July 9 Summary

This morning, after breakfast, we stayed for a little while at Rosa Mystica, where we unpacked and sorted the shirts, shorts, shoes, pens, pencils and other materials that we later in the day gave to the students at Red Rose. Now that we know the students in our classes, we are in a position to sort what we brought in a thoughtful way so we can make a presentation to each of the classes of students we're working with. “Make it feel like Christmas in July,” as Ken put it.

After we loaded up supplies for our classrooms, we got on the bus and headed over to Red Rose. We made presentations of gifts to the students. We found this to be a wonderful experience -- the Red Rose students were so appreciative. Some students will describe what it felt like when we have some time. For the rest of the morning, we observed and/or taught.

After lunch (at the same mall as yesterday), we visited the Nairobi School, a famous suburban school (click here for the school's history)where the Children of Kibera Foundation sponsors a student from Kibera named John Atella. As Ken tells the story, John does not have a dad in his life, and his mother has no income, so he relies on his Aunt for support. John applied last August for one of ten scholarships that the Children of Kibera Foundation (CoKF) offers. Of the 225 students who applied for the scholarship, 25 qualified on merit and need. But there were only enough funds for the Top 10, and John was in the Top 10.

John applied to Starehe, but his application was not on time, so although he had the qualifications to go there, the school could not admit him because 20,000 students had applied for 216 spaces.

Ken told John to find the best school he could find and CoKF would pay for it. So John walked from Kibera to the Nairobi School (an elite school founded in the 1930s for the children of British citizens living in Kenya). When he got there he demanded to see the principal. He showed the principal his 8^th grade test scores, and a letter from Ken at CoKF to show that he would be able to pay his own way, and he would not go away.

The principal decided to make an exception to their usual procedure and admit John. It’s a decision that the principal has not regretted, because John is at the top of his 9^th grade class (in Kenya, it’s called “form one”).

Once we got to the campus, John came on to our bus, shook each of our hands, and welcomed us. We then met with the principal in his office where he answered questions about the school. Then John walked with us as we toured the expansive tree-filled campus, which includes several farms (they grow their own greens, milk cows, and get eggs from chickens) and really nice playing fields.

After our tour, we headed back to Rosa Mystica for a quick change into our shorts, and then we headed off to the Polo Grounds to play volleyball and soccer (or, as the rest of the world calls it, football) against teams from St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School, the school we visited back on Monday (that seems like so long ago). Gonzaga had its students at the polo grounds for gym class. They have no room for athletics in their Kibera location, and this is the time of the week when they are allowed to use part of the polo grounds.

After those games, we came back to Rosa Mystica where we had dinner, packed for our upcoming safari (we leave tomorrow morning!), and did some brief reflecting about our first week in Kenya.

We're excited for the safari tomorrow! Again, it’s not clear what the internet situation will be on safari, so there may be a lull in the updates.