Friday, April 2, 2010

News from Kenya - #3

Journal Entry 3-Day 4

Monday March 29, 2010 9.30 PM

I’ve had a good day and it almost went as planned. That is highly unusual here, in my past experience. Julie, Rom’s 22-year-old daughter arrived about 11 AM to show me how to make chapatis. We used a charcoal burning jiko right in the flat. We initially lit it out on the porch but as the coals became hot we brought it into the kitchen. Julie prefers making them on the jiko rather than the stove and the stove is also out of gas. It uses a large propane tank and it needs to be refilled at quite an expense.

She poured about two cups of flour into a pan of salted water-maybe a little over a cup. Nothing was actually measured. That was stirred well. Then vegetable oil is usually added but we only had tub margarine so we used that. About the equivalent of half a stick. They are then mixed well and formed into soft round balls about 4 inches in diameter. A round wooden cutting board with short legs was placed on the floor and she used a rounded piece of wood as a rolling pin and flattened each one to about a 7-inch disc. It was then placed in a heavy iron “frying pan” – a round concave disc about 10 inches in diameter-and cooked over the fire adding more oil as necessary until they are partially brown. She flipped it frequently during cooking. She then places the cooked chapati in a plastic bag to keep it soft and warm and continues one at a time. We only made 7 and I made the last one “all by myself” but she said she usually makes 35 or 40.

She also cooked beef but she had purchased soup bone meat and it was very tough, even for Kenya. It tasted good though and the juice was nice for dipping the chapati.

We didn’t get finished cooking until about 1 PM and Jackline from the hospital came to “fetch me” at 1.30 PM. She joined us for lunch before we left.

The hospital is about 2 miles away near the church. We took a Tuk Tuk. The children are housed on ward 5. Today I taught 15 children, 7 girls and 8 boys, ages 5 to 12. Most are 7 or 8. Most have Burkitt’s lymphoma. Those of you who have read my journals before are familiar with this because I have worked on ward 5 each time I’ve come. It is sad, but they report that most of the children are now eventually dying. The chemotherapy treatments are not as regular and the nutrition is not very good.

The children’s’ main caretaker, called Mamma Toto, took me aside and requested that FIOH consider providing about 50 lbs of powdered milk, some toilet paper and bar soap.

I find it hard to believe that the hospital does not provide milk, toilet paper and soap but it doesn’t. The families need to provide it for the patients and most of these children do not have family or they live very far away. I will make sure they get the supplies they requested as I think they are very reasonable. Rom or Paul will help me shop to get a good buy.

As I usually do when I am with these children I taught English words including numbers, letters, colors, the days of the week and simple math. They are very well behaved and the ones able to write wanted me to correct their papers and write how they did on the top. Stickers would have been nice but I didn’t think to bring any. Smile faces work well.

I went by Tuk Tuk back to the flat and was going to “put my feet up” about 5.00 PM but Paul arrived about 5 minutes after me. He had talked to his friend about repairing Rom’s computer. He confirmed it did have a virus and he would uninstall and reinstall everything including a new antivirus program for 2,600 KS. That is about 35 dollars- He said he gave us a discount from 3,000KS. He includes a warranty on the repair. Not bad.

Jeanette Cassandra Oloo, a student sponsored by FIOH-USA came to meet with me about 6 PM. I had initially planned to take her to dinner, but I was so full from the chapatis at lunch that I gave her food here at the flat and we talked. She is a beautiful 16-year-old young woman. She attends Kisumu girls high school not far from here. It is now entirely a boarding school as they realize the students do much better that way. She is in form 3 – a junior. Their daily schedule is intense. They have to get up at 4.20AM and be in study hall be 4.30. If they are late they are “caned”.

They study until 6AM.

6.-6.30 breakfast and shower clean up etc

15 minutes to do a charge/work- Jeanette mops a hallway- it changes per term.

7-7.30 time to read/study do homework

Required subjects are: English Kiswahili, math chemistry and biology plus three of her choice. She takes French geography, and physics.

Each class is 40 minutes and she has all classes every day - about 50 students/class.

Takes 4 classes - then 20 min break, 2 more classes then lunch.

2 more lessons - 10 minute break, 2 more lessons.

Classes end at 4 PM. Some of the required classes are double – 80 minutes. They have 10 classes per day for their 8 subjects.

From 4-5.15- they do different things on different days -exercises, health information, Thursdays is club day. Jeanette is in French club and 4 C’s Club-Change Choice Consequence, Character.- they act as counselors for other students with problems among many other things.

At 5.15PM she goes to her dorm area to do whatever she wants or needs to do. Her individual space consists of a bed and each student brings a suitcase with a lock to keep their belongings. There are nine students in each dorm “cube”.

5.45-6.20 supper

6.20-9.30 study

9.30-10.30 prepare for next day - must be in bed by 10.30.

Her school has electricity, and running water.

The weekend schedule is also fixed - Saturday- up at 4.20: Sunday up by 6.AM (wow she gets to sleep until 6!)

Saturday 6 - 8 time to prepare - must study by 8 am- has classes on Saturday, 8-10 the whole school has math; sciences from 10.30-12.30. Lunch 12.30 - 1.00 more sciences 1- 2.30; 2.30 - 4, Saturday classes are a discussion led by a prefect but the teachers are available to answer questions if needed. She states the teachers are very helpful and she loves school.

4-7 PM is free time with supper from 6.30-7PM. At 7PM they have “entertainment” - dancing, movies etc.

A little background about the Kenyan School system:

Their curriculum is very difficult. I was discussing the Kenyan Secondary school system with Rom and Paul. They think that one of the reasons the children often get poor marks is that they have to take too many subjects at one time. I was explaining to them that in WNY high school students would, for example, take biology one year, chemistry the next and physics the next-not all three at once, every year, as they do in the Kenyan system. I was looking over some of their exams. They are very difficult! Minimum passing grade is a D+. However the individual grades in each subject do not determine promotion. In order to be promoted from one year to the next the student needs to obtain at least half of the total points available for the years work. For example, if 1000 was the most points they could have obtained by getting perfect scores in all their subjects-they would need to get at least 500 by the end of the year. It is possible to fail individual subjects and still be promoted, if the total marks are at least half. If they score less than half they need to repeat the entire year not just the subjects they failed.

During holiday and breaks all children are required to attend extra classes for remedial work. If a student makes it through the Kenyan secondary school system they have an excellent education even if they did not obtain high grades. Early in their senior year every student needs to take the KCSE government exam. That determines if they qualify to graduate from high school and also determines if they are allowed to attend University or college. The words University and College are not used interchangeably as they are back home. They must score at least a B+ on the KCSE to qualify for University-mainly 4 year professional programs. If they score C - B they qualify for College-similar to our associate degree-two year programs. Most colleges here are three-year programs.

Another uniqueness about the Kenyan system is that students to not go to University or College the year following graduation from High School. Most have a whole year to wait to find out their KCSE scores and to be informed what career they qualify to study. The student may express their preference, for example to study teaching or medicine, however the government decides what course they are actually allowed to take. Paul states they usually try to honor the student’s preference.

The government pays a subsidy for each student in secondary school of 10,265 KS- about $143.00. This is not enough to cover the cost of attending and the student must pay the remainder, a cost that varies from school to school. It also varies if the student boards or attends day school. FIOH-USA requests sponsors to pay $350/year for students in Secondary, College or University. We presently sponsor about 30 individuals. They are in Secondary, College and/or vocational training programs.

So here I am on Monday evening-I’m again falling asleep and it is almost 11PM so I’m going to bed.

End of Journal entry 3.

No comments: