July 15, 2014
The main character of today’s
adventures is Stripe the Grevy’s Zebra. We had his story to share at Olgirgiri
and Shiloh Naibor. The story is basically about a young foal named Stripe who
grows up to be a strapping young zebra who sets out to find a “boma” of his
own. The boma must have a stable waterhole for the pregnant females; Stripe
finally finds one, but when he decides to share the waterhole with humans and
their livestock, he discovers that the humans had put a fence of acacia bushes
around the hole so that the zebras can’t drink. With nursing mothers unable to
produce milk for their children and other zebras going thirsty, Stripe decides
to approach a Samburu boy by the name of Oboso. Stripe explains that because
the humans had blocked off the hole, he and his other zebras were suffering.
Oboso says that he will go talk to his chief so that they can decide what to
do. The fun part is that the story doesn’t have an ending; the students were
asked to write an ending themselves in the format of a drama, using characters
such as Oboso, Stripe, the narrator, the chief, and so on.
It was raining and the school
buildings have metal roofs, so it can be a huge challenge just to speak in
front of the classroom and for the students to hear the teachers. It sounds
like hundreds of little hands are beating the roof. Kate, Annelies, and I had
to literally shout when we read the story out loud. That’s something that I
would have never even thought about in the states. The buildings also rarely
have glass, and are just holes in the wall, so if there is wind then some of
the rain sprays into the classroom. It makes the students and the teachers here
all the more admirable, as they learn and teach in such an uncomfortable
environment.
We also had plastic bottles for
them to use as tools for drip irrigation for their trees. Raphael, the teacher
there, had the great idea to use these bottles as “prizes” for the students
whenever they correctly answered a question. There were a lot of laughs when each
student who had answered a question correctly during class received a plastic
bottle. They certainly weren’t expecting such a grand reward when we told them
that we had a prize for them!
In Olgirgiri (which was where
Kate, Annelies, and I were at), the students didn’t have enough time to present
their dramas. When we had finished reading the story, we split the class into
two groups and gave each group a copy of the story. I think the students had a
hard time listening and understanding the story because of the rain, and
because of our accents. Both groups reread the story themselves, which took
quite a bit of time. I’m sad that I won’t be here to see them present their
dramas, but I have faith and I know that they will be great. We actually did
something similar at Kimanjo Secondary School; theirs was more in the format of
a debate rather than a drama, but it was good to see the students begin to
formulate reasons and decisions of their own when it came to protecting
wildlife.
After we finished at the schools,
we went to the sundowner. It was my first (and last) sundowner. We had a huge
bowl of popcorn, and we sat on a huge rock that overlooked a beautiful vista of
land stretching as far as the eye could see, with the silhouette of the low,
blue mountain ranges in the distance.
The wonderful day came to a close
with a showing of my favorite Disney movie of all time, “The Little Mermaid.”
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