A passion to teach

Kenya is a country of contradictions. According to the Center for Disease Control, 2.2 million people suffer from HIV, but the people of Kenya are striving for AIDS education to improve their conditions. Some schools might not have little things like chalk, but these children still have something more important, a passion for learning. There might be despair in their land and there may be diseases like malaria that kill the innocent every day, but people still smile at each other on the streets. \nIn Kenya, violence exists just like it does in any other country. \nThere are some people who visit Kenya and experience brutal violence. But then there are people who come into the country and are treated as if they are family or even royalty. \nThese are the realities. Good and bad. No matter what the outcome is, three IU seniors majoring in special education are going to Kenya this summer to teach and to embrace cultural differences. \nBecause inside each of them burns a passion for teaching.\nLindsey Danisch\nTwenty-one-year-old Lindsey Danisch drives home after a day of student teaching at Bloomington North High School. As she steers her car through the back alley shortcuts, she pulls a strand of her burgundy hair and tucks it behind her ear. \n"Today I gave the kids a test in geography and almost all the students [either] got D minuses or got F's," she says as she parks her car in front of her house. "Next time we are gonna go in and tell them we have another test, and we will change the way we review. If they show steps to improve and they want to get better grades, we'll throw the last test grade out."\nDanisch walks into her house with a confident walk. A big red backpack with J.L. Walters written across it in black marker is hung behind her shoulder. She is wearing khaki pants and a deep purple sweater. Her stride makes loud sounds as she walks across her hardwood living room floor and tosses her school bag on the floor. She sits on her cream-colored futon and checks her voicemail.\nShe always wanted to be a teacher. Perhaps watching her parents, who are both high school teachers, wake up every morning after many years of teaching and still have a great sense of enthusiasm for teaching has made her want to teach.\nHer face lights up with the mention of teaching in Kenya. This summer she will go to Kenya with Jamie Richie and Autymn Sublette. They will be pioneers as they become the first women from IU to teach in Kenya. For the past two years, the girls have been learning about the country through the IU Overseas Projects. The teaching in Kenya is unstructured and the girls will visit elementary schools as well as high schools. They will help out where they are needed. \nDanisch says she has always been interested in learning about other cultures. Her grandmother was born in what is now the Republic of Congo, and for the first 13 years of her life African heritage was all she knew. Danisch decided to teach in Kenya because to her it was the most Peace Corps-like experience. \n"I wanted to have the most cultural experience possible before I step into a classroom," she says. "I thought it would be neat to step into the classroom with a third world experience behind me."\nFor a long time she wanted to be a special education teacher because she always wanted to know what went on in the minds of kids. She was curious to find out what motivated kids to learn. \n"As a teacher, it is too easy to expect me to stand and lecture and give a test and do it all over again," Danisch says with a laugh. "It seems boring to me. My mom works with kids who are in special education and they are neat kids."\nDanisch says she always did well in school, even though she recalls times when she struggled. But with the help of her mother she discovered how to solve her challenges with reading and spelling. Today, her struggles have become her assets.\nShe says she hates labels because there is too much stigma that goes along with them -- especially in special education. For Danisch it doesn't matter if a student has a learning disability. She just wants to know what students struggle with in school so she can help them find a way to learn. She admits that she doesn't know everything she needs to know in the content of the subjects she teaches. \n"Really what special education prepares you for is how to be a good teacher," Danisch says. "Once I learn information I know how to convey it and I know how kids learn best. Am I great at grammar? No. Are my algebra and calculus skills great? Probably not. But you can learn subjects, but it's a lot harder to learn how to be a good teacher."\nDanisch is excited for the challenges she will face in Kenya and the experiences she will encounter.\n"Now I may have challenges like not having chalk to write with, but they do have schools and electricity, and some computers. I don't want to have the cliche that everyone is running around without shoes. Education is a high priority for these people. There is a respect for teachers."\nAccording to an educational packet called "Culture Briefing Kenya 2000" put out by the Getravel Research Center, education has consistently been the highest single expenditure in Kenya's government budget. Today there is a 69 percent literacy rate. \nChild labor is common in Kenya, but according to an article titled "Children and Kenya," national enrollment of students in primary schools in 1991 was at 95 percent. \nMost students know three or four languages. Swahili is the national language in Kenya, and by the time students are in third grade they are fluent in English. \n"I want to teach these kids that education is a good time and together we can figure it out," Danisch says. "I'm excited to do sports with them, and I think it will be neat to be a female teacher and go out to play with them."\nDanisch says she isn't scared for her safety while she is in her village. \n"AIDS in Kenya is booming," she says. "It's going to be all around me and that is a fear. A kid may scrape his elbow and I have to put on gloves to help them. There is a possibility I may contract AIDS. But students who are in my school right now might have AIDS. I think there is a choice. There is a choice to not be sexually active while in Kenya. There is a choice to put on the gloves and take precautions."\nDanisch and the girls will be staying with Rev. Reuben Lubanga while they are in Kenya. They will stay in a mud house, and will be living without electricity or running water. Danisch is excited even though she is scared of the unknown when it comes to Third World countries.\n"I might go and get my luggage and see Reuben and it will be all hugs and kisses," Danisch says firmly. "But I may go there and get knocked over and get beaten up. There are rapes and these things do happen. If it's my time, it's my time. I have been studying about Kenya and preparing for this for the past two years. This is the risk I am willing to take."\nShe takes out a folder and takes out her international certification of vaccination. So far she has gotten her Hepatitis A, B, yellow fever and polio shots. She is scared of insects because she thinks they are a little creepy. \nKenya is the first challenge Danisch will face as a new teacher. But it won't be her last one. To her this challenge is welcomed because she is confident in what she knows.\n"I am confident in my knowledge of different types of learning," Danisch says. "I don't think I'm teaching false information. I am confident that I am open to listening to others. I think I am an OK person." \nJamie Richie\nJamie Richie was only in fifth grade when she first thought she wanted to become a teacher. One day she came home from school, looked at her mother, and said, "I want to be on the other side of the desk."\nThe primitiveness of Kenya is initially what drew Richie to the program. She wanted to experience life without the materialistic possessions. Even if that meant living without electricity and running water. \nHer parents don't quite understand why she chose Kenya over any other country she could have gone to. \n"Since it's my financial responsibility they don't have control over it," Richie says. "But they feel better about it now after they got their questions answered at the information seminars. Before (the seminar) they were confused."\nEven though Richie may have been apprehensive about the journey, knowing Stallone Lubanga, Rev. Lubanga's son, has made her feel better. He is a freshman at IU. \n"He makes me feel so much better about going," she says with a smile. "He tells me 'they're gonna love you and you are going to be great.' He is very sweet natured and very kind -- so that's been a big help."\nEven though the cultural barriers in Kenya may be hard to cross, Richie is determined to try. \n"All humanity is the same," she says. "We have the same wants. If I feel lonely and detached, I will have to come back to what is really important."\nRichie is a spiritual young woman. She says her Catholic faith will help her while she is in Kenya. She is excited about staying with Rev. Lubanga and attending his Sunday masses. \n"I love mass, and I love how you can go anywhere in the world and it is the same," Richie says with a big smile. "And being there and having that on Sundays will be a gift."\nFor Richie, her biggest challenge in life is to see the goodness in people regardless of who they are. She feels it is her responsibility to give back to the community. Her school is a place where young kids can be shut down or built up. She is determined to be the voice to help them feel great about themselves. Being involved in special education is just one way she does that. \n"I feel a lot of kids in special education come up against barriers that the other general population of kids don't worry about," she says. "I am determined, positive and creative. I will say 'this is why you are cool.'"\nRichie doubted teaching before last summer when she spent her time in Rochester, N.Y. with the Sisters of Saint Joseph. She worked with refugee kids from across the world, including inner city kids. This was an eye opening experience for her.\nEvery morning she woke up to prayer with the 50-year-old nuns, who she says she fell in love with. Her eyes ignite as she recalls her memories.\n"During the day we would go out with these kids who are different from me, and who are rough, and I'm like this Midwestern farm girl," she says with a giggle. "They made fun of me badly and I loved them even though they were hard to deal with."\nDuring the weekends she spent her time hanging out with the nuns. From them she learned to ask questions even if she couldn't find all the answers.\n"We would go to the beach with them and drink beer together," Richie says. "We didn't get drunk -- we'd have a beer. You know, they were nice nuns. We'd watch the sunset and talk about the big things in life. It was amazing."\nIn Kenya, Richie hopes to find peace and transcend barriers of culture, race, and gender. She hopes to see the true humanity of God and love. She says she will push for uniqueness and creativity with the children she is going to encounter. \n"I want these kids to know that people from outside of their culture care for them and think they are neat," Richie says. "What they have in Kenya is special and they need to preserve it."\nAutymn Sublette\nOne thing that drew Autymn Sublette to Kenya was how happy people there seemed to be. She wanted to be like them as she lived and adapted to their culture and society.\n"People here seem so sad," Sublette says. "We have the most resources but we are the saddest. I want to go to a country where they don't have everything but they are so happy."\nShe is excited to use nature and people as learning resources. Sublette is eager to teach the students of Kenya that learning is fun regardless of resources or circumstances. \nSublette decided to go into special education because she didn't like society's attitude towards people with disabilities. She thought the school system would be a good place to start an action for change. \n"If I can talk to students while they are young, I can help them break stereotypes they have about people with disabilities," she says. \nSublette didn't love school while she was growing up. Most of the time she didn't like her teachers, and the subjects seemed to bore her more than they interested her. That is why today her goal is to make school fun. \nAlso a very spiritual person, Sublette is attracted to the simplicity in life. \n"I'm going to Kenya because I wanted to be in a place that didn't have all these luxuries and novelties that we have," Sublette says. "I wanted to be in a place where it was simple. I am looking forward to not having a huge house and a car. It will be difficult living in a mud hut, but I'm looking forward to it."\nBut she does fear going to the bathroom at night in the dark, she says laughing. \nAs a person who is always on the go, Sublette says she will have to get accustomed to having free time at night in Kenya and getting used to being far away from her husband Jeremy. \nBut she says her faith is her life and it will get her through the challenges she will face in Kenya just like it got her through the challenges she faced as an adolescent.\nAfter graduating from high school, Sublette didn't think she would go to college. She was a drug addict. A year and a half later she decided to change and to seek help. She went to a church, and she says on that day she was saved. \n"My dad walked me to the altar because I was crying," Sublette says. "This was the first time I had gone to church, and I felt like a sinner."\nDuring the mass she saw a young man (who is now her husband) standing next to a couple of women and helping them sit in the pews. She had just gotten out of an abusive relationship and thought, "Why couldn't I be with someone like that?" Jeremy was there to sing a song for the church. After mass Sublette went up to him.\n"I just said, 'I know I don't know you but I need some help. I know you are my age, but none of my friends go to church. All my friends are druggies too.' And he said by being a Christian you can have fun but you have to separate those things."\nAfter corresponding with each other over letters Jeremy and Autymn soon started to date, and several months later they were married. \nHer experiences in life affect her teaching and reaching out to children. She says she never pushes anything on her students. Especially religion.\n"I never mention church to them, but some kids mention it to me," she says. "My own attitude is better after church."\nTeaching is a journey for Sublette. After Kenya she hopes to go and teach in Hungary. Her husband will accompany her for that trip.\nJeremy says one thing that separates Autymn from most people is her enthusiasm, and he says this will be her asset in her teaching career and her journey to Kenya.\n"She is very optimistic about whatever she engages in," Jeremy says. "She always carries joy and it spreads everywhere else. If you don't like joy, you can't be around her. They (the students) will grab a hold of her smile. She has a lot of compassion for what she does."\nStallone Lubanga says his family is excited about the IU women coming and staying with them in Kenya. His father Rev. Lubanga hosts many American students. He was crucial in starting a cooperative teamwork in education and medicine between the two countries. \nStallone says the girls will be crucial in the classrooms.\n"The students look at them as new people and they respect them because they know the new teachers are for them," Lubanga says. "There is a strong culture in Kenya with many different tribes and cultures. We are welcoming when we see a new person. We try to treat them like a king or a queen"