Gianni's experiences

In the end, everything happened quickly: I booked the flight on a Saturday afternoon, informed Joshua that evening, was welcomed by Grace and Harrison in Mombasa the following Saturday, attended the first obligatory church service on Sunday, which included the first motorcycle ride on roads unsuitable for Swiss standards, and on Monday, the adventure at 'Harrison Primary School' (HPS) began. I have known the school and the project for several years and have always been impressed by the work Joshua and the team do. Various pictures and reports shared by Joshua always piqued my interest and ultimately led me to want to visit the school in person. And I’m glad I did.

During my time at the school, I lived with Harrison and Grace. It was less than a 20-minute walk or five minutes by motorbike from the school. I was welcomed as a new member of the family right from the start and this only increased over the course of my time. Today, when I tell my friends and relatives about my time in Kenya, I always talk proudly about my Kenyan family. The way in which all the family members took me in (at the best of times there were eleven of us living under one roof) really touched me and I was very impressed by how they coped with life. For the first time, I really realised what a luxury water is and what it means to have no running water. The water is painstakingly carried into the house canister by canister. I got a backache just watching, whereas other women in the village seemed to have no problem balancing 20 litres of water on their heads. With this in mind, it is understandable that the water has to be handled with care. Not a drop is wasted: Water used for washing hands is collected directly in a bucket and reused later to flush the toilet. I tried the same thing with my hand shower from the bucket. The kitchen cannot be compared either, especially its equipment: while we are used to having at least a four-ring hob including an oven, my Kenyan family only had a single gas cylinder fire (if the gas ran out, there was still the option of switching to charcoal). Right up until the last day, I was always impressed by what ended up on the table despite the circumstances and I never ate badly, quite the opposite. To summarise briefly: I lived a very simple life, but I never lacked for anything.

Let's get back to school. After surviving the weekend, including countless battles with the prevailing heat, I was allowed to familiarise myself with the school on Monday. I was accompanied by Harrison himself. He drove me to the school, showed me all the rooms and introduced me to the teachers and all the pupils. I then discussed the timetable and the next steps with the headteacher Silas so that I could start my first lessons straight away on Tuesday. On Monday itself, I was primarily present as a visitor. I observed various lessons from the other teachers, got a first impression of the project and curiously observed the interested looks of the children on the school grounds. In general, I was expected to do very little in the first few days. Every time I made the slightest movement, I was immediately offered a break on the grounds that I was tired. I almost had to push myself to be able to offer my help. Fortunately, this soon subsided and after a short time I was an integral part of the team and therefore part of the HPS. As a teacher, I then took over all the maths lessons in Year 8 (last school year at the HPS) from the very beginning. Over time, the maths lessons in Year 6 and Italian lessons in Years 5 and 6 were added. And occasionally I also led individual sports lessons, which meant running after a ball in the blazing sun without a trace of shade (for the children, unlike me, absolutely no problem). I was also always sitting in on my fellow teachers and giving them feedback. When I wasn't teaching myself, I assisted our cook Elina in the kitchen and in the afternoons I often played and danced with the younger classes, which was always a great pleasure for me. I still love to think of the children's shining eyes today.

I really enjoyed teaching and working with my students. It took a while for us to get used to each other, but afterwards I would say it was a very fruitful collaboration. Particularly at the beginning, my pupils found it difficult to openly admit when they had not yet covered or understood something. As a maths teacher, you always encounter the same problems with pupils, both in my work in Switzerland and at the HPS. And yet I have to admit that I had to deal with a few more challenges there. As a teacher in Basel, you are used to every classroom being equipped with a projector and a blackboard, there are plenty of sets of teaching materials and now most pupils are also present with their own laptops/tablets. There is talk of so-called BYOD classes (BringYourOwnDevice) - simply unimaginable in Kenya (or at least at the HPS). I was already happy when all pupils were able to provide writing materials. A textbook was provided for me as a teacher, the pupils copied everything down and got their documents that way. In year 6, I had access to four copies of the book, which meant that small group work was also possible in some cases. The structure of a lesson therefore required a different approach to what I was used to in Switzerland. Although the students themselves did not have their own devices, the HPS was provided with a few laptops including school software by the Labdoo organisation. I also tried to incorporate these into the lessons and thus familiarise the pupils with the use of computers. I also looked at subject-specific learning programmes with the maths teachers and taught them a little so that they could continue to use them after I left. Overall, I certainly noticed a poorer understanding and less intuition in dealing with the computer than would have been the case in Switzerland in the same age group, but the enjoyment and interest in it is at least as great. Fortunately, language was not an obstacle. After all, English is Kenya's second official language and the children come into contact with it from kindergarten onwards. From primary school onwards, lessons are mainly taught in English. As a result, the pupils, especially in the higher grades, are very well versed and fluent in English - in some cases perhaps even more so than me. The only thing that was challenging - or rather took some getting used to - was the Kenyan pronunciation of English and, conversely, my Swiss pronunciation. However, you soon get used to it, but it could also lead to funny misunderstandings at the beginning. On my first day in Kenya, for example, I was given the nickname ‘Safari’ (Swahili for journey) at short notice, as the Italian pronunciation of ‘Gianni’ corresponds to their English pronunciation of ‘Journey’ - still incomprehensible to me today, but quite amusing. As my Swahili wasn't, or isn't, too noteworthy, it took over a week to resolve this misunderstanding. During this short time, however, I wore this sonorous name with pride and then told my friends and relatives in Switzerland with amusement.

As already mentioned, I also taught a little Italian. This came about because Kenyan schools are required to teach another foreign language in addition to English and Swahili in the future - at least that's how it was explained to me. In fact, the timetable (which is not drawn up by the school itself) also included corresponding lessons. The school management originally wanted me to teach German or French. However, as my time at the school was limited and there was no continuation of foreign language lessons in sight, I insisted on letting the pupils choose which language they wanted to learn. It was also important to me that these lessons should be more fun than learning pressure. Firstly, the learning success of a new language in six weeks is manageable and secondly, the timetables already demanded a lot from the children. Not everyone necessarily saw it that way, but in the end we went through with the Italian lessons and it was a great success. We laughed a lot together and the children greeted me in the schoolyard with ‘Buongiorno Gianni’ and a big grin on their faces.

One of the big highlights for me was certainly the farewell and all the emotions I was given. As a teacher, you're used to students not always seeing all the effort that goes into preparing lessons etc. and taking many things for granted. They often only realise this later, but you are still pleased when this is noticed. A teacher can draw a lot of energy for further tasks from these small appreciations. And it's not much different as a teacher in Kenya. I always had a very good and trusting relationship with my pupils at the HPS and also felt that the joy of working together was mutual. However, the emotions I saw and received at my farewell party were beyond imagination. It is difficult to even begin to put it into words, but these emotions and the gratitude I received repaid my efforts many times over. This moment alone confirmed to me that my decision to go to the HPS was absolutely right and also showed me that the work I had done was worth much more than I would ever have given myself credit for.

I wish the HPS all the best for the future and sincerely hope to be able to visit my Kenyan family and all my students again soon. Asante sana - Mwalimu Safari Gianni!