School Daze

Service professions are service professions, regardless if they’re for the lucrative pay of the for-profit world or the more modest returns of the NGO space. One of the defining characteristics of a service role is that you are, at the end of the day, at the mercy of your clients. Given that fact, it is not a surprise that my life in Nairobi was all shook up when a main client shifted a major project deadline, throwing my work and travel schedules into disarray. I suddenly found myself with more time to do things like go into the field and sit in cafes writing blog posts instead of grad school applications (Believe it or not, the cafe:plug ratio is better here than in Boston).

Thursday morning, the temporarily unoccupied proposal team tagged along on a school visit with the Young Women in Enterprise program we had accompanied to the slums a couple weeks ago. Our destination was the outskirts of Nairobi, in a semi-rural area called Kikuyu that was home to many schools, but also had many pupils from the Kawangare slum. We were going to speak at a secondary school closing to recruit girls for the enterprise club starting the next term.

The school itself was behind gates up a long grassy road. As we drove in, we passed crowds of Form 1-4 (Grade 9-12) children loitering in grey pullovers, grey wool skirts and slacks, knee socks, and various uniform customizations. There were even a few headbands – Gossip Girl meets Nairobi (We recently purchased seasons 1 and 2 on pirated DVDs, so there may be references in future posts). The school itself was a number of low, cement buildings – no hallways with lockers, just manicured green areas between the strip mall-like layout of the school.

Our first stop was the principal’s office, usually the home of many student nightmares. Instead, we were met by a smiling, caring woman with amazing wedding cake curls for hair. She told us with great pride about the strides her school had made – improved academic performance, victories in national chorale contests (the girls choir had come in 4th in all of Kenya that morning) – and was enthusiastic about YWE’s role in the school next term. We also had a brief discussion about her trip to Delaware – she was most impressed by the roads and suspension bridges (strengthening my suspicion that it all comes down to infrastructure).

Next, we met members of the PTA who had come to school to prepare an end of term lunch for the teachers. They graciously invited us to partake as well after the closing ceremonies, but unfortunately (or not, since it was Nyoma Choma) we had to rush back to the office. We made small talk with them while we waited for the teachers to finish their report cards and assembly to begin.

Assembly took place in a big grassy space in front of a small podium. It began with a number of prayer songs and chants (NB: Mouthing the word “watermelon” silently is a great way to fake that you actually know the words to the Lord’s Prayer). Then came a presentation of end-of-term awards to the top students in each classes – a similar ritual the whole world round. The need for programs such as YWE was brought home by the ratio of girls receiving prizes to the boys, probably 1:4.

Finally, it was time for our presentation, as the two dynamic young men responsible for the program got up and rallied the kids in a mix of Swahili and English. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the program, and hopefully many students will join next term.

Our final stop before going back to the office was YWE’s Kawangare office to pick up some forms. Kawangare is a bit different from Mathere, the slum where we were last week. For starters, it is much less densely packed, and we were able to drive out car in. Secondly, it seemed a bit clearer – less sewage in the streets and less trash. We were only there for 5 minutes, but it was fascinating to see another version of the intense poverty that is common here – and the community that arises out of it.