Sunday in Joska

I haven't had time to update this blog, so I will put a little bit up for each day and fill in more details, photos, and videos after I return.

Sunday we went to the Joska boarding school, about 25 miles from Nairobi. This is the school where about 7 hundred 6-8 graders from our schools in the Mathare Valley slums continue their education away from the crime, drugs, and gangs that may attract them in the slums. It is a bare bones, but amazing place where students work extremely hard to pass the grade 8 exams that enable them to attend high school. The school has had just about 100% of their students pass when the national average is a bit above 50%. Some of the students have gone on to some of the elite high schools in Kenya. These are children from the slum and they know the value of an education.

First we attended a church service with all the students (except about 50 who had to sit outside) and all the guests crammed into the tin building. There was singing and dancing and the children were often crammed 2 to a seat. It was great. After church, all the students went to their classroooms where they studied quietly for an hour before lunch. No teachers stayed in the rooms with them. That was crazy.
This is a Joska student named Esther leading the singing.




We had lunch and then we talked to the kids. I found a group of boys. One of them, Samson, is a distance runner and competed at the Nationals. We talked about all the great Kenyan runners as well as other sports. We talked about education and politics and all sorts of other things. The hour went by quickly. Did you hear that? When was the last time a group of junior high boys could talk so intelligently with an adult? And these were children that used to wander the streets of the slums. What an amazing day!

The Church service

one of the girl's dorms-for most students this is their first bed

Kenyan teacher desks are much neater than mine

Moses and the "boys"

They are creating their own great future!