Life, January & February

 

Most of our time is spent at school, teaching, coaching, and living. Friday mornings the school has a flag raising ceremony. The band plays the National Anthem, the school song, and one or two other selections. "Oh When the Saints..." is a popular one and also one they play well.

Students participating in the St. John Ambulance Club do the flag raising. St. John Ambulance is a volunteer organization of first responders. They have cadets in schools who learn basic first aid practices and get to wear a special uniform.

Fridays are fun because the staff takes turns bringing food to share during the morning tea break.

3 staff members are assigned to each Friday. They plan, prepare, and put together plates for 25-30 people. It is a FEAST and always delicious! We don't eat breakfast on Fridays and many of the teachers skip lunch.

The morning tea break is 30 minutes so there is time to sit around in the staff room, enjoy the food, talk, and laugh. In general, the Kenyans are very happy people.

Here is a science lab that is used for chemistry classes. There are two others, one for physics and one for biology. A lab tech takes care of the rooms, orders supplies, and gets materials and equipment ready for teachers as well as putting things away.

A chemistry teacher working with some students

Chris spends a lot of time at the pool after classes. He's coaching the swim team and swims almost every day himself.

The kids are improving and learning a lot from him. They haven't had an American swim team experience let alone an American coach. They seem to be enjoying it.

Another after school club is the Environment Club. This was started by the principal. KK organized a field trip to local offices of the Kenyan Wildlife Society which manages all of the National Parks.

One of the teachers organized a College Fair. The students listened to presentations from universities who sent representatives to the school.

After the presentations, the students visited booths, spoke to representatives, and collected informational materials.

This is one of the classrooms before the administration decided to split the 35 students into two different groups!

At the midway point in the term, we had a full week of mid-term exams. Many of the classes had to move their desks to the assembly hall for the week. Each day included 3 testing periods, 2 before lunch and 1 after. Once the exams were over, we all had a break. Students who board at school were picked up by their families and spent a week at home.

Nyeri Town is about 8.5km (5.25 miles) from school. This is a typical street scene, minus traffic for the moment. The white vans are called matatus and provide transportation between towns. We usually take a matatu from the school into town. After grocery shopping, we get a taxi to take us back to school. The matatus are 50 Kenyan shillings/person from school to town, about $0.35. The taxi home is $4.65.

Chris' first haircut and shave in town

Recently, we arrived in Nyeri to find big yellow school buses and scouts everywhere. The scouts were celebrating Founder's Day and remembering Baden Powell who founding scouting. He lived in Nyeri Town during the last part of his life and is buried here.

Roughly 2km from school is a beautiful hotel called Le Pristine. We went for lunch one Sunday with a friend who works at the school.

Is it good luck if a chameleon crosses the road in front of you? I think so!

Living along with the staff and students at school is a large family of Vervet monkeys. I see them when I'm walking in the afternoon if the field is not in use. Young and old play in the trees, in the grass, and on the wall around the principal's house. It's fun to watch, from a distance.