What do Kenyan students do in the holidays?

It seems that many things about Kenyan life are quite different to that of Australia so I was pretty keen to find out what school holidays would be like for Kenyan students.

Do they hang out with their friends, watch movies, go to the beach and the shops? Well, I kinda knew they wouldn't do most of that stuff but was interested to see what they would do instead- I opted to stay at the school for the holiday period to get some work done and see how the 50 or so students living here all year round spent their time.

Construction work on the schools new kitchen began in the holidays and on the first day I noticed some of my older students amongst the workforce,  $3.10 for a full day of carrying heavy buckets of water, shovelling dirt and mixing concrete can make a real difference to school fees.

However, for those students who live here all year round they had other chores to take care of that came above paid work, for example emptying out the schools supplies of beans, mixing bug killer all through them and re-bagging. I decided to help the boys out for an arvo doing this much to their delight- I didn't realise how dirty a job it was, or how difficult. After filling a bag with beans they jokingly asked if I wanted to lift it. I thought I'd give it a go but was shocked that I could barely budge it! The boys explained that they were 90 kg bags- then casually hauled them onto each others shoulders and carried them back to the storeroom.

One morning I got up before seven and had a look around the school, most of the classrooms were empty yet I found a few that had students in them, they had gotten up early and set up their books to work on their study. Halfway through the holidays the students at the school started 'attending' lessons again and observing the school timetable through self-directed study, always keen to be improving their grades!

I was happy to see that holidays did also include some chillout time, for the girls this is mostly sitting around and doing each others hair and for the boys many games of football. 

As for those students who are boarders or day scholars, I found out on return to school that the majority had worked in their fields for most of the holidays. I learnt to begin my post-holiday lessons with 'how were the holidays- did you weed the maize?' to which the inevitable answer was 'fine- yes of course we did!!'.