Bye Bye Kenya, Bon Voyage! Kwaheri Kenya, safiri salama!
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Today was our last day in Nairobi and the end of this summer’s service, learning, and adventure trip. We had the luxury of sleeping in and getting a late breakfast, before heading out to visit the Kibera Paper women’s group. Mama Angeline hosted us for a sumptous lunch of chapati, rice, ugali, sukuma wiki, chicken, fish, and beef stew at her home on Karanja Road in Kibera. it was fun to hear stories about Jeff and Ken as children and just get to know more about their family. After lunch, we returned to Shalom House to complete our final packing and donated items we did not want to take home to the Children of Kibera Foundation. For dinner we went to Junction Mall and ate in small groups at Mediteranneo, Nairobi Java House, and the food court. On our drive to the airport we shared ideas and experiences about the inevitable culture shock of coming back to life in the USA after such a powerful experience in Kenya and strategies for coping successfully. Check-in at the airport was quick but sad, as we bade farewell to our hosts from Children of Kibera and went through security. It is now 10.30pm in Nairobi as we make this blog entry, and our flight to London will depart in about one hour. We will miss our friends from Kenya, but we are also looking forward to reuniting with our families at home.
See you all soon in Boston, Miami, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Mexico City!
End of Trip Photo Potpourri
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We came back from a wonderful adventure in the Masai Mara game reserve today. We saw lions, cheetah, leopard, elephants, rhino, buffalo, giraffes, zebra and so much more. We visited a Masai village and danced with the women and the warriors. We enjoyed good times with friends and reflected on the meaning of the work we had come to do in Kenya and the impact that our trip here has had on our life perspectives. Tomorrow is our last day in Nairobi, and we depart on the evening flight to London altogether. It is incredible to look back and realize three weeks together on this service learning trip have already gone by. We will take with us many memories and will cherish the friendships we made in Kenya. Most of all, we have all committed, in different ways and to the best of our abilities, to serve as ambassadors for the children of Kibera when we get back home. We feel that we have received so much from our time volunteering in Kenya, and we have been touched deeply by the spirit of the children and the commitment of their teachers and guardians to their education. A good education for all the children and teenagers we met in Nairobi will certainly help to make many more talented and productive citizens to make Kenya a better and prosperous society. To support our work with a tax-deductible donation to the Children of Kibera Foundation, please click here. Any gift, however small or simple, can make an extraordinary difference in Kenya.
Celebrations and Farewells
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These last days have been truly a time of celebration in many ways. Even as we begin to bid farewell to Kenya, many of us are already thinking about the possibility of coming back next summer. It has been a deep, powerful, positive, and empowering experience to be in Kenya as members of the Children of Kibera Foundation and get a first hand understanding of all the projects that we support.
Our time volunteering at the Red Rose School in Kibera has ended much too fast. In the last two days, we spent more time in the classes teaching while the Red Rose teachers got more professional development with the LitWorld team. On Thursday afternoon we visited Kibera Primary School to learn about the challenges they face as a public school with more than 2100 students and only 24 teachers employed by the government. Friday was a special “Christmas in July” celebration day. We gave gifts of school uniform items (shoes, sweaters, khakis, polos etc) and other supplies (pens, books, toothbrushes, erasers etc) to all the children at the school. The celebration was made extra-special by the presence of Mia’s dad, who flew in from Washington for a surprise visit to meet the children of Red Rose and to celebrate Mia’s 17th birthday. The Red Rose kids sang songs, danced, recited poems, performed a skit, and hosted an African fashion show to mark the end of our amazing summer visit at their school. Lots of tears were shed as we pledged to keep our bonds of friendship.
As part of the KiberaOnline Schools Project, the Children of Kibera Foundation donated 15 computers to the new computer lab at Olympic High School. We visited the school for a short handing-over ceremony and cutting of the ribbon to officially open the lab. We are very thankful to all our friends, parents, schools, and other supporters of Children of Kibera for their financial and in-kind donations which we have been able to see making a direct and positive impact in the lives of so many children in Kenya.
This weekend we go on safari for two nights in the Masai Mara Game Reserve. We will be back in Nairobi on Monday evening. On Tuesday we shall have lunch hosted by Mama Angeline, Ken and Jeff’s mom at her home in Kibera before we depart Tuesday night for home via London. The next blog posting will be on Monday or Tuesday after the safari adventure.
“Out of Africa”
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Today was another exciting day. We had fun teaching our classes while the Red Rose teachers went to a professional development workshop with the team from LitWorld. After lunch we visited the Karen Blixen Museum, the Giraffe Center, and the Kazuri Beads Factory. The tour of the Kazuri Beads Factory was very educational and the opportunity to buy their beautiful handmade jewelry very meaningful. Here is a video about the Kazuri Beads. We enjoyed pizza at Shalom House for dinner and watched Out of Africa, the 1985 Academy Award movie of the year. Tomorrow we will be back volunteering at Red Rose, appreciating deeply the heroic, demanding, and skillful work that teachers do on a daily basis.
We are grateful for … We are hopeful about …
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Today we returned to Red Rose School and all of us had a more active role in the teaching of the classes. We spent most of last week observing the methods and styles of the Red Rose teachers. It was very exciting to share the lessons we had prepared and try to incorporate our ideas into the normal routine of the school and add a few enrichment activities to the ideas the children have been learning in their regular Kenyan curriculum. In the afternoon, we got a chance to visit St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School at their new campus. It is a Catholic day school that serves orphans and other young people from AIDS-affected families primarily from Kibera. They have a lovely facility and the students there seem very dedicated.
A few days ago, we shared reflections about what we are grateful for in our lives and what we are hopeful about for the future. Being in Kenya and seeing the conditions in which many children and families live has helped us gain a good perspective on our own lives. Through visits to classes at Red Rose, the markets in Nairobi, secondary schools, and the homes of the children that are sponsored by Children of Kibera Foundation, we have seen firsthand the struggles and challenges they have to overcome in order to live a life with dignity and joy.
Here are some of the thoughts that members of our group shared.
I AM GRATEFUL FOR …
- the love of the Red Rose children.
- my education. I used to think of education as a right, not a privilege. Now I realize how privileged I am to get the education and opportunities I get at my school.
- my stable home environment.
- the Red Rose School allowing us to be part of their community for three weeks.
- the chance to see and experience Kibera in a real and raw and deeper way.
- my family that is close and together. Some of the Red Rose children have lost siblings or have to live far away from their family members, seeing them very rarely.
- the opportunity to participate in a trip like this.
- good food, clean water, safe shelter and other basic necessities.
- my health and my access to quality healthcare whenever I need it.
- higher education opportunities in the USA.
I AM HOPEFUL THAT/FOR …
- I will give something back to the Children of Kibera organization because I feel that I always gain more than I give when I participate in service projects.
- I will come back to Kenya and Kibera with my parents.
- the Red Rose children and who/what they can become in life.
- the Red Rose children will beat the odds and make it to secondary school and beyond.
- I will share my emotions and experiences with my family.
- people in the United States will realize that a small contribution makes a huge difference in Kibera.
- the youth of Kenya will improve their country.
- women in Kenya will fully realize their rights as written in the new Kenyan constitution
Lake Nakuru Safari Adventure
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After the amazing energy of the Children of Kibera Music Festival on Friday and Saturday, we got a change on Sunday with an overnight trip to Lake Nakuru National Park. Our journey began after breakfast when we loaded up the three safari land-cruisers and headed west from Nairobi through the highlands of central Kenya to the high escarpment overlooking the majestic rift valley. We arrived at Lake Nakuru National Park at about 11 am, and began the real adventure of the safari with a quick game drive where we saw a pride of lions, lionesses, and cubs resting on the acacia trees and in the bushes next to the remnants of a giant buffalo carcass. We checked in to a sumptuous lunch at the Sarova Lion Hill Lodge. After lunch we rested in our rooms and around the swimming pool at the lodge before embarking on a late afternoon game drive as the sun began to set. The flocks of birds on the lake were fantastic. We saw pelicans, flamingoes, crested cranes, guinea fowls, and many more than we could name. We also saw many monkeys, baboons, impalas, zebra, giraffes, gazelles, white rhinos, hyenas, warthogs and waterbucks. Back at the lodge, we took in a performance of live African music and traditional dances by a bonfire before dinner. Dinner was equally delicious as our lunch had been. We retired to our nice rooms to find that the turn-in service included hot water bottles under our blankets, perfect for easing the chilly night-time temperatures in the high altitude.
On Monday morning we checked out of the lodge after breakfast and enjoyed another game drive in the park, with the highlight being a visit to the Baboon Hill overlook site. Our drive to Nairobi was mostly quiet, as many people took the chance to nap or listen to music. The scenery and landscapes were changing, and became more familiar as we approached the city of Nairobi. We arrived at Junction Mall in time for a late lunch and some quick shopping at Nakumatt Supermarket. When we got back to Shalom House we had a few hours of free time to rest, check email, or start getting ready for the coming days of substitute-teaching at the Red Rose School. The team from LitWorld came to visit before dinner and we shared our reflections and heard some tips from them that we can incorporate into our work at Red Rose. Tomorrow afternoon we will visit St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit high school that serves many teenagers from AIDS-affected families in Kibera and other parts of Nairobi.
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Today was the finale of the 3rd Annual Children of Kibera Music Festival. The theme of the festival was brought to life in song, poetry, dance, and drama by students from Kibera high schools performing in front of a panel of judges and a large audience of their peers and other members of the community. We loved seeing some of the Red Rose children out of school coming to enjoy the performances by the top schools groups from yesterday. In the afternoon, we rested at Shalom House and got prepared for our trip to Lake Nakuru National Park tomorrow. We enjoyed a quiet evening of reflection among friends with pizza and watched the movie “Nowhere in Africa.” The topic of our reflection tonight was about things we are grateful for in our lives and things we hope for in the future. We will share some of these reflections in an upcoming post on the blog.
Student Reflections from Kiberapalooza
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Our volunteers spent the morning at Red Rose and the afternoon at the third annual Children of Kibera Foundation festival of performing arts for Kibera’s high school students. For the evening reflections, we asked students to write about a moment of pure joy that they had experienced. Here are some of the reflections four of our student volunteers shared.
“Today during break at Red Rose, a girl in class six came up to me with a letter. She was not at Red Rose two years ago and I have not talked to her enough, so I don’t know her as well as the other kids. She handed me an envelope that says “I love you” on the front. I asked her when I should open it, and she said “Right now!” Inside the envelope were a small handwritten note and a photo of herself. In the note, she introduced herself and said that she included the photo so that I would never forget her. I was so happy with her thoughtfulness and eagerness to connect with me.” — Student One
“Today at the third annual Children of Kibera Music Festival, 13 high schools from around Kibera took part by performing skits, dances, and songs all related to the topic of the new constitution, also known in kiswahili as “Katiba Mpya.” There were so many moments of joy this afternoon. We saw high school students from Kibera having a venue to share their talents with their community. There was a lot of pride and confidence in their performances. Knowing that this foundation made this festival possible for the community today was a moment of pure joy that I experienced today.” — Student Two
“After the last performances at the festival today, we got a chance to dance with everyone. It was amazing to me to see the power of music and to see how much joy that brought everyone. I remember looking at this one girl who was dancing and I started to smile and she put out her hand, even though I was horrible at dancing. She had never met me before. We laughed, and I was not able to keep a smile off my face for a long time after that.” — Student Three
“The music beat loud in my head and all around. I just stepped away from my impromptu dance instructor and into the vibrations above a tiny Kiberan child. His eyes darted up toward me and my hands came down towards him. For a minute, we saddled our shoulders. For a moment, I lifted him into the air, his feet dangling above the dust. He looked up again and his cheeks drew tight. His teeth reflected the crowded sunlight.” — Student Four
US-Kenya Relations and Delicious Lebanese Food
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“Another wonderful day…” said chaperone, Mary Howard. Our students continued to connect and show leadership in their Red Rose classrooms throughout the morning. Relationship building continued through reading special books aloud, playing bingo games, singing songs, dancing, and casual conversation. We concluded our home visits today to two Red Rose students’ homes and one high school scholar’s home where we met with parents and caregivers of the children receiving sponsorships through the Children of Kibera Foundation.
After a quick lunch at the Village Market Mall in Gigiri, we proceeded to the US Embassy for our formal visit and briefing. We had to go through three different security check-points before we were ushered to the auditorium at the embassy. We were greeted by several Foreign Service officers who shared information about their career paths and current responsibilities within the US Mission in Kenya. We asked many questions of the officers and some great exchanges took place. We learned more about how the embassy is structured, hosting into five main agencies including the State Department, USAID, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, and the International Broadcasting Bureau (which includes Voice of America).
Other facts mentioned included:
2,000,000 living with HIV in Kenya- HIV is 4 times as prevalent in women
420,000 are receiving ARV treatment
64% of the Kenyan population is under 24 years old. They call this the “youth bulge”.
50% of Kenyans are unemployed or under employed and the need for improved infrastructure is great.
Successes over the last 10 years:
*Improved relationships with Kenyan government to ensure sustainable programs.
*Under 5 mortality has decreased
*Infant mortality has decreased
* Better treatment of malaria
At the end of our visit to the embassy, one of the hosts encouraged our students to embrace all of the educational and experiential opportunities before them and choose something that they are passionate about. Afterwards, we had a delicious family-style dinner at Cedars, a Lebanese restaurant in Kilimani. It was a perfect Nairobi evening for outdoor dining as we enjoyed great food, conversation and laughter. Tomorrow, we will have a chance to watch performances by teenagers from high schools in Kibera at the 3rd annual Children of Kibera Music Festival. The theme of the festival is “Katiba Mpya, Kenya Mpya?” which is Swahili for “New Constitution, New Kenya?”
Photographic Potpourri, Seven Days in Kenya!
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It has been seven days since we arrived in Nairobi, Kenya for the start of our Service, Learning, and Adventure mission trip in support of the Children of Kibera Foundation. We have had a full schedule on each day, we have met many people and made tons of new friends, we have learnt so much more than we could have imagined and asked thousands of questions about the country and its people. Enjoy this slideshow of photos that capture some of the past seven days. Two more weeks left, the time is going by too fast!
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Today we continued our community service as assistant teachers at the Red Rose School. Several members of our group got the chance to go deeper into parts of Kibera we had not visited before to see the homes and meet the families of three girls from Red Rose School. It was a very powerful experience that continues to help us appreciate what a difference the school community makes for the children who are blessed enough to attend. In the afternoon we visited St. George’s Girls Secondary School, and we were very impressed by the ambition, diligence, and confident dignity of the girls. We went to different classes with their 9th and 10th graders, and had the special opportunity to meet the only girl from Kibera who attends this top school, thanks to a scholarship from the Children of Kibera Foundation. After classes, we walked briefly around the beautifully manicured and meticulously maintained campus and had a chance to play, sing, dance, chat, and share interesting conversations about American culture and dreams of life after high school. Our visit to St. George’s ended with tea and pancakes in their boardroom, before we headed out to a delicious dinner at Fogo Gaucho, a charming Brazilian steakhouse in Westlands, Nairobi. Tomorrow we will work at Red Rose School in the morning then go to the Embassy of the United States in Nairobi to meet with diplomats and other officials from US government agencies based in Nairobi.This slideshow requires JavaScript.
We began our day as usual with breakfast at the Baraza Cafe at Shalom House, before rolling out around 8am to go to the Red Rose School. Today, seven more members of our group went to visit the homes of two Red Rose students sponsored by Children of Kibera Foundation and the home of one family whose son attends Pumwani Secondary School on a merit scholarship from the foundation too. The home visits were a very powerful experience. One of the mothers explained how the solar lamps distributed by LitWorld in partnership with Children of Kibera has reduced the smoke that used to cause pneumonia for her and her children. One of the trip participants has been a leader in creating the solar-lamp project to provide clean sustainable power to the homes that are not served by safe electricity.
Before heading for lunch at Yaya Center, we stopped briefly at the Power Women’s Group to do some shopping for bead-work and other trinkets made by the members of this organization that provides counselling and income to the 23 HIV positive members. After lunch we left for Dagoretti High School, a provincial boarding school in the outskirts of Nairobi that is attended by 11 boys from Kibera on scholarships from Children of Kibera Foundation. We were welcomed to the school by the teacher on duty, then broke up into four groups to sit in and participate in a few classes of chemistry, math, English grammar, history, and Kiswahili! It was such a cool experience to see how lessons are taught at a Kenyan high school. After classes, we had a tour around the school to see their dairy production, the dorms, and the athletic fields. We rounded up our visit with an exciting soccer game between the 9th grade team of Dagoretti boys and our mixed group of volunteers from the USA.
Today’s home visits and the time at Dagoretti provided us with meaningful exchange opportunities that really help us to understand the home and school lives of the children who benefit from Children of Kibera Foundation programs. Tomorrow afternoon we will visit St. George’s Girls High School.
The hopeful and joyful sights and sounds of the Red Rose School in Kibera.
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After our whirlwind of a weekend, we resumed our more regular schedule of volunteering at Red Rose in the mornings and then visiting some community projects, schools, or other interesting sites after lunch. We got to Red Rose during their Monday morning assembly, where they share announcements, inspirational verses, and sing the Kenyan national anthem. We brought name-tags for all the students and teachers at the school to help with the process of learning names and getting to know each other faster. For all of this week, our approach is to observe how the regular classes are taught by the Kenyan teachers at Red Rose. Next week the Red Rose teachers will be in special professional development workshops for four days with LitWorld, a New-York based partner organization of the Children of Kibera Foundation. When the teachers are out of class for training next week, we will serve as the substitute teachers taking charge to continue the regular curriculum used at Red Rose as well as introducing some enrichment activities we are preparing for the children. After morning recess today, Jeff and Joshua from Children of Kibera took some of us to a home visit of two of the Red Rose children that are sponsored by the foundation. It was a very powerful experience to go into their neighborhoods and homes and learn more about their families and their lives outside the safe and lively environment of the Red Rose School. In 2009, Voice of America TV sent a crew to visit some of the Red Rose children in their homes, just like we did today. Here is a link to the Voice of America TV clip about the Red Rose School.
We stopped at the Prestige Plaza food court for a quick lunch before driving back to Lindi, a neighborhood in Kibera about three kilometers away from the Red Rose School. A few of the Red Rose School children walk this far each morning to get to school. Our goal for the afternoon was to visit the Lindi Youth Group and learn about their work in providing public showers and bathroom facilities in their neighborhood. They also run a sustainable urban agriculture project and a bio-gas project connected to the shower and bathroom facilities. This group has a vision of initiating an information technology project for the children and other members of the community who have no access to basic computer education or internet access. They had requested Children of Kibera Foundation to support them with some computer equipment to start a lab that could be used by the local informal schools and an income-generating cyber-cafe to serve the local community.
Before heading out to dinner at the Mediterraneo Restaurant and Nairobi Java House Cafe at Junction Mall, we had a reflection session and discussion at Shalom House. We made lists of five words that described our perspectives of Kenya before this trip, and five words that came to mind to describe Kenya as we see it after a few days on this trip and all the activities we have taken part in. Sharing these lists helped us to have a very interesting discussion, and brought up a lot of good questions for us to all think about. After dinner at Junction Mall, we got together and sang the Star-Spangled Banner to celebrate our Fourth of July away from home. On the way back to Shalom House we learnt a little song – Senwa Dedende – from West Africa and sang it as beautifully as we could. It is a Ghanaian song about a lazy vulture, and it is so easy to learn and sing. Here is a link to Senwa Dedende on YouTube.
Kawangware visit // Sorting at Shalom House
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We added this post from our Sunday in Nairobi because sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words!The Joys of Service and Giving
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Today we spent the morning in Kawangware, a poor neighborhood in Nairobi that is not as extreme as Kibera. Most of the land in Kawangware is legally owned, and there are significant developments of apartment-type houses and permanent shops than in many parts of Kibera where the land is not titled and legally owned by individuals, hence is not as much investment in better housing and commercial structures as in Kawangware. Our host in Kawangware today was Fikisha Kenya, an organization that assists in bringing restoration, independence, and hope to the homeless youth from the slums of Nairobi. After quick introductions to the organization and its programs, five volunteers from our group were assigned to help in the kitchen to prepare lunch for about 32 of the homeless street youths served by the program. Our volunteers chopped up kales and other vegetables and beef and cooked it up in a delicious Kenyan style. They also learnt how to make ugali, a staple cornmeal carbohydrate in most parts of Kenya. The rest of our group went to mass at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kawangware, which provides space for Fikisha Kenya to have an office and run a small safe-house for the street children and youth as they undergo rehabilitation. The mass was very lively with songs, clapping, dancing, guitars, keyboards and drums. The congregation’s energy and joy during their worship was a special experience to be welcomed into. Although most of the mass and songs during it were in Kiswahili, we still felt very uplifted and were glad for the chance to join in.
After mass at the church, we went to spend about an hour with the 31 young people served by Fikisha Kenya, including a large number of them who still live on the streets but have began the journey to try change their lives physically, spiritually, emotionally, and in therms of skills and education too. Some of the youth in the program pursue vocational training while the younger ones who have a desire to can return to boarding school to continue their education. The youth of Fikisha Kenya shared their own compositions of rap, reggae, and gospel music. We shared with them a song from Potomac School’s May Day celebrations, “The Rattling Bog”, led by Ms. Meredith Murphy and Ken Okoth. It was lots of fun, but also very powerful and moving to hear the expressions of these young men and their lives on the street. Some of them ran away from home when they were less than 6 years old, and many had not been reunited with their families for more than three years. The addictions, hunger, violence, and isolation of street-life affect these youth very deeply.
After lunch, we all had a chance to try our hand at bargaining for gifts and souvenirs from Kenya at the open-air Masai Market which was hosted today on the parking lot of the Yaya Center Mall in Kilimani. It was a different type of cultural experience, and the first opportunity for many of our travelers to try get a good deal on items such as baskets, bracelets, necklaces, beaded belts and so much more. When we got to Shalom, we spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through the thirty duffels and cases of donated clothing and school supplies that we brought for the Red Rose School and young people at other projects supported by the Children of Kibera Foundation.
During our reflections today, we each shared an idea, a sound, a comment, and an image that struck us from the day’s activities. Although we had had lots of fun in the afternoon, it was the morning visit to volunteer at Fikisha Kenya and spend time with their youth, attending service at their church, bringing them donations of non-perishable food items, clothing, and soccer balls that really touched us the most. We were all glad to learn about this small organization and to support them with our small contribution. It was a day in which the theme of joy through service and giving really came to life for us, even as we spent hours organizing donations for specific children at Red Rose and other schools in Kibera and around Nairobi. We enjoyed another dinner of Italian pasta dishes and pizza at L’Arena Restaurant, located on the ground floor of our hostel block at Shalom House. Tomorrow we will be returning to spend the morning volunteering at the Red Rose School then we will visit the Lindi Youth Group in the afternoon to learn about their different projects that include a sanitation block, a meeting space, and a planned internet cafe in the Lindi neighborhood within the heart of the Kibera slum area.
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This was another packed day in our Kenyan schedule, and we made the most of it. Most of our group slept in, and we did not get to breakfast until around nine o’clock. At ten we left Shalom House to go visit the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, located on the edge of the Nairobi National Park. We enjoyed learning about the work that it takes to rescue orphaned elephants and raise them with human guardians before reintroducing them to the wilderness through a painstaking process that lasts between five and nine years. There are many challenges to the environment and natural resources of Kenya, so it was uplifting to see a project such as the Sheldrick Orphanage which is working with the government of Kenya to promote the conservation of precious wildlife and their natural habitats. Some members of our group got a chance to pet the baby elephants before we left to get lunch at the Prestige Plaza Mall on Ngong’ Road. We ate at the food court that has abundant choices of dishes from different cultures including Ethiopian, American, Swahili, Indian, Italian and Mexican.
After lunch at Prestige Plaza, it was a short drive to Makina Market in Kibera, located less than two miles from the Red Rose School and the Children of Kibera Foundation. Makina Market is a bustling commercial and light industrial manufacturing location. There are more than 500 separate businesses selling supplies or producing textile goods, leather products, school uniforms, fabricated steel and iron works, beaded jewelry and much more. This was both an educational visit to show us about the entrepreneurship within the Kibera community and a chance for us to do some initial shopping in a socially responsible manner that directly supports the local producers of many of the goods and souvenirs we might otherwise buy for a higher mark-up at tourist hotspots. The boys in our group all got tailor-made African design shirts that will be ready next week. The girls bought jewelry and ordered custom-made leather sandals. We toured a lot of the market to see some of the businessmen and women at work creating things such as metal trunks, school uniforms, leather goods and so on.
We followed our trip to the Makina Market with a visit to the US Embassy compound to join in the pre-fourth of July celebration party with members of the US delegation in Kenya and their families and friends. The picnic included hamburgers and hotdogs from the barbecue, side dishes and delicious desserts. Among the highlights of the picnic party was a chance for our group to meet and speak with Ambassador Scott Gration and his wife about our work as volunteers with the Children of Kibera Foundation. The Ambassador and his wife thanked our students for their service and commended them for taking the initiative to get engaged in global issues at such an early age. Apart from networking and enjoying good food, we got a chance to play games including bungee jumping on a trampoline. A round of fireworks was the fitting end to the celebration with the embassy families before we left, heading back to Shalom House. We were all very thankful to the US Embassy for the invitation to join their celebration and we look forward to our formal visit to the embassy on July 7th.
For our evening reflection activity, we watched “A Small Act”, a documentary about a Holocaust survivor who sponsors a Kenyan student from a remote village to go through elementary and high school. That Kenyan student eventually studies law at Harvard University and works for the UN defending human rights and investigating genocide around the world. We shared our personal reactions to the documentary and held a discussion about the Kenyan educational system and how individuals or organizations such as Children of Kibera can make a huge impact in the lives of others and for the future of communities. Although it was a long day filled with lots of exciting activities, “A Small Act” left us all with a positive and hopeful message about the ripple effects that our actions can have.
Tomorrow we will be visiting an organization in Kawangware that helps in the rehabilitation of former street children through feeding programs, vocational training, and literacy skills. In the afternoon we will be unpacking and prepping the items we brought to be donated to different schools and organizations we will be visiting during the rest of our trip.
Facing our fears and tapping into our excitement
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Today was our first day into Kibera, and it was a day filled with lots of emotions, from fear to excitement. We arrived at the Red Rose School and were welcomed by the teachers and students. The welcoming ceremony included performances of songs, poems, and dances by the children in all the grades. After a few words from the school principal, Mr. Buluma, we got a chance to meet the teachers to whose classes we had been assigned. It was fun to get to the classes and begin to know the children we will be working with for the next three weeks. We observed the teachers leading lessons in their classes, we sang and danced during recess with the children, and had a special lunch of Kenyan beef pilau for everyone. What a treat it was for everyone!
After lunch we went to visit Kibra Academy, a high school in another neighborhood of Kibera. The teenagers at Kibra Academy enjoyed showing us their simple school and asking us a lot of questions about life in America. Fifteen students from the school toured us through parts of Kibera, going along a section of the Mombasa-Kisumu railway tracks to Olympic Primary School and Olympic High School. At Olympic Primary School we spent time with Principal Mrs. Namulundu, Ken Okoth’s former teacher. We then stopped at Olympic High School to admire their newly constructed classrooms and labs. The Children of Kibera Foundation is partnering with Olympic High School to donate 15 computers for a new lab that will make 21st century information communication technology accessible to the more than 700 teenagers who attend the school and their teachers.
We held our group journaling and reflection session prior to dinner. Today’s topic of reflection asked all participants to explain why they chose to come to Kenya and to share their hopes and fears about this trip. Here are some quotes from the reflections that people shared.
“I wanted to conquer the fear of the unknown”
“I wanted to experience service on a global scale”
“I like to use my summer time to participate in new experiences that might show me a true passion that I can pursue with excitement every day of my life”
“I am excited to see the students that I had deep connections with last year”
“I fear the moment of goodbyes, and when it would be the next time to get a chance to see the children we become friends with at Red Rose”
“I am scared of what some of the children face when they are not in the safe haven of the school environment”
“I am scared that we may not be helping as much as we are gaining from this experience”
“I am excited that today gave me the chance to start seeing the meaning of this trip on a personal level, rather than a purely intellectual and analytical level as I have done before”
After the journaling and reflections, we all went downstairs to have dinner at L’Arena Restaurant . We enjoyed fine Italian dishes, including selections of pasta and brick-oven pizza. We look forward to another full day tomorrow. Highlights will include a morning session to sort donated supplies from the USA, a visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, shopping for arts and crafts at Makina Market in Kibera, and going to the block party hosted by staff and families of the US Embassy in Nairobi to celebrate the upcoming July 4th holiday.
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Today we woke up early into a chilly Nairobi morning, typical of the cold season in July in Kenya. After a breakfast of eggs and bacon and sausages at the Baraza Cafe at Shalom House, we left for our scheduled excursion to Kiambethu Farm in Limuru. We made an impromptu stop at the Bata Shoe Factory in Limuru, where a few members of our group got a chance to get a good deal on new pairs of shoes. Kiambethu Farm was such a treat. The visit began with our hosts Fiona and Marcus giving us the history of their tea plantation and explaining how the tea industry works locally and globally. We had a chance to drink cups of fresh tea from their plantation then went on a walk through the forested part of the plantation to learn about different medicinal herbs in the forest. We enjoyed a good time in the garden and a delicious lunch. After lunch we drove back to Shalom House for a short time of nap and relaxation. In the evening, our group visited the Junction Mall where we got a chance to do some shopping and ate dinner at the Nairobi Java House cafe.
During our evening reflections we shared about our different impressions of Kenya, the kinds of things we expected and what we actually saw since arriving last night. We talked about our impressions of the people’s seemingly happy attitudes, the rich history of the country, the beautiful landscapes, the styles of construction, the small commercial enterprises and shops along all roads.
The last member of our group, Emily, arrived tonight from London. We all look forward to our first day at the Red Rose School in Kibera tomorrow.
We have arrived! After a beautiful farewell dinner hosted by the Rooney family for our group on Monday night, many of the travelers met up at Dulles Airport on Tuesday with tonnes of duffel bags packed with supplies for our mission to Kenya. After all the repacking and reweighing of bags, we went through security and settled in for the flight to London and on to Nairobi. Carina arrived in Nairobi by herself on a flight from Dubai and was delighted to see the familiar faces of her friends from Children of Kibera waiting to meet her. The rest of the group arrived in Nairobi from London. Going through the visa line to get entry visas and getting electronic fingerprints taken by the friendly and curious officials of Kenyan Immigration was quite the experience. We loaded the bus and extra luggage car, and drove off into the cool Nairobi night to our how for the next weeks, Shalom House. A few hungry travelers who slept through the meals on the British Airways flight got a chance to get a midnight meal of chicken and chips from Nairobi’s finest rotisserie joint, the KENCHIC INN, where they are truly kuku about chicken! It is nice to be back in Kenya for the returnees on our trip, and a good welcome to all our new travellers. As they say in Nairobi, KARIBUNI! Welcome y’all!
Packing up, with love, to Africa!
All spring semester, our volunteers for the Kenya 2011 trip have been collecting school supplies and other donations to be delivered to children who benefit from the programs of the Children of Kibera Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya. With the end of the school year and the day of travel coming closer, participants and their parents met to start the final packing of the donated items into duffel bags, ready for delivery to Kenya. We are so thankful to all supporters who donated in the different collection drives, especially our friends in the lower and middle schools at Potomac. We would also like to thank everyone who came out to help with the packing up of the donations. These gifts will deliver a lot of smiles in Kenya!
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Lasting Legacy
Our summer 2010 volunteers and their supporters back in the USA made a contribution that will last for decades, impacting positively the lives of the children who will be educated in the new classrooms at Red Rose School and the new computer lab at Ayany Primary School. Thank you so much! Read more…
