Watch This!

Note for the folks at home: The school where I work is an all-boys' boarding school. Boarding schools make up the majority of secondary ("high") schools in Kenya, (the less-common alternative being "day" schools,) and a great deal of them are single-gender. Schools can be funded by a variety of sources. Public schools, which are at least partially funded by the government, are classified by the size of their region: "district", "provincial", "national", etc. Private schools are, understandable, funded privately, often through a religious organization or charity. From my conversations with teachers, private schools are (in general) optimal for students (who receive the most student-teacher interaction) but dismal for teachers (whose salaries aren't subject to the standards of the government, and could possibly be very low).

Give Me

(They had somehow glued long black fibers, what I suspect were pieces of a discarded weave, to their faces. The result was truly horrifying.)

Note for the folks at home: "Street children" are a daily reality across Kenya, more common in urban than rural areas (but existing throughout.) These kids may have several reasons for living unaccompanied by adults. Many may be orphans, which of course is common due to the several life-threatening diseases of the region (notably: Malaria, HIV/AIDS), but a large number of street children do in fact have parents. These children have left home, in many cases, because of scarcity of food. Several factors may induce this; including drought-borne famine, enormous family sizes, and tribal violence; none of which, of course, are new problems. Many locals point to the westernization of communities that causes families to turn away children, of parents unable to give proper care, who they would otherwise care for as one of their own. Whatever the cause of the children's situation, street children face a hard life that more often than not leads to begging, stealing, and drug use (most notable being the huffing of paste fumes, giving them their second name: "Glue Kids".)

Notoriously Hard

Note for the folks at home: English is pronounced uniquely in Kenya. While the accent tends much more towards British than it does American, (as made obvious in words with that troublesome A, like "commentary" and "hat",) the Kenyan English accent has some characteristics of its own. An R is either unpronounced (as in "are" - spoken "ahh") or pronounced with a touch of the tongue to the roof of the mouth (producing an L or light D sound, as in words like "radio" or "royalty"). (R may even be rolled, although this is more common in some ethnic communities than others --- the Samburu are notable R-rollers.) H is always pronounced (the name of the letter H is even pronounced with one : "haytch"), so "herb" is pronounced just like it's spelled. Due to the influence of the Kiswahili language, vowels are generally pronounced with one standard sound each: A "ah", E "eh", I "ee", O "oh", U "oo". Note lack of "aye", "uh", "ai", "ih", etc.

Guest True Story 4

Note for the folks at home: although they're not indigenous to East Africa, chickens ("kuku") are abundant throughout rural Kenya. The crowing (which should more accurately be described as "screaming") of roosters is the way days begin, and visitors shouldn't be surprised to see herds of fowl darting across the road, peeking hesitantly into shop doorways, or rooting through trash piles. Although the meat of chickens is popular country-wide, it isn't generally considered "meat" (a term which is reserved for the Red variety: cows, goats, sheep, etc.)