Beginning a New School Year

It has been almost a month since I last posted. The days and weeks have gone by fast over the December holiday. I apologize for not writing earlier but there was not too much to write about. I enjoyed a lot of rest and relaxation and by the time January came I was very ready to go back to teaching. 

During the holiday, I spent the majority of my time in Banana town. Mary and I occupied most of our days visiting friends and family around the area. When I was not visiting others, I was spending time with Mary’s niece, Michelle and her nephews Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, and Morgan (yes, there are three different Jimmys!). I love playing and spending time with these kids. I woke up every morning to Michelle greeting me with “Hi Hope! How are you!?” and often times Morgan running in saying “Tata Hope!” I can’t express how much I truly love this environment. Being around young kids again reminds me of teaching pre-school and working in daycare. Michelle especially holds a special place in my heart. We are around each other all of the time and learning together too. It is so much fun to play with her, talk with her, and walk around the village together. Every time I leave Banana, I part with tears coming from the majority of the kids. When I return, they are running to me and playing as soon as they can. I really love them.

Christmas was another special event that I got the chance to spend in Africa. The week before Christmas I was more homesick than usual. I knew it would be difficult to spend Christmas away from home for the first time. Even with these feelings, I was blessed in many ways throughout the season. I spent Christmas in the village with the family and I really enjoyed myself. Some of the highlights from the day included: waking up in the morning and helping Mama Morris and Brother John in making chapatis, talking to my family (Kellan, Josh, Shauna, and Mom) on speaker phone on their Christmas Eve, meeting more of the family, playing with the children and watching them dance for everyone, taking pictures, eating dinner with Baba Morris, joking around with Cousin John and Brother John, and Skyping with Morris and my whole family on their Christmas morning. It was really a special day and I will always remember all of the great memories.

New Year’s Eve was also a fun celebration. It was a relaxed evening that I spent in Banana with Mary, her fiancée, Sammy (Mary’s brother), and Morris. Throughout the night we watched different musical celebrations on TV while everyone danced along. When the New Year hour came, we all danced around and shouted “Happy New Year!” in the front yard. It was a lot of fun and I couldn’t stop laughing at Mary and Morris’s dancing and running around. Shortly after, I was able to talk to my parents to wish them a Happy New Year…in the “future” for them.

School resumed with a new school year for Gathirimu on the first week of January. The first week was occupied by pre-assessment exams while the following week lessons began. I am excited to say that this term I am teaching not only P.E. and Life Skills, but I also get to teach Form Two English! Along with these classes, I will also be coaching basketball starting next week in the evenings. In between classes I am finding time to exercise by going for runs around the village. Because the timetable changes and shifts several times within the start of the school year, I will not know my involvement with Mitahato Primary School until around next week. My hope is to fit time in between lessons and basketball to spend time with the children and to continue the Pen Pal Program.

Returning back to school made me realize how much I missed teaching. Being able to interact and teach these girls means a lot to me. One of my goals for this term is to incorporate more movement activities for the students because typically the girls are taught through lectures. As I have been doing different activities, I have come to realize (again) that classroom management is key in teaching. It has taken me almost this whole week of struggling and almost losing my voice to realize that I need to make a change within my classroom management. Because the girls are not used to working in groups and transitioning so often in class they are noisier than normal and it is often hard to get their attention for certain instruction. I have slowly begun to introduce different “attention-getters” (i.e. teacher: “1, 2, 3 eyes on me” students: “1, 2 eyes on you” and teacher: “class, class” students: “yes yes”) and they seem to be responding really well. It was interesting for me to introduce this to the girls because throughout their entire education they had never participated in something like this. Even with this small change, the classroom atmosphere has changed greatly. With more reflection and implementation, I’m confident that lessons will run smoothly. 

The Kenyan government recently changed the educational calendar for this coming school year. Typically the school year is broken into three terms and each term is followed by a month long break—i.e. term one is from January through March and April is a break. Now, the first term will last 16 weeks and instead of a month long break the students will have a five day break. The next term will continue with the same amount of weeks and the last term will only be eight weeks. The third term will end in early November and the students will get a two month break. This is a very different system for both the teachers and students to get used to. I have heard varied opinions from the girls. Some are excited to stay in school longer and some feel that it is too long and they will get homesick. All of the teachers I have spoken to are against the new plan because it limits the ability for higher education. My opinion is varied. I am excited because I get to teach the girls for a longer period of time; but, I also think that with the Kenyan system of education the girls will be overloaded with information and they will potentially not get enough time to retain the knowledge learned and they will lose time to rest and relax. 

As the term progresses, I will continue to update everyone on my teaching and learnings as I am in Kenya. I am truly enjoying everything about Kenya. Currently, I am trying to tackle one of the main tribal languages, Kikuyu. People have been very impressed and pleased with my knowledge of the language so far and I am excited to continue learning. I have also been able to help out in the kitchen throughout the last month and it has been very enjoyable. 

As I have been back in Mitahato, I have begun to really realize how hot January and February will be. Because of the heat and lack of rain, the water availability becomes limited. Typically water is “fetched” using tanks that collect rain water or from a well that is in every compound. When the months get hot all of the water from the tanks get consumed and sometimes the wells go dry. In that case the local rivers or springs are used. This makes me realize how blessed I am at home with the constant availability of water with just the turn of a knob. Also, with the constant heat and the amount of time I spend outside, I am realizing how much I should really be using sunscreen. Just from the past week, my arms, neck and face are all sunburned—you would think I would learn my lesson after all these years of being pale and always getting sunburned!

That is all I have for now! I will continue to write about my teaching and the environment. One of my other goals is to write a few postings in between the postings on teaching about the rich culture and environment here in Kenya. I want to be able to show you all the differences that I am experiencing and the loveliness that Kenya is. 

Until next time…