School

I've been working ALL WEEK trying to get the kids enrolled in this school called Shree Swaminarayan Academy. It's a multinational, multidenominational school, but it's pretty much staffed and attended by Swahili and Indian people. I've had to ride the matatu back and forth trying to get things settled. 

Paulo and Andre had to take these long tests so they could be placed in the right grade. Paulo is in Grade 2 for now. Andre is in what is called Kindergarten 3 / Reception. 

I still have to order uniforms, but I've arranged all the transportation. The boys get picked up by a school bus, which looks like a charter bus, right outside our gate, and are dropped off in the same spot. It's so convenient! 

The campus has two swimming pools (I wish I had thought to take a photo the day I saw the pools--sorry!)--one for the nursery kids, and one for the older kids. They rotate swimming and other "games" or sports for PE, like football (soccer), basketball, and cricket.

Apparently, at the end of the term, there is a big swimming competition among the "houses" (Think Harry Potter and how they have different houses). Well here, they have houses like "Gandi house" "Mandela house" "Lincoln house" and "Nkrumah house". The boys are in Nkrumah house. Nkrumah was the leader who helped Africa gain independence from the British. Pretty cool.

This is the gate where you enter: 

 This is Dickson, the guard. I've visited the school so many days in a row that now we're friends.

The main entrance:

Playground outside. They don't have recess here. I don't really know when they use this.

When you enter the school, this and other Hindu Gods are in the center of the school:

Corridors:

Gorgeous trees on one side:

This is where students take "break" and eat their lunch. They can purchase food from the "canteen". It's quite cheap. I had to ask a staff member to explain the entire menu to me. The boys and I have tried a few things, and the boys like the food. Mostly Indian food. In fact, we are not permitted to pack anything with meat or eggs from home.

I sneaked (snuck?) a photo of Paulo in his classroom. He looks bored because he doesn't have the science textbook yet. He's the one wearing the white shirt. I ordered the boys' uniforms from this taylor downtown. He took the boys measurements, and they should be done soon.

I was taking care of business at the school late one day, so the bus driver let me ride home with Andre. He made buddies with these boys.

The boys came home from their first days of school pretty happy. Paulo's already had a chance to test out the pool. He also has a pile of 14 exercise books and other text books. It was quite the task to cover them all. Hunter's in the process of designing these cool labels. 

It takes Paulo about an hour to do homework. The school is pretty strict. I think it's going to be great for the boys.