Yvonne & John in Kenya May 2011

Jambo to all our supporters,

We arrived in Mombasa in the pouring rain.  It continued to rain for the whole of that day! But it is the rainy season and the rain is much needed. We had many more downpours during our visit but once the rain stops, the sun shines and everywhere dries up in minutes.

Visitors

We travelled on the plane with seven students and two tutors from Yeovil College. They had already made contact with us through our website, as they were visiting Kenya as part of their Travel & Tourism Course and were hoping to experience working in  a Kenyan school. They spent a day at Mikoroshoni working on three different activities - origami, painting and playing ball games. I know the students had a wonderful day and the children from Mikoroshoni certainly enjoyed all the activities.

That same day Whitesands Hotel sent six of their staff to watch the activities – Whitesands had provided T-shirts so that our children did not get any paint on their school uniforms.

Three Swedish girls also came to school that day. Their college in Sweden is linked to Whitesands Hotel and they had been staying there for several weeks, working alongside some of the staff.

Plus two ladies from the same hotel as the students came along. One of them gave us a very generous donation which we used to buy extra text books, exercise books and nursery chairs.

Quite a hectic day at Mikoroshoni! But a very enjoyable one!

Repairs

Our next task was to look at the Public Health Inspector’s Report. With Joshua, our Headteacher and Victor, our school manager we discussed what we thought were  the most urgent needs. These seem to be:-

• 4 more toilets to be opened up on the playground area
• a well & pump of our own
• a soakaway pit to dispose of dirty water  (from the cooking)
• a small kitchen to be built on the playground area (away from classrooms)
• rebuild the classroom on the playground area

The trustees now need to disuss these needs and of course decide how to fund these improvements.

Food

The more we hear about our children at Mikoroshoni the more we realise how important the porridge breakfast is for our youngest children and the maize & beans lunch is for our five older classes. Joshua told us how so many families struggle to buy food. Like everywhere else the cost of food in Kenya is constantly rising. A sack of beans has gone up 20% since last year!

Our monthly food bill can also vary depending on the exchange rate but is approximately £500 each month. This is what we buy every month:-

maize & beans, sugar, margarine,  porridge flour,  cooking oil, water and charcoal. We also pay the wages of the two cooks.

All the children enjoy their meal and absolutely nothing is left over at the end.

Activities

Our older girls have been very successful at volleyball. Three of them were winners at Divisional Level and went on to play at District Level. Maureen was then put forward to Provincial Level. A great achievement!

Ten of our pupils from Standards 1, 2 & 3 have just begun to attend Saturday morning chess lessons. They go to Nyali Primary School from 8am to 9am. Nyali Primary is a private school so the children there are from much more priviledged backgrounds than our own pupils. But we were made very welcome and the first lesson was a great success – just learning how to move the pawns. One of our boys took to it immediately. Most of the children & Joshua had no idea what chess was but we hope they will soon learn & enjoy. They have some chess sets to take back to school so that they can practise the moves they learn each Saturday.

Staff

The staff continue to work hard. We have employed an extra teacher who takes over from Joshua so that he is free to do the many other tasks involved with being a Headteacher. One of these is helping parents get their Birth Certificates. This is a new requirement in Kenya & many parents do not know when they were born and cannot read the relevant forms that need to be filled in. Joshua is always there to help with problems.

Kulthum, a teacher who has been with us for many years has returned from maternity leave. After much tragedy in her life she now has a beautiful baby girl.

Oscar, our Deputy Headteacher was ill for most of the time we were there. He had Typhoid. He has now recovered and was back at school just before we left.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU ONCE MORE TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS.

IF ANYONE HAS FORGOTTEN TO RENEW THEIR SPONSORSHIP IT IS NEVER TOO LATE!

VERY BEST WISHES FROM US ALL

Amos Safari 4 years old

In November 2010 Amos was given a place in Kindergarden 1 to begin school in January 2011. We knew that he was from a very poor family. In January he failed to turn up for school. When Joshua made enquiries his mother said that she could not afford to get him a uniform. When we were told about this we immediately asked Joshua to provide a uniform & make sure that Amos attended school.

On our visit we met Amos in class enjoying his porridge breakfast. Joshua then told us more about Amos’ family.

His father is blind and begs each day outside Nakumatt, the local supermarket.

His mother has epilepsy and during one of her seizures fell onto the fire and badly burnt her hand. Joshua is helping her to get her Birth Certificate sorted out as she cannot write her name and has no thumb to give a print.

They have four other children, three older than Amos and one younger.

Kennedy’s father was killed in a ferry accident when Kennedy was 13 years old. His mother died one year later. None of their extended family were able to help  them. Kennedy promised his mum that he would always  look after his younger brother, Thomas. This he has somehow managed to do.

After leaving Mikoroshoni Kennedy was sponsored to go to Secondary School. He would do his school work during the day and at night took a job as a night watchman to earn money for food & clothes for himself & Thomas.

Kennedy had wanted to become a male nurse but unfortunately his final grade was not enough to allow him to do this.

The photo shows him at work in a café owned by Victor’s wife Christine. At the end of each day, after paying his own bus fares and Thomas’ bus fares & lunch he had 30shillings left (20pence)! But he was just so happy to have a job.

The good news now is that while we were in Kenya,  Kennedy was enrolled on a Diploma course in Food & Beverages. His sponsors are supporting him through college.

JUST TWO OF OUR PUPILS WHO HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Evelyn and Johns visit to Kenya March 2011

We were looking forward to our prompt return to Kenya having just been in November. However we were not looking forward to the baggage check performance having had the most stressful time, as we told you in the last newsletter.

Well, how different this experience was. Very friendly chap who didn’t bat an eye at any of the cases and didn’t even check the extra charity bag authorisation letters.

What a pleasant start to the holiday. We thoroughly enjoyed our visits to school and were happy with everything that we saw. I spent some time in the Kindergarten classes observing the teaching methods

I am not a teacher but what I see on every visit impresses me. The teachers are very thorough and make the class a wonderful experience for these young children. The enthusiasm when teacher asks a question is unbelievable. Arms are raised with such gusto I am surprised there are no dislocated joints! “Teacher ,teacher, teacher!” They all cry to get noticed. The smiles cover the whole of their faces when they are selected to step to the front of the class and write on the black board.

Teacher is very considerate to ensure all levels of pupils are selected and if the 9 is written as a 6 or the 3 is reversed she takes time to quietly work through the error ensuring that the child understands the correct answer. She then asks the class to confirm if the answer is correct and the place explodes with applause or they burst into a celebratory song. The children return to their seats full of pride and confidence.

The confidence certainly stays with them as can be seen when you visit KG2. These pupils have been attending school for 1 year now and it is hard to believe they were the timid little souls I photographed in Jan 2010. They are keen to greet you, with a high five! They practice their English with lots of “Hello how are you?!”  “Take my picture” They show no fear of the white woman now!

John spent his time surveying the building and looking for any jobs he could “do himself”

These types of jobs however are 100 times easier at home with the help of a power drill and electric screwdriver! However he does enjoy the” challenge” and enjoys his time working alongside Edward the caretaker. On this visit they repaired the letters from the school sign which had fallen from the wall. Acquiring the plastic letters was a job in itself but we fixed that out back home. We just have to do a talk at a local Rotary as payment for those!

 They also repaired guttering and installed a water butt to collect rainwater which will be used as an extra source of water

We have been involved with the support given to one particular boy for many years now. Ali suffers from epilepsy and this has caused problems with his attendance and level of education over the years. He is 17 and still attending primary. This visit he greeted us warmly and we noticed he was wearing cut down Wellington boots which were split down the heel for extra room! We decided we would help and buy him some shoes. He told us he was a size 10 so off we went to buy black school shoes. We got a great deal, brand new imported from USA priced at 49 dollars sold to us for £10! We took them to a very happy Ali who couldn’t wait to try them on. They seemed very large but Ali was adamant they were the right  fit, there was no way on earth he was giving them back despite the fact we told him we could exchange them for another size!

He looked like the proudest boy ever. He came to us later with a scrap of paper on which he had written “Thank you.  God bless you”

To all you supporters that is the message we want to send to you.

Kindergarten children enjoying their porridge