Standard 8 Prayer Party

Prayer days are just one of the many Kenyan traditions we’ve had the opportunity to take part since we’ve been here. Prayer days are all day events that are dedicated to celebrating the students that are preparing to take the national exams that will determine the students’ education future. Two groups of students sit for these national exams, Standard 8, whose exams determine whether or not they can continue to high school, and the Form 4 students (seniors), whose marks determine what kind of college they can apply to. We should take the time to stop and explain how the exams are set up. The KCPE is the exam for standard 8 students and anyone looking to pursue a high school education must pass this exam. Technically passing is receiving 250 out of a possible 500, however, the better one scores, the more options they have for choosing what school they can attend. Any admission into a school can be bought, but only for those who can afford it. It is Hamomi’s policy that a student must receive marks of at least 300 out of 500 in order for them to be sponsored into secondary school While this is possible, it is a challenge and a goal the teachers and students alike have been preparing all year for. This year, Hamomi sent 12 students to the KCPE out of the total 746,000 students that sat for the exam nationwide. Contrary to what the name suggests, there isn’t actually that much praying. Instead, it is a time for the students, and all those who have supported them-- parents, guardians, teachers, etc-- to gather together and wish the candidates all the best. And then, of course, in Kenyan tradition, eat. And Boy do they eat! But, we’ll get to that part.

In preparation for tour Standard 8 Prayer Day, we were asked to prepare something to bring for the feast. We were told there would be around 30 people in attendance, the 12 students and their guardians, plus the director and teachers of the school. The rest of the school would not have classes that day, but rather would spend the day playing games, as the teachers would be tied up in the celebration and it seems rather unfair that the rest of the school be in formal classes while Standard 8 parties.

Knowing that the last year’s volunteers set the bar high by baking a plethora of delicious treats, we knew we had to bring our A game-- and bake something. Now, baking back home is a daunting enough task, but baking something here where all of the measurements are in different units, temperatures are different, and without a working knowledge of how to even use the cooking equipment here, we were intimidated to say the least. However, we drew inspiration from a treat that was in frequent supply throughout college for both of us and one that reminds us of home. Rice krispie treats it had to be!

We must take this time to apologize to Momma Reithel for bringing shame to the treat that is rice krispie treats as our execution was as poor as our planning, as you’ll soon see. We are very thankful the students had nothing to compare them to because we know full well that any American would’ve looked at what we made and would’ve denied that what was before them even resembled rice krispie treats-- or anything closely related!

On our high horses, we thought “ How hard can it be?” Some rice krispie cereal, marshmallows, butter, and voila! Easy enough…. Or so we thought.

We set out to the supermarket with our list and were very pleased to find an off brand rice kripsie cereal that would suffice. Our first run-in with trouble was picking out marshmallows, which are only sold in small packages with both white and pink mallows, the pink ones possessing an artificial strawberry flavor that is not very appealing Not knowing the proper ratios needed, we settled on one bag of mallows, reasoning that if we needed to add more, we could buy more the following day. Next, we contemplated between butter or margarine. Now, back home it would’ve been no question as to what our choice would’ve been and we would’ve bought the butter and been done with it. But here butter is ridiculously expensive, around $5 a pound-- no that is NOT an exaggeration-- and we did not bring that much cash with us, so we settled on the popular name brand of margarine and reasoned it would be similar enough.

With our supplies in hand, we arrived home just before sunset, closing the window of opportunity for leaving the house the rest of the night, and started mixing. First, one of the bags of rice krispie cereals seemed to have exploded inside the box and were a little stale. No biggie, they were all getting mixed together anyway. Next, we tried melting the margarine, somewhat unsuccessfully, as the margarine wouldn’t quite melt down the way butter would. We shrugged that off and went on to melt the white and strawberry mallows together. We soon realized we bought way too few mallows and melted way too much margarine and were now stuck with this margariney artifical strawberry/mallow glop that wouldn‘t stick together. Uh-oh. Not wanting to waste what we had made we stupidly mixed in the stale cereal anyway and decided to leave it until the next day when we would buy more mallows to even out the margarine covered cereal mess we had on our hands. Fast forward to the next day, we brought our concoction to Val‘s house, another volunteer, armed with more mallows and a bar of chocolate. reasoning that if all else failed we would cover them in chocolate, because, honestly, who doesn’t love chocolate covered anything?

To melt down the new mallows, we had to microwave our whole dish, which caused the rice krispies to become even more soggy and soft. We were doomed. But, we forged ahead and formed the gloop into rice krispie balls, then dipped the tops into a generous amount of chocolate. We shrugged, thinking that something is better than nothing, and well, they’re covered in chocolate!

The day of the prayer party was very festive, because it was not only the prayer day, but also our Spanish volunteer Carmen’s 28^th birthday. She came with birthday flags and balloons that added a colorful touch to the classroom that was hosting the party. In true Kenyan fashion, the program that was supposed to start at 10 didn’t actually start until a good hour after that. We all crammed into one classroom and enjoyed sodas as the English teacher Edwin emceed the program. It was great to see all of the guardians come to celebrate and support their student, a majority of whom aren’t their biological children. Hamomi has helped numerous students find homes with guardians who have agreed to take them in around the local community. A majority of the program was everyone introducing themselves and saying a word of good luck to the students, followed by a few short speeches by the different departments and Raphael, the Executive Director of Hamomi.

Then, it was time for lunch. Two huge heaps of ugali, which can be best described by its consistency, which is a mix between overcooked sticky rice or very firmly stuck together grits, however, it does not boast any taste whatsoever. This treat was a nice interruption from the usual rice and beans the students are served for lunch everyday. The ugali was enjoyed with a great meat stew and a traditional pico de gallo like mix called cachumbari. We feasted to our hearts content until it came time for us to serve our treats. As we passed out the homemade delicious chocolate chip cookies and brownies Val and Carmen brought, we nervously passed around our less than stellar rice krispie treats. I wish we had a video that captured some of the mothers faces reacting to our treats, as they had never seen such a concoction. They just as nervously took the treats we brought and I’m sure their inner dialogue was just as apprehensive as ours was. We were relieved as we watched the students taste our treats and swallow it down. And, of course, I asked if they enjoyed our “failed” experiment in the kitchen! They did.

After lunch, the prayer officially started, which was conducted by one of the parents who is a devoted supporter of Hamomi who even runs our board meetings. He is a priest of some sort and did a wonderful job with the sermon. At least I’m pretty sure he did, as it was all in Swahili and we could not understand what exactly was going on, but we did our best to follow along and chime in with the rest of the participants whenever they were prompted to respond to the priest. He is a very animated speaker and we could tell he was speaking with much passion, encouraging the students to do their best and to assure them that they have the potential to get adequate marks to pass onto the next phase of their education. The afternoon was quickly escaping us, so with a final bid of good luck, we departed towards home.

Enjoy the pictures by clicking this link! There will be more added this weekend!