A job well done!

Well, the end of the week is here and with it a HUGE sense of satisfaction at a job incredibly well done. The painting is “very nearly, quite, almost there finished” (a loose quote from a book we are both reading called Shantaram) and the volunteers are claiming it is one of the best weeks they have had on the expedition. I can’t think of a better endorsement than that other than the enormous smiles of excitement and joy from the kids as they sat welcoming us to the first lesson to be taught in the classroom and the same smiles mirrored on the faces of the teachers who sat and watched while we gave our environmental education lesson on Friday morning.

We are so very grateful to have had the opportunity to do something so tangible to help the local community and it is such a good feeling when that help is so warmly, genuinely and gratefully received. Thanks must go to the generous donators and of course to the volunteers who so tirelessly and artistically aided us. Believe me, without them it would have been a much less impressive effort – had it just been up to The Litts I think the kids would probably have been better off doing it themselves!

So, below a few photos of the finished article and the lesson we gave which was about the effects of pollution. But first, a composition on the project written by one of the students in our adult English classes:

Composition on the Shimoni Base Academy Project

– By Harold Ouma Amolo (Kindergarten teacher in Shimoni Primary School)

I feel a connection to Kate and Jamie’s project work in Shimoni Base Academy. I am so much moved by it for they have learned how to accept challenges and have been compelled to undertake their conservation education in another angle. The couple have realised that their work may not materialise due to the language barrier.
They know language plays a vitally important role in learning. It is a tool to be used to interpret, communicate, work through and make sense of our experiences. Learning never takes unless verbal communication is initiated between the learners and the experts. This made them choose Base Academy to pilot their plan to see if it can become workable. The targeted groups are the energetic ones especially youths and school going ones who may take over the initiated activities of conservation in the area.

During the course of teaching English language, Kate and Jamie noticed the kind of hospitality of the Base staff and their pupils. They then became emotionally carried and they decided to appreciate the school by compensating them with those resources they thought would enhance and increase morale for learning in the school. The activities they have decided to undertake are as follows: plastering of the walls of the main classroom, fitting windows and doors which will provide a secure place for some of their resources, painting various pictures on the walls which they hope will motivate and call for longer retention of the experience exchanged during their learning session besides brightening up of their learning environment, thus the classrooms.

They hope to draw a world map which may act as a reference material so as to make them become aware of other nations or continents of the world. This will make them become internationally conscious with other people of the nations. Learning becomes more meaningful to the learners when they can have reference corners where they can co-operate with other learners, especially peer groups, to exchange their ideas. This can enhance retention and recall for the materials learned. The work I hope will make them become interested and excited in doing references for themselves without the aid of the teachers. Some who may have been weak in a particular subject may develop interest in the subject too. This may leave a picture in their memory to recall where he/she begins to love the subject.

The kids welcoming us to the classroom on Friday morning. Jamie and I are desperate for one of those red t-shirts the kids are wearing and which say SHIMONI BASE ACADEMY on the back. Is it wrong to steal from children?!?!

Swamped by the kids but with music in the background!

A short explanation of the game…

A bit of rivalry between the team captains (don’t they all look scary with those balloons?!)…

And……I think it might have been a success!! Still not sure who won though – there was an awful lot of cheating going on from the captains!

The Art corner - although strictly speaking probably more the Art wall.

A map of the world in case you weren’t sure! And I did that butterfly by the way – although strictly speaking I only coloured it in rather than actually drawing it! The eagle has properly landed now by the way.

And finally, a well deserved beer by the pool – this working lark is tough eh?