31 July 2009

Mr. Toinya

I mentioned that Mr. Toinya left towards the start of this term, which was about two months ago now. Shortly after he left we exchanged one or two calls, promising to meet eachother to talk and catch up, but neither of us really followed through. Then, the other day I ran into him in Maua. He was getting a letter typeset at a local computer shop, and I was picking up my cell phone battery.

He told me all about his new school, and here's the run down:

It is maybe two years old, and it has one classroom of its own. The rest is rented (for free) from the neighboring primary school. This is the situation all accross Kenya. The primary schools are much older than the secondary schools, so they all have classrooms and big sports fields. Even with my school, the land was donated by the primary school, and the soccer field that we use belongs to them. So Mr. Toinya keeps very busy running to Nairobi for 4 days and then back to talk to the secretaries for the member of parliment for our area, then back to talk to the parents of his school, all in the hopes that somehow they will find funds to construct more classrooms and a laboratory. That is what the letter was for when I ran into him, and then after I said hi to him, he rushed me along with him to the public planning office to deliver the letter for materials estimates and the official stamp of approval. Then we went to sit in a cafe to have lunch so that he could explain all of this to me.

He also told me, that his students understand the struggles of the school, and are very dedicated to coming early to school and going home late in the home that spending an extra half hour with their books will make them more successful students. And the issue of funding does not really stop at that infrastructure; Mr. Toinya, the principal, is the only official employee of the government in this government school. All six of the teachers are recent graduates of secondary school themselves, and are paid directly by the parents of the school. I think that I have mentioned that these teachers are usually the hardest working, which I think is because they can be fired very easily, but why should those who are paid the least, and have no experience as teachers work the most?

Mr. Toinya hopes that his consistent moving about will put enough pressure on the government to make some foreseeable change, but what about the other principals that don't spend as much time running around trying to seek funding for their schools? Or what about the school that in his absence is run by people who themselves graduated from secondary school within the past two years?

These are the struggles that I hear about not only from Mr. Toinya, but from almost all of the new days schools in Kenya. I don't know what the answer is, or what the effect will be. Hopefully these students will not lose hope and will see the value of sending their own children to schools. Maybe by that time these issues will be sorted out. In my eyes, which generation really has the right to feel like pioneers. I think that all generations have that right and obligation. We all want to change our world and improve on our parents' world. I hope that this generation of Kenyans can hear stories from their grandparents about how life used to be, and come to the conclusion that education, even if it has problems is improving their lives. I hope that it is true... I hope that their lives are improving, and I hope that their children will be born into a better world. With Somalia so close by, it is easy to think that if a generation here in Kenya gives up hope in education and reason the result could be ugly.

Volleyball

Let me admit something here that I have not admitted around my school: I don't know how to play volleyball (very well). I know, it seems like a silly thing to keep secret, but when you are the girls' volleyball coach it is sometimes necessary. By the end of the season I learned some lessons from my embarassing mistakes. For instance, you can't just tell girls to substitute with those on the field, you actually have to get the referees approval first. Not only that, but the substitute has to come from a specific section of the sidelines, and the player coming off has to return to a certain place.

My time on the sidelines was filled with whispering small admitions to a few trusted students and asking them about the rules. Despite the incompetance of their coach, our team still beat the teams of the 5 other schools in our zone and came in first place. This icluded a very well organized team from a distinguished all girls school. Their school is around 20 years old, has uniforms, and coaches that know the rules. They even have set plays. In contrast our students does not have uniforms, the school is only 5 years old, and lets face it, their coach isn't the best volleyballer.

This performance in zonals qualified them for districts, where unfortunately, they were beaten in the first round. They definitely did not play as well in districts as they had before, and some say that this was an intentional protest because I did not let "their boyfriends" come to watch them play. I think that it is true that they would have been more enthusisatic if more students were there to cheer them on, but I don't know how intentionally the consequence followed from my actions.

I was proud of them either way. It really didn't take much for them to do so well either. All they had to was have somebody to shoo away the boys. I found this to be the most infurriating behavior on the part of the boys. They would tell me that the girls were not good enough to play by themselves, and that the boys must be allowed to practice with them so that they wouldn't look so bad. After a few weeks of keeping the boys away pitch and introducing drills, the boys began to realize that I was right and they began to become proud of their sisters (or girlfriends).

I think if the other coaches had done as much for their teams, the other teams would have performed better also. As it is, most of the coaches watched their teams only play one or two times, but they sure were quick to chastize the players after the games.

I try to remind myself that everybody wants happiness in their life. If somebody ignores another, it is because they don't see how paying attention will bring them happiness. I also remind myself that the difference in America is not usually that the coaches are more enlightened, but that their supervisors can fire them.

How neat it would be to live in a society where people valued nurturing others above money. It is easy for me to say since I don't really have to worry about money. I don't really have a lot, in fact I owe quite a bit to the banks because of college, but I have everything that I need. 70 percent of Kenyans live on less than an American dollar a day. It must create a very different psychology to grow up seeing this all around you, and maybe come from one of these families yourself, and then find yourself with a regular salary.

This is not to say that my views are entirely different from all of the teachers. Mr. Mutia really shows his nurturing concern about the students and the school's welfare. Mr. Toiyna, the former deputy, was another example. I met with him recently and he is trying very hard to help his new school, which I will talk about more in another post. I know that the others shine in their own ways also. Maybe I just don't see it as much, because my life revolves around the school, where as they have their own children and seperate businesses in addition to being teachers.

I think that the more proud we become of the school though, the mroe energy we will put into it. Maybe the success of the girls' volleyball team can help us move in that direction.