Stream of consciousness from a few days…


It’s 11:36pm on Friday December 4, 2009 and I can’t come close to sleeping, as tomorrow is the first ever graduation ceremony here at KGSA. There is so much excitement around the school, everyone is buzzing with anticipation for the BIG day.

Also though, it has been a pretty emotional week building up to this very moment. Every morning I walk into Kibera on my way to work, I pass the old school building where this all first started 4 years ago. 1 classroom. 11 girls. 2 volunteer teachers… and Abdul.

Kibera and its surrounding haven’t changed much. Clay and dirt hit beneath your feet as you walk atop of soles from discarded shoes, plastic bags, and other unidentifiable waste that is buried. Smells of burning trash continue to take an overwhelming presence, sewage runs into streams running into children playing in sewage... children swarm around to greet you with repetition, “How are you? How are you? How are you?” The noises are still as novel as they were when I left… loud, exciting, colorful, strangely calming… bold colors stand strong on cement walls, Kiberan’s stand tall and are proud of where they are from. Not a lot has changed.

Except for the school. The school has grown. The school has been an inspiration. The school has provided a sense of security, a community, and a home for over 120 girls, 14 volunteer teachers, and Abdul… and now me. I can’t begin to describe how I’m feeling with having the opportunity to be back here in Kibera with these incredible girls and watch them celebrate their amazing 4 year accomplishment. Tomorrow is a celebration. We will not think about the next day, or what will happen in a year from now, or five, or ten years. Tomorrow will only be a day to acknowledge the accomplishments of 19 talented, confident, and inspiring women. Everyone around the school is excited to bring in this day; you can feel everyone’s energy interacting. Abdul really did start something beautiful here.

It’s getting even later now and I’ve got to get up around 6 tomorrow so I’m heading to bed… I’ll write more tomorrow. Goodnight, lala salama…


Saturday December 5, 2009

THEY DID IT! KGSA has its first group of alumni… pretty exciting huh? It’s 5:30pm and I just got home from the celebration. I’m utterly exhausted from the day, but what an amazing day it was. The day began extremely early. Up at 6! I know, I know grandma, you do it everyday, but you know for me that’s hell’a early! Teka and I went and picked out the chickens for the ceremony, carried them back (alive) to the school and started the preparations for the food. We set up a huge tent and chairs in the courtyard, picked up the banner we had made, and helped with the last minute details. At around 11:00am, the students and their families started to roll in, we ended up having around 150 people show up… it was incredible! The Form 1 class did a few dances, the Form 2 class did a play, and the Form 3 class had some speeches and poems that they read aloud. We then had some of the Form 4 girls speak, along with Teka, Abdul and myself. All n’ all it was a beautiful day, a true celebration! Music, dancing, great food and great people; it doesn’t get any better.


December 15, 2009

With the graduation ceremony closing out the school year, you’d think that I’d have some time to relax and catch up on some books I brought… but that’s just not the case. Now that the school is closed, it means we have some time to do some “spring cleaning around the school.” I put some money toward re-cementing the floors, and re-painting the classrooms and outside of the school to give it all a new look before the New Year. Tomorrow I start painting, but I’m dragging Anni down to the school so I think we’ll just bring some good music and rock out. Also, the construction on our laboratory and the library will start tomorrow as well. The girls are extremely excited about the library as it is set to include 3 laptops and over 1,000 books. I don’t need to go into detail why a library is so important for the school, but this will really help with the journalism club allowing them to do research for the magazine, and will create a space within the school ground where the girls can just relax and unwind.

On a more personal note, Anni is back in Nairobi for the next 3 weeks, which has been great. Everything with the Island and the VCT Community Center opening went really well and it was a huge success. Yesterday I took her to see the play MOFAYA! It’s a Kenyan musical about life in the slums, and the people living there. It was amazing. Apparently they cleaned house in New York this past summer at some international festival and they are planning to be on Broadway in two years! Check it out at http://www.nymf.org/mofaya

That’s all the updates I have for now… hope all is well with you. Big shout out and congrats to Katie Czarniecki and Matt Hill with the engagement!