Thursday, May 26
Nyeri
We woke up and had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. We walked for ten minutes to YMCA where Nasisi is hosted. We were greeted by women singing and dancing traditional Kikuyu songs. They had on the attire and their energy just sucked you in. The sang and led us to a room where we met Michael who is the director of Youth Development Partners Program. Nasisi uses theater to educate the community. It is a behavior change organization. They touch on various issues like: drugs, health, networking, capacity building and more. Mike led us into ice breakers sow e could get acquainted with the youths from the program. My favorite was of course Mingle Mingle. We participated in a Kikuyu traditional circumcision dance. They dressed us up in native wear and taught the dance. The guy who was singing used the lyrics to make us feel integrated which I really liked. We did this for about an hour. Sam ended up being the guy who was circumcised. It was a lot of fun..You all know how much I like to dance! We ate lunch there which was mukimo, bananas, and potatoes. After the students performed for us. They were brilliant actors, actresses, and singers. We were able to ask Michael some questions.
We went into Nyeri town for a bit. I liked it alot more than Nairobi. It was smaller but still busy but the air seemed alot cleaner and fresher. We were scheduled to visited a school named St. Teresa All Girls Primary Boarding School. The girls entered the room and introduced themselves. They sang and danced for us. They were like professionals. We sang Bill Me Up Buttercup and Lean On Me. There is 309 girls in attendance and 14 teachers, 11 are paid by the government and three by the board. Although it is a public school the girls go through an intense screening process. The grades range from class 4-8. The girls there are very polite and respectful. The girls compared to the other schools asked really good questions. The facility was really nice and clean. It was a change from the other schools we saw. The girls come from all over Kenya.
This concluded our day.
Nasisi is an amazing group!! They serve a very important part in society. Its good to know you liked Nyeri better then Nairobi, that rarely happens
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed my time in Kenya. I cannot wait to go back. Nairobi reminds me of New York City...Nyeri was a smaller scale city and reminded me of home in Boston. Nasisi is definitely doing amazing things. The young people we met who were apart of the program were knowledgeable and very committed. It's good to see youth taking such charge in their community.
DeleteI worked with Nasisi for about one year. The projects we worked on were really interesting. The most interesting thing though was how committed the youth were to being involved in the community and being the change that is needed. It was a pretty inspiring period of time.
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