Tag: Kenya

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Day 6: First day of interacting with teachers and students in Ugweri

Today’s blog is written by one of the students in the study abroad course.

Name:  Easton Davis

Easton

Hometown:  NYC  by way of northern Virginia

Program of Study:  Beginning second year in MS in Cultural Foundations of Education program

I am participating in the Kenya study abroad experience because broadly, my research interests seek to explore how internalized oppression is embodied and how, in particular, students of color resist, interrogate and respond psychologically and physiologically. My desire to participate in the Kenya study abroad was prompted by the opportunity to observe and engage with students and educators from a primary and secondary school. So far, I have gained a greater understanding of how educators within varied educational institutions utilize teaching and learning strategies in spite of many complex social, political and economic challenges.

Some things I have observed thus far are a number notable observations I made while at Ugweri Day Secondary School. The school forms a shape of a “U”, mostly connected through classrooms. There are gendered restrooms (washrooms) located adjacent to the playground. Students eat outside together near the playground on wooden benches by a beautiful tree. The teachers’ lounge (staff room) is centralized and accessible for teachers to convene and prep lesson plans, discuss challenges, eat lunch, as well as rest. In terms of instruction, I have been most impressed and interested in the level of attention many of students appear to give their teachers. They are extremely well-behaved, attuned and motivated. The students I observed seemed to record almost everything their teachers shared in class. Although, I’m amazed at their level of attention compared to students I have worked with back in the U.S., I also believe there is a sufficient opportunity to further analyze challenges the effectiveness in teacher-centered instruction.

I am looking forward to getting to know the students at the secondary school as well as better understanding how their relationships with teachers impact their learning. Thankfully, all of the teachers I had a chance to interact and meet with today, have been more than gracious in fostering a relationship and engaging in meaningful dialogue about learning which I find most humbling. Taking in consideration my educational privilege, group membership and social identity I recognize how my “classroom observations” or “knowledge” can create a set of complex and nuanced challenges for teachers/educators and members of the larger community to sit with.

Recap of Today’s Activities:

Today has been a whirlwind of excitement. We started our day at St. Jerome Ugweri Day Secondary School, located in Ugweri village. The principal, Mrs. Joyce Muli, and Dr. Peter Rugano, a member of the school’s board of directors and Syracuse alum, greeted us during the morning assembly. The assembly consisted of general announcements, a hymn, and prayer. My classmates, two Syracuse University faculty members and I had a chance to introduce ourselves to the student body—as they laughed and snickered from some of our American accents. We then had a chance to observe various instruction and in some cases even teach a unit on science, history, geography, religious education, special education or English. The highlight of my day was during Physical Education (P.E.) that happened right before lunch. I had a chance to see students open up and run freely as we played football (soccer), volleyball and catch. I decided to get to know a few students and play volleyball as a way to build rapport. Thankfully, my stellar performance, or perhaps lack-there-of, offered us an opportunity to relish in laughter. We ended the day with a class discussion led by our faculty. We discussed the highlights of our day, shared detailed observations in pedagogy, forms of student engagement, perceived challenges between the political apparatus and educational sector, and access to educational resources. We enjoyed another delicious meal at one of our host family’s home.

Monday morning parade at the secondary school
Students leading during the parade
Our group participating in singing a song
Introducing ourselves at the parade
Meeting the secondary teachers
Meeting the secondary teachers

Signing the visitors’ book at Ugweri Primary School
Meeting an upper primary class
Primary students getting ready to begin a radio class
Food containers brought by upper primary students stored and ready for lunch time
Primary school kitchen where lunch for teachers and pre-primary students is prepared
“James Bond” written on the side of one of the primary student toilets
Some of our students engaging in physical education class with secondary students

Water pump at the secondary school
Tree planted in 2015 by some Syracuse University School of Education faculty members
Pied crows in the school yard
Class discussion following a day in schools
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Day 5: Traveling to Embu County

Our group traveled today to Embu County where we will begin experiencing the Kenyan educational system through interacting with students, teachers, and administrators at several schools. As we drove in Kirinyaga County, we saw hay drying along the side of the road and being made into bales. We also saw rice fields and rice drying on large tarps. We bought some rice to use during our home stays.

Cows grazing along the road
Hay drying along the road and hay in bales
Rice fields
Rice spread out to dry along the road
Buying rice

We stopped to eat lunch near Mwea.

Eating lunch
Eating lunch

After lunch, we had our class discussions in the bus as we drove toward Ugweri, where we will stay for four nights.

Class discussions
Class discussions
Class discussions
Class discussions

When we arrived in Ugweri, we were welcomed warmly at Peter Rugano’s home and shown around the shamba (farm).

Warm welcome

Warm welcome
Bananas
Traditional bee hive in a tree
Traditional bee hives on platforms

When we dropped one of the study abroad course leaders, Jeff, at his host family home, we were invited to participate in a pre-wedding function they were hosting for one of their sons.

Pre-wedding function
Jeff making a contribution to the pre-wedding
Trying out a water pump

We then went to the host families where the students are staying, unloaded the luggage, and enjoyed a delicious dinner.

Unloading luggage at host family homes
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Day 4: Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and Two Lectures on Kenya

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 clock
Eating leaves
Practicing using their trunks
Playing with each other and rolling in the mud
These babies have a new family after being orphaned.
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust works in many ways to support wild animals
Lunch at Galleria
Planet Yogurt
Delicious Forest Berry Tart and Mango Tart frozen yogurt with passion fruit and brownie chunks
Michael Orwa
Grace Orado
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Day 3: Maasai Market and Kiambethu Tea Farm

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 fields
Some tea pickers finished picking for the day
Fiona telling us about picking tea
Fiona educating us about tea while we enjoy a cup
Stephen explaining how the roots of some indigenous plants are used medicinally
Bird-of-Paradise flower in Fiona’s garden
Soup and roll to begin our delicious lunch
Group photo in front of one of the flower beds
Group selfie with Fiona
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Day 2: Nairobi National Museum and Bomas of Kenya

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 Museum
Garmondyu 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 community
A dance from the Luo community
Easton and Tiffany joining some of the dancers
Easton joining two dancers
Isabel joining some dancers
School children dancing on the stage to music on the loud speakers at the end of the performance
An olive baboon mother and baby
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Day 1: Safe Arrival in Nairobi

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
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Karibu!

Karibu (Kiswahili for “welcome”) to the blog for the Kenya study abroad experience in 2019! We hope you will enjoy following the reflections of the participants.