Starting Out a Brand New Day

This is the rainy season in Kenya. The air is sweet and soft each morning. Later in the day as the heat builds the clouds start to form. Rising on the updrafts, maribou storks soar overhead at a height of 10,000feet. Cumulo-nimbus clouds start their spectacular upward formations, laden with moisture to be released. Kakamega is home to the only rainforest in Kenya. The oldest trees are well over 100 feet in height. The canopy of foliage shades the land and causes enough rainfall in season to produce cash crops. Workers in sugar cane fields, tea plantations and maize farms are all busy harvesting in the months of August and September. Thunder boomers roll over the hills and echo down into the valleys. With sudden and powerful urgency, the rains fall most evenings. Lights flicker as the power surges cross the wires. Then sudden darkness, sometimes for twenty minutes at a time. This is Kenya…Kenyans never complain.

The road to Musaga SS was wet from the night before. Ruts and potholes were deeper than usual. Every 100 metres of travel had its own set of challenges. Our expert driver and Patron of CES Kenya put the Toyota 4 wheel drive through its paces. Malik Khaemba drove to the gate and along with his usual smile said, “next time you come to Kenya, you can drive.” I’m not quite there yet.

Gibsob Mulika was overjoyed to see us. As Director of the Musaga PS and Caretaker of the new Secondary School, he proudly showed us a school that was founded in 2007. He anticipated full registration in 2009. Until then he was Caretaker. Basically, Gibsob is Principal of all but in name. Board Member Leonard Wafula and PTA Chair Krispus Udoto were also there to greet us. We received such an incredibly warm welcome. It was genuine and from the heart. I shall never forget this meeting. We had come to support and encourage them. We received much more in return.

As a newly founded school, it is the community’s responsibility to organize the operations and the teaching resources until the government deems the school to have official status. All it takes is 10 students to create a school. Teacher allocation begins when the student population reaches 40. The Kenya Teacher Service Commission and the Ministry of Education allocate teachers to be placed on the national payroll when the enrolment reaches 140. Until then the community funds teacher salaries. These are very low due to the inability of locals to pay teaching staff. The norm is $2-3 Cdn per day.

Fees at Musaga SS are kept low so that the families can afford to send their children there. The uniform consists of a pair of trousers @ 450Ksh, a shirt @200Ksh, one tie @100 Ksh, socks @80Ksh and a sweater @300Ksh. That’s just short of $20 Cdn. All secondary schools insist that students have shoes. That’s another $5. Where in any part of the developed world can one dress a student completely for $25 Cdn?

Musaga is a Society of Friends Secondary School with 32 students. CES Canada supports two of them, Emmanuel and Antony. Both in Form 2, they take turns being 1st in their class of 18. When I spoke with them it was Emmanuel’s turn. Delightful young men, they spoke highly of their school and the fact that they would be among the first graduating class at Musaga SS.

Emmanuel Musungi – Form 2 stands 1st of 18 in his class

Antony Wanjala – Form 2 stands 2nd of 18 in his class

There was a sense of excitement here. A new school community was being formed and soon would have legal status. Enrolment would increase and the school would flourish. The facilities were crowded and the school needed furniture and desks for the students. But the real deal was that a new school had been born. Hope springs eternal, particularly in Kenya. All would come in due course and just in time. For now the village of Musaga had its school. Like the firstborn in a family, it was cause for celebration.

Gibsob Mulika made it clear to us that he was proud of how the community had come together. Students would not have to walk so far to attend. Previously there were accounts of students walking 8 km one way to and from their home. What was it like to walk that far, day in and day out…10, 12, 14 kilometres each day? All that followed by chores that would drive anyone to exhaustion. No running water or electricity, living in a one room mud hut, these students would show up each day in class wearing a clean uniform.

As I got into the passenger seat and waved goodbye to these incredibly courageous people, I knew I would never know the depth and breadth of the hardships these dear people faced on a daily basis. Life would never be easy for them. I also knew that CES Canada and CES Kenya were making a difference in the lives of Emmanuel and Antony and all the others we support. Now that is one incredible feeling!