It's a Wonderful Life: June 2011

Time is flying. When you go somewhere for a few months you think you have so much time to do so many things. Our trip is half over and although we have had experienced much and spent good time with people, we at the same time feel like we have done small things (yes mom, we try to do each with great love). Before we leave though we did want to leave something at one of the projects request.

The Health Center although appearing quite shabby at the time is soon to be well established as a new building along with all the equipment needed has been donated by donors from South Korea. They are just waiting for a few final touches on the new facility to move over from the cracking walls of the old building. The nurses are well trained and staffed. Aside from the odd time I have witnessed patients not able to get the care needed it pertinent time due to the lack of a medical transport system to a hospital. My biggest challenge at the center is the direct and impersonal approach of many of the nurses toward the patients. My challenge in the next month at the health center will be trying to encourage an attitude of compassion and empathy. There are a few nurses who are exceptions and although I can't always understand the full of the conversation I can tell the difference it makes with the patients when they are treated with thoughtful care.

Anyway, back to the original thought, since the health center, resources wise, has been taken care of, we decided to focus on a gift for the school. After conversation with the principal at the school we decided it would be of benefit to build more classrooms. The school right now has 800 students and 8 classrooms; that is 100 students per class! Classroom management is a challenge and often resorts to a cane. Also, each new semester families line up to get their children in school as Kitengela is a fast growing community, there is not enough room in the inn to accommodate all the children; the principal has to turn them away. When the government employees come around to audit the school they don't look at the number of students per teacher but the number of classrooms per teacher. That is 1 teacher per 100 students. The school does have a few extra teachers as there are a few trees on the school ground that since they produce shade can be considered a classroom. When you walk into a classroom there is little space wasted. 3-seater desks run wall to wall with just enough space inbetween to pass and often have 4 seated. There is no room for any teaching aids/tactile tools; there is a chalk board and notebooks. Most of the kids are eager to learn but often get distracted by the close quarters - it is very easy to chat quietly or poke your neighbor. Development of the school grounds has been a goal of the school's but with a more than tight government budget it hasn't been possible. The dream is to build a two story building on the west side of the school ground eventually if funds allow. The principal tells us this new classroom will be a start towards that dream and give hope that the dream may be built in the future. We would love to see the school someday have a library, art/music room (neither of which are in the primary school curriculum at this time) and kitchen along with additional classrooms. It's intriguing to watch the kids at school; they often don't get to do things for imagination, exploration or enjoyment at school. School is very bookwork oriented. You give them a reading or picture book - ten kids crowd around it, a guitar - they all want to touch it and eagerly learn new songs, a new ball - they all flock to the field to fight for a chance to kick it. The cheers and shouts for something new is a sweet, sweet sound. Kale and I with the help of donations from the Daognam family and Bri and Jo have decided to donate and help construct a classroom - we start construction this coming week. It is going to be hard manual labor under a hot hot sun but the cheers of the children will ring in our hearts and keep them pumping. We hope to get it done in the next month to celebrate the final product with the kids - our hope is that we can run the project more on the muzungu side of time.

We are sorry we haven't been able to post pictures. They take eons to load. We will maybe try to post a few on a lazy day soon.

SOME PICTURES AT NOONKOPIR PRIMARY SCHOOL.