Rebecca Wilson describes her experience volunteering at a children's home and school in rural Kenya. She taught English to 40 students with little resources and faced communication barriers. Through outdoor activities like exploring the local environment, the students began to appreciate the natural features around them for the first time. The experience strengthened Rebecca's teaching skills and made her appreciate geography's ability to integrate other subjects and create hands-on learning experiences. She plans to use what she learned in Kenya to enhance her own students' education.

1. Rebecca Wilson describes the impact of
a five-week voluntary work experience
in Kenya on herself as a person, her
understanding of the nature of
education and her practice as a teacher
of primary geography.
I travelled to Imani Agape Children’s Home,
situated four hours from Kisii town, an
extremely rural location in western Kenya.
The orphanage, founded by a Christian
leader in 2005, currently cares for 34 children
some of who are HIV/Aids positive. Imani
Agape, translated into English means ‘faith’
and ‘love’, the underpinning message behind
the work of Pastor Liston and his family.
St Craigs Orphanage School, set in the
most beautiful luscious green landscape,
was to be my new workplace for one
month. The mud-built school held daily
classes for the children of Imani Agape and
local children from the rural community.
My classroom consisted of only four mud
walls, two benches, a blackboard (yes, a
real blackboard!) and chalk.
After being briefly introduced to the
teachers, language already appearing to be
huge communication barrier, I met my class.
I was met with 40 Kenyan pupils standing to
greet me and with barely any understanding
of anything I was saying. Furthermore,
where was my interactive whiteboard I have
come to rely on so dearly, my colourful
resources and, most importantly, their
teacher, who had just walked out of the
classroom for a break?
Teaching English was no easy task,
as I quickly discovered. The only teaching
approach the pupils had ever experienced
was copying from the board, so whatever or
whenever I wrote on the blackboard the
pupils would instantly copy it into their
books. Furthermore we had no resources to
use except grammar textbooks, which were
a bit dismal. I truly was back to basics and
there was nothing to hide behind: it was
me and the pupils in a school in the middle
of rural Kenya with very little verbal
understanding between us.
Most of my teaching took place
outdoors, partially due to the large number
of pupils in such a small space but mainly
because of the incredibly beautiful
surroundings and weather. The pupils only
really interacted with their locality for
practical purposes; collecting water from
the river to drink, bathing and washing
their clothes and collecting food such as
sugar cane, peanuts and chilli.
One geographical activity I conducted
was a study of the pupils’ locality aimed at
expanding their appreciation and
awareness of what was evident around
them. We went on a number of walks
around the orphanage and school to look
at the natural and human features of the
environment as well as the vast numbers of
plants and trees growing there. At first the
pupils didn’t really want to explore or
rather had never explored their
environment for any other reason than to
collect food. However, with some
encouragement and by touching, feeling
and exploring interesting rocks, plants and
trees, within minutes the pupils were
grabbing my hand and dragging me to
things that they had discovered. It was so
rewarding and refreshing to see them
enthused by the locality that they had lived
in all their lives but were now looking at
differently for the first time. I have found
that this often occurs in our own localities.
My Kenyan
Experience
Rebecca Wilson
32 © Primary Geographer Summer 2007
Photos:RebeccaWilson.

2. How many times has someone pointed
something out to you that you pass every
day but have never noticed? I believe only
by taking the time to explore and
experience your locality can you identify
with and appreciate what is there.
We extended the work by using the
natural resources the pupils had collected
to create a collage of their locality and also
produce detailed drawings. These were
totally new experiences for the pupils and
they were able to learn in an integrated
way using geography as a context to
explore and collect resources to create
some artwork for the classroom.
My relationship with the pupils
developed rapidly. I was in awe of these
children who had suffered more in their
early childhood years than most people do
in their lifetime. To develop a relationship
with them using very little verbal
communication I was forced to use skills
such as listening, interpreting non-verbal
communication, modelling, gesturing,
singing, dancing and drama.
I truly believe that I have changed
because of my time in Kenya. I discovered
many skills that I didn’t realise I had. Being
stripped of the things I felt I needed to
teach successfully allowed me to discover
the type of person I am and how that
contributes to the type of teacher I am
developing into. Not only has my general
self-confidence in teaching increased but
my understanding of the value of using a
geographical approach to teaching has
developed enormously. Being in such a
contrasting locality and developing an
awareness of it personally allowed me to
recognise what an enriching and
broadening experience this can be.
I am now able to use my newly
developed knowledge and my collection
of resources from Kenya to enhance the
learning experience of my own pupils. I can
now help them to learn about a contrasting
locality in the world alongside developing
an awareness and appreciation of their own
locality. One regret I have is not having
taken photographs of and information
about my own locality with me to Kenya.
My experience in Kenya has changed
my opinion of geography. In all honesty, it
was never a subject I was particularly
interested in at school. However, by
actually experiencing the scope geography
has in accessing different subjects in the
curriculum as well as the fascinating, multi-
sensory experiences created within
geography, I have developed an incredible
interest in and enthusiasm for the subject.
I have also recognised the impact
geography can have on pupils with English
as an additional language because of the
active and exploratory nature of the subject.
Since visiting Kenya my initial reasons
for wanting to enter this profession have
been re-discovered, which I think I had lost
in the midst of assignments, placements
and government publications! This was
the most rewarding and challenging
experience of my life and I can’t wait
to go back.
Rebecca Wilson is a final year student at
University of Northumbria (e-mail:
rebecca.wilson@unn.ac.uk)
33© Primary Geographer Summer 2007