This morning we woke up for another delicious breakfast at 7:00am. After that we got in our vans and were off to Chebuyusi primary school. As soon as we arrived, the children poured out of their classrooms. We met the Head Teacher and signed our names in a school visitor book. We stood outside and the students all gathered to watch as a group of girls sang a welcoming song and placed leis around our necks. The Head Teacher gave us a tour of the school. He pointed out that the outside walls had been freshly painted red, and explained that this was possible because of our donations. Although the outside has been renovated, the inside of the classrooms still needed a lot of care. It was sad to see that the students had such a lack of materials.
There were holes and cracks on the cement floors in many of the classrooms. The first part of our service work for the day was to fill the holes with rocks in order to make the floors more flat and even. We mixed cement that later was going to be added to completely fill and smooth over those holes. All of the Chebuyusi students were eager to help. They passed us piles of rocks and filled Kieran's t-shirt with them. Then we all helped to finish painting the window frames for one section of the school. Next, we entered the nursery classroom to find the children writing out numbers and counting using pieces of corn and pebbles. We put down the foam puzzle pieces on the floor of the nursery, so now the children will have a softer ground to sit on. We sat down with some new wooden puzzles we had brought, and taught them how to play. We were all shocked to see that the children and teachers had never even seen a puzzle.
There were holes and cracks on the cement floors in many of the classrooms. The first part of our service work for the day was to fill the holes with rocks in order to make the floors more flat and even. We mixed cement that later was going to be added to completely fill and smooth over those holes. All of the Chebuyusi students were eager to help. They passed us piles of rocks and filled Kieran's t-shirt with them. Then we all helped to finish painting the window frames for one section of the school. Next, we entered the nursery classroom to find the children writing out numbers and counting using pieces of corn and pebbles. We put down the foam puzzle pieces on the floor of the nursery, so now the children will have a softer ground to sit on. We sat down with some new wooden puzzles we had brought, and taught them how to play. We were all shocked to see that the children and teachers had never even seen a puzzle.
Overall, the teachers and school administrators, as well as the students, were somewhat surprised to see that we could do all of this service work, and were willing to do so, ourselves. After the work, everyone played with the students out in their recess field. Kristen and Kieran showed some of the kids their killer dance moves, while the hands of Haley, Kristen and Amelia were being grabbed by kids on all sides. Ben got an entire group of kids to sing a pussy cat song for him. All of the students loved having their picture taken and then seeing the photo afterward. They all crowded around Jake hoping to get a look at the picture on his iPhone. Izzy and Kieran got in net to play goalie against the students with their new soccer balls. After some recess, everyone gathered to listen to the teachers introduce themselves and thank Moses Brown for our help and donations. Elizabeth and Ben thanked everyone for their kindness and then we all watched the Chebuyusi students perform. They recited a poem in English, then sang in Swahili. Their local cultural dances were really fun to watch; Chebuyusi has a lot of talented students. To end our day together, we organized a soccer game between the MB students and the older girls from Chebuyusi. All of the other students watched from the sidelines and cheered. Monica, as one of our strongest players, shined on the field with her lock-down defense. Lily scored the first goal of the game off a beautiful pass from Kristen. But the school uniform dresses and bare feet didn't slow down the Chebuyusi girls; they came right back and scored (after many saves by Kieran, each saved followed by cheers from all of his Chebuyusi fans on the sidelines.)The MB team was exhausted (we'll blame it on the village's high altitude), so we called it a game. Everyone said their goodbyes and thank yous and we headed back to Rondo after another great day. -written by Izzy
PS. More pictures to come, hopefully tomorrow, when the internet is more reliable.
PS. More pictures to come, hopefully tomorrow, when the internet is more reliable.