Our Days With the Students of Compass School....and More!

Wow! It's been an amazing three days. We're exhausted, elated, and excited.  Our Compass kids welcomed us with huge smiles, hand shakes and a program of dancing, singing and recitation that melted our hearts.

After meeting with the school board, we visited the crèche where the youngest children (ages 3 & 4) greeted us with poetry and song. Next came the children's lunch served by Sylvie, Sheree, and Jeannine. The kids were so patient and polite as they held up their plates for a small serving of sukuma weke, ugali, and a  banana. We wished we could have served seconds. Diane captured their smiles on camera while Holly handed out Canada pins. It wasn't long before one little girl was modelling hers in her ear!

When it came time to leave, never had we as educators heard students express such sadness to see us go. "Are you coming back?" rang in our ears and we assured them, "Tuonane tena."

A visit to Nakumat  and other shops where we purchased phone cards, bought our lunch and stocked up on toothpaste, juice boxes, oatmeal cookies, and oranges for our return visit was next. We really should have blogged that night, but we couldn't keep our eyes open.

On Thursday morning, we piled into the van for a trip to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust where Holly got to meet her adopted elephant son, Olsekki, who did not receive a completely  positive report in the parent/teacher interview. Apparently, Holly has a problem child!

Bad Boy Olsekki in the centre

This visit was a delight, but nothing can beat the shouts of welcome we received upon arrival at Compass. This time, we were swarmed and overwhelmed with hugs and fist bumps.

While Diane, assisted by Sheree presented the Days for Girls kits, Jeannine and Sylvie presented an art lesson where the kids got to use their new pencil crayons to illustrate their career hopes and dreams. Holly was everywhere, greeting kids and teachers and snapping photos. Her experiments with film shorts, however, might not be Oscar material. We've filed these under "What not to film."

We met with the sewing teacher to show her how the kits were constructed while Jeannine and Sylvie handed out the treats and treasures we had brought. A group of parents came out and presented us with handcrafted paper-bead necklaces. Check out the photos of this amazing day. We were so tired, dirty, and dusty, but so very happy at the end of it all. The kids and teachers were so sad to see us go, it was very hard to say goodbye. How can we not go back?

Today was more relaxing but just as gratifying. Mary Ogalo, founder of County Girls Caucus, brought teacher Francisca and student Purity to tell us how the caucus has changed them and their schools. Francisca is so passionate about the program, we wanted to attend ourselves, and thirteen-year-old Purity shared her plans and hopes for the future, inspired by her caucus experience. Nelly, who assists Mary with Global Bags, which provides training and work opportunities for single moms from the slums, then accompanied us to the shop. Their bags and wraps are so beautiful, we couldn't resist them. And when we discovered it was Purity's birthday, well, how could we not pick up a few extras?

These three days have filled us to overflowing. Tomorrow is a day of rest.