Kenya 2024 – Jo’s Journal

This week I have spent time with families and friends of the school. It was worthwhile seeing where the children live and to meet the local community at a church service.

The singing at the church was fantastic. The main theme of the sermon being forgiveness and letting go of perceived wrongs to open your life to new beginnings and opportunities. I am not a believer, but I still thought the sermon was impactful. Religion provides hope to communities here and they tithe their small incomes to help the even less fortunate.

Every day we have Eric, our tuktuk driver, pick us up to take us to school. Twice we have been stopped, once by the police and once by the military. Each time they wanted identification and my driving licence wasn’t good enough. Still, we were polite and apologetic and they let us go with a warning to carry our passports. I am loathe to do this as I don’t want it confiscated.

I have enjoyed every minute of teaching English. This week we did prose and poetry and some class volunteers performed a poem at our assembly. I was proud of how well they did.

We also visited a weekend Youth Club, Compassion, where young people take classes and do clubs, including a very good band. Even though it was 35 degrees they were so good I couldn’t resist getting the children to dance. We had circle time with some teenagers who told us about their hopes for the future. They have high aspirations here in Kenya and believe education is the key to future success. It is! But it is expensive, and fees are even charged for a desk in some government schools. The classes in government schools can run to 150 pupils/students in a set.

I interviewed two teachers here about their lives for the Friends of Malindi Bright Future Academy newsletter. They had struggled over years to complete their training due to fees. They were very determined to enter the teaching profession and make a difference.

On Sunday, we paid for a staff party to say thank you to the staff for their efforts. It was held at a resort where we all ate lunch and swam together. We played ball and raced in the swimming pool.

Later that day,  I supported a local hospitality worker with his C.V. He has worked for the same resort for ten years, but every few weeks, there’s no pay forthcoming so he is concerned about his wife and children’s welfare.

The school has approximately 50% of its pupils sponsored; for one year it’s £140 to cover uniform and fees. For an insignificant yearly amount, they work their magic here.

Reflections

I will start making my way back this week via Nairobi. I am looking forward to coming home but have made many new friends and gained a huge insight into Kenyan life. It’s been a memorable experience. Of course, it’s a cliché to say it makes you appreciate what you have in life, but it’s true. And it’s not about material things, though clearly they help, but it’s the free state education system, employment, healthcare, free passage on the roads … all things we take for granted.

As a college, we are aiming to raise money for a kitchen to feed the pupils. Currently, they cook in a shack. The food is delicious and nutritious, I eat lunch here. How they do it in the shack amazes me. We have already raised £1k and the target is £15k, we have a Kenyan National Day event planned at the Academy, but if you can think of any more fundraisers we could do with our students, please let me know.

With very best wishes and see you soon.

Jo