Amani and Kwaheri

       So I'm back in the states, but I have one more post to write that I never got around to writing while in Kenya. I realized I never really talked about what I did while I was there. Before I left, I was told that Peter, the principal of St. Andrews wanted me to start at Peace and Reconciliation club. I was slightly worried I would have absolutely nothing to talk about, and no way to get this club started. but it ended up working out really well! I chose 12 students, a few from each grade level to be in the club. I chose most of them based on their performance in my class last year, and how outgoing they were. Trying to start a club with a bunch of people who won't talk is nearly impossible.

St. Andrews Peace and Reconciliation Club

         I figured a good way to start off would be to have the students create a list of problems at St. Andrews, and a list of problems in Kasarani, the slum where they live. During the time I was there we worked on each problem, and came up with events and other ways that the problems can be addressed and hopefully fixed. I really liked working with just 12 students instead of all 180 because I could get to know all of them better, and it was easier to get everyone involved. I also taught them games like Indian Chief, which everyone enjoyed. In one meeting, one of the students told me that they wanted to put on an event in Kasarani to show me that they will be able to make a difference in the community. I was amazed when they told me this, and of course thought it was a great idea. What developed from this simple idea, was Amani, or Peace Day. We planned an event to be held in the center of Kasarani with a theme of peace. I was a little worried at first that it wouldn't all come together, but it sure did! We had dancers, singers, poets, religious leaders, youth leaders, students all sharing the same message: peace. The focus was on preventing a repeat of the 2007 post election violence, where tribal violence erupted across Kenya, including areas close to Kasarani. The event was held on a Sunday, and we wrote a letter for every religious leader to read to his congregation, and also put signs all around Kasarani. Here are some pictures from the event.

Student's from St. Andrews performing a song they wrote

The drama club acting out a skit they created about peace

A muslim religious leader in Kasarani

Madame Wambui, a teacher from St. Andrews and head of the club

None of the adults would come inside the fence so I thought no one was there, but they were all around the outside!

Everyone was very pleased with the event, and all of the students did an exceptional job putting it together. Here is a video from the event of clips of all the speakers and performers! 

http://vimeo.com/47906803

Here is the video of Mwangi's wedding! I apologize for my unsteady hand and the noisy wind...

https://vimeo.com/47793758

One last thing. I told the students I worked with that I would try and raise at least $50 just to start them off. It would be used for publicity, events and other odds and ends related to the club. If anyone is interested in donating, please email me at mcs621@gmail.com. If I don't raise the money, I will pay it myself which is fine as well!

I hope everyone is doing well, and if I go back to Kenya again I will be sure to blog!

African Wedding

So my Friday got a little busy for blogging, my apologies. I started off the day by heading to St. Andrews for their closing ceremony. Everyone said it would be over by noon, and I told them I absolutely had to leave by 1 to get home to help prepare for the wedding. I think part of me knew this wouldn't happen. I've gotten way to used to African time. When I got to school, I went into the teacher's room to find them all busy grading and filling out report cards for all 200 and something students. By hand of course. They put me right to work and I helped one of the teachers, Musa, put together the student's overall grade, their class position and a final remark for each student. I hope they didn't look at each other's because some of the remarks started to sound very similar to one another. The ceremony finally started around 1:30 with every single student and teacher packed into one classroom.

The funniest part was for each class they had the announced the top 10 students and had them come to the front of the room. As you can see, there wasn't exactly any space between the chairs, and in many cases there were two people per chair. So every person that had to come up was climbing over everyone else to make their way up to the front. The closing ceremonies went well, and I said goodbye to all of the students and teachers then went on my way back home. At home I had 130 cupcakes, and 3 cakes awaiting my arrival for decorating. Any baking or creativity genes went right to my sister, but I figured I'd give it a try. She gave me her cake decorating kit (which of course she owns), and a frosting recipe and said good luck! I figured I could get everything done in about two hours, wrong. I started decorating at 3:15 and finished around 10, with a dinner break of course. Luckily I had Gina there to help me or else I don't think I would have ever finished. Here are some pictures of the final products:

The bride and groom were very excited, so that's all that matters. I'll call my cake and cupcake decorating a success. 

        The actual wedding was really special. The invitation said to be there at 10:30 for an 11 o'clock start, but once again, this is Africa. I'm pretty sure the ceremony started around 1 or 1:30, because we had to wait for Mwangi and Muthoni's families to come from Mt. Kenya. The ceremony went very well, and Greg did a great job preaching along side a Kenyan pastor. After the ceremony was over Mwangi and Muthoni cut the cake, and then there was a big feast of sheep stew, potatoes and some sort of vegetable dish. Here are some pictures from the wedding, I think pictures do a much better job capturing the event than words can do. 

Adorable children, including Mwangi and Muthoni's children in their wedding attire

Nicky and George, the Maid of Honor's sons

Little Greg dancing with his cousin

I'm off to Kasarani to meet with my club, but I'm trying to make a movie from the wedding and if it works, I'll post it later!

Schools, Weddings and More

Good Morning!
I can't believe that I only have a week left in Kenya, the time is flying by! A little too quickly for my liking. I have a few things to share, so here it goes.

Last Friday Deb and I made our way to Mt. Kenya to pick up the girls from boarding school. It was a LOONG drive. 4 and a half hours there and 5 hours back. The drive was gorgeous though (on the way there at least). Deb knew a short cut that avoids going through the always busy and slightly terrifying Nairobi, so we spent a good amout of our drive going through tea country, where there were rolling hills covered in tea plants. Tea used to be the biggest export for Kenya, and it is still going strong. The area we passed through is also known for having elephants! I was hoping we would see some, but they seemed to be hiding. I did see several elephant droppings on the road though! Luckily the drive there was uneventful, and we got to the school before 11.

The lovely sunrise that made waking up at 5:45 almost worth it

Can anyone guess why it's called Trains View Academy? Yep, you were right. It has a view of train tracks. The school was really nice, and as soon as we got out of the car hundreds of little african children came out to figure out why on earth two white people were at their school. We were searching around for Deb and Carol and suddenly we saw two little girls fly around the corner and come running at us. 

                                        

They said goodbye to their friends and teachers, and we were on our way. The way back was a little more eventful than the way there. Deb was worried that we would miss the turn for the short cut, but I was sure I had it. I knew it was the 3rd flyover, but when we got there it didn't feel quite right, so we stopped to ask someone. He said oh no no you have to take the next flyover. And don't take the first turn, take the second. So off we go again, pass the 1st turn and start looking for the 2nd turn. Well there was no second turn. So off we were, on our way into Nairobi at rush hour. As we got closer to Nairobi Deb said she wasn't exactly sure of the way to get through Nairobi, but we had to make sure we didn't go through down town Nairobi or we would be sitting in traffic for an hour. There were 3 turns that we completely guessed on, the wrong way for each of them would have brought us down town. Somehow we chose the right option for every turn! For those of you have experienced me as a passenger, I'm not very trusting of the driver and am often convinced we're going to crash. Poor Deb had to put up with me for 10 hours convinced that every maniac who tried to pass was going to crash into us. Let me tell you, Kenyan drivers make mass holes look like model drivers. Eventually I just decided to cover my eyes and pray we'd get home in one piece. So back to the school, the girls said they really loved it and are happy to go back in a month. Here's a picture of Deb, the younger one's report card! 

Mwangi, their father is incredibly grateful for all of you that contributed and is very happy that the girls are in a safe and academically challenging environment. 

Speaking of Mwangi, on Saturday he is getting married! His bride to be is a really sweet woman, who he has known since they were children. She has a daughter, Linet who is a great addition to Mwangi's three kids. The wedding is going to be held at Greg and Deb's house on their property below. At first, there were only supposed to be 30 people coming, now there are 100+. That's an African wedding for you! Deb, Gina (Greg's daughter), and myself are busy baking one hundred cupcakes, that lucky me gets to decorate tomorrow! The wedding should be a lot of fun and a very special day. I'll be sure to write a post about the wedding next week! 

My peace and reconciliation club is going well so far, but this post is getting a bit long so I'll write another post just about that tomorrow hopefully. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the end of their summer!

And once again, I apologize for any typos, I have never been one to proof read, especially if it's not getting graded :)

Back in Kenya

       For those of you who don't know, I am back in Kenya for 3 weeks! I don't think I have anything all that exciting to share so far, but I'll give it a shot!

      On Tuesday I went up to the nursery school where I was teaching english last fall. I recognized many of the kids, and they are still cute as ever! The class that I taught has moved onto primary school, and occasionally I see some of them walking home in their brand new primary school uniforms. Here is a video I made of the nursery school from my visit: https://vimeo.com/46688409

Irene

     Yesterday, I went to St. Andrews for the morning to see everyone and talk to Peter, the principal to figure out what I will be doing for the next two weeks. It was so great to be back at the school, meet the new students and teachers and see how much progress they have made! Last year they had a harambee, which is a big fundraiser to raise money to build two new classrooms. This is the first year they have a full school, with students from form 1 to form 4. The form 4 students are graduating in January, and they are the first class to ever graduate from St. Andrews! With the money that many of you contributed in my personal fundraising for the harambee last year they have completed the new classrooms! Here is a picture of the new classrooms, which are connected to two other classrooms.

      On the far side of the classrooms they are building a science laboratory which will make the school complete! The students are in the middle of their two and a half week exam period. They take 24 exams total. Can you imagine? I can't even comprehend how much knowledge they need to have stored in their brains in order to pass all of them. The Kenyan education system is very flawed in some ways. All learning is strictly lecture based, and the students are just expected to memorize. Ok so now time for what I will be doing for the next two weeks. My main project will be creating a peace and reconciliation club for St. Andrews, which will be based off of what they learned in my conflict resolution class. To be honest I have no idea how I am going to do this, but just as it did last year, I'm sure everything will fall into place. My second project will be to help the journalism club create a yearbook, so the form 4 students have something to remember St. Andrews after they graduate. Yesterday I took a picture of each of the 180 students and I'm praying all of the names are in the right order, or else all of the students names and pictures might not match up! My last project is going to be creating a short video of St. Andrews that can be used to promote the school, and hopefully draw more visitors to volunteer and donate. Hopefully all of this will keep me busy! 

     For those of you who live in Lincoln and heard about or stopped by the bakesale that myself, Jessica Nichols, Courtney Ingard and Henry Frost put on to raise money for school fees for two sweet girls here, I'm happy to announce that we raised a total of $1180! This is enough money to pay the school fees for the entire year, and to buy them extra clothing and school supplies that they do not have. Little Deb and Carol are just about to complete their first term at school, and Deb and I are driving to Mt. Kenya tomorrow to pick them up! It is 8 hours round trip, but luckily most of it is on paved roads which is a blessing in Kenya. I will make sure to take pictures of the school and report back! I'm really excited to see the area around Mt. Kenya, I've heard it is beautiful. 

     That's it for now!