The Village and the School

Last weekend, besides diving, we went to visit a friend of ours (one of the supervisors at the plant) in his local village. We met his family, saw his cattle, and toured the village.

It was poor, but seemed content. The innocence of the kids running around dirt roads was unforgettable. It’s a childhood I loved, and I’m sad that my children someday probably will not be able to experience it. All the kids ran around the village (many followed us because the word had spread that we brought some treats to share). They seemed curious to see us, but excited to share the few words of English they knew. But it was their laughter and playfulness in the ocean, on a beautiful beach, while a few fishermen were coming in from the day’s catch, that truly was inspiring. I know that there are millions of places like this in the world, but we never seem to go there. It was refreshing to watch. I asked Shuguli, our host, if people were happy even though the region is known to be very poor. He answered, “You have to be happy with what you have, if God gave you health and home and a family, you are happy.” Everyone in the village was his uncle, cousin, or brother, and the best was when he introduced us to his 10 kids, and it seemed like he could not quite recall all of their names.

Still, we struggled a bit. Shuguli said that he’s also been thinking about why more people don’t want to work at the factory. There are so few jobs in this area for low-skilled employees, yet, the factory cannot seem to get enough workers. Every day on out way to work we see so many men just sitting. Sitting all day on benches and watching the world go by. I don’t understand why. It feels demotivating and I know that I can’t help people regardless of my intentions, unless they want to help themselves. But perhaps I got it all wrong – perhaps they don’t need my help. Why is it so bad to spend your life on a bench vs. working hard at a factory peeling cashews where the skin on your hands begins to burn with pain within days from the cashew oil?

In any case, I still loved the children. In Kenya, it is now mandatory for kids to go to school and nearly 85% of the country is literate. This is great news. We visited a school the other day and the 10th grade math books included some trigonometry, and although outdated, the level of education did not appear that far off. Of course I was saddened by the intermingling of church and state (all children must take either Islamic or Christian religion classes every year), but it’s so to be expected. It makes me feel like it was one of the greatest accomplishments of the US to separate church and state. In any case, it was fun to visit the school. Eventually the education system will fall behind world standards (there is one computer, electricity is discouraged from being used, and most of the kids have never been on the Internet), if it has not done so already, but in any case, progress is being made. Maybe next time that I come, I will work somewhere in the school system – on days when I see people who don’t want to better themselves, it seems more refreshing and rewarding to work with children who are full of smiles and happy to be with you (yes, I know that it’s selfish thinking, I still do love the kids).