Routines and Surprises

Like Nancy mentioned in the previous post, our team has really settled into a routine this week which probably does account for our lack of blog postings. Our second week of teaching ended with a bang as Art finally taught his first and final class! Despite his usually calm demeanor, Art did an energetic job of both entertaining the students and ensuring that they understood the fundamentals of Daily Operations. While it's sad that he's leaving our team today, we congratulate him as he embarks on a year-long opportunity to teach English in Japan!

At the Kibera site this week, our teaching team was really able to bond with the participants. On Wednesday of this week, instead of our usual afternoon mentoring session, Kevin and I were able to be part of an impromptu discussion on Kenyan politics, standard of living and current events with our students. By just listening to the discussion, I was able to learn so much about our students and their desire to effect change in their lives. I think that discussion really helped our teaching team understand a lot more about the background of our students and helped our class as a whole bond together. I found out that many of the students in our class did not know each other before the course. Yesterday, we had another opportunity to get to know our students better through the soccer/football game. One of our students is a soccer coach so he arranged a field and equipment for our class. It was an informal game but a great time of fun and bonding for all who participated.

Perhaps the most memorable this week was my conversation with one of the quietest students in our class during the walk back to the classroom from the soccer field. While we walked, she openly shared with me how her mother had passed away several years ago and that she was now living with a stepmother and taking care of her younger brothers and sisters. She was unable to finish school and had only completed up to Form 2. She told me how much she appreciated this course as it provided an opportunity for her to think differently and to be successful at business. Just knowing that we had made some difference in this young woman's life was enough to convince me that it was worth all the preparation and hours of hard work back home to come to Kenya.

I hope that the last week of teaching will be just as good as the last two. More updates soon!