October 19th, 2006 Migori, Kenya

October 19, 2006
Migori, Kenya

This morning B and I woke up to Jared knocking on our window at 8:00. He informed us that we had to let the chef in to cook us breakfast. We then went back to sleep for about half an hour. When we came out of our room at 8:30 the table was filled with a meal of eggs, bread, and fruit.

After eating and showering, B and I got ready to go to a school in a smaller village. Although we were expecting to be picked up at 9:00, we had to wait until 10:00 for the taxi to come. The taxi driver and George (Jared’s buddy) took us to the school.

The drive was quite interesting as we went by a small marketplace and entered a dirt road. The dirt road then turned into a grass road and we ended up driving through a field and past several very small villages. Eventually, we came back to a dirt road. Another 5 minutes and we were at Petals of Africa School Ngochoni.

As we entered the school the headmaster and headmistress greeted us. They told us a little bit about the school (kindergarten – 5th grade) and then took us around to each of the classrooms. We were introduced to each of the 7 classes. Each class greeted us with a lot of excitement. Several even sang us a song!

Once we saw each of the classes we continued touring the school grounds. We passed by the construction area where they are building several new classrooms (6th – 9th) and toward the brand new basketball hoop. We then circled back along the gate and checked out the hut right next to the school.


It was then time to teach the kids how to play basketball. While they had a hoop, no one had ever told them how to play. All of the kids were let out of class early and we started to teach them the game of basketball. It was quite difficult as the balls were very small and the ground very uneven. Dribbling was almost impossible and shooting was also harder than I anticipated. Still, everyone learned a lot. The teachers seemed just as excited as the kids!

After a couple hours of basketball coaching it was time to eat some lunch, which consisted of beans and rice and water. Interestingly, only the male teachers ate with us (as at Jared’s house last night, when only the men ate dinner at the table).

We then chilled out at the table for a while and waited for a rival school to show up for a soccer game. Once it was apparent that they were not coming, a game of pickup soccer started (between teachers and students). B and I joined the teacher’s team and played soccer for about 2 hours.


It was then time to chill out under a tree for a while. We talked to the teachers for a while and then decided it was time to head back. On our way out we rounded up the school and took a picture in front of the main building before leaving. NOTE: We learned that the children only see a white person once every couple of months.

We returned to our guesthouse at about 17:00. After showering and changing, we headed back to Jared’s house for dinner. We got there slightly early and waited a while for Jared and Clinton to show up. They finally arrived at about 17:45. Jared took us down to the rivers edge and then we had dinner.

After dinner we made our way back to the guesthouse. We packed up our stuff and went to bed very early (21:00).

PS - at the school we saw some guys making bricks. It was super cool! I had no idea that bricks could be made out of mud...