Form 1

I teach Form 1 Biology (four 40 minute lessons) and English (seven 40 minute lessons including one on Saturday). There are 20 students in Form 1, ranging in age from 14 to about 18. Some students do not know exactly how old they are and their age can change from week to week! Tirrim Secondary School is still quite new. These are only the fourth year group to start the school. They love having their photo taken, don't like doing homework (or preps as they call it as they live at school), are reluctant to wear their ties properly or tuck their shirts in (kind of forgivable in 40 degree + temperatures) and complain if I make them remove their non-uniform jumpers, insisting that they are cold (it may be 35 degrees!). Yet many are keen to learn and for some great sacrifice has been made by their families and communities to send them to school, despite their being no real fees. This morning a student asked if he could apologise to me.Yesterday he had been late and, along with some others, had been argumentative and uncooperative. Whilst that sort of behaviour isn't unusual to me, the voluntary and genuine apology was!

Watermelon

This afternoon the kitchen sent over a treat - watermelon! There's not much fruit to be had in Korr and it was a hot afternoon so I liked it a lot!

Praise the LORD, all nations!

Praise the LORD, all nations!
Extol Him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love towards us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures endures forever.
Praise the LORD!

Psalm 117

Cocoa, prayers and scorpion stings

Every Sunday evening us wazungus (white folk) meet to pray. At the moment there are just four of us and yet this has been a special time together. Last time, as we sat drinking cocoa, chatting about recent events and preparing to pray, the night guard brought in a local lad who had been stung on the hand by a scorpion. Nick and Lynne have a simple hand generator and electrodes are placed on the site of the sting and the point the poison has reached. The guard turns the handle and slowly the pain subsides. It is thought that the electric current denatures the protein in the poison. But  this wasn't the first time as a similar thing happened the previous Sunday evening when a lady was brought in having been stung on her foot. Scorpion stings are not uncommon and can be serious so this ‘treatment’ at Nick and Lynne’s may be life-saving. I have yet to see a scorpion so there's no photo of one, but below is the generator contraption. I wonder what will happen this Sunday evening!?

Water droplets in the desert

This picture was taken as the sun was going down. I think the way the late afternoon light is reflected by plastic bottles looks striking and, in some ways, like water droplets. There’s no formal waste disposal in this part of Kenya; most rubbish is burned and the remaining metal/glass is buried or left in piles of ash around the town. Other rubbish is blown by the wind until it is caught by trees and thorny scrub vegetation; ugly in the daytime but pretty at sundown.

                                    

Various visitors

For the first two weeks I was here I think the local wildlife was being kind to me. I didn’t see many small (or large) creepy crawlies other than bees and wasps in my room and the occasional small lizard. The wasps and bees are pretty big and noisy but I am told they are normally harmless.

It seems that at the weekend they decided I’d had long enough to settle in. Cockroaches, beetles and spiders have all been to introduce themselves and most have survived! The most annoying of my visitors are moths; I hate the way they flutter in the light of my head torch and bathe in my basin of water.

Yesterday the pigeon, who lives in the roof, got confused by the washing blowing in the wind. He flew into my room instead of this nest. Try as he (and I) might, he couldn’t find the door. Meanwhile, I noticed a large, furry spider like the one in the picture. I would normally politely ignore spiders but I have been warned about this one and told it is best to kill them. Once I had ‘dealt’ with Mr Spider I resorted to getting the night guard to help with Mr Pigeon (using the only bird-like word I know in Swahili or Rendille - chicken!) and he managed to catch it.

You’d think that word would get out that I don’t welcome visitors to my room? Well, apparently not! This morning Mr Spider’s brother was brave enough to put in an appearance – see him pictured on my pillow! He didn’t last long either! 

However, I have yet to see a scorpion, a snake, a hyena or a lion…perhaps they will be the next visitors!?

 

 

The singing wells

I walk past several wells on the way to town and school. Most now have concrete and brick surrounding walls and trough. I often see people collecting water and also watering camels. However, most Rendille warriors looking after the camels are very reluctant to allow photos to be taken of their camels. 

The other day, as I approached this well, I heard chanting coming from way down in the well. Turns out there were six men in the well, each above the other and braced against the walls of the well. They were singing to keep the rhythm of passing buckets of water up the well. The guy at the top emptied the bucket into a basin at the top which was then either put into the animal trough or emptied into containers.