I used to think that classrooms were just for those times when you really needed to use tables and chairs, but now I’m not sure you even need them then. This week the kids took their tables and chairs outside to work on pieces of writing about the environment. We had been reading poems about …
Two young ladies from the Rhino group, enjoying a moment of quiet in the dinning hall before the main lunch crowd comes in.
#46 How to carry a table when you are small.
The difference between land that has been protected from livestock, and land that hasn’t, is very clear to see in this photograph. The damage done to the ecosystem by overgrazing has had a dramatic impact on the land around Olng’arua School, and across northern Kenya. Over grazed land is compacted and desiccated, it sheds rain …
Skipping rope is the current craze in the school. At each 15 minute break between classes all the children rush out to jump rope. This little girl impressed everyone by jumping so high, and laughing so much when she did.
None of the children who attend Olng’arua School have electricity at home. They all live in traditional houses built of mud and sticks, lit at night by a paraffin lamp, or more likely, just a fire. There are no books in their homes. Occasionally a newspaper might be brought back if someone makes the trip …
Each child brings a stick of firewood with them when they come to school, to feed the fire that cooks their lunch.
Our solar water pump takes all day to fill the school tanks, as apposed to 45 minutes with a petrol pump. But who cares!? We have plenty of sunshine and this lovely little pump quietly and cleanly fills our tanks for the week by the end of the day.
Our Environment is our home, we should not destroy it.