I wrote in a previous blog post that I gave a recent high school graduate named Franklin the equivalent of $7 to settle his balance at his secondary school, and in so doing, receive his diploma certifying that he had passed secondary school.
Franklin has returned the favor by giving me the gift of a live chicken!
I felt incredibly honored to receive such a well-intentioned and meaningful gift. The chicken now roams around the compound along with Welliminah's other chickens. I imagine that eventually I will be eating it. :)
Tomorrow will mark the four-week point of my project in Kenya. It's incredible how fast time has moved. But I've made good use of it so far - over the past four weeks, I've been hard at work developing the Global Student Summit program for Kijana. The concept of the program is to engage Kenyan and American youth in cross-cultural interaction and solutions-based dialogue on the world's most pressing issues. Each year, from September-May (following the US academic calendar), participants will collaborate and deliberate a new and different topic that has global relevance.
Kijana's director, Jim Cummings, who is a committed environmentalist, suggested that the focus of the first "campaign" (which is the term I have developed for it in my planning materials) be on global fresh water scarcity, with the goal of promoting solutions for sustainable water management. It is certainly a relevant topic here in Kenya, and whether students in Florida realize it or not, it's important there too.
The past four weeks has involved a lot of learning and research for me. I have become an amateur expert on water issues - or at least as knowledgeable as each of the secondary students who participate in the program should be when they're done with it. And being here in a rural village in Kenya has also given me a first-hand education of the water challenges that are faced in developing regions throughout the world (which Patrick has excellently documented in one of his blog posts).
Aside from the learning and research, my task over the past month has been to figure out how to make this a meaningful program that will broaden students' horizons and understanding of the world, and also make them feel empowered as global citizens and change-makers. Jim's vision for the program was to have a series of videoconferences which would culminate with the students writing and submitting policy proposals for sustainable water management to their national and international leaders - the President and members of Congress in the United States, Kenya's President and relevant Members of Parliament, and the United Nations Environmental Program.
That alone would be a great program, but I knew I could make it even more meaningful. Since I am a student at the Clinton School - a school of Public Service, rather than a school of Public Policy or Public Administration - I know that change cannot be affected through top-down policy decisions alone. The role of change-agent or advocate also calls for creating civic engagement within his or her communities. It means educating and changing hearts, minds, and behaviors. It means getting down on your hands and knees sometimes and getting dirty. It means being on the ground level, communicating with people eye-to-eye rather than staring at a computer screen all day on the 15th floor of a skyscraper. These are the lessons I took away from my first year at the Clinton School, and I am now ready to put them into action.
So in addition to the policy proposals, the students will also get a little dirty themselves. In addition to learning and talking about water, they will experience it, and serve it. In October, I am having the students visit their local bodies of water - Lake Victoria in Kenya and Lake Okeechobee in Florida - in what I am calling a "Local Immersion Mission." They will learn about their local water - its history, the life it supports, the challenges it faces - and then they will contribute to the sustained health of the water, even if it is as simple as picking up trash along the banks. The idea is that there is great importance in actually making that physical connection with water in their region, to help them understand what they are fighting and advocating for.
This idea was inspired by my reading of David Orr's book Earth in Mind, which I think is the most brilliant thing I have ever read. He says, "Water should be a part of every school curriculum....Water as part of our mythology, history, politics, culture, and society, should be woven throughout curriculum, K through PhD...I propose that (water) restoration be made part of the educational agenda. Every public school, college, and university is within easy reach of streams, rivers, and lakes that are in need of restoration. The act of restoration is an opportunity to move education beyond the classroom and laboratory to the outdoors, from theory to application, and from indifference to healing. My proposal is for institutions to adopt streams or entire watersheds and make their full health an educational objective as important as say, capital funds campaigns to build new administration buildings or athletic facilities." While this program won't fully realize Orr's vision, it is a start.
The other major component I have decided to add to the program is to have the students host an education and advocacy event (or series of events) at their schools to mark World Water Day, which is held every year on March 22 (which ironically enough, is also my birthday - perfect considering my last name!). It fits perfectly within the program calendar and will be a great way for the students to put the knowledge they gain to action, by giving them the opportunity to practice their advocacy, leadership, and communication skills within their school communities. It also broadens the impact of the program - I believe their presentations on World Water Day will make a legitimate difference at their schools, and will inspire their peers and even their teachers to make personal commitments to reducing their water consumption. The program will also request that students hold a fundraising drive as part of their World Water Day efforts for Kijana. The idea is for Kijana to take the money raised and pay to have water systems such as gutters and tanks installed at schools in Kenya. And yes, I'm even going to request that the Kenyan students raise money too. Despite the impoverished area they live in, I believe that with enough creativity, they can raise money from their community. This realization will help empower them to believe in their ability to contribute to change. Lastly, I'm going to see if my high school, The Benjamin School will match money raised by their students.
All in all, I want the program to be a holistic learning experience for the students. I've embedded my draft of the Participant Guide (below) that each student will receive and follow along with throughout the program. It's chock full of articles and information about the global water crisis, which will help prepare them for the videoconference discussions and in forming solutions to promote in their policy proposals. But I didn't want the Participant Guide to be an information dump. I wanted to engage them in a broad discussion of the supreme importance and significance of water. David Orr says, "What is the meaning of water? One might as well ask 'What does it mean to be human?' The answer may be found in our relation to water, the mother of human life. When the waters again run clear and their life is restored we might see ourselves reflected whole." Inspired by this, I have aimed to include a broad spectrum of selections in the Participant Guide, readings that will acknowledge the fullness of the students' human spirits and their wide range of interests and abilities. It includes poetry about water, stories about our physical and spiritual connection to water, scientific overviews of our global water resources, and the larger social impact that water scarcity has on the quality of our lives and our development as societies. As I learned in my Education Policy seminar with Don Ernst this past semester (which is where I was exposed to Orr's Earth in Mind), we can be doing a lot better at reaching each of our students on a holistic, human level. This project is my experiment, my effort, to try to do that.
The picture to the right is of students at Ebusiloli Secondary who will participate in the program starting this September.
Below is my draft copy of the Participant Guide. Feel free to browse through it to get a better idea of my project and this program. I would warmly welcome any thoughts or suggestions on the draft. More updates on my project to come.
Earlier this week, President Clinton arrived in Africa to tour the work his Foundation has been doing here. Or at least so he says....
Isn't it a coincidence that his 11th trip to the continent coincides with Africa's very first World Cup?? Suurrrree, Billy boy, you're here to do public service, just like your dedicated, hard-working students.
But I guess it doesn't hurt to take in an exciting USA game while you're in town.
Let me know when you make your way through western Kenya. I'll be waiting for you. Bring your sax. :)
The other day Welliminah's Terrible Turkey was pissed. I have no idea why, but he just was. Patrick had been outside when all of the sudden the Terrible Turkey started to terrify. He trotted towards him and forced him back in the front door. And then he stood there.
So I got up in its face and started taking pictures of it. What a terrible thing!
He didn't appreciate me, so he started pecking at the glass.
But then, the Terrible Turkey was joined by the Devilish Duck, who doggedly waddled up, hissing like someone who hisses. What did we do to deserve this?
The Terrible Turkey felt emboldened, but he didn't realize that Patrick and I have a deal with the Devilish Duck, who promptly took care of our problem.
On Friday, Patrick and I were invited to go on a field trip all around Western Kenya with 30 students from Es'saba Secondary school. We left the school at 7am and got back home at 9pm. The whole way, Patrick and I sat in the front of the bus (which was a truck cab) with the driver. A little crowded and uncomfortable, but we got some good views along the way.
Here's a picture of the bus:
First, we stopped along the side of the road at this huge monolith called the "Crying Rock," which is apparently a popular attraction for Kenyans. It has a long black water stain running down it that makes it look like it's crying. A side view:
Then we made it to Kitale, where we went to the Museum of Western Kenya. It had a zoo-area as well with live animals, including a gigantic crocodile!
I was a big fan of this sign, cautioning people against getting too close to the crocodiles.
Perhaps they meant "predators," but "pretenders" works just as well. Those crocodiles like to trick you into thinking they're just chillin'. Then when you think it's cool to just join them and hang out, they'll chomp the heck out of you! So, really....quite profound.
Inside the museum now, here's a picture of our friend Duncan, a teacher at the school:
The students loved asking me to take their picture in front of the exhibits...
I'll have to print these out and give them their pictures.
Next we went to the base of Mt. Elgon. We would have gone higher, but it started raining, and the driver determined it to be too dangerous to keep climbing the steep hills. Mt. Elgon is right on the border of Uganda. Here's a shot of our bus driver making the judgment call. Nonetheless, it was a BEAUTIFUL area, and I think the rain only made it more breathtaking.
Lastly, we drove to Webuye to see these huge waterfalls that they have there. Here are a few shots....they too were beautiful and amazing:
I enjoyed reading my classmate Kim's recent blog entry about South Africa's annual national holiday called Youth Day, a day that is "spent by youths having conversations about social issues and their role in addressing them." WOW! Although the holiday has a special historical significance to South Africa, it definitely needs to be exported internationally (although I worry about what Hallmark would do to such a day in the USA, especially on the cusp of the cheapened holiday of Father's Day).
As I wrote in a previous post, the world needs more of this thing called Youth, and I can't think of a better way to promote it than by meaningfully celebrating and cultivating the power and energy that the world's young people have the way that South Africa does every year according to Kim's description. Wes Moore, the author of the terrific new book, The Other Wes Moore, wrote in a Father's Day column that was published today on the Huffington Post that, "Young kids look for engagement and belonging; they need above all to feel that their existence matters." I couldn't agree more, and I think the mission of Youth Day completely gets at that.
Basically, I'm inspired. Thanks Kim! To read more of Kim's experiences working for a Community Foundation in South Africa, check out her blog, KC in the Western Cape.
