Monday 1 November. Day #1 @ SEGA

Hongera! Sikukuu ya Kuzaliwa furahi...Tia....na Prue kesho! Siku sana.
Congratulations! Happy Birthday.... Tia... and Prue for tomorrow! Have a great day.

Elena, Camilla and I travelled to SEGA with Peter the school driver. I was surprised that I was feeling nervous as I was really looking forward to going however, was unsure of what I would have to do when I got there! I was also concerned that my Kiswahili was not strong and that I have a terrible memory for names. This was going to be challenging as the girls’ names are quite unusual! Arriving, my nerves disappeared as the girls swarmed towards us and happily surrounded us. They love the two girls and were very excited that I was finally coming to stay and teach them.
Lunch was the first event for us. Our backpacks were taken from us and proudly worn by the thoughtful (but lucky) girls as they all try hard to be the first to help you. Rice, red beans, cabbage and banana. It was filling and tasty which means that dinner for us need only be light and easy.
I met Solome, the Headmistress, Peter (Geography & History), Grace (Science & Biology), Gipson (I will be teaching his Civics and English classes for nearly 3 weeks whilst he helps Polly write up submissions for grants for the new buildings), The Massai Askari and his young son; Mustafa (temporary gardener @ SEGA and my gardener. He also has a berry farm up in the hills to which he is going to take me when my foot is stronger!); Matron who lives with the boarding girls; Mama the cook and of course, all the girls! I spent time with Gipson and Solome going over the topics I would be teaching. The girls have a text book each and notebooks to write in which is more than I expected to have as resources. On looking through the texts, I decided that I would use my getting to know each other lessons to strengthen their comprehension, sentence structure and writing skills. The focus for Civics is Work and Development.....I know I can integrate the same sort of getting to know you information into this topic too!
Mustafa had arrived with 2 rabbits and a guinea pig in a basket on the back of his bike early in the morning. He had left them in our house so the dogs near school wouldn’t get them during the day. We all delivered them to Polly’s daughter, Martha (4years old) after school. As you can imagine, there was loads of excitement and affection from everyone....The little ones, the bigger girls, the adults and.... the dogs!!!?
The poor little animals...they were shaking with fear but they had a big hutch inside a fenced enclosure to hide in and under....Martha couldn’t get them there! (Unfortunately, Foxy, one of Polly’s dogs, managed to get into the enclosure 2 nights later and pushed the hutch over, squashing the little guinea pig! Elena and Camilla nearly shed a tear so you can imagine how sad Martha would have been! :-(
On arriving home, we were met by Rehema (one of our non-formal day students) who invited us to visit her home. The girls knew her well so we accepted and walked through the streets behind our house, meeting all the neighbours as we walked! Rehema kept telling us that she was so happy to have us in her house. We watched and listened to her music DVD as she sang her favourite songs. She was very proud to have a TV and DVD player as they are not often owned. It was a lovely feeling being honoured into her home.