The floor of the world
September 30, 2012
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October 1, 2012
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In Nyanza

I write this post from a nearly empty restaurant at the Western Ambiance Hotel in Western Kenya. Thunderstorms have blown in, and the electricity is flickering. So I will keep this post short and sweet! We are being well cared for, having spent the day at Sega Girls School with twenty fantastic young women. Confident and ambitious, our students thrive at Sega. One of them, Matilda is a junior with a great track record and an ebullient personality. She missed almost all of the second term for an appendectomy with complications that required a second emergency surgery. My companions and I are working to help with this, but the real story here is Matilda and her family. In her brother’s words, their mother gave Matilda and her sisters and. Rother no choice but to pursue their education. In a village in which almost no one finishes secondary school, Matilda has a sister in university and a brother who just qualified for it. Two more sisters have finished secondary and work in the village.
Matilda herself had only 3 weeks to learn a term’s worth of material before second term exams and still finished 36th out of 152 students in her class. With few textbooks available, she did it by going to all the study groups (which are very active at Sega) and borrowing notes in an effort to glean the information she missed- great work Matilda! Matilda wants to be a news anchor, and has the presence and language skills to do it, so tomorrow we use the iPad to record her interviewing the GTL team member of her choice.
Until tomorrow- kwaheri!

1 Comment

  1. shadisaboori says:

    I look forward to Matilda’s interview! Great story. Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear the trip has been fruitful so far. Safari njema!

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