This 'n That

Today started early - I woke up about 4:30 or so and couldn’t get back to sleep thinking about all the many issues I needed to deal with today - not the least of which was getting through a lecture on the mammalian circulatory system. I gave up trying to go back to sleep by about 6 and got up to do my workout. When I first arose, the whole compound was enshrouded in heavy fog, but about the time the sun was coming up, the fog began to dissipate. I stepped out on the porch and saw this scene, with the fog just lifting from the green Ngong Hills across the way.

Then, on the way to the morning staff meeting - every day begins with a Bible reading, a reflection on the reading, and prayer followed by a discussion of the details and logistics of the day - I saw this interesting little guy on the sidewalk outside the dining hall where the staff meets. Of course, I had to take a picture of him/her (?). Rafiki and Zwadi were also quite interested, so much so that I moved the little fellow off the walk and onto the grass.


I never did get around to delivering my mammalian circulatory system lecture. All week until today we’ve had a tutor, Peter, for the Form 3 & 4’s reviewing biology and chemistry with them. Today a different tutor came, Daniel, whose specialty is physics and math. I expected him to spend only half his time with my Form 2 girls on physics, because only one of the older girls is taking physics. And I thought he’d spend the other half of the morning with the Form 3/4’s on math. But, after some discussion, he convinced me it was a good idea for him to talk math to the entire group together and I just listened in. Daniel is a very engaging teacher, and he had the girl’s full attention. I certainly hope they learned something, too! I guess mammalian circulation will just have to wait for tomorrow.

Before dinner, Rick and I were out on the porch of the guest house and we had company in the form of three of the younger girls. I had my computer out and was editing the photos I’ve been taking of the girls. Bridget, Linda and Regina had great fun looking at everyone’s pictures, calling out their names and cheering for each girl!

Enjoying the Sunshine

Today has been a beautiful day. In spite of that, we spent the morning inside in tutorial (that’s what most of the girls are here for, after all). I spent time with my group of Form 2’s (sophomores) on math (cube roots, reciprocals, exponents) and chemistry (review, clarification, writing formulae for compounds, balancing equations). I have been really pleased with the group’s engagement and participation in the discussions, asking and answering questions, solving problems when I ask them. I really hope they’re getting something out of it that will help them.

Rick is working with two Form 1’s and it sounds like an uphill slog. The one girl who was actually focusing in his tutorial left today to visit family. Her grades came in yesterday and she had achieved the minimum grade to be allowed to go. The two remaining are mentally somewhere else. He’s pretty frustrated trying to figure out how to engage them. Kinyua seems reasonably pleased with his group of Standard 8’s and the Form 3 & 4’s are making an effort with the tutor we hired for them.

After lunch, everyone was enjoying being outside. And the cows took advantage of the weather and tall grass in front of the houses to come into the commons area to graze. That’s one way to get the grass mowed! Of course the cows had an audience. And Zwadi lounged on her back in her favorite pose, soaking up the sun.

Zwadi sunbathing

After the rains

Later in the afternoon, some of the girls and I took advantage to the weather to go for a walk up to the Rift escarpment. It looks so different now that the rains have come. I took a photo before the rains started when everything was very dry and brown. Now the grass has really greened up and the landscape is completely transformed.

Before the rains

Most of the group stopped once we got the the escarpment. But four of us continued up a dirt road toward the Ngong hills. I took a photo of my little group looking back towards Nairobi. If you can spot the green roofs in the background, that is Hekima Place.

Tutoring, Rain and the Electric Power

Yesterday we started the morning tutorials with the Standard 8 (8th grade) through Form 4 (HS senior) girls. Mr. Kinyua opened the first session by having a talk to them about why it is important for them to take advantage of this opportunity to improve their marks. Then each of us doing the tutoring had a turn speechifying at them. They have been feeling like they are being punished by being kept here and made to study during their holiday. Spending time on tutoring them without their buy-in would be a waste of time. It seemed to have worked, because almost all of them have been cooperative and engaged in the tutorial sessions.

The tutorial sessions are every morning, Monday thru Saturday, from 9 am to 1 pm with a 30 minute break for tea and buttered bread (a British custom the Kenyans have thoroughly embraced). We have hired two experienced teachers as a tutors in chemistry, biology, math and physics for the four Form 3 and Form 4 girls who have national exams to face either this year or next. Kinyua, Rick and I are tutoring the rest in those same subjects. Kinyua is working with the Standard 8 girls who also have major comprehensive tests at the end of the year. Rick is working with the Form 1 girls - three of them. And I am working with the nine Form 2 girls. Yesterday I spent the entire morning reviewing chemistry - the structure of the atom, valency and oxidation states, ions, radicals, chemical reactions, etc. Today it was biology, the topic being transport and transpiration in plants followed by math with cubes and cube roots. Rick and I are both spending a most of the rest of our day prepping for the next tutoring session (I should be doing that now instead of writing this blog!).

During the morning tea break, one of the older girls had some of the little ones lined up in order of height and marching around the walk that encircles the courtyard singing “I Am Marching in the Light of God” (“Siyahumba” in Kiswhali) at the tops of their voices. It was soooooo cute I had to take pictures!

During school, the girls do homework every evening, but while they do have some homework to do during their holiday, it is not an evening activity. Needless to say, the girls are restless in the evenings. Last night we let the older girls watch a movie, but they can’t do that every night. And we need to be getting ready for tutoring tomorrow, so we aren’t free to do anything with them. The two mums who are here are fully occupied with 16 girls (including 2 preschoolers and 3 toddlers) in two houses plus two babies each so they’re otherwise occupied as well. And there are no volunteers here besides us right now to spend time with the girls.

Finally it dawned on me there is someone I can ask to organize evening activities. One of the former Hekima girls, a secondary school graduate, is working here in between high school and whatever she decides comes next. I asked her for activity suggestions and if she would take control of the evening situation. So tonight she is supervising music and dancing in the dining hall with the girls. Thank goodness!

As I mentioned in the last post, it’s been raining here. Not steadily, but it often rains very hard once it starts. Apparently the heavy rain is a problem for the company that supplies our electricity, because we haven’t had supplied power for 3 days. There is a generator that kicks in when the power goes off, so, other than a brief flicker, there’s been no power interruption. However, diesel for the generator is expensive, so this is not a good thing. And the generator has been running 20 hours a day (we’re giving it two 2-hour rest periods a day) for three days now. I hope the power company gets their act together soon.

Since Rick got here, one of his projects has been to analyze the Hekima Place energy usage and try to think of ways to make the operation more efficient in that regard. He’s got some ideas - it would be great if some of them work out.

Bugs, Leaks and Frog Songs

Porch bug bodies

House bug bodies

Today has been an interesting Sunday at Hekima Place.

There is one thing to be said about the dry season - before it started raining there were no bugs worth mentioning except ants and flies and the occasional large beetle on the porch in the morning - if any survived being eaten by the Pied Ravens overnight (remember the guys with the, take your pick, French maid’s or chef’s aprons?). Well, now it’s the rainy season and with the rains have come big flying termites and myriad tiny beetles. For security reasons at Hekima we leave the porch lights on all night at all the houses. The lights attract both the flying termites and the tiny beetles. Every morning for the past week or so we’ve been waking up to a porch littered with bug bodies - both mostly dead ones and some partly alive ones. I don’t know if the termites die, but they do lose their wings in the course of the night and in the morning, we find drifts of termite wings piled in corners where the wind has blown them. The tiny beetles just die. They must hatch out somewhere, make their flight to the porch lights, breed (presumably they get to have a bit of fun in their one day of life) and die. It’s bad enough that the beetles pile up on the porch, but somehow, even with the windows and doors closed and locked, large numbers of them find their way inside. I took a picture of the porch this morning before we swept all the beetle bodies off of it - as we’ve been doing every morning recently. I took another picture of the disgusting little pile of creatures that I swept up from inside the guest house!

It’s bad enough to wake up to all these beetle bodies all over the floor, but it turns out that they are an ant’s favorite breakfast snack! So if you don’t get the beetles out of the house fast, you very quickly have squirming mounds of ants feeding upon each and every tasty little beetle body. As if it weren’t hard enough to keep the ants under control when there aren’t beetle body dining delicacies everywhere!

It rained hard yesterday. So hard that Amani House (the office) had water leaking in from the roof and down the front wall. Today it rained hard again and Amani took on more water, from the roof down the front wall and also from the peak of the roof down the wall in the kitchenette. Sophie and I both had a turn mopping up the water. In addition, the gutter on the back of Amani house pulled loose with the load. This after the gutter on one of the other houses came off two weeks ago in a rain storm. Mild mannered Sophie (our accountant) was furious, so, even though it is Sunday, she phoned the builder to tell him how not thrilled she was with his team’s handiwork. Don’t know exactly what she said, but the builder promised he would have his butt here bright and early tomorrow morning.

One lovely rainy season thing - there is a rising chorus of frog voices outside tonight. Bases, sopranos, and everything in between croaking out a variety of tunes. I wonder how many frog species are out there singing their little hearts out. They really enliven the African night soundscape. I should do a movie - not that you’d see anything since they shut up if you approach them - but just for the sound. It’s wonderful.

They don’t tell you about this stuff in the glossy travel brochures. Of course, the glossy travel brochures don’t usually encourage you to visit during the rainy season, either.