Tuesday March 30th

The children in the villages are all very shy at first. They don't want to come and shake your hand, after all we are the strange Mzungu, white person. Most of the time it does not take long for them to become more open especially if you take their picture and then show it to them. Then they giggle and become very excited. As we drive down the road and the children see white people in the car they smile and yell out, "Mzungu, how are you?" Others will just stare in disbelief with their mouths open that they just saw a Mzungu.

Today we went to the Orenge Primary School. This is a rural school outside of Kisumu where there are about 470 students and only 13 teachers. Eight of the teachers are government supported. The other five are paid by the local school council. To recruit new teachers the Head Master has to submit an application to the local school council and then of course there must be the funds to pay for them. Most likely the lack of funds are the limiting factor to the increase in staff that is so much needed.

This is a Primary school that covers classes 1-8. The class sizes are typically 60-65. The school is the same mud construction as seen in homes. They are starting to rebuild the rooms for class 7 and 8 and will continue as funds come in. The new section is made out of bricks and takes a month to build. The cost to build one room that is 20x25 meters is 300,000 schillings, $4,000 US. Supporting this school with construction will become one of the projects of Waking Forward Educational Ministry. The size of the other classroom not under construction is about 12x12 meters. Other needs are desks that cost 500 schillings, $6.50.

Our adventure began on the drive to the school. It had rained some the night before so the driveway down to the school was very muddy. With that intro and knowing that we had to pack rubber boots you can only summize that we got stuck. There where many local people about and they very graciously came and assisted in getting the truck out of the mud. To be safe the truck was parked and we walked the rest of the way to the school.

Once at the school the children where shy until the picture taking began. Then they would crowd around you about six deep all wanting to see the pictures. It did not matter if they where in the picture or not, they justed wanted to see. They would shout me, me, me. I showed them a picture of a giraff taken a few days earlier and they would call out giraff in thier native language. Wes, Micki, and I all had packs of children around us and enjoyed every minute of it. At this school Life for Children has five orphans.

We met with the Head Master, Naphtali, a man I came to respect and admire through our short time together. He took us through each classroom and explained what they where learning as seen on the blackboards. To teach the concept 'under' there was a drawing of a table with a vase under the table. For language there was a chart with words written out in the native languare in syllables. The desks are benches with a writing area on them. With sixty or more in a class some children must sit on the floor.

There are many ophans at this school and Naphtali and the teachers will pay out of pocket to make sure the child needs are met because the government funding does not cover all the costs. In the city if you don't have a uniform then you cannot attend school. Here the Head Master will allow children to attend if they are too poor to purchase a uniform. This is the case for a few students and he introduced us to one of them, a beautiful girl named Mercy. One teacher was to retire last year but has remained out of his commitment to the students. School goes all day and includes Saturday. Some schools also go one Sunday.

New latrines where built in 2009 by donation from the Water.org under the SWASH program in association with the Bill Gates Foundation. By the latrines are handwashing stations donated by another organization. They don't have a pumping service to clean out the latrines and so when they are full the building are moved over new sewage collection holes while the material under the first ones complete decomposing. From there the process is recycled. The latrines are deep and only consist of a hole that looks like a urnal placed on its side in concrete. Word of caution always carry your own toilet paper. Hope you where not eating while reading this.

The teachers where just as shy as the students and some would not even look up at us. One was wearing a shirt that said Macy's on it. I explained to Naphtali that my husband works for Macy's. The clothes that are sold in the market place are purchased overseas and then shipped here to be sold.

From here we went to the Onyalo Biro village and met Conslata Awino, she is 58 years old and is guardian to Elvis. Conslata had 10 children, her seven sons have died and she has three girls left. She has six grandchildren. Elvis does not have a sponsor. We also met Doris who is guardian to Benta, Moureen, Caroline, and Evans. Life for Children has assisted in building a home for these orphans.