First Full Month

September 11^th

This coming week, on Tuesday, I have been away for a month. I can’t believe that it has already been that long since I was saying my goodbyes to my family in the Portland airport. It has been a great experience so far and I cannot wait for my future here. 

Today, I feel blessed to be a part of this community and family. I have come to feel very supported and loved here. Every time I say I miss my family I am corrected and told that I have family here. It is very comforting to have a support system in two countries! The people here are so inspirational to me. They love with all they have and use God as a constant guide in their life. The other day, I was sitting with CuCu (grandmother), Cousin Morris, and Mary. Morris started reading a bible passage that Cucu told him and Cucu responded after with “There are no denominations in heaven it’s your heart.” This was a very powerful statement to me and I felt the need to record it and reflect on it. I hope that everyone today feels blessed for the environment that they are in and that we all find time to pray or think about those that lost someone close to them on 9-11.

I am becoming more and more comfortable here every single day. I have gotten into a routine for the school week and I am especially enjoying my walks to and from school. They still insist that they walk with me every day but I feel that soon I will be walking on my own. My family that I live with is all getting very comfortable with me around as well—especially the younger cousins that were hesitant at first. Margaret, one of the younger cousins who is in class 5, is my little buddy who is always walking with me or coming to find me to watch a movie. In the beginning she was tentative to be around me and now she is talking to me in English and she was even dancing around in the living room yesterday. I am really enjoying my time with everyone here.

Last week was very busy for us. Joseph, one of the cousins, passed away at age fifteen from brain cancer. The whole week was filled with family members trickling in and working together for preparations for the ceremony. On Wednesday, the day before the funeral, the yard was filled with aunties in their kangas (rectangle piece of fabric tied around the waist, used as a skirt or apron in this case) working together to prepare the food for all 150-200 people that were to come. The main food was rice, carrots, and potatoes mixed together which was followed by tea. 

The funeral was very powerful and interesting for me because of the cultural differences. Both the ceremony and the burial took place on the property that I live on—Cucu’s land. Three of Cucu’s sons and her husband are buried behind the house, as well as Joseph now too.  What I found very interesting about the ceremony was the amount of pictures taken. There was almost a whole hour dedicated to taking pictures at the start of the ceremony. Mother Joe sat in a chair in front of the casket and there were pictures taken with different important groups of people who stood behind the casket—for example, all cousins would stand behind or all of Joe’s aunts and uncles, etc. Following this there was time for family members to come up and perform a song, poem, prayer, or give a brief speech about Joe. The ceremony continued with a Catholic mass which lasted a little over an hour. At the end of the mass the community processed from the front of the yard to behind the house where Joseph was buried. This portion of the ceremony was most powerful to me. Joseph’s friends and soccer teammates carried the casket, cross, and picture into the yard. The priest performed more prayers and then Joseph was lowered. This was followed by family members and friends throwing handfuls of dirt onto the casket. It is tradition for the community to shovel the rest of the dirt into the grave. While this is taking place there was a chorus behind singing traditional Kikuyu songs. Once all of the dirt is placed, the community plants roses and other shrubs to signify new life. During the planting and after more pictures are taken at the grave sight of all family members. All of this transitions into the reception which consists of family and friends eating, drinking tea, and talking with each other.

I had never met Joseph but I was affected by the power of the ceremony and the emotion of all of the family members. Like I mentioned before, they view me as a part of the family and insisted that I be in many of the pictures that took place both during and after the ceremony. I was fortunate to be a part of this experience and in about a month I am lucky enough to get to go to a traditional Kenyan wedding. I really enjoy being a part of and viewing these different traditional ceremonies. 

As far as school goes, I have continued to struggle to find my way in the classroom as a teacher and in finding a way to really make a difference. This week was hard to judge for several reasons. It was the first week of school which I am told can be a little hectic and the majority of the school was not present most of the week due to a teachers strike. Many of the teachers who work at Mitahato have not been paid for almost two months. There were four teachers that remained working throughout the week because they are employed by the parents opposed to the government. The classes that were there all week were Kindergarten, class three, and class eight. 

I feel that the teachers at Mitahato are very grateful to have me there to help but there are times when they use me instead of teaching themselves. My co-teacher continues to come in late every day. I have taken it as my responsibility to start the school day for the students in class three. This usually consists of learning some new songs/games or getting to know each other through ice breakers. On Friday, once my co-teacher arrived at school and saw me teaching she proceeded to leave to the next classroom to work on her own things. During break that same day, the class eight teacher came up to me and asked me to teach English because he said he is usually the Social Studies teacher and he isn’t very good at it. I showed him the corrections for what he was going to do with the students but at lunch he ended up pushing me to teach them. Students have an hour and twenty minute lunch break. This gives them time to both eat lunch and to clean the classrooms. The teachers decided to go and make their own lunch on Friday. I joined them and once two o’clock came I told them the time and I proceeded back to school. I started by going to class three to give them their homework and at the same time I was supposed to somehow be in class eight teaching them English. Basically, I was the only teacher on the property teaching two classes that were on different sides of the building. I made it work but by the end of the day I felt frustrated because with this split I was not able to give myself wholly to either class. 

It ends up appearing as if my whole schooling situation is negative when I write on this blog. I do not intend to interpret everything as negative. I want to show the reality of the situation and what I am experiencing throughout it all. There are definitely amazing moments and experiences during my school day. Each day, I am falling more and more in love with the students. I have spent the majority of my time with class three and class eight and the students are very energetic and excited. Class eight is especially fun to teach—they are very eager to learn and speak great English. On Wednesday I spent my afternoon in their classroom and they were given the chance to ask me any question they might have about me or about America. I feel that they learned a lot in that period and became more comfortable with me. 

I have found that it is my responsibility to make my time teaching an effective one. My ultimate goal is to create and implement a program that will generate a sisterhood between Mitahato and other schools in Oregon. Ideally this will include a Pen Pal program along with a donation system of needed items coming from Oregon schools to Mitahato Primary School. I am currently developing a proposal to give to the headmaster. This will include an outline of the lessons I will teach and the overall idea of the program. I hope to move around to every classroom at Mitahato. I would spend about two weeks in each class teaching English and Social Studies skills/concepts connected to the sisterhood between schools. I feel that in creating this program I can make a lasting impact on the students. At the same time, both the students and teachers can learn and grow with what I am able to bring to the school. 

That is all I have for now. Below I will post the address if you would like to send any letters.  I am using the address of the school because that is the only available address. Crispin also commented on the last post explaining how to call me if you would like to do that as well. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask. I hope everyone is having a great start to their school year! I miss you all!

Mitahato Primary School

Hope Danielson

P.O. Box 87

Ngewa, 00901

Kenya