Final Days of My Stay: Exams and Family Visits

Madam Dorcas

Madam Dorcas and M. Nancy

As one of my last days at Achungo winds down, I walk home with Venezyl and Madam Nancy Odhiambo (the younger teacher Nancy) to visit Madam Dorcas, who is at home with a 3-week-old baby she has inherited from her brother-in-law’s wife who apparently died in childbirth.  Madam Dorcas was one of the first teachers at Achungo and would be teaching but for the newborn.  (Women teachers are shown respect with the title “Madam” as men teachers are called “Mister”)  She is nursing when we get there, but soon after, leaves the Baby with M. Nancy and heads out the door with empty soda bottles.  After 10 minutes she is back with sodas for her company (us).

She lives in a traditional mud-daub hut but in the updated rectangular style with corrugated tin roof (as opposed to old-fashioned round mud hut with thatch roof).  The outside is patchy in places, needing some new mud (and has the laundry drying on the roof), but inside she has some reasonably modern furniture.  There is a mud partition and curtain that separates the sitting room from her other room (kitchen/pantry/bedroom).

The family compound

While we visit with her in her sitting room, she frequently darts into the other room, tending to the baby or whatever.  This is African hospitality -- anyone is welcome to drop in any time, but entertaining may be interrupted with household activities in a way that is casual and accepting.  Sure enough, the neighbors drop in to see who’s visiting.  Because she lives in a cluster of the huts of relatives (actually, her husband’s family:  mother, grandmother, brother), and as they noticed us walking in, they soon drop by for a spell.  (Her own family lives some ways away near Kisumu, with a sister in Mombasa and some family in Nairobi.)  The kids are also in and out:  Venezyl is oldest (about 4 ½) then there’s Momzi, Bebe and Denis (2 girls and a boy).  

With M. Dorcas in her sitting room

Madam Dorcas started teaching when her now-deceased husband was working away from home and she wanted something to keep herself busy.  She’d been invited to teach by Madam Nancy (Akoko, the older teacher Nancy), who knew her from the local Seventh Day Adventist church (that Richard also attends).  It was Nancy and Dorcas who began the school.

After a while, it is time to go and I walk back to the road with all of them.  Venezyl wants to walk me to the hotel gate but M Dorcas heads in the other direction to pick up her posho (maize meal) from the miller and Venezyl is torn and cries in frustration.  I wait on her but she finally heads back to her mother.

Final Exams

On these final school days of the term, we (as in "we, the teaching staff of Achungo"!) finish all the recording of exam scores:

• scoring the 6 or 8 tests (depending on grade level) for each of the 110 students, 
• entering them all in Excel, 
• calculating student totals and class subject totals and averages,
• sorting them by student totals to get the class position for each student, 
• then recording, on a government form for each student, their midterm and final exam scores plus year-end review comments.   

Whew!  A multi-day process that we’ve shortened by maybe ½-day as I help them use Excel for all the initial calculation of score totals, individual and subject averages, class placement, etc.

Richard had sent 2 kids home when they first showed up.  They had not attended classes for nearly the entire term but just came in time for exams.  He told them they couldn’t take the exams unless they brought their guardians to school to explain why they weren’t attending.   He says some guardians will keep the kids home to do chores (guard the drying maize from chickens, keep the ants off the bean flowers, hauling water, whatever).  He thinks the kids are not particularly motivated but especially worries that the guardians prefer them to be home helping out and he wants to counteract that.  Even though the guardians may be elderly and may need the help, they need to support the children's education as critical for bettering their lives.

Room to Play

While we do the scoring, the students have nothing to do and are getting a bit restless, as they are still spending the class periods in their rooms in their seats, even the 2-year-olds!  After a while, someone has the idea to invite the kids (at least grades 1-4) to go the other lot to play for a while.  This is an empty lot a short walk away that we leased before our new school building.  (Kenyan officials told us in October that we had to leave that leased building because it was too small and decrepit, so we had to rush-build a temporary building on the owned parcel)  Michael and I have begun talking to the owner about possibly purchasing this lot plus two adjoining lots.    

The children immediately spread out over this considerable space:  in one area boys get a soccer game going, elsewhere mixed groups are playing dodge ball, jumping rope, and engaging in other games.  As I take it in, I realize the current lot is oppressively small for a play area.  We simply must obtain this additional land as soon as possible.  We have new buildings to put up (a granary, classrooms, showers, latrine and more, whenever we get funding), and some are needed right away, but we will need this land before we can start any additional building.  Somehow we must make it happen!

Some of the girls are asking about my departure, telling me they’ll cry, asking if they can come with me, asking when I’ll be back.  My sadness only grows as I learn I’ll miss Friday’s end-of-school-year ceremonies and graduations.

The Home of a Guardian

Grandma's kitchen

Mid-afternoon Richard leads me with B on a visit to B's grandmother’s place – across the street and past some fields in a compound of huts that include her deceased husbands other wife(s).  B’s grandmother is the only adult survivor of her immediate family and has 3 of his cousins also under her care.  She is very old (early 80's?) but seems very active.  Apart from their gardens, Achungo is their only provider of food and school supplies and at times provides supplies for the cousins as well.  B is HIV positive. 

I tell her it is a wonderful thing that she is doing and she gives God all the credit.  That faith has no doubt sustained her through hardship and grief that I cannot comprehend.  Her hut, although similar outside to Madam Dorcas', is not holding up as well and has very little furniture of any sort.  But she is surviving and giving B a family.

Home With Silvia
Back to school for closing assembly and some devotional songs.  Then, on my way home, I see Silvia waiting for me.  She invites me to visit her home near my hotel.  She lives in a single room with her aunt (she was taken in after her parents died) behind a tiny shop that her aunt runs.  This room is shared with her aunt's 2 other children and new baby (and I guess, husband).

Silvia's family

Her mother (aunt) tells me that Silvia wants to go to America with me (and I tell Silvia that her education must come first--I really don't know how else to answer her!).  Her mother asks her a few times if she’s last in the class again and is going to be held back.  Silvia doesn’t know yet.  However, I've been working on scores so I have seen her results.  It turns out she is a very poor student (Richard thinks she has limited ability) and actually is last in her class and won’t be promoted, but I figure that news will come soon enough without my help.  When her mother asks me about my family and especially my wife, Kathy, I get a chance to talk about her work with learning disabilities, just in case understanding the normalcy of LD helps those present to understand Silvia's situation.

She also tells me that Sylvia wants me to stay for tea and sends Sylvia out for some ears of roasted maize.  When she returns, I have something to chew on for quite a while (tough maize)!  They are all very gracious and pleasant, including her oldest daughter (7^th grade), 2 yr-old son, George William, and the Baby, improbably named Joe Biden!  After a good while, I bid them adieu and head to the main drag to buy some water. 

Why stop visiting now?  In town I run into George, Michael’s friend with the experimental farm who tells me that I promised to come back to visit... "what happened?”  (I’m getting way too used to this “you promised” con.  When someone wants something it comes out as "you promised."  Shades of childhood manipulation.)  We chat for a while and in the course of our conversation, I give him a few new ideas (he’s definitely the idea man).  I suggest he try pepper spray for the bugs on his plants.  And I talk to him about beekeeping--my "ton" of honey from 5 hives in Arizona.  It would be great if I could really add value here in some way, but I wonder if my experiences are so separate from the context of their lives that it is pointless!?

Notes on Orphanage Care

As if I needed it, I got further acknowledgement of the various and real benefits of the model that Michael created in Achungo.    I finished reading a book called “The Urban Halo” by Craig Greenfield about his experience helping HIV/AIDS orphans in Cambodia.  Craig did a lot of research (UNICEF, UNAIDS, USAID, Yale University study, study by Yule and Raynes, research by John Bowlby and work by several other psychiatrists and psychologists) and came to the conclusion that the advantages of community-based care for orphans are overwhelming as compared to institutionalization.   

In his words, children/orphans are better off even in “bad” homes than they are in group homes.

• Children in the community, whether living with family members or with others within their home community, experience significant social development and personal development gains over children from group homes.
• They tend to experience fewer emotional and behavioral problems and are generally better adjusted
• They tend to be happier with their lives  (for example, they don’t feel locked up or prevented from leaving as can be the case with children in group care situations.
• Community-based care is far less expensive than group homes (various estimates are that it is anywhere from 6 times to 100 times less expensive)
• Children in group homes are not prepared for reintegration into society and in many ways lack the life skills for coping with reality when they age out and are released from the group home.  Children in community-based care have the advantages of living within a family unit and within the community, so do not need to “reintegrate”
• The group home breeds dependency and fosters loss of independence. 
• Abuse is less likely in community-based care, especially because there is more community support and more of a sense of belonging.

I’ve been impressed see with Achungo’s community-based care and this book only reinforced my appreciation for Achungo as a very impressive model compared to many other orphanages I’ve seen or heard about.  As opposed to a western organization with US or European management and western-style buildings and programs, Michael’s Achungo is very African, run by local Kenyans with a structure, program and even buildings that fit into the local culture.

In Ethiopia we saw a very western orphanage – as well-intentioned as it certainly was,  it seemed very out of place and could not help but emphasize the difficulty their children would have re-integrating into their society.

Billy and his grandmother/guardian

Achungo could hardly be in a more rural environment and that definitely makes it easier to provide community-based care than it would be in a very urban location.  The children live with families in the community (often relatives but sometimes just caring neighbors that are good Samaritans) – they have not been isolated but are part of the local society and grow up as healthy socially as one could hope.

Day 8 - It's Another Day in the Neighborhood!

I awake early (5 a.m.), as usual, and to all the usual sounds: roosters crowing nearby, dogs barking in the hotel yard, a TV blaring somewhere, trucks and cars and cycles loudly driving past on the road that is a few steps away, all manner of horn honking near and far, loud speakers blaring from town with music or prayers or preaching, a motorcycle cranking up just outside my window, oh, and birds making all sorts of sounds I don’t recognize. Just another day in rural Kenya where the day starts early. (“Monte’s not at the Hilton any more!”)

It’s Saturday—no school, no plans, just a relaxed day in rural Africa. So I take a walk down the road toward Kisumu, which soon turns from tarmac to dirt to mud. I still cannot believe the beauty of the lush green landscape. It reminds me of Kauai in its vivid green vegetation, the huts beside banana trees and corn fields. A man catches up with me and tells me how hard he’s working on his fish farm but he needs some capital and I explain that I’m working for Achungo, trying to get help for the orphans and their school and currently don’t even have any funds for that. Partly to avoid any more of that conversation, I quickly turn into the compound of a government school: Nderu Primary.

What a mistake that is! I immediately turn envious – Nderu is on acres of flat land with enough buildings for a full primary and then some, and a huge, grass soccer field and play area –maybe 150 yards of flat grass. By comparison, Achungo is on a tiny, cramped, sloping stretch of dirt and the nearby land is also on a slope unfit for a soccer field. Oh if only Nderu Primary were falling out of use and looking for a buyer! Some of the class rooms are in serious disrepair, but it looks like other buildings are under construction. And then there’s that latrine that is sinking into its pit! Oh well, the best I can do is turn my visit into a study of latrine and classroom construction methods. One latrine building is very unusual – built up about 4 feet with metal doors that lead underneath – I guess for cleanouts!!? I also notice the classrooms have their blackboards painted onto the cement walls. Hmm – that does make for a much smoother blackboard than the very rough plywood in use at Achungo.

A while after my return, Michael comes to my room, we cover some of my latest research questions, and then go down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. (It's the only thing one could call a restaurant anywhere in the area) We order and then he disappears for a few minutes and returns with another man who joins us (Who is he? I know I’ve met him before, but….). I ask if he also wants to order some food and he does so. The two of them talk for a while in Luo and although I can’t understand anything else, I do hear them mention the word “Board” and it slowly dawns on me that this is Lawrence, the chairman of Michael’s local Board. OK, he’s an old friend and I just didn’t remember. Then Michael reverts to English and mentions that Lawrence had provided posts to help with the construction of the temporary schoolhouse. (And at that point I sincerely hope Michael hasn’t been reading my mind as I wondered who he was and why he had joined our lunch! This man helps Michael regularly and is his primary supporter. Glad to be able to share lunch with him. Glad I kept my mouth shut)

After lunch we head down to the school. Saturdays at 2pm is computer lab for the 3^rd and 4^th graders and Richard had invited me to join him if I could. We get there at almost 2:30 and I’m a little anxious at being late, but, nothing we could do about it, we had waited almost an hour to be served our lunch. No worries, turns out we’re all on Africa time! When we get there, there’s no Richard and kids are just playing in the yard. After a while I ask Michael if I should just get started (although I have no clue what they’re covering in “computer lab”) and he agrees. So I set up in the Teacher’s Lounge with my laptop on the desk and about 10 students in plastic chairs and a bench jammed in front of the screen trying to see. And some 5 more join us over the next 20 minutes. I talk about the parts of the computer but give up after a vain attempt to describe the tiny wiring inside – how do I describe a motherboard to children who have little experience of electricity? I know Richard has shown them cut/paste in Word so I start with “what is a word processor...what is a spreadsheet” and then we try a little cut and paste and basic formatting (bold, underline, italics). This is so far out of the realm of their experience and having no hands-on opportunities, they have so little sense of it, that it just doesn’t seem productive. I bring up a game that might help—it's a simple memory game, and I invite them to take turns selecting 2 cards on the screen by clicking on them to find matches. At least it gets them excited about computers and getting a brief feel for cursor and mouse. Finally, I show them my promotional movie of Achungo and some of the pictures I've taken and we wrap just as a rainstorm hits. Maybe someday we will bring out a handful of outdated desktops so they can have a real computer lab!

We hang out a bit longer before they head for home and some of the students teach me a few more words in “matha tongue” (Luo) and I note that they are becoming more familiar with me, especially the girls and the younger boys. They feel my hair (it is so different from theirs) and are fascinated with the skin on my arms (seems translucent to them). I am essentially an albino in terms of how strange I appear to them. I am "mzungu" ("the white guy").

Day 7 -- I’m a Teacher

“Can I help with some more teaching?”

Mr. Richard is glad to oblige and gives me my teaching schedule. I’ll teach 3 classes plus help with PE for Grades 1& 2. Woops, looks like I’ve already hung out too long with the other teachers in the Teachers’ Lounge and missed my first period. No problem, we’re on Africa-time: “just start the same schedule with 2^nd period”. “Where do I find the lessons?” Mr. Richard then finds me the course books and explains that with exams next week they are just doing “revision” (i.e., review). “What do you suggest for English 3?” As I query him on each class, he provides the rookie with suggestions.

Grade 3 – English

With the 3^rd graders we review articles (“a” vs. “an”), discuss vowels vs. consonants, use of “some” vs. “any”, examples of opposites ….then I give them a short quiz on the blackboard with 4 problems out of the course book (“which word doesn’t belong in this list”). They bring their exercise books up to me for correction as they finish. A few get them all correct and are so excited. But by the end the class is in a bit of an uproar. I have utterly flunked the correction process. I put red checkmarks by incorrect answers. Afterward the teachers explain to me that a red “x” means “incorrect”, a red check goes next to each correct answer. Then the score is written at the top along with the date and a word of encouragement (“excellent”, “good”, “average”). Well, I can learn, too.

Next period -- Science for Grade 2

With the second graders I read from their course book about health issues (when and how to wash hands, wash meat, how to cook meat, etc.), identification of animals (domesticated vs. wild, which are harmful and why), then I test them from book questions on filtration. Many of them are so diligent as to rewrite their incorrect answers and resubmit them to me. I’m beginning to think I’m getting this down!

Next up: 4^th Grade CRE

Our lesson is about “Abilities and Responsibility” and is based on the parable of the 3 servants and their different investment schemes (2 doubled their master’s money and the 3^rd just buried it). We talked about how each of us is special and important, none are more important before God. “Each of us has skills, abilities, talents – what are some of yours?” The students mention praying, biking, reading, washing clothes and acknowledge each of them. We talk about how each skill is important and should be developed and can be used to help others. (I like the character-building in this government religious ethics curriculum.) I close with a quiz.

PE? Hmm! I never did figure out when, where or how I was to do PE, but it is obviously not worrying anyone.

As the school day ends, Michael is sitting in 4^th Grade and has the students telling stories.

“The Mangoes”

“I saw a mango tree and I wanted very much to get a mango off that tree, but there was a dog and a cat guarding that tree and in the house, 2 men sitting by the window. A little ways beyond the tree was the river. What to do?

I knew the dog’s name was “gubabalu” so I picked up a stone and threw it in the river. It made the sound “gubabalu” and the dog heard it and ran toward the river. I was afraid the cat would cry if I went to the tree that that the cry would bring the dog back, so I threw another stone into the window of the house. When the window broke, the men went “tsk, tsk, tsk” and the cat thought they were calling it and ran toward the house. Now I could get my mango.”

“The River Crossing”

“I had to carry 3 things across the river: a goat, a hyena and a bag of potatoes, but I had to be careful that the hyena didn’t eat the goat or the goat eat the potatoes, so…

1. I carried the goat across first. The hyena was not going to eat any potatoes.

2. Then, I carried the potatoes over but brought back the goat so he wouldn’t eat any.

3. Next, I carried over the hyena (quickly, so he didn't bother the goat), leaving him with the potatoes

4. Finally, I could carry over the goat and continue on my way.”

Often as the school day ends, the third or fourth grade students are asked to sweep out all of the rooms of the office building and school rooms and today they also wet down the new school room floors (they are made of a mix of dirt and sand called marram). They do so as a team, diligently, without any hesitation or complaining. Maybe we should incorporate chores into our school day in the U.S. -- could be character-building!?

And then it’s time for the closing assembly: Mr. Richard gathers all the students under the shade tree and exhorts them to be ready for exams and to be at school on-time, and encourages them that if they work hard they will all be Achievers.

Day 6 -- Field Trip

Today Michael and I have planned a trip to nearby Homa Bay, mostly to check out the market (their market day is Wednesday). I want to survey nearby markets for a couple of reasons. First, to help me understand some of Achungo’s costs; and secondly, to learn about possible opportunities for us to earn some income (are there agricultural projects that would be worth our while?). I’m also interested to see if there are any handicrafts sold – anything that might be attractive to buyers in the U.S.

But something has come up to delay our trip. After I arrive at the school, Michael calls me outside the office, introduces me to 2 men, and tells me that the water tank has some holes that need fixing. When he learned that these men were nearby and doing plastic patching of water tanks, he jumped at the chance. There’s a small hole about halfway up the tank and Michael is worried that the leaking mineral salts will erode the cement and masonry of the water tower. The larger hole is at the top of the tank and although we can try to avoid filling it that high, Michael said bees get in during the dry season and drown and cause the children much distress when they come out the water taps. When I probe a bit, he tells me that when Living Waters, Nairobi installed the tank, they actually dropped it and that might have caused that tear at the top. All eyes are on me – I guess it’s up to me, especially since I’m the only one who can pay for it.

He tell me they want 2,500 shillings to fix it. I put on my “due diligence” hat and ask them some basic questions: Where else have they done similar repairs? How long will the fix last? Aside, I ask Michael what he thinks of the price and he says Ksh 2,000 should be enough. I tell him it is up to him, seems worth doing as long as he is confident in these men. Outside he talks to the man a bit more, negotiates him down to Ksh 2000. Soon he turns to me and says it is time to head out to Homa Bay that that we will pay the men ½ now and ½ tomorrow after we are sure the leaks are fixed. I give him the money as covertly as possible, he gives it to Headmaster Paul and off we go to Homa Bay. This experience is just one of many that give me a lot of confidence in Michael, as opposed to some of what I’ve heard about “working with Africans.”

A few more surprises are in store before Homa Bay. Michael had mentioned a friend with a garden as well as a CBO ("Community-Based Organization") that we might want to visit and I soon realize that he means today. The friend, George, has a daughter (Peggy) at Achungo and he has been doing some experimental gardening over the past 3 years. He shows us his “nursery” for ornamentals – hibiscus and coleus-type plants that he is growing from cuttings off of a few plants he purchased (he sells them to hotels, schools), also passion fruit and pawpaw (papaya) that he’s grown from seed (he sells the seedlings). He tells us pawpaw produces after the first year and he has a 6-footer with big fruit that he said is 1.5 years old. He has purchased a fan palm to see if he can get it to seed. He’s growing bananas and some sugar cane and plans to get more land as he develops sprouts from these plants. Michael has brought me because he knows I’m investigating possible enterprises for Achungo. Maybe we should think about a nursery?

George also shows us his vegetable garden: beans, butternut squash, onions, tomatoes, kale, maize (a drought-resistant variety). He’s cross-bred his Brahma bull to get a faster growing, stronger hybrid. Seems quite the entrepreneur. Michael likes his hard work and creativity (tells me that unfortunately a lot of people aren’t willing to work hard enough to be successful).

Our next surprise stop: Ogande Primary. The government school has 500 students and nearby, associated secondary schools: “Ogande High Girls” (800) and “Ogande Mixed” (i.e., coed with 300 students). I’m wondering why we’re here when Michael introduces me to the Old Mockers Youth Group – an “Organization of Self-Help Group” CBO with 20 members between 18 and 35 founded in 2006 when a group of them decided that rather than just talking about how bad things were they should try to do something. They show their CBO certificate from the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services – Department of Social Services, Homa Bay. (I’m not making any of this up)

After introductions, their Secretary shares with us that their goals are to engage in activities related to HIV/AIDS, poverty eradication and community development, with a secondary purpose of empowering orphans. But they haven’t begun activities yet on that last one. I’m starting to wonder how much of this is boilerplate. Their primary activities are training and fundraising and they are raising dairy goats and kale and pineapple for income and also hold seminars and are looking at other businesses. Next he explains that they need funds and are especially interested in starting work on their project to "empower orphans". (Now I wonder if I’ve been set up)

Michael speaks next, introduces me and my role and explains that he thought I might be interested in what they are doing and that I also talk with various NGO’s. He tells them he is pleased to see a group willing to take some action and not just talk. And I guess it’s my turn –no use stalling any longer. I try to encourage them, tell them I’m impressed with their efforts to help others, that it is much more rewarding when we are not just living for ourselves. I tell them the NGOs I’ve talked with are only looking for handicrafts that are already in production and that I have no funding myself for Achungo’s orphans. In the end they ask about “youth groups” in U.S. and if any might correspond with them or visit them, so I invite them to send me a detailed description of their group, activities and interests and I’d see what I can do.

Soon we make our goodbyes and finally head toward Homa Bay. Turns out it’s very close to Rodi, maybe 6 kilometers (4 miles), but the tarmac road is so torn up for the last few miles that you’re essentially driving in and out of potholes constantly at about 5 mph. It is the nearest town directly on Lake Victoria and has a trade on the lake – small pole boats (20-footers) that ply the lake shore. The shoreline is an overgrown bog filling up with hyacinths, so the boats just pole their way between villages. There are 3 unloading/loading while we are down at the “docks”. One is carrying mattresses among other things. One would-be passenger convinces the boatman that he isn’t going to mess up his shoes and clothes wading through the bog and the boatman picks him up in his arms and carries him to the boat as an extra service.

Homa Bay open market area is larger than Rodi's, but pricing seems about the same. A grain-seller explains to us that prices have dropped precipitously in past month as new harvest becomes available. I want to price printers and cartridges, so we stop at the local “internet café.” It’s a tiny shop that has 4 cubicles with desktop computers but the power is down! Cost? Ksh1 per minute or about $.75/hr.

We get back to Achungo as the school day is ending. Richard has asked me to give the teachers some computer training, so I stick around after the children have left and spend an hour and a half talking through an overview of computer hardware, configuration, OS, applications, and then a briefing on Microsft Office applications. Just glad I can be helpful.