A Different Life

This week has been tough in so many different ways. I was really excited for the week, but then we discovered the tragedy of a death in a staff member’s family. He had died at a young age of 26 from his lifelong sickness, and we as a school went to pay our respects. The funeral was an experience as I dawned two kangas for the event, hiding myself within the patterned fabric. The day was filled with hymns and stories of the lost loved one. Though at times there were loud cries of sorrow, the event was quite beautiful with decorations of white sheets and lavender balloons, matching the colors of his casket. The funeral ended after they carried his casket to his grave, where each of us placed a rose upon his resting place. Afterwards, there was food for all. Upon leaving Upendo's home, I returned the kangas, and it was as if I was back in my other world.

As for where I've been, I've been doing homestays. Yesterday evening, I went to Christina's home. This time though, we had electricity and happened to share a roof with many neighbors. It was fun because you could talk to your neighbor just over the walls because the only thing above your head was the tin sheet metal to protect you from the rain. And being that Christina’s sister had a TV, all the neighboring kids joined us. I had a great time hanging out with them, especially when they got really excited just to play with my hair.

When night came around, I slept in a small room with Christina and her two friends. We squeezed in one bed, and it was a very cold night. In the morning, I awoke to get ready for school. It was quite a long walk, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. We passed both a primary school and secondary school and the place was swarming with kids. At the primary school, there was a drum, and all the kids marched to the beat to form lines and move to their classes.

The day itself left me completely exhausted. With the school on break, except for the welding students, it was as if the responsibility of running the school was left to mwalimu [teacher] Charles, the welding instructor. Before we even began work, we watered all the plants, which consisted of filling buckets of water and carrying them over to our small farm plot. And then to relieve mwalimu Charles and bring order to the day, since the day before was quite chaotic, I decided I would help make the chai and mandazi [fried dough/bread] we usually have each morning. It took nearly an hour just to get a good fire going and the smoke was overwhelming to the lungs, but it was worth it because the chai and mandazi tasted better than it had in days.

And then we continued making our classroom chairs. It was frustrating because we had so many students and so few tools. More than often, half the class sat around and did nothing. It was tough for me to watch, especially since I knew they had just walked miles just to come to school, and here they could do nothing but watch. Or they could do stuff, but then those who were making the chairs would be missing out. So, we were left in somewhat of a trapped situation. Our problem was no materials.

At the end of the day, I spoke with mwalimu Charles for a bit, and we came to the conclusion that if either of our curriculums was to move forward, we had to get materials. We’d been waiting for weeks for the materials, but each week, they said “soon, soon.” Our solution…we will go and get the materials ourselves. So, this Friday, we will go get the materials and next week, we will start anew.

So much to do…so little time! Yikes!