June 30, 2014.....Off to School
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| Breakfast time! |
After breakfast, it was time to go to school! We would spend the day at the Oldonyowa
Primary School. Most of the children
were on break, but some of the students were there to study and prepare for
upcoming exams. The students we met were
comparable to 7th graders in the states.
We had divided ourselves into groups earlier in the morning. We prepared materials for working on the
students' English and geography.
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| A beautiful view of Mt Meru and the church in the background |
We had about a 15 minute walk from our compound to the
school, down the dusty path through the cornfields, opposite direction of the
church. We met the director of the
school and presented them with gifts....cases of notebooks and chalk. We also gave them some soccer balls, ball
pumps, jump ropes, flashcards, and a few other things.
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| Our group at the school |
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| meeting the students |
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The old school is in the photo above.....pieces of the
metal sides were used on the roof of the
new buildings (bottom photo).
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The students were very shy but polite. A few selected students spoke, and said a
little about their class. The students
practiced their numbers and counted off to be put into groups. Each group had about 7 or 8 students. Our group had 7....Leah, Godseth, Anna,
Israel, Edward, Entioth, and Janeth.
Michelle and I were paired together.
We found that our group did better if we wrote the questions on the chalkboard
for them to read. We used their English
book to come up with some of the things to work on with them. We focused on he/his, she/her, their/there,
numbers, colors, possession, just to name a few.
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| colobus monkey |
We headed back to the compound for lunch. Stephan (manager of the property) offered to
take us for a hike in the afternoon.
There was a ravine that ran up the side of the property, and we would
hike up the ravine for an hour or two.
As we started off, we came across a dead colobus monkey. They are a rare breed of monkey, and it was
unusual to see one there. There was nothing
obvious wrong with it.
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The kids were fascinated
with seeing their own
pictures. |
Along our walk, Stephan pointed out some interesting
sights.....plants, birds, limestone, etc.
We saw some skeletal remains from a cow.....they often fall off the
hillside into the ravine, break their neck and are left to die. Some young boys that live nearby joined us
along the way. They were fascinated with
seeing their pictures on our cameras.
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| carvings in the limestone |
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| the ravine |
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| weaver bird nest |
At the end of the hike, Stephan showed us their renewable
resources and how they are using the cow poop and cow urine to produce gas/fuel
to power the stove in the kitchen. They
collect the urine, by allowing it to run off and drain into a collective
area. Cow poop is scooped into the
collective area and over time, a gas is produced. The gas is run through piping and used to fuel
the stove. It's a huge cost savings to
the compound and they are working on improvements and expanding the
project.
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| Mt Meru |
After the practice, some of us did laundry, and I took my
first hot shower. I had been showering,
but they were either cold showers or barely warm! Dinner was very good.....we had chapati
(homemade tortillas, yum!) and beans. We
gathered in John and Laurie's room for a fire and our nightly recap. It was a very good day....rewarding time
spent with the students (I can still see their shy, smiling faces), a beautiful
hike, relaxing time in the afternoon, soccer, a delicious meal, and together
time to reflect on the day!
The boys (Kyler, Connor and Nathan) were invited to practice
soccer with some of the local boys. One
of the soccer coaches was a caretaker and lived on the compound. The soccer field was normal size and had
goal posts but no nets. It was dry
grass, and VERY dusty and dirty. The
boys all wore cleats, but some of the younger boys that came to practice on the
side had tennis shoes or no shoes at all.
Our boys really enjoyed getting to know the players.
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