Elimu's 2012 school trip to Kenya, all 21 sixth formers, four teachers and me, was quite a 5 star affair - for a variety of reasons! The first two nights were spent under canvas in the beautiful Sanctuary Farm, a 500 acre diary and horse farm by the shores of Lake Naivasha where zebra, antelope, wildebeest and giraffe roam free among the trees and open spaces. Along with the mischievous Colobus monkeys hanging out near the tents and several brightly coloured birds, they are the first things you see in the glow of the morning light.
Technically, Naivasha is less than two hours from Nairobi. In reality, time in Africa mysteriously expands. It is loose, flexible, it can be created, and, particularly if you are trundling along in a 70s' style school bus that cannot go beyond a certain speed, two hours can easily become four.
The bus, which belongs to Kipriria and Greenfields schools, and its truly excellent drivers, Wilson and Samson, have become much loved figures on all our trips. The bus has a knack for bringing everyone together. It allows our school parties and others to travel through Kenya in a more grounded, spirited way than most visitors tend to do. Public transport would not make it onto the pages of our risk assessments, and the alternative safari-style trucks and air-conditioned coaches would not suit Elimu in the same way as a local school's minibus. A school bus full of westerners, many of them 'wazungus' (the oft-repeated Swahili word for white people), attracts its fair share of bemused (if warm) comments, laughs and double takes. We are fortunate that the bus came into the lives of two of our host schools and was offered to us in time for the very first trip, in 2010.
If a school bus sets the tone for our trips from the time of their arrival in Nairobi, Sanctuary Farm is another perfect fit and follow-up. My own introduction to Kenya was spent in Naivasha as part of a group of fledgling volunteer teachers. Naivasha sits in the shadow of the Rift Valley. We stayed by ourselves in round wooden bandas, lit lanterns and campfires and were surrounded only by Africa's distinctive acacia and yellow fever trees, with the distant, guttural sound of an occasional hippo reminding us of who was in-charge. You felt that you were in Africa. I wanted that for the students who take part in Elimu's trips now.
Night time hippos inevitably did not make the place I had stayed in suitable for a school trip, but Santuary Farm was a welcome, lucky find. Run by Julie and Guy Erskine, it is Lake Naivasha as it is meant to be. Our school parties reside on a private, natural campsite set in a forest of indigenous trees, complete with lanterns and, of course, a campfire. If you remember to bring them with you, you can sit and roast marshmallows after a healthy dinner in the old polo club house. Julie is also a cook.
'You could have picked somewhere more peaceful, Jo!' said one of our teachers at breakfast as we sat and listened to everything and nothing and watched herds of zebra and giraffe in the distance.
The farm provided a unique setting for orientation. After some team bonding, especially important since there were two schools with us (The Priory on its third trip and Bishop Justus making an introductory visit), the first part was a talk on Kenyan culture and education which involved the art of note taking and sparked some interesting questions. The second part took this a step further with a series of debates arising from a Six Hats discussion on tourism vs. development. Students were asked to consider their own impact on the places they visit, the negatives as much as the positives, and to look at how tourism, high end and our end, can be combined with development for the benefit of local people. This is what Elimu is trying to do with these trips, which I will return to in a separate post.
Later in the afternoon, we moved onto some teaching practice. Students were all taught a variety of playgound games with educational messages (adapted from the games created by the organisation Right to Play), including life skills such as team building and addressing prejudice and those that deal with malaria prevention. The games have different stages to them and include plenaries at the end which focus on questioning as a way of deepening learning and understanding. Happy that they had mastered the games they had learned so far, since they would have to teach them in the schools, our students then broke off into teams, each with a set of instructions for a new game that they had to teach to the rest of group.
As the light faded and warm sunshine gave way to Naivasha's chilly night time air, the sixth formers went away in pairs and small groups to plan mini-lessons to present the following morning. The challenge was for them to communicate a favourite part of their school subjects to the rest of us, using the same methods they had just been shown and without the resources they would have at home.
Nerves abounded right up until the moment when they were greeted by some very excited children as they made their way into Kipriria Academy, The Priory's link school, two days later, and stepped into lessons as teachers rather than students for the first time.
We watched them over the course of 10 days, their teachers and I, as they grew in confidence, developing new skills and for some, new ways of thinking and behaving. They thought, too, about education, Kenya's and their own. They learned more in that short time, both about themselves and about another part of the world, than they imagined they could or would. We were very proud of them.
Nandi Hills was its usual welcoming self, as personified by David and Julie at Kip's Eco Resort, the trips' new Nandi home, who arranged a tea picking competition and for traditional Nandi dancers to come and introduce our students to their culture. Video footage of the staff dancing remains strictly off limits (you had to be there to see it!), but suffice it to say, a long day with a late dinner and need for sleep did not much matter when met with such unexpected entertainment. It was Midnight but everyone soon came to life. The dancers had every single person in the room up dancing with them.
There were long morning walks into town under the blazing sun (some longer and hillier than others! I should point out that Nandi Hills is also more than 5000ft above sea level), through villages and on past tea estates; conversations and hellos with members of the community; debilitating rainstorms; dinner, and sometimes lunch, in the home of Kipriria's director, Mr Yego; a cooking session at another Elimu home-from-home, Tea Planters Inn; endless cups of tea; an evening in the local Nandi Bears golf club; Swahili lessons with Kipriria's headteacher; the first meeting between Bishop Justus and Greenfields School; later on, a memorable trek to see the sunrise over Kakamega Rainforest, the last remaining section of tropical rainforest in East Africa which used to stretch across the continent; and, back in Nandi Hills, a seven-a-side, inter-school football match involving five Elimu schools: The Priory, Bishop Justus, Greenfields, Kipriria and Kipsamo, a designated 'hub' school for football matches and teacher conferences and also a partner to Charles Darwin School which made an initial visit last year.
What this trip did, what they strive always to do as an essential starting point, is to bring people together, both locally and internationally, and to celebrate an exchange of cultures and ideas. The sixth formers brought something different and fun into the lives and classrooms of children who are in school at 7am and still there at 9pm, giving them experiences that for all their seemingly unbridled sense of joy, they do not normally have. Many of them live restrictive lives in stark conditions on the school site. They take part in football matches, girls and boys in equal numbers on each team, because their partner schools are there as a focal point, motivating them and joining in.
My own school, Charles Darwin, which let me come away to do this trip, has an Arts Week during the last week of term when different events and activities take the place of normal lessons. You could say that these trips give the Kenyan schools their own mini-Arts Week. Some things are kept the same, so as not to cause too much disruption, while others are allowed for. This time, we had an Art teacher, Tim Strange, and several art and photography students helping Kipriria's children access various forms of creativity and discovering some talented young artists.
This year's farewell assembly, held in daylight with all of us standing on a plinth on the school field in front of a sea of children in red and white check, their beautiful voices singing us a song about thanking teachers, was quietly moving.
If Africa is full of paradoxes, beauty and untold diversity and complexity, then so too are these trips. The poverty everyone saw in the villages we passed through on our way to Nandi Hills was not what they saw by the time we did that journey in reverse. Having lived in a similar community for the past week, it was the colour and the vibrancy and innovation - in short, the life and potential - that they noticed first. A small thing, but a telling one.
It matters that people are not shielded and that they see up close, through proper, informed engagement, all the things which make-up a country like Kenya. This was very much in mind towards the end of our trip. On the last night, due to extenuating circumstances and a day where nothing had gone to plan, we found ourselves needing somewhere to stay in Nairobi. It was 1 o'clock in the morning and we had been on the road for 10 hours. So we went to the only place we thought might be able to take us all in at short notice: The Hilton. The Priory's headteacher Nick and I bartered our way to a discount as though we had just wandered in from a local market, which in a way we had. Another experience. Not least for the staff on Reception who were amused at the sight of Wilson pulling up outside their landmark hotel in a muddy school bus. A fitting contrast.
Not a lot of sleep was had, but a morning debrief in the more luxurious surroundings of the upstairs lounge added an interesting dimension to my final talk with the students - and probably, in its juxtaposition to everything else, a clearer focus.
With this extended debrief I write chiefly for those who have not been to Kenya. It does not capture the humour, intensity, eccentricities and complexities of a trip like this because in truth it cannot, but hopefully it offers a degree of insight.
55 students representing three UK schools have so far taken part in an Elimu trip - and the impact of that in both places is growing and starting slowly to show. Thank you to all those who made this last trip: our many hosts and partners, the students who stepped up remarkably well and the staff who were there with them, and with me, teaching their own lessons (more on that to come) and making a team. They set the bar very high.
Jo
Photos courtesy of Timothy Strange; third photo of Sanctuary Farm courtesy of Lucy Strutt
 |
| Roaming wildlife on Santurary Farm |
Technically, Naivasha is less than two hours from Nairobi. In reality, time in Africa mysteriously expands. It is loose, flexible, it can be created, and, particularly if you are trundling along in a 70s' style school bus that cannot go beyond a certain speed, two hours can easily become four.
 |
| Our bus |
The bus, which belongs to Kipriria and Greenfields schools, and its truly excellent drivers, Wilson and Samson, have become much loved figures on all our trips. The bus has a knack for bringing everyone together. It allows our school parties and others to travel through Kenya in a more grounded, spirited way than most visitors tend to do. Public transport would not make it onto the pages of our risk assessments, and the alternative safari-style trucks and air-conditioned coaches would not suit Elimu in the same way as a local school's minibus. A school bus full of westerners, many of them 'wazungus' (the oft-repeated Swahili word for white people), attracts its fair share of bemused (if warm) comments, laughs and double takes. We are fortunate that the bus came into the lives of two of our host schools and was offered to us in time for the very first trip, in 2010.
If a school bus sets the tone for our trips from the time of their arrival in Nairobi, Sanctuary Farm is another perfect fit and follow-up. My own introduction to Kenya was spent in Naivasha as part of a group of fledgling volunteer teachers. Naivasha sits in the shadow of the Rift Valley. We stayed by ourselves in round wooden bandas, lit lanterns and campfires and were surrounded only by Africa's distinctive acacia and yellow fever trees, with the distant, guttural sound of an occasional hippo reminding us of who was in-charge. You felt that you were in Africa. I wanted that for the students who take part in Elimu's trips now.
 |
| Sanctuary Farm, Lake Naivasha |
Night time hippos inevitably did not make the place I had stayed in suitable for a school trip, but Santuary Farm was a welcome, lucky find. Run by Julie and Guy Erskine, it is Lake Naivasha as it is meant to be. Our school parties reside on a private, natural campsite set in a forest of indigenous trees, complete with lanterns and, of course, a campfire. If you remember to bring them with you, you can sit and roast marshmallows after a healthy dinner in the old polo club house. Julie is also a cook.
'You could have picked somewhere more peaceful, Jo!' said one of our teachers at breakfast as we sat and listened to everything and nothing and watched herds of zebra and giraffe in the distance.
 |
| The old polo club house |
 |
| Some of our students taking in the sights of Lake Naivasha |
Later in the afternoon, we moved onto some teaching practice. Students were all taught a variety of playgound games with educational messages (adapted from the games created by the organisation Right to Play), including life skills such as team building and addressing prejudice and those that deal with malaria prevention. The games have different stages to them and include plenaries at the end which focus on questioning as a way of deepening learning and understanding. Happy that they had mastered the games they had learned so far, since they would have to teach them in the schools, our students then broke off into teams, each with a set of instructions for a new game that they had to teach to the rest of group.
As the light faded and warm sunshine gave way to Naivasha's chilly night time air, the sixth formers went away in pairs and small groups to plan mini-lessons to present the following morning. The challenge was for them to communicate a favourite part of their school subjects to the rest of us, using the same methods they had just been shown and without the resources they would have at home.
Nerves abounded right up until the moment when they were greeted by some very excited children as they made their way into Kipriria Academy, The Priory's link school, two days later, and stepped into lessons as teachers rather than students for the first time.
We watched them over the course of 10 days, their teachers and I, as they grew in confidence, developing new skills and for some, new ways of thinking and behaving. They thought, too, about education, Kenya's and their own. They learned more in that short time, both about themselves and about another part of the world, than they imagined they could or would. We were very proud of them.
Nandi Hills was its usual welcoming self, as personified by David and Julie at Kip's Eco Resort, the trips' new Nandi home, who arranged a tea picking competition and for traditional Nandi dancers to come and introduce our students to their culture. Video footage of the staff dancing remains strictly off limits (you had to be there to see it!), but suffice it to say, a long day with a late dinner and need for sleep did not much matter when met with such unexpected entertainment. It was Midnight but everyone soon came to life. The dancers had every single person in the room up dancing with them.
 |
| Tea picking competition at Kip's Eco Resort - one of the houses we stayed in is in the background |
 |
| Watching the sunrise over Kakamega |
What this trip did, what they strive always to do as an essential starting point, is to bring people together, both locally and internationally, and to celebrate an exchange of cultures and ideas. The sixth formers brought something different and fun into the lives and classrooms of children who are in school at 7am and still there at 9pm, giving them experiences that for all their seemingly unbridled sense of joy, they do not normally have. Many of them live restrictive lives in stark conditions on the school site. They take part in football matches, girls and boys in equal numbers on each team, because their partner schools are there as a focal point, motivating them and joining in.
 |
| Kipriria students on the school field |
This year's farewell assembly, held in daylight with all of us standing on a plinth on the school field in front of a sea of children in red and white check, their beautiful voices singing us a song about thanking teachers, was quietly moving.
If Africa is full of paradoxes, beauty and untold diversity and complexity, then so too are these trips. The poverty everyone saw in the villages we passed through on our way to Nandi Hills was not what they saw by the time we did that journey in reverse. Having lived in a similar community for the past week, it was the colour and the vibrancy and innovation - in short, the life and potential - that they noticed first. A small thing, but a telling one.
 |
| Maise farm on the floor of the Rift Valley |
It matters that people are not shielded and that they see up close, through proper, informed engagement, all the things which make-up a country like Kenya. This was very much in mind towards the end of our trip. On the last night, due to extenuating circumstances and a day where nothing had gone to plan, we found ourselves needing somewhere to stay in Nairobi. It was 1 o'clock in the morning and we had been on the road for 10 hours. So we went to the only place we thought might be able to take us all in at short notice: The Hilton. The Priory's headteacher Nick and I bartered our way to a discount as though we had just wandered in from a local market, which in a way we had. Another experience. Not least for the staff on Reception who were amused at the sight of Wilson pulling up outside their landmark hotel in a muddy school bus. A fitting contrast.
Not a lot of sleep was had, but a morning debrief in the more luxurious surroundings of the upstairs lounge added an interesting dimension to my final talk with the students - and probably, in its juxtaposition to everything else, a clearer focus.
With this extended debrief I write chiefly for those who have not been to Kenya. It does not capture the humour, intensity, eccentricities and complexities of a trip like this because in truth it cannot, but hopefully it offers a degree of insight.
55 students representing three UK schools have so far taken part in an Elimu trip - and the impact of that in both places is growing and starting slowly to show. Thank you to all those who made this last trip: our many hosts and partners, the students who stepped up remarkably well and the staff who were there with them, and with me, teaching their own lessons (more on that to come) and making a team. They set the bar very high.
 |
| The Staff, l-r: Nick Ware, Jo Dwyer, Clare Boyd, Sally Linton, Tim Strange |
Jo
Photos courtesy of Timothy Strange; third photo of Sanctuary Farm courtesy of Lucy Strutt
