Drought, Famine, and Heat

I think the three words, drought famine and heat, best describe my life right now.

Term One of the school year began in January. The term has been very busy, hence my delay in updating. I am teaching 2 sections of Form 1 (9th grade) physics, 1 section of Form 1 biology, 2 sections of Form 2 physics, 1 section of Form 2 biology, and one section of Form 3 biology. So I have a lot of lesson plans to write as well as lessons to teach. I am also continually working on organizing the school library as well as helping with the after school clubs. Currently I am coaching cross country. Good thing I don't have to run with the students:) I just have to organize them. Organization skill I have, the skills to actually run cross country in this heat are lacking.

Okay, you are probably wondering why I have titled this post "Drought, Famine, and Heat". Let me start with the first word. Drought. We have not had rain since the one day of rain in November. All of the crops we planted in our shambas (fields) have totally dried up. We will not get any maize or beans from the plants. The lack of rain causes a lot of problems. One being the rivers never filled with water so there is no water in the area. I am amazed every month how my water situation continually gets worst. Now we are hiring trucks to carry water from town to the village for us. It is very expensive so we are very careful about every drop of water we use. Lack of water does not just mean problems for us but also problems for the animals. People are moving their animals from they area to places where they have rivers because if they keep them in our area they will all die due to lack of food and water. The lands is dusty and brown and it seems like there is little life surviving.

Famine. Because there was no rain to grow food there is not food in the area. People are depending on relief food from the government. Of course there is food in the shops that I am able to buy so I am not starving but the local people do not have money to buy the food in the shops because they have no crops to sell for money and most of the people in the area are farmers. It is a very sad situation to see people seriously starving. Small children dropping out of school to spend their days searching in the woods for wild rabbits or wild fruits to take home and eat. The problem isn't lack of food, because their is plenty of food, the problem is food distribution. The relief food that is brought into the country is only distributed in town and it is not reaching the people in the rural villages. It is sad to see but at the same time I wish these people could stop depending on others to give them everything. If I try to give them work so I can pay them so they can buy food they refuse the work, they just expect me to give them food or money because of my skin color. It is very frustrating to see the famine in the area.

What makes me the most sad about the drought and famine is the number of students dropping out of school. Primary school is free but students are dropping out to make money for the family or to collect food from the forest. Secondary school is not free so students are dropping out because they do not have the fees to continue. Thanks you to those of you who have donated for my students to remain in school. I have been able to keep 5 of my students in school through the donations I have received. A few weeks ago I had my best form 2 boy stop me on my way to school. He gave me some papers and asked me to take them to the teachers at school for marking. When I asked him why he wasn't in his school uniform he told me he was dropping out of school because there was no fees but he wanted to still learn so he was wondering if I could bring his papers to school for marking and return them to him so he could learn from home. This is a boy that has a lot of potential in life. He is so determined and definitely has very good grades in school. I was so happy I had found him a sponsor because I could not imagine this boy dropping out of school. If anyone still wants to donate money for a student send my mom the money and she will put it into an account for my students. For a secondary school student to attend a day school for the whole year it is $100.

Heat. It has been very hot here and there is no escape. It isn't like home where we get into an air conditioned house or sit under a fan when it is 100 plus degrees. Here we are in the heat all day and all night. The heat has gotten to be a struggle for me. I really wish I could drink cold water or drink carmel coolers from Carribu Coffee. I keep hearing about the snow at home and it makes me miss winter.

Besides the drought, famine, and heat things are going well here. I still love teaching at the school. My students are wonderful and they always make me smile and laugh. I really love spending time in my village community and working the the fields with the mamas. I know the next 9 months are going to go by quickly. I am sure the second I arrive in MN, in December, I will be ready to come back to the heat of Kenya.

I will warn you now that my next post probably will not be until April when we are on school break since I am planning on remaining in the village until then. Those of you that see my mom should ask her to see my pictures. I sent a bunch of pictures home and I will try to update you with a few more pictures in April.