Having had a few months to reflect on my time in Kenya since my return, I wanted to give you a further update since my one in January of this year. As mentioned then, I had just arrived in the Masai Mara National Reserve and had been working at a camp on the banks of the Talek River, after spending three and a half months in Ruiru, Kiambu County, working at Ndiiini Primary School, Kenya Community Centre for Learning, and Peponi Secondary School. I stayed on in the National Reserve for a few more weeks before moving to the Mara North Conservancy, where I worked at Serian Original and Serian Nare Camps for 3.5 weeks, before finishing my time in Kenya in theOlderkesi Conservancy bordering the Serengeti National Park of Tanzania.
Firstly, my time working in Ruiru, on the outskirts of Nairobi, was incredibly rewarding, and a fantastic way to improve my confidence in my ability to operate in a new country independently, whilst also being fortunate to be hosted, and have incredible opportunities offered to me regularly, for which I am so grateful. Despite both parts of my time in Kenya being so different, this first half certainly made the second half seem much more achievable.
Having Peponi Secondary School as a base, I was fortunate that they were well connected with local schools in the area, and provided me with an opportunity to visit these other institutions, which were all very different. I, alongside another student working with me at Peponi, cycled to and fromNdiini primary school every day, where we taught English, Maths, Music, Humanities, Science, and PE to groups of up to 70 children at one time, ranging in age from 6 to 15. This presented me with considerable challenges, from the language barrier, although I must say many of the children’s English was very impressive for their age, to the need to adapt from one lesson to another based on each class’ and individual’s needs.
Unfortunately I came away from my time at Ndiini without many photographs, but I have attached below a few images to perhaps give one an idea of the environment we were in. Whilst our time spent at the school was exhausting and intense on the whole, we also made ourselves useful during quieter times by marking end of year papers before the Christmas break, and trying to learn a little Kiswahili from the children, who were so keen for us to learn. Many a break time was spent with the children amused at my (lack of) pronunciation – it’s the effort that counts! – I have since managed to learn a decent level and its something I’m very pleased I pushed myself to give a go and I am keen to continue to improve, despite the lack of people to converse with at home in the UK!
After Ndiini finished their term for the holidays, we were no longer needed there, and so we moved to Kenya Community Centre for Learning (KCCL), a small school, funded by donations from the parents who are fortunate enough to help, and who also run the school, from teaching to standing on the board. KCCL has around 100 children with learning or physical disabilities, including dyslexia, autism, and cerebral palsy, from the ages of 6 to 21, and they provide specialist care to those that need it most. Whilst unfortunately there are many more children who would benefit from being at a school like KCCL, rather than in the state system, the very presence of KCCL gives many children opportunities they could never previously have dreamed of in life, by providing the best education for their needs, harnessing the best qualities in the children and young adults, and giving them the confidence that there is the chance of an independent life for them post education, and being a small part of this made this time all the more special. At the school I worked as a teaching assistant in a class of 6, ranging from 12-16 in age, with a real mix of abilities, from one boy studying GCSE level science, to others who struggled with literacy. Managing this was not easy, and again required patience and adaptability, but with Mr Fondo, the class teacher, I helped to prepare the children for their December tests and acted as a scribe for a few of them whilst doing these. Outside of the classroom I helped teach music to a few of the children, who were preparing pieces for their end of year party, with Daniel (15), who had autism and suffered from anxiety, learning to play the recorder certainly a highlight of my time.
During my time in Ruiru, whilst my mornings were spent at Ndiini and KCCL, my afternoons involved sports coaching at Peponi, to all years aged 13-19. I spent most of my time on the cricket pitch, coaching both girls and boys of varying ability, but also helped out with football, coaching the u15A&B side at a couple of tournaments, and with strength and conditioning and athletics. I also was given the opportunity to support on some schools trips, including a visit up to Nyeri with the year 10s, where unfortunately extremely heavy rain hampered our hiking plans but we still managed to take the students on a nature walk in a protected area of forest home to the incredibly rare Hinde’s Babbler.
After a week to relax on the coast after the end of the school term, I flew to Ol Kiombo airstrip in the Masai Mara and joined Naibor Camp over the Christmas and New Year, to help with hosting guests, and supporting the two camp managers with whatever tasks they needed doing. It was fantastic to meet many of the local Masai and learn about their traditions and customs, and equally special to be in such a beautiful part of the world.
Whilst here I also furthered my knowledge of the local and national culture and landscape, as well as the wildlife found in the Mara, to gain a personal understanding and also to improve the service I could provide to guests.
Heavy rain made it tricky to reach my next destination, but after a day’s delay and a long detour, I eventually joined the team at Serian Original, where I would again help with hosting guests, as well as with the maintenance, groundskeeping and housekeeping teams. The ability to get involved with all sides of camp life was very insightful, and meant I have formed some lifelong friendships with those I met.
Nahim, who is my age and is off to university in September, like myself, was a member of the maintenance team. It was fantastic for me to bond more with a mix of people, who helped me greatly with my Kiswahili in return for some training programs for their gym! I still talk to Nahim often on WhatsApp, and hopefully will be able to return to Kenya in years to come and can catch up with him. Before my departure I was lucky to be taken out on a very memorable game drive, which was undoubtedly one of the best bits of working in this environment, and around this time I also, with another member of staff, Ben, made a new bench for the gym – some DIY I hadn’t seen myself doing but then there wasn’t much I knew I’d be doing before I got there.
Unfortunately I soon had to move onto my last destination – the Olderkesi Conservancy on the Southeastern border of the National Reserve, where I would spend a few weeks at Cottar’s Camp, which was an utterly amazing experience. Cottar’s Camp is one of 10 Global Ecosphere Retreats in the world, which is testament to the dedicated sustainability team who have combined innovative measures with the limited resources they have to ensure they have a positive impact on the local area from a financial and developmental perspective, whilst also maintaining the precious habitat which is home to thousands of species.
I got the chance to research this when I was putting together an educational document which could be adapted for guest use, but was mainly for staff, to help them understand the wider scale impact of the things they were doing, and to encourage them to become even more invested in helping the natural environment around them. As I have an interest in sustainability and am going to study Physical Geography at university it was brilliant to see how this could be applied in this workplace, and promising to see it was being taken so seriously.
Whilst here I also joined the carpenters and the maintenance team to build a new deck for a temporary tent which was going up to accommodate for a big party of guests, and added new water drainage and removal pipes in order to reduce the impact of the temporary mobile camp. I was lucky to assist as a spotter in the vehicle on a few game drives, allowing me to talk to guests and share with them what I had learnt, as well as helping their chances of spotting the wildlife they had come to see.
My time in the Masai Mara was an unforgettable experience and I gained so much from it, in terms of both knowledge and the relationships I made. It also aided me in getting work experience with a Marketing and PR company which focuses on destinations in Africa and the Indian Ocean, allowing me to take what I had learnt ‘on the ground’ and see how operations were being run behind the scenes, as well as putting what I knew about different camps into editing educational content for agents and tour operators.
Thank you so much to the Bulkeley Evans Scholarship Fund for supporting my time in Kenya and ultimately making all of these experiences possible.
