A busy week

It has been a long week! I have meant to post, in fact I have composed bits of posts in my head, but haven't managed to get as far as typing them up. We had registration of new pupils on Monday and Tuesday, as well as setting up the classrooms (they had been emptied over the holidays as our premises were used by the Vineyard churches). On Monday we were taking fee-paying pupils, but most of the ones that came were not aware of this and we had to ask them to come back the next day. However, we did register one fee-paying pupil, and we hope that we may have some more interest as the term gets underway... we have up to 20 places available. On Tuesday we had around 20 pupils registering for ordinary places, which was the number we were aiming for (we want around 40 in total). However, we have to do home visits to check that these are families with a genuine need, not ones that could pay the fees, as we want to ensure we are taking the most needy. This involved groups of us walking back with those from each area and visiting their houses one by one, interviewing the parents and asking about things like their jobs, their rent and so on.

The exterior of a typical house - there are two in this picture

Having been to some children's houses before, I knew what to expect... but it's still quite a difficult experience. Most live in one-room houses made of readily available materials such as mbati (corrugated metal sheets, seen in the photo) and wood. The houses are divided into rooms using fabric hung from washing lines which are strung across from one wall to another. Entering the house it is usually dark and very hot, as there is often just one window at the front, which may or may not have glass in it (the ones in the picture do). Sometimes there was washing lying around waiting to be done, by hand of course, as many of the mums take in washing from other people to make a small living for their families. Other houses were full of flies or even had chickens wandering in and out. It is hard to imagine how a family of five or more (which most of them were) manage to exist in these conditions, but I know others in the biggest slums have it a lot worse. We did pass communal toilets in several places which is good to see - I know in Kibera slum they are few and far between. Many of the houses were clean and tidy with nice details such as a plant in a pot hung outside the front door; although they had little these people were determined to make the best of what they had. I felt more admiration than pity.

This boy loved having his photo taken!

On Tuesday after all the walking and visits in pretty hot conditions I felt in need of a bit of a pick-me-up, so I stopped in Karen on the way home and went to Dormans cafe for a juice and a piece of cake. To be honest it jarred with me that having visited these families struggling to make enough money to buy basic food, I was able to sit and enjoy this luxury, but on the other hand I know I need to look after myself to be in a position to help them, and that includes the occasional treat!

The cake was so big I brought half home for the next day!

On Wednesday all the children started back at school. Except it wasn't all of them - more like half. This is partly just normal, as families return from visiting relatives and get back to normal, and partly because we were asking for the food contributions for the term (450 shillings, around £3.50) rather than a month at a time. This may sound a bit tough, but all the new children have paid and started, which shows that it is possible for these families, with one or two exceptions in which case the mum is given some work in the school in lieu of payment. Previously the money was collected each month, but it was an administrative nightmare and was hard to enforce - if they didn't pay, we couldn't realistically send their child away for up to a week each month or however long it took them to pay. And it is possible to make around 200 shillings a day for doing washing so this amount is fair. I hope next week will see all the children return and the term can get underway properly. However, those that started have been enjoying the lovely weather and playing in our brilliant playground.

Cheeky faces from last year!

Old and new Mahali pupils posing together

Can you tell these two are sisters?!

"I love the see-saw!"

This girl is great at 'mummying' the new ones!

This one is very cute but we think he's too young to start!

I did more home visits on Wednesday and Thursday as a few more parents turned up wanting places for their children. This takes us a bit over 20 but apparently the numbers usually fall as the year goes on, so it's as well to start with a few more, and as we've only got one fee-paying so far, but two baby classes, the numbers will be pretty low.

Apart from home visits (and getting rather sunburnt on the way!) I've also been doing a bit of admin, like creating new timetables and organising the stationery store:

Organised cupboard in all its glory!

And on Friday I spent the first part of the morning like this:

Haha look at my sunburn - oops!

It was her first day and she was rather sad about being left by her mum, but she was ok in the end and even got brave enough to go and explore the playground. I saw her with an older boy who is from the same area and he took her by the hand and looked after her, it was so sweet. I have noticed that a lot of the older ones are so good at looking after the little ones, even if they're only a year or two older. I wonder if it's because once they have a younger sibling they are expected to help. It's lovely to see, anyway!

I shall leave you with a little video of some children having fun with tyres!