Written by: Barbara Burke
11/30/2009 2:37 PM 

Many of the Friends of Fr. Symon's Jubilee School for Nomads have just concluded their Thanksgiving holiday, a wonderful American tradition that celebrates our many blessings during these harvest months.  Families gather and feast on turkey, pumpkin pie and their good fortune to be together, safe and in the company of loved ones. This year we have even more to be grateful for.  It is the successful opening of the Jubilee School in Narok, Kenya and the near completion of its first, fully operational school year.  The blessings were bountiful...115 schoolchildren enrolled and filling out our 3rd, 4th and 5th grades...wonderful faculty who carefully attended to each of his/her students...a superb and devoted Matron who looked after the children along with the Cook and Night Watchman...Gideon, our Head Teacher, who expected nothing less than an outstanding effort by everyone involved...and of course, the everpresent Aaron and his construction crew, who continued to build on our wonderful campus.

And then of course, there is You...our unfailing friends and benefactors of the Jubilee School and its schoolchildren!  How fortunate we are to have you travel with Fr. Symon on his beautiful journey to give back to his people and to provide education for those who are underserved and often overlooked.  Thank You for your confidence, your amazing support and your incredible generosity.  With your help, Fr. Symon's Jubilee School will provide its students with an education that will ensure equal opportunity to succeed in Secondary School and beyond.  Based on what I observed in July when I visited, if simply given a chance, the children and their families will work hard to be worthy of that opportunity and fulfill the promise that lies within them; that promise being that each individual can choose how he or she engages and lives in this world, rather than be relegated to a life of poverty because of a lack of education.

I mentioned the harvest season earlier, which gives me a chance to address my last blog entry.  As you probably recall, the drought conditions in Africa are causing quite a bit of concern and worry among many people.  Previously I had mentioned Fr. Symon's foresight some years ago when he purchased a piece of property that has been used to grow crops.  It is a 10 acre parcel located about 12 miles outside of Narok.  Fr. Symon had 5 acres of it planted with beans and corn at the beginning of the growing season.  The yield from those planted acres provided us with 15 sacks of corn at approx. 90kg per sack, or 198 pounds per sack. Although this is significantly less than what one would expect during an average growing season (which could be approx. 11 sacks per acre), it is still a wonderful help to our pantry and will be used for the coming school term.  Because the corn is dried, and much different than the corn we are used to eating here during our summer months, it will keep very well and be used to make ugali, the cornmeal porridge that is a staple in many Kenyans' diets, and definitely a staple at the Jubilee School. I'm afraid we weren't very lucky harvesting beans...but given the severity of the drought, we are grateful for any success, and the 15 sacks of corn will certainly get us through probably a third of the first term.

That first term of the coming school year will begin in January, 2010.  At the moment, Gideon is collecting and reviewing applications for 40 new openings at the Jubilee School.  We will be intaking another group of 3rd graders, now that the present 3rd grade students will be promoted to the next grade.  Originally, we thought we would intake two grades this second year, but since that would involve very young children who could not board (being enrolled in either 1st or 2nd grade) and who we do not have adequate bus transportation for, we have concluded that one new class of students will be fine for now.  Also, because the demand/need for boarding has been far greater than even Fr. Symon anticipated, we also need to evaluate how much available dormitory space there is, given that only two dormiotries have been built, which can house approx. 128 children.

Well, I think that is the update for now.  Heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Asante sana.

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