I was invited to stop and sit down and chat with some teachers the last time I took the shortcut up School Road. The road takes you straight through the school grounds but nobody seems to stop you. It’s also quite nice walking through a school without guards with batons and helmets stopping you, as in China.
I was not in a hurry and they were not busy either so we sat under a tree and chatted for about 30 minutes. The head master stopped for a chat too and we discussed me doing some teacher training for them and giving them some of my learning materials.
They were so pleased that they invited me to their flag raising ceremony – the first day back after the Christmas holidays. I had to get up specially early before 7 to have a shower, get some breakfast and then cycle to the school. When I arrived the students were already busy sweeping the dust and dirt into piles with bunches of sticks.
Then one of the teachers with a big stick, called them to order and they lined up. The school is actually two schools, called A and B. They share the grounds but split the school as there were too many students. In school B there are 550 students including a class for deaf and hearing impaired and a class for those with learning difficulties.
I noticed that there was also a mix of faith too with Christians and Muslims. There was a good deal of drumming and chanting and singing and swaying and clapping. In China there would only be chanting and marching and silence. Here, children were a bit chatty, not listening to the teacher and some of them were reading books or drawing in the dirt with sticks.
It was a happy scene and thankfully, because of the heat, didn’t last very long. The delivery was all in Swahili as the students don’t study much English yet. That’s why they want my help.