A Visit to Sagam

Jambo from Kisumu, Kenya!

I took a trip to Sagam last week, to meet the teachers and the headmaster and some of the students. I arrived at noon, just prior to lunchtime, and had a quick meeting with the teachers. We discussed some of our hopes for the partnership and came up with a "wish list" for educational supplies. It includes wall clocks, crayons and colored pencils, educational posters for the walls, calculators, and geometry sets. We also talked about some ideas for long term projects - like a library for the school (right now, they just have some books stored in the headmaster's office).

After meeting with the teachers, I visited some of the classrooms. The classrooms are crowded - in Standard 1, one classroom has 75 students. I thought this sounded like a lot until I heard about the Standard 2 class's situation. Typically, there are two teachers for each grade level. However, Standard 2 only has one teacher - and as a result, all of the students are in one classroom, with one teacher. There are 120 students in one classroom. Despite this, the kids have a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and thought it was hilarious when I took their picture. The picture above shows some of the students; I couldn't fit them all in one picture.

Being a part of the Millenium Villages Project, the school has a nutrition program that provides lunch to all 900+ students at the school. The students line up in a surprisingly orderly fashion, with older students going first (they need to get back to class sooner, and eat faster than the younger students). The school has a large kitchen facility, with huge pots cooking a delicious-smelling lunch. The rationale behind the lunch program is that first of all, it didn't make sense for them to provide lunch to some students (orphans, for example) and not others. Secondly, they found that not only did it take more time for the students to go home and come back to school, frequently they came back having not eaten any lunch. This program ensures that each student gets to eat, every day. The photo above is some of the students lining up for lunch, with the school building in the background.

It was a great visit to the school, and nice to put faces to names. The students and teachers alike are so excited about this partnership, and they can't wait for the Bowman teachers' arrival!

Catie