East Africa Day 22 (Sat June 4): Nanyuki Music Festival – End Results

We went back into Nanyuki today, for the last day of the Nanyuki Music Festival. Teddy competed in Public Speaking (English) and then we received all of the final results for all categories, from yesterday and today. End resullt – of 11 Daraja students who competed at this level, four are moving on to the Provincial level at Eldoret! Three of those students got first place in their respective categories (Mary N, Teddy, Rosaria) and Emily took second place in her category – but first and second place in each category move up to Eldoret.



At this level, most of our students seemed to have been competing against approximately six students. At Eldoret it’ll be more like thirty students per category. Yikes – that’s serious competition! If I were to bet, then I’d put my money on Rosaria. Teddy said that she talked to her judge after the competition to thank him for his work, and he said that he had been extremely impressed with the Daraja students – that they were very respectful and hard working. YEP – that’d be Daraja! He said that he would look for our ladies at Eldoret, though he wasn’t sure what his role there would be, yet. Teddy asked Pamela, Sue, and I if we would be coming to Eldoret. When Sue and I said that we would not, her face sort of fell, and she optimistically said that we will pray for her, even though we can’t be there. She was happy to hear that Pamela will be at Eldoret, though. It’s a five hour drive to Eldoret and they are going to do it one day – that’s one long day!

Again, I got to watch a lot of tribal dances today. Those Dol Dol Secondary School guys are fantastic. They won several categories this weekend, when it was all said and done. I wouldn’t have expected less, after having seen a few of their performances.

Two young men set up backdrops this weekend, and took photos of the contestants posing in front of the backgrounds. A sign read that the prints would be ready for pick up fifteen minutes after the photos were taken. I don’t know how much they were charging for the prints, but they were doing good business! This was the scene:



I happened to walk by as a few of our students were posing in front of the backdrop with two of the Dol Dol high students, who I think are dressed as Maasai warriors. They asked our students to pose in the photos with them. So cute! I am so glad that I got this photo:



Pamela and I then met some Nanyuki Secondary School guys, who asked us to pose in one of the professional photos with them. Then whilewe were standing there, some other guys asked us to pose with them … :)

We hung out with the students after taking the photos. I was happy to get to hear about their dreams (an aspiring aeronautical engineering student so that he could be a pilot like his uncle, who flies all over Africa, a future law student, and a future architect who admires Donald Trump’s architecture. This was Max. We had a good, long chat. He told me that it is important to let your troubles stay in your past, instead of bringing them into your future. He told me that his dad died before he was born, and his mom struggles to pay for Max’s school fees. This was the first time that I’d met a real kid whose current school fees caused him worry - up until now it’s just been stuff I’ve read. Every student I have met here in Kenya has been so motivated and strong – it is beautiful. I loved watching all of the young women in particular at the Music Festival this weekend, thankful that they are all still in school. Today when I watched the Public Speaking (English) one of the other students received “The Kenya Constitution” as her topic. Two of the points that she came up with and presented about stressed how the Constitution has empowered women, including legalizing abortion in situations where the woman’s health is in danger. I don’t even know her name, but I was proud of that student! Unfortunately I didn’t get to tell her.

We stopped off in Nanyuki on the way back to campus from the competition. This guy crossed the street in front of me. I went running after him. This one is for Johanna, Jenny and Eric:)