BEADS Tembea School

Today our visit was to the BEADS Tembea school in Kajiado. It was a couple hours’ drive away and a ways away from anything. We were introduced to this school by Myranda James of Nurturing Minds. We met Myranda when we were preparing to go to the SEGA girls’ secondary school in Morogoro, Tanzania, a year ago (see SEGA Classes post, January 2024). She made the connection between Magaga Enos of Tembea and us. We arranged to visit the school and teach a self-defense class there.

When we first got there, some of the girls had prepared a military-style drill to greet us. It was great to see. They were very good.

We then toured the school. It is very impressive. I believe it is the best facility I’ve seen for a primary or secondary school in Kenya. They are focused on things other schools aspire to. They have a large library. They teach astronomy, with telescopes. The teach marine biology, with annual working trips to Mombasa. There is a big focus on STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics). 

Tuko Pamoja is interested in placing appropriate girls here. It will be a challenge to find the right girls and to fund it, but it really looks to be worth it. WOW!

Note below, we have just left the Science Lab room. It’s huge, and nice.

Below, Cedric, Thomas, Virginia, me, Magaga, and one of our guides. Claudia was under the weather and didn’t attend. Wangari shot the picture.

The school also built pre-primary (PP) classrooms for neighborhood kids. This gives the students and gap-year girls some teaching experience before university. After the PP classes, the kids will go to neighborhood schools.

The school is self-sufficient from the standpoint of electricity and cooking gas. They use solar panels. There aren’t many trees or clouds in the area. They also use biogas to cook. Below are a couple of biogas digesters.

We then went into the dining hall for our class. We started with some song and dance performances from the girls. They were wonderful.

The school has about 130 girls enrolled. As it is a secondary school (Forms 2-4, during the curriculum change), I assumed 40 to 45 per grade. So I’d requested two of the three grades. Then I found they also have grades 7 and 9 there. (Also an idiosyncrasy of the changing system is that they don’t have grade 8.) So to have two grades in our self-defense class was small for us. Only about 60 girls. I asked for another grade to be added. 

I’m not sure how it happened, but the girls kept piling in. We wound up with the whole school in the class for 3 hours. It was great!

There are also several campus dogs. They joined us for the class. They were very chill.

Below are a few shots from the class. I’m working with the girls on using Munio self-defense keyholders. Munioselfdefense.com

After the class, it was time for more pictures. We took a lot! Below, with some of the girls. 

I chatted with the girl on the left, above. She was the leader in some of the singing performances. She doesn’t want to give up singing, but wants to get her law degree first.

In another shot, one girl was holding my nunchucks. I showed her a little how to use them.

Below, Magaga and me hamming it up. He is a driving force at the school. His joy at all that is going on around him is infectious. And the girls clearly feed on it. Overall, this is a joyful school, full of happy, fulfilled girls.

It came time for us to load up in the van and go. We had the long drive to get back. We said lengthy goodbyes and headed down the road.

We made it about a half a kilometer down the dry, dusty road, when the edge of the road crumbled and pitched the van into a ditch, high-centering it, leaving one rear tire off the ground. It’s a two-wheel-drive van. We were stuck.

We tried using rocks under the tires, and the jack, to build the road up to get traction. It wasn’t working. 

We heard noises from back toward the school. Here came the cavalry, in the form of probably 30 girls, several teachers, and two dogs, singing, dancing, and chanting their way up the road towards us.

The school is on the left side of the road, in the background.

The girls tried pushing the van. We worked for a while on it. But it was really stuck. The girls were working hard and joyfully the whole time. It was impressive.

The good news is there were several people at the school with vehicles and they couldn’t get past us on the road. We had it blocked. Eventually a small SUV came up behind us. We hooked Thomas’s tow ropes to it. Between the SUV and the 30-girl power, we got the van out.

Celebrating ensued! With lots more picture-taking. As our group climbed back in the van, I started going down the row, high-fiving all the girls. There was more singing. And posing. See the superhero poses below.

After we left, the girls and Magaga found a place to sit for a few minutes and kept singing. Magaga shared a video of this with me. It is wonderful!

We had an excellent time visiting BEADS Tembea. We really look forward to going back. And hopefully get some girls enrolled to give us more reason to visit!