Brother Lawrence Humphrey FSC

Christian Brothers College High School

Dear Faculty and Students,

This is a short note to say hello and to keep in touch. I am writing to you at Christian Brothers College High School, as we are finishing the second term of a three-term school year. The term started in early May, just as you were winding down your school year and ends on the 8th  August, a fourteen-week term. In all of the down country boarding schools in the middle of the term there is a mid-term break whereby the students are able to get home for a long weekend. We don't have that at St Paul's, as it would be too difficult for the boys to get home and too expensive. We hang in there for the full term!

During the 2nd Term we had our Annual Parents' Day and again it was very successful. This was our fourth attempt at a function like this and it seems that each year it gets better. Also each year the number of parents who are able to make it to the School seems to be increasing. Again travel arrangements are very difficult because in the North there isn't any kind of public transport available. Travelers from one area to another have to depend on the mission vehicle or to try to hitch a ride on the back of a lorry, which might be traveling to where they are going.

Our Main Guest this year was the Archbishop of Nairobi who was coming up to Marsabit for a diocesan celebration and agreed to be Our Main Guest. Archbishop Ndingi is an outspoken advocate for Justice & Peace for the ordinary person and he being our Main guest was an added attraction, which brought a good number of people just to see and hear him. Archbishop Ndingi knows the Brothers and the Lasallian School because he started one of the Brothers' Schools, Rongai when he was Ordinary of Nakuru Diocese.

The students rose to the occasion and had the school campus spotless. They also prepared a very special entertainment for the guests. It was a mixture of the traditional cultural songs and dances together with presentations in English and Kiswahili. One of the favourite presentations was a debate on ‘Affirmative Action in the North.’ The debate was staged by Form One & Two students. It was greatly appreciated by the crowd, as Affirmative Action is a timely topic even in Kenya

The students went all out for the traditional cultural songs and dances even so far as getting some of the paraphernalia the ‘moraine’ wear when they are out on the floor of the desert or in the highlands with their animals. I think the students were buoyed up by the importance of the guest they were performing before and because of the size of the crowd who came for the Day. These traditional songs and dances are something that our boys do very well and are greatly appreciated by the local people. We had groups representing the Borana/Gabra, the Samburu/Rendille, the Turkana and the Burji. These are the tribal groupings from which are students are drawn and the tribal groupings of the people before whom they were performing.

As we wind down the second school term with sets of examinations, we are also preparing for the Holiday enrichment Programme for the Form Four candidates, those who will be sitting for the National Examinations in October. Holiday tuition is a part and parcel of the educational system in Kenya these days, although the government sometimes frowns upon it. In. urban areas the students go to a central school for coaching in subjects they desire, sometimes at all grade

levels. In a rural area like ours, the Form Four candidates stay on at school during a good part of the holiday period and continue on with their studies in preparation for the National Exams.

What is a little different about our Enrichment Programme is that we invite other Form Four candidates from the area to join with us for the holiday tuition. St. Paul's is the best secondary school in the area, the only school sending candidates onto the Public Universities, and getting an opportunity to study with us is considered a privilege. Last year we had over one hundred ten students, forty-five of our own with ten girl students for the Programme. We hope to double the number of girl students this year and try to keep it at the same number of one hundred students. Six of the eight examinable subjects will be taught and the period will be three and a half weeks of the four-week holiday period. It will bring us almost up to the start of the 3^rd School Term, 8^th  September. The National Examinations start for the Form Fours in mid-October.

In the area the people are experiencing acute water shortages. The ordinary dwelling, even in Marsabit Town, wouldn't have piped water, but would have to depend upon obtaining water from a central watering point. They also have all sorts of means of harvesting rain water from their roofs. We haven't had any rain in the area since early May so just about everybody in depending upon the central watering points. At our school we have our own borehole (well), as there is also one for the Dibib Gombo community across from the school. Water lorries are constantly churning up the road from Town coming out to Dirib Gombo for water for domestic use in Town.. The local people who live in the area fetch their water in twenty-litre plastic jerry cans, whereas those from a far off carry the water by donkey. Sometimes in Town a person might have to wait at a central watering point for over three hours before being able to get the twenty litres of water for home use. Thanks to God we have our own borehole and it is holding up well and sometimes we are able to help with the parish mission and institutions in Town with some water.

The Town receives its water supply from reservoirs on Mount Marsabit The water is pumped and then flows by gravity to storage tanks in Town. Mount Marsabit is a Game Reserve with will animals populating it. Just recently the Town suffered severe water shortages because the

roaming elephants knocked down some of the electric lines within the Reserve. It happened over a weekend, so the people were without water over the whole weekend and into the next week before they were able to repair the damage. The whole episode caused the people in Town to miss water for almost a week and three elephants were electrocuted. The local people light fires along the Dirib Gombo-Town Road to scare off the elephants as they are on the move looking for greenery.

Kenyais starting_ to regain some of its former respectability with the new government in power as it cracks down on corruption and inefficiency. For a time the lending institutions, World Bank, RAF and European Union were holding back loans and grants to the Kenyan Government looking for reform and better accountability for the monies granted. The new government has effected some of the reforms and now the lending institutions see Kenya in much better light. One of the biggest reforms was to re-establish free primary education for the masses. It had always been supposedly free, but all sorts of fees and levies had crept in so that a large number of primary school age children were prevented from going to school. For secondary education only about thirty-five percent of primary school leavers are able to continue for secondary school education.

Right here in Kenya we re experiencing our own little bit of terrorism, as the Oromo Liberation Front, an Ethiopian based organization, is performing acts of terrorism in the Kenya border towns of Moyale and Sololo in order to draw attention to their demands. Most of the people of Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia are of Oromo-speaking group and would like to have agreater say in the government of Ethiopia They have been laying landmines on the main road near to Sololo and Moyale and throwing grenades at houses in the area. The Kenyans say that they have nothing to do with the group and fortunately the terrorist attacks have only been located in the Sololo-Moyale areas. Security has been improved and things have quieted down. There hasn't been any problem with security in the Marsabit area, as the different tribal groupings have been able to live together in peace and harmony.

Our lower form English teacher, a Brother has been teaching debating skills to the Form One students by having intramural debates. They then got up enough courage to challenge the Form Threes to an inter-class debate. The Ones were declared the winners by a slight margin. Hopefully that is a good sign that our English skills are getting better in the lower classes, which will help them as they move up the ladder to the Examination classes. Traditionally, we don't do English as a subject too well in the school as it is never used outside the school setting. In their home areas they would never hear English spoken nor is there any written English to be found in their homes.

Last year we had on the staff two Kenyan De La Salle Brothers, but after assignments and what have you, there were none for the first two terms. It is hoped that with the new assignments coming out at the beginning of the third term one or two Kenyan Brothers will be assigned once again to Marsabit. There are presently six professed Kenyan Brothers in ministry in our four Kenyan schools, one working in formation and one on overseas studies. The vocation/formation picture still looks bright, but not without its disappointments. We have our first Rendille professed graduate Brother teaching at St. Mary's Nyeri. There are also two other graduates from St Paul's still in the formation programme.

I do have some visual material on the School and the recent Parents' Day, which I will try to get to you as the new school year starts up again in September. I am sending the material to one of the Brothers in the States, who has been very helpful to me and he in turn will duplicate it and send it on to you. It might give you a little idea of what St. Paul's is like, the make-up of our student body and what the activities of Parents' Day were like.

I close this short letter with an expression of gratitude to the Christian Brothers College High School Community of Lasallian Staff and Students for their great generosity to us over the years. For sure a school like ours could never exist and offer the quality education it does to the Sons of the People of the North with the assistance we receive from you. The Parents of the boys with help very often from the Mission Fathers pat their school fees, which only account for 50% of the running costs of the School. The People of the North are not a money people as their wealth is in their animals, which by the way by custom and tradition they are very reluctant to sell. If there is to be change effected among the people of the North, then it is to come from them. It is the mission of St Paul's Secondary School to educate these young men to the best of their ability with a sound education in academics, self-reliance and leadership skills so that they will be able to become effective leaders of their people in the near future. We feel that we are doing that because of the assistance we receive from Christian Brothers College High School.

Lawrence, I hope that you have had a restful summer and that the whole Christian Brothels College High School Family has also enjoyed the rest period and that you are all set for another school year. Thanks to God, all continues to go well with us here on Marsabit Mountain on the edge of the desert

Yours sincerely,