This school is about a 2 hour drive North East of Nairobi in a beautiful, hilly and green area. It took us a while to find the school, the address was unclear (it is in Mitaboni, just ask when you are in the neighborhood), signs were missing, and people are so polite that they would rather give you an answer that is not correct than disappoint you by saying they don’t know where the school is.

But eventually we reached the school. We checked in at the security gate and  the “teacher of duty” helped us to find Teckler.
The school grounds looked beautiful, lots of trees, a volleyball court, benches around the field, buildings in bright colors, all clean and well maintained.

It was very nice to meet Teckler. In the beginning she was a little bit shy, but after a while she became more relaxed and we had a good conversation with her about a lot of subjects. She is very motivated to study and happy with the opportunity we offer her to accomplish her dreams.

Teckler showed us the school grounds and buildings. The classrooms and the books looked clean and tidy (we have seen other schools in Kenya with a lot of sand and dust in the classrooms, and half torn up books). All the students were in the classrooms, doing their homework (it was Saturday, so there were no classes). Teckler proudly showed her books and notes. Business Studies is her favorite subject.

There are separate practice rooms for chemistry, physics, biology and ICT. Unfortunately, they were locked because there were no classes on Saturday.
In addition to the usual courses, music, drama and sports  are also given.

Seeing the  dorm made a huge impact on us. All bunk beds, double and triple, tightly-made beds, and a metal case with a lock for every girl for some personal items. There are around 100 girls sleeping in one dorm. And if the guard tells the girls to be quiet and go to sleep in the evening, they all obey and really go to sleep according to Teckler. We suggested perhaps they would have some fun and games after the guard has left – but she was a bit surprised about that idea.

A visit to the kitchen was also quite special. We should definitely not judge this kitchen by our Dutch standards.
It’s only a small room with a couple of large pots in which the chefs cook meals for 500 girls plus their teachers every day.
Teckler told us the food is very good. The girls do not have to help with cooking or washing, so they can concentrate solely and entirely on their studies.

Our overall impression is that of a good organized school where good conduct and discipline is the standard. Both Teckler and the teacher we spoke with are very proud of this standard and see this as one of the qualities of the school. This is understandable in a country where not many children have the opportunity to attend good quality education.

At the end of our visit, we had a nice chat with Teckler on a bench under the trees. We showed her some pictures of the Netherlands and some of the MasterPeaceWalk. She liked that very much because she recognized a lot of people from her area.
We agreed that Teckler, together with her ICT teacher, will try to send us an email every now and then to inform us about how she is doing and about her study results.

Altogether it was lovely visiting Teckler. We got a good impression of her school life and the quality of education. We hope that, through direct contact with her via email, we will be able to keep up to date about her wellbeing.

This visit confirms that we have made a good decision by sponsoring Teckler in this way.

Many thanks to Ezekiel, who provided mediation, enrollment, purchase of school materials, and maintains contact with the school.

On a next visit to Kenya, we hope to visit Teckler again.