英国卫报：肯尼亚的学校有河马和鳄鱼出没(4)（在线收听）

A few local schools had received donations from the national government and from charities, but Okeyo dismissed these as pitiful: a few tents, and some corrugated iron sheets for building classrooms.

一些当地学校收到了来自国家政府和慈善机构的捐赠，但奥凯奥认为这些捐赠很可怜：几顶帐篷和一些用于建造教室的波纹铁板。

When Okeyo went to the Ministry of Education in Nairobi at the start of 2021, the records showed that each of the secondary schools around Lake Baringo had been allocated 10m shillings (67,000 pounds), and the primary schools 4m shillings (27,000 pounds) each.

2021年初，Okeyo去了内罗毕的教育部，记录显示，巴林戈湖周围的每所中学都获得了1000万先令（67,000英镑）的拨款，每所小学获得了400万先令（27,000英镑）。

“The officer I was talking to said the money had been sent,” Okeyo said.

奥凯奥说：“与我交谈的警官说，钱已经寄出去了。”

On the ground, these schools knew nothing about the money.

实际上，这些学校对钱的事情一无所知。

(Some financial assistance arrived months after I visited, more than a year after the schools were flooded.)

（一些经济援助是在我访问几个月后到达的，距离学校被洪水淹没已经一年多了。）

The next day, Okeyo and I set out to visit some of the schools that had relocated.

第二天，奥凯奥和我出发去参观一些搬迁的学校。

At Ng’ambo primary school, whose student population had dropped down to 40 children from a pre-pandemic high of 500, classes were under way beneath the shade of trees and in two white Red Cross tents.

在Ng’ambo小学，学生人数从疫情爆发前的最高水平500人下降到40人，学校在树荫下和两个白色的红十字会帐篷里上课。

Outside one tent was the staffroom: a bench where teachers sat, grading exam papers.

帐篷外面是教员室：老师们坐在那里批改试卷。

In one outdoor class, a teacher took his pupils through some English grammar.

在一堂户外课上，一位老师教他的学生一些英语语法。

Today’s lesson was capital letters.

今天的课程是大写字母。

Around the children, goats walked in the dust.

在孩子们周围，山羊在泥土中走来走去。

Mr Parkolo, the headteacher, told me that what used to be the school’s classrooms were now submerged, nine miles away.

班主任帕科洛告诉我，学校过去的教室在9英里外都被淹没了。

He told the children to put on their face masks.

他叫孩子们戴上口罩。

We were in the middle of a pandemic, after all.

毕竟，我们正处于一场疫情之中。

A few hours later, I visited the old site of another school, Salabani secondary.

几个小时后，我参观了另一所学校萨拉巴尼中学的旧址。

Here, the lake had receded a bit, so we could explore.

在这里，湖已经退了一点，所以我们可以探索了。

A group of children, who were not students at the school, led me, as well as the principal of the school and his deputy, through the floating water hyacinth that was everywhere in the compound.

一群不是在校学生的孩子带着我和校长和他的副手，穿过院子里随处可见的漂浮的水葫芦。

We walked past hippopotamus footprints and stepped on to an elevated room that used to be the classroom for form two.

我们穿过河马的脚印，走进一间曾经是二年级教室的高架教室。

Before us was the lake.

在我们前面是一个湖。

Pelicans, wet and hungry, waded in the water.

鹈鹕，涉水而行，又湿又饿。

The principal, Moses Chelimo, pointed out what used to be a boys’ dormitory, now barely visible across the water.

校长摩西·奇利莫指出了曾经是男生宿舍的地方，现在隔着水面几乎看不见。

Behind it was the school farm, where two hectares of maize grown to feed the students was underwater.

在它的后面是学校的农场，那里种植着两公顷的玉米，供学生们食用，不过都被水淹没了。