The following is a chronicle of a trip to Kenya taken this summer by five La Salle Academy students, two members of the faculty/staff, the assistant superintendent of schools of the Diocese of Providence and the spouse of one of the faculty members.  The chronicle was written by Cynthia Steger, school nurse and Leslie Martinelli, chair of the science department.  On the trip were: students Shadira Presbot, Emily Kemp, Calvin Miller, Curtis Lucas and Emmy Silvia; adults Dr. Camille Brown, Mrs. Steger, Mrs. Martinelli and Mr. David Martinelli.

Pouring rain!  We left La Salle in the pouring rain with nine people, 18 large 50-pound suitcases straining at the seams with medical supplies, school supplies, science equipment, books, toys and La Salle T-shirts and nine carry-on bags plus personal items!  Curtis brought his basketball in his backpack so he could play at every chance.  In spite of the traffic, we got to Boston in a timely fashion and had wonderful help checking in at the Delta/NW counter.  You couldn't see over our luggage carts.  Before we could blink an eye, we were on board our plane and winging our way toward Kenya and a very life-changing experience.

After a brief stop in Amsterdam, we arrived in Nairobi and were met by Br. Dennis Lee and Br. Dominic Jordan, along with Br. Raphael Bosire.  Br. Dominic had emailed us that officials at the Nairobi airport were checking passengers for symptoms of the H1N1 virus, and indeed, we were greeted by airport employees wearing masks.  We sailed through both the health check and customs and loaded the two waiting vans with our gear.  Of course it was dark, so our first glimpse of Africa was by the lights of the city.  We arrived at the Christ The Teacher Institute of Education (CTIE) Scholasticate House about 10 pm.  After a delicious late evening meal of stew, we fell into bed.

The next morning we were able to tour some of the local area.  We find it is easy to convey our concrete experiences but the sights, sounds, and smells were amazing and left indelible memories.  So we started out with lots of dust, red dirt, and bumpy roads.  Many people were along the roads waiting for buses or matutus (a van/taxi), or just walking.  It seemed that everyone in Kenya walked.  There were many make-shift stalls along the sides of the road:  wood lashed together with a canvas or cloth top or corrugated metal, and goods ranged the gamut from freshly cooked food and homegrown food to other necessities.

We drove through the town of Karen, named after Karen Blixin of "Out of Africa".  Our first stop was Tangaza College where young men wishing to be de La Salle Christian Brothers study.  The artwork and chapel were very moving.  We made a quick stop at a Giraffe Park and learned about these amazing and gentle animals.  Many school children were there, each wearing the uniform of their school.

Mid-afternoon, eleven of us left Nairobi in the rather old and dilapidated St. Mary's van to travel to Nyeri, Kenya.  We had traveled about an hour, and we were in the middle of a major intersection, when the van began to smoke and the engine died!  We quickly hustled the students out of the van, and once the smoke subsided, Mr. Martinelli, Br. Dominic and the driver had to push the van to the side of the road - and then an amazing thing happened.  Within minutes, a man in overalls just appeared with some tools.  He was able to fix the van enough that we could proceed until Br. Dominic could procure the part that was needed.  Through this incident we witnessed how hard it is to make a living in Kenya.  Unemployed men with mechanical knowledge will often wait around major intersections to help broken-down vehicles in the hope of making a few shillings.  We were lucky he was there - and we hoped we made his life a little easier with the shillings we gave him.

St. Mary's Secondary School is a regular boys high school with Forms 9 through 12 and an enrollment of 440 students.  All student board.  In the 2006 National Exams, St. Mary's was ranked 23 out of over 4,200 high schools in Kenya.  fifty-five percent of the graduating class qualified for the free public National University.  Students are very diligent because they understand that education is the way out of poverty.  St. Mary's motto is "You give us the boy; we will give you the man".”

Several years ago, local police started to drop off orphaned street boys at St. Mary's gate.  Now St. Mary's accommodates about 250 of these street children referred to as "juniors".  These boys range in age from three years old and up, and are housed in a dormitory built for 100 students.  Each child has a bunk and a small trunk for personal belongings, but in such close quarters and with such young children, the dormitory is in great disrepair.  There is one house mother, but we did not meet her as she was off grounds visiting her own family.

Our first night kept many of us awake.  Curtis reported that when he and Calvin got to their sleeping quarters, he continually heard the thump of a basketball.  He went out to investigate and, indeed, students were playing basketball late into the night - without lights - only the moon.  Before we left St. Mary's Curtis would give both his basketball and his hat to different admiring students.

Saturday morning we awoke to the crowing of a rooster.  We gathered for what became our usual morning meal of peanut butter and jelly.  Then Br. Dominic took us on a tour of the school.  The teachers and their families are invited to live on the grounds, so we first passed through a number of very humble residences.  Br. Dominic explained that the teachers very much like having the ability to live with their families at the school.  Then we visited the educational buildings, including the library (locked because of a lack of books), the guidance office, and classrooms.  Class was in session because the students attend classes all day, in the evening, and on Saturday mornings.  Every inch of every classroom was filled with students.  And their conduct was impeccably good.

From there we visited the dormitories, the kitchen, the pig pens and the butchery - students get meat twice a week.  Teachers only teach.  Students do all the other work:  cleaning, helping the single cook, tending and butchering the pigs, chopping wood, and working in the garden.

Our La Salle students became immediate celebrities.  After class, each and every one of our students was besieged by friendly St. Mary's students and juniors.  Curtis was followed by an entourage of children wanting to watch him play basketball.  Calvin became our resident chess player.  And every time we looked, the girls, Emmy, Emily and Shadira, were surrounded by a group St. Mary's students at least three deep, all asking them questions.  The two groups shared some fun moments.  The St. Mary's boys shared their latest dance moves and, in return, Emmy tap danced.  Emily did a karate form and the St. Mary's boys actually feigned falling over when she got close.  It was very funny, and we could feel that students were the same all over the world.

St. Mary's boys have high aspiration:  pilot, aeronautical engineer, mechanical engineer, lawyer, doctor.  They are very sincere and hard working and they asked us many questions about study in the U.S., corruption in government, and how our lives compared with theirs.  They knew about Face Book, and we were asked again and again for our email addresses.  The school has a few computers and internet access but electricity is never reliable.

The only athletic equipment we saw was very old basketballs and the occasional soccer ball, also well-used.  We did not see any toys at all.  Before dinner on Saturday, we invited the juniors to line up and we handed out 100 matchbox cars, 80 finger puppets, balls, small trains, etc.  It was heart-rending to see how much these small toys meant to each child, and how excited they were.  It is important to note that they shared with one another.

On Saturday evenings, all of the students gathered in the main hall for a movie and they were eager to have us join them.  It was quite fun to watch the kids as they oooohed and ahhhhed at the action adventure movie special effects.

Sunday morning we were invited to attend their Mass.  It was a transforming two hours of singing and dancing, and we all left quite inspired.

From St. Mary's, we traveled another very rocky, bumpy, dusty road to Rongai Agricultural and Technical Secondary School located in the very small, humble community of Rongai.  We crossed the equator while in route.  Rongai Ag and Tech is our twin school, meaning that every year La Salle Academy raises money to send to Rongai as part of our social concerns.  The Rice Bowl Project is the main source of this money.  Our arrival at Rongai gave our students a real sense of where our money is going and how we do, indeed, help Rongai.

Rongai students begin their day at 4:30 a.m.  They have study and an hour of chores before their breakfast which consists of a fresh roll and ugali (a mashed corn meal).  After a day of classes, there is another hour of chores, and finally an hour of recreation.  After a meager dinner there are more classes.  As at St. Mary's, Rongai students must perform many chores in order to maintain their environment.  They hose down the bathroom and barracks daily, chop wood for the kitchen, and work in the gardens.  There are more animals at Rongai, and the students tend rabbits, chickens, pigs, cows, goats and fish in order to provide for their daily meals.

Our first morning there, we attended the morning assembly and were introduced to the students.  While at Rongai, we had the opportunity to attend class.  Emily, Shadira, Curtis and Calvin were challenged by a two hour Swahili class.  Mrs. Martinelli and Emmy taught lessons on malaria and the H1N1 flu.  At one point, as Mrs. Martinelli and Emmy approached the door of a classroom, they noted that it was very quiet and they thought that there must not have been any students inside.  When they pushed the door ajar they found abut 45 students in absolute quiet, studying.  The Rongai students reported that if a teacher does not show up, they are to maintain silence and study.  Later, in reflection, one of our students commented that he had never worked as hard as these students, and he did not know anyone else who had either.

While Mrs. Martinelli and the students were in class, Mrs. Steger and Dr. Brown visited a local clinic run by Evangelical Sisters which has a reputation for the safe delivery of babies.  “The clinic also sees a great deal of malaria, AIDS, typhoid and brucellosis.  This order of Sisters does a great deal with very little.”  Patients from the community are very comfortable with the confidentiality afforded them at this clinic, especially in regard to AIDS.  The facility was very clean, but Mrs. Steger did not see protective gloves anywhere.

During classes, Mrs. Martinelli asked the students how many had had Malaria and in almost every class approximately 3/4ths of the students put up their hands.  However, when we toured the barracks, we noted only about six mosquito nets for 350 students.  One of our students suggested that we have a mosquito net drive during the 2009-10 school year and send enough mosquito nets for all the students at Rongai.  (We are looking into this).

During the recreation hour we were able to interact with the Rongai boys. Once again we were seized upon with questions about America, our life style, our interests and how to get into college in the U.S.  Curtis met his match on the basketball court when he came up against some Sudanese boys whose arms were as long as their legs!  Calvin was urged into a chess match again, and the girls answered many questions.

Also, while at Rongai, our group had the opportunity to attend Goguer Elementary School, which is a public facility run by a Nun.  Often Rongai teachers will volunteer their time and talents to this school.  We followed with a trip to the Virginia Grant School for Mentally Challenged Students and found this school to be immaculate and with good student-teacher ratios, although the student medical needs appeared to be lacking.

The next day we traveled to the Lasallian institution of Mwangaza College and observed students learning trades, much the way our Johnson and Wales students learn about food preparation, hotel management, etc.  We followed Mwangaza with a visit to the Child Discovery Center (CDC) in Nakuru, which is essentially a Lasallian orphanage for street children.  We were able to join the children during their lunch break from school. The students were quite eager to sit with us and talk about their school, their lives and their hopes. One student never knew his father and mother who were from opposing tribes. He was raised until he was eight by his grandmother. When she died he became a street child, and managed on his own until the CDC came across him. He is now being taught carpentry. Many of the experiences these students have gone through are horrendous.

The poverty in Kenya is overwhelming, especially among the children. 

Following this experience, we drove to the top of an active volcano.  The view was incredible.  There were several vendors selling African crafts such as wooden figures and jewelry.  Some of group learned the hard way that you are expected to barter!!  Every time we stopped the van, we were immediately approached by children, either selling something small like greeting cards, or, more often, begging for food or money.  This small experience made a large impression on the La Salle students.

Back in Rongai, we were asked to sit for an interview for the school newspaper.  Very well-organized with an articulate set of questions, Franklin got a well-rounded picture of life at La Salle Academy.  In the evening, the Rongai students dazzled us with farewell entertainment, as they sang, danced and performed a hilarious skit.  We were sad to leave for Nairobi the next morning.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning were spent rounding out the group's knowledge of life in Kenya.  At Lake Nakurua National Park, known for its huge numbers of flamingo, we took a three hour safari.  We saw many animals including rhinos, zebra, giraffe, and, of course, flamingo.  We had another car mishap - a flat tire this time - and while it was being fixed, we all watched for lions!  We didn’t see any!!

We visited the U.S. Embassy Memorial in Nairobi that was constructed after the embassy was bombed in the 90s, and we toured the Nairobi Museum of Natural History, featuring much of Leakey's anthropological finds.  Then we were driven by a crazy matutu driver to meet Br. Dennis Lee in the Kibera Slum (featured in the movie “the Constant Gardener”).

The Kibera slum houses 1.2 million people who are packed into an area smaller than New York City's Central Park.  Seventy percent of the children in Kibera are orphans.  Open sewers and lack of sanitary food preparation are disheartening.  This slum is built into the side of a large hill and rain can cause land slides and death, as happened just the week before.  The Christian Brothers at CTIE are helping to teach the teachers in Kibera.  There is one big school in this slum taught by teachers from the slum.  We were taken on the tour through Kibera by CTIE students who are from Kibera.  It is almost impossible to describe the poverty and deprivation these people experience.  Photographs cannot fully demonstrate the struggles they endure.  But when you look into the eyes of a child standing next to an open sewer, you can understand.

Saturday, we concluded our trip by visiting Nyumbani, a home for children with AIDS and founded by Father Angelo D'Agostino, a La Salle Academy graduate and member of the La Salle Academy Hall of Fame.  We toured this wonderful facility and visited with the children.  Our next stop was the Nairobi Resurection Garden which was magnificent and moving.  From here we visited the Kazuri Jewelry Factory, an example of the industrious nature of Kenyan women.  It was started in the 70s by three women and now employs approximately 300 single moms.  The requirement is that all workers must be single moms, and the factory hours are designed around the school day.  Lastly, we visited the Bomas, which as a cultural dance and acrobat show rounding out the student cultural experience.

After a 16 1/2 hour trip home, we arrived safely and all the students were happy to be reunited with their families.

The chaperones and students were profoundly moved and appreciative for the opportunities provided by this trip. 

If any reader would like further information or would be interested in a formal presentation by the students, please contact Leslie Martinelli at lmartinelli@La Salle-academy.org or Cindy Steger at csteger@La Salle-academy.org.