Hi there!
In the last blog article, I promised to share with you my sojourns during summer. These sojourns have enabled me get more out of life as well as give more of myself.
I set about to spend this Summer in Africa. I wanted to immerse myself among cultures that use Swahili for communication. I chose Kenya because of its cosmopolitan nature and its being the Eastern Africa hub.
You may want to visit the UN agencies, most of the embassies or just take in the diversity of nationalities? Come to Kenya. You will meet almost everyone from any corner of the world in general.
In my case, I wanted to do the more mundane. I wanted to meet refugees, asylum seekers, people living with HIV, Girls who have had children by the time they were 15 years, communities as they go about their chores.....you name it. Definitely, I also wanted to sample the local foods, take in the night life and most of all visit the vast Savannah areas from Marsabit, Samburu to Mountain Kenya.
At continent level, Africa has some very nice spots that one with a Summer bucket list should add or have visited already. At country-level, Kenya has some of the awe inspiring destinations. I went to many but Nyeri took the highest points. One, because while there I got a chance to engage in a social development consultancy on a volunteer basis. I also got the opportunity to live with the Brothers of Christian Schools. It was while I was with them, that the Director of the Brothers' Community there took me around the Center they are running: St. Mary's Secondary School, Vocational and Child Rescue Center, Nyeri, Kenya.
I ended up immersing myself in a task whose outcome was two fold:
1. To consolidate over 40 years of service into a service package that stimulates continued learning and sharing for the students who join St. Mary's S.S. (as they like to call it).
2. To work with the Brothers, develop memoranda through which tracking of progress at the Vocational Department of St. Mary's is possible.
This took me to different places of Nyeri because it was also a time to put in practice the saying: "Work, work, work without play makes Jack a dull person!"
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| Turning pass-time sports or recreation activities into incubators for professional sports. This is one of St. Mary's S.S., Vocational and Child Rescue Center is doing. There motto goes: "Give a boy, and I give you a man!" Mr. Murithi is the Soccer Coach but at the same time manages a furniture workshop. He has been a great support to the students. |
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| This is poignant! Do you know of a term "Facing Mountain Kenya?" Do you recall who made it famous? It was the First President of The Republic of Kenya-President Jomo Kenyatta. Jomo Kenyatta, described the importance of the mountain to the local communities, saying that it “supplies their material needs and enables them to perform their magic and traditional ceremonies in undisturbed serenity, facing Mount Kenya. |
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| This is one of the vast plains skirting Mt. Kenya. The Kikuyu, called the Mountain by the name "Kirinyaga!" The Egyptians, Romans and Asians had written about this mountain in many of their reports. I had the opportunity to meet a Kikuyu Family tracing their roots so far back before Colonialism. They have tilled the same lands until presently. We used this family land to demonstrate to communities skills in Permaculture. |
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| The Principles of Permaculture: Soil regeneration, seed bed preparation, irrigation, small plots, crop mixing, fallowing and mixed farming. |
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| Am so happy, I made time to go to Africa and used my time effectively. In this picture, we had just met the community leader of a low cost area. We wanted to be allowed to do activities for 4 days here. Majengo, Nyeri Town, Kenya. |