I PASSED my resit exam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm officially in third year now.
=)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Day 6
Taught at 2 schools today. I got to teach maths, and it was much fun! 3hours in the morning and just 30 minutes in the afternoon. The latter was boring (students weren't as participative as the first group).
Primary education in Kenya is free - there is tuition fee. But they had to pay so much for other expensses such as books, school uniform, etc. Failiing to have obtained these would result in refusal of school entry. School normally starts from 7.30am to 3.10pm with 3 short breaks in between. Like many African schools, they are sort into education years based on their academic progress rather than their age. In my class (the most advanced of all 8 classes), they are from 13 to 20 years old. Mind you, it's a primary school education. Many take 13 subjects, with majority are being taught in English.
The evening we had talks by Omega Foundation, main organisation KOP has been colloborating its projects with. They about the things they do and 3 significant things came to my mind:
first, physical disability. I now know that being disabled, congenital especially is also a stigma here; being regarded as a curse, their family members mistreat or even disown them. Very few schools could cater for their kinds of education.
Second: mosquito nets = no malaria = 300sh = 10% average monthly income.
Third : microcredit scheme, where you give loans to people to purchase capital so as to generate income. Seems to be working to improve poverty level in Kisumu. It's interest-free, and hopofully the defaulters can take care some of the orphans when their own financial status has improved.
Went to bed at 10.50pm. Very early awake tomorrow - 2 am - for an amazing trip!
Primary education in Kenya is free - there is tuition fee. But they had to pay so much for other expensses such as books, school uniform, etc. Failiing to have obtained these would result in refusal of school entry. School normally starts from 7.30am to 3.10pm with 3 short breaks in between. Like many African schools, they are sort into education years based on their academic progress rather than their age. In my class (the most advanced of all 8 classes), they are from 13 to 20 years old. Mind you, it's a primary school education. Many take 13 subjects, with majority are being taught in English.
The evening we had talks by Omega Foundation, main organisation KOP has been colloborating its projects with. They about the things they do and 3 significant things came to my mind:
first, physical disability. I now know that being disabled, congenital especially is also a stigma here; being regarded as a curse, their family members mistreat or even disown them. Very few schools could cater for their kinds of education.
Second: mosquito nets = no malaria = 300sh = 10% average monthly income.
Third : microcredit scheme, where you give loans to people to purchase capital so as to generate income. Seems to be working to improve poverty level in Kisumu. It's interest-free, and hopofully the defaulters can take care some of the orphans when their own financial status has improved.
Went to bed at 10.50pm. Very early awake tomorrow - 2 am - for an amazing trip!
Kenya - Day 4 & 5
These two days we visited 2 hospitals - the Nyanza Provincial District Hospital and Kisumu District hospital - to do observations only. Generally, doctor-patient relationship is still very paternalistic, and these hospitals are underfunded in many aspects which turned to be as resourceful possible (e.g. ripping off the end of gloves and used it as torniquet) .
Provincial
I visited the paediatrics ward. Apart from seizures, I saw many kids with Burkit's lymphoma (due to high assocition with Malaria, AIDS, and epstein-barr virus). These kids were around 5-6 years old and had very huge abnormal masses on the neck, body, etc. And at such a young age already they had to suffer from chemotherapy everyday for the next at least 2 years. Despite the a good prognosis in children with Burkitt's, lack of medical supply hampers their recovery progress, aggravated by prevalent malnutrition issues in the community. They looked really frail and emaciated, and they cried a lot when the doctors injected them with medications.
It was a very enriching experience for me, and made really more interested in learning medicine, wanting to find better ways on how things can be cured.
District
Another fulfilling experience, where I get to interesting cases like necrotising fasciatis. Others things include fractures, malaria, tb. In the morning I get to see a doctor suturing a guys head (he had very deep cuts on his head), and I found that to be equally interesting and agonising (esp when the doctor had to apply occasional force to pierce the needle through the skin of his head). Amusing case was a local medical student who was with us suddenly fainted after witnessing this procedure!
We visited the assylum in the afternoon, and I must say I enjoyed myself there dancing and chatting with the patients (few looked really normal). One of them made me (nicely) write my (fake) contact address so that he could write to me. He even gave his address (looked authentic!) so that I could send books to him.
Provincial
I visited the paediatrics ward. Apart from seizures, I saw many kids with Burkit's lymphoma (due to high assocition with Malaria, AIDS, and epstein-barr virus). These kids were around 5-6 years old and had very huge abnormal masses on the neck, body, etc. And at such a young age already they had to suffer from chemotherapy everyday for the next at least 2 years. Despite the a good prognosis in children with Burkitt's, lack of medical supply hampers their recovery progress, aggravated by prevalent malnutrition issues in the community. They looked really frail and emaciated, and they cried a lot when the doctors injected them with medications.
It was a very enriching experience for me, and made really more interested in learning medicine, wanting to find better ways on how things can be cured.
District
Another fulfilling experience, where I get to interesting cases like necrotising fasciatis. Others things include fractures, malaria, tb. In the morning I get to see a doctor suturing a guys head (he had very deep cuts on his head), and I found that to be equally interesting and agonising (esp when the doctor had to apply occasional force to pierce the needle through the skin of his head). Amusing case was a local medical student who was with us suddenly fainted after witnessing this procedure!
We visited the assylum in the afternoon, and I must say I enjoyed myself there dancing and chatting with the patients (few looked really normal). One of them made me (nicely) write my (fake) contact address so that he could write to me. He even gave his address (looked authentic!) so that I could send books to him.
Kenya - Day 3
We were split into groups of 3 or 4. We went to HOVIC centre, which is basically a day rehab-centre for street/homeless kids, where met and were briefed by all their 9 working staff members. HOVIC provides free breakfast and lunch, also informal education to about 100 (average) children, who are between 3 to 18 years old, every day except on Sundays.
We had a number of activities today. We helped preparing meals (meals called nyoyo - basically consists maize, beans and potato), befriendedand watched the children debating, and in the afternoon, played football (I suck. Even the girls played way better than I). I tried a bit of the meal, and despite my diarrhoea panaroia, the food wasn't bad at all. We snapped a lot of pictures with the kids (and staff!) and they really loved them!. They were really friendly; you hardly need to make the 1st move to talk to them - although I did think they were probably friendly because we are westerners (?).
We chat a lot with these bright kids, and discovered a lot of their concerns about life. Until the HOVIC night centre porject is done, they have nowhere to go to after the centre closes at 3pm. They slept on any shelter they could find with constant fears of being assaulted by patrolling policemen every night. I heard their storied of how some are often beaten mercilessly, even if you are just mere 5 years old. Many of them sniff glue, the thing that they claim to provide them with warmth to survive the harsh coldness during nighttime. Homeless kids are constantly stigmatised by the society, and even by their own family members. They are always blamed for the crimes happening in the society. While they may be some truth, very few see the bigger picture; of how these children's helpless circumstances - family breakups, poverty, exploitation - have forced them to commit crimes in order to enable them to find the very next meal.
They also talked about education very much. They wanted to become lawyer, engineers, pilot - ambitions almost impossible to achived unless they have someone to sponsor their education. They see education as a way out of the poverty cycle, but it is just too expensive here. To get to a secondary school, they have to afford at least 20,000 shiling a year (1000sh = £8), and with the average monthly family income of 3000sh, they more likely to abandon their studies. Made me feel quite sad some people back home took their education oppoturnities for granted.
The debate topic the chilcren had today was 'home-shelter is better than street-shelter'. After listening to their points, I think a very good summary to them is: home is where your heart is
We had a number of activities today. We helped preparing meals (meals called nyoyo - basically consists maize, beans and potato), befriendedand watched the children debating, and in the afternoon, played football (I suck. Even the girls played way better than I). I tried a bit of the meal, and despite my diarrhoea panaroia, the food wasn't bad at all. We snapped a lot of pictures with the kids (and staff!) and they really loved them!. They were really friendly; you hardly need to make the 1st move to talk to them - although I did think they were probably friendly because we are westerners (?).
We chat a lot with these bright kids, and discovered a lot of their concerns about life. Until the HOVIC night centre porject is done, they have nowhere to go to after the centre closes at 3pm. They slept on any shelter they could find with constant fears of being assaulted by patrolling policemen every night. I heard their storied of how some are often beaten mercilessly, even if you are just mere 5 years old. Many of them sniff glue, the thing that they claim to provide them with warmth to survive the harsh coldness during nighttime. Homeless kids are constantly stigmatised by the society, and even by their own family members. They are always blamed for the crimes happening in the society. While they may be some truth, very few see the bigger picture; of how these children's helpless circumstances - family breakups, poverty, exploitation - have forced them to commit crimes in order to enable them to find the very next meal.
They also talked about education very much. They wanted to become lawyer, engineers, pilot - ambitions almost impossible to achived unless they have someone to sponsor their education. They see education as a way out of the poverty cycle, but it is just too expensive here. To get to a secondary school, they have to afford at least 20,000 shiling a year (1000sh = £8), and with the average monthly family income of 3000sh, they more likely to abandon their studies. Made me feel quite sad some people back home took their education oppoturnities for granted.
The debate topic the chilcren had today was 'home-shelter is better than street-shelter'. After listening to their points, I think a very good summary to them is: home is where your heart is
Kenya - Day 1 & 2
Jambo everyone! Karibu Kenya! Welcome to Kenya!
After a grueling 12 hour (with 3 hours transit in Doha) flight + 9 hour bus journey (after the 20 of us landed in Nairobi) we arrived at the state of Kisumu - the 3rd largest city in Kenya. Finally after almost 24 hour being in a sitting position, I got a proper sleep in the bed in the hotel we stayed in. It's not hotel in all its sense - those like you would expect by western standards - but it's a fairly decent place (except for occasional water supply interuption) and that's where I would be staying for the next 12 days.
The next morning, we had induction on what about Kenyan Orphanage Project (KOP), went around the town, and visited some of the project sites that Barts and The London supports, many of those are quite far from the Kisumu town centre itself. There is a marked difference between the rural and urban areas in Kisumu. You hardly see any 'modern' buildings in the rural areas. Houses are made of animal wastes (dungs) and hardly there is a house made of wood or bricks. Houses are not supplied with basic utilitites. Many people in Kisumu, more obvious in the rural areas walk to go to places they want to go, and very few who can afford bicycle, let alone a car ( although in this agricultural-based area I occasionally saw fully-loaded trucks). In town where everything is centralised, things are very scattered in the rural areas, with nearest school and health centres can be as far as one hour's walk.
Interesting fact of the day: the world's highest number of wives married to a man is in Kenya - 265 wives! He must be extremely rich to afford that. He built school for his own children. Well, as you may expect, it's definitely difficult to remember, let alone identify which of the children in the village are his. So, people take advantage of this!
The next morning, we had induction on what about Kenyan Orphanage Project (KOP), went around the town, and visited some of the project sites that Barts and The London supports, many of those are quite far from the Kisumu town centre itself. There is a marked difference between the rural and urban areas in Kisumu. You hardly see any 'modern' buildings in the rural areas. Houses are made of animal wastes (dungs) and hardly there is a house made of wood or bricks. Houses are not supplied with basic utilitites. Many people in Kisumu, more obvious in the rural areas walk to go to places they want to go, and very few who can afford bicycle, let alone a car ( although in this agricultural-based area I occasionally saw fully-loaded trucks). In town where everything is centralised, things are very scattered in the rural areas, with nearest school and health centres can be as far as one hour's walk.
Interesting fact of the day: the world's highest number of wives married to a man is in Kenya - 265 wives! He must be extremely rich to afford that. He built school for his own children. Well, as you may expect, it's definitely difficult to remember, let alone identify which of the children in the village are his. So, people take advantage of this!
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