Kids kids and more kids

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Okay, so I have 3 very full days to cover, so I’ll do my best, or just leave some for later. Each day feels like 2 – we do so much in the morning, and then another full afternoon that when we’re talking around the supper, we refer to things we did more than 4 hours ago as being yesterday. Today is actually Wednesday, and we’re all getting very tired, some of us are getting a little sick, but we only have one more day, so we’re all going to push on – we can rest on the long drive home on Friday. But I digress.....

So our first day in Bumala was a walking tour of the countryside. But first we had to visit the school, show the clowns where we'd be spending the rest of the week. It was Sunday so only the older kids were there to greet us. But they were ready at the gate with their dancing outfits on and drums. They danced us up to the new school building and the secondary principal's office. This building was in the planning stage last time I was here. But there are now 3 classrooms, a large staff room, and an admin office. Signed the guest book and then were ushered off for a second breakfast (we thought we’d be walking all day so we all ate a hearty breakfast). But to be polite, we ate a little more. Then we headed down to the new water well. Meryl raised half of the funds and Kristina and Kamal raised the other half. They just finished drilling about a week before we arrived in Kenya. The water is clean and cool and so refreshing. They’ve installed an irrigation sprinkler and there’s a pump that pumps water up the hill to fill 2 big tanks at the volunteer centre/dorms. They now don’t have to buy or haul water for cooking, cleaning, etc. Charles says the well is 300 ft deep and will never run dry. They will even allow the mothers and grandmothers come get water if they need.

We then walked up and the kids did some of their entertainment, since Monday is a full day already. So they did the dances that won them the District level of the school dance competition. They received an honourable mention at the Provincial level, so Josephin says they’ll just start practicing earlier. The clowns and newbies were so ecstatic to watch them and then be able to get up and dance with them. As I was videotaping again, I didn’t overexert myself. But I loved every moment.

Finally, we started the trek. I was a little worried at first, as the plan was to visit 8-10 grandmothers and we didn’t leave until just before noon. Last time, it took us from 10-4ish. The first grandmother was quite a ways out, but then it seemed that they got closer together as we got later in the day. It was VERY HOT and we were all feeling it. We’d pretty much run out of water, and we all brought lots, before we got back to the school. Luckily, some of the grandmothers were gracious enough to give us some woven goods – lots of baskets, and some huge floppy hats. So we made sure the ones that were feeling a little overexerted. And we made it back to school safely, and our first stop was the water well for some much needed refreshing. It was only about 3pm, and we had still managed to visit around 9 grandmothers (sorry, it was a long day). The clowns got to play a little bit with the kids and by about 4:30, we headed down to the hotel.

Supper was amazing as usual and then everyone brought down the stuff that they had brought for the kids and the school. It filled the open area of the restaurant. We sorted through everything and repacked accordingly. I figured it was about 15-17 large suitcases worth. We pulled out 4 hockey sticks and started a little game. I’m not sure the rest of the guests at the restaurant were too impressed with us, but oh well. Let them complain about the group that booked all the rooms on the 2nd floor. It was a great bonding experience, but it was a school night, so we didn’t stay up too late.

Monday morning and we were off to school. All the clowns were in their full regalia, noses painted, and noise-makers in hand. We were quite the site walking down the quite streets of Bumala. Some of the stands were starting to open up. We got both smiles and some cries from the little ones.

The kids were in class when we arrived, so we went for 2nd breakfast. Then the fun began. We started in Baby class and moved all the way up, spending about 15-25 minutes in each class. The Baby class was completely silent when the clowns entered, 2 little ones even started crying. But after the bubbles and balloons came out, they started to warm up. Soon it was complete chaos. Everyone bumping into everyone, balloons flying everywhere, laughing, screaming, everyone having a ball. I could have watched it all day, but there were still 8 classes to go. Because the Nursery class had heard the fun from next door, they were ready. Each class got to play with the clowns, but for the older ones, we did a little education too. Marissa is a teacher, so she led the clowns in the lessons. Class 2 had English grammer, Class 3 had math, Class 4, 5, and 6 taught us some Swahili, sang songs, etc. We met the 24 Form 1 students in their snazzy navy blue uniforms, very drab, but more professional looking.

By the time we’d seen everyone, the clowns were very tired and lunch was ready. The lunch is the same for us every day – ugali (I’ve now decided that it has the consistency of exTREMELY thick instant mashed potatoes – they just keep adding flour and stirring until it’s a solid), sukamawiki, rice, a stewed meat dish, lentils and sometimes chappatis are added. On Monday I believe, they served us a very sour smelling green dish, we all thought it was a version of sukamawiki, so we dished up – mistake – it was as sour as it smelled, very vinegary. I think Jane called it stinki-mawiki (she spent her childhood in Kenya), but none of us touched the stuff again.

After lunch, Wildman, Sue and Elisabeth presented Nurse Janet with all of the medical supplies they’d brought. It was very overwhelming, for her, Todd and me. I think Sue said her bag was 42 pounds of bandages and first aid supplies. Wildman and Elisabeth filled Nurse Janet’s table/desk with a pile of medicines. A lot of them were in Italian, so Elisabeth, Daye (who’s a nurse), with the help of Marissa and Marco for translation, spent most of the next couple days going through everything so Janet was prepared to use everything properly.

Last time I was here, there were only 250 students, but there was really on Heather and I to entertain them (Todd was always missing in action doing some kind of work or recording of some sort). Now there are around 400 students and there were 18 of us (still excluding Todd). So you think it should work out easier?? No, it was even MORE overwhelming to have the kids swarm you. We tried to bring out a couple balls, but without the teachers to help control them, it was mad mayhem, and likely that someone was going to get hurt, so they went away for another day. So they soon splintered off into groups, some clowns singing songs, some playing games, some doing face painting, etc etc. Todd, Heather, Meryl and I went into a meeting to meet all the new teachers and talk about some things. Out of the 8 or so teachers that we met in 2009, there were only 2 familiar faces – Beatrice and Judith. The rest are completely new, mostly within the last year, or some are like Victoria, have come back after some extra training so she can teach some older grades.

At around 4, the clowns were exhausted, dehydrated and extremely hot. Not to say that the rest of us weren’t, but they had definite reason to be, keeping 400 wild kids out of trouble all day. So we called it a day, promised to be back in the a.m. and headed down to the hotel for some much needed showers, air-conditioning, cold drinks and quiet. The clowns came up with the idea of putting together a variety show with the kids – 2-3 clowns per class and they’d put together and practice a 5-15 minute piece to perform on Thursday afternoon. So we had a meeting and assigned classes and then it was off for some rest.

Tuesday started much like Monday, but the village wasn’t as shocked to see these wildly coloured wzungu walking through town (plural of mzungu – white person). But kids still called out and followed. We’d adjusted accordingly for the 2nd breakfast program, got organized and then by 11, the clowns were ready for their first 2hr session with the kids. Whitney and Kristina had volunteered for the Baby and Nursery classes so they headed off to decorate some picture frames to present to the ‘judges’. They started in Baby class and then were going to move over to the Nursery class, so Meryl and I slipped over and did our group class photo of Nursery class first (oh, by the way, we have yearbooks that arrived a couple days before we left Edmonton and brought some to the school – they are such a HUGE hit, the kids love seeing their pictures and their friends and signing them for us). But we underestimated how much time it would take for the kids to finish and they went right up until lunch time – no time for Baby class picture. But that also meant I got some time to interact with the kids, I started putting their names on their frames, but it was so hard – these little guys have only started school a month ago, some know very little English, they’re all super shy and super quiet, and it was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything that they would say, if they even said anything at all. Most just stared at me. But I got a lot of coughs and sneezes on me, so they are trying to be friendly and share 😊

Lunch and then it was hang-out time for us adults while the teachers tried to get the classes to do some work. But we were so disruptive, that most kids still ended up outside. I got all of the classes to re-perform their welcoming pieces set up with them farther back and without all the background noise, etc. I’m hoping to be able to put together a DVD and/or CD that we can sell at fundraisers. I could listen to their little voices all day long.

At around 3pm, it was time to head over to Bumala school next door for the use of their soccer field for a game against another team in the district. Just as the boys’ game was starting, it started to rain, so all us spectators – 19 white adults and clowns surrounded by about 300 little black children crowded under every tree that would shelter a person. But by half-time, the rain was coming down so hard that the trees weren’t doing any good, so we opted to go further back under a tin awning. It was difficult to see the game, but with camera equipment and no long sleeves, it was a must. We made it to the end of the boys’s game (we won 2-1), the rain stopped momentarily, so we started the trek down the slippery muddy hill to the hotel. I think they ended up cancelling the girls’ game because the field was getting too slippery and dangerous too. When we were about half way to the hotel, the rains started again. Some took shelter under one of the butcher shop awnings, but some of us continued on, we were already soaked so what was the difference. As we walked down the main road, all the Bumalans were under awnings looking at us like we were crazy, but we were used to that by now.

It was an early night for everyone I think. It was for me at least. Daye still wasn’t feeling well and Kristina had a sore throat and headache most of the day. I could feel something starting to come on and I’m really sun-burned on my chest, nose and shoulders. Oh well, it’s my own fault and I’m going to try to make it through the next few days without it bothering me. Being with the kids is just too important.

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