the end of Ramadan

September 5th

I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend!

This last week of classes was very short. At the end of the day on Monday I told one of my students that I would see her the next day and she informed me that there was no school, it was a holiday. I come to find out that it is the end of Ramadan and so for the next two days there would be no school if the moon decides to show. That night, Lindsay and I both stayed up quite late very excited for the middle of the week holiday. At 7 AM the primary school starts ringing its bell. We were both very confused. I called the headmaster and he informed me that the moon did not show so we have school. Yippee! Lindsay and I walked to school on Tuesday to find about 50 students total and about a third of the teachers. We were very confused. The headmaster informed us that form three was in charge of picking up logs on the school grounds and bringing them to the office. There is a thief among the village who keeps taking the schools cut down trees. The headmaster said it was going to start in about an hour so Lindsay and I headed to the staff room. The student teachers that did show up were being observed by one of their professors and we found frantically running around in the staff room. I went into form 3 while they were just sitting there and we discussed Kiswahili. They laughed and assisted as I asked questions about verb tenses. I didn’t exactly know what to do after that so I sat and waited and read in the staff room. After an hour the headmaster arrived and said the activity he talked about is ready. Very confused I found Lindsay and we followed someone that speaks not a lick of English through the trails in the woods. He kept stopping to talk about the significance of something or other and we just mhmmed and nodded along. Eventually we reached a group of students who set off cutting, collecting, or returning the wood to school. Some were struggling quite a bit with the task and I felt bad for them. Around 11 it was announced that the school wouldn’t be providing lunch for the day and that everyone should go home.

Lindsay stayed at school to help her form 1 students and I went home and prepared some food. After eating, I walked to Isoko. I purchased some fabric a few weeks ago at the local market and made plans to go to the fundi (seamstress) with one of the student teachers. I called Hawa a few times as I was walking but she was not picking up. I also tried to connect with the pastor for assistance, but he was at his home and unavailable. I decided I would look like an idiot just standing around so I did a loop up to the hospital before returning home. Luckily, Hawa called as I was walking the loop. She said she would meet me in Isoko shortly. An hour later she arrived, we went to the fundi, then she took me to her house to meet her brother, sister, and mother. Everyone spoke English quite well. Hawa’s father is a doctor so I expected the family to be quite educated. I left rather quickly with a promise to visit again on Thursday. As I was returning home the pastor found me and invited me to his house. I sat with him and his nephew for an hour before they walked me home.

On Wednesday and Thursday there was officially no school. I spent my time cleaning and doing chores at home on Wednesday. I didn’t get much accomplished because many students stopped by to visit. Eventually one of my form 3 students showed up to escort me to her home in Isoko. I promised on Monday but was hoping that she wouldn’t remember since we did not have school. We met up with Lindsay in Isoko and went to Neema’s home for a few hours. Neema turned on her TV and we listened to music while Neema danced (she is one of the wealthier families with electricity!). I had a lot of fun relaxing at her home but we couldn’t stay long because it was very late in the day. We walked home a little later in the dark. On Thursday I had to return to Isoko to visit Hawa’s family again. I spent much of the afternoon with her and her brother talking about America before the headmaster called and wanted to see me. I thought it was an emergency and returned home quite quickly to find out he just wanted to see how I was doing, yet he couldn’t just do that on the phone!

On Friday we had a “normal” day of class except that only 15 out of 70 of my form 3 A and B students showed up to class!!! There was some meeting during school that the student leaders had to attend. After school I relaxed at home. On Saturday I went to school to find only three students for my tutorial. There was some celebration that night and the students needed to prepare. I was a little annoyed since I would have liked to go to the market if I didn’t need to teach, but I couldn’t do much about it. Lindsay agreed to walk to Isoko with me and we spent Saturday afternoon visiting people. My skirt and jacket from the fundi were not finished so I went to the guesthouse with Lindsay to watch some television. As we were sitting Lindsay received a call from the postmaster. For some reason he was at the hospital because of his daughter. I thought it would be a good idea to just walk up to the hospital and find him instead of trying to decipher his meaning over the phone. We found Mr. Mbughi, his son Noeli, his daughter Wema, and a student Nisile after a minute of searching. Wema and Nisile were in a lorry (like a cattle truck) travelling to the market when it fell over and they were crushed by the people falling on top of them. Wema broke some bone in her shoulder and Nisile hurt her back. These details took me about two weeks to get straight; it was very confusing at the hospital. The girls sat on the beds drinking sodas when we visited so we thought they were just spooked from the accident. As we were visiting, Hawa’s (the student teacher) mother was in the room since she is a nurse and reminded me that I promised to visit that day. I told her okay but Lindsay didn’t want to go and I figured I could just tell Hawa we were tired. After the hospital Lindsay and I returned to the guesthouse where we stayed for another half an hour. As I was leaving the guesthouse Hawa’s mother was leaving work and we walked together to her home where Lindsay and I stayed for a few hours eating kitimoto (pig meat).

That Saturday evening marked the first Saturday for ngome. Ngome is a traditional celebration held each year after the harvest and just before the field work begins again. Each Saturday for a month there will be a ngome but the location of it changes each week. In part two I will share my experience of the celebration!

Love,
Gretchen