WHOlives.org: Jambo Bwana

Today the gang visited a local school in Dzendereni, tried their hand at washing their clothes by hand, visited a nearby waterhole and learned about Buruma tribal traditions. Reagan Moss shares her experience.

Today, the whole group, along with our new physical training friends, headed over the dusty roads in our bumpy matatus (safari vans) to a school in a village called Dzendereni. Try saying that ten times fast! When we arrived, the entire school was outside the buildings to greet us. This included around 60-80 kids, big and small, all dressed in their school uniform. Of course, the youngest yelled "Jambo!" with as much gusto as they could, and the older children joined in, some vocally, others waving. We stepped out of the vans and they separated into three general age groups and sang us welcome songs and introduced themselves. The best performance was rewarded with sweets (the youngest got it, because they're the cutest of course). Then we met the school's Chairman, and he introduced us to the rest of the staff and showed us the classrooms. He told us about how the schools started out, with just a few supportive parents, mud and sticks. Now they have several well built classrooms, teachers, supplies, and boarding! The progress in two years for the school is really inspiring! Two in our group gave short science lessons and sang with the kids, and of course, gave them all candy. Then we helped with the construction of two new classes, mixing cement, water, and gravel, loading heavy grey bricks into wheel barrows, and practicing our water balancing tecniques. After all the hard work, we took the long drive home to have a late lunch. After that, the group relaxed and washed our clothes- two buckets with soap and water with lots of scrubbing. John then commandeered the safari van (some of us weren't too sure about this...) and took us to the water hole/river to see the water condition and take pictures. When we got back to Koins for Kenya's compound, our home for the week, our friend and guide, Buffalo, was ready to teach us about the local Duruma tribal traditions. From marriages to burial and deaths and becoming a man, it was a pretty interesting lesson. The traditions are an extremely important foundation to African societies. All in all, its been a successful day, and it marked a full week of an incredible trip!