The Sights and Sounds of Kawangware

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And The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth...

We are up early again today and have an early breakfast again (7:30 am). Our driver arrives at about 8:00am, and Charles arrives to meet us at 8:30am. We settle a few details and head off to the Kawangware slum today.

The road is a little rough as we enter the slum, but our driver Simon is very skilled. He manouvers through the people and animals that crowd the narrow one-laned streets. The girls are silent and stare transfixed through the car windows at the sights which behold them. Open sewers run along both sides of the road, rusted tin shacks line both sides in all directions, and the smell of smoke now permeates the air inside the car. This is a rough place and the people here are the last on the planet to get a seat at the table.

We pull up to an almost impassible lane and Simon carefully inches the car along this path until we reach the edge of the school. We get out, grab our cameras and bags, and wade into the sights and smells of the school yard. We walk out into the center and I note that it has changed a lot since I was here last year. The yard is much smaller now and the landlord has been busy building additional apartments in the yard in order to generate more income. It competes with the space where the children use to play soccer and skip rope.

We spend about 2 hours playing with the children in the yard while Charles attends to business with the teachers. He has not been here in almost two weeks due to our visit at Bumala, and he has a lot to catch up with them. Heather really takes over the play and engages fully with the children who have now gathered around her. The bonding occurs in minutes. Jennifer is swarmed by some younger ones from nursery class and one particular little girl seems fascinated with her bracelet, which easily slips off and on her wrists. They seem to smother her with affection and huddle around to examine her thoroughly.

Heather taught the kids a special song that was made just for them, and I don’t think this has been sung anywhere else in Africa until this day. Africa, and particularly Kenya, is absolutely Obama crazy. They have named everything after him including roads, soft drinks, soap, and more. On this day, the children learned “Old Obama Had a Farm, E-I-E-I-O, and on the farm he had a (snake, buffalo, lion, etc), E-I-E-I-O….”. On and on it went, and the children reveled in the different sound Heather made for each of the animals they presented her.

Dancing, skipping, group games and more occupy our time while we choke on the red dust that swirls around us from the play of 150 children in a close area. I feel it cut the back of my throat and envy Heather from across the yard as she pulls out a water bottle to quench her parched throat.

We finally go to Charles’ office and sort out some of the last certificates that we brought to the school for some of the teachers. A small program is set up and we move over to the main school room where the teachers and students have assembled.

Official introductions are made, and the nursery class does a short poem for us. Charles makes a short speech and then I gave a talk of appreciation to the teachers who work so hard to keep this school functioning. We aware four teachers with plaques of appreciation and I try to show our appreciation to all of them. At long last, we leave the compound and drive over to a set of apartments where 26 of our students are housed. We examine the conditions of the rooms and discuss various plans for the future with Charles. Finally, we say our goodbyes to Charles and load ourselves back into the car to leave Kawangware. Charles stays behind to return to the school for more work.

We arrive back at our room and assemble our bags for the next half of our day. Jennifer settles in and plans to go to the museum today while Heather and I make preparations to ride to Embu today on the bus. We say our final goodbyes to Jennifer and wish her a safe journey. She does not leave for home until tomorrow night, but we will be gone for two days and will not see her again in Kenya.

We set out on our journey, which feels a bit tiring and long, but at least the road is smooth and we arrive at our hotel called the Izaak Walton Inn. A nice supper and we are out like a light. We can feel the fatigue starting to overtake us earlier and earlier each day now. It has been a very busy trip!

At the end of the day, we found out that Kisumu had been hit with enormous flooding rains on the same day that we had left. As it turned out, the Nakumatt (where we bought the 250 pairs of shoes for the orphans) had been flooded out and the order which was ready for us to pick up the next day was soaked. The shoe company promised to get a new order together for us, but it will not be ready for another week now. I tried to get through to Charles to tell him to make an offer to purchase the water logged shoes for wholesale price. A little laundry soap and hot sun and we could double our supply of shoes for a very cheap price. However, we found out that they had already sent them back to the factory for refurbishing. Too bad…..

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