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OUT & ABOUT
Offers opportunities for AWA members to
travel in groups for short trips to places of interest in
Nairobi and its environs.
Morning at The Museum
In
April, Out & About visited theNairobi
National
Museum
which had just opened its doors after an extensive two-year
remodeling. We divided the large group in half; some of us
went with Joanna McWilliams to learn about the Kenya Museum
Society and the others toured the museum with curator Simon
Gatheru.
Joanna took us first into the Louis Leakey
auditorium and showed a DVD which talked about the history of
this building and detailed plans for future renovations. The main focus of the
Kenya Museum Society this year is to raise the funds to
refurbish this facility, and make it a true asset both to the
museum and to the community. Many of their plans were
disrupted by the post-election violence, but with returned
calm, it is hoped that they can proceed with this much-needed
restoration. Then we took a short tour into some of the
research departments, including a visit to the Coelacanth—a
170 cm long fish which was thought to be extinct. Found in
2001off the coast of Malindi,
the Kenya Museum Society helped to preserve the specimen which
is now housed in a large tank in the ichthyology
department.
In the museum proper, we started in the Hall of
Kenya; a wide open reception room dominated by a large
arrangement of decorated gourds. Simon explained that
the gourds represented all tribes of Kenya, and
symbolized both the diversity found in the different cultures
and the unity they found in their common land. The six display
cases around the room housed “icons” of Kenyan culture: Kiondo
baskets, Motonyi headdress, musical instruments from Lamu, a
Kalenjin cloak made of Colobus monkey fur, and a map of
Kenya covered by
butterflies of every description.
The next gallery was the Hall of Mammals. In the
center was a display containing a life-size elephant, giraffe,
zebra, buffalo, and gazelle, as well as an elephant’s massive
skeleton. Around the edge was information about the different
animals, including a scale on which you could compare your
weight to that of the different animals. (I won’t go into that
too deeply!)
Around the room were other displays about the
locomotion of different animals, their feeding habits, and
their defense mechanisms—all of which made very interesting
reading.
East Africa is the cradle of humanity, and the
Kenya Museum boasts some of
the oldest archeological artifacts in the world. In the Human Origins
gallery are descriptions and artifacts of our earliest
ancestors, as well as explanations of the work that
anthropologists do to derive some of their conclusions. For an extra fee, you
can visit the “Skull room” in which are housed the museum’s
“crown jewels” – including the original skeleton of Turkana
Boy.
Upstairs we came to the “Cycles of Life” Gallery
which guides the visitor through the life cycle of a Kenyan
person. From the
toys and games of childhood, through puberty and the rites of
adulthood, to adult responsibility, you can see the
differences and similarities between Kenyan cultures. At the
end, of course, are death rituals, and the veneration of
ancestors which is part of many tribal
cultures.
The last completed gallery is the display of rock
art from all parts of Africa. Here we saw
reproductions of some of the oldest human artwork; the 28,000
year old paintings found in Namibia. There are
also replicas of the giant god-figure found in
Algeria
(8,000 years old), Bushman paintings from South
Africa, and concentric
circles found in Uganda thought to
represent the sun.
This gallery has its own set of guides who answered our
questions and told us the history to be learned from these
ancient artists.
As with many of our Out & About excursions, we
finished with shopping and lunch. The Kenya Museum Society has
a beautiful bookshop located near the reception desk which
offered some great deals on jewelry, books, and
handicrafts. For
lunch we went across the street to the casino where the
Twisted Melon restaurant prepared a delicious multi-course
buffet.
There is still much to be done. Simon told us of
future galleries that are in the works, including African
History, a display about the diverse ecology of
Kenya, and a
children’s discovery area. A lot depends on funding, of
course, and the continued interest that we in
Kenya show in this
beautiful new
facility.
Out
& About - March 11th, 2008
to Starehe Girls'
Centre
It was a small but enthusiastic group who
gathered at Starehe Girls’ Centre for our March Out &
About. We were met at the school
byRegina,
the administration secretary, and Rosemary, the school nurse,
who gave us our tour of the campus.
We started off with a history of the centre.
Started in 2005
by Dr. Griffin as a sister school to Starehe Boys’ School, the
centre is home to 312 girls from all districts in
Kenya. The girls, from 13 to
17 years of age, are all promising students who are either
orphaned or destitute.
Each has received grades between 430 and 500 on her
primary school exams, and is selected on the basis of
need. Each girl
is given a sponsor upon arrival, who, for Ksh 65,000 per year,
provides for all the girl’s needs, from food, to books, to
uniforms, to medical care.
We started our tour at the form 3 classrooms,
where dozens of girls in their neat red, black and blue
uniforms studied math, geography, and science. As girls will do, they
got a little giggly when Jan took their picture, but were
otherwise intent on their studies. We visited the new
toilet block which was donated by AWA, and were told how the
girls themselves play a part in keeping it clean.
Then we visited the “GG” dorm which houses 48
girls per floor in each of its two wings. The large common room
overlooks the lake which is used for irrigation and
fishing. In the
future, they hope to have a fisheries program in place. Each small room has
three bunk beds, (housing 6 students), but two girls from each
room will be moved into the new dormitory when it is finished
next year. House
mothers live on each floor and act as mothers to the girls in
their charge.
We then went up the hill to the farmhouse; the
oldest building on the campus. This lovely colonial
farmhouse houses the library, the music room, the French
classroom, and the computer room. Vivian, a charming
upperclassman who greeted us there, told us about the music
program which includes instrumental and vocal music, as well
as music appreciation and dance. About 50 students take
part in music classes, and occasionally perform for the
public. The
computer room holds 20 units; all donated, but only 10 of them
are working at this time.
Rosemary is quite proud of the new clinic which
was donated by the German Embassy. It has a 5-bed
infirmary, an up-to-date examination room, and a
dispensary. There
is also a quarantine room for those who might be contagious,
and plans to start inoculations and health education in the
future.
Some of the girls are studying agricultural
science. For
them, the school has its own working farm with 12 dairy cows,
and small plots of land on which the girls grow tomatoes,
yams, bananas, sukuma wiki, and potatoes. When we were there,
there was a nice crop of carrots ready for harvesting. The students sell
their produce to the kitchen, and to the nearby Windsor
Hotel. With the
proceeds they pay the workers who help tend the farm, pay for
electricity and water, and purchase new seeds. Fertilizer is provided
by the cows.
Last stop was the dining hall and kitchen. The dining hall was
part of the Limuru Institute which previously owned the farm
and much of the land.
A large tent was erected nearby to accommodate all the
students at one time. The kitchen has
a large charcoal-burning stove and a smaller oven nearby for
baking. A young
woman sat on the floor painstakingly peeling a huge bag of
potatoes for lunch as we passed by.
Our own lunch was a picnic under the huge mugumo
tree near the library as monkeys passed by overhead. Nearby, a brass plaque
honored the first class of 71 “pioneer” students who had
opened the school in 2005. All but one of these
girls have continued on to become upperclassmen, and will sit
for their O-level exams this year. After that, some
will go to university, others will seek work in Nairobi or other parts of
Kenya and some may
stay on at Starehe as staff. All of them will go with a
sense of pride in their accomplishments and the confidence
that comes from a job well done.
Repeat
Outing to the Museum
by Popular Demand
If you weren’t able to make
the Out & About to the Museum, (or even if you were), you
can still have a chance to see this fine facility with
AWA. Every year
we give the students of St. Euphrasia’s Women’s Centre an
outing, this year we’ve chosen to take them to the Nairobi
National
Museum. We’ll be meeting at
the large Kitengela Glass sculpture at the entrance, and going
with the students through the completed galleries. Then we’ll have lunch
at the Savanna Coffee shop. Take advantage of this
fine opportunity to get to know the students of St.
Euphrasia’s as they are introduced to this exciting piece of
Kenyan culture.
Date: Wednesday,
June 18th
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Cost: Ksh 400 for entrance
(free if you bring your KMS membership card), and Ksh 500 for
lunch.
If you would like to become a
KMS member, just ask at the reception desk for a membership
form.
Call Lucy 020-434-9328, Randi
0710-852-929, or Carma 0722-206-692, if you’d like to
attend.
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