Jipe Moyo part 1

It is 4am and I am up.  I thought I was finally on Kenya time but yesterday it was so hot, I lay down under the fan for a few minutes and ended up taking a two hour nap.  Then early to bed and here I am – awake at 4am again.  Oh well, it finally gives me time to start my Jipe Moyo blog post.

A bit of background on Jipe Moyo. It is out in the boonies so there was no pre-school in the area.  A few years ago, a local man offered some land for a school.  A couple of women volunteered to teach.  So they had some land and two teachers but no building.  They were teaching classes under a tree.  This is where Anke came in.  I’m not sure how she heard about it but she did and started raising money to get their plan of a proper school off the ground.  She provided the money, they provided the vision, and bingo bango, a little two room school was built.  Jipe Moyo means 'give yourself hope'.  Isn't that a great name. 

But it was so popular, with a list of more students wanting to join, that a second school building was proposed. This is where Tara and James came in.  They have raised enough money to build Sam’s classroom in honour of their little boy Sam.

While Anke hasn’t had her car, getting to Jipe Moyo has been a problem.  It means either taking the Kencada school bus which severely limits how long we could stay out there or booking a van to get out there which is expensive.  For this trip, Anke booked a van.  We had a pick up time of 6am.  Apparently the traffic is so bad that if you don’t leave by 6, you will spend hours extra due to the rush hour. For the first time since I got here, I slept in.  Plus our late night meant we hadn't packed up all of the stuff we had to take.  So we grabbed a few things and left the rest for the next visit.

Jipe Moyo is about 90 minutes out of town.  To get there by the ‘normal route’ we have to pass near the port.  Mombasa has a huge port but terrible infrastructure to support the trucks taking the stuff away from the port.  I don’t know how close we were to the actual loading and unloading area, but we saw a bazillion trucks.  It seemed like half were on the road and half just blocking the road.

But we made it through.  The traffic was chaotic but we mostly kept moving so our early start time was worth it.  Eventually, we turned off of the main road and onto a dirt road.  Within a few minutes the driver stoped and asked Anke if this is the turn.  She said yes.  I was looking out the window and I could not see a road.  No, he turned onto what appeared to be a goat path.  And then, he turned off of that and just drove across a field!  It was bumpy to say the least.  But we were at the school gate very quickly.

The gates opened and out spilled about a hundred kids.  Anke! Anke! Anke! They were so excited to see Anke and Alina.  It was the start of the day so some kids were still arriving as we got settled into classrooms for the ‘greeting’.  There are two classrooms but everyone crammed into one to sing for us.  They sang This Little Light of Mine which I thought I recorded but didn’t (sorry Rhonda). 

The kids are definitely poorer than the Kencada kids.  Some had skin problems.  Most were in uniform but many had holes.  Most were barefoot.  But they were so happy to be at the school.  I will get ahead of myself here but compared to the houses in the area, which we visited, the school is a paradise of light and cleanliness.  

The classroom,  You can just see a whole bunch more kids sitting on the floor at the back.

Reciting their welcome poem.

Singing

Once the kids were settled into their classrooms for their lessons, we took a tour of the grounds. I am seeing this place before Tara and James so I will add lots of pictures of the school and yard (brace yourselves).  The schoolyard is maybe a acre.  It is on a slight slope with the school at the top.

Teaches standing on the veranda,
looking into a classroom

There are so many kids, some have to have class in the sand pit.
These kids and many more will attend Sam's classroom.

The teachers.
Gladys, the head teacher is on the left

About half way down, the bottom half of the yard is fenced off for the farm.  Here they raise fruits and vegetables for the school and to sell to raise money for the school.

My artistic shot of the entrance to the farm

The school at the top of the sloping yard

The farm.  

They have hired a local man (whose name I will have to get from Anke – when I was introduced, all I heard was Bazinga and I can’t get that out of my head) to run the farm.  They grow papaya, cassava, tomatoes, eggplant and more on the farm. There are also two fish ponds but they aren’t in use at the moment because the lining has started to leak and I don’t think they have the funds to replace them.  There was a black Mamba trapped in the pond though.  No one was willing to climb down to kill it.

Kazunga picking a papaya

A better picture of Kazunga

The drained fish pond

The snake who lives in the pond
(because he can't get out)

Back to the school yard.  There is a little kitchen building in one corner and the bathrooms at the opposite corner of the bottom of the yard.  There are two or three water tanks for clean water.

This is the view from the veranda on the front of 

the school.  That is the kitchen in the back

There is the bathroom building in the

opposite corner from the kitchen

Sam’s classroom will be built along the side fence, creating an L shape with the first building.  Apparently the kitchen may have to be moved to make room.  There is a nice flat part right where the new building will go so it is perfect.  And the L shape with the two buildings against the edges of the yard will leave maximum playing area.

Looking at the location of Sam's classroom
from beside the original building.

This picture again but now you can see where Sam's
classroom will go,just to the right of the original
building.. It is hard to tell but it is nice and flat there.

We visited the kitchen where two women were making us buns for tea.  The kitchen is a mud hut with a fire pit.  I can’t imagine how they function in there but I suppose it is what they know.  Amazing though. I'm sure the clean running water at Jipe Moyo helps.

Making buns for tea

The kitchen

After the tour, we went to visit some villagers.  I will have to add names when I add the pictures.  But I do remember Tom.  He is a friend of Anke’s.  He had a stroke a few years ago and when from being a weaver and farming to total poverty.  Apparently, after his stroke, he used to break up rocks for gravel by hand to sell for barely anything by the bucket.  But we didn’t see any gravel so Anke is worried he can’t even do that anymore.  Anke brought them some fish and milk.  We met Tom’s mother who lives in the tiniest mud hut.  She invited me inside.  I went into the entrance area but I couldn’t bring myself to go into the living area (the size of a bed – although it was so dark, I couldn’t see if there was a bed).

Tom's mother in her tiny hut

Tom's mother with Anke

The kitten

Tom

Tom’s house was bigger but there were way more people in it.  Two women with babies.  I’m not sure if they were wives or daughters? Plus more kids. And two cats with kittens.  We met Anke’s potential future cat.  I didn’t want to take pictures in the house but they asked me to so I did. (The plan was to print a couple of them off to bring back as gifts but we went to the mall yesterday to the photo place and both of their photo printing machines are broken.  So, that plan is on hold).

Alina and Tom's mother

Alina and the family

Wives and daughters?
Daughters and granddaughters?

After Tom’s, we went to meet the man who had donated the land.  He is clearly much richer.  He had many cows and goats.  His house is much bigger and his kids looked healthier. 

The path was blocked

Zumdigo, the man who donated the land to
Jipe Moyo

The tree that was the original school

Zumdigo's sons playing home made checkers

A dog that thinks it's a goat

A dog that thinks it's a cow

Aisha

At the ready with his sling shot
to shoot at the crows

Then we went back to the school for tea.  The kids got cookies but at Jipe Moyo they go home for lunch (although Anke isn’t sure they all get something to eat but Jipe Moyo school can’t afford to feed 100 kids each day).  The teachers, Anke, Alina and I got beans and those buns that they had been making in the morning.  Those buns were like unsweetened donuts.  I could eat those any day.  I can’t believe they made them over a fire!

Mitais

Tea

Then, after cookies, we released one of the soccer balls I brought.  That was a winner!  A game instantly broke out with most of the boys and some of the girls (although the girls got pushed out pretty fast).  We couldn’t figure out how they could tell who was on whose side but they seemed to have it under control.  Later on, we gave them a second ball and William, the driver, organized the girls to play with that one.  He was teaching them how to kick and tend goal.  Even the boys stopped playing so the little boys (three years old) could have a turn kicking the ball toward the goal post. Eventually the male teacher joined in and a proper skins vs shirts game started.

Yay! A new ball!

The girls get a lesson

Kick!

Skins vs Shirts
(the universal opposing team uniforms)

Speaking of goal posts.  The kids had some colourful cones.  I think they were a gift from Simon that Anke brought with her.  Anyway, the kids loved those cones.  They used them constantly.  They were incorporated into all sorts of play.  Or they just carried them around or wore them on their heads.  We assumed they were goal posts.  But as soon as the ball appeared and a game organized, they grabbed shoes to create the goal.  Alina and I were watching.  Alina got up and moved the shoes and put down cones.  The goal keeper seemed ok with this, he just moved them into the right spot and the game continued.  But the other kids were not in on the new ‘cone as goal post’ concept.  They would wander by and pick them up, only to have the goalkeeper grab them back.  At some point, the shoes were moved back and placed around the cones.  One kid spent some time trying to balance a shoe on the cone.  I think they just used the cones as goal to appease the Muzungus (white people) but the shoes are going to be the goal posts for any future games.  No worries, the cones are in constant use for everything else.

Speaking of goal posts.  The kids had some colourful cones.  I think they were a gift from Simon that Anke brought with her.  Anyway, the kids loved those cones.  They used them constantly.  They were incorporated into all sorts of play.  Or they just carried them around or wore them on their heads.  We assumed they were goal posts.  But as soon as the ball appeared and a game organized, they grabbed shoes to create the goal.  Alina and I were watching.  Alina got up and moved the shoes and put down cones.  The goal keeper seemed ok with this, he just moved them into the right spot and the game continued.  But the other kids were not in on the new ‘cone as goal post’ concept.  They would wander by and pick them up, only to have the goalkeeper grab them back.  At some point, the shoes were moved back and placed around the cones.  One kid spent some time trying to balance a shoe on the cone.  I think they just used the cones as goal to appease the Muzungus (white people) but the shoes are going to be the goal posts for any future games.  No worries, the cones are in constant use for everything else.

As part of gym class

As a hat

Just holding it

Another hat,
you can't have too many hats

As a doll hat

Some of the girls were playing a game of hopscotch.  It was brutally competitive but I didn’t realize that at first because none of the girls ever said a word.  One would take her turn and then, I assumed, give the next girl a turn.  I couldn’t quite figure out the rules but I knew they existed because all of a sudden a pebble would be thrown incorrectly (I guess?) and the next girl would swoop in and take the previous girls pebble off the board.  No one cried but a bad throw might lead to a lie down in the dirt in a display of unhappiness.  I have no idea who won or why.

Hopscotch - the new blood sport!

(Anke just got up and the puppies have arrived so this calls for a break).

Now it is 4pm.  Alina and I went to Jipe Moyo again today.  We went for a quick swim when we got back to pre-soak the sweat and dust off before a shower.  Anke has another guest who arrived today so we are waiting for them to get back  from Kencada.  I think her name is Marilyn and she is a ‘Better World’ sponsor. 

Back to Jipe Moyo, Day 1.  Kazungu I know his name now), the gardener took us to his house to meet his parents.  His dad had a stroke (what is with the strokes!) a year and a half ago and has been bed ridden ever since.  And his mother who is actually his 2^nd mother.  His father had three wives.   Kazungu is the second son of the second wife.  The wife we met was the third wife who Kazungo considers a better mother than his own.   She said when she arrived, Kazungo was a good boy and is still her favourite even over her own children because he stays and takes care of the family. 

We stayed for tea (they wanted to go and find bread for us too but we declined) while we got to listen to Kazungo talk about life in the village.  My inner-anthropologist perked right up.  His father had three wives with children in one house. They each had their own room and each night, his father whould pick which to stay with.  Apparently, this led to strife so now the second wife lives in a different house. 

Kazungu says that he only has one wife because if he gets another one, it will mean more children.  Since education is important to him, more kids would mean more school fees, so no more kids, which means only one wife.  He currently has three daughters.  However, there was talk of trying for a son.

Kanzungo talked about how working for the school has helped him stay with his family.  He might find a different job but he wouldn’t take it because he likes working for Jipe Moyo so much.  Since he is so close to home, he can also run the family farm plot and raise chickens and ducks.  His daughters attend or will attend Jipe Moyo.  We ended out visit by seeing his clutch of ducklings and then we headed back to school. 

The duck and ducklings.  I wasn't invited to take pictures of the family so they ducks will have to do.

As I mentioned, we hadn’t brought all of the stuff I had brought from Canada because we were somewhat disorganized in the morning.  But we gave the teachers the goods we had and they were very excited.  Hugs and cheek kisses all round and then we headed home.

Simon's puzzle was a hit

There was terrible traffic so once we made it home, we treated ourselves to pizza and ice cream at Yuls again.   They make their own ice cream and it rivals anything found in Canada.   The owners are German so Anke expects nothing less. 

And that ends my first day at Jipe Moyo.  Here are some faces of Jipe Moyo to leave you with.

More cone action

Practising