The Kids are in School
“It was embarrassing,” Joyce admitted, recalling her childhood memory.
Squinting under the bright Kenyan sun, Joyce explained, “Sometimes it would be done during the assembly…you are called from the class and sent home and it was embarrassing because other children are seeing you sent home for lack of school fees.”
The strong woman who stood in front of me appeared to have shrunk a couple of inches in one statement.
Eventually, Joyce dropped out of school at Class 5. Her parents could no longer afford it. She met her brother’s friend, Musili, and they married and moved to a small plot of land to farm.
But as time went on and children grew, Joyce realized they couldn’t afford to send their own kids to school either.
“I used to feel bad. I would look at it as so embarrassing to me and to the children because I want them to have the best. But at that time, I had not had the capacity or the ability.”
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