#REPOST Memories of Chox

July 26, 2014                                          

Backwards never,</p>forward we go on

Never returning, always</p>lets go on

There is a challenge</p>we face, with pride and with strength

In fide vade, in faith we go</p>

That’s the school anthem…..and so as fate would have it, I get
a chance to go back to the school after 22 whole years!! Of course, having used
the route to the school a long long time ago, my memory of the route was
totally different. I vividly remember the route being fairly straight forward…passing
acres and acres of free land….till one reaches Banana Hill…..then more unused land
till Kamonde and then a 2km stretch of walk in between tea plantation…then you
reach the school. On entering, you pass through a long driveway past the hall
then library….then the rest of the school.

Fast forward to today, and I wake up early hoping to reach
school at the agreed time of 10am…wapi….i seem to be driving for so long. I passed
Ruaka which I have never seen before (so you can imagine my shock at all the
buildings around there)!! I pass Limuru….and am thinking to myself, I doubt if
we used to reach this town…anyways, I still think am on the right track since
sija fika Kamonde…..and then its evident that am lost when I now see very tall
trees on either side of the road….wonder where I was! I boldly asked some two
men on the side of the road and they confirmed….rudi nyuma hadi barabara ya kuingia
Limuru, alafu…..needless to say, nilifika late lakini sawa tuu.

Walking round the school was surreal….so many memories!....
for sure I seem to have floated through high school…..the girls around me
seemed to have so many stories and I could only remember snippets of it. Amazing
memory people have!! Photos photos and more photos…..everything seems to have shrunk!!
The main block, the dorms, the chapel, the parade area….aiii….ama how big have
we grown really??


Finally we had a chance to speak to some current students,
really touched by their stories. Situations may seem desperate…but it’s really
not over if one is still alive, right?….hope the short talk we gave them
inspired them! Indeed backwards never….and in faith we go on!!

Because I am a girl

Because I am a girl

There is an advert that was doing rounds on the ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign by Plan International. Ironically, this resonates with me so much yet I have never personally faced discrimination as regards education because I am a girl. When the reality of what other girls face hits me in the face, I feel for them straight from my inner core – since it feels so unfair!

When did this begin? I was minding my own business sometime in early 2005 when a young cousin came to stay in my mothers’ house and in the process look after my nephew who was a toddler then. The girl had finished class 8 and was hoping to get into secondary school but this was not part of her parents (my Aunty and her husband) plan at that moment because of financial constrains. She stayed on for a couple of months and then it dawned on me, do they really want to take her to school? And how much is school anyways?? I searched around for suitable schools and discovered the price ranges to be a wide as from here to China. I settled for a modest secondary new school near Machakos town and got her admission to start in January 2006. Her parents may have been under the impression that they were to pay for the same and so they said that her older sister has to finish Form 4 first before she can enter form 1! And that time her sister was going into 3^rd form!! I clarified that I was to make the payments and they need not worry. I didn’t think that 4 years was a too a long a time for me to commit and probably break a young girls heart if I can’t go through with it. By Gods grace, the funds became available and before we could blink several times she had cleared her form 4 exams in November 2009. How fast the 4 years passed!!! Needless to say she is now clearing her Diploma in Early Childhood Development and am glad to have contributed to her dream since she is a gem with young ones.

This experience made me realize that it’s possible to change things one girl at a time. If I had the resources I would sponsor many at a time but for now, one at a time is still good enough!!

Colour me Pink!

I have a pink mug...a pink phone.....and this was not me some years back

Having joined a women rights organisation and for the first time heard all this talk about socialisation and the way girls are dressed in pink and boys in blue...and this leads to them being girly and accepting lighter tasks etc...I would be mortified if someone saw me in pink!!

Years later, enter into my world, my precious daughter and this notion slowly changed in me. My defiant self never once bought her a doll. She turned 4 and her Aunty got her this huge doll that she loved so much. This she didn't learn from me...so where was this coming from??. I could not hide it any longer...girls have this innate biology that gears them towards nurturing, thats just the way it is!!

Now let me remember to get a small birthday cake for her doll - this was her specific request!