Oakham pupils have returned to Africa for the twelfth time to support primary schools in Kenya. The group will be helping to improve classroom conditions and they will also be supporting the staff by teaching some lessons.
Click here for the Flickr album to see all the photos from the trip.
Our pupils have sent us the following updates from the trip:
Day 1
By Caitlin and Phebe
At 3am on Thursday we set off on the journey to Kenya. We got through Heathrow swiftly and before we know it we were in the air and on our way. Many movies and naps later, we landed in Nairobi at midnight local time. After a long bus ride and a tireless search for clean water, we finally got to the Wildebeest camp site, and enjoyed a delightful four hours of sleep.
Day 2
By Scarlett and Ro
Our first full day in Kenya began with us leaving Nairobi and taking a short flight to Diani beach which is where we will be staying for the majority of the trip. After checking into the hotel in Diani, we enjoyed a nice lunch and then split off into our two groups, and headed to the schools. Both groups were welcomed immediately with all the school children running to the buses, and giving lots of high fives and handshakes. The children then performed songs and poems to us to welcome us into their school. One of the groups also enjoyed fresh coconut water from a coconut, and sugar canes, which were given to us from their teachers. After we returned from the schools, we all then enjoyed some time on the beach. Shortly after this we had some time to relax and enjoyed a dinner in the hotel together.
Day Three (Milalani)
By Tabby, Bessie and Ellie
Our day started bright and early with a lovely breakfast and bus drive straight to the schools, where we began our work. We cleaned, sanded, varnished and painted in three different classrooms. It was tough work in the heat but there was a lot of team spirit from pupils sneaking in on a Saturday. They joined us for lots of dancing and singing, which we all really enjoyed. We had a quick lunch and then got back to work with some newly fashioned paint rollers to finish off the classroom. After a tough day’s work, we headed back to base and soaked up the last of the sun on the beach and in the pool. This evening, we had some drinks and snacks followed by a lovely dinner all together, before getting some much needed rest for tomorrow.
Day 3 (Kingwede)
By Tari and Andrada
After a night that wasn’t restful due to the heat, we had an early start to the day at 7 am, followed by breakfast at 7:15. Today was a challenging day to say the least from devising a doable strategy for our renovation to managing the team and assigning tasks that everyone would enjoy doing. We began by allocating jobs to our other members and started scrubbing and sanding, as well as putting layers of paint on the walls. We scrubbed the rust from the playground facilities and added a thin layer of baby blue paint as a first layer. I enjoyed seeing the kids and I invited them over and we began painting together for a bit because they explained their love for colour. Andrada and I had a go at mixing water with the cement and spoke with some of the workers and heard about their experience at the school. After we spent hours at the school doing as much as we could, we went to the beach and had a great time. Once we had finished, I went to the pool and mixed with other people that are in Kenya with us.
Day 4 (Milalani)
By Lily, Maddie, Sophia and Ella
Today we started eagerly with breakfast and a bus ride down to the schools. When we arrived, we were greeted by the kids smiling faces, waving and overjoyed to spend another day with us (we felt the same) we immediately began to carry on our work from yesterday, which got very messy but was actually quite enjoyable as we were doing it for the kids. After we completed this, some people volunteered to sand chairs and desks to prepare them to be varnished (We ended up finding this surprisingly therapeutic) then repainted the blackboards and ended the evening with a trip to a traditional Kenyan market where there was a variety of clothes, food and jewellery, where we bought souvenirs for family and friends. When we arrived home, the day ended on a perfect note as we swam in the pool at the camp whilst the sun was setting.
Day 4 (Kingwede)
By Ruth and Heloise
The day started at 8:00 am after a delicious breakfast. We drove 45 minutes to the school, where we started our second day of work. Our aims were to finish the two classrooms that had be painted with primer, a top coat, to paint the playground facilities, to paint the entrance gate and to sand and varnish the 15 tables and 15 chairs that we bought for the children in the school. We split up in different groups to accomplish those different challenges of the day.
Today was a bit challenging as we had to do a lot of things in a really short period of time. We finished painting the two classrooms, the playground, 10 tables and chairs, and the first layer of the entrance gate. A lot of children appeared as they were interested in the work we were doing, so we also spent some time with them. Around 3 o’clock, we started cleaning up and packing everything and then the bus came to take us to a typical Kenyan market that is located right next to the school. We spent around half an hour there seeing traditional things from the country. When we got back to the campsite, we had a chill time in the pool. The day ended with a very nice dinner all together.
Day 5 – Milalani
By Tilly, Lilly and Halle
The day started off bright and early, well not bright, due to a power cut but after that was resolved we headed off to Milalani primary school. We hit a bit of a glitch with 1500 of them being inside the classroom, so we changed our plans and got to work painting the outside of the school, garnishing desks and chairs, and also creating the school mural and our wall of fame. After we finished this, we had a quick lunch followed by the painting of a climbing frame and swings for the special needs school – in the hot sun!
Then we began the highlight of the week so far – sports day! We split into 5 teams and focussed on grade 4, where we created a sports circuit including relays, hopping races and limboing, along with other primary games. This ended in a huge circle of hokey kokey – with Mrs Gomm leading the dance in the middle, which was fab! After so many goodbye hugs and high fives, we popped to the shops to buy a much needed ice cream and then we headed back to the base camp. Next we went to the nearby beach, where the water is much warmer and clearer than in the UK. However we soon had to leave, because the tide was sweeping our sliders away!! We ended the day by sorting a million bags to give out to the children at the leaving ceremony and then we enjoyed a group dinner and a round of mamma mia dancing and singing!
Day 5 – Kingswede
By Amelie and Eleanor
On our five day at Kenya, we started off the day with breakfast at 7:15. At around 9am, we arrived at the school and distributed jobs; everyone was kept very busy so that we would be able to finish off all of the work by the end of the day and be ready to teach tomorrow. The jobs we were continuing with were varnishing desks and chairs, painting the front gate, hanging up a tire swing and painting the final classroom.
During the children’s break time we took selfies with them using Snapchat filters. They were extremely excited about this as obviously this is something they had never seen before. The people varnishing the new table and chairs had an unexpected guest as a green mamba dropped down from the tree metres away from them. After this we continued to varnish, however relocating to avoid any more visitors.
Following on from this we then had lunch and relaxed for a bit before we continued with the painting. As we were finishing off, we noticed the young children playing with and enjoying the swing that we had created. It was really satisfying to see how much we had achieved at the end of the day, and we were really grateful that we got everything finished and that we were so warmly welcomed to the school.
Day 6 – Milalani
By Harry and Nikhel
We began the day with a delicious breakfast of traditional Kenyan food, then leaving for our final day at the schools. We arrived at the school at 8:30 and went head first into teaching the lessons. We taught 3 lessons ending at 10:50, with people teaching a range of subjects including: Portuguese, geography, Italian, maths, arts and music. We then went to the final ceremony, in the communal area of the school, where over one thousand pupils performed a wide range of songs, such as “if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” as well as a soldier scout (alike to Oakham CCF) parade and other songs and dances. We then performed an absolute banger of a dance and song (dancing queen). After this we gave gifts of bags, t-shirts, shoes, shorts, and vests to the children and staff. We soon said our goodbyes and thank yous for our warm welcome frome Milalani school before heading off to the ‘Hidden Paradise Restaurant’ where we enjoyed pizza and other food while enjoying scenic beach views. We then returned to Diani Campsite where we enjoyed spending time at the beach and pool, before leaving to feed bush babies at 6:15. We enjoyed beverages while hand feeding chunks of banana to the Bush Babies. Finally, we returned back to the campsite and enjoyed a delicious dinner. Before socialising and heading off to bed after packing our bags in preparation for our return to Nairobi.
Day 6 – Kingswede
By Eddie and Asa
We woke up this morning at around 6am as we had to leave early for the school at 7:30 as the children’s lessons began at 8:20 .When we arrived at the school we were greeted by a wave of grinning children- it was bitter sweet as we knew this was our last day with the children, therefore we insured to make it the best. We all split off into our separate groups and taught them different lessons (eg. English, French, Chemistry, Spanish). All the children engaged so amazingly with what they were taught. After we had taught our lessons we did a performance to the whole school in which we sang and danced to mamma mia followed by the Macarena this then incentivised the children from grade 5 to surprise us with 2 dances that we got involved in. It was then time to depart, so we gave out lots of little things for the children like bags and t shirts and then finally said our goodbyes to the children which was very much upsetting while also being heart warming. We then travelled back to our accommodation and relaxed in the pool while various of the group spent the evening at the beach. At around 6pm we went to go feed some bush babies and later came back to our accommodation, ready for a cheeky lie-in tomorrow before we head off.
Day 7
By Andrada
Today was a sad day as we left Diani and headed back to Nairobi. After a bit of a lie-in, some pool time and breakfast together, it was time for our internal flight.
Once we had arrived in Nairobi we went back to Wildebeast camp to have some lunch (burgers and chips!) which was greatly enjoyed by all!
After lunch we went to visit the giraffe centre, where we fed the giraffes which was a very unique experience. We then had a bit of downtime by the pool at the Eco Camp. As for dinner we went to Carnivore for a lovely Valentine’s Day inspired meal that put our tastes to the test, to say the least, getting to try Ox balls and crocodile meat. We then went back to our accommodation and went straight to sleep in preparation for an early rise.
Day 8 – The Final Day
By Caitlin
For our final morning in Kenya we were up bright and early at 6am ready to embark on safari. We were greeted by hyenas and saw a range of animals. With the highlights being giraffes, buffalo and hippos. We had the true off road experience in the bus as we chased after lions with little success but still managed to channel our inner David Attenboroughs as we watched the crocodiles eye up their lunch. After seemingly getting slightly lost in the wilderness we arrived at the elephant orphanage just in time to see the last two groups get fed and play in the mud.
By Miss Charlotte Woodward
It was a bittersweet day today as it was out last day in Kenya. We woke up early to get to Nairobi National Park for a Safari. The early start was worth it when we saw a lot of Giraffes, Rhinos, warthogs, Gazelles, Crocodiles, Hippos, Ostriches, Vultures, Hienas and Buffalo’s. Our next stop was the elephant orphanage where we listened to the conservation that takes place to save baby elephants and then reintroducing them into the wild when they are 18. They were incredibly cute, being fed milk and rolling around in the mud to cool down. After lunch at Eco Camp we headed out to Galleria, a shopping mall with a mix of markets and shops. After a lot of haggling and FroYo it was time to head back for dinner. After some chill time (and repacking of cases) many thank yous were said to Grace and Charles our Kenyan tour guides who we would’ve been lost without! Finally it was time to thank Mrs Gomm for all of her effort, support and advice to make this trip happen for so many years! We will miss her! We are now all currently sat in the airport waiting for our flight home and thinking about all the difference we’ve made along with some lovely memories (especially as our flight is delayed :/)
