Vivian, Heidi and I had a fantastic day with our form 3 class. We were the first ones to tree plant, and it was hard for us to reign in our students’ enthusiasm and prevent them from planting all of the trees before the other forms arrived! We planted a small number on the school property and then the rest at a local church ground. St. Justino is located in Soweto, a slum area in the Nairobi suburb of Kayole. It was nice to be able to put a little more ‘green’ into the area, and I think the students really enjoyed the opportunity.
After planting, we did some community clean-up just down the street from the school. It was good to help out, but also felt a little bit futile at times; picking up garbage generally just uncovered a new layer of garbage. Although it was frustrating to make little impact at the time, the main point of the activity was to try to set an example for our students and encourage a spirit of community service.
We finished off with HIV testing in the various classrooms at the school – about 25 of our 30 students got tested, which was really exciting. A large focus of our curriculum is on the importance of being tested, so it was great to have such a positive response. In fact, on the first day when we announced there would be a free VCT day, all of the students erupted into spontaneous applause – a pretty awesome moment. The day concluded with a final assembly, a YESS club meeting, and then a lot of games with local children in the school grounds. Saturday was long, but ultimately rewarding and our students really enjoyed their experiences. A great first start to our outreach activities!
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