I'll Be Seeing You

This is likely to be my last post from Kenya. Although I don't fly out until September 21, I leave Tumaini tomorrow and will not be near my friendly neighborhood internet cafe again. That means the Sox will have to survive the Yankees series and the Pats will have to survive the Chargers without me. But I will be back in Boston in time for the Devil Rays and the Bills on TV! I will still make sure to update on the end of the trip and post pictures when I get back. If you are looking for me when I get back, I might not have my cell phone service immediately, it has to be reactivated, but I do want to see everyone, so send me an email.

Days 16 and 17- Too Little, Too Late?

As of this writing, I have only two days left in at St. Al’s, so of course it would be appropriate that I am finally starting to feel somewhat useful around school. By hanging around long enough, the teachers have gotten to know me and they have figured out that I am willing and able to do just about anything they ask, so they are finally asking.

On Tuesday I was asked to meet with the journalism club at lunch time on pretty short notice, but with only about 45 minutes to fill it was not a huge challenge. For the most part we talked about what goes into the practice of journalism, me drawing on my vast reservoir of knowledge, having written for such prestigious publications as The Wellesley Townsman, The Hoya, and AAP News. More importantly, I have friends in the business.

It was actually great to see so many students interested in journalism, and disappointing that there was not more that could be done to encourage their interest. One girl asked me whether students in my country had journalism clubs, and so I told her about high schools with their own newspaper, magazine, radio station, television station, and website. I think it is imperative that their be more outlets for these students when the new school is built, with someone to work with them on desktop publishing and hopefully some student content on the website too.

Another student asked me if it was true that you need to be attractive to be in broadcast journalism. Nice to know that has filtered down even to people who don’t have television sets. Mostly, though, journalism seemed like an escape for them, a chance to get away from Kibera and see the world, to open their minds. I am supposed to meet with the club again on Friday, and I am trying to think of a way to expand the discourse.

I was also asked on Tuesday to teach a double period of Christian Religious Education (C.R.E.) to the Fourth Formers. That made me nervous- 80 minutes on a subject I had never taught with the oldest students in the school in the stress of preparing for their national exams. To add to the pressure, I was given their text book and told to pick any lesson I wanted, as it was all review for them anyway.

Once I looked at the book, though, I felt better. The book was an introduction to Christian ethics, with strong emphasis on civic duty and not requiring any strong knowledge of Aquinas. Naturally I was drawn to the chapter on Christian approaches to Law, Order, and Justice- apparently I spent too much time in law school, now it is the only thing I feel qualified to talk about.

So I went through the chapter and did my best to bring out discussions on how Christianity frames the ideas of law and justice. We thought about whether the Bible had anything to say about racism, tribalism, sexism, corruption, punishment, hypocrisy, distribution of wealth, and equality. At least some of the group responded to the discussion, though there were others who slept through the period. I wish I knew how to engage everyone in my passions, but it is much tougher for a substitute teacher to demand attention.
As class ended, a downpour began, so I took shelter in the teachers room until I thought it was over, then I slogged back through the mud, only to be hit by another squall. Strange weather for what is supposed to be the dry season, and really destructive around Kibera.

I realized today that I have not done much to describe Kibera since the first day, and I have also been unable to upload pictures due to internet problems. Even when I do upload pictures, it will be impossible to get the full image because you cannot capture the scale, the smell, and the sounds in megapixels. That, plus the fact that it is tough to take pictures of everything I want people to see- I am very reticent to take pictures of people I do not know, and the only people I do know are the students. But it is the people that make Kibera so interesting, and sometimes so heartbreaking.

I discovered the true vastness of the slum at some point last week when I decided to walk the length of the main road to get out on the other side. It seemed much shorter when I was on the bus. But as I walked along, I could not believe how many kiosks and little shops were lining both sides of the street, and how many people were walking through the street, and yet I hardly ever see anything being purchased. Everyone is selling something, and it is true throughout Nairobi, but so few people can actually buy anything, so I have no idea how the market functions. Disposable income is non-existent in Kibera.

The other major form of work in Kibera and elsewhere around Nairobi is what is known as jua kali, literally translated as hot sun, where men sit out on the street or in empty lots and due all kinds of skilled and semi-skilled labor. There are furniture makers, carvers, metal workers, auto mechanics, and various other trades. Once again, I know no one in Kibera is buying that 4 poster king size bed, but there it is, sitting in the middle of what seems like a sidewalk.

Also as you walk between the shacks, the alleys are always full of people- hundreds of little kids with their constant song of how are you, women doing the washing and occasionally the cooking, and a few men eyeing me suspiciously. But they are also full of animals- chickens and roosters and cats and dogs. Down by the lower school and on the nearby rubbish heap there are usually goats. And there is, inexplicably, a decent sized herd of cattle that goes back and forth over the low ground. The herdsman must be Masai, who keep large herds but do not slaughter cows to eat their meat, preferring to occasionally tap their jugular and drink their blood.

Wednesday was a return to the database project, now working with the school’s grade register. I have managed to create some forms and reports in Access that could be useful, but the process of entering all the grades is incredibly tedious. I can do it pretty quickly, so best that I try to do everything I can while I am here, but for every student there are 11 subjects every term, 3 terms a year, meaning that there are over 100 marks to enter for a student in Form IV. There is no chance I finish this project before I leave, so I need to train Ben and Dennis to follow through. The data could be very useful, but I fear it will never serve the intended purpose unless there is some full time, competent administrative support to make it work.

In the afternoon I went back to school to teach a Form I English class. The assignment was reading comprehension, and the article was titled “What is Freedom?” Naturally Stephanie, the Hong Kong lay missionary who teaches the class usually and lives at Tumaini, thought I should teach the lesson. Some of the themes were ideas I had explored with the law club and with the journalism club and with the Form IV’s, but there was also new territory, and for the most part a new group to work with.

So we talked about individual freedom vs. free societies, about the social contract (although I did not use those words), about civil liberties, searches and seizures, torture of suspects, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and independence as different from freedom. The reading was really pretty challenging for Form I in their second or third language, but some of the group took up the challenge quite well. I also learned a bit about how to teach such a lesson, learning that I hope will bear fruit when I get to teach the same lesson to the other section of Form I on Thursday.

After teaching the class, I returned to the database, and late in the afternoon it poured again, this time harder than any of the previous rains I had seen. I tried to wait it out, but eventually Ben and I made a run for the bus, and I took it up to Ngong Rd. and got out to buy an umbrella at Nakumatt. Unfortunately, all that was left were floral patterns, so it was that I spent nearly $15 on lady’s umbrella and walked home.

Only two more days at St. Al’s, and while I cannot say I am desperate to stay longer, I do wish I had gotten to this point earlier. I might not have finished so many books (Atonement by Ian McEwan is my latest conquest), but I also might have had more action to write about here.