Leaving Mombasa

We are leaving Mombasa tonight and heading to Nairobi. I know that for me, it is bitter sweet.   I am very much looking forward to our adventures in Nairobi and our safari, but the people here in Mombasa have become family.  This experience has truly exemplified the meaning of  “family of Rotary”.  Our team of teachers have learned quickly what that really means.  Everyone here has gone above and beyond and has made our visit most memorable.  On Tuesday we visited the High Court in the morning.  We sat in on three cases that were presented.  They were not trials, but rather presentations of applications to the court.  The judge makes all decisions.  If the applications are accepted the Judge may agree that the matter should go to trial.  If not, he can opt for denying the application and the case goes no further.  There is no jury system here.  We spoke to the judge afterwards and he told us there used to be 6 judges in Mombasa.  Now there are three and the population is larger, so he is doing more than double the work.  They have adapted their system from the UK.

We had another luncheon meeting, hosted by two clubs and the Inner Wheelers.  The Inner Wheel organization is very prominent and involved in Kenya.  They have many wonderful projects of their own.  Again, we did our presentation and it went without a hitch.  The team is doing really well and we are all soaking in all we can. 

We went to the Kadzunnini School where the Inner Wheel club has created and supported several projects.  This school is way out from the city.  Children who go to school there live in the surrounding villages and have probably never even been in Mombasa.  The desks in the classrooms came from a Rotary matching grant.  The sewing project for women started as a micro credit program that district 5340 has been involved in.  Many of the children walk home barefoot through fields and dirt roads.

We then joined a few Rotarians at the home of Musti Mamujees.  We drank Dawa and watched the full moon.  I am coming home with the recipe for Dawa!

Some of the team members will be writing specifically about their vocational experiences and feelings about what they saw. 

In the afternoon we went to Bombululu Workship.  Handicapped people work here to create clothes, pottery, jewelry, and many other things.  We shopped in their gift shop.  There were some incredible hand made items.  In one part of the shop all things were made by single mothers.  We had a dance performance and we all got up and danced.  However, my hips just don’t move like that!

After going home to change we went to the Tamarind Dhow for a lovely evening on a boat.  We had a wonderful meal, and lots of fun with Rotarians and our group.  We all went home tired and happy.

This morning we started at the cyber cafe.  Internet access is very bad here and we have had trouble receiving and sending mail and uploading to the blog. 

Today we visited the Aga Khan Academy.  What a contrast and what an incredible school.  This school is the most incredible thing we have seen.  It reminded me of La Jolla Country Day, only nicer!  40% of the teachers are expats and it was fascinating talking to them.  There are 21 in a class, there is a large gymnasium, a large swimming pool.  The school goes through high school.  They are soon to build residential facilities.  The school is state of the art, and Kelli was most interested as this is an IB MYP school.  The cost is about $2500.00 a year.  Compare that to our private schools!  The principal is a Rotarian and had been a GSE team member in the past. 

Today Paraag Devani the GSE chair in District 9200 hosted a lunch for our team and our hosts.  It was lovely, and it is so interesting the way they are always worried that we don’t eat enough and that we should eat more.   The food is unbelievably abundant.  Chhani presented me with a gift to “her daughter” and Varinder reminded her that I am older than she is!  I got up to thank everyone and got very teary eyed.  These are life long friendships we have made.  Off we go to Nairobi for two days, then to Masai Mara for safari, and then returning to Nairobi for 5 days.  These are very long and tiring days.  We are trying to remember everything that we’ve seen and everyone we have met.  Not an easy task.  But we are all happy and doing well.

From Mombasa

Dale shakes hands with students. Photo by Christopher Greenslate.

Here we are in Mombasa.  After many hours of flying, we arrived in Nairobi on January 10th at 8:25 pm.  We were greeted in Nairobi by a group of Rotarians who took us for a bite to eat before catching our plane for Mombasa.  We landed in Mombasa just after midnight and were met by an even larger group of Rotarians.  Some of the people were folks I had communicated with by email so it was wonderful to meet them in person.  We headed home with our host families.  I am staying with Varinder and Chheny Sur who happen to be good friends of Steve and Susan Brown.  Verandir is a physician and Chheny is a pharmacist.  They have made me feel right at home.

Our days have been full.  The morning after our arrival, the team was taken to a resort for R&R and a little jet lag recovery time.  From there we were taken to Nguuni for a barbecue and fellowship.  Nguuni is a wild animal preserve and owned by a cement factory.  We got up close and personal with giraffes and elan.  It was quite a site.  The food was wonderful and we all went home ready for sleep.

This morning the six of us were divided into groups of twos and taken to 3 different schools.  Christopher and I were together at a public school with 1200 students.  There are 100 children or more in a classroom with one teacher, no aides and no volunteers.  The children all stand up and say hello when visitors enter.  Many have no shoes and many come to school with empty stomaches.  This school is grades K-8.  The public schools here are all like that.  There is no public high school.  They are all private.  We were told, however, that the children in the crowded public schools seem to do better academically than those in private schools with 20 to a class.  The thought is they are too pampered in private school and not ready for the rigors of the higher grades if they continue.

At recess the children all wanted to shake our hands and say hello,  both in English and Swahili.   One of the older boys came up to me and said, “When you go back to America, tell Barack Obama we are glad he is president”.  It was touching.  They need fresh water, a lunch program, books, computers, the list is endless.  When we left there I told Christopher that if I started to talk about what we saw, I knew I would cry.  Our economy in the US is bad, but seeing this puts things in a different perspective.  We spoke to the head teacher (principal) at length.  She has six children of her own.  Her husband lost his job.  She cannot afford to send her children to high school or college, so they are all sitting at home while she is working.  Her children are not old enough to  work, so it is a very sad situation.

After meeting a couple of Rotarians for lunch, we were taken to Haller Park where we all got pictures of giraffes, hippos, monkeys, elans and water buffalo.  We all fed the giraffes….they have very long and slimy tongues!

We were taken by our driver back to our host families.  Varinder and Chheny had a lovely dinner party.  We sat in the yard watching the full moon.  Chheny mad a wonderful traditional Indian dinner.  Though they were both born in Kenya, their families were originally from India.

The district governor called me today to welcome us.  He was out of the country when we arrived.  We will see him in Nairobi on Friday.  With very full but wonderful days, it’s hard to keep track of names, places and events.  I am trying to record as much as I can in a journal.  Sending you all good wishes from Kenya.

Dale

Purple and White.

Students in a fifth grade class at Kengeleni Primary School in Mombassa.

Close to 100 students sit quietly in rows, three to a book, as their teacher Mrs. Jane does her best to prepare them to read and write. The room is not much larger than a typical classroom, but this one is lit by the incoming sun, and an empty space is nowhere in sight.

Behind the building two women sit stirring porridge in a large bucket that looks more like a dull liquid made from kidney beans than from wheat. The headmaster at Kengeleni Primary School, Margaret Odongo Oguts, has a line of new students with their parents outside her office, waiting to see if they can be enrolled.

“Surely the government is helping, but we need more donors, more people of goodwill chipping in,” Margaret Odongo Oguts said.

The area around the school has piles of burning trash, people out of work, and others doing odd jobs to earn money. Yet in this slum of Mombassa, Kenya, the Kengeleni Primary School is an oasis.

The building was built only four years ago, through donor contributions and non-profit organizations, and its walls are colorfully painted with diagrams of corn, the functions of the heart, and maps of the surrounding countries. For only having a shoestring staff of about a dozen, and over 1,000 students to tend to, Kengeleni is well-kept and orderly.

The story of schools like this one are familiar to the people of Mombassa. In this coastal town of 700,000 residents, poverty is the norm, and for a student to stay in school through the eighth grade doesn’t guarantee much except the chance to learn how to read and write; skills that are vital, but insufficient considering the challenges these children face on a daily basis.

Even if a child doesn’t succumb to disease, drugs, crime or prostitution as a means of survival, there is little chance of getting a job that will empower them to overcome the situation here; at least for now.

A fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Jane Omondi, has been teaching here for only a week and knows these challenges first hand. Outside of the school the children, who are mostly orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS, do whatever they can to have a meager amount of food. Stories of girls, not yet in their teens, selling their bodies for as little as 30 shillings (not even 50 cents), are not news.

“Bringing them to school is saving their lives in one way or another. If they come, even if they only get a little education, their safety is guaranteed, their security is guaranteed,” Omondi said.

Yet amidst the tragedy, the people here show signs of hope. Students giggle and smile without reason, and the resilience of everyone at Kengeleni is hard to understand. Beneath the purple and white uniforms there are canyons of sorrow, but students here hold out for hope. They’re working hard in school and doing their best to survive.

Christopher Greenslate

Pre-trip message

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, it is a week until we leave for East Africa.  I think we are all ready and anxious.  Our hosts in Kenya and Uganda have been very warm and welcoming in their emails and they have assured us that they will “take good care of us”.  I know that this will be a life changing experience for all of us.  How that will manifest itself still remains to be seen, but discovering that will be part of the fun.  I hope for all of us that this is just the beginning of our Rotary travels and hope we can make an impact in Uganda and Kenya.  I know that they too will make an impact on us.

Please acknowledge that you have received the link to this blog.  I want to make sure that everyone who requested to be on the list, is indeed getting this message.  I am attaching a photo of our team.  When you open the blog for the first time, you can choose to subscribe.  There is no cost.  If you subscribe, you will automatically get the blog in your email each time one of us makes an entry. gse-team-photo.

Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful new year,

Dale