If you’ve been following along on our blog posts over the past few weeks, you will have noticed some big differences when you opened this page. In fact, this page represents the next part of our website strategy–a detached hosted blog that will give us the ability make posts by email, text message or online from…you guessed it, East Africa.
After long weeks of preparation, we are finally approaching the departure date for our visit to students, schools and coordinators in East Africa. On September 20, we fly into Nairobi and head out of the city to the Central Region where we visit students at Gathangururu, Gatugi, Kabare, Karoti, Mutira, Mutihi, Mwalimu Habel Nyamu and Senior C Koinange schools. Thankfully, we will be hosted by Beatrice Mwaniki, whose superhuman powers of organization and efficiency will see us through.
With a quick stop back in Nairobi to collect the rest of our crew, we embark on the long drive out to Kenya’s beautiful Rift Valley, home to the pink flamingos of Lake Baringo and birthplace of some of the fastest runners in the world. It is also the home of our Coordinator, Caroline Lentupuru, and Pemwai, Mogotio, Moi-Kabarak and Kapropita schools, where we will meet up with more GTL scholars.
From the Rift Valley, our team heads to Western Kenya near the Uganda border, where Godfrey Okello hosts our tours of Huma and Sega schools, each of which has been a cornerstone of our program for years.
Short on time, we will take a tiny plane back from Kisumu airport, through Nairobi, to Kilimanjaro Airport. We spend five days in the shadow of the great mountain, in the town of Moshi. Hosted by Sister Lucy Diu and Sister Costa, we visit Kibosho, Sangiti, St. Marie Eugenie and Scolastica. Finally, we join all of our coordinators, including Sister Salome and Cissy Nakiboneka from Uganda, for two days of conferencing and business.
More than anything else, we are looking forward to talk with our amazing students and the remarkable coordinators who find them, teach them, mentor them, and let us know where our help is needed next. Watch for our reports from East Africa here!