The girls' talking and laughing outside my window woke me up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday. Normally they are very quiet in the dark brushing their teeth and going to the loo, but this morning they seemed to be impatiently waiting for their parents and full of fervour!
The pupils cleaned the classrooms, hung up their not-yet-finished table cloths on a rope and decorated the chalkboards with flowers, welcomes and sayings like, “no gain without pain”. They put fresh flowers on the desks and chairs along the walls outside for the parents to wait for their appointment with the teacher. From ten o’clock the parents started to show up. Mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, cousins and grandparents brought food for their children. There was very little ugali to see this day. They ate meat, rice, fruits, cookies, chapati, bread and some bought books from the seller that was specially invited for the occasion. The field and the garden were little by little turned into a pick-nick site. Mercy, Mercy, Mari and I made food for those who do not have parents or whose parents could not come.
Once a month a team of physic-therapists comes to Sigowet from Kisumu. The mothers bring their disabled children to the health clinic for treatment. But more than treatment, the therapists give advices to the mothers on how to do exercises every day with the children. The boy on the picture has come to the clinic regularly the last year and did not seem to mind the therapist streching and bending his arms and feet. He also had a very enthusiastic mother encouraging him during the exercices.
We finished the mid-term exams just before the parents’ day so that the parents get to know the improvements or declining of their children. They have exams every one and a half month in six subjects: English, Swahili, maths, science, social studies and Christianity. The test papers are bought ready-made from a publisher and they are all multiple choice except compositions in English and Swahili. This means that they are national and not necessarily in accordance to what has been taught in class, it also means that they are easy for the teacher to mark and easy to arrange the pupils from number one to the last one in every class. This was done last Friday in the field. All the pupelssat on the grass while the class teachers, starting from class one, released the results starting from number one in class. One after the other the pupils lined up according to their number. Number one was of course very proud as she or he passed the crowd to start the line. The last ones were not as full of pride tending to look down. It seemed to be assumed that the last ones in the line work less hard than the first ones, because they were told to work harder and not be to be lazy. This session is far from what is considered a good way to encourage slower learners or pupils with learning disabilities in Norway. I was not very delighted to see and hear that the attitude towards the pupils with a lower score was this biased (I know that many of the last ones work very hard). But I also think we have something to learn from this in Norway. It seems to be very accepted among teachers and pupils that every person has his or her strengths and weaknesses and it is not a taboo to say it out loud, and it does not make you a better or a worse person.
Who would imagine that Mari, Kjell Magne and I would meet in Kenya 10 years after highschool? Mari’s sister Jorunn made sure we did as she brought her boyfriend to Sigowet. Great to have some young people visiting! It caused a lot of laughter when we introduced them as boyfriend and girlfriend at Resam and Tonongoi. It is not so common to introduce any ‘friend’ before engagement. They came with me to creative arts and P.E. where we sew table-cloths and played canon-ball. Unfortunately Kjell Magne got sick and missed the walk to Chebulo and a board-game session, but he got to know the ‘mosquito-man’ that came to spray our house with insecticides and he had just as much stories to tell as we had in the evening. We know a lot about the ‘mosquito-man ‘s family, where he lives, what he’s doing for a living. No doubt it takes more than high fever, a wicked stomach and a headache to stop Kjell Magne from making fun and laugh! They left for Nakuru and Naivasha before heading home to Norway.
Our visitors have left and we are back to everyday life again. We buy tomatoes from Mary at the market in Sigowet, we have tea with our friends in the cafes "up-town", we go for our morning-walk at 6:15 and we spend most of the day in school.
Marte (Mari’s mother) and Lise (her friend) came to visit us last week. They spent some days in Sigowet visiting the schools (Marte gave class seven an inspiring volleyball lesson that made them put up the poles and the net for playing again!). We also visited friends in the village and we walked down to Chebulo to see the great view over the valley and spot some monkeys in the treetops. After some days of village-life we drove to Safari Village in Mbita. What a beautiful place! Unluckily the roads were in too poor conditions to go through the whole Ruma national park the following day. We had to go back after an hour. But luckily we got to have a boat-trip on Lake Victoria around some bird-islands with both the Kenyan and the Norwegian flag in the back!). We also had lunch at Viking Hotel in the town where Mari and Marte had the courage to try some small, cute, fried birds with their head still on. (The Norwegian owner of Safari Village and his Kenyan wife is to blame for the Scandinavian influence). If anyone is planning a honeymoon or a romantic holiday; check out the lighthouse at Safari Village!
Last Friday we invited all our colleagues at Tonongoi and Resam for lunch. We prepared pancakes, Spanish omeletts, pasta salad, vegetable soup, choclate cake, figs, olives, dates, potato salad, rice, bread, ugali and fruits for our 35 guests. We forgot to inform our guests that some food was salty and some was sugary. They mixed everything on the same plate; pasta salad, olives, omelette and choclate cake They seem to enjoy the bizarre mix!
Rainy season does not mean it rains constantly, but it seems to mean that you need a great portion of good luck to reach your destinations although the sun is shining! Ponds of water appear as you hurdle up and down the roads (or more correctly: beside the roads) Many people seem to consider watery inaccessible roads as an extra source for income and they line up next to the ponds waiting for the next car to get stuck in the mud. And thank God they do! They push and pull the cars through the water and carry the people on their back. No doubt we would still be stuck there if it wasn’t for the 10 people helping us out when we stranded on a rock in the middle of a pond. The pictures are from the road between Mbita and Kisumu when Marte (Mari’s mother), Lise, (her friend), Mari and I had to leave the car to get assistance.
We have done some nice things lately in school. First of all; we have finished the movies that class four and five have been working on. They wrote a script about a Norwegian girl (Mathilde) coming to their classes, we recorded it and some weeks ago we had the premiere at school with special invited guests (other classes and teachers). It was a great success. If either the National Standard or the Nation (newspapers) had been there for the show, I’m sure they would have given it a good review! The funniest thing is that the pupils quote the characters in the movie: "Mathilde, will you be my friend" is a common saying in the school nowadays!
Class four were very happy to get letters from their friends in class four in Gjerde skule in Norway. They required replying immediately so they could tell about the movie. I have promised to show their movie in Samnanger when I return In October.
In class six we are learning about agriculture, mining and fishing. One day we did a role-play on an imaginary village called Pi. An investor from Nairobi (Vincent on the picture)wanted to start copper-mining in the village and the farmers had gathered against him. A group of environmentalists supported the farmers, while the investor got support from the unemployeds, the schools and the hospital in the village for promising jobs, school-buildings and hospital-equipment. I must say I was very impressed by the pupils. They had prepared a lot of arguments, the chief had set up a list of questions for each group and they defeated their opinions in a very convincing way. The last five minutes the secretary summed up all the reasonings. I woulden’t believe the pupils were 12 years old if I didn’t already know it! In class seven we keep on playing canonball once a week. The soft-ball Mari’s father brought is still being used every day!
We have now got a tiny library at Resam. I found an old shelf in the garage that was ready for being firewood. But some layers of paint and a renewal with the hammer made it convenient for being the new blue library at Resam. We don’t have so many books yet, but some story books, some teaching aid-books and quite a few books about Norway fills some parts of the shelfs. We also have games like yatzy, mikado, stigespill, ludo and a box of crayons and paint; all gifts from Norway.
Mamma and Steinar came to visit us only a few days after we came back from holidays. We spent the first day exploring Kisumu, doing som textile-shopping, riding the bicycle-taxis boda-boda and waitig for their luggage to arrive. The transfer in Nairobi was too quick for the luggage to join so it arrived in the evening the same day. The following day we went to Kakamega rainforest where we went for some beautiful hikes to see birds, plants, trees, monkeys, caves, bats and learn many stories about how they use different plants for medicine, for building houses, for clothes and even as sand paper.
We spent four days in Sigowet. Mamma and Steinar brought a lot of gifts for the schools from friends and family at home. Class five and four are now sewing a their own tablecloth with cross-stiches (korssting), the pupils have tennis rackets and balls for the breakes and the P.E., they also brought elastics and skipping ropes and maps for the classrooms. Thank you very much!
Both the pupils and the teachers were wondering why my mother was Chinese and I was not. She gets really thin eyes when she smiles so they thought she looked Chinese! I think both mamma and Steinar were impressed by how well behaved and helpful the pupils at Resam are! They joined me and class 7 in the field for physical education and in creative arts we could devide the class into groups and teach them the new games they brougt and some sewing.
We had ugali and sukuma wiki in our neighbours house one evening, and the visitors spent the days walking around and talking to people. One day they were also invited to join the special teacher, Rosemary, at Tonongoi were Mari works. So they did some home visits with her to see families with disabled children.
On the national day, the 17th of May we had a 17th-of-May-breakfast with green braches and Norwegian flags on the table before we headed for Nakuru. The roads are terrible so even if it seems a short drive on the map it takes hours and we had a lot of time to remember the lyrics of good old national-romantic songs in Norwegian. Mamma had done really good preparations before coming to Kenya. Luckily she dislike driving just as much as I do so she came up with the great suggestion of going to Naivasha National Park where you can cycle and walk among the anilmals. What a fantastic place. With bikes and on foot we did of course not see as much animals as in Nakuru, but it felt like we were closer to them and that we were more part of their world. We walked among giraffes and zebras and antilopes. We also walked through the Hell’s Gate, a giant, deep gorge with many hot springs, some parts with steep slippery surfaces and hot and cold showers to pass. After Naivasha mamma and Steinar went to Mbita while me and Mari stayed in Sigowet to work.
I am Ingeborg Hauge from Tysvær, Norway currently doing a masters in cultural studies at the University of Bergen. I have just come back from a one year stay in Kenya where I worked as a teacher
The girls' talking and laughing outside my window woke me up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday. Normally they are very quiet in the dark brushing their teeth and going to the loo, but this morning they seemed to be impatiently waiting for their parents and full of fervour!
the classrooms, hung 
up their not-yet-finished table cloths on a rope and decorated the chalkboards with flowers, welcomes and sayings like, “no gain without pain”. They put fresh flowers on the desks and chairs along the walls outside 
for the parents to wait for their appointment with the teacher. From ten o’clock the parents started to show up. Mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, cousins and grandparents brought food for their children. There was 
very little ugali to see this day. They ate meat, rice, fruits, cookies, chapati, bread and some bought books from the seller that was specially invited for the occasion. The field and the garden were little by little turned into a pick-nick site. Mercy, Mercy, Mari and I made food for those who do not have parents or whose parents could not come.
