The Iyarat School

This weekend brought the arrival of 3 new volunteers from Spain- Ana, Rosa and Pedro.  On Monday, we took them to both school to meet the teacher, greet the students and distribute the MANY supplies they carried with them to Kenya. The amount of shoes and clothes they brought here for children is incredible and we were able to give nearly all students enrolled in both schools a new pair of shoes and a clothing item or two.

It was my first opportunity to visit the Iyarat school, which is in a more remote village and is more impoverished than the Kimuka school where I spent the last week.  The Iyarat school was built by Jambo volunteers who came in 2010, saw the needs in this community and went back to Spain to fundraise to build them a school.  It is a two room school house, with classes of 17 and 25.  While we were there, I got the chance to speak with one of the teachers about some of their struggles.  In this area, the primary school is very far.  Many of these children walk for over an hour each day to come to the Iyarat school and the primary is much further.  Therefore, they currently have students 3-15 years old attending school there.  She explained to me that they would rather admit the students than turn them away, knowing they otherwise will not continue their education.  She told me students are very rarely absent and really enjoy coming to the school.  They also receive meals there twice a day very consistently.  This teacher feels one of their biggest needs is an addition of 2 or 3 classrooms so that they can create different levels and hire more teachers.

Luis then took us with a few other Jambo employees to show us what he considers to be the biggest problem this community faces.  They took us to the local dam a little ways down the road and showed us the brown, still water.  While we were there, cows walked away from having their morning drink.  He took some and poured it into a metal bowl and you could see all of the clay and iron in the water- it was completely brown.  This is the only drinking water this area has access to and the water that is used to cook the two meals a day these children get.  I had noticed many of their teeth were very brown and assumed it was from decay, but he says it is from this water.  His most immediate concern is putting in a tank to have fresh water delivered and collect rainwater.  The more expensive, but certainly more permanent, solution would be to dig a well for the community, which is about $20,000 and at this point seems a totally unrealistic goal for this community.  Luis is also looking to see some monetary investment made by the people in the community so he can be assured that they are committed to this school’s success.

The other volunteers and I are committed to going to this school more this week- my last full week in Kenya working with Jambo volunteers! Can’t believe it is going by this quickly!