Our group had a glorious weekend together, reconnecting, sharing\u00a0stories, and enjoying some longed for spagetti dinners and time in\u00a0town! We gathered in the Kakamega Forrest where we slept at the\u00a0Bandas, proceeds from which support local forest ecology education\u00a0for the schools in Kenya. We enjoyed some local dance and storytelling\u00a0and hiked in the forest, while some students chose to relax at the\u00a0camp. We learned alot about the indigenous trees and their medicinal\u00a0uses. In the afternoon we visited the village of Emwiru where Brandt\u00a0and Hadley are volunteers to attend a school fundraiser. We also got\u00a0to reconnect with our host families in Munjiti and take\u00a0part in some spontaneous dances. The group was\u00a0very happy to see that Munjiti school has nearly renovated 4 more\u00a0classrooms since we had left and according to the school staff, we,\u00a0Global Routes ‘lit the spark” for the governement to come to the\u00a0schools aid.<\/p>\n
After a good \u00a0nights rest in a hotel in Kakamega we returned to the\u00a0villages. The group shared some sentiments that many are feeling\u00a0a lot of new appreciation for their U.S. family, home and all that they\u00a0are blessed with in the US.\u00a0As we have now\u00a0been in East Africa nearly two and a half months our novelty as\u00a0foreigners does not wear off. This is both a blessing and a curse.\u00a0Some students expressed how much more\u00a0empathy they have now for those in any society who feel alienated or\u00a0put in the spotlight just because of their skin color. Many\u00a0students feel right at home in the village, many have engaged with\u00a0their host families in daily chores and worked on the shamba, the\u00a0farm. All of the students have put themselves out there, stretching\u00a0their comfort levels in many ways, for example by their openness to try\u00a0new foods like “cow \u00a0intestine,” by learning the local language, by buying\u00a0supplies to create murals at the schools, by starting sports camps, and by holding political and cultural discussion classes with the faculty and\u00a0students.<\/p>\n
There has been some tremendous growth in our group and we are now\u00a0looking eagerly towards our adventure to Zanzibar and to our next\u00a0steps upon returning home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our group had a glorious weekend together, reconnecting, sharing\u00a0stories, and enjoying some longed for spagetti dinners and time in\u00a0town! We gathered in the Kakamega Forrest where we slept at the\u00a0Bandas, proceeds from which support local forest ecology education\u00a0for the schools in Kenya. We enjoyed some local dance and storytelling\u00a0and hiked in the forest, while some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-africa-tip-2011","category-gap-yearcollege-programs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}