Today was a particularly challenging day at school.
The day began with diarrhea. Two of my students were feeling
sick and soiled themselves in class. We spent the start of the class assuaging
tears and cleaning up. Although the children drink clean water at school, they
don’t necessarily get clean water at home. This means that diarrheal
disease is a common illness that afflicts our students. In order to prevent
this, we are implementing a clean water education program for our students and
their families.
The topic of the week was “houses” and today we learned about the different rooms found in a house. I had prepared some photos
of different rooms such as a bedroom and a bathroom etc. to facilitate discussion
in class. The kids really struggled with identifying these rooms. To them, home
was a 3m x 3m mud hut, where the same room was used as a bedroom, a sitting
room, a kitchen and a bathroom. The kids found the concept of having rooms that each served a
different purpose very difficult to grasp.
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| Home is a mud hut in Kibera |
As our kids are handpicked from the most disadvantaged backgrounds,
there are often problems at home. A child often becomes unresponsive or
temperamental when this happens. Today, it was Nida’s turn. Nida is usually one
of the happiest kids, always running around with a huge smile and a ready hug. But today, she walked
past me without even saying hello. I called out her name, she turned to look at
me, and then she turned away. For the entire recess, she walked in circles in
the playground all by herself. She walked like a weary old woman with many burdens.
Whenever this happens with a student, we call the family to check on things at
home. If necessary, we get the caretaker to come to school for a meeting. Nida’s
grandmother was called today.
During the last class of the day, we had a surprise visitor.
A mouse decided to dash into our classroom and pandemonium ensued. I’m sorry to
report that I was probably the first to scream and run out the door. Teacher
Nancy finally managed to kill the rodent by smashing it with a bottle, while
Freddie, one of the oldest boys in the class decided to hold the dead mouse by
its tail and parade it around. I was torn between being amused and completely horrified.
(The mouse was disposed of safely and Freddie was made to wash his hands very
very thoroughly).
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| Teacher! Look at what I caught! |
By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I am collapsed on
my couch as I write this. It is days like these when my admiration for
Catherine and the teachers at the school quadruples. They are truly amazing
fountains of strength, love and endless patience. To be at school day after day, year after year, to teach, care and love the children really takes extraordinary resilience and heart.
*Names have been changed to protect privacy.
