Today we went to visit George's sister Caroline (Caro) at her boarding school. 95% of kids that go to school in Kenya go away to school at least for high school, if not earlier. Schools are not free and the parents have to pay a lot of fees for their kids to go to school. At the end of their last year of high school, the students sit for national exams. How they do on their exams will dictate where they can go to university. Today Caro's school was having a prayer meeting for the students in preparation for the exams. All the parents were invited to come and support the daughters. We listened to teachers, parents, priests and the principal give encouraging speeches. It reminded me of a graduation ceremony because the kids were excited about their hard work coming to an end.
After, the parents had meetings with school administrators so we (George, me and his sister Nancy) got to visit with Caro. She told me a little about her school and I was shocked by their schedule. They wake up at 4:00am to be ready for class at 5:00am. Then they have breakfast at 6:30 (for 15 minutes), followed by mass, then back to class. A ten minute break comes next followed by more classes. Then lunch at 1:30 and more classes. At 4:30 they go outside for exercise and more classes. They work so hard. I could not function at 4:00am! It made me thankful for our free education in the US where we started at a decent hour.
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