most of the volunteers in schools here in Kenya were starting the
third term. My school term did not start off well by any stretch of
the imagination.
I arrived at school expecting lower attendance for the first day,
since the schedule tends to be pretty amorphous on the first day. I
was a bit dismayed when I discovered that all the other teachers were
not at school, so it was only the headmaster and myself as well as
non-teaching staff (secretary, bursar and cook). Still, I made sure to
remind the students in the morning that their exams were starting
tomorrow, so they knew that they should be studying. I spent my first
two lessons reviewing math for my third years since that is their
first exam. Then, I went to the staff room during the break and found
it no less desolate. The secretary immediately approached me, since
she still hadn't received exams from several people and suggested that
we start exams Wednesday instead. I cleared the plan with the
headmaster and then informed the students who were overjoyed.
The rest of the morning went off without event, and when the bell rang
for lunch, I stalled for a few minutes before making my way back to
the staff room for lunch. As I walked past the students, I knew
something was wrong. By the time I reached the office, the bursar
informed me that there was no water, so nothing could be cooked for
anyone. I still am not sure why the cook did not announce this before
lunch, but iko maisha (swahili for That's life). I checked the tanks
to be sure, and there was not a single drop. The students told me they
were hungry, and I just told them "Me too."
I went to the headmaster's office and he agreed that it was a problem
and suggested that we dismiss the students 30 minutes early at the end
of the day to make up for the meal. I tried to push him to release
them earlier, but to no avail. Then he stayed in his office and left
me to inform the students.
I tried to make it as much of a sales-pitch as possible. "Wow, won't
it be cool, today we can all experience ramadan!" The students were
not convinced and continued to rail against me (isn't it great to be
the messenger?) although my Muslim students were backing me up and
seemed very excited to share their culture (of course, we all knew it
wasn't a proper fast, but I didn't have a whole lot of options for
putting a positive spin on it). Mercifully, the headmaster came out
eventually. I warned the students not to make threats or appear
confrontational, but simply to present solutions in a reasoned manner.
It worked and the headmaster agreed to dismiss them an hour and a half
early.
Still, there remained a bit over an hour and a lot of hungry students.
I took it upon myself to give motivational speeches to each class. I
used lots of metaphors and encouraged them to make the best of the
situation. It was exhausting. The 4th years were pretty angry about
the whole situation, and I eventually gave up on trying to help them
to accept it. The 3rd and 2nd years were more willing to make the best
of things, although it took some convincing and some grumblers
remained. I wound up not having enough time or strength to talk to the
first years, but they seemed more willing to make an effort anyway.
I am just glad that the school day is over. I hope the students at
least feel stronger after this experience. They were really troopers
today.
No comments:
Post a Comment