Update: May 2010 - Dr. Cate Dewey is now in Kenya.
Dr. Cate Dewey left Canada on May 2nd and will arrive back in Canada on May 24th. She is doing veterinary work
associated with Vets Without Borders, and the University of Guelph, but will also be visiting the Bukati School
to check on its status.
May 9, 2010 - Arrival
Dear Family and friends
It is the heavy rains season in Kenya. The sky opens and the rain comes down in buckets. The driving wind means
that even sitting in a cabana for dinner leaves us sprayed with water. We have to carefully choose the correct
route to the field to avoid roads that are impassable due to flooding. Some roads become slick with mud, reminding
me of black ice. The vehicle takes on a life of its own. We have hired a safari van to acommodate 2 vets without
borders students and 4 global vet students, plus Florence Mutua, Natalie Carter and myself. Our driver is Peter
- a lovely man with a beautiful smile. When I told him I have a son named Peter, he said I could be his mother
for our time together. His sister in law died this week after complications from childbirth. He will go to Nairobi
as soon as they send a new driver. We encounter funerals most days - drumming and singing from the funeral keep
us awake at night and those we wish to interview may have to leave for a funeral. Electricity is more off than
on. This makes showering unpredictable and infrequent. Even after a long, hot dusty ride to the field, we were
not able to shower for 2 days. The water was quite cool but it felt great to clean off the dust.
The Kenyans are so friendly. It is wonderful to greet familiar faces. The staff at the farmview either call me
Mamma or Professor. Both terms of honour I think. My ear is becoming reattuned to Swahili.
Msuri (I am fine)
Love, Cate
May 12, 2010 - Status Update
Dear Family and Friends
Saturday we went to the school. Florence and I met with Nick (principal), JB (teacher most active in the permaculture
project), Mary (teacher
responsible for uniforms and bracelets), and the chair (Juma) and treasurer (Pamela) of the school council who
are both parents. The students from grades 6, 7, and 8 lined the driveway and sang a welcome. They go to school
Saturday mornings. We began with a short assembly, a welcome from Nick, the head girl leading the group in a song
and the Lord's prayer and then a few words from me. The children went for their lesson and then the committee met.
We had a long discussion about how the project is going, what progress has been made, the current issues and the
long term plans for sustainability. We are supporting about 750 orphans in primary school plus the 8 high school
students. The numbers continue to rise. There are 180 kindergarten children and at least 120 children in each grade
up to 5. The older classes have 70 to 100 pupils. There is a need for more classrooms because 3 of the current
classes meet outside. The 180 latrines, that were paid for with money raised by Rotary Clubs on Vancouver Island
are almost complete. The girls will use them and the boys will have the old ones. They dug an extra deep pit under
the new latrines so they will be functional for a long time. The brick and cement construction will last much longer
than the wooden version that gets eaten by termites.
Many children came to school with hoes (jembe) to work on the maize and rice fields after school. At 3:30 pm, they
were fed lunch. Nick said that is their reward for the work. I will tell you about the permaculture project in
another email
Love, Cate
May 12, 2010 - Permaculture Update
Dear friends and family
The permaculture project that Michael Nickels designed in Nov. 2009 is absolutely amazing. It encompasses the school
compound and the 11 acres of land we purchased for the school last year.
The water capture system of swales re-routes the rainfall from the entire school compound to the new banana groves,
eucalyptus forest and finally to the fish pond. Yesterday, in the flash flood, the system was really put to the
test. The water flowed perfectly toward the pond, rather than flooding the yard and running off onto the road.
We watched the fish jumping, as the student who is responsible for feeding the fish sprinkled tiny dried fish on
the water's surface.
Large lush green leaves of banana trees, planted as tiny shoots in November, now flap in the wind like an elephant's
ears. The trees that Peter planted behind the school, in what most of us would consider wasted space, are now 10
feet tall - growing so well with the water that runs off the school's roof. Together with the bananas trees, there
are also espandia (sp?) trees that will be used as fodder for the cattle. They will provide additional protein
to enhance milk production. Already, the trees are providing welcome shade to the classrooms, keeping the temperatures
more tolerable for learning. Some espania are already producing seeds that will be harvested for the tree nursery.
There is very sturdy fencing around each of the 3 pieces of land and some sections have been planted with kia apple
trees that will provide a thorny barrier plus fruit. The new land is planted with maize and beans for the lunch
program and rice. The school will harvest the rice to sell as seeds. Where the swales have been dug, the maize
is growing much taller than in other sections. It is a vivid, living example of the benefit of water capture.
This project is making the goal of sustainability a reality
Love from Kenya
Cate
May 13, 2010 - Young boy without uniform
Hi Everyone
Yesterday a young boy walked by us as we were waiting for the village elder to join us for the farm visits. I asked
him why he was not in school. He said he was 'chased from school because he was not wearing a uniform'. Florence
found out that his uniform was so ragged that he could no longer wear it. He had gone to school four days in a
row, and each day he was sent home. He was a grade 6 student. I have a promise from the staff at Bukati that children
will never be sent home because they have no uniform. But this little boy went to a different school. It was another
reminder of all the need.
Florence asked the boy to bring his mother to us. She was home in bed because she was ill, but she came anyway.
The boy's father has died. I gave the mother the money for the uniform. Eight dollars was keeping him from school!
Cate
Update: May 21, 2010 - Augustine in new school.
Dear family and friends
When Augustine was the vice-principal of the Bukati primary school he
initiated a tree nursery by asking students to bring tree seeds and avocado
pits to school. He also began garden plots and showed me how they used the
kale crop to teach grade 4 students. His promotion to principal at a
different school was a loss for the Children of Bukati project.
His new school has 854 students on a 13 acre plot. In the last 2 years, he
has obtained government funding to build a kindergarten classroom, a latrine
for the girls with 3 stalls and to replace the roof that blew off 3
classrooms. He and the students have planted 2 acres of cassava that is
almost ready to harvest and 2,000 trees. Each tree was planted with a
handful of animal manure that the children brought from home. There are new
small gardens outside the classrooms with flowering plants to beautify the
school.
Augustine asks the grade 8 students to bring 5 kg of maize and 300
schillings to school each term. The money pays a cook and buys some
vegetables. This is the beginning of a lunch program but only includes the
grade 8's.
However the infrastructure of the school is shocking. Only the grade 8
classroom has desks. Everyone else sits on the floor. The floors of most
classrooms are pitted, leaving bare dirt. There is a big problem with
chiggers - a very painful infection of feet and toes caused by a flea. The
concrete floors need to be replaced to prevent these infections. There are
only 3 functional latrine stalls for the 435 girls in the school. There is
another set that is falling down and are not meant to be used, but, as you
can imagine, when the lineup is long, the girls use those too.
I think Augustine has shown remarkable leadership and is working towards a
Bukati model. With some help from us, we could fix the floors, provide desks
and assist the school with a permaculture project.
More than an $8 education - but we would soon be helping hundreds more
orphans.
Cate |
