Teacher learns family, education are main priorities for Kenyans

Editor's note: Melissa Bachler, a teacher at Crone Middle school in Naperville, is spending a month on a volunteer trip in Kenya, where she is teaching math and reading at a school for girls and bunking in a mud hut with three other volunteers. When she is able to get to town and find an Internet connection, she is sending us entries from her journal. This is her first dispatch from Kabula, Kenya.

It is funny what fear drags out of us. For some, it keeps us stagnant; it's paralyzing. For others, it is a motivator; fear of failure can actually push us to try harder. For some, it is a catalyst for changes; fear leads us to take leaps we would normally avoid.

In Kenya, I am unsure how fear exists. It might be overpowered by desperation and this is an emotion that can drive many of us to carry out actions that we normally wouldn't do when we are surrounded by comfort and security. There is desperation here and it is surrounded by hope and happiness. Students are desperate for paper but happy with what little they have or need to reuse. People are desperate for money but happy to earn what little they do. There seems to be so little, yet there is so much.

For a place where education seems far below par compared to the U.S., and where technology is behind the times, they are educated and advanced in life. They know that family, happiness and love matter. They understand that it is not what you've got that matters, but that you want what you've got.

I have learned some priorities here already. I may have extra money for my Uggs, extra add-ons for my cell phone (I really do need that app -) and extra time on my hands because I can order those Uggs from my phone while waiting in line, but at the end of the day, you need to have yourself, extras or not. And here in Kenya, people do have themselves, their beliefs, their endless hope and optimistic outlook, and a sense of appreciation. And, quite frankly, my Uggs and cell phone - no matter what app I download - can't deliver that.

Thanks, Kenya, for putting my priorities in order.

Cheers.