As I write this post from back home, I am reflecting on my incredible trip to Kenya from May 10th-30th. This trip was a special opportunity and was filled with countless learning opportunities and experiences for which I will be forever grateful. In my almost three weeks in Kenya, I learned a great deal about working with youth, sustainable agriculture, and life in general. It’s been a lot to process now that I am back in the USA, but starting my summer in Kenya was a true gift and it’s exciting to be able to share some of these thoughts.
I traveled to Kenya as part of the CED/AGECO 499 embedded course called “Agricultural, Community, and Economic Development in Kenya”. This year marked the 14th year of partnership between Penn State University and the Children and Youth Empowerment Centre (CYEC) in Nyeri, Kenya. The CYEC is a home for former street children and helps to provide students with housing, food, and other essential resources where they have have no other parents/guardians to care for them. I traveled with a team of six students and two professors to spend time with the youth and work on a number of projects. My specific focus was on the conservation agriculture project, and our team helped to develop some demonstration plots to help model a healthy crop rotation and no-till farming practices.
During the time that we were at the CYEC, we spent a great deal of time interacting with the staff members and students at the Centre. Our group stayed in a few apartments that were in a separate area from the rest of the Centre, but we didn’t spend a ton of time there because almost all of our free time was spent with the youth whenever we had the chance. Some of my favorite activities with both the children and staff include talking and having conversations, playing football (soccer) and volleyball, drawing pictures, playing games, helping to prepare meals, and saying good night in the dorms at the end of each day.
Throughout the entire trip, we were welcomed with kindness and love, and our relationships with the children were one of the most meaningful aspects of the entire trip. We gradually got into a routine of waking up around 6:00am to help walk the children to their schools – they started very early in Kenya! My days ended with saying goodnight to the boys – we would gather together to say goodnight and pray in their dorm. These memories are my most special highlight of the trip.
Throughout the trip, our food was remarkable, in large part thanks to Chef David and his catering students who cooked for us throughout our stay. See below for some pictures of our delicious meals, made with fresh fruits/veggies and delicious ingredients. Some of my favorite foods were mandazis, chapatis, lentils, and the fresh fruits and vegetables (especially the pineapple and avocadoes).
Another exciting part of our days was working on the projects that we have spent the past semester preparing for. For the conservation agriculture project, I traveled to the Polytechnic School in the neighboring town of Rathithi, which is where many of our specific projects took place. We rode around in a matatu vehicle (similar to a 15-passenger van) back and forth, so enjoy the picture of all of us packed into the vehicles for our trips.
In the Conservation Agriculture project, I spent time working with Edwin Matuma (leader of agriculture at the Polytechnic) and the rest of our PSU Conservation Agriculture team to learn more about Kenyan agricultural practices and share more information about the benefits of implementing conservation agriculture.
Our primary goal for the demonstration plots was to highlight the three main pillars of conservation agriculture: soil cover (either through cover crops or mulching), crop rotation (not planting the same crop season after season in the same field), and minimal disturbance (no-tillage or minimal tillage practices).
Our first goal was to remove the existing weeds from the plots. Shortly after arriving we made a trip into Nyeri town to purchase a large black tarp and some tools to remove the weeds using a method called solarization. We covered the area for our plots with the black tarp, which blocked out the sunlight and caused the temperature to become extremely hot. After a period of time (roughly 2-3 weeks), the weeds will be killed off and the team at the Polytechnic will be able to prepare the last demonstration plot.
During our 2.5 weeks in Kenya, we managed to remove all of the weeds and built three of the four demonstration plots. We planted potatoes, cabbages, and maize (corn)/beans (these two were intercropped) in each of those three plots. After the Polytechnic staff remove the tarps from the solarization plot, they will be able to plant Macuna, which is a new cover crop we were able to secure for them. Cover crops are planted not for the value of their grain or fruit production, but because they provide soil cover which helps to prevent erosion and returns vital nutrients such as nitrogen to the soil. Our hope is that by providing the initial resources to create the demo plots, the Polytechnic will be able to educate local farmers and empower them to adopt sustainable and profitable practices to empower them to self-sustainability.
We ended each day as a group sharing our Rose-Thorn-Bud (best part of day, worst part of day, what we look forward to), and this is a practice I found to be very impactful and one I hope to continue doing moving forward. Overall, I learned so much on this trip. When people ask me if I had a good trip, I answer with an enthusiastic yes, but also feel the need to explain that life is truly and deeply challenging for so many of the people we worked with. Many people outside of the CYEC in the area that we were staying would only be able to afford one meal a day, and our team saw first-hand the mental health struggles and relational impacts that the youth deal with stemming from their time on the street. It’s a humbling thing to see these struggles up close; it has given me a new and more nuanced perspective as I look ahead to my own future in education.
Sitting here almost a week out from the trip, t’s hard to put an experience like this into words. Sometimes I think that the more you see the less you know, but what I do know is that it was a privilege to be a part of a thoughtful and intentional study abroad that was good even when it was challenging. It’s a humbling thing to learn from people with hard parts to their stories who continually step out in faith to do the next right thing, even when the path forward might not be fully clear. Most of all, I met people – staff and children alike who are now dear friends in only 2.5 weeks time – who will continue the good work being done and lead change where it’s needed too. Asante Sana (thank you in Kiswahili) CYEC/Kenya- I’m better because of you.
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