Visiting the School

Today we continued the work on the "living room" and then we separated powers for the afternoon. A few people stayed at the living room to keep the progress of the landscaping on track while Lauren, Jennifer, Carolyn and I went to the public school.

Our mission at the public school was to set up a pen-pal conversation between the school here in Kipkarren with a school in the Cedar Rapids area. We handed out some hand-written letters from children in Cedar Rapids to students here in the public school. Were recorded the students names from Kipkaren and at Cedar Rapids and we took a picture of the Kenyan students so that the Cedar Rapids children can see the face of their pen-pal.

The entire event in the school was amazing, as have most all of the experiences here on the other side of the world. Watching the eyes of all these children light up when they saw us and then watching their enjoyment at reaching into their envelope and pulling out a letter for them was just incredible. They were tripping over each other to get in line and get their letter.

The reality check of this mission was seeing all the different ages of the children in the different classes. It reminded me of the stories of the one roomm school houses I read about growing up. There were 8 year olds in the same class as 14 year olds. Some of the children were unable to even go to school at a younger age, so they were beginning late. It was both sad and joyful to see this because it demonstrated the poverty (the major reason the children couldn't attend school at an earlier age) but also the sense of community where no one judges you baased on your age. they don't ostrasize you for being different.

It also made me see how spoiled we are as a nation becaue their classrooms are CRAMMED to the walls with students. Desks were made out of wood that looked like broken pallets, there were 3 people sharing a desk that looked only big enough for 1 person, and the building was just a concrete building with a steel roof. Yet they didn't care. The children were all glowing with joy and it was infectious.

~ Markus