Football coach ?

Wed March 20 2013

            Hi! Well, I’m in Ahero, just chilling out . Just kidding, working my butt off! In Ahero I am spending some time at a different elementary school to get a feel for a rural education system as opposed to Eldoret's city schools. It is very different than El View but private schools and public differ in ways different than I thought. The public school has much bigger classes and less supplies and resources but the teaching is not nessecarily poor... since in private school teachers get paid depending on how the student perform its all about learning to pass exams and less investment in students (not too all - just some) but in public it is government paid and many trained teachers prefer it for the pension and benefits that come with it. 

The challanges are a lot of what the students face outside the school.  Many do not eat breakfast or lunch and maybe only get dinner, many are sick or have to stay home to help care for someone or do chores that day. During lunch period the teachers get sukuma wiki (kale) and ugali (flour and water) cooked for them, I feel so akward when the children just wander around hungry because there is no food at home, especially because I have trouble stomaching too much of the food butI make myself eat it because there is no way it is going to waste! It's a complicated system.  Families are extremely large, probably 8 children is normal, and there is some polygamy, which I don't think occurs as much in the city. It is interesting what family is here, there is often so much sharing of raising children and those who have money or work away from the village often pay for schooling of families children. It is also common to have aunts or uncles adopt children and move them to the city with them in order to give them more opportunities or because a mother or father are sick or have large families already. I like this outlook of family, having so many different families in our schools at home now I think it works well when there are a lot of people willing to work together to provide the best.

 I have to take a boda boda to school (motorcycle) it's slightly scary because you have no helemet and no protection.... I wouldn't' really recommend it but it's the only way to travel on these back roads. There are times when I enjoy it but after the rain when it's really slippy I do get freaked out.

I have been playing a lot of football with the kids, which is good because they have no idea what I'm saying, not being used to hearing english with any accents although they do learn it is school it is very hard to communicate, which makes teaching a little tricky. good thing I'm so good at charades....also songs!
It's fun to play with the students and they absolutely love it, having fun running around and screaming and playing. Look at those smiles!

It is just Jenn and I here for now but Sarah and Erica are going us at the end of the two weeks. We miss them!