Jobs

2nd January, 2009

I woke up to my last full day here with the orphans of Cura. Unlike yesterday I couldn't hear anyone up when I got up, not that it would have stopped me from going back to bed anyway. I got up again the second time around 7:30am as I could hear shouting and singing.

I got dressed and peaked out the door of the clinic. Unlike other kids their age, these kids all have jobs. Well, they are not jobs in the traditional sense that pay you and provide health care. Many of the kids were out working in the vegetable patch near the home. I wandered into the home and saw other kids sweeping, mopping, washing and generally tidying up. I don't know any other parents who can claim this. Every single kid seemed to have their own job no matter how big or small and they all seemed happy to do it. Peter, the second smallest after Manyara was busy washing some clothes in a bucket, he looked up at me and gave me a big smile. This kid has such an expressive face. He could certainly be an actor.

I went back to my room and grabbed my camera then ventured out into the field. Each kid had a big stick and was bashing the shit out of the ground with it. It was like they had seen a snake. However, upon closer inspection there was much more to this. A heshen sack had been laid on the ground. On top of it was placed piles of dead straw like substance. The kids were bashing this straw with anything they could find. The straw turned out to be dried bean vines. Hidden amongst the vines were pods of beans. They were bashing them to break open the pods and free the hard red and white beans. Around the outside of the melee were the smaller kids picking through the dirt and grabbing the stray beans that had flown out of casings. They chucked these into a winnowing fan (large cane flat basket). Periodically one of the kids tossed the beans up into the air and caught them back in the winnowing fan. The wind blows away the dust and crap. Every now and then the bashing (technically threshing) would cease and one of the larger kids would turn the dried bean stalks over to bring the others to the top, then the bashing would continue. Eventually, they stopped the threshing and all got on their hands and knees to find the beans.

I went back to my room to drop off my camera and then popped into the office to see if Moses was there. He had just arrived as he had errands to do. Yesterday I had planned to catch up with the headmaster of the school but he didn't come in. (After all it was New Years Day and I was away most of the day anyway) He was in now, so Moses took me over and introduced me. He was in his office with his deputy.

I haven't been into a headmasters office for around 20 years and the last time I was there I was in trouble. I still felt a little nervous going in. Moses didn't make things any easier by only introducing me to them by their last names which I immediately forgot.

I told them that I wanted to meet them to prepare a proposal on their behalf to secure some funding for books for the school. A UK organisation had pledged £640 to buy books for a school outside of Nairobi. Mike Eldon had made the contact and suggested Cura. He asked me to speak to them and create a proposal. We had a long and interesting discussion about education in this part of the world. Coincidentally, that day they had the results for the students who were finishing primary school (Grade 8 in Kenya) and would go on to do high school. Whilst we were talking two students came in to collect their results. I looked through all the results. Out of a possible 500 marks, the school average was just 216. They had done some analysis and the lowest scores were in English and Kiswahili (the name for the language known as Swahili) They didn't know I was coming or about my proposal but they had just been discussing how to increase these results and their conclusion was that they needed more (actually some) reading material. The kids have a text book provided by the government and they have one dictionary between 6 students. However, apart of the text book there is nothing else. Their library has around 20 books in it.

We discussed that one of the ways to get kids to study English more was to get them to read stories and they would be learning without actually realising it. The money that has been pledged would be enough to buy around 20 dictionaries (bringing the ratio to one for every 4 students) but more importantly could buy around 330 English reading books and 110 Kiswahili reading books. A great start to a library. We spoke a lot more about education and the future of Kenya. They thanked me for taking an interest in both the orphans and the school. We then went over to the building where they had intended to build a library and showed me around that. It was the same as every other class room. Corrugated iron roof, thick wire mesh on the occasionally broken windows and a layer of red dust over everything. They pledged to make this room a lot more like a library should they get the books.

I went back to the orphanage as it was now after 1pm. When I got there one of the house mothers saw me and brought out my lunch. I was not surprised to see it was red beans and ugali. The beans were the ones harvested this morning. After lunch Manyara came over and we went outside to play. I saw a few kids up by the church so I went up there myself. Mercy was there with Edward, Alex, Agnes and Margaret. We mucked around for a bit which usually involved me tickling them or them asking me to "strong" them. For some reason, these kids are all little masochists. They are constantly hurting each other. They worked out that I was much stronger then them so their game involved me crushing their hand in mine. It takes a bit of caution on my part as they won't pull their hand away until they feel pain but I have to be careful not to go to far. As soon as they hurt they wince and then immediately put their hand back. The other game was when they give me a switch (slender stick from a tree) and ask me to try and hit them with it whilst they try to grab it. Again, I have to be a bit careful and always aim for the lower legs and never with any strength behind it. They occasionally get the switch, break it, laugh and then go and get me another one to start again. As I said, little masochists.

After a while, I became bored with this game. They could have gone on for hours. I went back towards the clinic. Mercy had disappeared as she usually doesn't partake in the rough games. She turned up with a big bunch of flowers for me that she had picked from the various gardens around the place. She is so sweet. When she gave them to me she said, "Please don't go tomorrow." Bless. I tried to explain that I had no choice but it was lost on her. Meanwhile I was being attacked by the other kids who keep getting rougher and rougher. Every now and then one them ends up hurting themselves, starts crying and we have to stop and comfort them. About 30 seconds later we are back into it.

I decided to go into the home and see what everyone else was doing. Some were still cleaning but most of them were in the television room. I popped in and they were watching Kyle XY, a US drama aimed at teens about a boy who has special abilities but doesn't know his own background. I watched it for a little while with them although it was difficult with 20 kids fighting, yelling and doing everything but watch the TV. Only about 6 kids were actually watching this and it was amazing that they were able to block out all of the other distractions and concentrate on the TV alone.

I was unable to concentrate on any one thing with all that fuss going on so went back to my room. A few minutes later Mercy was at my window. We talked for a bit and I gave her two lollies that i had left over from yesterday. She put them in her pockets and continued on chatting. About ten minutes later, Manyara came into my room. After he whisked around the room touching everything, he settled on the seat next to me and started chatting away mainly in Kikuyu with the occasional English word thrown in for good measure. Without anyone mentioning lollies, Mercy reached into her pocket and took out a lolly and gave it to Manyara. The little shit didn't even say thank you in one of the three languages he speaks. I made him say thank you in two of the languages as at least those were the ones I knew thank-you in. She then helped him open it and it quickly went into his mouth along with all the other things that had gone in it that day including stones, grass, sticks and anything else he found on the ground.

The kids were getting bored in my room so it was time to head outside. After another hour or so of playing outside the clinic then a quick walk around the courtyard to the constant cries of "Uncle, look at me" as each of the kids tried to get my attention, I went back to my room.

This was to be my last supper and I was hoping for something a little special. I was disappointed when a big plate of ugali and red beans showed up. I ate all the beans and most of the ugali. It's pretty hard to eat everything they give me as there is just so much. Fortunately, one of the house mothers usually comes over after I eat to drop off a thermos full of tea and any leftovers are taken back and the kids wolf them down.

I head to bed reasonably early for me at about 10pm and read the magazine that I bought in Nairobi the other day. It is a quarterly publication by the Economist called Intelligent Life. On the front cover was a black and white photo of Paris Hilton reading War and Peace. It amused me but the real reason I bought it was an article on the first 25 years of the Macintosh computer.

At about 11pm I finally went to sleep.

This was a good day.