Mawewa School + Sarah
Today we were visiting a primary and junior secondary school in the Mathare slum in Nairobi. We have been to the area before, but not to this school and not in the past year. We were connected to the school by a former co-worker of mine from Munich Re.
The area isn’t straightforward to get around in. And it appears Kenya’s version of Google Maps is different from the US version. My phone provided a map directly to the school. The Kenyan version, which Thomas and Virginia have, got us completely lost.
The Kenyan map also advised us to leave significantly earlier than we really needed to. This actually worked out well, as we found ourselves in the neighborhood of Sarah’s university and were able to stop for a short visit.
Ginger and I have been sponsoring Sarah since mid-2017. We first met her in 2019 at an orphanage/school in Nairobi. We also began sponsoring her four younger sisters as a result of that trip and one in 2022.
We found our way to Mathare and made the unplanned tour of the area before getting to the school. Below, a small store, with residences on top/behind.
Below are a series of street scenes in the area. These are almost always colorful. In the first shot below, women’s wraps sell for 100 Ksh. This is about 80 cents.
You’ll note a number of the pictures are hazy from shooting through the van windows. We attract attention in the area to start with, due to the safari van. Then Claudia and I draw more attention. Leaving the windows open as we drive, and stop, is not very safe. We haven’t had any problems, but we do take precautions.
The Mawewa school is down a side street, off a minor street to start with. We found it and made it through the gate. They have a small courtyard. The school is four or five floors on a relatively small plot of land. The outdoor walkways provide some nice views of the neighborhood. The first picture in this post is the neighboring building from one of the walkways.
In the shot below, I’m fairly sure everything on the left side of the street is residences. I’m not sure about the right side.
Note the little stream in the shot below. These residences do not have plumbing in the home. The multi-story ones may have some community facilities, but not much. The stream is probably used for sanitary purposes.
The school’s backyard, below.
We met the Head of Education, Michael, and more of the school staff. They gave us a tour, involving four different classes, all singing songs for us.
Below is the youngest class we visited. We interrupted their porridge break.
Below that, as I recall, are the 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. Ninth is the highest grade in the school.
We had a Q&A session with the 9th graders, after we did brief introductions. One girl said, “You told us who you are and introduced yourselves, but didn’t tell us why you are here.” Good question.
We explained that we were in discussions to teach them self-defense classes at a future date.
In fact, we had wanted to teach that day, but the school administration wanted to interview us first, before committing. We haven’t had that happen before.
Below is what passes for a play area at the school. You can see Thomas’s van, below. The front gate is the aqua in the upper right corner. And the kitchen with the green roof on the left. Not much space. The wall at the top, where the man is working, has pockets for growing plants. It is a vertical garden, hopefully for growing some of their own food. But not in large quantities. The pockets aren’t big.
After the tour, we proceeded to a cramped office, given the 10 people attending, for the interview. They had lots of questions. And tea.
At one point, one of the women teachers asked about teaching boys. They are, admittedly, facing some of the same risks as girls. I explained my reasoning for not teaching boys. Boys/men are generally the predators we are teaching the girls to defend against. If the boys know the same techniques, they are less likely to work. Boys also often get very aggressive when we have taught them or done demos. The women in the room understood.
Later the head teacher, a man, came back to the point and again was arguing for me to teach them. I flatly refused to do it. Hopefully that puts an end to the questions.
We are planning to return to Mawewa and teach the girls, hopefully on our next trip. We also agreed to do a simultaneous class for boys, but with different subject matter. With the boys, we will talk about supporting women/girls, standing up for women, and all the culture change needed to make the area safer. We will split our team up to do this.
The demand for our self-defense classes is also increasing. We need to expand our teaching capabilities beyond just when I’m there. This is an ongoing effort, with a couple classes under discussion for the next month or two. We plan to have Virginia, Wangari, Cedric, and Thomas teach those.