Mary Wambui

Mary Wambui

Title: teacher

Subject: English and Math in Standard 4 and Science in Standard 6

Hometown:  Embu, Kenya

Bio:

Mary is from Embu County, which is just south of Mt. Kenya.  Her first language is Kiembu and she is from the Embu people.  The Embu people are cousins to the Kikuyu (the largest tribe in Kenya).  Mary mentioned that the climate around Embu and Mt. Kenya is much colder.  She finds the climate and environment around NWPS to be quite different.

Mary comes from a large family of 8 sisters and 2 brothers.  She is the youngest in her family.  Her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife.

Career:

Mary took a year off between finishing high school and entering college.  She helped her family grow mangoes on the family farm.  The year at home allowed her family to save enough money so that she could attend the teachers’ training college.

Mary attended Machakos Teachers’ College from 2008 to 2010.  After finishing, she met with Jane Newman and was hired by SNET to teach at NWPS in August 2010.  In Kenya, teachers do not apply to teach at individual schools, the government places them.  Seven of the teachers at NWPS were hired by SNET.

When Mary began, she started teaching class two.  As with all the teachers at NWPS, Mary travels up with the class.

Q&A:

Is anyone in your family a teacher?

Five of the people in her family are teachers.

Was there anything that surprised you on your first day of teaching?

“The first day, I was nervous.” 

Mary talked about how she was not used to being with so many small children as she was the youngest in her family.  She also expressed that the Samburu children were very curious about meeting an Embu.  She said she was the first to the school.  Mary expressed that the children were curious about her culture and her people.  She said that she showed them pictures about the Embu way of life and the tea, maize, and coffee plantations that are typical to the region that Mary is from.

Is there anything that you would like to know or learn about/from our teachers?

“I would like to know how they teach, how they organize the class.  You find here that in our school our pupils are not sitting in groups.  I would like to know if they sit in groups.” 

Mary seemed to want to find out more about how instruction at Packer is organized and what the role the parents play at Packer.  She would also like to know how we handle discipline issues as she referenced truancy at her school.

What do you like most about teaching?

“I like the interaction with the kids.  And I think it is inborn.  It comes from my heart.”

What to you dislike about teaching?

“You find that like in this place, the parents are very violent. You have to interact with them you have to understand them.  They don’t understand about education.”

Mary discussed a negative interaction with a parent.  She mentioned that the parent interrupted her class in order to take the child out because they were moving.  Mary finds that working with the Samburu parents can sometimes be challenging because they have a different view of education.

Click here to listen to the interview.