The School Visit

by Mathew Muema

20th October in the Kenyan calendar is a holiday known as Mashujaa Day, meant to celebrate our heroes. At P.C.E.A Musa Gitau primary school, this day was celebrated in style as it was their school visiting day and business was not as usual. As I entered through the wide opened gate there was at least someone to say “karibu” meaning welcome. Students were eagerly a waiting for their parents at a certain corner where I entered straight looking for my two sponsored students Mercy Nelima and Bramuel Makoha.

Uweza sponsored students Bramwel Makokha and Mercy Nelima

I could also see a crowd of other parents who came to pay a visit to their children as a way of motivating them while in school. Before I knew it, I saw Bramuel running towards me with excitement over his face. Soon after we embraced, he took my camera bag and he showed me in to look for Mercy who he referred as sister. Immediately we spotted her at a corner reading through her books at the school dining hall and as soon as she saw us, she came to say hi.

Today’s weather was a little bit hot as it was approaching 1pm and we had to look for a better shelter from the scorching sun. Having found a place to sit, Mercy went out to wash her hands and soon came back with an unexpected visitor.  Makaki is her name, whom I was informed was Mercy's class mate and best friend at school. We shared a meal together of chips, chicken, cake, crisps, and other snacks.

Mercy is a very bright student who has always been top overall in class six.  She is expecting at the end of this term to attain 450 and above over 500. She finds school cool with no challenges.
I posed a question to Mercy whether she found any subject challenging and after a little pause, she answered with authority. “All subjects are equal so if one is easy then all of them are and I don’t find any of the subjects that we are taught tough,” were Mercy’s sentiments.

Bramuel, on the other hand, is social and outgoing; he says that his favorite subject is English. “Being in school is the best decision any young person can make in their life. I am happy to be in school and want to work towards getting good grades at least above 400 at the end of this school term, ” noted Bramuel.

With Bramwel's teacher

 Bramuel’s teacher appreciates them and says they are disciplined and hardworking students and assured me that they usually support the students in case they feel challenged. For me it was an exciting day spending time with the kids.

I was encouraged to hear Mercy say, after receiving her motivation prize from Uweza for good grades, that she will buy a present for her mentor who is a student in form 2 and who stays with her at Tunza Children's Centre, a children's home for orphaned children. Both of them are writing inspirational new stories of what they called a sad story of their past life and are an inspiration to all kids out there.

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Mathew Muema is Uweza's hard-working and dedicated Sponsorship Coordinator.