Etterarbeid i Samnanger

Vi har vært en måned i Samnanger kommune og hatt ulike prosjekter på de tre skolene der; Nordbygda, Gjerde og Ungdomsskulen. På Gjerde har vi hatt prosjekter om te, fair trade, geografi, plikter, skoledagen i Kenya og i Norge og barns rettigheter. På Nordbygda lagde elevene sammen med musikklæreren sin Anne Lise en fantastisk swahili-rap som de framførte på FN-dagen. Matlaging og te var temaene på ungdomsskulen i Tysse. Elevene fikk prøve seg på ugali, mboga, chapati og en kjøttsuppe. Selvfølgelig vasket de hendene på ekte Kenya-vis før vi satte oss til bordet.

Jeg har ikke lagt ut bilder fra den fine avslutningen vi hadde på grendahuset lørdag 8. november. Chicu Ali var gjest og unge og gamle underholdt med norsk og thailandsk dans, sang, Mari og jeg viste bilder og fortalte litt om Kenya sammen med elevene fra Samnanger som besøkte oss i Kenya i september. Siden det var "kørjafest" hadde alle (det må ha vært nesten 200 mennesker der) med seg mat som de satte ut på et langbord. Vi solgte også ting ra Kenya til inntekt for et klasserom i landsbyen Koitabmat i Kenya og vi fikk in ca 5000 kroner, så nå blir det nytt klasserom til januar når det nye skoleåret begynner!

Visitors from Samnanger!

Sigowet's friendship-community in Norway is Samnanger. In September two teachers and six pupils came to visit Sigowet and the two schools Ream and Tonongoi. They stayed with families in the village and joined classes in both schools. The pictre shows Siri and Tor Johan in class five mathematics. The other picture the whole group dancing jenka in Tonongoi. After some rounds many pupils and teachers joined the dance.

Back in Norway

We had a busy time the las two months in Kenya. August was holiday, visits from Kari, Pablo, my dad, Mica and Clement. We went to Maasai Maara, Mount Kenya, Mbita, visited friends around sigowet, took the train from Nairobi to Mombasa, went snorkeling and water-rafting. We had a great time with all our visitors. Irine that was working in Norway maried Martin the day we came back from the holiday. We celebrated with them the whole day.

Stuck in floating plants in Lake Victoria

We got stuck in the water hyacinth on our boat-trip on the Victoria Lake, but a well experienced navigator led us through the plants and back to the shore.

Samsigo

Irene and Josephine are back from their one year stay in Norway. They brought the Samsigo newspaper (Samnanger - Sigowet), that has been distributed in schools, health centers and town halls in the district.

Health centre

We have also been to the halth center in Sigowet to see how the money given by people in Tysvaer pedagogiske senter have been spent. The girl on the picture got a special shoe and the boy will use the new chair to learn how to sit and stand. Money is also used to transport a disabled girl to school every day and medicines, soaps and tissues have been bought to be uised in the special class at Tonongoi primary school. Thanks again for the support!

Last two weeks

What have happened in Sigowet the last two weeks? A sad thing was that a colleague at Resam was dismissed because his class performed poorly on the last exams. The picture shows a lunch we had in his flat before he left for Kisumu to try to get a new job. We had ugali and sukuma.

Ronis comes every now and then in the evening to greet us at home. The girls' dorm is just next to our house so she sometimes drops by on her way back to evening classes. Here she was lucky finding us in the middle of baking a chocolate cake and she got to finnish the leftovers.

Last weekend I went to meet the principal's family. We were supposed to join a Harambee (a gathering to collect money for schoolcfees, funerals, weddings etc), but unfortunately a member of the family died so it was postponed. The picture shows Alfred (the principal at Resam) and three of his children.

We have also had tea at one of the cafes in Sigowet (our favourite one, where they now serve us tea without sugar without haveing to ask for it! We are good customers!) with Naftal. He is fluent in Norwegian after studying music for two years in Volda, Norway. He is home for holidays and will return to Norway in a month

We also had a guy coming to the staff-room one day to sell underwear. Jennifer, Martina and I found some nice bras!

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.