Purity Kavele Learns to Use Her Smile

**NOTE** Purity Kavele passed her exam with FLYING COLORS after she wrote this essay. Her score – 362 – ranked her not only second in Hamomi, but also second in her entire exam testing centre. This pulls from kids from all walks of life – wealthy, poor, private, public, you name it. She began her secondary school scholarship in February, 2015, and her brother Celestine, (who she references as being in Form 1) has moved on to Form 2 in the same Hamomi Secondary School Scholarship Program. Purity is still in need of a Scholarship Sponsor, please contact us if you are interested in learning more – info@hamomi.org.

If you’d like to read her brother Celestine’s story from the year he graduated in 2013, CLICK HERE.

Learning to Use My Smile to Win

By Purity Kavele, Class 8, 2014

My name is Purity Kavele. I was born on 13th April, 2001. A village mid-wife helped my mother bring me into the world. I have one sister and a brother.

My father finished primary school at the top of his class and qualified for a place in a national school but my grandfather could not afford such an expensive school. He tried talking to the government administrators about a bursary but no one listened to him, so he gave up. My father thus resigned to the blow fate had dealt him. He settled for a small day school which did not have a library, laboratory or enough teachers.

His friends did not believe in anything or dream of anything useful…

By the time he was in form four he didnt care about schooling anymore and found other ways to waste time. He also had friend who had the wrong influence on him. His friends did not believe in anything or dream of anything useful except entertainment and how to pass their time. His form four results were average but nobody could have helped him.

Purity on the right, her brother, Celestine on the left, during a Hamomi field trip to the National Park in 2012.

If you court one problem…

My grandfather was having none of it and forced him to carry his own cross.

It’s true what they say, If you court one problem, you actually invite the mother of all problems. I say this because my fathers girlfriend (now my mother) announced that she was pregnant. He was very alarmed and considered running away but she ran away from her home and came to live with him before he could disappear. My grandfather was having none of it and forced him to carry his own cross. That is how he started to live with his pregnant girlfriend in his small, round, mud-walled hut. That is where I was born, 2 years after my brother Celestine who is in form 1 [in the Hamomi Secondary School Scholarship program].

My father hustled in the village to meet the needs of his young family. When I was still very small my brother got into all sorts of mischief and trouble.I remember an incident that happened once when he was out with his friends. They were actually supposed to be looking after cows as they grazed by the river. It was about 5 pm when a small boy came running home and gasped, “Angote is dead! He’s is dead! I saw it all. He is in the river!”  My mother almost fainted at this terrible piece of news. The little boy who uttered these heartbreaking words then ran off to find more audience to his hot item of breaking news.

Purity dribbling during play time in 2013.

Cursed are those who carry out revenge against a vanquished foe.

By the time mother recovered from her shock there was already a crowd assembled in our home with anxious faces. Something struck me as odd – a woman, self-declared total enemy of my mother who never missed a chance to engage in a shouting and quarreling match with mother over gossip, a professional village trouble-maker was weeping together with us. In a way it served to teach me an old African custom that goes like this: If a man or  woman thereof, armed to the teeth, marched to a neighbour’s compound to settle an old score physically found said neighbor in mourning due to some other calamity, he or she should drop the weapons, hide them and console his neighbor, showing total solidarity, with all traces of enemity forgotten, albeit temporarily. Cursed was the man or woman who carried out revenge against a vanquished foe.

The whole assembly trooped to the river to see if it was true. When we arrived there, to our relief we found him lying on his back receiving first aid from an older boy. We took him and nothing was said about it. It took father two days before he heard about it in the village. He gave us all a very long lecture on the subject although he seemed too tired to do anything more than talk.

We are just like one big family.

Some children even came to school in old slippers or bare feet. It was a care-free school in which two different grades shared a room but the teachers still managed to teach their lessons.

Purity back in 2009 after the first set of school uniforms was purchased.

Something happened, I don’t know what, and my father doesn’t remember what it was all about, it changed everything. It had to do with my brother being expelled from school because of his usual mischief. Anyway the result is father found a job in Nairobi and we all came with him. I joined Hamomi in 2005 in pre-unit, My first teacher in Hamomi was Mr.Musumba. His first impression of me was that I was very sharp. We used to come to school without school uniform. My father didn’t have enough money for a better school. But we didn’t see anything wrong with Hamomi and liked it very much. Nobody tried to treat us badly. Everybody knows everybody else and that way we are just like one big family. Some children even came to school in old slippers or bare feet. It was a care-free school in which two different grades shared a room but the teachers still managed to teach their lessons. There was no water tap in our school, Hamomi. The director, Mr. Raphael bought for us water from the community tap. In those days we had to go home at lunch time, which changed later.We now eat lunch in school. My first real school bag, was given to me by Susie Marks.

Sometimes women fight for their chance…

She wouldn’t lose in front of her children so she grabbed the bad woman and knocked her down.

Purity’s class picture in 2011.

Our residential estate is called Kangemi. It is actually a big slum with very many people. Most of the people live in small single rooms made of iron sheets all round. Water is from a communal tap at a central point. We store it in jericans and plastic containers like tanks. There is permanent water rationing-that’s why we store it in jericans. Sometimes women fight for their chance to get water from the tap. My mother has once been caught up in such a fight, and she actually started it!

It all began when I spotted a spiteful woman push my mother’s jericans over while she had gone to deliver water to our room. The woman then took our place on the queue but I ran back to inform mother. She stormed out of the house and demanded an explanation from that woman, who only offered a hostile look for a response. My mother is not one to let you down. She wouldn’t lose in front of her children so she grabbed the bad woman and knocked her down. The neighbours broke up the fight before it had gone far enough for anyone to inflict injuries on the other. I was proud of mother and told her as much.

In Hamomi there’s a rule against fighting. Nobody fights there…

I have learnt that kindness and smiling to people can get you what you like. Exhibiting a good spirit and forgiveness is all a person needs to have many friends.

My father wouldn’t hear of our little heroes stuff. He scolded mother for misbehaving infront of her children. He made us to promise him never to engage in meaningless fights henceforth. He said it would be better to lose something small than cause a lot of trouble. It’s so primitive to fight and lose dignity before so many witnesses. In Hamomi there’s a rule against fighting. Nobody fights there, we’re mostly friends and prefer to report our problem and let our teachers to handle them.

I have learnt that kindness and smiling to people can get you what you like. Exhibiting a good spirit and forgiveness is all a person needs to have many friends. When I grow up I would like to be a doctor. My grades are good. I’m placed number two in my class. Thank you HAMOMI!!!

**NOTE** Purity Kavele passed her exam with FLYING COLORS after she wrote this essay. Her score – 362 – ranked her not only second in Hamomi, but also second in her entire exam testing centre. This pulls from kids from all walks of life – wealthy, poor, private, public, you name it. She began her secondary school scholarship in February, 2015, and her brother Celestine, (who she references as being in Form 1) has moved on to Form 2 in the same Hamomi Scholarship Program. Purity is still in need of a scholarship sponsor, please contact us if you are interested in learning more – info@hamomi.org.

If you’d like to read her brother Celestine’s story from the year he graduated in 2013, CLICK HERE.

Purity modeling her new donations she received on an item delivery in 2014.