No matter how bad, there is always the potential to make it better

So, with the week coming to an end, I thought I would give an update. Some of these are posts I wrote earlier but never posted.
Monday - I have been in bit of a funk today. Ok, let’s just say this was not a great way to start off the week. I thought I was in a good mood this morning. I got a new shirt I was going to wear from home and I was on time for assembly. I wish I was late. “Spare the rod, spoil the child” that’s my school’s motto. And this morning they lived up to it. Students here are supposed to wear close toed, leather shoes. However, these shoes are worn out and can cause blisters on their feet. So to give themselves a break, they wear foam flip flops. Well, this is not tolerated in the school. So all the students who are wearing sandals are pulled out of assembly and made to stand in front of the other students. Then the teacher on duty goes through the line asking where their shoes are. If the student can prove he has a sore on his foot, then he is allowed back in line. But if there is no reason for not wearing the appropriate shoes, the teacher on duty grabs the child clothing, lifts it up so the thigh is showing and starts hitting them. Sometimes this is done with a stick, a rubber hose, the wooden part of a paint brush, or anything a teacher finds. They get pretty creative. After beating the children who were not wearing shoes, the teacher on duty sees a child turned around and not paying attention. So what does he do? Spare the rob, spoil the child, he walks over and beats the young child. Let’s just say it was not something I particularly wanted to see first thing in the morning.
Tuesday. Today, my culture finally clashed with Kenya culture and it has left me feeling depressed, defeated and ready to close my eyes and be done with today. Most schools here are started by churches so they have a religious background. I know, perfect place for an atheists. So sex education is not discussed. They only promote abstinence and tell the children condoms are for prostitutes and have holes in them. Well, we had an incident last weekend that called for a “ guidance and counseling” meeting to be with the entire school. So to prepare ourselves, the teachers met first to discuss who was going to talk and what was going to be said. The deputy went around the room asking who was going to talk. No one said anything. For 10 minutes it was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Every teacher had an excuse. “ Im sick” , “ Im too new”, “I just want to watch this time“( like they know this wont work and are expecting it to happen again)Then the deputy turns to me and asks me to do it. I said fine since this is what I was trained for. However, just a few hours before, he and I were discussing sex education. He believes that kids can learn about condoms once they graduate. I said that’s fine for the hearing kids but what about the deaf kids? Who out there knows sign language and who will be comfortable enough to show them how to use a condom? He wasn’t seeing my point. So the whole school is expecting me to talk about sex ed since they don’t want to and yet they criticize me about how and what I am teaching. I didn’t see the logic behind it. But no matter how frustrated I was with the administration, I knew I was the only person who was going to talk to these kids. He wanted all of the teachers to walk in together. As he got to the door, NO ONE stood up to follow. Everyone was still seated. I was so frustrated, I got up and followed. If I was going to make any impact with these kids, I had to show a united front with the school.

So the meeting started with the deputy( the head master was not there) telling the kids they were going on the wrong path. They kept saying bad behavior, wrong path and nothing about the real situation that lead us all here. SEX! ( by the way out of 18 teachers total 3 including myself showed up at the meeting). He then started reading the school rules. Not just the one pertaining to this specific situation but ALL 12 including keeping your rooms and clothes nice, cleaning up after yourselves, cleaning the school, and it went on and on. He asked different people to read it which took a bit of time for people to stand up. After the rules were recited, another teacher recited the commandments. I noticed when he was describing one of the commandments he was talking about the body. How if one part is sick then the whole body is sick. He started from the head and worked his way down. Eyes, mouth, neck, stomach,….legs….u notice which he was missing? The teachers here have a hard time saying penis and breasts even though they are also an important part of the body. So after the commandments were finished we had been in this meeting for a good hour and a half. I could see the information going in one ear and out the other. Well it was my turn. This was my first chance talking to them about this and they were all dozing off. So with my loud personality you all know and love, I made the kids stand up and stretch COCONUT. It seemed to work. I continued on with my talk and they seemed to respond. Will my talk prevent them from having sex? Hell no but it was a step in the right direction.

Wednesday - Today was the preliminaries for sports. The whole school went to litein high school where there is a massive field and competed against each other to see who would continue on for the finals. It was a great day to be outside enjoying the sun and playing with the kids. I got so sunburned, now all the kids have something new to laugh at. Usually they laugh at me whenever Im walking to school with sasa following me. It was a long day but a lot of fun.

Thursday - Today was the last day of teaching as well as my site check. My site supervisor comes out to observe My teaching ability as well as to talk with me and my headmaster about how I am doing, if there are any problems etc. And I passed with flying colors. LOL. After he left, I had to finish my classes. It was such a beautiful day and I was so happy my site visit went well, I decided to mix things up. So for the last day of teaching before exams, I chose to move my class outside for a change of scenery. I got the moveable blackboard out and we all sat in the shade while I taught my lesson. Then for the last 4 minutes we played Frisbee. It was a good way to end the school term.

Friday - Start of exams. Luckily I had one exam to give today. My English class 4. I prepared the exam on what I have been teaching them. However, I knew there might be some problems since almost 5 out of 13 have mental disabilities as well as deaf. But I hoped for the best and gave it out. The results of the exam looked something like this…66, 60, 42, 34, 19, 18, 12, 3, 0. This exam was out of 100. I have a lot of work ahead of me next term. After exams were finished, I was on my way home when one of the kids asked about my Frisbee. I decided why not end the day with some fun. So I took off my shoes( the kids always find this funny. Like a muzungu is too fragile to walk around barefoot) and started throwing the Frisbee around. As we were playing kids started trickling out to join the fun. Soon almost the whole school including vocational were outside throwing the Frisbee around. We continued playing till it started to rain. I can’t get over how much fun I have with the kids. I know if the teachers are frustrating me, if I am having a bad day, or if the teachers are just speaking Swahili without including me, I just go find the kids and I know my mood will improve. Have a good weekend everybody!