Our older students have been encouraging me again today. I've been trying to spend time with them to teach them some new games designed to stretch their thinking. Having benefited from a very stimulating childhood its sometimes difficult to appreciate how much we take for granted from a western lifestyle. I think that most of our secondary school students had a stimulating afternoon today.
We have just started having a debate in the Technical School on Friday afternoon. I missed the first one last week but sat in on this week's. The debate is set up to mirror the arrangements in parliament, complete with Mr. Speaker presiding over the proceedings, Sergeant at Arms, an assortment of Ministers and MPs standing for or against the motion. Today's motion was that Boarding Schools are better than Day Schools. This is a big deal for our youngsters. A lot of High Schools in Kenya are boarding schools. Most students aspire to going to one of the better boarding schools. The arguments for the motion were interesting. The best thing going for boarding schools is that they usually have electricity so students can study easily in the evening. They also make it less likely that students are in contact with 'bad influences' in the community. The case against focuses on the quality of family life and the importance of contributing to family obligations.
The argument was conducted very vigorously. It's easy to spot the students with a real gift for presenting their case and trying to outsmart their opposition with good questions. In a lull in the debate the 'Ministers' were called on to give a report about their achievements since the parliament has opened. This was very amusing as the MPs were mostly hostile to the ministers and they didn't really have any good comebacks to criticism. The spirit of democracy and accountability is alive and well in our school. The speaker ruled that the motion was lost at the end of the debate. After the discussion and proceedings were over one of the first year students provided a very good analysis/critique of the vocabulary and grammar used during the debate and we finished with a prayer. It was a great ending to the school day.
After a rather late start to our evening activities I spent an equally enjoyable hour and a half teaching the older children how to play chess as part of our developing 'brain gym' program. The delay in starting was caused by the late return of our primary school pupils from the second day of ball games at the 'stadium' (large field) just up the road. We surprised the opposition by putting up a couple of good teams. The girls outperformed the boys by winning two of their matches. The boys somewhat unfortunately lost their games (I suspect to bigger and heavier sides). They all seemed very happy (though very tired) when they eventually got back. There was a short but quite heavy downpour of rain at about 5.30 this evening which delayed the players from starting back. Good for the farm but not quite so much fun for the ball game players.
Friday, 24 May 2013
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Ball Games
Now that we are in the second term the ball games season has come upon us again. This is a brief period of sports madness that involves all of the local schools. The timing of events is kept a secret until the last possible minute and then more or less coordinated outbreaks of football and netball matches between schools happen at selected venues. We found out on Tuesday that our boys and girls teams were due to play matches today so hurriedly put some practice sessions together before the event.
Our matches were held at a local school in Simbiri (close to the hospital I visited on Sunday to see some friends and ended up 'parking' the Landrover in a ditch for the night). We performed quite well. Our girls won their match 1-0 and the boys drew 0-0. We at least have an unbeaten record at the moment. We will have to play some more matches tomorrow morning (a little closer to home this time in the 'stadium' just up the road). The outcome of these matches will determine whether or not any of our players are selected to represent our zone in the next round of what ends up being a national ball games competition. It's anybody's guess what will happen. Our teachers thought that some of our players are skillful but not as big as some of the players in other teams. Finesse might not be one of the major considerations in the final selection. We shall have to wait and see.
When they returned home after walking back from the matches our youngsters and all the adults were treated to sausages for supper courtesy of Ian and Hilda, our friends from Scotland, who have just returned to join us until the end of the year. It might not sound like much of an indulgence but it's the first meat I've eaten since leaving Kisumu when I arrived in Kenya at the beginning of the month. A vegetarian diet has a lot going for it but I do like to give the meat eating teeth a bit of exercise once in a while. Thank you Ian and Hilda!
Our matches were held at a local school in Simbiri (close to the hospital I visited on Sunday to see some friends and ended up 'parking' the Landrover in a ditch for the night). We performed quite well. Our girls won their match 1-0 and the boys drew 0-0. We at least have an unbeaten record at the moment. We will have to play some more matches tomorrow morning (a little closer to home this time in the 'stadium' just up the road). The outcome of these matches will determine whether or not any of our players are selected to represent our zone in the next round of what ends up being a national ball games competition. It's anybody's guess what will happen. Our teachers thought that some of our players are skillful but not as big as some of the players in other teams. Finesse might not be one of the major considerations in the final selection. We shall have to wait and see.
When they returned home after walking back from the matches our youngsters and all the adults were treated to sausages for supper courtesy of Ian and Hilda, our friends from Scotland, who have just returned to join us until the end of the year. It might not sound like much of an indulgence but it's the first meat I've eaten since leaving Kisumu when I arrived in Kenya at the beginning of the month. A vegetarian diet has a lot going for it but I do like to give the meat eating teeth a bit of exercise once in a while. Thank you Ian and Hilda!
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Code Breakers
I've spent quite a lot of time with our Technical School students this week, teaching Business Studies, ICT and doing some problem solving activities in the evenings. It's been a lot of fun, though challenging at the same time. I really admire the students' ability to study using the English language. At the moment we are at the stage where I am trying to tune into some of the students' idiosyncrasies to make sure they understand me. I think the lessons are going down quite well, especially learning about using computers. It's been a long time since I have taught a class where most of the students have never used a computer before. They are very fast learners, corroborating research carried out by an Indian academic who made a computer available to street children in India and observed how they very quickly taught themselves to use it from scratch.
This evening we were working on a problem involving code breaking, algebra, teamwork and mental arithmetic skills. Teaching in this way isn't really very common here so the youngsters took a few minutes to really cotton on to the purpose of the activity. They had to work together as a team to solve a series of related algebraic expressions to identify the letters in a code, and then apply the key they had worked out to decoding a message. The Technical Students who live with us are going to be the 'expert practitioners' in their respective classes and I'm hoping that they will be able to quickly bring their classmates up to speed on these kind of activities.
Our friends Ian and Hilda will be arriving in Kosele tomorrow for another long visit. It will be good to have them with us again and I know the children, staff and church members are all looking forward to seeing them. We are all hoping that we will be able to make progress on a number of new developments which will help the children to really fulfill their potential this year. Being a 'parent' to twenty five children is a full time occupation so it's really helpful to have committed and good-hearted people to share the load.
This evening we were working on a problem involving code breaking, algebra, teamwork and mental arithmetic skills. Teaching in this way isn't really very common here so the youngsters took a few minutes to really cotton on to the purpose of the activity. They had to work together as a team to solve a series of related algebraic expressions to identify the letters in a code, and then apply the key they had worked out to decoding a message. The Technical Students who live with us are going to be the 'expert practitioners' in their respective classes and I'm hoping that they will be able to quickly bring their classmates up to speed on these kind of activities.
Our friends Ian and Hilda will be arriving in Kosele tomorrow for another long visit. It will be good to have them with us again and I know the children, staff and church members are all looking forward to seeing them. We are all hoping that we will be able to make progress on a number of new developments which will help the children to really fulfill their potential this year. Being a 'parent' to twenty five children is a full time occupation so it's really helpful to have committed and good-hearted people to share the load.
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Vermin
I'm not sure who got the bigger surprise when I walked into my kitchen after homework time this evening - me or the rat. I noticed it out of the corner of my eye nosing about on the shelf behind the gas rings. I looked at it, it looked at me and then scuttled behind the piece of board that blocks off the chimney. This weak link in my defenses against vermin has now been strengthened so I'm hoping we won't come across each other again in a hurry. I know that rats are a pretty much global problem and live very much closer to us than we would like to think. When you see a rat nosing around the place you prepare food it is, none the less, still unpleasant.
My minor encounter with a rat pails into insignificance compared to our friend Dee's experiences over the years living on the site of the small hospital that she and her husband Keith first started just over twenty years ago. I went up to see Dee on Sunday and she told me about the different kinds of wildlife she'd shared the house with at different times. She said that the rats were much easier to cope with than the bats, which used to roost on the joists that supported her roof. I'm not sure how I would have coped with a bat falling onto my dinner plate!
Duncan, our farm manager, has been hard at work today planting banana 'suckers' (offshoots from the banana trees). Our banana plantation now has a hundred and twenty trees planted in it. Many of them will be bearing fruit in about six weeks time so I'm hoping that we are at the start of what will be a successful enterprise. Properly managed our bananas, kale and tomatoes could help us to be pretty much self sufficient in those parts of the menu. As ever it was all hands on deck for the planting. It's not as simple as it sounds. First a large hole has to be dug (banana suckers are quite a size) then the suckers have to be placed and the hole filled in. Duncan had sixty-six suckers to plant today so the pupils in our two oldest primary classes pitched in to help him out from about three this afternoon. Duncan was very pleased with their work and I'm sure they will be very pleased when they start eating the fruits of their labours. Duncan is also anticipating an increase in demand for our surplus suckers which we sell for a hundred shillings each(a bit less than a pound and a bit more than a dollar). We'll have to be careful not to mix our customers up with the product if we decide to advertise the suckers for sale.
My minor encounter with a rat pails into insignificance compared to our friend Dee's experiences over the years living on the site of the small hospital that she and her husband Keith first started just over twenty years ago. I went up to see Dee on Sunday and she told me about the different kinds of wildlife she'd shared the house with at different times. She said that the rats were much easier to cope with than the bats, which used to roost on the joists that supported her roof. I'm not sure how I would have coped with a bat falling onto my dinner plate!
Duncan, our farm manager, has been hard at work today planting banana 'suckers' (offshoots from the banana trees). Our banana plantation now has a hundred and twenty trees planted in it. Many of them will be bearing fruit in about six weeks time so I'm hoping that we are at the start of what will be a successful enterprise. Properly managed our bananas, kale and tomatoes could help us to be pretty much self sufficient in those parts of the menu. As ever it was all hands on deck for the planting. It's not as simple as it sounds. First a large hole has to be dug (banana suckers are quite a size) then the suckers have to be placed and the hole filled in. Duncan had sixty-six suckers to plant today so the pupils in our two oldest primary classes pitched in to help him out from about three this afternoon. Duncan was very pleased with their work and I'm sure they will be very pleased when they start eating the fruits of their labours. Duncan is also anticipating an increase in demand for our surplus suckers which we sell for a hundred shillings each(a bit less than a pound and a bit more than a dollar). We'll have to be careful not to mix our customers up with the product if we decide to advertise the suckers for sale.
Monday, 20 May 2013
Still half full
The Landrover finally made it back home after getting stuck in the mud last night (see last night's post). It looked in a sorry old state after it's unfortunate sojourn in a ditch but I'm sure it will be OK. Predictably enough there hasn't been a drop of rain tonight (though there was fairly spectacular lightning show a little distance away).
After a slightly demoralised start to the day (brought on mostly by an untypical 'glass half empty' moment) I managed to finish the day on a much higher note after updating a cash flow prediction for the rest of the year. I have discovered that I have a probably geeky liking for spreadsheets and find it very satisfying when the pieces have all been set in place.
Working through our figures I was reminded how challenging, satisfying and scary it is being any kind of entrepreneur. An incorrect or inaccurate entry on a spreadsheet can be just as hair raising as any roller coaster ride. You wouldn't think a cash flow forecast would be the kind of thing an adrenalin junkie would go for but there are thrills and spills aplenty to be had.
Anyway, suffice to say I finished up the day in a better frame of mind that when it started. Thankful to God for taking us this far. Stretching out in faith for funding the next steps in the journey and extremely thankful to be here now doing this.
The staff meeting I had with our primary school teachers was also very encouraging. The final test marks from the maths project that we have been running for a couple of months have now been compiled and we are all very encouraged by the progress that the pupils have made. The average scores in each of the groups have shown great improvement and more importantly the majority of the children have become less fearful of maths. One of the games that we have played with all of the groups is called 'Bizz Buzz'. It's a very simple memory game really but the children really enjoyed it. One of the teachers reported that her group were very keen to get started on their 'bizz buzz' project each lesson. We are approaching the half way mark in the school year over here now so we still have a decent amount of time to continue developing new approaches to teaching and learning. It really is a privilege to be working with such a willing group of teachers.
After a slightly demoralised start to the day (brought on mostly by an untypical 'glass half empty' moment) I managed to finish the day on a much higher note after updating a cash flow prediction for the rest of the year. I have discovered that I have a probably geeky liking for spreadsheets and find it very satisfying when the pieces have all been set in place.
Working through our figures I was reminded how challenging, satisfying and scary it is being any kind of entrepreneur. An incorrect or inaccurate entry on a spreadsheet can be just as hair raising as any roller coaster ride. You wouldn't think a cash flow forecast would be the kind of thing an adrenalin junkie would go for but there are thrills and spills aplenty to be had.
Anyway, suffice to say I finished up the day in a better frame of mind that when it started. Thankful to God for taking us this far. Stretching out in faith for funding the next steps in the journey and extremely thankful to be here now doing this.
The staff meeting I had with our primary school teachers was also very encouraging. The final test marks from the maths project that we have been running for a couple of months have now been compiled and we are all very encouraged by the progress that the pupils have made. The average scores in each of the groups have shown great improvement and more importantly the majority of the children have become less fearful of maths. One of the games that we have played with all of the groups is called 'Bizz Buzz'. It's a very simple memory game really but the children really enjoyed it. One of the teachers reported that her group were very keen to get started on their 'bizz buzz' project each lesson. We are approaching the half way mark in the school year over here now so we still have a decent amount of time to continue developing new approaches to teaching and learning. It really is a privilege to be working with such a willing group of teachers.
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Stuck in a ditch
My apologies that tonight's post is a) a bit late and b) a bit short. I was invited to supper this evening by a couple of friends from the UK who run a small hospital in a place called Simbiri about a mile and a half off the main road from Kosele (the village closest to us). I enjoyed a very pleasant evening though became a little worried when a relatively short burst of quite heavy rain started. The road to Simbiri is well maintained but prone to becoming muddy very quickly. At some points the road is very narrow with a pronounce n shaped camber on the road and a fairly sharp drop off on each side. Duncan our farm manager made it to Simbiri to pick me up and I managed to slide off the camber on an uphill section on the way home. Despite our best efforts to make it back onto the road the Landrover kept sliding off into the ditch and is now firmly stuck. We were forced to abandon it and leave it in the care of one of our off duty night guards until morning when we will arrange a tow after the road has dried. We made it home at about 10.30. It was quite a pleasant walk, despite the frustration at having to leave our vehicle. We only saw one quite small snake which ignored us and slithered on across the road. Moral of the story - follow instincts about this kind of driving in future.
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Livewires
Before Judi and I ever thought of coming out to Kenya we were involved in a church youth club called Livewires that ran on Friday nights during school term time. It was sometimes hard work mustering the energy to go to Livewires at the end of the week but it never failed to be a great night out. The club had a very simple format. We sang some worship songs, played games (the dafter the better) and had a short talk for the kids. Then we played some more games, took it in turns for the kids to have some 'tuck' and finished off with some more singing. Some nights were more chaotic than others but it was a great way to spend the early part of Friday evening.
On Saturday nights the youngsters over here have a 'praise and worship' time. When they were all very little this mostly involved singing and clapping our way round one of the small classrooms that we first started off with. 'Happy clappy' is a good description - they were very happy and they did clap a lot. As the kids have got older it's become a bit more challenging making this a worthwhile time for them. We put our heads together while I was at home in April and decided that we ought to start up a Kosele Livewires session. We had the first one tonight, following the time honored format. I'm sure the kids thought we were losing the plot when we first started re-arranging the classroom to make room for the games but they very quickly got the message and joined in enthusiastically. It always makes me chuckle to see even the oldest youngsters getting stuck into the games. The hit game of the evening was a relay race that involved each team member crawling on hands and knees carrying a plastic cup on his or her back. If the cup fell off it was back to the start line to do it again. Once they'd understood the rules each team went crazy cheering the 'runner' on for each leg. The noise was quite deafening but really encouraging.
It's been some time since I did Livewires so I'll have to ask the current Livewires team at home to send me details of the games they are playing at the moment. It won't be very long before the older ones are running the sessions and learning a bit more about leadership. A couple of the lads are quite keen to learn how to play the guitar so we might have the makings of a band as well. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it!
On Saturday nights the youngsters over here have a 'praise and worship' time. When they were all very little this mostly involved singing and clapping our way round one of the small classrooms that we first started off with. 'Happy clappy' is a good description - they were very happy and they did clap a lot. As the kids have got older it's become a bit more challenging making this a worthwhile time for them. We put our heads together while I was at home in April and decided that we ought to start up a Kosele Livewires session. We had the first one tonight, following the time honored format. I'm sure the kids thought we were losing the plot when we first started re-arranging the classroom to make room for the games but they very quickly got the message and joined in enthusiastically. It always makes me chuckle to see even the oldest youngsters getting stuck into the games. The hit game of the evening was a relay race that involved each team member crawling on hands and knees carrying a plastic cup on his or her back. If the cup fell off it was back to the start line to do it again. Once they'd understood the rules each team went crazy cheering the 'runner' on for each leg. The noise was quite deafening but really encouraging.
It's been some time since I did Livewires so I'll have to ask the current Livewires team at home to send me details of the games they are playing at the moment. It won't be very long before the older ones are running the sessions and learning a bit more about leadership. A couple of the lads are quite keen to learn how to play the guitar so we might have the makings of a band as well. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it!
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