Walk for a Bus Week!

Hello Hello Hello J

  This blog is an update on the latest biggest project happening at Sipili School for the Deaf!!! As some of you know, back in March, my school was planning a ‘Walk for a Bus’ to raise money for a school bus. However, 3 days before the event was to take off, some unforeseen issues popped up and we had to postpone it. But now we’re back in business baby!!

Some information on our school and the walk…we became an officially registered school in 2006. We are the only school for the Deaf in all of Laikipia County, which ranges from Nanyuki to Sipili, 240 km, about 4-6hours in length. We are a public boarding school with 80 students registered from infant class to Class 8 with an additional vocational class.

Every year we aim to attend Games, Music festival, Drama festival and field trips however, the transportation is difficult to arrange. Our students are such visual learners but sometimes they cannot attend festivals or trips because we don’t have the means to get them there and back. We are hoping to purchase a school bus so our students have an opportunity to see more of Kenya and learn about various topics while seeing them in person.

We realize raising money is difficult but we are hoping to apply for a Peace Corps Grant after the walk. The PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Grant) is a grant that can reach $10,000 as the maximum and that is what we’re aiming for. The community must raise 25% of the total in order to receive the grant and that is why we’re doing the walk, as our community contribution. The grant is not like most grants as it gets the money from donations. My school has to apply for the grant with a variety of papers and budget lists. Then it will go through a review process done by other PC volunteers in the Grants Commitee. After it has passed the test, it gets sent to PC headquarters in Washington DC and if it is fine, then it will be put up on the PC website. Once on the website, it is up to any supporters in America to donate. I will have a short paragraph about our school and the project and how much money I am hoping to raise for the school. Anyone can support us. If you search ‘Peace Corps Partnership Grant’ the website will pop up and you can check out every PCV around the world who has a grant up. I will tell you all more about that once the walk is completed, we know how much we’ve raised and how the grant application is going but that’s the direction we’re hoping for.

The walk is now taking place from 26^th-30^th May. We will leave tomorrow afternoon for Nanyuki so that we are able to attend church the following morning. The learners and teachers that went to county Games in April had gone to one church while there, 2 months ago, and received a lot of positive response about our school. We hope to go back to the same church on Sunday and receive some donations to help our cause. We will sleep in Nanyuki again on Sunday before the walk begins on Monday morning. We hope to start the walk off and then walk around Nanyuki trying to get donations first before walking onwards. We are going to walk about 8km past Naro Moru where we will be spending the night at a school. We hope to do lots of walking and lots of collecting donations J The rest of our schedule goes as such, for those of you with a Kenyan Map who may be interested. Day 2 we leave from Naro Moru and go to Mwaiga to sleep at another school. Day 3 we’ll leave Mwaiga in the morning and go to Nairutia to sleep at our 4^th school. Then on Day 4 we’ll walk to Nyahururu, my banking town where we have informed a lot of businesses, banks and higher up people to let them know we’ll be arriving and we’re hoping to receive a lot of support in town. On Day 5, our last day, we’ll walk to Sipili past Kinamba. We are aiming to reach Sipili between 3 and 5pm and receive a big welcome from our town and school!

There will be 10 learners participating alongside myself, another teacher- Wairia, one of our cooks and a B.O.G. (Board of Governors) lady who wants to walk with us the whole way. Our principal will be there for the flagging off in Nanyuki and our deputy may meet us for a day on day 3 or 4. We have informed all of the high up people in Laikipia County, the police, the education officers and Peace Corps people.

While we are all on the walk, the learners and other teachers here will be doing their part to continue raising awareness and collecting any money from the community. Two teachers will be taking some learners to market on Saturday, since it is our market day which means there are tons of people in town, and telling people about what we’re doing. Then on Sunday a few teachers and all of the learners will attend the big Catholic Church they go to every Sunday and will make an announcement and try to raise more money. It is a continuous process.

I can tell you this has not been the easiest thing to plan with my counterpart. We’ve had our share of hiccups along the way and I will be glad when it’s over but I also am excited for the adventure. It will be a week of strictly Kenyan food-no pasta for my dinners, talking to as many Kenyans as possible while on the road, hanging out with the same 13 people every day and hopefully walking a lot of kilometers!

We are ready this time! The banner & posters are ready, the packing list is made, we have places to sleep every night, the learners are informed, Sipili town has posters everywhere and the schools/churches have had announcements made.

Lastly, I ask that you please send us your thoughts and well wishes that we may finish the walk, receive donations, stay safe, remain healthy and have a great time learning and walking together!!

Thanks and many kisses,

Zabet