Our School Visit

When we first met James up in the beautiful hills of Ngongongeli, he showed us his little roadside shop, his family home, his aunt's house, the adjoining village and primary school. This might sound like an excessive tour, but this is the kind of in-depth introduction that we understand forms the bonds of trust between people here. It allows us to go on to be good business partners. My team consists of two UK and one Kenyan volunteers. White people are rarely seen in these parts and so the presence of both UK volunteers therefore caused some excitement. In the school this excitement reached a crescendo as we reached a human roadblock of some 300 children all eager to greet us and jostling to shake our pasty hands. This isn't Britain, there is no queuing culture, just a great many exceptionally friendly school children crowding to touch us. I have never formally greeted so many people in such a short space of time, and I probably never will again. Suddenly the lively crowd quietened and melted away as fast as it had formed, respectfully signalling the approach of a teacher. He greeted us cordially (which I thought was generous considering the disruption we were causing in his playground) and took us to the deputy head teacher's office. I reflected that it had been a very long time since I'd sat waiting in such a room. It's nice not to be in trouble for once. When the deputy arrived I received yet another hand shake, we were all seated, and got down to business. "Now let's discuss what you can do for the school...we are very short of text books" I'm not sure what I expected, but this certainly wasn't it. I'd love to help the school, to teach, to entertain, or to fundraise, but I've already got my hands rather full with 5 equally deserving entrepreneurs and a very different cause. Incidentally, as a volunteer who let my job in the UK in order to be here I'm also broke. Luckily for the school, my companions weren't equally daunted. We discussed the possibilities and committed ourselves to tree planting and classroom visit from all the Balloon volunteers based in Njoro. This was the kind of arrangement that suited everyone (none more so than the local sapling seller), so the following week we bought 60 young trees and trouped back to the school with the rest of the Balloon team. We didn't get quite the same reception as the previous week (which is probably just as well) but on seeing us arrive the older children keenly dug holes in which to plant the seedlings. It was at precisely this point I realised I didn't know much about tree planting and wasn't in a position to entertain an audience while doing so (I wonder if the Queen had this problem the first time she was required to initiate digging of foundations). Fortunately we discovered that we had some as yet under-utilised agricultural expertise on the Balloon team, and these volunteers were able to teach the rest of us by demonstrating with the first tree. Then children and volunteers scattered alike to plant the rest of the saplings. We lined the path to the school with the plants and hope that they'll have a driveway shaded by healthy boughs in the future. As I write this story I'm currently sat on a stool in James' tiny wooden shop sheltering from the rain. If nothing else I'm glad the seedlings are getting watered. Next was a classroom visit. We went in mixed groups so that the children all got to meet a range of volunteers: males and females from both the UK and around Kenya. To my immense relief they were well behaved and sat at their desks ready to listen to what we wanted to tell them. Precisely what we did tell them was mixed, depending on the interests of the volunteers in each classroom. Some encouraged them to work hard, some told them not to be distracted by relationships, but my class were told that they could be anything they wanted to be. They heard stories of the Balloon entrepreneurs and the ways in which these business people had overcome challenges to achieve the unexpected. Who knows, maybe we will have some entrepreneurs of the future here.