Jambo*

It’s been long time since a Wesley overseas tour has been organised with a specific focus on providing service to others. In early July, a group of Year 11 International Baccalaureate (IB) students travelled to Kenya and, through the KULE Foundation, engaged in some serious community service. The work the students did on this tour was like nothing they had ever experienced before.

Day One saw them at work in a school in Kibera, a Nairobi slum, Day Two saw them teaching children in an orphanage in the village of Murang’a, two hours north of Nairobi, and by Day Four they were at work laying the foundations of a permanent home for an elderly villager! During the second week, the students joined with two other groups from IB schools in Geneva and Vancouver to venture out into the savannah on a three day safari to Masai Mara Game Reserve.

This community service tour was an incredibly formative experience for them. Finding themselves at work in a Nairobi slum on that first day was very confronting; on their last day of the tour they returned to Kibera, and found themselves quite comfortable there. These two very intense weeks were enriching, challenging, and full of learning.

The students can feel immensely satisfied with their efforts; they served, they gave – and they helped improve the lives of others in a very direct, practical way.

* One of the most common words you will hear spoken throughout Kenya, Jambo is a Swahili greeting meaning Hello/G’day/How are you going?