My Trip to the United States of America 20th October -17th November 2008
After putting together all the right papers needed for this journey the big day finally arrived on the 20th of October which is a Kenyan public holiday. It all started like an idea from the teachers of Trillium Charter School in Portland Oregon when they paid us a visit in June of 2007 an idea that became a dream and finally a reality.
The Trillium team worked hard to get funds for air ticket and basic needs for me while there, I had been told by many people that the US is a developed country I was dieing to see it all for myself. The purpose of my trip was to get ideas that could make Humble Hearts School a better learning place and honestly my trip opened my eyes to a lot of things, I got ideas that could work well in our educational institutions.
In The Plane
The excitement was felt by everyone at HH we had never had anyone travel by plane to a far away country everyone was in prayer for my safe travel, good health and Gods favor in the foreign country. As I entered the plane I couldn’t help looking around as the plane was so huge and the services were great! I was in even more shock when I arrived at Heathrow Airport it was from there that everything just started looking different and I realized that I was indeed in the first world country the technology at the airport was amazing.
My first stop over was at Heathrow then Chicago and finally my destination Oregon Portland. I was met by Stephanie the director of Trillium Charter School we had dinner at a restaurant then later met with my host Polly who is also a teacher at the same school.
The first thing I noticed that amazed me were the good state of the roads that had minimum traffic if not any, something that we just wish and dream of here. Driving in Kenya is a nightmare the roads are full of pot holes and one can sit for two hours on the jam not forgetting motorist who are always ready to break the traffic rules. So you can now imagine it when I say the roads in America are in good state I really enjoyed them.
At Oregon Portland
The Trillium team arranged for me to go round the class and see how they teach I was even welcomed into most of their staff meetings I felt so much at home among these friendly community. As I watched the classes I realized that the children had a lot of freedom of speech they were very confident to air out there thoughts both in written and in spoken they related on very friendly levels with their teachers something that I really loved that is not common in Kenya I thought it would be a good idea to introduce this kind of system in our schools as way of that would help bring up a better generation that would then produce good leaders that would voice out the rights and needs of our country helping in eradicating poverty.
The Trillium teachers in this school were so committed to their work they worked tireless on both holidays and even extra hours on working days. They were always looking for better ideas to making the school a better.
The Trillium School has great technology I wished I could just carry some of these wonderful things back home, the classes have computers and on top of that they also have a computer laboratory, smart boards, spacious classes, kitchen where the children were served with lunch everyday I actually think the educational system there is well arranged.
At Trillium I had a chance to teach Kiswahili to the kids for Kenya these is a group in the school that organizes different children to visit Africa Kenya as they come they always do projects to better the situation at Humble Hearts School they have in the past made desks, shelves and gardening it is always a good time for kids from both schools to learn from each and makes long term friends.
I had a chance to visit the Portland Saturday Market, the Malls and Mt. Hood. I had a wonderful time in Portland it is actually at the courtesy of Trillium Charter School that I was able to travel all the away to the USA am forever grateful for their generosity.
My second week on the 3rd of November took me to Colorado Denver where I met with Kari Fillmore who runs Angel Covers foundation for needy children all over the world. Angel Covers has been working with Humble Hearts since 2004, it has raised funds to build classes, buy books and start the new angel Cottage construction which will be a better living place for the Needy deaf children that are currently living in a very pathetic state. Many of HH children have gotten sponsors through the Angel Covers Foundation
it was really exciting to be finally meet with other sponsors that work with Kari we had dinner and talked more on how to improve HH.
Kari arranged for me to have talks with different People so my visit was a really busy one, our first meeting was with the director of Colorado Association for the Deaf that is where I learnt of Gallaudet University that gives scholarships to the deaf people, we actually thought that these would work well with our deaf teachers.
Adam of 10/10 project an organization that helps with poverty eradication in Africa arranged for both Kari and I to meet with the director of Rocky Mountains School For The Deaf where we had an open discussion session with the pupils of the school and teachers the pupils were so amazed by how Kenya sign language was different from their American sign language we had a wonderful time their. Kari also arranged for a talk with the church where she fellowship and we had dinner invitation from one of the church members who was excited to help with micro financing the HH parents as why of eradicating poverty.
My appreciation goes to the Fillmore family were wonderful hosts and of course to the Angel Covers board members who took their time to come and have a word with me with me.
At Pennsylvania
The third week took me to PA Scranton my host was Sandy who is the director of Scranton State School For The Deaf here is where I got the most shock. The Scranton School is run by the state it has everything that you can never imagine could be in a public school in Kenya. Every class has smart boards and projectors, classes have wall to wall carpet the and a cafeteria where the children are served with milk, juice, fruits, tea, coffee, baritos, humbergas, saladas the variety of food was just over whelming and just like at Trillium the teachers really loved their work they work in all ways to ensure that the pupils understand what is being taught it is also a kind open communication system where the pupil/student are allowed to air out their views. Being a school for the deaf everyone communicated in sign language.
I had a chance to visit the dormitory area and was in more shock with our lucky this children were no one was sharing a bed the rooms are nicely decorated with pleasant homely colours their staff on stand by to assist the children in the dormitories these dormitories sincerely speaking look like five start hotels with every single technology that you can think of.
At the Scranton school I learnt new ways of teaching different languages to the deaf children our major challenge at HH right now is how to help our deaf children like and understand Kiswahili which they are finding very difficult, they have to learn three languages Kiswahili, Sign Language and English which makes it so confusing, we have now introduced teaching Sign language making sure that the children understand that it sign language then help them read it out in English then Kiswahili getting the right spellings and punctuation and understand their use we are using three mats to remind children when to sign and when to read the words as English or Kiswahili, This is an idea that I learnt and borrowed from SSSD.
From all the schools I visited I learnt that team work helps people share their ideas and work had to ensure that they performed well it actually gives them a sense of belonging. I had two of the SSSD write one year cheque as sponsors to a child at HH by the time I was leaving. We have currently formed team work departments at HH the teams are spilt in five different categories:
_ Academics
_ Extra Curricula Activities
_ Catering and Accommodation
_ Security
_ Administration.
Every depart has been structured to have a lead persons/teachers who are responsible for calling meeting to discuss on how to make their areas better and a teacher is allowed to be in more than one department. Leads persons of every department can call for their own meeting then later call for their teams to meet and talk about what was discussed.
I was fortunate to see the Halloween we do not celebrate here in Kenya it was really interesting to see orange pumpkins on almost every door step and scoopy stuff hanged outside and the children were really excited about it.
I had been to eight airports by the time I left the US namely Heathrow, Chicago, Colorado Denver, Portland Oregon, Newark, Scranton, Phoenix and of cause Jomo Kenyatta Nairobi. And stayed in NewYork, Scraton, Denver and Portland Oregon.
New York was the most amazing city of all I visited the Time Square where night and day were the same due to the flashy bright lights on the tall building, the population looked higher than in the other three states I had been to. I saw one naked man with a guitar in his hands he called himself the naked cowboy he was getting money from anyone who wanted to take a photo with him!
I realized that we are far from getting the technology that the American schools have but we can borrow knowledge that does need technology to be carried out. I still have fond memories in my mind of the beauty and technology of the US its my prayer that one day the whole of Africa will have the same, the right direction to these I realize is giving our children quality education so that they can become better tomorrow leaders.
Many thanks to all of you that made my trip a success and my stay comfortable, may God richly bless you.
Beatrice Anunda
Director Humble Hearts School
HUMBLE HEARTS SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
P.O.BOX11721-00400
NAIROBI KENYA
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