The beginning of this school year saw many new students joining the KEMPS community with the addition of the Preschool class. With no English and no school uniforms, they arrived at school speaking in Kihaya and Kiswahili and dressed in party dresses and pink princess skirts. They would walk by my door and peer shyly and whisper an almost inaudible "Shikamoo" (a respectful Kiswahili greeting for someone older than yourself). Since those first couple of weeks, they have blossomed into funny, rambunctious and determined pupils. Their initial shyness has disappeared. Several weeks ago a group came to my door after lunch, and in their spanking new English said, "Please Teacher, may I come in?". Emboldened by this moment, I now have a whole new group of students who visit me almost every evening. Arriving to knock on my door as soon as dinner is over, they spent this past week arranging my alphabet cards that I use for French class. Beginning with "A", they placed each letter in order, stopping after each new addition to repeat the alphabet from the beginning. Although they did very well with saying the alphabet (imagine saying the alphabet 26 times, once each time you added a new letter- lots of practice!), they were still learning the shapes of the letters. If you look closely at the picture you will notice that several are upside down.
