Number the Stars

One of the volunteers, Laura, and I have been teaching Number the Stars by Lois Lowry to Form 2, the equivalent of 10^th grade. One of my favorite books from mother-daughter book group in middle school, it is about a girl living in Denmark during the Holocaust and her coming to age story as her family protects her Jewish friend. When we started the book with the class, none of them knew about the Holocaust or even World War II. World history is not taught until Form 3. This shows a huge gap in the Kenyan educational system. Realizing we were not just dealing with students who did not understand all the vocabulary and concepts, but also students who had never heard about the history surrounding the book, we got to work explaining the history. Slowly by slowly the students became more engaged in both reading the book and writing about it in the discussion questions we provided them. We also had the students write out blog entries and taped a final class discussion of the book because my old school will have students read the book in February and write entries in response to the entries of Highway Academy students. Even though the students are still shy about voicing their opinions, one of the teachers said he could tell they enjoyed and understood the book because they were able to talk about it. I am thrilled that they know a lot more about world history than they did at the start of the school year.

Today is our last full day at Wema. I am so sad that the time flew by again. It has been incredible seeing the progress that has been made with the computer lab, well, medical center, and library. I am also excited about all the projects we have been talking with Stephen and Teresa about to make Wema more sustainable. It will be exciting to continue to work on these projects and track the progress from home.

Of course, I will miss the students most of all. I have been able to form even stronger friendships and relationships with the students this year. I am so excited every time a new student remembers my name, or at least my name here,“Caro.” Their dedication to their work and strength through all their hardships inspire me everyday. I love their ability to act silly and laugh with each other outside of the classroom, even though they spend from 6:30 am to 10 pm everyday together.