St Rose Students Hear From Their Pen Pals in Kenya

By Eliza Hallabeck

St Rose of Lima history and religion teacher Joe Demaida had a special package waiting for his eighth grade students on Thursday, February 25, when they entered the classroom.

As he had told them, the package had arrived the day before, but now the students would be receiving letters and learning the identity of o their pen pals in Kenya. The correspondence was coordinated through the nonprofit organization Kenya Connect, www.kenyaconnect.org, which promotes cross-cultural exchange by partnering schools from around the world with schools in Kenya.

“You are so far away,” said Mr Demaida to his students, “culturally, night and day.”

He asked students to imagine their new pen pals, as the students received letters with responses and photographs of their new friends for the first time, coming to see what Newtown is like. He asked them to imagine themselves going to see how their pen pals live in Wamunya, Machakos, Kenya, Africa.

Students at their partnered school, Ngului Primary School, would normally live in a one-room home, sometimes with a room attached, as Mr Demaida explained to the students.

And in response to their favorite food, “Most of them are going to tell you vegetables.”

The students found, while reading their letters, there were more similarities than they expected, according to a few of the students in the class.

“I found out that some of the things I expected to be different in our cultures were the same,” said Erin Bernardi.

Erin said she learned that she and her pen pal, Mbithe Kive, both play the same sports and listen to the same music.

“It is interesting to learn about what people live like in other parts of the world,” Erin said.

St Rose student Matthew Kendziorski also learned about similarities between himself and his pen pal, Mboti Muli.

“I found that he is the middle child like me,” said Matthew. Both Matthew and Mboti also play soccer.

“I think it is very cool,” Matthew said about the pen pal program, “because I’m learning all about how he lives in Africa.”

Like Matthew, Rick Montiero learned he has a similar family with his pen pal, Mwende Mangi.

“She’s also the youngest in her family,” said Rick, “and so am I. And she is has a stepbrother, and so do I.”

After reading the letter from Mwende, Rick said he enjoyed reading it, and thinks the program of exchanging letters with pen pals is “pretty cool.”

“You get to learn about what other people do in other countries,” said Rick. “It’s extremely different then what we do here.”

Mr Demaida said students can choose to continue their pen pal relationship for as long as they want after the program. Once the students read their letters in class, Mr Demaida had them begin writing their next letters to their pen pals. Due to the time it takes for letters to go from Connecticut to Kenya and back, he said, can take a long time before the students receive another response.

Mr Demaida told the class it was important to start the writing process early, because he wanted the students to receive another response before the end of the school year. Before St Rose sends its responses to its pen pals, Mr Demaida said he wants to take and add photos for the students to send to their pen pals, like the students from Kenya did.

“There’s nothing better for them to associate with their new pen pal from America than a picture,” Mr Demaida explained. He said it will make their pen pals really connect to the students writing to them from Connecticut.