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Day 1 @ Katakwa



Monday, June 12, 2017

Welcome to Kenya!

Day 1 @ Katakwa Secondary School

To start off our day just right we got an amazing breakfast provided by Mama Beatrice “B”, our house mom at the Elewana Mission House. We left the house and drove down a bumpy dirt road for about half an hour until we arrived at the Katakwa Secondary School. We were met by Principal Gregory and Deputy Principal Victor. After introductions, we were given a tour of the school. The standards of the buildings exceeded our expectations compared to the schools we visited in Uganda. The poverty was still visible in the campus but it wasn’t as obvious; the school seemed like a private school in Kenya. Once break for the students began, there was an assembly in the courtyard where the principal introduced the teachers at the school to us and we introduced ourselves. As classes resumed, we were served traditional Kenyan tea. There were two types of tea we had, a strong and milk. We were broken into groups and sent to different classes. The students in our class were of form 2 (10th grade) girls. We learned Swahili and Chemistry. One of the phrases we learned in Swahili was Mimi Ninalala (“I am sleeping”) and in Chemistry we learned about ionic bonding. 

During the students’ lunch break, we talked to many of the students and they were very welcoming. We learned a lot of about the culture at the school. Then we had a lunch of rice, beef, and pineapple. In the afternoon, we played futbol (soccer) and net ball(volleyball) with the students. While many of the other students, mostly girls, stood and watched the games, some of us talked to them. They were fascinated by our Muzungu (white person) hair, taught us more Swahili, and learned about America. Then it was time to go, so we boarded up the buses and drove back to the mission house in Amagoro (which means forest in Swahili). We rested up for a bit before having a team meeting where we discussed our discoveries of the new school. Then we were served a huge feast of spaghetti made by Mama B. 

Our findings of the day:

·       Chip is the best cockroach catcher
·       We now know what Jimmy will look like as a 67 year old, thanks to Woods
·       The school is a lot more segregated by gender than in the United States
·       FRESH LAUNDRY IS AMAZING! (thanks to Mama B)
·       Phoebe is the greatest girls soccer player of the day (since she was the only one allowed on the field)
·       Mama B can NOT cook anything bad
·       Mr. Head makes the greatest animal calls 

P   Peace,

     Jenna Holliman ans Elizabeth Edmunds   



Comments

  1. UnknownJune 15, 2017 at 7:56 AM

    Well, I guess it is good that you didn't learn, "I am sleeping" during chemistry class. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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