News from our grads
Glenis in Kenya
Why did you decide to teach English overseas?
It all began years ago (long before the
movie came out) when I decided I wanted to see
Madagascar. Then last year I saw an advertisement
asking for volunteers in Africa and decided that I would apply and carry
on to Madagascar afterwards. So I completed the TESOL course with
Teach International before applying to become
a volunteer. There were other places in the world I wanted to see as
well, so I booked an around-the-world ticket. As a cancer survivor, I
decided that I would set out not only for myself but for others who were
less fortunate.
Where/when did you go? What did you do? How long for and when did you get back?
I went to Kenya to teach English to Maasai children
at a school in
the Rift Valley. The school itself was not attached to any settlement
but was out in the countryside and some distance from where I lived
in Athi River.
The Village Inn is in the middle of a slum area but the accommodation,
food and staff were good. Travelling to school meant catching two mini
buses and then walking from the main road to the school. 
This journey
took anywhere from forty minutes to over two hours. We often saw zebra,
wildebeest and gazelle along the way, but fortunately never saw any lions.
On arrival the head teacher said that Class II did not have a teacher
and "go there now and start teaching all subjects".
It did not matter that
the children had been taught in Kiswahili which, as with English,
was not their first language. From then on they had a lot of
lessons revolving around different aspects of raising cattle.
Their ages in my class ranged from seven to fifteen, they were
great to teach as they really wanted to learn and there was a
lot of laughter. There were 41 children in my class. I went in
October 2005 and taught for six weeks. After that I went on safari
for three weeks, spent more time at Athi River and Nairobi before
completing my travels and arrived back here in May this year.
Did you enjoy it? What did you get out of it?
Yes, I certainly enjoyed it even though it was hard at times. The school had no water, often there were three or four children to a desk and not enough text books to go around. A lot of the children had never seen a television. The school had a cook and she prepared a hot meal for lunch, this ensured that the children had at least one meal a day. It made me appreciate how lucky I am. These children are often taken out of school to look after cattle or the girls to be married off at a very young age. But this is starting to change, especially with the help of the Headmaster and some of the other teachers. Two of the teachers had three wives which led to some interesting discussions about the place of women. One man was especially interested in cattle and how they were raised in other countries. I showed the teachers and students pictures of farms and countryside and they were surprised how much of Australia was desert and how green New Zealand was.
In that area of the Rift Valley there had been only a few showers for about three years and the people were afraid that the next rainy season would fail to materialise too. On the last day of school they killed a beast and put on a feast in my honour and gave me the Maasai name 'Seleyian' which means 'Lady'. It was great to be able to learn a little about a culture which is so different from ours. I was the only European at the school and also for most of my stay at Athi River which amused the locals.
Any funny stories?
I spent one social studies lesson talking about the importance
of trees and their preservation only to have
one of the boys go out during the recess and lean on a struggling tree
and break it off at the base! As the children were not receiving any
Kiswahili lessons, they decided that perhaps it would be good if they
tried to teach me the language. After 20 minutes of them falling about
laughing at my pronunciation, some with tears streaming down their
face, I changed my mind. And it was their second language too! Well,
I guess you had to be there.
What would you say to someone thinking about doing it?
Go for it! You may laugh and cry and it will certainly take you out of your comfort zone, but in return you will learn more than you can teach. Also, you will make a lot of new friends.
Anything else you would like to add?
Not all the children were Maasai - a number of them were orphans taken off the streets of Nairobi and live in an orphanage at Kitengela named Kenya Kids which is close to Athi River. In Class II there were 12 orphans from different tribes. For various reasons I never did get to Madagascar!
Glenis Jacobs - Teach International graduate
