From the Teens

Day 17 – Monday, February 15, 2010

Compiled by Alana (13), Jordan (14), and Emily (14) Jewell and Ryann Jinks (14) (with typing aid from Libby).

We visited four schools while the clinics were running: 3 in Mikinduri and one in Mwengi. In each school we went into classes and talked about Canada. The children had an opportunity to ask questions and they mostly cared about the rulers of Canada. They thought we had kings and presidents. They taught us about forestry in Canada and the changing relationships in Africa. They asked us about pastimes (sports). They didn’t understand ice hockey, ringette, or skating, as snow was such a foreign concept. They didn’t believe there was transportation in the winter either. Their textbooks were outdated, like they thought the main transportation of logs was via rivers.

The children had plaid and solid uniforms, with collared shirts. The girls are never in pants and do not show their shoulders or knees. Since most of their heads were shaved to prevent lice and to help them concentrate on class, it was hard to tell the girls from boys. At the secondary school, when we handed out soccer balls, we met a future soccer player: Joachim Mutethia. He was so good, we got his autograph. He was juggling the ball for 5 minutes straight!

Then we visited the primary school where the children surrounded us, even before we were at the entrance gate. Jordan said it was as if we were breaking into a bee hive and they swarmed us. We had a least 6 kids on each arm; it was impossible to walk!

The third school we went to was a secondary school 20 minutes down an extremely long bumpy road. We were rattled, literally. It was like a roller coaster ride, but it wouldn’t stop! Once we got there, we were greeted by the principal and we visited form 2 (grade 10) and started the t-shirt exchange. We tried to explain the plan, but no one understood, so we had Patronilla (the coordinator of the school visits) repeat it in again in English. It turns out they just couldn’t understand our accent. Emily and Theresa (an adult team-member) handed out the t-shirts and pictures. Everyone was really excited! Ryann took pictures of each person while Alana took their names and ages. Sadly the next day, one of the team-members was looking through the pictures and accidentally wiped the card! All of our pictures were gone, including the t-shirt exchange pictures! We felt awful but since we were leaving the next day, we knew our classmates would understand.

Today’s school experience had a dramatically different feel. We were in the primary school attached to the convent where we held the clinic (Mercy Care Clinic in Mwengi). The school consisted of 300 students who according to the Sisters, got the highest marks in the area. Many of them are orphans due to a high percentage of HIV/AIDS. We were in the school to perform HIV testing for the many children sponsored by Chalice. The nurses (Danelle and Jennie) pricked the children’s fingers and collected the blood. Ryann and Alana comforted the children with finger puppet shows and provided gauze. At the time, Emily was helping the nurses station taking blood pressure, respiratory, temperature, and heart rate. Jordan was helping one of the nuns at the laboratory, who couldn’t speak English and kept mispronouncing Jordan’s name. (Emily and Jordan had problems with the blood). It was sad, especially since three of the children out of the 122 tested positive while we were there, but we know they will have access to medication and ‘learn how to live positive lives’ (according to Nicholas, one of the testers).

The differences between the schools here are from one extreme to the other, but the teachers in every school said that the smartest children were nearly always the poorest. One such girl was Caroline, the girl from the first blog, and is in the attached picture. (Peace Easy)