This is another post in our occasional medical series. Each morning, when we gather for the meeting that starts the day, as well as taking the register we also have a health check. “How are you all today” is meant more literally than the normal pleasant greeting. Most mornings there is nothing more than a …
Since writing their own poems about plants a few weeks ago, some of the kids have really got into poetry. Luckily we have several anthologies of poems aimed at children and young people. A big shout out to you clever people who knew (how did you know?!) that this day would come, and sent us …
When she last visited Chelsea brought with her a large bag of pencils for the school. These were not just any pencils however. These were all special pencils, collected by Chelsea during her childhood. The collection was so impressive it even went on public display in her home town. The pencils are a riot of …
These members of the Rhino group are hoping the elephants won’t find their little vegetable sack garden, hidden as it is behind the dinning hall.
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 …