Our arrival in Munjiti was momentous, while our GR leader has seen three welcome parades in Africa, this one took the cake! Our bus was met by every single student from the Munjiti community, many dressed in traditional dance regalia, face paint and accompanied by excellent drummers. The parade led us into the school compound where we were greeted with multiple dances and poems and speeches of welcome. our host familes have been incredibly generous with their time, attention and servings of heaping hot ugali, the staple food of Kenya made of maize. Our days have been full with mixing cement for the renovation of the classroom. While many of the other classrooms are in total disrepair with crumbling floors and leaking roofs, the students of Munjiti are succeeding to attain a good education, and the school ranks 5th out of 27 in the region on national test scores. Along with visint many classes, the interns have been improving their language abilities in Kiswahili and the local Luhya. After work we find time to play soccer, volleyball and visit each other’s homestays.
The sounds that fill our ears are mooing of cows, busy chickens, and everyone shouting Mzungu, -white person, or Mulembe- hello in Luhya to us as we walk through the village. By the end of the week we were all eager for our weekend excursion during which we got to visit a local project site with Engineers Without Borders where they had constructed Biomass Latrines and a safe-water borehole at a primary school. Next we headed to Kakamega to spend the night all together in the leader house, cook some great food, thanks to our amazing cooks in the group, and also went hiking in the beautiful misty Kakamega rainforest. We are returning today to Munjiti to finish our project, paint a mural on the school and enjoy our time with the host families. Next post will come from our trip to Uganda.
