Parents' day at Resam

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.

Physic-therapy

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.

Mid-term exams

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.

Jorunn and Kjell Magne visiting

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.

Back to everyday life in Sigowet

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 and Lise visiting

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!

Lunch for our colleagues

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!