Feb15, 2014:
During this pre-week while waiting for the team to arrive, I
spent the next four days, Tuesday through Friday in Kenyan schools introducing
the 7th and 8th grade students to Lego EV3 Robots and
learning about how they approach problem solving. While there, I got to see how
a school operates. Children get to school by 7am and study until the teachers
arrive at 8:30. Lessons are intermingled with time to study and there is a
break around 10am for the students to eat breakfast and another at 1pm for
lunch. Students study until 5pm then head home. Last year, I spent time in the
school and was struck by how well the children study on their own while the
teacher is grading or on break. In Canada, they would not be left unsupervised,
but in Kenya the teacher could be gone for the entire afternoon and the students
would stay in the rooms and study. They don’t get a chance to study outside of
school, so they use all the time they have at school. I can only speculate the
reason for this is that most live in a one-room dwelling with their families
with no electricity, so they can’t study after dark.
I was at Kagwuru and Kinwe Primary schools, both of which
have feeding programs sponsored by Mikinduri Children of Hope. The parents help
cultivate the food on school property and in exchange their children are fed
breakfast and lunch. Some of the children rarely have an additional meal. In
addition to providing nutrition to help keep them focused, the meal allows the
children to stay in school for the afternoon rather than walk home for lunch
and generally stay there.
While in school, there was a cacophony of noise from the
classrooms next door. The occasional chicken ran by. Then it was time for break
and a hoard of children stand in the doorway watching everything that is
happening. The students in the room I’m in are unphased and don’t even notice
the disruption. They have an amazing amount of focus.
In Kenya, discipline is still something done with a stick,
and I had one teacher proudly explaining to me the way he canes particularly
bad students and the unusual punishments he comes up with. It was hard to hear
and I eventually had to make up an excuse and leave. However, it’s hard to
judge their way of doing things as the students there want to learn and study
quietly. It’s hard to say the same of Canadian children. Can you imagine the
bedlam after leaving a nursery class or 1st grade for the afternoon?
It would be Lord of the Flies before even getting to the island!
I had three amazing volunteers helping me take data and
translate. It becomes a familiar feeling to sit and not understand a thing
being said around you. Other people might be able to pick up the language and
learn a few new words, but rather I find the feeling comforting and familiar,
and just accept the not knowing. It is funny though when you say one sentence
10 words long and hear a paragraph of text in the translation. Sometimes I had
to ask what exactly they said so I knew what the students were being told.
One surprising aspect of Kenya is how everyone here has cell
phones. Rather than spend money on telephone
infrastructure, everyone uses a cell phone. That also means that internet is
becoming easily available as data is transmitted over the same lines I spend
the first week skyping with my UPEI students for every class. I wasn’t
lecturing as the students all have projects they are working on, merely
answering questions and having meetings with the groups. It’s so surprising to
think how far the technology has come when my first trip five years ago, I was
lucky to phone home twice during the entire month.
I spent my last day in the schools today at Kinwe, where
there is a large nursery school. Valentines Day really does seem sweeter when
there are 60 3 years olds crowding around just to shake your hand with great
big smiles, laughter, and giggling all around. The only complication comes when
it’s time to leave, I seem to gain a large entourage.
It was a wonderful week and I am happy to say that the
entire team has landed, as some were delayed a day in Montreal. I look forward
to greeting part of the team in Mikinduri on Saturday and the delayed
teammembers on Sunday. More updates to follow then.
No comments:
Post a Comment