two impalas. They must have seen Jayna and thought, "I'm going to impress the lovely lady over there", and they fought for quite some time.

Inside the park, we saw the most beautiful birds. The pelicans were hilarious - watching them try to take off, they'd flap their wings while falling and barely lifting their huge beaks and bodies into the air.

There were these odd looking green and purple birds too - I'm not sure how to classify them, hehe ;)

And these two watched all the festivities of the other birds with very disapproving looks.

We drove onwards over the bumpy roads to meet this lovely zebra.

Then we drove right into the middle of a huge herd of buffalo! There must have been more than a hundred. And they all just starred at this new green animal with wheels instead of legs.

We attempted to eat lunch at a place inhabited by baboons, but one of them jumped up into the car, scratched Irene and stole food right from her hand. So we moved on rather quickly.

Our eventual picnic spot had a magnificant view and an amazing variety of beautiful birds, rodents, and lizards.

As we drove on, we found a male impala with a whole group of ladies, so he didn't have to show off to Jayna this time.

We got a little lost on our way out, but this resulted in us finding 23 giraffes on one side of the road, a herd of buffalo on the other side of the road, and three ostrich crossing the road! The giraffe especially were so beautiful. It was wonderful to just stand on the side of the road looking at each other.   

And finally, we had to go home. Our asking people for directions method led us on an intriguing pathway home. We ended up in a very pretty rural neighbourhood in the opposite direction of Nairobi... it was actually quite funny - we must have asked 10 people which way to go and they all pointed us in the opposite direction of Nairobi, lol. But we got to see a part of Kenya we'd never seen before, and in the end we made it home sleepy and content.