Following in the footsteps of the 2011 Service Learning trip, another group of students and teachers are returning to Daraja in June of 2012. These include Mark, Johanna, Sumari and Lauren, who were part of the 2011 trip.

Preparations are very far advanced! Read about their trip at http://ksl2012.blogspot.com

Home again

After a very, very long two-day, 40+ hour trip from the Masai Mara to Nairobi to Dubai to SFO, 17 of us returned home to our families on Tuesday afternoon. (Alison returned to Daraja to spend another two weeks working at the school.)

Many of us are working through the physical aftereffects of the long trip and all of us are adjusting to the massive time and cultural differences that we've experienced in the past few days.

It was only three days ago that we were marveling at a leopard high in a tree alongside its dinner and watching Masai women carrying giant barrels of water on their backs. Then an eight-hour drive through rural Masai lands (the first 147 km on dirt roads), and miles and miles of humanity and traffic congestion on the outskirts of Nairobi - where driving rules are only suggestions. Finally a stopover in Dubai, with its melting pot of travelers and wall to wall high-end shops (and McDonald's).

Most of us have likely expressed gratitude for clean (and hot) water, the absence of dust, and the variety of food and drink available at home. But we've also begun to share stories of the experiences and relationships developed over the past three weeks - experiences that will certainly leave an indelible impression.

I keep saying that one can't romanticize Kenya - as friendly as we found the people, it's an extremely poor country and the culture & lifestyle are so vastly different from ours that those who haven't been to third world countries have a hard time viscerally understanding that gap. Experiencing Kenya in the way that we did was a life education in itself that will assist our students in understanding the world around them as they move forward in their lives.

At our last group meetings in the Masai Mara, we spent some time trying to process our weeks at Daraja. To a person, everyone talked about the extraordinary commitment and work ethic of the girls at the school.
To have come from the backgrounds and life experiences that they do and routinely work from before sunup to long after sundown to better their lives - without complaint and with friendship for all is remarkable. The teachers there are first-rate and the education (while delivered differently than at MA) is outstanding.

As we return to our regular lives in the U.S., all in our group expressed the desire to maintain to the best of our abilities the relationships developed with our friends at Daraja and to find ways to support this very special school.

Welcome home and asante sana.

-sd

PS We hope to share many hundreds of additional photos from the trip on our Photobucket site:

Photos:
http://s1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa471/marindaraja/

Daraja Academy Website:
http://www.daraja-academy.org

Thursday evening

Phew! It has been an exhausting day here at Daraja! Our day started at 5:50 am, where we all hiked up the hill to watch the sun rise. After finally reaching our destination, we took a 20 minute solo time and reflected on our time here at Daraja. Watching the African sun rise was a great way to start our busy day!

After our hike we got right to work, finishing up all of our ongoing projects. All before morning tea, the shamba shed, the benches and gridding of the mural on the front gate were completed. It seemed t1hat after 2 weeks at Daraja, all of our hard work paid off. However, we had no time to reflect on our projects and went straight to the girl's soccer tournament at the all boys school, Nanyuki High School. As we cheered on the girls during the game, we also started to meet some of the Nanyuki boys and learned a new perspective on the Kenyan culture. Some of these boys even asked for our facebooks and emails!

Unfortunately, the girl's games were not as successful as we had all hoped, and we arrived at Daraja in low spirits and red sunburns. But in the true Daraja way of life, it didn't last too long and we all happily enjoyed our dinner of spaghetti and laughs. As part of our final day celebration, we watched a slide show from the past two weeks, some of the photos even taken by the Daraja students. Finally, our day ended with a dance party that quickly turned into tears and hugs.

As we end our time here at Daraja, we can't help but realize the wealth of knowledge we've acquired about the girls and about ourselves. Although we may all be tear filled and sorrowful now, we know that our time here was well spent. Our original goal was to change and help improve the lives of the Daraja students in any way possible. Little did they realize that they were the ones that changed ours. We leave Daraja with a new adventure awaiting in the Mesi Mara, but we won't ever forget these past couple of weeks as the highlight of the trip.

Our time at Daraja started and ended the same way: with a hug. These girls are famous for their ongoing affection and love for everyone and we hope that when we finally arrive home in the US, we can pass on that love.

Thanks for following the blog  family, friends, and others who somehow stumbled upon this page! We can't wait to see you all in SFO in a couple of days!

Kwaherini

Olivia

The time has flown by! Today marked the second to last full day before  our departure from Daraja Academy, so the MA students set out to make the absolute most of it! Many students chose to shirk their usual classroom attendance for equally important projects around the campus: MA students led by Jane and Lizzy tirelessly continued to work away on the Shamba Shed, and now it's almost entirely been re-plastered; Jono and Julian finished a work-table for inside the shed; a group of students put the finishing touches on painting a rock that serves as a sign pointing the way to Daraja, as well as starting a mural on the front gate of Daraja's entrance; and Paige and I finished our fifth, and final, bench. As the afternoon came along we were busy as usual with clubs meetings. This time, however, they marked the final, culminating meetings for clubs .

Journaling and WISH both met for a final time, while the Girls' Varsity football (soccer) team prepared for their tournament on Thursday. Thanks to Jono's Internet searching in town last week, Krista found a graphing program for the math and science teachers and spent yesterday first writing procedures for it, then introducing it to the teachers – they were ecstatic! Steve held a last computer class for the Form 1's and he and Megan met with the student newsletter editors toward getting the first issue off the ground in the next week or two. After another long and productive day, the MA students feel they have fulfilled their wish to leave Daraja with no regrets for things they wish they'd done.

-Jamie Muresanu

*  *  *  *  *  *

Thursday Morning

Most of us will be spending the morning finishing up the last of our projects, then joining assistant coaches Jono, Jamie and Julia in Nanyuki to cheer on the Daraja Girls Football Team as they compete in the Regional tournament (they won the District tournament the day after we arrived).

Tonight we have a goodbye celebration with the Daraja girls. We have a small impromptu slide show of both our and their photos, then will finish packing for an early departure to the Masai Mara tomorrow.

This has been a remarkable two weeks and the experience and our accomplishments have far exceeded anything we could have hoped for when we set out.

While we look forward to the next four days on Safari, our emotions are decidedly mixed. I can speak for all of us when I say that we will very much miss Daraja – it's something that volunteers experience without exception. On the other hand, we're all also looking forward to seeing our families again and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.

Time permitting, we may or may not post another blog tonight. If not, we'll be going dark until our next Internet connection – likely when we return to the U.S. on Tuesday.

Asante sana.

-sd

Tuesday evening

Our day started with an early wake up in order to play sports with the girls, which started at six in the morning. We played either soccer or softball. The girls on the soccer team are preparing for the soccer tournament on Thursday, while the girls playing softball are developing their skills.

After a quick breakfast, we joined all of the form ones in four matatus (vans). We headed to Ol Pejeta conservatory, where many MA and Daraja students would see different African animals for the first time. After we packed 15 people in each of the four matatus, we set out on the 45+ minute drive. As soon as we pulled into the conservatory we were greeted by various animals such as gazelles, impalas, giraffes and zebras.

Next, we drove to an enclosed area for chimpanzees that was started by Jane Goodall. The chimps had been rescued from abusive owners, poachers and mistreatment. As we walked along the fence surounding their area we met a group of chimps. One of the chimps, Max, did not seem thrilled with our presence and proceeded to throw sticks at us. We walked into a wooden tower overlooking the chimp area where we learned more about the endangered chimps and the specific chimps living in Ol Pejeta.

After the encounter with our closest relatives, we drove past many animals. We saw worthogs, who ran away at the sight of our matatu. There were heards of zebras, impalas, gazelles and buffalo with the occasional giraffe. We used binoculars to see some of the animals that were far away. However, many of the animals came very close to the matatu. As we passed each new animal, I heard the delighted screams of many of the girls, both MA and Daraja students, in the car.

As we came close to the end of the road, we saw a group of rhinos. We later learned we saw four of the last seven northern white rhinos in the world. We also saw  several black rhinos. Even in the distance, we could tell they were huge. Almost everyone in my matatu had never seen a rhino before.

We pulled in to have lunch next to our next destination. After lunch, we headed into the 140 acre pen for Ol Pejeta's blind black rhino, Baraka. Baraka means blessing in Swahili. Baraka was born in Ol Pejeta. After a fight with a fellow rhino, the vets of Ol Pejeta found out that Baraka was completely blind. They trained him for one year in a small fenced area until he was able to be released into his current pen. We walked up onto a wooden platform and, to our left, we spotted Baraka sleeping. The guide walked over to Baraka and enticed him with sugarcane. Baraka followed the sound of the guide until he reached the wooden platform where we were allowed to feed and pet him. It was an incredible experience.

After the visit with Baraka, we headed back out of Ol Pejeta. However, on our way back we cam within feet of a young male lion lying in the grass. We were all amazed by the large cat. One girl shouted, “Oh wow! The king of animals!” We drove a little further and spotted an elephant coming out of the trees. The huge animal just stood there and seemed to pose for all of the pictures.

Our trip was a success; we saw four out of the big five of Africa: a lion, elephant, buffalo and rhino. The only one missing was a leopard. It was great to experience this trip with 26 of the Daraja girls. Although it is such a close drive, many of them had never seen any of the animals.

We returned to Daraja and the MA students went to their respective projects, such as WISH, bench and table building and plastering the Shamba shed.

We culminated the night with a meeting with all of the MA students and the Daraja form ones. We went around in a circle and said something we thought was exciting and something we learned. The girls could not stop adding new facts about the day's experiences.

We miss home, but, as we hear the Daraja girls begging us to either extend our visit or stay in Kenya forever, we realize that we are changing these girls' lives for the better.

Posted by Julian Smith

One of the citizens of the Chimpanzee rescue center -
don't worry about the fence, that's just to protect us. The
area that they roam in is about the size of the Tiburon peninsula!

Chimpanzee observations platform

Cape Buffalo - one of the "Big Five" (we saw four of the five - Buffalo, Elephant,  Rhino and Lion)

More denizens of our mini-safari to Ol' Pajete

One of our outings into the wild

Paige acquires new skills as we build our benches

Mr. Jesse teaches the MA volunteers basic Swahili

The girls find an unexpected treasure in the MS Kenya dorm

Blog writing in the library

Alison helps with computer class

Johanna taught several bio classes on insects

Jane gets some local help with the shed plastering

Jono and Julian get to work on building a worktable for the shed - measure twice, cut once.

An early potato harvest...

...lots of little ones...

...to make room for the new greenhouse...

...lots of muddy feet.

Had to share this one from our baboon walk last week!

It doesn't rain for long, but when it does, it's spectacular and drenching!

Monday evening

            Habari Family and Friends!\

            It's hard to believe we have less than two days left here at Daraja Academy. As cliché as it sounds, it feels like just a few days ago that I thought, “wow, we've got 10 days ahead of us! I better start gettig used to the beans; we're gonna be here for awhile!” Now I dread this Thursday for I can't bear to think about leaving these girls to which I have become so close. It will be quite an emotional departure. Today, first day of another academic week, made me realize how little time we have left and the importance of staying completely present in our last few days here with the girls, as to ensure that I do not leave with any regrets.

            After the raising of the flag, we MA students dispersed to our various activities. I chose to prioritize the Shamba Shed completion over attending my English and math classes as I felt it necessary to finish the job before our departure. After yesterday's replastering chaos with all 77 Daraja girls, Jane and I anticipated a lot of work to finish the Shamba Shed. While the Daraja girls were quite helpful in making progress, bringing their enthusiasm and creativity, they preferred a quantity over quality plastering technique. Despite this, they thoroughly enjoyed working with the plaster (dirt + sand + water + 1 cup of cement) as much as we do; we had a school-wide mud fight and painted each others faces while working. Amidst the 3 hours of chaos Jane and I, permaculture perfectionists, struggled to monitor their technique, thus leaving quite the touch-up job for us to complete. From 8am-1pm, Jane, Olivia, Alison, Kenia and I replastered the inside and outside walls of the building, listening to the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack and oldies tunes to keep our spirits high. Us permacultural princesses were assisted by Steven, an adorable (and helpful!) Kenyan  seven year old, a child of a staff member. Even Johanna and Krista got their hands in the mud, learning to love the plastering process.

            After a usual lunch of potatoes, beans and corn, heavily salted of course, we attended our second Swahili class taught by our Kenyan teacher, Jessie, to the MA students and teachers. We learned greetings, introductions and simple vocabulary. “Jina langu ni Lizzy,” for example, meaning, my name is Lizzy and “ninatoka Marekani,” meaning, I am from America. As we left class, walking past the cows grazing in the field we looked up to see the dark blue, dramatic rain cloud filling the sky. Storms a brewin'. Alison and I retreated to my rondavel where we took a break from plastering and read by headlamp, awaiting the storm's arrival. Thunder clapped angrily and lightening danced across the sky, bringing an onslaught of rain. One by one our friends came back from their classes drenched and soggy. The storm lasted for over two hours, a well-needed soak as Daraja had felt the wrath of a drought this year. The Daraja campus land was left as muddy and wet as the plaster used on the shed that morning.

            We listened to the birds finally resume their calls and heard the loud repetitive “moo-ing” of the cows that surrounded our rondavel. We emerged from our warm beds and stepped out into the misty evening. I walked down to the garden to see all 77 girls ankle deep in the mud, clad in their navy sweaters, grey skirts and white socks. Around them were a half dozen men in green hard hats carrying poles and digging equipment. The greenhouse materials had finally arrived and with that came the start of construction. Jason called out instructions to the girls and volunteers in his enthusiastic booming voice. Using hoes and jembes we weeded and removed the plants in the beds and flattened the ground where the greenhouse would sit. The girls' black maryjanes grew an inch of thick brown mud at the sole. When our work was finally done we ran to the dining hall for a typical dinner of lentils and rice, tracking a path of mud all the while.

            After dinner I joined the Daraja girls and MA girls in one of their many traditions by grabbing my water cup and filling it to the brim, sneakily hiding it behind my back. We all stood at the entrance/exit of the dining hall awaiting a certain MA student. Jamie finally emerged and the girls attacked him, throwing cups and buckets of river water, drenching him head to toie. Happy 17^th BathDay, Jamie!

- Lizzy Elliott

Jamie experiences the Kenyan 'bathday' (sic) tradition as a great sport.
One of 100 celebratory cups (and pitchers and buckets) of water!

Sunday evening

Jambo!

For me, yesterday evening was one of the most fun and rewarding experiences I've had so far at Daraja. The music and dance exchange groups, lead by Paige, Sumari, Lauren, Lizzy, and myself, finally presented what we had been working on. The entire Daraja community harmonized on the classic gospel songs, “Wade in the Water,” and “Down by the River to Pray,” and the songs sounded fuller than we'd heard the all week, as we'd been working with either one form or half of one form at a time. We also sang “Chaupele,” a Swahili song taught to us by the Daraja girls. For the first time, the room was dead quiet, without even a single chuckle at our pronunciation.

After the singing, the girls demonstrated the hip-hop moves taught to them by Paige and Sumari, inluding the Jerk, the Electric Slide, and the Dougie, followed by a brief dance party. Jono krumped to Black and Yellow, forcing Ragina (a form 2 Daraja girl) into a corner where she hunched fearfully laughing. I think we all had a great time, including me, as I managed to avoid the dancing by allowing Bennie, a Daraja friend, to give me several cornrows.

This morning we all enjoyed Kenyan doughnuts and hot chocolate, followed by a 2-hour student-led spiritual time. The Daraja girls divide themselves into Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim groups, and the MA students have attended the service of their choice. A large group of MA students went to the Muslim service this morning, lead by five of the seven Muslim Daraja girls, and held in the mosque provided by the school. Generally, as explained by the girls, it is a time to read passages from the Koran and advise each other if life issues arise, but today it was a Q&A about Islamic practices at Daraja and in African tribes that eventually became a general discussion of religion.

After services, the day was devoted to the projects run by MA student leaders. I attended a journaling workshop, lead by Megan and Alison, in which mixed groups of MA and Daraja students shared journal entries and began to work on character development in preparation for a creative writing assignment.

I also worked on replastering the Shamba shed, lead by Lizzy and Jane. When all 77 girls joined in from 4-5, it got a bit chaotic, and most of us ended up with cobb “war paint” by the end of it. It was productive nonetheless: we have completed over half of the replastering, and should definitely be able to finish before our departure Friday morning.

After plastering, I attended my first WISH meeting, lead by Kenia, Lauren, Erin, Alison, and Olivia. We played agree/disagree, with thought-provoking questions centered around questions of gender equality and gender stereotypes. It was fascinating to hear the similarities and differences of opinion here, and to hear opinions completely unheard of at MA.

After WISH, we sat down to a meal of ugali and beans, and then dispersed into our various study hall rooms, where we are currently helping with homework, chatting about our days, and in my case, updating the blog.

I have had an amazing time so far at Daraja; the girls have shown themselves to be even kinder, even more driven, even better friends to us than I could have imagined.

We all miss our family and friends at home, but every day we're here, we're making memories to last a lifetime.

Goodnight, everyone!

Julia

Jono helps out in our Form 1 photography workshop

Sunday afternoon is "Reading" time...

EVERYONE reads - there are people everywhere with books and magazines

Then it was down to the Shamba Shed to replaster it...

Jane and Lizzy supervised the process

...it was a hands-on experience...

...there was some degree of "art" involved...

...don't worry mom's, it all 'eventually' washed off.  ;-)

The afternoon ended with another in the series of journaling workshops...

...the students were asked to create a fictional character

...and then it was Ugali for dinner.