A Day in the Life of a Young Kenyan pupil

Nduta is a class 8 pupil at Langalanga Primary School. She is the first born in a family of 6. She is 15. Their home, mud-walled, is situated next to the main road, near river Malewa, and almost 6 km from their school.

5.00 am: Nduta wakes up. She takes a water can and wakes up her brother to accompany her to the river to fetch water. They make two laps since they must leave some water for their parents to use on waking up.

6.00 am: Nduta takes pieces of firewood and lights up the fire. She first warms some water to use while milking. She milks and then warms some more water so that all their siblings can bathe. She then takes the milk to a local milk collection point which is almost 4 km away. She always runs since she must come back and prepare their breakfast. Their breakfast is often thick white porridge, sugarless due to the high cost of sugar. It helps to fill their stomachs.
She takes her warm bath and dresses-up to go to school. She has also to dress-up the small kids and ensure that they reach school on time. Although tired, she settles in class ready to learn.

Lunch time: Nduta must call all her younger brothers and sisters to share the little packed lunch which is never enough for all of them. The food is most of the times ugali (this is maize flour mixed with warm water and then pounded). This food is not only nutritious, but also cheap and locally available (but tasteless). That amount of food keeps them energetic until evening.

4.00 pm: After the classes are over, Nduta has practically to run home so that she can finish the heap of work waiting for her. She changes her clothes and runs to the river to fetch some water to use while preparing supper. She then goes to a small bushy area near their home to collect some firewood to use during supper and the next morning. 

6.00 pm: Nduta is back home but not to rest. There is always a shamba (a small portion of land) set apart for her to cater for. So, she takes a fork or a jembe (pick) and starts to dig. Her normal time to leave the shamba is around 6.30pm. She starts helping her mum to prepare supper. From morning till late evening, her parents usually go to look for casual employment where they are paid 100 shillings per day.

7.30 pm: She washes the dishes, and then she washes her younger brothers uniform. Since her parents cannot afford the luxury of letting her use one lamp on her own (due to the high cost of kerosene), she has to study while all other activities are proceeding. Remember their room has 3 rooms - two of them are bedrooms, while the other acts as the kitchen, the dining room and the living room.

9.00 pm: Her body cannot cope with that level of tiredness. At around 9.00pm she usually goes to bed, not because she feels sleepy, but because she is totally worn-out.

The day ends, and the next day will be the same again.

Written by David Kabiru, a Langalanga Scholarship Fund scholar now studying for a Diploma in Media Technology at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication.