Today is the day we venture into Kibera slum. We all met with our Karibu friends at St Thomas's Primary where Gabi and I were paired off with John, John and Lilian.
Walking through the slum was a really interesting experience. I actually felt my breath being taken away when I looked out over the massive slum which houses over a million people. 5-6 people all crammed into one house, kids playing on the street with dogs and goats and chicken running around-litter everywhere! Some litter piles smoking away as some people were burning their trash in order to try and get rid of it- with a strong putrid smell of burning plastic. The roads and paths are uneven and very dusty, and there is putrid water running down in streams as people empty their rubbish, including dirty water out into the streets. The slum seems to be built down in a ditch- so many of the paths are very steep that I often found it difficult to know where to put my feet. There are a lot of creeks running through the slum also, so you were constantly jumping over the litter filled creeks to continue on your path.
The kids constantly shout 'Mzungu' at us (meaning- white person), and they chant over and over again 'how are you? How are you? How are you?' It was so strange! Kids would either want to come up and shake your hand or give you a high five- or they would just stand and point and scream Mzungu at you! I felt lucky to be walking with our local guides as most people just stared or said hello and left us alone- but I think it may have been quite a different experience if we had walked into the slum on our own account.
Lillian pointed out her house to us on our way past, a black tarp with a few wooden poles for structure- this is where she lives with her dad so she can attend school in the slum. Her mother lives in the country and she gets to visit her a couple of times a year- but there are more opportunities for her to be closer to the city, and she gets to stay with her friends. What I did notice about the slum is that everyone seems so close. They are a community together- they share everything. It's really humbling to watch. At one point we watched a local man hand out the rest of his soda to a child in the slum, who proceeded to share the drink with 3 of his friends- it was beautiful!
It makes me laugh at how protective mothers are in Australia in terms of safety and germs etc- here, kids are playing in the putrid mud, wrestling mangy dogs, jumping over rusty steel on the ground, and I even saw a child who was chewing on what I thought was a toothbrush- but was actually a razor blade with the plastic safety lid on! Wha?! Everything seems to run so smoothly- people setting up their stores of second hand clothes, coal or even cooking chapatti (African rolled bread, not unlike roti bread) in the street over their own little coal fires. It was really interesting to see life in its most normal form in the slum. It seem chaotically peaceful.
On our way to school, the road we were walking on, which was on a higher ridge of the slum, allowing us to look down over the little shanti's, was actually also a train track. At one stage we had to shift and squish ourselves to one side as a train was coming through and collecting rubbish. The smell was incredible! Piles and piles of putrid litter on a flat tray swarming with flies and 3 men standing on top spreading it out. Such a different world! I liked seeing it though, because I feel like a have a greater understanding of how my friends live their life and how resourceful everyone is.
We arrived at school and met the principal who palmed us off to teacher Chris. Teacher Chris took us around to all 8 classes in the school introducing us to each class and explaining to them that we will be here for the next few days. Each introduction went a little like this….“Goodmorning students” “Good morning teacher” “how are you?” “We are fine Thank you teacher, and how are you?” “I am fine- can you take a seat?” “Thank you teacher, and welcome to our class” - all in perfect unison- it was intense! I thought the Bernard's boys saying good morning to me in response was intense, but they have nothing on these kids!
What I noticed about most the classes we walked into was- there was no teacher? As we walked in we met some staff members who were sitting out together in the school yard- but no teachers in the classroom. When I questioned this I got a very interesting answer. Each classroom would have had at least 50 children in each class- some even more that were simply all sitting there and waiting. Some senior students were sitting and writing in random maths books or note books doing some sort of independent study, while the junior classes were just talking and politely sitting behind their wooden desks. What I learned was that school had only just returned this week, and the teachers were not 'in the mood' to teach yet. This infuriated me. Imagine if I could just 'not be in the mood' to teach yet!? What they explained to me was that many of the students had not showed up to school yet. It's only the 3rd day back of school, and the classes I met that had 50 students in it- should have had 115! So.. Since there was so many students missing, the teachers do not see the point of starting classes yet. They also had not organised any food yet either, so the students, who would usually be fed a basic lunch at school, were going this week without anything from the school for lunch simply because nothing had been organised as yet…
I really struggled with this. My first impression was how impressed I was of how a school that has so little resources were able to use what they had and create a learning space to cater for so many students… But I was angry that there was this simple attitude that because not all students were there yet- we simply wouldn't teach. How does that help those 200 students that did show up that day? Or for the last 2 days? How does that keep them wanting to come back to school when they know when they get there they will be simply required to sit in their cramped stuffy classrooms while their teachers sit out in the sun and talk together as a group, not seeing the point of teaching them today. What?! I just did not know how this made sense, and I had to debrief with Andrew and Tim about the culture for them to calm me down, because it really got me fired up. There was so much opportunity, time and resources were being wasted simply because the teachers could not be bothered and didn't see the 200 students waiting were important enough to be taught anything until the others showed up. Grrr!
School was supposed to go until 3pm, but the teachers decided to finish school early today because they had nothing to feed the students lunch, so sent them all home. I walked out feeling very disheartened and helpless. I had spent the last two hours teaching the circulatory and respiratory system to the senior kids and playing games with the junior kids- but this had been the only activities these students had been given for the day. Gabi did activities with two other classes.
After this we left and joined two other members of ours at the Mary Rice Centre. This is the school set up to cater for students with special needs. Unfortunately not all of us could fit in to all do placement here- so I was very happy to have an opportunity to go there, even if only for the day. Currently the school has 15 students and a very long waiting list to get in. I was amazed to see 3 students in wheelchairs- although no wheelchair access through the slum at all, let alone to the actual school (which is simply two shipping containers converted into two classrooms). What I learnt was that the parents and community members just carried the chairs up and down to the school! Pretty awesome! The kids are gorgeous- and Brother Gerard, who runs the centre- is a fairly incredible man. Very patient and understanding. Lisa and I met him last year when he visited Australia and spent some time at st Bernard's, so he was very excited to see me as I walked in as he recognised my face.
He fed all his students, including all of us, beans and rice for lunch. It was very kind, and I appreciated the food as I was so hungry, and I know how big of a deal it is over here, so I ate every mouthful- but it was difficult to get down with the taste, sight and the texture.
We then walked back to St Stephens primary school where we met all the others and shared a soda together to talk about our placements. It was a nice way to end, and Tom Lavers and I kept entertained by learning some singing and hand clapping games with some 11yr old girls who were still at school.
Back in Karen, I had the best shower- but had to literally scrape the layers of dust off my legs! I was filthy! Boots took me for a bit of running/boot camp session as I'm really missing the structured exercise and we had a debrief of the day.
Tomorrow- hopefully I can be more understanding of the culture and won't get so emotionally involved or passionate about why the teachers may/may not be teaching.. ;)
Kenya
Walking through the slum was a really interesting experience. I actually felt my breath being taken away when I looked out over the massive slum which houses over a million people. 5-6 people all crammed into one house, kids playing on the street with dogs and goats and chicken running around-litter everywhere! Some litter piles smoking away as some people were burning their trash in order to try and get rid of it- with a strong putrid smell of burning plastic. The roads and paths are uneven and very dusty, and there is putrid water running down in streams as people empty their rubbish, including dirty water out into the streets. The slum seems to be built down in a ditch- so many of the paths are very steep that I often found it difficult to know where to put my feet. There are a lot of creeks running through the slum also, so you were constantly jumping over the litter filled creeks to continue on your path.
The kids constantly shout 'Mzungu' at us (meaning- white person), and they chant over and over again 'how are you? How are you? How are you?' It was so strange! Kids would either want to come up and shake your hand or give you a high five- or they would just stand and point and scream Mzungu at you! I felt lucky to be walking with our local guides as most people just stared or said hello and left us alone- but I think it may have been quite a different experience if we had walked into the slum on our own account.
Lillian pointed out her house to us on our way past, a black tarp with a few wooden poles for structure- this is where she lives with her dad so she can attend school in the slum. Her mother lives in the country and she gets to visit her a couple of times a year- but there are more opportunities for her to be closer to the city, and she gets to stay with her friends. What I did notice about the slum is that everyone seems so close. They are a community together- they share everything. It's really humbling to watch. At one point we watched a local man hand out the rest of his soda to a child in the slum, who proceeded to share the drink with 3 of his friends- it was beautiful!
It makes me laugh at how protective mothers are in Australia in terms of safety and germs etc- here, kids are playing in the putrid mud, wrestling mangy dogs, jumping over rusty steel on the ground, and I even saw a child who was chewing on what I thought was a toothbrush- but was actually a razor blade with the plastic safety lid on! Wha?! Everything seems to run so smoothly- people setting up their stores of second hand clothes, coal or even cooking chapatti (African rolled bread, not unlike roti bread) in the street over their own little coal fires. It was really interesting to see life in its most normal form in the slum. It seem chaotically peaceful.
On our way to school, the road we were walking on, which was on a higher ridge of the slum, allowing us to look down over the little shanti's, was actually also a train track. At one stage we had to shift and squish ourselves to one side as a train was coming through and collecting rubbish. The smell was incredible! Piles and piles of putrid litter on a flat tray swarming with flies and 3 men standing on top spreading it out. Such a different world! I liked seeing it though, because I feel like a have a greater understanding of how my friends live their life and how resourceful everyone is.
We arrived at school and met the principal who palmed us off to teacher Chris. Teacher Chris took us around to all 8 classes in the school introducing us to each class and explaining to them that we will be here for the next few days. Each introduction went a little like this….“Goodmorning students” “Good morning teacher” “how are you?” “We are fine Thank you teacher, and how are you?” “I am fine- can you take a seat?” “Thank you teacher, and welcome to our class” - all in perfect unison- it was intense! I thought the Bernard's boys saying good morning to me in response was intense, but they have nothing on these kids!
What I noticed about most the classes we walked into was- there was no teacher? As we walked in we met some staff members who were sitting out together in the school yard- but no teachers in the classroom. When I questioned this I got a very interesting answer. Each classroom would have had at least 50 children in each class- some even more that were simply all sitting there and waiting. Some senior students were sitting and writing in random maths books or note books doing some sort of independent study, while the junior classes were just talking and politely sitting behind their wooden desks. What I learned was that school had only just returned this week, and the teachers were not 'in the mood' to teach yet. This infuriated me. Imagine if I could just 'not be in the mood' to teach yet!? What they explained to me was that many of the students had not showed up to school yet. It's only the 3rd day back of school, and the classes I met that had 50 students in it- should have had 115! So.. Since there was so many students missing, the teachers do not see the point of starting classes yet. They also had not organised any food yet either, so the students, who would usually be fed a basic lunch at school, were going this week without anything from the school for lunch simply because nothing had been organised as yet…
I really struggled with this. My first impression was how impressed I was of how a school that has so little resources were able to use what they had and create a learning space to cater for so many students… But I was angry that there was this simple attitude that because not all students were there yet- we simply wouldn't teach. How does that help those 200 students that did show up that day? Or for the last 2 days? How does that keep them wanting to come back to school when they know when they get there they will be simply required to sit in their cramped stuffy classrooms while their teachers sit out in the sun and talk together as a group, not seeing the point of teaching them today. What?! I just did not know how this made sense, and I had to debrief with Andrew and Tim about the culture for them to calm me down, because it really got me fired up. There was so much opportunity, time and resources were being wasted simply because the teachers could not be bothered and didn't see the 200 students waiting were important enough to be taught anything until the others showed up. Grrr!
School was supposed to go until 3pm, but the teachers decided to finish school early today because they had nothing to feed the students lunch, so sent them all home. I walked out feeling very disheartened and helpless. I had spent the last two hours teaching the circulatory and respiratory system to the senior kids and playing games with the junior kids- but this had been the only activities these students had been given for the day. Gabi did activities with two other classes.
After this we left and joined two other members of ours at the Mary Rice Centre. This is the school set up to cater for students with special needs. Unfortunately not all of us could fit in to all do placement here- so I was very happy to have an opportunity to go there, even if only for the day. Currently the school has 15 students and a very long waiting list to get in. I was amazed to see 3 students in wheelchairs- although no wheelchair access through the slum at all, let alone to the actual school (which is simply two shipping containers converted into two classrooms). What I learnt was that the parents and community members just carried the chairs up and down to the school! Pretty awesome! The kids are gorgeous- and Brother Gerard, who runs the centre- is a fairly incredible man. Very patient and understanding. Lisa and I met him last year when he visited Australia and spent some time at st Bernard's, so he was very excited to see me as I walked in as he recognised my face.
He fed all his students, including all of us, beans and rice for lunch. It was very kind, and I appreciated the food as I was so hungry, and I know how big of a deal it is over here, so I ate every mouthful- but it was difficult to get down with the taste, sight and the texture.
We then walked back to St Stephens primary school where we met all the others and shared a soda together to talk about our placements. It was a nice way to end, and Tom Lavers and I kept entertained by learning some singing and hand clapping games with some 11yr old girls who were still at school.
Back in Karen, I had the best shower- but had to literally scrape the layers of dust off my legs! I was filthy! Boots took me for a bit of running/boot camp session as I'm really missing the structured exercise and we had a debrief of the day.
Tomorrow- hopefully I can be more understanding of the culture and won't get so emotionally involved or passionate about why the teachers may/may not be teaching.. ;)
Kenya
No comments:
Post a Comment