Drummond Community High School’s partnership with Muthambi Boys and Girls Schools in Kenya received a huge boost this summer with the visit of four senior students and three staff from Drummond, writes Partnership coordinator Annie Scanlon. A lot of hard work and support from local organisations (including the Spurtle) resulted in this 10-day visit.
After a long flight we arrived in Nairobi where we met up with our Kenyan friends for a brief stop and visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which rears then releases elephants who have lost their mothers due to ivory poaching. A four-hour journey north brought us to our schools at the foot of Mount Kenya.
It is always a great pleasure to meet old friends again and to see all the improvements that have been happening in our partner schools. This year, the girl’s school has a new bakery employing a full-time baker who produces 300 loaves a day for the school (rations are half-a-loaf a day) plus enough to sell to the local community. The profit can be used in school for more improvements.
[img_assist|nid=3323|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=640|height=480]In the boys school, the new library building is complete but is at present being used as a classroom until sufficient funds are available for fixtures and fittings. The old library is still being operated by the boys with books that we sent out from Drummond.
Our students delivered lessons to a number of classes on a wide variety of topics including: a photo discussion of life in Edinburgh as a teenager; a demonstration of origami; a lecture on the Scottish Government; plus a talk and demonstration on porridge.
The Kenyan students are all used to their own porridge: a sweet brown ‘sludge’ which tastes much better than it looks. But ‘Scottish porridge' would be a new experience.
At the girls school they have limited Home Science resources (just three cookers), but Ailis McGuinness – a Hospitality student at Drummond – made oatmeal cookies with the students.
It was a bit more difficult at the boys school, where they don’t teach Home Science. Unperturbed, Ailis set up her ‘kitchen’ in the science lab using Bunsen burners and tripods instead of cookers (see above). The boys produced a good ‘porridge’, and once the word had got round the school we went from a class of 40 up to hundreds who all wanted a taste.
Drummond staff introduced the Kenyan students to the solar system, similes and metaphors in English, and snow (complete with fake snow which could be formed into snowballs to throw at teachers).
During a series of joint meetings, we were able to strengthen some of the existing projects while planning new ones. This year we will be working on a joint project on Food and Sustainability between the science departments. It will include comparing diets, growing potatoes, and looking at problems caused by global warming.
The visit was also a great education for our own students and staff. It included visits to local farms to harvest tea and coffee, a community-run tea factory, local markets, a wildlife reserve and meeting local people and elephants.
We start this term with younger students in the Kenya Group who will be taking part in projects and raising funds for a return visit by our Kenyan partners in June 2013.
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For more about the Kenya Partnership and ways to help, contact Annie Scanlon: admin.drummond.edin.sch.uk
For more information on the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, visit: www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org