“Rescue Me”

By: Le’Jon A. Payne

The visit to the Kajiado Girls school was an interesting experience. The girls were all very different. They seemed disengaged when we arrived. As if they were trying to figure out who we were. They all asked for Naima and to hear about her brought great excitement to their eyes. They remembered the last time she visited and wanted to work with her again. I thought this was truly a great reflection on the impact of the Necessary Arts Outreach program.

The girls began to share their likes with us. I was amazed at how many girls had a love for poetry and enjoyed writing their own original pieces. One of the girls recited her poem “The English Language” for us. Everyone listened eagerly and applauded. We then began to work on our objective in small groups. Students were going to create a monologue on a moment in their life, good or bad where they had to make a change. I was astonished and confused because the girls all began to write the same story-line “ I love my school, I like it here, the end.”  Now, I have worked in education for over 11 years, and I have never had a group write the exact same theme, at the exact same time and it be authentic. This struck concern within me, I was very curious as to why, this was the beginning sentence for everyone. Almost as if they had done this activity before. Don’t misunderstand me, of course it is possible for all of the girls to love their school and like where they are, but all of the girls were asked to write about a pivotal moment, a moment of change in their life. These girls were very intelligent and could communicate effectively. I asked them again, did they understand what I was asking them to do and they replied yes and some could explain what I wanted them to do in English and in their mother tongue.  I encouraged the girls to write more and discuss their pivotal moment, but I came up with nothing…Nothing, silence, blank looks and deep stares. Was I being effective? Was I creating an environment where the girls felt safe? I began to feel that our exchange was not genuine and that we were not making gains.

One of the girls whispered in my ear that she wanted to talk to me alone. She explained to me that she did like her school and where she was living and that she came there because her father tried to kill her because she was the only girl left in the family. I listened patiently to her, as she expressed herself, without judgement. She went on to explain her life story. She described being rescued and brought to the home she was now in. This young woman, was very courageous. I decided to spend more time with the girls in an informal manner allowing them to just talk to me about whatever they wanted. We went outside and played in the backyard. They began to become various characters and started posing as these characters as I took pictures and allowed them to take pictures too. They enjoyed this experience and their faces were bright and I could tell they were happy. Other girls began to open up to me and explained in their culture young girls were sold into marriage as young as 8 years old and a few of them had ran away to escape being married to old men. I asked the girls if we could write some more to add on to their monologues and they agreed. Some of them wrote a few more lines and that was it. I tried to get them to perform their monologues, but they would only perform for me, they didn't feel comfortable in front of a group. I respected that.

After spending time with the girls outside I felt refreshed. I felt like I was able to make authentic connections with them and I looked forward to working with them again. We came back inside and played Kenyan Idol, where the girls had the opportunity to perform. Many of the girls were too shy to perform. So we began to wrap up the day. I went over to hug the girls that shared with me, I was excited and I wanted to assure them I would return to work with them more. As I smiled and said to the first young woman who opened up to me about being rescued, “Give me a hug, I’m getting ready to go,” she looked into my eyes, she did not smile, she did not frown, but with a straight face she said “you're leaving?” I explained to her that the activities were over and it was time for me and the Necessary Arts team to leave, she sat in her seat frozen. She did not move. After many moments of silence, she looked me in my eyes and said again, “you're leaving?” It was almost as if she did not expect me to go, or she did not want me to leave, her posture made me feel like she was saying something, but I could not understand. I asked her for a hug again and received no response. My departure was the same as my entrance, empty void, but there was nothing I could do. The other girls smiled and gave me a hug as we gave our goodbyes. I looked back into the crowd to see if I could see this young woman who had been “rescued” and brought to this rescue facility, but I couldn't, she was gone. In my heart I wished I could have done more, but there was nothing left to do, but say, “goodbye.”