We had the first staff meeting for the second term. The term has been in session for 9 weeks now.
Two ‘IMPORTANT!!’ messages are scrawled on the blackboard in the staff room, proclaiming that the meeting will begin at 10:00am on Wednesday, July 4th.
As usual, the Kenyan rules for when a meeting should start applied to even this one. The rule is that if it’s “within the hour”, it’s not late. At 10:49, the remaining people needed for the meeting to start appeared.
The meeting went on until 4:00pm. I’ve grown accustomed to meetings in Kenya. They rarely ever leave me feeling anything, a stark contrast from my first few meetings in Kenya. Today was a little different though.
I’ve had ideas formulate, solidify, and strengthen with my time in Kenya. Some of those notions have been shattered after witnessing a proof that undermined that notion completely. An excellent example is the notion that all religious people in Kenya are vehemently against any form of homosexuality. This notion was indeed true for the longest time as there wasn’t any proof to contradict it. It took a strong effort to remind myself that it may be that not everyone behaves that way. Fortunately, the notion was discredited as soon as I met a pastor from Migori.
This one idea that I have though just builds up and makes itself stronger with each passing day, like a snowball rolling down a hill gathers everything in its path. Foreign aid, at least for Kenya, is making Kenyans dependent and lazy. This does not mean I think that ALL foreign aid for Kenya should be pulled out but it is my opinion that the vast majority of them should be halted or at least severely reevaluated for sustainability and better measurement of goals.
I heard this straight from one of the senior teachers’ mouth today while discussing the issue of corporal punishment in schools: “We all know the law making corporal punishment illegal in schools passed only because the mzungus said that if we continued the practice, they would pull aid. We’ll do the same thing with the homosexual issue because we’ll lose money if we don’t. Let us continue these practices in secret but pass them on paper for the world to see.” Multiple heads nodded in agreement.
I sat there completely astonished by what had just transpired while simultaneously expending every ounce of focus I had trying to control my mouth and my anger. The worst part of it all, they believe they are entitled to that money.
There he goes, 