Fwd: Newsleter 4: Life at BLISS

Today began by attending the outdoor assembly of all 450 + BLISS students.  The band played, the students raised the flag of Kenya, announcements were made and Moses welcomed the FUMC team to the Secondary School.  It was pretty amazing and for those who have witnessed it in the past, you know the how it goes … students stand with their "forms" (grade level) at attention around the flag pole while being reminded of the value of a great education and their responsibilities to attend school and work hard.  We then introduced ourselves and passed on greetings from FUMC and Ann Arbor.

Debbie, Julie and Dixie spent the morning at Gichunge Primary. They met Patrick the new Head Teacher and got a tour of the shamba (plot of land) used for growing food for the feeding program.   The crop will be harvested later this week by the school parents.  They will know then how well they have done with the crop.  Gichunge did much better this past November on their National Exams … but still lag far behind the private boarding schools.  They stayed through the distribution of the morning meal of porridge provided through your donations.  We will continue to work with them on their math skills for the remainder of the week.

We all spent the afternoon at BLISS … mostly checking up on the status of everything from the instrumental music program to the pigs being raised by the agricultural students. (Both are doing fine!)  We walked form BLISS to Polytechnic School and received a tour from Dickson who teaches at BLISS, but is on the Board of Directors for the Polytechnic.  The Polytechnic is doing AMAZING things.  They have managed to find a number of companies to donate materials to support their programs and are setting up a number of "enterprises" within the school.  The enterprises earn money that goes back into the school and also provides some income to the students involved. This includes their sewing program that is now making uniforms for BLISS students, their agricultural program that is producing enough food to feed the student body and to sell the surplus at the local market, and the metal working program that is now making chairs they are selling to BLISS to fill the new classrooms.  

The school day begins at BLISS at 7:00 AM and classes continue until 5:00 PM.   SIX DAYS A WEEK!  They are all trying to make up for the 3 weeks of a national teachers strike that started school year late.  There is nothing but gratitude for having the opportunity to go to school … and with no hope of a snow day!  

Band practice takes place AFTER school at 5:00.  Greg and I attended … and Greg played drums with the band.  I have NO idea of this latent talent of his.  Weren't the guys in the drum section always the ones who goofed off?  Who knew!

We held a debrief and planning session tonight after dinner.  We shared what we had each learned and our plans for tomorrow (another long one.)   We also practiced a skit for performing during the morning devotions at Gichunge.  I will let you know how we do … we are guaranteed of the standing ovations.  The 3-14 year old students are standing to begin with. :)

All the best from Kenya,

Kathy, Dixie, Julie, Debbie, Greg, John and Marcos