School in Kenya

Written Monday, January 29th

Bethany and Dave have returned to Zambia, and with their departure comes my return to the classroom and a regular schedule. Holidays are most definitely over.

My teaching experience will be quite different this time around. I’ll still be doing HIV/AIDS education with the vocational school girls, but I will also be teaching two classes in the newly formed primary school. You see, some of the girls in the vocational school wanted an opportunity to continue with their primary education instead of getting the hairdressing and dressmaking training. To meet that need, Mr. Mulli organized for a primary school to be opened at the Yatta location. Now we have vocational and primary in addition to the already existing secondary school. I’m proud of the girls who wanted to do more primary schooling. Many of them are very bright, but because of one circumstance or another, never had a fair shot at completing their studies. I believe that they will work very hard to do their best.

The majority of the students at MCF work incredibly hard to do well in school. Education is the key to opportunities in Kenya. You have to be very ambitious and hardworking if you hope to succeed in Africa because there are very few opportunities in comparison to many other parts of the world. In Kenya, all Gr. 12 students do a national exam, testing them on everything that they have studied over the past four years. Only the highest ranking students receive offers to attend universities. The rest may choose to pursue college programs if academics and finances allow. MCF has one of the best secondary schools in the area and has students that have ranked among the best in the nation. This allows them to get accepted into elite academic programs. However, the heartbreaking part is that sometimes there is simply not enough money to cover the huge cost of these programs. Private universities here are more expensive than ones in Canada. If the program is too costly, the student has to choose another area to study. It is painful to know that these kids have spent years working so hard, they get accepted into their dream program, and then are not able to pursue it because the cost is too great for MCF to be able to cover. I pray for these students and admire their continued positive outlook despite such challenging disappointments.