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.