To Teach is to Love

It's been a week since I left Kenya. Each day my minds drifts back to ten joyous days in Kakamega where I felt absolutely and fully alive. I cannot recall a time in nearly four decades as an educator when students I interacted with were more focussed and engaged in their learning.

What I saw were teachers whose actions truly were impressive. What teachers and principals do on behalf of their students with so little is truly astounding. To teach is to love, for there is none that teaches for material gain.

Teachers in Lurambi District give their time and their skills for very little in return. Dedicated to their profession, they exhibit the fundamental principles of love for their students and for their community.

I Corinthians 13 is a well known passage from the New Testament Bible. The fundamental concepts which elevate the teaching profession to that of sacred is clearly outlined in this passage about love. The themes of Relationship, Relevance and Inspiration are beautifully expressed in this paraphrase:

“If I speak with human eloquence but don’t love
I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate

If I display huge talent and much knowledge but don’t love
I am nothing but a bag of empty rhetoric

If I give everything I have to the needy but I don’t love
I really am nowhere; in fact,
without love I am bankrupt

Love never gives up
Love cares more for others than for self
Love doesn’t strut or have a swelled head
Love doesn’t keep score of the failings of others
Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth

Love always looks for the best
Love never looks back, but keeps going to the end

Love never dies
At the end of the day
There are three things that stand alone
Faith, Hope and Love
The greatest of these is Love”

To teach is to love and to love is to hope that the world can be a better place. This is the dream that must never die.

I have a dream that one day every child in Kakamega will not fear the onslaught of malaria and diarrhoeal disease. I have a hope that HIV among adult men and women aged15-49 will be erradicated and that all will know their status as well as they know their name. I have a vision that polio will be a distant memory from another generation. I see a day when all youth will have opportunity to attend school and learn to their potential. There is a heart that beats with hope and that dares to dream...



Dare to Dream

Somehow I feel that God rejoices
When we dare to dream what can be;
Are we not made for something better
That transcends reality?

When we say we are seeking a better world
Where peace and justice reign;
We must believe in the Commonwealth
To bring these back again.

Where people seek the common ground
Reach out to one another
Regardless of the differences
There’s something they discover.

A spark of light, a ray of love
Compels them to believe
That those who sow the seed of hope
New mercies will receive.

Within us all there beats a heart
That seeks to know real peace
The Commonwealth pursues the truth
That love will never cease.

Common language, common law

Values tried and true
Common sense to live as one
And humanity to renew.

Yes, I know that God rejoices
Throughout the universe
When’er we dream of what will be
The darkness we disperse.

Education through Bartering

Our last stop...St. Caroli Lwanga Lutaso SS. Perhaps we saved the most scenic location to the last. On the driveway to the left was a scene from "Out of Africa". We were situated on a small escarpment overlooking a valley dotted with shambas and beautifully terraced farms. The view extended for miles. Off in the distance were huge rocks jutting four hundred feet about the surrounding land. These geological formations spoke of a time of upheaval and volcanic activity. As we climbed a hill to the school we were surrounded by boulders the size of a classroom. Spread throughout the grounds the school was actually built around these mammoth formations. Instead of being in the way, the rocks took on the role of sentries, specifically to guard and protect. Colourful wild tropical flowers graced the property. A natural environment for a variety of birds, the place was sweet with birdsong.

Students were carrying 80 pound sacks of maize for storage. I was soon to learn how these got here. CES is involved in feeding programs for our students and a mix of beans and maize is the basis for nutrition. Once a week students also receive ugali, the Kenyan staple of maize flour and water cooked just right, not too runny and not too hard. Students pick up the ugali with their right hand, roll and pinch it into a ball with their fingers and down it quickly. It's quite the lesson for the westerner who is still looking for a utensil. In Kenya you go with the flow.

Sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese in 2000, Lutaso SS started with 15 students. Eight years later it now is up to 305 full time enrolment. Principal Pascal Khisa Were and Deputy Principal Mary Waitjun Mukhwana greeted us warmly. Their's is a well resourced school because of strong parental involvement. A new equipped science lab was sponsored by the Community Development Fund, courtesy of the Government of Kenya.

We met the following delightful students who wanted their pictures taken with us. Each student we learned was a total orphan.

Linete Ongalo - Form 4 stands 28 of 53 in her class. She wants to be a nurse.

Hellen Mwangala - Form 4 stands 12 of 53 in her class. She too wants to be a nurse.

Humprey Wekesa - Form 4 stands 6 of 53 in his class. He wants to be a lawyer.

Nicholas Wasike - Form 1 stands 9 of 102 in his class. He wants to be a lawyer.

The students were very formal in their communications. They kept referring to their fellow student as "my colleague". Humprey told us, "We will pay you back by passing all our exams." Young Nicholas was forthright when he said, "Please tell your friends in Canada to keep up the good spirit." I knew exactly what he meant.

Principal Pascal Were then talked about the poverty surrounding the school. Not all parents can pay school fees. An ingenious system of bartering has been set up to enable those without cash to aquire their education. Fee payment "in kind" is common here. A bag of Maize is worth 1600KSh. The parent brings the bag and is credited that amount. Bricks for building structures are 5KSh per brick delivered and 4KSh if undelivered to the school. Firewood can go for 4000KSh for a huge bundle. Parents offer their services as cook or security watchman in exchange for a term of school. How neat is that! And the amazing thing is that because it is common practice, students do not mind having a parent going about doing work for the school. Now try that in Canada.

And yes...we got caught in a rainstorm to rival any I have experienced. It looked like night even at 4 pm. We were on our way home to Kakamega. Exhausted and elated at the same time, we knew we had seen some miracles. Despite all odds, students were in school taking advantage of the gift of learning. After two hours over a treacherous journey where I was sure I would be pushing the Toyota 4 wheel drive out of a mud filled ditch we made it!

Acute Poverty - Schools in Crisis

Passing through the village of Masaga, I saw a little girl looking through a fence surrounding one of the oldest public schools in the District of Kakamega. Masaga PS was operating in 1952 when CES Kenya Treasurer Chrispus Odito attended there. Standing barefoot and alone in the mid morning sun, this child could not take her eyes off the children playing inside the compound. Life circumstances prevented her from attending school. If only school fees were available for her. If only her parents or guardian could provide a way. That is if she had parents or a guardian. In this area of Kenya that is not always a given. If only a bright new blue and white school uniform could be made to cover her little body. If only she had a chance. If only…

All children should have the right to attend school, no matter what their circumstance. That is why CES Canada exists. That’s what hope through education is all about. Poverty and disease can be reduced when all children are given equal opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

We were nearing Sivilie SS in the late morning. It was already starting to get hot. A thunder storm was threatening from the north west. A sudden downpour would make it very difficult to drive on these rural roads. The red clay prevents quick runoff and the roads become very slippery and the potholes invisible because of the water covering them. No matter, we were at the gates.

We arrived to a delegation, Deputy Principal Abraham Mango and Senior Master Teacher Job Mukhwana. They approached us, hands outstretched. That’s how we were greeted everywhere. In this remote area there was a Society of Friends school that was thriving. With its motto: “Strive to Excel”, we learned that Sivilie SS had placed second in all the Kakamega District. A mixed (male/female) day school, it had many orphaned students among an enrolment of 183. Strong guidance and counseling programs were making a difference in these young lives.

Diane Nafula – Form 4 stands 5th in a class of 37 students. She placed third in the National Science Fair.

Elizabeth Baraza– Form 3 stands 13 of 40 students in her class. She is a partial orphan.

Bernard Makhaplia– Form 2 stands 1^st in his class of 48 students.

Asha Mohammed Namwira – Form 1 stands 1^st in her class of 54 students.

There is a crisis in education that is beginning to affect the schools CES Canada is involved in. Parents may soon have to dig deeper into their pockets to keep their children in school. Head teachers are under pressure from increased operational and food costs. Additional funding from parents is the only way out of a crisis brought about by inflation that has recently peaked at the 27% mark. This will particularly be problematic for parents with children in boarding schools.

The government subsidy of KSh 10, 265 ($170Cdn) does not cover other fees like development fees, registration fees, feeding programs, school resources, text books, student writing exercise books, pens, pencils, lab fees, school uniforms and medical fees.. Skyrocketing prices of food, electricity and fuel are also problematic. Clearly, there are insufficient funds to keep schools running. Parents are still forced to pay more than half the fees required.

Schools have been asked to cut down operational costs. If tuition fees are raised the results will be tragic. Students will be forced to drop out of school. The level of poverty in this region is acute. The average family may scrape together a hundred shillings on a good day. That would not buy a cup of coffee in Canada. Beans now cost 7000KSh ($110Cdn) up from 4000KSh per bag, while maize has doubled in price. Meat (chicken or goat) isout of reach. In some schools lights are not used and eggs have been scrapped from the menu to reign in the cost of food. Besides that, not all schools have received the per pupil disbursement owed to them.

Teacher salaries are low. Some are being paid as little as 3000KSh or $50 per month. The teachers unions are agitating for higher wages, understandably so. In other areas of Kenya there have been incidents of student unrest. Thankfully, there is peace and good discipline in the schools CES Canada supports.

People suffer from acute poverty. Those who have nothing and who have been orphaned have no other prospect of education than through outside support. There is hope for some through CES Canada. The tragedy is that others are left behind in a world where there is enough for all. “Live simply so that others may simply live” is a phrase that continues to burn in my heart.