2^nd October

Today was a very exciting day for us all because we were going on a school visit  that Lyn had arranged last year when she met a small group of students and their teachers that were on a once a year outing to Sheldrick’s to see the baby elephants. The founder of the school, Lucy Muthoni Kiragu started the school in 2000 with 3 pre-schoolers. Now there are over three hundred pupils and 30 staff at the school. As well there are 30 orphans who are educated and housed by the school and are mostly looked after by Lucy and her family. I was waiting for Lyn and Peta in the reception area when Lucy, Antony and their daughter Monika arrived to meet us at our Hotel and I recognized Lucy from a small photo Lyn had showed us the afternoon before and so I introduced myself to Lucy. Not realizing that I had seen her photo, Lucy had us all laughing when she said “wazungus are like gods” as she couldn’t believe how I could recognize her, and of course we were equally surprised to find we were the first non Kenyan people to visit the school. Whilst we had no idea what the facilities at the school would be like, we had brought some things with us that we thought would be helpful. Lots of things had been donated to us by other people like a digital camera, stickers, books, beanies, and an old laptop computer which were all appreciated, but perhaps the most useful thing was some money that my aunt Flora and my friend Helen had given us.  After converting this to Kenyan shillings, we went with Lucy to a schools supply shop where I was truly amazed at the quantity of schools supplies this could buy. They bought dictionaries, reference books, readers for all ages, chalk, pen, pencils, crayons, inks, exercise books, reams of colored cardboard for charts for the rooms and Lyn, Peta and myself added money for large jars of powder paint, boxes of brushes, drawing paper and of course skipping ropes and soccer balls! We had also bought, from the side of the road on the way from the airport, a large world map for their wall. Lucy, Antony and Monica then joined us in our van and Robert drove us to the school which was about an ½ hour drive out of Nairobi in Kikuyu. Naturally, the children were extremely curious about us and we were taken into each classroom where we were greeted and introduced to the children who sang to us and then we had to explain how Lyn had met Lucy and why we were there.

They have no electricity at the school and the only source of water was from a rainwater tank. The classrooms were very simple, semi permanent buildings, mostly made of corrugated iron with compacted earth floors. The rooms were crowded with very little teaching equipment, yet in spite of this, the students and teachers took great pride in their school and the children study hard to achieve good test results.

The students all wear uniforms and the teachers were all neatly dressed in spite of the very dusty conditions. The children start school at the age of 3 or 4 and very impressively read words and times tables from the board. The senior class were preparing for the National Examination for entry into High School. Not everyone can go to High School in Kenya as there are not enough places available in the public school system so it is very important to achieve a high score.

The headmaster, Morgan Mungai, himself a past pupil of the school, was very proud of what his students had achieved. The Parents and Teachers association have been able to purchase a small piece of land where teachers and students grow crops and have some livestock to help feed the children but again they have an inadequate water supply and Kenya was experiencing a drought.

By the end of our visit, we were very impressed with the resourcefulness, kindness and determination to achieve engendered by Lucy, her family and staff, and felt we had made some new friends who we hope to be able to help further. If anyone would also like to help, or would like to visit the school, please contact us. We have raised some money through the sale of paintings, (see the painting ‘Sheer Delight’, which will explain why the Headmaster is skipping), and we will have a special fundraising project at our exhibition next year. Every little bit helps.