WOW! back again from another stint in the Mara. This time I was accompanying a group of high school students from Lakefield C.S. They were building and living in a Maasai community called Oloosiyoi.
Oloosiyoi is a special community because, unlike many other schools where we are working, this was only the third group to travel and build there. The school is fairly small, with 250 students, but very lively.
When the students arrived at the build site, there was nothing but a rocky, uneven piece of land with a rectangle drawn in coloured dirt... a 10 foot by 16 foot rectangle... big. We build with traditional tools, and resources that would be locally available, so no backhoe. They began digging with pickaxes and jembes... and they dug... and dug, and dug... and DUG some more. 6 days to be precise, until that traced rectangle was a trench 5 feet deep!!!
From there, the mixing of cement and making a re bar made up the foundation... and then the beginnings of the walls.
All throughout the building process, we had quite an audience. The students were in school during the time we were there, and on their breaks children all the way from the nursery school to standard 8 would come and watch... we actually had to ask them not to help, in fears that they may hurt themselves.
At the end of Lakefield's time at Oloosiyoi, they had not only been beaten in numerous football games, played the biggest game of duck duck goose in history, but they had laid the foundation for a new classroom, and the community was ecstatic!
To show their thanks to the Lakefield guests, the students organized a wonderfully colourful celebration of traditional Maasai songs and dances.
Upon leaving, I received a note from a standard seven boy from Oloosiyoi. His kind words will always resonate with me, but one part in particular struck me...
Oloosiyoi is a special community because, unlike many other schools where we are working, this was only the third group to travel and build there. The school is fairly small, with 250 students, but very lively.
When the students arrived at the build site, there was nothing but a rocky, uneven piece of land with a rectangle drawn in coloured dirt... a 10 foot by 16 foot rectangle... big. We build with traditional tools, and resources that would be locally available, so no backhoe. They began digging with pickaxes and jembes... and they dug... and dug, and dug... and DUG some more. 6 days to be precise, until that traced rectangle was a trench 5 feet deep!!!
From there, the mixing of cement and making a re bar made up the foundation... and then the beginnings of the walls.
All throughout the building process, we had quite an audience. The students were in school during the time we were there, and on their breaks children all the way from the nursery school to standard 8 would come and watch... we actually had to ask them not to help, in fears that they may hurt themselves.
At the end of Lakefield's time at Oloosiyoi, they had not only been beaten in numerous football games, played the biggest game of duck duck goose in history, but they had laid the foundation for a new classroom, and the community was ecstatic!
To show their thanks to the Lakefield guests, the students organized a wonderfully colourful celebration of traditional Maasai songs and dances.
Upon leaving, I received a note from a standard seven boy from Oloosiyoi. His kind words will always resonate with me, but one part in particular struck me...
I will never forget about you. Remember that life is what you make it, so
make it the BEST!
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