meet my kids!!

i want to introduce you to my kids. but first i wanna tell you a bit about kibera and the school.
saint charles school is located in the slums of kibera in nairobi. there are approximately 1.2 million people (of which 570,000 are children) living in aproximately 2.5 square kilometers. imagine, that's the entire population of saskatchewan squished into that little area... kibera is heavily polluted by soot, open sewage routes, human and animal feces and dust. the combination of poor nutrition and lack of sanitation accounts for many illnesses. not only is death by disease and conflict common inside this slum, but it is estimated that 1/5 of the 2.2 million kenyans living with HIV live in kibera. saint charles was formed in 1999 with 15 children. today it has grown to about 100 students crammed into a small tin shack. it offers baby, nursery and pre-unit classes although lacks proper teaching facilities (or materials, space, teachers, toilets, etc..) the kids attending saint charles are all from very poor backgrounds. some are orphans. a chunk of them are hiv positive. most of them are sick with one disease or another. (for what do they know of hygiene? what is handwashing? the kids were out playing on break the other day, splashing around with sticks in a hole that had filled with water. at the end of break we saw several kids washing their hands in the water... a nice thought.. until we realized the water that had filled that hole was from rain that had run down off of the 'poo hill' - which is exactly what it sounds like. the hill where the kids squat. it's hard not to cringe when you see those kids sitting with their hands in their mouths afterwards. but its not uncommon. i find all sorts of trash in their mouths. they find things on the ground and stick it in their mouth. they blow their noses on their sleeves or let it run down their face. not to mention there is constantly trash being burned outside that burns the lungs to breathe in, but the kids do it daily) aaaanyways... so this is saint charles. a place in great great need of a new building, a toilet, supplies, desks, teachers, etc. and this is where i have been volunteering. i have 5 kids in my class who should be at nursery level but are a little behind the main nursery class. i sat down with a translator yesterday and asked each of them a few questions about their family and how long they've been at saint charles and that sort of thing. then i asked them what they want to be when they grow up. ask a 6 year old in canada what they want to be when they grow up and they will give answers like: a doctor! a ballerina! an astronaut! a teacher! ask a 6 year old child in kibera the same question and you are met with a blank stare. eventually they gave answers such as washing floors and dishes; selling charcoal on the side of the road; a housekeeper. only one boy, austine, dared to dream big - he wants to be a bus driver. all they know is what they see their parents doing. all they know is the slums. they cannot imagine a life other than that. and sadly, without any help, that is most likely the life they will end up living.



this is austine. he is 7 years old, has one brother and two sisters and a mother. he had been to class one at a real school but when his father died he was taken out of school. his mother could no longer afford the funding to keep him there so he stayed at home for a while before he started coming to saint charles. this is his first year at saint charles. he's definitely a bright boy and catches on quickly. it is clear he has forgotten much of what he learned in class one, but it hasn't taken him long to catch on again. (if anyone is interested in sponsoring a child so that he can go to school, let me know. it really doesn't take much - the kids need uniforms and books and the tuition is incredibly cheap. it's just more than what most families can afford).



this is vivian. she is 6 years old and has one sister who also attends saint charles. she lives with her mother and her father is sometimes around, although the marriage is very unstable. she's been at saint charles for 3 years. she learns better when i sit down with her one on one but it's hard to find the time or space to do it. during class she gets distracted easily and sometimes finds it easier to just copy from another student than to add her own bottlecaps. its hard to reprimand her though, cuz she gets such a sad, hurt look on her face. she's definitely been improving though. when i bring out the stickers to give to the students who have finished their work, it's instant motivation for her.



this is david. he is 6 years old, lives with his parents, two brothers and a sister. he wants to be a 'salesman' like his dad (who sells random things on the side of the road). david really struggles in class. i think he is dyslexic as he mixes numbers up and draws letters backwards. he gets very distracted in class and often spaces out. he's always the last to be done copying off the board. but he surprises me how smart he is in some areas. he couldn't name the colors after an hour of working on them, but when we started reading some basic sentences, his was the first voice to shout out the answer. david loooves sharpening his pencil and i catch him breaking the leads on purpose (and then eating them..) just so he can sharpen it.



this little gal is lavine (i know, sometimes its hard to tell the gender since all the kids are bald. my first week i had to keep checking if they were wearing skirts or shorts). she is 6 years old, lives with her parents, 2 sisters and one brother. she wants to sell charcoal when she grows up because that's what her mom used to do. she's a smart cookie. my little parrot. she likes to repeat what i say and is the only one to make a real attempt to communicate in english. she catches on to math pretty easily, but struggles with english - she still can't spell her own name. she's very outgoing and loves to laugh and play.



and last but not least, is mary! mary is 7 years old, lives with her mother and 3 sisters and 2 brothers (keep in mind these families all live in tin shacks no bigger than 10x10.. its amazing they can fit so many in them..) her father is an alcoholic and only comes around occasionally. mary used to attend saint charles but moved on to standard 1. but, as you can see from the picture, she has problems with her eyes and wasn't doing well at school. her mother took her out for that reason, plus lack of funding, and mary stayed at home for quite some time before coming back to saint charles. she's smart but very very quiet.

so those are my kids. and this week they've been making me so proud. on monday they read their first sentence! 'the cat is in the box'. yay! they also managed to read 'i go to school' and 'i am a girl/boy'. they still don't understand the concept of sounding out words, but slowly slowly they are learning. and exams started yesterday. i wasn't sure if my kids would be able to handle the nursery exams, but i handed them out anyway. first was math - and they did amazing! david did so well! i was beaming from ear to ear. today we did english... a bit more of a struggle. a few did alright, a few not so much. at least now i know what sorts of things the kids are expected to know. (probably would have been good to know beforehand! but things aren't quite that organized).
anyways, this post turned out to be incredibly wrong.. thumbs up to you if you got through it all. please keep the kids and the future of the school in your prayers. thanks so much :)