The Project

The project we were to work on was in the large slum area known as Kayole.  Unity Center School was in Soweto.  No running water. Electricity limited.  No paved roads. 

Unity is a private school that charges a school fee for each child. This covers uniforms, lunch and books.  The public school system in Kenya is overcrowded.  There is no school fee, but there are

 charges for uniforms, lunch and books. The teachers were out on strike while we were in Kenya. The vision of Unity Center School is : To Create Citizens Capable of Bringing About Positive Change in the Society and the Entire Nation.

Our plan was to build one new classroom, a new kitchen and repaint the other classrooms.
This involved tearing down the temporary classroom which was made of tin walls with a tin roof that leaked. 

We also tore down the kitchen - used to make the daily lunch of ugali - which was covered in soot with a sunken wet area as a floor.

We worked hard on our first day - Tore down and started to raise the kitchen floor and bring in  bricks for the new rooms.  Our team included a foreman, Sammy, and 5 or 6 skilled workers called "fundis" in Swahili. They received lunch and about $14  a day.  And we had 5 or 6 women who volunteered to help us in order to have their children's' or grandchildren's school fees waived for the year. We fed them lunch.  They all became our friends.

 

At the end of the first  day, I went out and joined the children who were singing and dancing.  I introduced myself to the music teacher Josephat Kilungu and told him I loved their music and had wanted to dance with the African children for a long time. 

He welcomed me and told me that the music made the children very happy.

If only they had a drum.......