To Start a Library

Ever since my first trip to Kenya in 2011, I have been trying to send books to the Shine Academy in Kibera in order to start a small library for the kids. What started out as a relatively straightforward initiative turned into a tremendously difficult and protracted undertaking.

Over the past 12 months, I have searched for sponsors, explored shipping routes from Hong Kong to Kenya, befriended African traders in the notorious Chungking Mansions, and struggled against the bureaucratic monster that is Kenya Post. It slowly became apparent that I had grossly underestimated the challenges involved in shipping books to Kenya from Hong Kong. The following is a brief account of what happened…

Getting the books

The very first thing I tried to do was to source the books locally in Nairobi. There were a small number of English bookshops in Nairobi and each had a rather poor selection of children’s books. Although books were supposed to be exempt from import duties, this was largely at the whims of the Kenyan customs officers. Thus these books were often imported and cost more than their marked UK/US retail prices. Quality local titles were also very hard to come by. Acquiring books in this way was unfortunately not an option.

Next I tried to look for organizations that donated books to Kenya. But sadly, all the organisations I found targeted mainly primary and secondary schools – while Shine Academy supported children that were a little younger. The organization Room to Read operated only in Tanzania at this point.

Finally, upon returning to Hong Kong, and after a couple of false starts, the Hong Kong Ladies Recreation Club kindly agreed to donate approximately 200kg of age-appropriate books to the school (approximately 1,000 books).

Books all packed and ready to go at the Hong Kong LRC Library 

Delivering the books

Having secured the books, the next hurdle was getting them from Hong Kong to Kenya. I ended up exploring many avenues, and each became more creative as the obvious options were eliminated.

• Shipping via courier was prohibitively expensive.
• Shipping by cargo container via Hong Kong was still extremely expensive, and the large range of quotes that I received from various companies left me with little confidence that anyone knew what they were doing.
• Shipping by cargo container via Guangzhou was cheaper, but it would have involved either smuggling the books across the border to Guangzhou, or else getting the Chinese Ministry of Culture’s approval for importing printed material into the country, neither option was viable.
• I also explored shipping by cargo container via Uganda (which was cheaper), then overland to Nairobi from Kampala – this would have involved a couple of shady cross-border transactions along the way, which was again, not viable.
• Then I tried advertising for volunteers to take books from Hong Kong to Kenya on websites such as Couchsurfing and Asiaxpat, but unfortunately there were not very many willing “book mules”.
• In addition, I approached various corporate social responsibility departments of shipping companies such as Kenya Air Cargo and FedEx, and they took a long time responding.

By this time, I was starting to get a little desperate. I remembered that there were many African merchants that did business in Chungking Mansions. The building was featured in the Hong Kong cult classic “Chungking Express” and most recently in a book called “Ghetto at the Center of the World” by Professor Gordon Matthews (who I ended up meeting in the Mansions). Stepping into the Mansion’s rabbit warren of shops, restaurants and hostel has been described as stepping on to the set of “Bladerunner”. Apparently 80% of all mobile phones in Kenya were traded through these Mansions. I was hoping that the books could also hitch a ride with these Kenyan traders.

Entrance of Chungking Mansions

Apart from visiting the Indian restaurants there from time to time, Chungking Mansions was a completely foreign world to me. And to be honest, it was a little intimidating at first to go there by myself, given its dodgy (and largely undeserved) reputation as being a centre of shady activities in Hong Kong. So I sought the help and guidance of Maggie Lin, who spent a year in Chungking Mansions doing her masters research on trade routes between the Mansions and Africa. 

With Maggie’s contacts and insights, I learned that the Kenyan merchants that visited Hong Kong mainly traded in mobile phones, watches and jewelry. These merchants would buy the goods at Chungking Mansions and take it back to Kenya via their hand carry luggage. Often, a whole suitcase of such goods would not only cover the plane ticket but also allow the trader to make a tidy profit. Unfortunately, the Kenyan merchants that did bigger shipments via cargo containers (for furniture and used automobile parts) were based in Guangzhou. Again, the Chinese Ministry of Culture would be a major obstacle.

Despite the Chungking Mansions lead being a dead end, I learned a lot along the way. I became good friends with Maggie, who was undeterred by the fact that I had tracked her down over Google in a rather stalkerish manner. Together, we started hanging out at the Chungking Mansions on free weekends.  I was also lucky enough to attend an English lesson for African refugees run by Professor Gordon Matthews and enjoyed swapping political views with some of the mansion’s African residents. All in all, it was a great opportunity to experience and understand a hidden side of Hong Kong.

Finally I got a break. Fedex Hong Kong kindly agreed to sponsor a one-off shipment to Nairobi. As Fedex did not have on the ground operations in Kenya, it shipped the 9 boxes of books via Hong Kong Post and absorbed the costs of doing so. After 2 months of searching, the books were finally on their way to Nairobi!

Collecting the books

The 200kg of books were packed into 9 large boxes. The boxes left Hong Kong in late November and arrived at the Nairobi central post office in December 2011. Here is where the real pain began…

Now Hong Kong Post assumed that Kenya Post would deliver the boxes directly to the school. However, Kenya Post did not have that service. Instead, they required the recipient to pick them up and pay the related duties. The misunderstanding caused months of to’ing and fro’ing between the two post offices without any resolution. In the mean time, heavy storage costs were being racked up (to the delight of local post office officials).  The boxes were stuck in a quagmire of bureaucracy…

Books in Nairobi, after 8 months of storage 

Finally after 8 months (!!!) of paper shuffling and misleading advice (from an unsavory intermediary looking to make some money), I collected the boxes in person in Nairobi, but not after another half day of painful negotiations in relation to the final “storage cost” payment. The boxes were infested with roaches when we opened them, but the books were otherwise undamaged. 

Half a day of negotiating in this hell place 

What this experience has taught me was the cost of doing business in a developing country. Services and processes that we take for granted in developed countries don’t operate in the same way over there. A relatively straightforward transaction can become bogged down in an inefficient system (which can sometimes feel like it was intentionally designed to frustrate and impede the average user).

This experience has also made me appreciate so much more the amazing amount of progress that Impoverished Children has achieved in Kenya. I can only imagine the bureaucratic nightmare that Catherine and Javier had to endure in order to establish the Shine Academy and continue its daily operations.

This story however, does have a happy ending, as evident from the photos below. And at the end of the day, seeing the kids’ faces light up as they opened the pages for the first time, really made it all worth it.

What kind of bird is that?

Opening the pages of the story for the first time...

I can read! 

The 3 Most Requested Songs from Shine Academy

I've been taking my laptop, mobile phone and portable speakers to the school everyday. My laptop is hooked up by my phone to the internet, so the kids have access to the world wide web. It's been an endless source of wonder for the children and an extremely useful teaching tool. We use it for many different things. 

Firstly, we use the laptop to show pictures and videos of  the topics that we are teaching in class. For example, when learning about the letter V, the kids are able to see a picture of a violin, hear a piece of music played by a violin, and then watch a video of a violin being played. Imagine their surprise when they saw that a violin is played by a bow, and wasn't strummed like a guitar. 

Secondly, we use it to teach songs and sounds. The kids absolutely love the video below, which helps them to learn the phonic alphabet. The Pre-unit class could memorise most of the song after playing it just two times! These sorts of educational videos also help correct any mispronunciations, which is important as the kids don't speak English at home. 

The children have also used the laptop's camera to make videos of themselves doing many activities. This includes conducting plays, public speaking, singing and dancing. The possibilities with using technology to teach are really endless. 

Just today, the kids met "Mama Kun" and "Baba Kun" via skype. They were extremely excited and eager to show my parents the dance that we've been practicing in class. There were also screams of glee when they saw that my mum had joined in the dancing. 

Skype screenshot taken by my parnets  

However by far, the kids' favourite activity is make song requests during our dance class. So without further adieu, here are the 3 most requested songs from the kids of Shine Academy. 

1. Jambo Bwana

This is arguably the most famous Swahili song. 

2. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira

South Africa World Cup Theme Song

3. Furi Furi Dance by Jimmy Gait and DK

The song is sung in Sheng (a slang version of Swahili) and Pidgin-English and comes with its own dance moves. 

A Challenging Day

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. 

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).

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.

The difference a year makes!

Time flies and it’s already been more than a week since I’ve been at Shine Academy. I am getting to know the 25 kids of the new Baby Class very well – I can now remember all their names. They are just the most adorable children, so full of smiles and laughter despite their disadvantaged backgrounds. Most of all, they are eager to learn and absolutely love going to school.

25 new faces of the 2012 Baby Class

In addition to the 25 kids of the new baby class, it was great to see the 50 familiar faces of the Nursery and Pre-unit class. What was striking was to see that these older kids have really blossomed.

The Pre-Unit class, which is made up of the oldest kids (6-7 year olds) are now speaking English fluently (they speak Swahili at home). They are also a lot more confident and independent in their thinking. They don’t hesitate to point out if something is amiss or doesn’t sound right. This includes my poor attempts at Swahili. Last year they were just beginning to learn their alphabet and this year they can read and write in sentences. 

Familiar faces of Pre-Unit Class

What has really warmed my heart is the difference in the behavior of some of the more “troubled” children. For example, six-year-old Alice, was one of the worst behaved children at school last year. She refused to listen to instructions and threw frequent temper tantrums. Prior to starting at Shine Academy, Alice was sexually abused by a male relative. This was the source of much of her anxiety and misbehavior.

This year, to my delight, she has made amazing progress. Alice is engaged in her learning and much better behaved in class. Combined with her natural precociousness, she is now near the top of her class.  Her transformation in one year has been remarkable. What school had done to instigate this change was to work with Alice’s mother (via counseling and living assistance) over the past 12 months to create a more stable and safe home environment. As a result, Alice has flourished. 

Alice is just but one example for the amazing impact that Shine Academy is having on the kids and their families. The progress that these kids have made over the past year has made me even more hopeful and optimistic about their future.

The kids have really flourished

*Names have been changed to protect privacy. 

First Day Back at Shine Academy

Today is my second day back in Kenya and my first day back at the Shine Academy. In some ways, I felt like I have never left.

From the moment the school gate opened, I was greeted by shouts of “Teacher Kun” and almost crushed under a swarm of kids trying to give me a hug.

The older kids that were in Nursery Class are now in the Pre-unit Class. I was treated to a spontaneous rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” - which I taught them last year. It was heartening to hear them sing it again, even though their version was missing the line “up above the sky so high”. I’m not entirely sure how a whole line got lost, but my lack of singing abilities is probably a contributing factor.

One thing that stood out was that the older kids were not only bigger, but also markedly more confident and individualistic. It was also great to see their impressive progress in reading, writing and arithmetic.

There were also 25 new faces to meet – the new baby class of this year. It will be a challenge to learn all their names. It took me about 3 weeks last time around with 50 kids, hopefully it won't take me as long this time round!

I’ll be here for about 3 weeks until the school term ends. It’s a really great feeling to be back. 

First day back for Teacher Kun

Back to Kenya

I am sitting in airport waiting for my plane to Nairobi via Doha. It's been almost a year since I was last in Kenya and I can't wait to see the kids at Shine Academy again.

I'm looking forward to seeing their big bright smiles and to be surrounded by laughter and shouts of "Teacher Kun".

The older kids' English must have improved over the past year and I can't wait to to converse with them and learn more about them.

The thing I anticipate the most is to meet the new baby class of 2012. These twenty-five kids have been selected from the worst family backgrounds. They were given the precious opportunity to go to school and shine by generous donors from Hong Kong and Australia. I'm so excited to meet each child and learn his or her name.

I don't think I have ever been this excited to go to school. Can't wait till Monday!

15squarestreet for the Shine Academy

On Friday, 30th September 2011, more than a hundred of the most awesome people in Hong Kong gathered at 15 Square Street to have a drink and support the kids of the Shine Academy. The venue was the Swedish design shop 15squarestreet, located on (funnily enough) 15 Square Street in the old neighbourhood of Sheung Wan. 

Despite the deluge left by Typhoon Nesat the previous day and the intermittent rain throughout the night, we had a fantastic turnout. 

The total amount raised was HKD 11,096. What an amazing result!

The event was made possible by the generous support of Alexis Holm and David Ericsson of 15squarestreet. A special thanks to Diana Wang for helping with the logistics. 

Last but not least, a huge thank you to all those that turned up to support the event. Thank you for giving generously so that a new class of 25 kids can start school at the Shine Academy next year.

Exhibit of photos taken during my time with the Shine Academy

The children of the Shine Academy appreciate your thirst.

Please feel free to return the favour! 

Our first donor, with Diana (right)

We had a great turnout, with the party spilling on to the street

Having a drink for a good cause against the Hong Kong nightscape

***

Check out the following radio interview with Catherine Whiting of Impoverished Children, where she provides a great overview of her work in Kibera and what motivates her to dedicate her life to this cause.

Catherine is one of the most resolute, dedicated, passionate and fearless people I know, and I think this comes across within the first few minutes of the interview.

From Cessnock to Slums - ABC New South Wales

"Catherine, who's originally from Cessnock, has been working in the slum for three years and says she'll be there for life."