Day 6 - Monday

Our first-day building. Today I went to ACK Namanda primary school and our team there started working on the new classrooms that we have funded. It is one of the awkward moments when we arrive and there is a silent standoff between us and the Kenyan builders as the language barrier is the first issue and the reluctance of the Kenyans to reach out and show our students what they can do.

I am unhappy to allow us to stand around and not get stuck in so I spoke to the foreman and we started with some of the manual labour tasks and then with a little bit of broken English managed to get us to fill in the gaps and even bricklaying before too long.

This is fairly common among the sites and has been for years. The builders have no idea what they can ask of us and obviously, we are not builders but we are able to be taught and learn with some guidance the skills we need in order to get the building moving.

All that said I was concerned about how quickly the building was going up. Course after course of bricks going up which certainly in the UK you would have to wait for the cement to set before building up too high. I am by no means a builder and the mortar here is very different to that back in the UK so maybe all will be well.

We are building on-site for about 5 hours a day. We are not used to the manual labour or the heat that we are working in so to ensure our student's safety.

Our school made us feel very welcome and brought us drinks, water and snacks for us. On the first day, I usually try and stop this from continuing each day and usually get some resistance from the staff. Today was no exception! The concern that we have is who pays for them and how does it affect the children's education. I was reassured today that our school wasn't funding the refreshments but I'm not sure who was. Their argument was that we were their guests and I cunningly replied that after today we are not guests but friends, which in my opinion was quite a clever answer, but no they would still want to make a fuss for visiting friends! I did manage to get them to promise only drinks and not snacks or sweets though. A minor victory here!

Right next to our building plot is the school's kitchen, A mud shack that has fires going in 3 of the corners which made the building hotter than a sauna and here the staff would prepare food for the 300 students who have lunch every day. Standard 8 all get their lunch provided, I am going to delve into how this is funded and how other kids get their lunch over the next few days.

Maths.

Being a maths teacher I was grabbed by their maths teacher and invited into class. He was keen for me to teach a lesson and I was keen to see how he taught so we made something of a compromise and he agreed to let me watch whilst he taught a lesson on constructing parallelograms. I sat in class and experienced it as a student. I really wanted to get an insight as to what a student would feel like and how they learn. It was really clear that this wasn't a showcase lesson with the kids being primed in advance I was absolutely in a regular lesson and the students thought it was funny that I was doing the work just like them.

I surveyed the room and saw over 60 students sitting in a room I would be unhappy to squeeze my regular 34 in. The desks are wide enough to squeeze, and I mean squeeze 4 students per desk and the actual working space is no deeper than a single plank of wood. A student lent me their textbook, another an exercise book, and someone else gave me their compass and protractor so within seconds I was fully equipped to complete the work. I was a little shocked by the willingness of the kids to share and I couldn't help but wonder if my kids in the UK would be so forward in sharing if the same thing was reversed. 

As you can see the desk really was small and I was really lucky not to be sharing the desk with other students so I really did have some space to work in.

Excellence.

Within 'my class', I think we have now both adopted each other, there is a girl called Theresa. She is only 13 years old and is amazing at athletics and football. Within a school of 1500 students stuck out in rural Kenya, you might always expect to find the odd student that excels at something sporty, but Theresa is a national athletics champion. She has the ability to long jump 5.8m!

At age 13 that is astounding and she is off competing in not only national competitions but is now off to Rwanda to compete against other African nations! We are setting up a sports afternoon next week so we are really looking forward to seeing her in action!

Visitors

The afternoon today was a time for our students to relax and unwind after their first day of work. Lots of them fell asleep on the journey back to the Karibuni on the bus. We had a couple of visitors in the afternoon who were here to arrange for us to visit a local scouts group and a trip to the Kitale museum.

Kennedy is the administrator for the church we visited at the weekend, his daughter, Blessed, is 10 and is planning to become a Neurosurgeon when she is older! Kennedy knew of her plan when she was desperate for a medical kit for her birthday when she was much younger and she ran around the house chasing the pets trying to listen to their breathing and hearts using her stethoscope! Blessed was desperate to come with Kennedy and continue to get to know our students who were also keen to continue to get to know her too.

Kennedy has arranged for the local scouts to have a camp on the church grounds and for a visit to the local museum.

Kennedy was followed by Francis who is the Assistant Chief Commissioner in charge of training for Scouting in Kenya, or at least that's what I understand his title to be. I first met Francis in 2018 when I asked Mama Sitti, to introduce us to some local scouts and I have stayed in touch with him ever since.

Evening Entertainment

A simple and relaxed film night tonight gave the kids a chance to continue to take it easy after the first day. 

I am still really humbled by both how well our students are willing to engage and learn, and the generosity of the Kenyans that we are meeting each day. I feel truly blessed to be leading this trip.