About halfway through my time at Machakos Teachers College, I had an example of how one person's behavior can affect others, domino-effect. 

     I was assigned to teach various subjects, as most of us were:  British and African history, education, domestic science (home ed.) and English composition and grammar.  A British teacher took my classes every Friday for speech lessons, to make sure—God forbid—that my students did not develop an American accent, and a Southern one at that. 

     The day of the strike was a Wednesday, and my lesson plan was to read and discuss a play, with the students taking parts.  As usual, they were in the classroom when I entered, and stood and said as one, "Good afternoon, Miss Hines," though without their usual smiles.  I said, "Good afternoon, students.  Please be seated."  I distributed the playbooks and went down the line, asking who wanted to read each part.  Not a hand went up.

           "Very well," I said. "Please answer the following questions, allowing about a paragraph for each answer."  I hastily made up questions and wrote them on the board.

          The students wrote for perhaps fifteen minutes.  I collected the papers and again suggested that we might read the play.  I ran through the names of the characters, asking for volunteers, with the same results.

          "All right, since you don't want to read the play, please answer the following questions on the story we read Monday."  I started writing again, when a voice came from the back of the classroom, "Please, Miss, I will read."

     Others quickly volunteered, glad to avoid any further test.  We read the play and discussed it, and afterward, I asked, "Why did you refuse to read today?"

          "It is not you, Miss.  We were angry at another teacher," one explained.

          "It's wrong to take out your anger on me for what someone else has done," I said, and they agreed.

          "We will not do it again," someone said, and the group nodded agreement.

          The students were eager to learn new words and phrases, and kept a small notebook of them, noting various ways the word or phrase could be used.  It was very satisfying as a teacher.  They would then make a special effort to use the word in my presence. 

          I had some difficulty explaining "Freudian slip."  One day, close to the end of term, we were setting up chairs for assembly when I referred to a teacher by another's name.  Chairs were stilled as my girls said in unison, "Freudian slip, Miss Hines."

         The morning I left Kenya this Form of girls came out in their night clothes to see me off in the pre-dawn darkness.  I had seen them off on buses and lorries at the end of other terms, but it was now my time to go.  They had handmade gifts for me, and I went down the line, hugging each one.  They were special, and said they'd write to me, but they didn't.  I only saw one of them again, when TEAA visited Kenya in 2003.

Emilee Hines (Cantieri), 1A, Machakos Teachers College, Machakos, Kenya