This past summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Kenya on a service trip with Me to We!
It was a 3 week service trip in a community in the Masaii Mara called Salabwek. It was truly the best 3 weeks of my life! Being able to immerse yourself into a community, get to know the children, play with them, learn their names, and meet the Mamas of the community is a phenomenal and up-lifting feeling that I would not trade in for the world!
When people ask me ‘How was Kenya?!’ It is sort of hard to come up with a synopsis of my experience and give them a nut shell story of my trip. I try my best, but I feel that I can never fully explain and share my memories and stories for people to fully understand the feelings of my service trip!
There were so many highlights of my trip that I will cherish and remember for ever! Some of my highlights include: the Water Walk with the Mamas. The Water Walk is a walk that Mamas make a minimum of 4 times a day to get their water. And some Mamas have to walk 6km ONE way to get there 20L bucket of water filled. That’s 12km X 4 = 48km! They walk over a marathon everyday to get water for their family and to complete their daily chores. We walked 45 minutes to get to the pond to get water for Mama Beatrice who was showing us around the Salabwek community. We (my Kenya group) each had the opportunity to carry the 20L water jug. As we arrived at the pond, we had a harsh reality right in front of our eyes. Many people get their drinking water from this small pond, however this is the same pond that local cows bathe in and use as a bathroom. These people drink this contaminated water. Thankfully, some families boil the water so the bacteria is killed. But sadly, many families still continue to drink contaminated water. It was a harsh reality that we witnessed right before our eyes, but it was so eye opening to see how much still needs to be done!
Another highlight of mine was definitely building the school! For our group, we had 2 worksites at the Free the Children Primary School. One worksite was building Classroom 19. And the other was the Library. At the classroom worksite, we were building the walls for the classroom. And at the library worksite, we were digging the foundation. I worked primarily on the Library build site for the majority of the trip. We would pick-ax and shovel the dirt in the trenches. We started at a 1 foot trench, and finished at 4 feet. We also got to make and pour concrete and foundation for the bottom of the trenches! It was so exciting to see our progress throughout the entire trip, especially when our trip came to an end! To see and feel that we were making a difference in these children’s lives, is one of the most rewarding feelings ever!
Many global issues are within this country and affect communities across the nation - including the community of Salabwek! Issues such as: Poverty, hunger, drought, disease, lack of water and education.
A significant issue that can be connected to my trip to Kenya is education. Schools are very sparse in Kenya, and having the opportunity to attend school as a child is rare. Worldwide, 121 million children of Primary School age do not go to school! However, the number of children attending school is growing! Many children have to stay home and sacrifice education to help out with the daily chores - getting water, fetching firewood, cleaning the house, or going to the market to sell their goods to make money in order to buy food that they need. As well, families with numerous number of children will have to make a choice on which child they will send to school and have the opportunity to have an education. With Free the Children and Me to We building schools in Kenya, we are giving more children the opportunity to go to school and have an education. To date, Me to We has built over 650 schools, and over 55 thousand children have been given access to edcuation! With placing schools in more communities, we decrease the amount of walking time for the children to go to school and increase the number of children attending school each year. Some children walk 2-3 hours ONE WAY to get to school! Giving children education teaches them how to read and write and it will give them the knowledge to make wise choices for themselves in the future whether it be regarding a job, or everyday decisions.
Education empowers children and communities which will enable them to break the cycle of poverty for future generations!
Education empowers children and communities which will enable them to break the cycle of poverty for future generations!
Wow, this was such an amazing opportunity and it looks like you had and amazing time. Its great that you had such a positive impact during you summer, instead of a negative one.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great opportunity! Sounds like you had an amazing time and learned a lot from your trip. I'm actually thinking about doing the Kenya trip with the school next summer so it was nice reading about your journey there.
ReplyDeleteThat really sounded like a once in a lifetime experience! It's so great to hear that even though you had seen such a negative image you came out with a positive outlook to change the world. You truly are a person dedicated to making a change. It was great reading about how you helped this village have that opportunity for learning and to be educated. Just helping build the library you are giving the children of the village an opportunity to learn! It's great to hear the passion and dedication you have to changing the world, keep with it because you have already changed the lives of many.
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