Chogoria Girls High School

Today, I (Zoe) went to the Chogoria Girls Boarding School. I arrived at 7:30 but the rest of the girls had been up since 4:30 doing homework and chores, mostly maintaining the grounds. I got a tour yesterday and was supposed to meet with the principal so she could show me where to go and what to do. However, when I got there she wasn’t at her office so I found some girls who were in my grade (they call it Form 2) and asked them to take me with them wherever they were going. They did but a few minutes later the principal found me (probably not too hard because I was the only white student in a school of 950 Kenyan girls). The principal introduced me to a Form 2 student, Sharon and said I would stick with her for the rest of the day. We first went to her dorm’s meeting where I stood in the middle of a circle of about 60 girls and introduced myself. A little nerve-wracking!

Classes began at 8 and ended at 4 with one 10-minute break for tea and a 15-minute lunch. The classes were similar to those in the U.S. in terms of rigor and subject but differed a little on how they were taught. In addition to our “normal” classes, they also took Christian Religion Education, CRE. In several of the classes, a student would start the class acting as the teacher; leading the class in review and going over homework. Sometimes the student would lead the entire class, other times the teacher would take over after 10-15 minutes. The classes were very interactive and I could tell the teachers and students had good relationships- they laughed a lot! I left at 4:30 after tea but everyone else had activities in the afternoon, followed by many hours of studying, then bed.

            Since a white girl had never been to this school, at least as long as these students had been there, they were VERY curious, which made me happy. J Throughout the day, I was asked:

What is your school like?

Do you wear uniforms?

Do you know Obama? As in, personally.

Who is your best friend?

Is Beyonce divorced?

Are you eating our lunch? When I said yes, they all laughed hysterically- not sure why…

Why don’t you speak Swahili?

Can I touch your hair?

And on and on and on.

It was rapid-fire all day. They all have great vocabularies but very heavy accents so every time there was a question, I had to ask them to repeat it and then I had to repeat the answer. I am curious as to whether the excitement will last the whole month I am attending… J Anyway, it was a very good experience and I am heading back there tomorrow at 7 am!

One final thought- This spring I went to a conference for sophomores and all weekend long they told us to get outside of our comfort zones. I found that it can be really hard to force oneself outside the comfort zone, especially when there are some many comfortable things to do. In Kenya, unless I stayed home all day, it would be impossible for me to remain inside my comfort zone. Although at the time getting pushed out of my comfort zone is, well, uncomfortable, looking back on each day, I am usually glad it happened.