Kawelu Primary School Presents: Traditional Dance.MOD

This is a set of two traditional dances performed by the students. These dances a common dances of Kenya's Kamba people.

Kawelu Primary School Presents: Ukuku Land.MOD

This is a dramatization by the students at Kawelu. It is about a people that lived in a land called Ukuku Land. The land was very successful and productive. Eventually the people became prideful and they stopped taking care of the land. The moral to the story is to take care of the environment.

Kawelu Primary School, Makindu, Kenya, Morning Roll Call

This is the morning roll call at Kawelu.  This is where all of the children meet in the morning. They come on campus and clean the campus, and after they do that, they all meet in front of the Administration Block to do morning roll call before they start their classes.

I am at Kawelu Primary

I have spent the last couple two days visiting Kawelu Primary School outside of  Makindu, Kenya.  The students are absolutely wonderful.  They have been waiting for me, and they have prepared some dances for me.  I am one of the guests of honor at their fundraiser, which is called a Harambee.  When we first pulled up at the school, the children ran over to us and completely surrounded our car.  They were amazed to see me.  Their greeting was incredible.  Wherever I walked around their campus, there was an entorage of students following me, or peeping through windows trying to get a look at me. I have to say that this experience is quite humbling.  I am not used to people making a big deal over me.

Tomorrow is the Day

Well, it is finally here.  Tomorrow I will be flying to Kenya.  I am really excited.  It will be a new adventure for me, and I am looking forward to it.  I will be taking all of the money that we raised for Kawelu with me, and I will present it to the school.  I am sure they will be very happy when they receive the funds.  They will be able to start rebuilding the infrastructure of the school.  This will be a huge blessing for them.  A special thanks goes out to everyone who helped raise the money for Kawelu.  We would not have been able to do it with you, so I thank you with all of my heart.

Rechel

May 22nd--A Day Of Service

Yesterday, May 22nd, we had our first annual Kawelu Service day. It was a great success. We had a car wash, art sale, bake sale, grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, soda, and water. On top of all of that, we had three performances. I can truly say that by the time the day was over, just about every muscle in my body ached, but every bit of the pain was worth the effort of trying to raise money for Kawelu. I am so proud of my students. They really worked hard. Some of them were there with me all day, as a matter of fact, some were there before I arrived, and they stayed until everything was over. Now that is commitment.

The students created signs that they held up as car were passing by on the streets. I could hear them yelling out: "Car Wash for Africa!" They stood out there for hours yelling trying to get people to come in and support their effort.

We also had another crew of students washing the cars.  We even had help for some special guests.  One of the teachers at Parkway brought her husband and children to the event to help out.  Her little three year old saw the students washing cars and he didn't want to be left out, so he went over and grabbed a rag, and got busy helping out.  It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

                                                                       
It was so touching to see a tiny child show us what service is really about.  I learned a lot from that little one.

We had three performances yesterday.  In the first 12:00pm performance block, we had three groups perform from the Osceola County School for the Arts.  There was a woodwind trio, a singer, and a mime.  We also had the Advanced Guitar Ensemble from Parkway perform, and the Advanced Chorus.  The 2nd block was at 1:30pm.  This block was dedicated to students with talent.  We had singers, a baton twirler, and science teacher from Parkway sang.  It was so awesome to see her in a different light.  She sang beautifully.  The third block was at 3:00pm.  The combined choirs from Parkway performed a tribute to Michael Jackson.  All of the students dressed up in various Michael Jackson costumes that represented different decades of his life. 

This was a great day.  We were able to raise more money than we thought.  We sold out of almost all of the food that we were selling.  Many parents came out to see their students perform.  The weather was hot, but it was a perfect day for the students to play in the water, and enjoy each other's company while they were doing something great for someone else.

May 22, 2010 Car Wash, Bake Sale, Benefit Concert

Saturday, May 22nd is our big fund raising day. There will be a car wash from 10:00am-1:00pm. The bake sale begins at 10:00. There will also be hamburgers and hot dogs on sale. There will be three benefit concerts.

The first one begins at 12:00 noon. It will feature community members, Parkway's Advanced Chorus, Parkway's Advanced Guitar ensemble, and students from the Osceola County School for the Arts.

The second concert is at 1:30pm. It will be a talent showcase for Parkway students, faculty and members of the community.

The third concert is at 3:00pm. It is a tribute to Michael Jackson, and it will be presented by the Parkway Middle School combined choirs.

We have $900 more dollars to raise until we reach our goal, so come on out and support the Parkway students so that they can help provide some needed resources to Kawelu Primary School.

KAWELU WEEK, MAY 17-22

Next week is Kawelu Week. The entire school will focus on Kenya. I have received a lot of information from Mr. Muoki about Kenya, and that information will be sent to all of the different departments at school. All of the teachers will do lessons on Kenya that are specific to their subjects. I have received names of the Kawelu students from grades 4-8, so through the Language Arts classes, all of the students at Parkway will write letters to the students at Kawelu. The students at Boggy Creek and Ventura elementary schools will also write letters and draw pictures. I will take them to Kenya when I go, and I will bring letters back from Kawelu when I come back to Parkway.

Upon request, Mr. Muoki provided me with the prices of a lot of typical commodities in Kenya. I asked him to list those commodities in Kenya shillings. Our math students will be converting those prices from shillings to dollars.

The science classes will be doing lessons on climate. The reading classes will read and discuss two Kenya stories that Mr. Muoki sent to me. The health classes will do lessons about illnesses, ie. HIV, Malaria, Yellow Fever, etc.

The social studies and history classes will do lessons on social issues in Kenya, ie. Politics, Industry, Technology, Tribalism, Independance, and Economy.

On May 22nd, Parkway will host a Benefit Concert. Beginning at 10:00am, there will be a car wash. There will be 3 performance blocks on that day. Admission will be by donation. There will be a performance at 12:00 noon. This performance will feature the Parkway Advanced chorus, and performers from the community. There will be a talent showcase at 1:30. The Parkway combined choruses will do tribute to Michael Jackson at 3:00pm.

There will also be an art exhibit/sale, a bake sale, food and fun.

We are about $1000 from our goal, so I hope to see all of you come out and support this worthy cause.

Rechel

An Opportunity to Serve

This project has been a blessing to me and my students. One of the core values that we are trying to teach our students is service. We want to teach them to serve others, and to see not only how their service blesses the lives of those that they are serving, but also how that service blesses their own lives. This project is helping my students to look beyond their own circumstances. They are learning that even if they can only afford to donate $.10, a lot of their $.10 together turns out to be quite a few Kenya Schillings. They are learning what true teamwork is.

I have a student who I will call Travis. Travis is very intelligent, and I have the privilege of having him in my class. Travis is one of my students that has really grasped what we are trying to do with this project. We had an activity called a pie in the face activity. The students were to vote for their "favorite" teacher by donating money. The top contributors would get to throw a pie in their teacher's in the face. I know this probably sounds a little strange, but this is actually a very popular activity here in this area.

We started the collections for the activity on a Monday. That Monday, Travis came to me and donated $11. I was a little surprised by the amount, but I gladly took it and thanked him for his donation. The next day on Tuesday, Travis came back to me to make another donation. He told me that he wanted to donate $10.87. Knowing what he had donated yesterday, I was surprised. Being his teacher, I asked him the following question: "Do your parents know that you are donating this much money?" He looked at me and he held up a $5.00 bill. He told me that the $5.00 bill was from his mother. He then told me that he asked his mother if he could donate the entire contents of his piggy bank, and she said: "Yes." I then looked at a little container that he pulled out of his book bag, and it was filled to the top with coins that he had been saving. He unscrewed the top of the container. I opened up my envelope that I was putting contributions in, and he slowly poured the entire contents of his piggy bank into my envelope. He looked under the cap of the container and he found a few coins that were lodged there, and he knocked them free, and they fell into the envelope too.

This sacrifice brought tears to my eyes. He gave everything that he had to help the students there. Not only did he tell me how much money he was giving me, he also told me exactly how much it was in Kenya Shillings. Consequently, every donation that he made, he told me how much it was in Kenya Schillings. He goes on line every day, and he checks the exchange rate, and he tells the other students how much the value of the Shilling fluctuates from day to day. Travis ended up donating over $23 by the time the activity ended. He was the top student contributor for that activity. He hasn't stopped there. He noticed that as he walked outside in the community and around our campus, people would drop change on the ground, so he started picking up the change. At the end of every school day, he comes in and gives me a handful of change. He is awesome, and I have learned a lot from him.

This story of Travis is only one of a number of special student experiences that I have encountered during this project so far. I am very proud of my students, and I know this experience will be invaluable to them.

New and Improved

Hello Everyone. Welcome to my new and improved blog. I hope you all like it. From looking at the pictures, hopefully you all can see how important it is for us to get involved with this project. If you would like to help out in any way, contact me and I will tell you how you can help.

Rechel

I Am Learning Everyday.

Working with this project has been an eye opener to me. I have learned a lot about the life of our friends in Makindu, Kenya. Every communication with Principal Muoki educates me about the life of the people in Makindu, and I in return try to educate him about the lives of the people in the US, and about the educational system in America. It has really been enlightning.

One of the things that I have come to learn is how incredibly blessed we really are to be living here in the US. We have everything at our fingertips. I have a computer at work and a laptop at home. I can easily lay on the couch or in my bed when I want to check my emails. This is not so for the people in Makindu. They have to travel to the nearest cyber cafe to get online, and then they can only use the service if the electricity is up and running. They have rolling blackouts there to preserve energy. We really have nothing to complain about.

Rechel

The Beginning of a great Friendship

The Parkway Kawelu Project is one of my recent brainstorms. I will be going to Kenya this summer to visit my husband's family. While I am there, I want to do a couple of projects that will benefit the people of Kenya. The Parkway Kawelu Project is one of those projects.

With the help of my husband, I found a primary school in Makindu, Kenya called Kawelu Primary School. I was able to make contact with the head teacher (principal) Kiio Muoki. He has been instrumental in giving me the information that I need to start this project. The help that he has been giving me is not without sacrifice. He goes out of his way to travel quite a distance to a cyber cafe to send me emails with answers to questions that I have. He does not have access to a computer other than the cyber cafe, and Kawelu does not have electricity. My students have been asking lots of questions, so I forward those questions on to him and he answers everyone of them even if some may seem a little strange. Mr. Muoki wants to help educate our students, and the dialogue that he has had with them has be excellent.

The plan is for Parkway to serve Kawelu by doing some fundraising activities to help supply Kawelu with materials that will help improve student achievement. The infrastructure at the school is lacking, and there are not enough readers, books and desks for the students. Parkway and Kawelu are forming a friendship that will help both of the student bodies to learn from each other. This project will not only help the students at Parkway, but it will also benefit the students at Boggy Creek and Ventura Elementary schools. Both of these schools have agreed to assist us in this project, so it will truly be a community effort.

When I go to Kenya this summer, I will take letters from the Parkway students to Kawelu, and when I come back, I will bring letters back from the students of Kawelu and give them to the students at Parkway. We will begin a series of fundraising activities on Monday, March 29, 2010. Our goal is to initially raise a minimum of $3000. That is a lot of money, and the Parkway students are struggling just like the students at Kawelu, but it is on a much different level. We want our students to understand that despite their individual struggles, there is always someone that is struggling more than they are.

I truly believe that this project will bless the lives of all four schools. As we all embark on this project, may we all cherish the journey ahead, and forge strong relationships of friendship and respect.

Rechel