Side By Side
A week and a half ago, when Scott and I were walking around New York City, we could barely walk side by side with just two people. Sometimes it’s just not possible in that crowded city. Cairo was worse with its smaller sidewalks. Yesterday when Scott and I were walking home from school – they said it was a three mile walk, but it must be longer as it took us nearly two hours – we met up with three students and, for a while, the five of us were walking side by side down the road with nothing to get in our way.
***
Since our first interview with IEFT when Scott and I were still in the States, all we’ve heard about their students is that they’re bright. We’ve heard other adjectives as well – determined, eager, motivated. But ‘bright’ has been the most constant. And I believed it when I heard and read it in emails; I wanted to believe it.
The students at Owkeeswa Secondary School are supposed to be the most intelligent of the poorest, students who’ve been singled out through testing. There are two classes of 40. The first group – now Form 2 students – are the brightest 40 among the 125 who showed up to test. The second group – now Form 1 students – are the brightest among 400. These students come from Masai families who cannot otherwise afford to send their kids away to secondary school for $400 a year. At IEFT, they spend only $25 a year on tuition and their child doesn’t have to get sent away; they get to stay at home and remain with the family.
Melissa, the volunteer office manager who lives in our house, told us last night about the house visits. After the big enrollment test, three heads of IEFT, including Melissa, make house calls to every potential candidate of Orkeeswa. The goal of the house visit is to interview the parents and the potential students, and to make sure that the family is indeed poor enough, that they really cannot afford another secondary school. Melissa talked about some great kids who just could not be accepted by IEFT.
Of course, testing is not the only means of determining aptitude but, unfortunately, that’s how it works here, for the time being at least. From what I can tell so far – and I know I’ve only been here a few days – the students are indeed bright. I’ve had a few long conversations with individual students and I can tell immediately that they’re brighter than I am. English is their third language, after their Masai dialect and Swahili. They ask about my former work and education background. They ask me details about my life. They talk about their goals, of going to university and getting jobs in politics or medicine or teaching. They talk about climate change. There is a group of MIT students visiting Orkeeswa this week, and the MIT students are blown away by the students’ questions on subjects I often turn a deaf ear to.
On the other hand, the students are also still young and carefree. They like to play crazy ball, a game that has no rules, and tug of war. They are happy and enthusiastic when they sing songs. The female students, like teenage girls worldwide, laugh when they’re embarrassed.
***
Since our first interview with IEFT when Scott and I were still in the States, all we’ve heard about their students is that they’re bright. We’ve heard other adjectives as well – determined, eager, motivated. But ‘bright’ has been the most constant. And I believed it when I heard and read it in emails; I wanted to believe it.
The students at Owkeeswa Secondary School are supposed to be the most intelligent of the poorest, students who’ve been singled out through testing. There are two classes of 40. The first group – now Form 2 students – are the brightest 40 among the 125 who showed up to test. The second group – now Form 1 students – are the brightest among 400. These students come from Masai families who cannot otherwise afford to send their kids away to secondary school for $400 a year. At IEFT, they spend only $25 a year on tuition and their child doesn’t have to get sent away; they get to stay at home and remain with the family.
Melissa, the volunteer office manager who lives in our house, told us last night about the house visits. After the big enrollment test, three heads of IEFT, including Melissa, make house calls to every potential candidate of Orkeeswa. The goal of the house visit is to interview the parents and the potential students, and to make sure that the family is indeed poor enough, that they really cannot afford another secondary school. Melissa talked about some great kids who just could not be accepted by IEFT.
Of course, testing is not the only means of determining aptitude but, unfortunately, that’s how it works here, for the time being at least. From what I can tell so far – and I know I’ve only been here a few days – the students are indeed bright. I’ve had a few long conversations with individual students and I can tell immediately that they’re brighter than I am. English is their third language, after their Masai dialect and Swahili. They ask about my former work and education background. They ask me details about my life. They talk about their goals, of going to university and getting jobs in politics or medicine or teaching. They talk about climate change. There is a group of MIT students visiting Orkeeswa this week, and the MIT students are blown away by the students’ questions on subjects I often turn a deaf ear to.
On the other hand, the students are also still young and carefree. They like to play crazy ball, a game that has no rules, and tug of war. They are happy and enthusiastic when they sing songs. The female students, like teenage girls worldwide, laugh when they’re embarrassed.
posted by Siapiau | 7:01 AM
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