St. Mary's School, Nyeri, Kenya

In blue button-down shirts, ties, maroon sweaters, and worn grey school pants, 450 high school boys gathered for an outdoor assembly on Friday morning, October 2, the day before St. Mary’s 2015 graduation.   By 8 am, they already had an hour of supervised study and a 6 am breakfast of traditional Ugali (hominy grits).  Before a yellow, cinder block classroom opposite the administration building, they milled about, gossiping and fiddling with their disobedient ties in the slightly chilly morning air.  Behind them, high on the yellow wall, was the school motto painted in bold dark blue: “You give us the boy, we give you the man!”  With Mt. Kenya just 30 miles in the distance, the boys then turned to the newly risen flag and sang the Kenyan national anthem.  After listening to announcements about the big day of graduation, they headed off to class.

To look at, you wouldn’t think St. Mary’s scored number one academically in Nyeri County and number 35 out of Kenya’s over 7,000 high schools in 2014.   The school sits in a walled compound across the street from the sprawling slum in Nyeri.  The slum is called The Majengo: Four square miles of winding tracks and wood slatted huts, housing workers, families, drunkards, prostitutes and, yes, some of the Street Kids who now attend St. Mary’s.  Since early 2001, St. Mary’s has opened its doors for kids in kindergarten through 8th grade from the slum and elsewhere.  These street kids sleep in a three story dormitory by night and leave to attend local public grade schools by day. Many “Juniors,” as they are called, hope to enroll in St. Mary’s for high school if their primary school test results qualify.  University awaits as 95% of St. Mary’s graduates since 1998 have received a scholarship to university or college.

We brought a big present to the Street Kids: ten boxes of Monopoly!  When I go back someday, I will look for Adad, an 11 year old  who was a wiz at the game: how he managed to collect the most Monopoly cash of any of the six boys playing, I’ll never know ($5,430!!).  Adad is on track for a bright future, ranked number one in his 5th grade class.  Living at St. Mary’s, he will be well taken care of by the staff and mentored by the older students in the High School.  Thanks to the board and all donors for supporting such an ambitious and dynamic school and home giving a bright future for so many children.

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