We traveled back to Nairobi today and discussed our last class readings on the bus.
Discussing class readings on the bus
We stopped at the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife Giraffe Centre and fed the giraffes and learned about the three different types of giraffes that are present in Kenya (Maasai, Rothschild, Reticulated) and how the center was established to protect, breed and reintroduce the endangered Rothschild giraffe that was originally found in western Kenya.
At the Giraffe CentreAt the Giraffe CentreAt the Giraffe Centre
We then went to Kazuri Beads and had a tour to learn about the process of obtaining clay, making the clay usable, making beads and pottery, firing the clay, painting and glazing, and finishing the products. Kazuri means “small and beautiful” in Kiswahili and these products certainly live up to the name.
Looking at clay that comes from around Mt. KenyaLearning about how the liquid is squeezed from the clayMaking beadsThis woman’s mother has worked at Kazuri Beads since it opened in 1975Painting beads prior to firing the second timeThe “extra bead” roomStringing beads into a necklaceNecklaces hanging in the shop on the premises
We stopped at The Hub for lunch and a bit of shopping. We then went to Joanna and Adamson’s home in Ngong to relax a bit before most of us traveled to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to fly back to the U.S. Before leaving for the airport, we took a final group photo.
Lunch at The HubA final group photo
Kwaheri, Kenya! Tutarudi tena! (Goodbye, Kenya! We will come back again!)
Today’s blog is written by one of the students in the study abroad course.
Name: Isabel Fabre
Isabel at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage
Hometown: Pembroke Pines, Florida
Program of study: Finishing first year in the Selected Studies of Education program with a minor in Public Health
I am participating in the Kenya study abroad experience because I am interested in learning more about African countries and culture.
Some things I have observed thus far are I’ve noticed how much more people walk around than drive. I was pleasantly surprised to see how green Kenya is. I have seen a lot more trees and greenery than I expected. I also observed how driving is opposite than in the United States. I was not shocked because in traveling to Haiti a few years ago, they also drive on the left side.
I find it interesting to learn about another country and its educational system through experiencing several schools and talking with teachers and students directly.
I am looking forward to being in schools and interacting with the students. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be able to observe a different type of education system. I am also extremely excited to meet and stay with my host family! I have never experienced a home stay and I will be able to engage with a new culture. I believe that it is important to immerse yourself with different cultures and backgrounds to have a better appreciation and respect for other people.
Recap of Today’s Activities:
Our Saturday started at 11 am where we visited the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust: Elephant and Rhino Orphanage located in Nairobi, Kenya. This site was founded in 1977 where it is a rescue and rehab center for orphaned elephants. There were many visitors awaiting these beautiful, big-eared animals. One of the keepers gave us a complete rundown of what exactly they do at their center. It is crucial for baby elephants to have milk their first two years of life. Since the elephants there are orphans, they are not able to receive milk from their mothers. The keepers quickly found that cow’s milk made the elephants have diarrhea and eventually die. Interestingly, the keepers have found a milk that is safe and nutritious for them to drink. The secret? Human baby formula! The keepers have tested and modified the baby (human) formula so that the elephants can drink that while they are still young. The elephants there spend a minimum of three years at the orphanage. After three years, they begin to slowly reintroduce the elephants into Tsavo East National Park where they have the chance to familiarize and bond with other elephants in the wild. But, it takes about 8-10 years before they a join a wild elephant herd. The keeper also spent a lot of time explaining how ivory poaching is a big problems for elephants. It was sad to hear that poaching is still being practiced and perfected by humans. I was reminded to never buy items made of ivory or from rhino horns. Since this practice is solely our (human) fault, it is 100% in our control to stop this. With no poachers making money, there is no market and no place to sell ivory. The most important to remember that all animals are important and have the right to live and die naturally.
After lunch at Galleria mall, where some of us had frozen yogurt from Planet Yogurt, we returned to Osoita Lodge (where we are staying in Nairobi) and had very interesting talks with two Syracuse University alumni: Michael Orwa (who earned a MS in Pan African Studies and a MS in International Relations from Syracuse University) engaged us in learning about the social, cultural, economic, and political history of Kenya, and Grace Orado (who earned a PhD in Science Education at Syracuse University) interacted with us around education in Kenya. These discussions helped us gain more insight into Kenya as a country and tied in well with our course readings.
Baby elephants are fed every three hours around the clockEating leavesPracticing using their trunksPlaying with each other and rolling in the mudThese babies have a new family after being orphaned.The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust works in many ways to support wild animalsLunch at GalleriaPlanet YogurtDelicious Forest Berry Tart and Mango Tart frozen yogurt with passion fruit and brownie chunksMichael OrwaGrace Orado
Today’s blog is written by one of the students in the study abroad course.
Name: Gabriel Oduro-Boamah
Gabriel in front of a tea field
Hometown: Effiduasi, Ghana in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region in Ghana
Program of Study: Finishing first year of the MS in Teaching and Curriculum with emphasis in Mathematics Education
I am participating in the Kenya study abroad experience because I enjoy traveling as it allows me to learn about new cultures, appreciate new things around the world, understand people, and relish diversity. Growing up in Ghana, I traveled to a number of other countries in West Africa (e.g., Nigeria, Benin, Togo). I developed an interest, and have been so fortunate to be given the opportunity to experience life and education outside Africa as well. Traveling to the United States in 2018 for my master’s degree has been a most memorable experience.
Some things I have observed thus far are the enormous forest reserves. I feel so excited to be part of the ‘Cuse in Kenya 2019 to learn more about Kenya, its cultural heritage, and the people of Kenya.
I am looking forward to gaining an overview or general perspective of the educational system in Kenya, and perhaps East Africa. I am interested and hopeful to learn about the interconnectedness among the subjects students learn in schools and the relevance of these to students’ lives after school (taking rural and urban schools as a lens) in Kenya. I am also looking forward to the future for research into what essential mathematics students learn and how students relate mathematics to real-life problems. I hope to have a successful learning experience in Kenya and develop a critical mindset about what I want to research in the future. I also want to build a global mindset about educational systems in various countries to enable me to sharpen my teaching skills and develop new ideas about how to develop curricula for schools. Besides, I believe that generally, exposure and experiences at different parts of the world is fundamental to developing a positive mindset about people. Therefore, traveling is and should be part of education.
Recap of Today’s Activities:
We needed to start our day early today, so breakfast was served at precisely 6:45 am. We set off from the lodge around 7:20 am to our first destination, The Village Market. The Village Market is one of the largest mall-like shopping centers, located on Limuru Road in the Gigiri area of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital city. It houses about 145 stores outlets. There, we went to the Safaricom shop (the largest telecommunication network in Kenya) to get local sim cards so we can make phone calls and access the Internet. Located in the Village Market on Fridays is the Maasai Market, where many Kenyan craft items are sold. In the market, there are no fixed prices on goods and services, so we had to exhibit their bargaining or purchasing power.
On the way to Village Market, we passed by Karura Forest and learned about the Green Belt Movement, led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, that campaigned to save the forest from people wanting to grab the land for housing projects.
From the Maasai Market, we proceeded to Kiambethu Farm located on Girls School Road in Limuru, which is about 20 km away from the heart of Nairobi, Kenyan’s capital. Fiona Vernon, whose grandfather settled in Kenya in the early 1900s and was among the first people in Kenya to grow tea, walked us through the history of the tea farm, how the tea is grown, plucked, graded, and processed, and how it gets to supermarket shelves. While close to 60 acres of tea were cultivated by her grandfather, Fiona’s parents sold most of the land with tea in the 1970s. There are now two acres of tea on the farm today, as well as about two acres for the house, a vegetable and dairy farm, and beautiful flower gardens. The remaining part of the farm has an indigenous forest, which Stephen led us through, pointing out different trees and how those types of trees are used medicinally by the local Kikuyu people. He also pointed out the holes where mongooses and porcupines live. The farm hires five to six people to pick the tea twice a month. A skilled picker can pick up to 100 kilos of tea a day.
Tea production is one of the significant contributors to Kenyan’s economy, as its largest export. The tea farm is situated in the hills near Limuru, as tea grows best at a fairly high altitude. Tea bushes can produce for 50-70 years; what kills a tea bush is a fungus that comes from decaying tree roots. The acidic clay soil makes it perfect for tea plants to grow.
We ended our visit to Kiambethu Tea Farm with a delicious lunch made largely from products of the farm. Coming from West Africa, I learned a lot about tea farms and the processes tea goes through in the factory.
Beautiful tea fieldsSome tea pickers finished picking for the dayFiona telling us about picking teaFiona educating us about tea while we enjoy a cupStephen explaining how the roots of some indigenous plants are used medicinallyBird-of-Paradise flower in Fiona’s gardenSoup and roll to begin our delicious lunchGroup photo in front of one of the flower bedsGroup selfie with Fiona
Today’s blog post is written by one of the students in the study abroad course.
Name: Garmondyu Whorway
Garmondyu at Bomas of Kenya
Hometown: Paynesville, Liberia
Program of Study: Finishing a MS in Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation (IDD&E) in Summer 2019 and beginning a PhD in IDD&E in August 2019
I am participating in the Kenya study abroad experience because it is an excellent opportunity for my research. Coming from a developing country (Liberia) that shares the same global perspective of a developing country like Kenya, it is a comparative analysis opportunity to have a different perspective. My research focuses on the use of technologies in developing learning settings and how self-determined contextual variables influence the use of technology to improve learning in these settings. Coming to Kenya through this program will help, and has started helping, me to understand the different contextual variables unique to Kenya as it relates to its history, culture, people and education and how it fits in the actualization to increase performance through the use of technology.
Some things I have observed thus far are that differences are inevitable from people to people and location to location. I have observed so far some level of distinction in comparison to my context as well as similarities. One common difference a person will spot immediately, especially coming from countries where driving is on the right side, here in Kenya it is on the left side and the drivers sit on the right-hand side as well. Another difference is the local language. Where I come from we speak broken or pidgin English while the Kenyans have a national language of Kiswahili. I have learned a few words as well, “Jambo” (hello) and “Asante Sana” (thank you very much). The similarities so far are the diverse mutuality of Kenyans in a very diverse community, something we in Liberia have need to practice after our civil war. Generally, there is a whole lot to learn from Kenyan diversity from the National Museum and the Bomas of Kenya culture center we visited. Also, the people of Kenya live very much in a technologically-connected world, along with beautiful malls and streets.
I find it interesting how the people and their government have conserved the many artifacts and fossils that are on display at the Nairobi National Museum and Bomas of Kenya. Their actions are a clear demonstration of African love for arts and their history. Coming from West Africa, I am familiar with the trans-Atlantic slave trade but didn’t know that the slave trade started even before the European travel to Africa. The Nairobi National Museum had on display information about Tippu Tip, an Arab-Zanzibari slave trader and the first person to trade slaves on the continent in East Africa.
I am looking forward to more exciting things as it relates to Kenyans’ daily living and how they connect with their rich heritage. Also, I am looking forward to interacting with Kenyans and discussing how these significant cultural identities and diversity influence their daily lives – from education to economics.
Recap of Today’s Activities:
We visited the Nairobi National Museum in the morning and were guided by Emma, a Kenyan tour guide who did splendidly in telling us about the many things we saw, including:
The animals found in Kenya, their evolutionary history and characteristics.
Evolution, where different fossils were found, and the characteristics of the early human fossils.
The stages of life and how they are celebrated in different Kenyan communities.
A display of over 900 types of birds in Kenya and their unique activities as well.
The beautiful paintings of Joy Adamson and her relationship with the lion she took care of.
The political history of Kenya, along with the history of currency in Kenya.
Nairobi National MuseumGarmondyu and Gabriel at the Nairobi National Museum wearing newly purchased “Hakuna Matata” t-shirts
We ate some Kenyan food (ugali, chapati, sukuma wiki, beef stew, chicken) for lunch at the Bomas of Kenya and then went to the afternoon performance of traditional dancing.
We witnessed the cultural dances of a number of communities in Kenya.
During the performance, three of our class members were picked to participate, and it was fun to watch. At the end, a lot of the school children who were there to watch the performances went onto the stage to dance to music playing on the loud speakers.
We visited the examples of traditional homes of 23 communities in Kenya.
We saw baboons and monkeys at Bomas of Kenya – friendly and going about their businesses as well.
A dance with drums from the Embu communityA dance from the Luo communityEaston and Tiffany joining some of the dancersEaston joining two dancersIsabel joining some dancersSchool children dancing on the stage to music on the loud speakers at the end of the performanceAn olive baboon mother and baby
The “Experiencing Education in Rural and Urban Settings in Kenya” study abroad group, through Syracuse University, arrived safely in Nairobi yesterday. Eight students and two leaders comprise our group. We spent the first evening settling into our hotel on the outskirts of Nairobi, learning some Kiswahili greetings, and becoming familiar with Kenyan currency (shillings).
Some of our group at the bus with our driver, Nafton
