Brother Lawrence Humphrey, President Christian Brothers High School - St. Louis

Br. Lawrence, Staff and Students,

First of all I want to thank you, Lawrence for your support and generosity with the twinning program with St. Paul's - Marsabit. My sincerest thanks to the Staff and Students for their support in making the twinning program such an outstanding success for us here at St. Paul's - Marsabit. We have benefited so much front the generosity of the CBCHS School Community and the work here would not be able to continue without special friends like you. It is important that you know that you do make a big difference in the lives of the sons of the nomadic pastorals of Northern Kenya by your continued generosity. You do change their lives significantly and give them hope for the future.

I received the school's RCT Statement just the other day with your Twinning Donation indicated and though I am late, I do want to thank you and all of the CBCHS - St. Louis School Community for the tremendous effort you have made in helping us. CBCHS - St. Louis continues to show by its generosity to the less fortunate that they are concerned about others who might not be as fortunate as they are. I also realize that your contributions do not come easy, as it is also a chore for your teachers, parents and students to provide for their own Christian education. I can only thank you adequately enough by promising you that we will use these resources to continue to provide a good Christian and meaningful education for those whom you meant to help.

Here it is already the fourth week of September and we have almost completed the third week of our third and final term of the school year. We started off the term on the 8th September with almost all the students reporting. Transportation is always a problem in this area and to have 80% attendance on opening day is very good. By the middle of the first week the students were all in and already at their studies. We start off slowly with only half-hour periods for the first week, so that the students will get used to the school routine once again. It also give an opportunity to get the campus back into a good condition, as all the cleaning and tidying up of the school grounds and buildings is taken care of by the students during a community service period of one hour' a day. The half-hour periods gives us time for an extra work period, but also lets the boys know that we will be starting school right after the reporting date.

In their own tradition and culture it is. unusual for young men, probably true in all cultures but especially theirs, of their age to do these menial tasks of cleaning up, etc.., but they get right into it as it is part and parcel of the school program. They are very good with the animals we have at school for our milk needs, as they are herders of camels and goats on the floor of the desert and of cows in the highland areas. But with farming acid gardening it is a novelty to them as the majority of them come from the floor of the desert, which surrounds Marsabit Mountain. It is only on the Mountain that there is any cultivating of the land for crops.

With the start of the third term we were short four teachers, two of them accounted for the other two not know why. Our Br. Kevin was coming back from home leave and he was expected to be a week late and the other one accounted for was the new biology teacher that I had hired down country as a replacement for a teacher who went to government service. The two unaccounted

for had family problems, which they had to take care of but fortunately were able to get back to the school by the end of the first week. Whenever a teacher is missing the class then goes uncovered for the time of his/her absence. There is no such thing as substitute teachers, but it is surprising how patient and understanding the students are when they miss a class. They don't like the idea of missing classes, maybe one or two periods off for a change of pace, but they do want the subject matter to be covered in the class so that they will be ready for the National Examinations at the end of Form Four, Grade Twelve.

The students were only in for two weeks and then I had to send the boys home who hadn't completed payment of their school fees. They are needy students and they do need help and assistance, but the school fees are kept very low so as to make it affordable for all of them to come to school. Some of the parents, mostly the fathers, are reluctant to pay school fees for their sons because they feel that they have given their son to the school already and they miss the young man at home as a herder of the family-animals. Weary trying-to-get them out of a state .of complete dependence and to try to make them responsible for their son's education. The school fees that are charged take care of less than one-third of the cost of keeping the boy in school. It is a very poor area, marginalized by the government over the years and their pastoral way of life causes them to depend totally upon their animals. The selling of a couple of goats would take care of the term's school fees, but the pastoralist is very reluctant to sell one of his animals. When I do send the students home for not completing payment of fees, they are usually back within a few days with the full payment.

During the break between the send and third terms, mostly the month of August, we had an Enrichment Program at the school for the Form Fours to prepare them for the up and coming National Examinations. This is like a summer school program, whereby the Form Fours stay at school during the holiday time and take classes. It has become very common in the country, perhaps even an abuse now, but the stress is so much on passing examinations to go on for the next step in education whether it be secondary or tertiary education that it has become a necessity. For us here at St. Paul's - Marsabit, I invite Form Four students from the neighboring government schools to join in with us for the program. Our own students benefit by studying with other students from different schools, but the outside students benefit the most as they get an opportunity to study in a very conducive environment for betterment. Again, St. Paul's- Marsabitt is the only secondary school in the area which has qualified its graduates for study at the tertiary level in the State Universities. We find a good number of the outside students as capable as our -own,- hut-they-are--lacking- in study skills and---a good environment to make the best of their talents. It is hoped that by coming together they will learn from us, as we hope to learn from them. This is our second shot at it and we won't know if there has been a recognizable effect until after the secondary school examination results are published next year.

This year we had ten young ladies who joined us for the program and this year, which was different from last year, they stayed on campus. We had them well segregated but there wasn't any problem at all. Another feature of the program is that students of all religious beliefs are invited to join the program and we had almost half of the outside students of the Islamic faith. It takes a little getting into, but the outside students quickly learn the discipline and routine which St. Paul's - Marsabit is noted for and go back to their own schools trying to implement some of the features they found here. I think it is a good over all experience for everybody and I do hope that it is proven by a few of the students from the other schools qualifying for the State Universities.

It is still very dry and warm here on the Mountain. It is raining in other parts of Kenya, but the rains haven't arrived here yet. This is the time of year for the 'short-rain season' and hopefully the people of the area will get the rain they need so badly. During the 'long-rain season' everything was going nicely when the rains broke off abruptly and the crops, which where planted on the slopes of the Mountain withered and died. It has been a bit overcast these past mornings and that is sometimes a sign that the rains are near. But to be sire we will have to wait until the sound of the whip over the back of the oxen is heard as the men of the manyatta start to cultivate their fields.

Kenya lost its Vice President to illness in the United Kingdom where he went for treatment. Our beloved Cardinal, Cardinal Maurice Otunga the first African Cardinal in Kenya and all of East Africa, died recently in a nursing home. So the country has suffered two great losses. The Constitutional Review goes on as the country tries to prepare a new Constitution. There is a lot of pressure and infighting as different political parties and groups jockey for their own positions. It was hoped that a new Constitution would be n place by the end of the year, but that doesn't look possible now. The important thing is that there is still peace and security in the country and for the most part the people have confidence in the present government. If the new government, a coalition of different political parties which combined together to oust the former government could be united as they were during the voting, things would move along much better.

This third term finds us with two new young Kenyan De La Salle Christian Brothers on the Staff at St. Paul's - Marsabit. That brings the number of Brothers on the Staff up to four, one American, one Irish and two Kenyans. This is out of a total teaching staff of eleven, nine of who are Kenyans. The two young Brothers have made a decided impact on the school already in such a short time. One of the Kenyan Brothers comes to us from Rongai - Nakuru, where he taught for three years and the other Kenyan Brother comes to us from St. Mary's - Nyeri. They are both highly qualified teachers and coming from two of our better-known schools the boys are happy to have them.

It is planned that at the end of this school year that Brother Michael, the young Brother who comes to us from Nyeri and has been in positions of responsibility at St. Mary's, will take over the reigns of the school. This will then place two of our secondary schools under the direction of our Kenyan Brothers. The two of them are highly qualified and have shown competency in responsible positions already, although this is the first time for them to take responsibility for the running of a school. We all wish Br. Michael Kimotho well in his up and coming appointment! I am sure you will be hearing from him in the near future, as you have heard from me.

For me it will be difficult to leave St. Paul's - Marsabit, as I have grown to know and to love the people of the North! I don't know yet what I will be doing next year, but I do hope that it will be somewhere In Kenya ... and in the North, if possible. I personally would like to thank you for your support and generosity over the year. St. Paul's - Marsabit is so blessed that it has been twinned with such a great school as CBCHS - St. Louis. CBCHS - St. Louis is well know throughout all of Lwanga District, certainly the States and the Institute in general, for its great generosity and support for the Lasallian Missions. For me personally, it made the work so much easier to know that I had such great friends backing the work and I really didn't have to worry about how I would continue on implementing new programs and maintaining the excellent academic traditions of the schools. Since the school's founding and with the leadership of Brothers Emmet Sinitere, Kevin Malinowski and Martin Spellman, as the two previous heads, the school has grown in to be easily the best school in all of Northern Kenya. For that CBCHS - St. Louis has every right to feel proud to be apart of that.

I promise you all a daily remembrance in my prayers in thanksgiving for all that you have done for St. Paul's - Marsabit, the sons of the nomadic pastorals and especially what you have done for me