Day Three description

July 4

This was probably the most unusual July 4 any of us have ever experienced. We began the day with an extended visit (8:45 to 12:30) visit at Ken’s alma mater high school, the Starehe Boys’ Centre and School in Nairobi. It’s a school that accepts 216 students per grade, in grades 9-12. It’s pretty amazing in that tuition is free for 70% of the students at the school, each of whom has to demonstrate need. About 20,000 students from all over Kenya apply for the 216 spots. They come from all over Kenya, and the admissions committee looks to maintain geographic (and hence, ethnic) diversity. There are about 50 Muslim students at the school (out of about 900 total) and there is even a mosque on the campus. It’s quite a large campus, with playing fields that rival those of prep schools back in the US (though these looked a bit bumpier). Starehe shares its fields with nearby schools that do not have fields, including some female schools.

The school is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1959 by a man with a vision – Dr. Griffiths. He was a white Kenyan who was well connected with such people as Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya. It started as a club for boys who did not have a safe place to be in the aftermath of the Mau Mau rebellion, and it grew and grew over the years. Today it’s one of the top two (I think they are being modest – it’s probably number one) high schools in the country.

In Kenya, students have a lot riding on their 8^th grade end of the year test. If they do well, they can get into high school. Starehe gets the top of the top. Boys live there for all three terms of their year-round school year. Their school year runs Jan-Mar, with an April Break, May-July (the term they’re in now), and September-November. At the end of form four (that would be our 12^th grade – form 1 is 9^th grade), there is a very high stakes test for university admission. It takes a long time to grade those tests, and students actually don’t enter college (assuming they did well on the test) until a year and nine months after they graduate in November (I wonder what graduation is like).

Most students get some sort of job while they wait to hear about university acceptances. Ken, for instance, sold newspapers for those two years until he managed to get a scholarship to St. Lawrence University. Had he not received that scholarship, he would have likely attended one of the local universities (if he could have afforded it -- financial aid covers only 60-70% and if families can't put together the remainder, the student can't attend), and we would not likely be on this particular trip.

More about the school will go here – it’s an amazing place -- we all broke into small groups of 2-5 people each and were toured around the school by studentsand/or teachers, but mainly students -- the students do a lot to run their own school.

After our amazing school visit, we had lunch at a restaurant, and then went to visit Kibra Academy where we will be helping set up a computer lab that should have a huge impact on the students who attend that school (insert pictures).

From there, we walked through Kibera back to Red Rose, accompanied by students from Kibra Academy (most of whom had never been to Red Rose before). We have lots of pictures and observations from that walk through Kibera.

We then drove over to Ken’s mother’s house in Kibera, where she graciously provided us with sodas, straws and Kenyan hospitality. As you can see, our days are packed, so our visit with Ken’s mother was only a brief one -- maybe half an hour. We then got on the bus, headed back to Rosa Mystica, where we arrived at 5:30, ate a quick dinner, and got back on the bus which took us to Starehe for a performance of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat." That show concluded around 9:30 and we were back at Rosa Mystica by about 10, reasonably exhausted at that point.

The above paragraphs are the brief accounts of Steve Goldberg, but many students wanted to add their thoughts and reflections and those will appear below -- hopefully later today.