Not just another Thursday

Today is the day! We found a secondary school for Judie! I told her as we were leaving the school, "I want to do a - we found a school dance."

I won't go into all the details about entering high school in Kenya, only to say that it is not an exact science, more like a free for all, where I have to admit that being white has its advantages.

Judie didn't get great marks on the KCPE national exam, but she was called to three different district schools. One was a mixed boarding school, which was fine for primary, but not ideal for high school; another was a girls boarding school even further down in the bush than her primary school which was 6 km down the mountain; the third was a school that starts the year by breaking the rules. They call five classes of girls the first term, when they have only registered three with the government. So they chase away two classes in the second term. They just use the first term to get extra money from the students. Judie had wanted to go to this school because her friends were going there but mom (that's me) said only as a last resort.

So today we went to visit Ruiga Girls, a boarding secondary school just outside Meru. It's beautiful, not too far into the bush, the headmistress is wonderful, the secretary is bubbly and very kind, some lady from the kitchen came up and said she wanted Judie to be her daughter too. "Fine, I said, she already has so many moms, one more can't hurt." Judie immediately relaxed at Ruiga, I could see she was comfortable and did I mention it wasn't too far into the bush! I have paid all the school fees for the year  and the bank in Meru and we bought almost all the supplies she will need yesterday. The best part is that she will enter school on Feb. 2. Which means I will have plenty of time to go to Uganda and do my work for GUW. Ahhh! The Lord is good!

Judie and I have had our share of laughs looking at the requirements for the schools. The schools deep in the bush required that you brought a panga (machete). I can't be 100 percent sure what they would use a panga for, but our favorite taxi driver Justin said it was for them to help clear the compound - you know - life skills training with a dangerous weapon!

In order to not make one REALLY long post, I'm going to write a few smaller ones to try to catch up from Sunday... they won't however be in any kind of order... so bear with me. Am too hungry to do things in a chronilogical fashion at the moment. Too hungry because I missed morning tea time, not because I haven't been eating... Lord, have I been eating!