Walking Cows

watering hole

Isiolo is a town about 22 miles north of Meru. For those of you who have been to Meru, it is completely different. Meru is on the slopes of Mount Kenya, so even though it can get hot, it is high in elevation and doesn't get as hot or dry as other places near by. Isiolo is dry, i mean really, really dry. there is no farming because there is no water. it is also filled with Somali refugees, so it has a very high population of Muslims. The main source of income is livestock, which leads to much cattle rustling and tribal fighting. Lately this has been really bad, and quite a few people have died due to tribal fighting.

The family that i live with has some rental houses in Isiolo, so we travel there about once a month. The drive is about 22 miles and takes about 15 minutes, and is really interesting. You see, in a short distance, the landscape change from lush and green, with lots of crops, to brown and dry, with not much growing. about half way through the journey there is a watering hole where shepherds from all over bring their cattle once a day to be watered.

cows walking to Nkubu

On one such journey we encountered about 50 cows walking on the road. we had to slow down in order for them to move the cows to the side so that we could pass. we asked them where they were taking all of these cows. They were headed for market in Nkubu. That is about 10 miles past Meru town. That is about a 35 to 40 mile journey walking the cows all the way in one day. I am pretty comfortable in Kenya now, and not much phases me. But every once in a while something like this comes along and i am reminded that i don't live in the States anymore. Later that night we went and had dinner in Meru town, and on our way back late in the evening we found them just entering Meru town. This just seemed like such a waste of time. why don't they rent a cattle truck and drive them? But, i don't think i have ever seen a cattle truck in all of Kenya. In many ways things here haven't changed in many, many years, but on the other hand almost everyone, even people without electricity, have a cell phone.


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For the past couple of months i have been working at Bishop Imathiu Secondary, teaching English. I was going to go on to teach life skills, but i have decided to switch schools and am now at Kithoka primary. While i really enjoyed my time at the secondary school, they really didn't need that much help. At the primary school they are in need of much assistance. It is purely a public school, which means that it's students are the poorest in the community. Many don't even have shoes. Different churches and clubs have tried helping it, but there is always that disconnect with what people perceive the need to be and what the need actually is. For instance, once church has donated 5 computers, and built a hand washing station, both great ideas, but there are two big problems with this. First, no one, even the teachers, knows how to operate a computer. Second, to get clean water your have to pay for it. There children often are sent to school without food for lunch, or shoes on their feet, they don't want to pay for fancy water, when they drink dirty water at home. So currently the hand washing station is dry, and the computer lab is locked and dust covered. Through some local fund raising they have bought filters that filter 600 liters of water a day, so at least the children are drinking clean water, but the computers are still sitting there. When they heard that i can use a computer they got very excited, and i got a little scared. i was thinking of programs like excel and such, but these people don't know how to even turn it on, so we are starting with the very basic. I think i will be ok for now.

Another hurdle that i will have to overcome is their English. Again because this is a public school the teachers aren't so great. to teach in a primary school you only need a certificate, so they really don't have much formal education, and not much incentive for doing a good job. I am not sure of all the reasons why teachers at public schools are so bad, but they truly are. First, lessons are only 35 minutes. who can learn anything in 35 minutes? Secondly, i arrived there at 11 am. and left at 4. At no time were there less then 6 teachers in the teachers room. there are only 12 teachers in the whole school and they are even so short of teachers that grades 1 and 5 have been put together, but yet half of the teachers didn't show up to most of their lessons. These teachers are nice people, i was expecting to find a bunch of meanies, but for some reason they just really don't care about their students. Last year out of 29 people that sat the KCPE ( the test that determines if you go onto secondary school) only 7 students passed. 7.

There seems to be no easy answer to this problem. As i have found out with many things that seem like an injustice, the answers are not black and white. They whole system of how the teachers are educated uses primary school certificates as a stepping off point for higher education, so many teachers are focused on their own education while ignoring their students. They aren't payed enough, government funds don't provide extras like money for food, while in partly private schools they provide some kind of breakfast and lunch. The list can go on and on. So many people come to Kenya, or any developing country and have an idea of what they are going to fix. But when you get down to the heart of any perceived problem, there are so many reasons for the problems that it becomes almost impossible to fix.

This is why i have so much trouble with those missions that come to build a building, give out t-shirts, or give computers. There are deeper reasons and issues going on that are simply not fixable in one week.

I hope that everyone is well, and i miss and love you all!

xoxox Suzanne