Kenya Schools
with TEAA Support

Lunza HS
A.C.Butonge HS
Wamalwa Kijana
St. Joseph's, Gunga
Mukuyu HS

We are delighted to have as our representatives for Kenya schools three African friends that we have known for decades and who continue to be vigorous leaders in community action, as well as invaluable to us for communication and oversight.

In the Bungoma area of Western Province, our representative Enoch Nandokha is one of our students from the 1960s. We had a reunion with him in 2003, he helped us in 2004 to conduct a school search in the region, and it has been our great pleasure and a significant benefit to TEAA that we have seen him roughly annually since.

Stanley Muka and TEAA Scribe Ed Schmidt first knew each other as teaching colleagues in Kenya almost a half century ago. Stanley is currently the the head of the Board of Governors at Lunza Secondary School, a one-hour bus-ride from Bungoma.

Near Migori in the southwest of the country, we also have a trusted long-time friend as representative, Peter Arunga Indalo, a younger brother of one of Ed Schmidt's old students. Peter and Ed met in Missouri and worked together in Kenya in the 1980s on efficient, ventilated cookstoves. This year's (2008) school visiting trip missed this area but assistance has continued and is particularly welcome in this region of polical upheaval.

This page updated, September, 2010.
Lunza

Adjustment agility was demonstrated (left) by Lunza students during our visit in 2010. They were equally adept with a scalpel preparing specimens and fully capable of explaining the significance of what they were doing. These microscopes and others were purchased with TEAA money both before and after the visit.

Lunchtime at Lunza (below). This was supposed to be a candid shot but one of the girls alerted the others just as your faithful webmaster's picture-snapping finger was starting to apply pressure to that little button on the camera.

Multi-purpose chairs (further below) are returned to classrooms by students returning from assembly, which on this occasion was also attended by TEAA visitors.






Butonge

Academic Success:    This trophy is a tribute to Butonge's exam performance, ranking high among the most improved schools in Kenya. Energy flows from the Principal Emmanuel Khisa (left) and Deputy Principal Pius Masinde (right) who encourage the students to run everywhere, from one activity to the next.

In the center, showing appropriate admiration, is our representative, Enoch Nandokha. After studying with TEAA teachers, he went on to become a succesful biologist who developed a widely-used animal vaccine.


Library Project:    The library has been Butonge's focus and ours from the start of our relationship. When TEAA folks first visited the school the library was a nice, new, empty building. Following the school's priorities, part of the initial funding went for sturdy tables and inexpensive chairs. All other funding has been for books, under the guidance of the excellent librarian, Isabel Sulungai, below at the right. Students value the library highly; there is a race for study-hall seating there in the evenings.

In March, 2006 we heard from the principal that...

The library project is still going very strong. The demand for use is so extreme that it has outstripped by far the size of the library. It is amazing how your team has changed what two years ago was a ghost room to one of our most sought after facilities. We were even more lucky recently as the local member of the parliament funded an extra stock worth $1000, on learning about your project.

Inspiration:   At left, TEAA representative David Wamalwa, who was raised in circumstances even more humble than those of these students, exhorts them to build a viable future. Outdoor mural at right holds out the hope of graduation.
Followup:    Two years later - another site visit, another speech. Your faithful webminder tried to live up to the inspirational standard set earlier by his colleague.
Top
Wamalwa Kijana

New Digs:    Wamalwa Kijana High School in Bungoma, Kenya, is a community undertaking on behalf of students who have done well academically but lack school fees. In 2004, they were meeting in borrowed space on a temporarily unused fairground. By mid-2005 they had a building and were improvising in science labs. We too improvised, by providing a small on-the-spot award to help with that initiative. At left are a board member, the principal and the TEAA representative.
Improvisation:    At another visit in November, 2005, we found further innovation in the science lab. Here, TEAA visitor Ed Schmidt admires Sibona Livingston's home-made lung model. Construction materials include balloons, a rubber band, chewing gum and ballpoint pen shafts. When the plastic diaphragm is pulled down, the balloon-lungs fill up. The lab also features Mr. Livingston's home-made pinhole cameras.

Top
St. Joseph's, Gunga


First science equipment, bought with TEAA funding, arrived just before site visit in early 2007. Displaying a voltmeter is indomitable headmaster Okunya Milton, recently arrived himself from Mukuyu where he was our principal contact, so to speak.



Where will the above piece of equipment be put to use? For the moment in ordinary classrooms, shown in the distance in the photo at the right. But in the foreground, you can see the new laboratory block under construction.

Administration: The next two photos are the present and future administration buildings, the former consisting of quarters that are cramped at all times and noisy as well when it rains on the mabati roof. But thanks to community support and careful setting of the first brick be TEAA-er Ed Schmidt, the future is promising.
Geoboard in action: A board, some nails and rubberbands, a talented TEAA teacher and a cluster of eager students, and soon enough some bits of mathematical theory become physically obvious. Nets, minnows, pirogues and people: The school has a view of Lake Victoria and it's a short though rough ride down to a nearby lakeside fishing village with incredibly friendly kids.
Top
Mukuyu


Principal and staff:   Jane Olando (at left) with several staff who provided a warm welcome for a TEAA visitor in 2004. Several teachers were unavailable as they were on a school trip to Kisumu, a major event in the lives of the many students who had never been so far from home nor seen so big a city.
Mukuyu Music Festival
Lab equipment has been the principal area of our assistance at Mukuyu. Below at left is a chemistry demo, while at right physics teachers from two continents contemplate chemistry models and an electronic balance provided by TEAA to allow accurate measurement while saving on the cost of chemicals.
Top