Back home

Now, when all of us have been back to school for a few days, the thought of how different our school world is from the one in the Canon Kituri High School (from now on only CKHS) in Taita Hills came to me. Here's a list of things that I still can remember (sadly, Africa feels so far away here on snowy and cold Finland, where no one asks how I am or waves at me in the streets):

Half of the students in CKHS were living at the school
Half of the school equals about 200 students. Most of them come from some city far away, like Nairobi or Mombasa, and live permanently at the school till school's over. Their parents come and visit them once in a while, bringing them new clothes and other things they might need. Some of them get some pocket money as well, but there are those who are  dependent on what their parents bring them, not able to buy anything on their own.

This is quite unfamiliar to us, as there are very few boarding schools in Finland. I myself have a hard time imagining how it would be to actually be in school all the time and be supposed to follow the school rules, not being able to get away. Those who live at the CKHS have to wake up really early, at 5 AM each morning just to do their homework before the lessons begin, and they also help to clean the school area.
(Some of our teachers thought the idea of waking us up at 5 AM and making us do our home work was a really good idea, what a surprise...)

They also have school uniforms, and the colours at CKHS are brown (pullover), beige (under knee-length skirt for girls, trousers for boys), white (shirt) and light green (the Gym class t-shirt).

For the ones who are interested, their school fee for one year is 23,000 Ksh, which is about 230 €.

No boyfriends/girlfriends allowed
My pair in the research, Irene, told me that if someone caught you with a boy (or a girl) at school, both would be punished - how hard the punishment is depends on the "crime". She said the punishments could vary between digging a hole where it was needed, or to clean all the classrooms, to even be expelled from school! I think this affects the relationships between the boys and the girls at CKHS - when we were there, we noticed that the boys and the girls were standing in different groups, far away from each other. Maybe the distance (which was not to be observed in the dining hall where we finished our research, however) help to keep the boys and the girls "from each other", and prevents "illegal" relationships to form.

Studying
At CKHS, they are, like us, able to choose what subjects they want to study and create a time table of their own. Their subjects are, however, combinated into pairs, and if you for example study Physics, you have to study Maths. My pair Irene had the combination of History and Business Studies. I don't think this "making-lumps-of-the-subjects" is a good idea - the students should be free to combinate whatever subjects they want. But in the case of Physics and Maths, I am able to see the connection :D

Another thing that is different from our system is the Gym class. They have no actual "Gym class", all the students just stay for another hour at the school after the lessons have finished for the day, and play football or other games together. Wouldn't this be nice, being all together and having fun?

This "Gym class" makes their school day to end at 5 PM, and after that, the students who don't live at the school rush home to help their parents with domestic tasks before it gets too dark. This is another thing different from our world - free time and hobbies. Most of them I talked to didn't meet any friends after school - they spent their free time with their families, helping out at home or doing home work. They were surprised that we actually have time to do something after school, gather with buddies, do sports or go to the cinema. But, this is understandable - here, we have almost ridiculously little domestic tasks that have to be done each day, which equals more spare time. We also have lights along the streets at night, so that we are able to make our way home even if it's dark - this is something they don't have, even in Nairobi.

Then last, but not least, some pictures from Canon Kituri High School:

The sign for the school along the road

Maria and Sofia at the road to the school from the main road. In the background you can make out the dining hall

Some of the school buildings

Classrooms

All the teachers, Nina and some locals kids at our field trip to the farms

 

Local students and Finnish students at the field trip

Students in the yard

Finalizing the SWOT-research in the Dining Hall

Maria and Vilma, handing over the cellphones and the other equipments to the Head Master of CKHS

Jarmo, the Geography teacher from Kauniaisten Lukio, handing over the satellite pictures of the Taita Hills area

// Crista