Filling in a form.

Its something that would usually be a simple administrative task.

A form with student data- address, parental contact details, fee paying information etc  for all the students in the school, it is usually done on admission but there are a number missing and hence it is decided that a new form be developed and all students fill it in. 

I am unsure exactly what information is required and so I team up with some local teachers to determine what such forms usually look like in Kenyan schools. 
As we get to the parent particulars, one of the teachers says in a matter of fact way - 'there must be a box to tick, if they are dead or alive'. I nod my agreement and note it down, but inside I feel terrible. The fact that for many of the kids their parent will just be represented by ticking a box labelled DEAD is just horrible. 

When it gets to the students filling out the form there is a whole new set of questions I didn't expect, opening up to me again how difficult the backgrounds of these kids actually are.

A child from the most nuclear family that I know of asks me 'I don't know what my mother or fathers name is?' I am shocked and respond with what I think are her parents names- people who I know well from the ecclesia, she laughs and replies 'he is not my father! I have never met my parents, I think he is maybe my uncle." 

A number of students struggle with the section on their parents...
'Madam, my mother is dead- am I still supposed to fill in her phone number?'

"For my fathers occupation, I guess I just put 'drunkard?'''

"For my mothers level of education, can I write 'zero'?'

Siblings is also an area of confusion for many, one student telling me he is one of seventeen siblings and many others with similar large figures and complicated families... 
"It asks how many brothers I have, is that just from my mother and my father? or from my fathers two other wives as well?"

This 'simple-filling-in-a-form' has once again showed to me how complex Kenya is, it is just so different from the 'normal' at home and the lack of nuclear families is one of the key reasons why life is so difficult in this country.