Archive for the ‘Students’ Category
Good advice from our students
The selection of 26 new Daraja girls is done! The new students will arrive on campus on February 26th. We are all extremely excited about this new step and we have asked the current students to give a piece of advice for their future classmates. Here are three letters that could be useful for you too, in case you pay us a visit soon!
“Once at Daraja, you will like the encouraging weather due to the trees. You can walk around the campus but be aware of the snakes in the bushes. If you don’t bother them, I assure you that they won’t bother you. You will feel cool walking under the green shady trees.
You should work hard in order to achieve your goals and prosper in future keeping in mind that educating a woman is educating a nation. Help those who need help and cooperate with everyone to promote unity. Observe all the pillars of Daraja and do your best not to abuse them or neglect them. Finally, I want to tell you that you should be a role model to your colleagues, do as instructed and respect everyone. Remember: Daraja means bridge and we are Daraja.”
“When you come to Daraja, you will meet beautiful, hardworking and very respectful ladies and brothers. Join them cheerfully and take them as your older sisters. Love them, respect them, and follow any instructions or requests from them.
At time, we choose prefects in several parts they act on. One is for games and sport, another is for dorms while another is for dinning hall. Finally, the head girl is in charge of all prefects, making sure that they act as expected by the authority. So you should appreciate their work and follow what they say. Never be found at wrong place at wrong time doing wrong thing.
On campus are the MS buildings where you should not be found during the day or night unless it is organised for workshops or socialization. Also, respect and take responsibility of the MS volunteers, as they will do to you. Last but not least, you should always remember to follow the Daraja pillars, which will help you in everything you do. Work extra hard for your studies, believing that you will achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams in life. Thank you.”
“When you come to Daraja, you will meet wonderful, loving parents, caring sisters and brothers. You should follow teachers’ instruction. As you obey them, all things that you do will go positively. If you don’t follow what a teacher says, you will notice that not everything will run smoothly. Last but not least, you should be punctual in whatever you do. If you are, you will be a wonderful girl and everything will run smoothly.”
The Daraja pillars that the girls refer to in their letters are taught during WISH class. WISH stands for Women of integrity, strength and hope. The pillars are considered the foundation to success at Daraja:
The Four Pillars: - Be accountable for the role you play at Daraja, neither neglecting it, nor abusing it. - Maintain open communication, speak honestly and listen respectfully. - Embrace differences and treat all with dignity and respect. - Every day, leave it better than you found it.
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Feb 22nd, 2010
STORIES FROM THE STUDENTS ON HOLIDAY
The students being back on Campus, Teacher Catherine took the chance to do a composition exercice in her English class, asking the girls to write about the most memorable day of their time at home. Here are a few extracts that they agreed to share with us!
“(…)On our way, we found a group of boys. We greated them and continued, but they told us to wait for them. We were 4 girls and they were 10 boys. We knew 2 of them. They joined us and we went to church, we sang, and at 1am they told us to come to their houses. We refused to go with them.(…) Another boy came and took us to our home. The next day we heard that 10 boys raped 5 girsl and got caught. We did not tell anybody about our story. I will never forget it until the Indian Ocean comes dry.”
“It was on a vacation in the year 2009. My mum had promised me that we would visit my cousin in Nairobi. I couldn’t wait to see her. Days past and they turned into weeks. The day came and I was so excited because I knew I would have so much fun. We started our journey from Nanyuki town. We got into a bus going express to Nairobi. On the way, I saw many features that we had learnt in Geography like the valleys, mountains, hills and major rivers. It took two hours for us to arrive. We met my cousin, anxiously waiting for us at the bus station. I was so excited to see her that tears of joy fell down my visage. We had a good time and celebrated together…”
“(…)There were loud screams from the people living in the center. My uncle left me there and ran very fast towards the center without minding of what could happen to him. As he was running, there were other energetic young boys following him, also going to see what was happening.(…) I was worried of what could happen and ran helter skelter towards the center, because I knew that without my uncle, there would not be life again.(…) I could not believe what I saw, my mouth was wide open like a gap and my feeble legs shook when I discovered my uncle lying down while bleeding severely. I quickly called men passing by to help me to take my uncle to a nearby dispensary. Fortunately, he was helped by kind-hearted doctors and recovered after a week. Surely, this is a day that I will remember in my life…”
“The day turned out very well. It was the year 2009’s Christmas, which is a very important day to christians, especially me. I gave my blankets two kicks that left them sprawling on the ground. (…) My Aunt had sent me a Christmas dress which I longed to wear. (…) When I went outside everybody was staring at me as if I had a plastic nose. My mother showered me with praises saying that I looked like an angel. My mother had called a photographer and it was a surprise for me. When I started to smile, I was suprised to see flashes from different points. This made me as happy as a barren woman who recently gave birth to a bouncy baby girl with a golden spoon in the mouth.”
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Jan 27th, 2010
Daraja Ni Tuzo Twajivunia
Music class is an important part of daily life at Daraja Academy. In the video below, taken from early on the in the school year, the students sing a beautiful version of “Life Is But A Dream” in the round, led by their music teacher Miss Catherine.
Music lessons have advanced to the point where the students now have, with tremendous pride, written the Daraja Academy school song. While a video of the girls singing the song is not yet available, the lyrics are reproduced below. The poetic beauty of the lyrics needs no introduction. We look forward to sharing a performance of the song on this blog soon!
Daraja Ni Tuzo Twajivunia
(Daraja Is A Gift Worth Living For)
Daraja is a precious gift,
It’s been a long term dream for us
Happiness, peace and love we’ve got
Daraja…Daraja…
Daraja is a gift worth working for.
Daraja, a true bridge for us,
It’s been a crossing line for us
Goals, dreams, and futures within reach
Daraja…Daraja…
Daraja is a gift worth fighting for.
Daraja, our pride will always shine,
It’s been a mirror for us all
Hard work and discipline is our drive
Daraja…Daraja…
Daraja a gift worth living for
Tags: daraja, daraja academy, daraja is a gift worth living for, music, school song
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Nov 23rd, 2009
Daraja’s own global summit
Tuesday evenings, after the dining hall empties, is a wonderful time on Daraja’s campus. The sun drops below the gently rolling hills just west of school and the air actually glows a warm amber. Baboons can be heard in the dense trees by the river settling into their roosts for the night while neighboring Maasai children fan out across the rolling grassland surrounding their boma to collect the last straggling goats and sheep.
It is during this Tuesday twilight hour that the volunteers from Denmark visiting Daraja tutor the Kenyan students. I personally cannot say enough good things about this group of Scandinavian twenty-something’s. They are passionate, intelligent and very eager to make a difference in the world. They are very bright and simply put, our students love the tutoring sessions.
The Daraja students get to choose the class they feel they need the most help in while the Danish volunteers decide the subject they will tutor based on their academic strengths. Interestingly, the sessions balance out very well. A group of five Daraja students and two Danes are working on biology in the science lab, while seven girls and three Danish volunteers are breaking down the structure of a “3 paragraph essay” in the library.
Before I sat down to type this, I walked outside the classroom block watching unseen from the dark into the light classrooms as something perfect happened. It is true, Daraja Academy has only been running for three weeks, but what is happening is truly spectacular. Young people from all over Kenya are sitting, reading, talking and laughing with young people from Europe. They are together, they are sharing, and all of them, in one way or another – are learning.
Perhaps, in a little less than a month, when the Danish volunteers move on to their sites in South Africa and Uganda, contact between these two groups of young people will be lost, but my guess is the memories they have created will not be.
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