2 days after I brought Hamza to his new school I had to go back there - there were 2 reasons for that: Firstly I forgot to buy the matress for him (!), felt really terrible about this but the head teacher was very helpful and they got a spare one for him to use until I bring a new one... I simply forgot about it as for the girls' matresses we just paid at the school... I also had to go back there because it was the time for the AGM meeting which was normally attended by pupils parents.
The meeting was on Saturday and was supposed to go on from 9 am till 12pm. I knew that since this is Kenya it would never start on time. I did however arrive on time just in case... And I really wished I had taken my book with me as the meeting was much more delayed than I anticipated - it did not start until 11.15! While I was waiting for the meeting I was talking to Hamza who seemed to be quite happy with the school but I could tell he was missing his friends from Nairobi. Somebody also stole a couple of items from his storage box so I had to speak to the teacher in charge of the boarding students as well as the head boy and they promised me to investigate the matter. The only items stolen were soap for washing clothes and vaseline (kids here use it to moisturise their skin).
While I was waiting I also realised that most probably I was just wasting my time as the language spoken during the meeting was more than likely to be kiswahili (many of the coastal people can't actually speak english or at least not well enough to have a serious conversation). I mentioned it to one of the teachers and he promised to get me someone to translate which I thought was really nice.
Obviously I was the only white person at the meeting so I got quite few stares and funny looks, especially when my interpreter was sitting next to me explaining what was happening. I found the meeting very interesting - there are many issues there, mainly financial as the governmet funding is not enough to cover all necessary costs. Een though the US marines have been helping out a lot recently (painting the buildings, sponsoring the solar system etc) there is still a lot that needs to be done there.
During the short breaks kids were singing, dancing, reciting poems... It was very nice to see.
I went to visit Hamza one more time when my friend Kate was here visiting for a couple of weeks. Again, we spoke to the headmaster about the issues that the school is facing. I was also told that the top scorer in KCPE exams (end of primary education exam) for whole Lamu district came from this school which is very encouraging. I hope it will motivate Hamza even more to work hard and get great results.
We were supposed to go back again for the football tournament for the local school but unfortunately I did not feel well on that day. Hamza's telling me that his school won though so it must have been a great day :)
The school term was supposed to finish on Friday, 8th of May. Kate left on Wednesday which meant I would have 1 day to prepare for Hamza's return home. I got up pretty early on Thursday and decided to do most of the laundry on that day and prepare a room for Hamza. While I was busy washing I did not hear my phone and when I finally checked it, there were many missed calls, quite a few of them from Hamza's school. Immendiately I started to worry that sthg bad had happened and I rang the headmaster straight away only to find out that I must go to school asap to collect Hamza as they decided to close the school 2 days earlier (on Wednesday instead of Friday) and they forgot to notify my which meant that Hamza was the only child still remaining there.
I think it must have been the faster shower I had in my time in Kenya - where I stay means that I have to walk for over 20 min to the pier and then get a boat to the mainland, and then a motorbike taxi to get to the school... so quite complicated... I did get there pretty quickly though and got the apology from the headmaster. I then was told that Hamza is a very good student, polite and disciplined and he scored really well in the end of term tests which put him in number 3 position in class (out of 36 children) - I was really happy to hear that, it is a really great performance on Hamza's part especially that he missed couple of weeks of school at the beginning of the term and had to change schools in the middle of the term. Now I am expecting even better result next term :)
I am supposed to take Hamza to stay with his relatives in Mombasa but at the moment he likes it here and I am still considering my options - I will not be here in August when next school break is so maybe this time I will keep him with me and send him to Mombasa next time. He has made many friends here already and every time I ask him he says he'd prefer to stay here for a while longer... But next week Juliet is coming and at the moment there isn't enough room here for the 2 of them unless I come up with some solution to that.
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