Week of Obama and School Strikes

Teachers are striking here. I have not been able to discern precisely which teachers are striking and which are not. Some teachers, primary school teachers, are definitely striking. Secondary school teachers may or may not be striking. All week I have been at school teaching, and some of the other teachers have been too. This week the school may close completely, or it may not. Either way, it is a peaceful strike and I will continue to be present for my students.

On the 20th I had the pleasure of announcing to the students that Obama was being inaugurated today. I imagined myself sitting around a radio with 100 students at 8pm (noon in Washington, DC) listening to the event. In preparation I ran to my fellow teachers house across town, borrowed her radio, and upon returning called all interested students to the flag pole to listen with me. I imagined that even if students were not interested in hearing Obama speak that they would at least be interested in finding a reason to not study. I know that my students are excited about Obama, but still only 6 or 7 joined me. The reason was that they were all too concerned about their studies to leave for an hour. It also turned out that all of the commentary was in Kiswahili. I am learning Kiswahili, but in my excitement I wanted to hear all of the details. The school cook has a friend in Athiru with a hotel that has a generator and a TV. Him and two students rushed me off, or maybe I was rushing them, to the hotel and arrived in time to see the opening prayer of the inauguration. The room was packed by about 60 Kenyans and one American. I wanted my students to absorb and appreciate it all. They said that Obama's speech was very clear and that they understood it, but I wanted to push them to the front of the crowd and let my excitement overwhelm them. I think that even though I refrained from this course of action that they appreciated the experience very much. The TV showed a split screen between the crowd in Washington, DC and the students at Nairobi University. My students said that the crowd in Nairobi looked more excited, but I think that the people were excited in different ways. In Nairobi they had pop music artists playing and the crowds were active. In Washington the people felt how I felt, and we showed it by feeling as though we would cry. It wasn't quite the night that I imagined, I wish that I could have been with all of my students to let them all have the experience with me, but I think that the night would have meant more to me anyways.

At school, two days later, I had the privilege of attending the prefect and administration meeting. This is the analog of student counsel in the States, except that the student prefects do a lot more than I did when I was on student counsel. They do everything from helping the teachers ensure that games happen, to coordinating cleaning efforts around the school, to helping the teachers discipline students. It amazes me that you can expect a student to help enforce the discipline of the other students, but in Kenya it seems to work.

At the meeting we mostly discussed the discipline of the school, and I received confirmation that indeed to the students being discipline with their studying was more important than listening to Obama. The students asked us to enforce discipline more strictly, they asked us to change the schedule to require the boarding students to be in their classrooms every morning at 5am, and they asked us to punish them for speaking Kiswahili instead of English. I am continually amazed and impressed by the students. They really want to be the early bird and to do well. The goal of most of the students is to make it to America. I've been reading the book, The Bottom Billion, which has been making me think about issues like this one. I recommend the book for anyone who is interested in globalization or the giving of Aid to developing countries. It is a big problem for the development of Kenya that the most educated citizens want to leave. I try to tell them that it would be better for Kenya if they focused their energy not on leaving, but on trying to change and build the country. This doesn't work though, I need to think about how to get them to believe the words that I am saying. I wonder if the most educated will always want to leave as long as they see life as being better abroad, or if there are other motivations make them want to remain. Maybe the key to make them appreciate Kenya is to focus on helping them to think about what makes a life good. I have tried this a little by saying that I think the best life that you can lead is the one where you affect the most positive change, but how sure am I of this? Being here in Kenya I have come to believe it, but there was a time when I thought that maybe the best life was the most simple life. Maybe if I open up this dialog with my students they will be able to help teach me what is best. This last sentence was inspired by the movie, Conan, where someone says to Conan, "Conan, what is best in life?" And Conan responds something about crushing your enemies and see them driven before you. I think I can say with confidence that I do not agree with Conan.

I am going to start a debate club in the next couple of weeks, and maybe this can be a topic.