Today, the boys left again early for playing soccer with the senior team. They had lots of fun. Malo had the chance to test the harshness of the ground while doing a figure to pass the ball. As I was feeling sick, I had to stay in bed to rest.
During this time, the girls went to the RedRose school where we attended the rehearsal of the songs and dance children will perform at Kibra Festival on Saturday.
While Jeanne was doing yoga with the older kids, Alice was learning the name of the kids in her class and singing with the children. We read the youngest some stories book and had the chance to explain what was a clown, what was inside a castle, how the rabbit dig a warren to protect their babies and how sails works with the wind.
The boys arrived at the school from soccer and went in different classrooms. Dimitri in 5th grade started to teach the alphabet in French and then taugh the children “oh, Champs Élysée…”. Everyone could hear the class singing the famous song in French all over the campus. Great success. Dimitri had a fantastic connection with his class. Malo in 8th grade had the opportunity to talk about the secret service agencies in the Usa while learning in social studies the ones here in Kenya. He got a bit challenged in Maths by the teacher who was asking him to talk about the difference between the calcul of the volume of a cylinder in the Usa versus here. Paul and Gabriel together animated a class teaching French, games but also rap songs. Everyone was break dancing one after each other. “Such a great experience!”
Alice started teaching ballet at the 6 years old who had never done or seen any ballet dancing. It was a challenge to have everyone follow and stay calm, particularly as the room was a real sauna, but Alice did a fantastic job.
Jeanne had an extensive French lesson with the 5th graders. She noticed “how eager they are to learn any type of subject. They know a lots of things and are very fast learner”
We went for lunch quickly and then spent some time at Uweza community center to meet the secondary students who are sponsored through Uweza. Each of them shared with us his/her challenges of everyday and how with the support of Uweza, they are now able to continue their studies in high school. Most of them are in boarding school. This gives them a chance to escape the violence or challenges of the slum and be away in a safe place where they can focus on their studies. All of them know that to be able to be successful one day and help their family to get out of the slum, they have to work hard and get a good education. The sponsorship gives them this opportunity. So they are very grateful.
They accompanied us to the Spurgeon Academy and on the way, everyone was sharing their experience on both side of the Atlantic and see which similarities and differences they both have with each other.
Paul talked with Peter, 18 years old, who had been out of school on and off because he had to go work in a mill to provide for his family as both parents are jobless but still succeeded to reach the academic level of high school last year at Red Rose. They both found lots of similarities like graphic design, soccer, skateboarding but the main difference was that “Peter is educating himself because he needs it, when I am because the subject interests me”
All of us realized that those children are showing “so much dedication to their studies to become what they want”. They have to pick a job very early on and then this becomes a goal they try to reach. “When for us, we can choose after high school what ever we want as we have so many opportunities in front of us”.
Project Kenya Trip Diary 