The Blahs and the Big D

Imagine. You crash land on a remote island. All that survives, besides you, is a large tin of kale and a tin of maize flour. You are pleased at the discovery at first, because you know that you can make Sakuma and Ugali (which really does the trick to fill an empty stomach) if you can just manage to build a fire. The first week, all seems fine and well. You eat your Sakuma and Ugali every day. Twice a day. By the time the second week rolls around, you are starting to notice that your stomach protrudes slightly. By the beginning of the third week, you appear to be 3 months pregnant, though you know that is not a possibility. It is an Ugali baby. Growing inside at a rapid rate. And those rumbles? Yes, the big D – a result of extreme malnutrition, inadequate water supply, and adjusting to a new diet.

Welcome to my life as I know it (minus the plane crash on a remote island).

It seems that Ugali, despite the extreme rise in cost of maize due to a recent drought, is still a staple here in Kenya. Actually, as we are told by some, a meal is not a meal without it. You will starve without Ugali. Rice just doesn’t do the trick any more to fill an empty belly - a point of discussion and slight conflict between some of the teachers at Fairview and our tight budget to feed them. I personally feel (and I know I have team members who share this sentiment) that rice is a relief, and am always ecstatic when it makes an appearance at the dinner table. It is difficult (and slightly depressing) to acknowledge that we are only a few weeks in and already I am craving certain types of foods: fresh salads (with greens UNCOOKED)... carrots... squash... cheese... pizza... French fries... yes, it’s more than just vegetables that I dream about night after night. Sigh... there is only so much Sakuma a person can take!

Really I shouldn’t complain. After all, I have a full tummy at the end of the day. So what if I have to run to the toilet at inopportune moments... raising my daily occurrences to be between 4 – 5 times... aieee..... Ok, enough of the grossness.

After some meetings with the teachers, it has become clear the improvements to the school (both in management and facilities) that they envision. I bet you can guess – on the management side, the request is for more money... Which, I must say, is appreciated and understood but perhaps not possible, as the presence of wazungus in the village has caused many parents to stop paying the 500KSH for school fees (only certain students are required to pay school fees... based on financial need/orphan and HIV status) - something that definitely needs to be addressed so that we can help the teachers and still make the improvements to the facility that we want to.

Construction wise, as mentioned, we’d like to:

• cement the floor in the babies/preschool classroom (right now it is dirt, which they crawl around on), · build some new desks (there are many students sharing a desk meant for one student),
• improve the kitchen area (which is nearly impossible to use when it rains), · move a pit-latrine from being too close to the baby/preschool classroom (unsanitary at the moment and if health-officials ever visited, it would be a strike),
• purchase cleaner for the students’ toilet (seriously, gross. I couldn’t even peek in without wanting to douse my whole body with hand-sanitizer),
• build a new classroom to split up the young ones (right now there are 40 in the class... but unfortunately I know that we do not have money for this),
• buy some motor-skill-stimulating toys for the younger kids (right now all of the toys that exist are: pieces of rope that act as both jump-rope and a finish line that you must jump over for races – I learned the hard way, two tires, some random bricks that boys like to lift and lug around, oh and I suppose nails... I have found 2 students sucking on them so far. I’m sure I will confiscate more as the summer progresses),
•  purchase some more plates and cups for the feeding program (currently students have to wait for classmates to finish before they can eat).

Sadly, because of limited budgets, many of these will have to wait until more funding sources can be found. We inquired into registering the school with the government, but one of the requirements is that all teachers must be teacher trained. Since many are volunteers and only have secondary school as their highest academic achievement, they would not qualify as staff members. It is also complicated as Fairview would then become a public school and we would not have control/say over which students it caters to. Right now it is reaching such a needing population and it would be difficult to maintain. It is still not out of the realm of possibility and seems a lot less complex than originally thought, but for now we are considering the involvement of other NGOs. If you know of any in Kenya that may be able to help, let me know!

Also - check out more info on Fairview here: http://www.facebook.com/FairviewChildDevelopmentCentre