Mustard Seed Project Update

Staff tell me people go to the shop to buy food but come home with very little as prices have rocketed, so the MSP feeding programme is even more necessary for our youngsters. School for our pupils means so much more than learning: it is a place where they are cared for in every sense. As usual, I had a list of tasks to do during my stay, ably supported in school by UK trustee Charlie. Like me, she has teaching experience and is invaluable as an observer and mentor in the classrooms, giving feedback on lessons and offering support. She finally managed to set up our appraisal system and everyone was given time to either be the appraiser or appraisee during one of the two training days we undertook. Our teachers recognise that they have a ‘dream’ job – with smaller classes and better resources – and are keen to show their appreciation, taking everything on board and giving of their best. The parents also recognise this, and our parents’ meeting was at maximum capacity, as usual, to show their gratitude.

Another of the jobs I had to do was to meet with an engineer dealing with the ‘snagging’ work and of course his skill at building relationships with everyone he met was so important.

One of the highlights this time was being visited by former pupils who started with us as three-year-olds and have just completed their final year at secondary school. One such is James – pictured here with Charlie, who worked with him on her first visit as a (then) volunteer. James returned to share his success, express his and who had not previously been to school. In truth, his class at our school was full, but I could not turn him away. Ironically, if I had been in the UK I would have said categorically they he could not come (which was probably the right decision) however my heart won over and then I saw the excitement erupting from him when I said he could come and…

It is always a pleasure to see the Kenyan Trustees on these occasions (pictured here with in the newly erected building. It turned out that he had known my late husband (and co-founder of MSP), Geoff, for a long time and had been very fond of him; it is delightful for me to see just how much respect and love the Kenyan people had for Geoff, thanks, and consider his future. He and Patience want to go into hospitality and I managed to arrange for them to meet with HR at the hotel we stay in, and we are all hoping they will be offered work experience there.

I was delighted to be able to meet in person with a desperate mother to give her good news: a UK donor wanted to donate £100 to 10 needy people. The woman’s husband had abandoned her a month before, with no warning. She has four children and is determined that they will all finish school – unlike herself, who had to leave after two years of secondary school. However, she is clearly a very bright and enterprising woman, as she has set up an order-andcollect catering business using WhatsApp. She was overcome with emotion when she heard the news.

As a result of one of these meetings I offered a place to a six-year-old boy whose mother had no money for his education, me after one of our meetings). They are so supportive, and I couldn’t manage without them. They understand how things work in Kenya and have been invaluable when dealing with the authorities for various reasons. Their government recently decided that secondary school education should start at age 12, rather than 14 years, which means that some of our pupils would have to leave us and find a new school where they would be taught in class sizes of 100 pupils (ours are 30). We applied to become a Junior Secondary school but were turned down because we had no land for a playground amongst other reasons. A good friend we have made out there – head of a large secondary school – arranged for another inspection and we wait to hear the result. I would not have tried so hard to get the decision reversed if it were not for the fact that our parents were devastated that their children would have to leave Miche Bora two years early so we wait to hear the result.