Posts Tagged ‘Andy’

A Volunteer’s Voice: Carr Cavender

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I’ve been out in the Bush of Daraja Campus for about a week and a half now and I couldn’t be happier! It took a few days to get used to the time change, and it could take a year to get used to the cultural differences, but I’m doing me best.

I feel so lucky to be here; Jenny did a great job of making me feel right at home, Andy and I have been laughing together everyday, the girls are warming up to me and I am doing my best to work on my relationships with them, and Kayla and Olivia are my fellow volunteers in action.

I am proud to say that Kayla and I have made good progress in cleaning out classroom two, it feels good to know that the books we are organizing into boxes will go to the local schools and that the classroom will be put to use in the coming term. I feel the best though, about the project that I brought to Daraja. I found out once I got here that Jenny and Olivia wanted to focus on Confidence as a theme for the month. Bringing theatre improv games and exercises, all I could think that I wanted to do was work on the girls confidence. So now my project has become applicable to the schedule going on here. It is truly as though the stars aligned for the whole.

Thank you Daraja for the experiences thus far! I want those who I am missing at home to know how much I love them and feel their support everyday.

Thanks guys,

Carr Cavender

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Filed under News : Comments (2) : Jul 10th, 2009

“… the power of “no”, the power of “yes”, and the power to speak up.” Daraja Through Olivia’s Eyes

I cannot say enough good things about the AMAZING young woman who wrote the following blog from the Daraja Academy campus. Her last blog was written as she evacuated her London School of Economics dorm-room en route to Kenya. She certainly is there now, and I wouldn’t even try to count the number of elated “info-blasts” my wife Jenni has sent me from Nanyuki describing her accomplishments and aptitude. Below, she shares one of the most insightful perspectives of the school and its students than I have yet to hear.  I sincerely know that Daraja Academy is a better school because Olivia Capra is there.                                 – Jason Doherty


Habari! These three weeks have flown by as I have tried desperately to savor each remarkable African sunrise and sunset; each day I find myself wishing my stay here would be six months instead of six weeks. I’ve also come to the consensus that Daraja Academy plagues you with a sort of “reverse writers block” where you have so many words and emotions swirling around in your head, so much you want to describe to those back home, that you don’t know where to start. Hence, my excuse for why I have waited three weeks to write my next blog. Pole sana, (very sorry)
My first day was everything I expected… for the first thirty minutes. Breakfast consisted of awkward glances at the new volunteer, and I stared into my porridge thinking “come on Olivia, when have you ever been shy, start talking!” As soon as Jenni introduced me to the girls, they all turned to acknowledge me, and then started cheering and clapping when she announced I would be here for six weeks. It was beyond the warmest welcome I could have envisioned, even though on the inside I was thinking “I hope they still feel this way in six weeks!”

Since that first day, it has been nothing but warm welcomes. Whether in Daraja or downtown Nanyuki, there is this aura of openness and invitation to any visitors and anyone will smile and wave, even the Masaii herding cattle on the side of the road. Where else can you see an interaction between extreme cultures without any remnant of hostility or ulterior motives? There has also been some funny interactions, like when Jenni, Kayla, and I were driving through Nairobi, and managed to bribe our way out of the routine police check points with a bag of candy we had just purchased. Or yesterday I had to move Mad Cow, the female cow, out of the way so I could get into my house. I don’t do that everyday in London!

Mad Cow, being moved away from the DIning Hall


Each day I am with the girls when they are not in class, teaching women’s empowerment and meeting in small, intimate settings. I have begun to create a picture of what it is like growing up in East Africa as a fifteen/sixteen year old. I spent my time preparing for this trip this past year comparing the U.S. to Kenya, affluent to the destitute, and now I see you can not draw those stratified lines easily. Here the innate way the girls speak to each other is unique, they do not exclude or separate, they know their tribal differences and religious segregations but to them this is no reason to divide. In group they show an unconditional love for one another by laughing and talking with whoever is in the chair next to them, and as they roam about their duties on the weekends you never see the same two girls together for very long. Unification comes easy.

Sharing, however, does not. Friendship to us back home in the Bay Area means you share your heart, as a close friend you are expected to share your feelings, and I am sure it would take hours if one were to flip through the yellow pages under “Psychologist”. Here there is a silence, an underlying knowledge that to share too much is to be weak, to show emotion takes away the strength you exude. The battles they have fought in childhood are rare among even the old and wise in developed countries, and while it has molded them into driven, hopeful young women, it has also carved a harder shell in which I am finding it hard to break. Silence should not be the only option. It has become the reason women are “second class citizens” in Kenya, the reason inequality of opportunity and treatment is darkened and defined over and over. My hope is that these 26 women learn the power of “no”, the power of “yes”, and the power to speak up and find their voice.

Daraja is developing fast and finding a careful balance between teaching and preserving tradition and initiative. It is not a “U.S.” school located outside Nanyuki, it is a Kenyan school full of builders and teachers who have fought their battles as well and stayed in their homeland to invest in the youth of this generation. They are a perpetual encouragement for the girls to be prideful of their roots, and to dream big. My time with the teachers has been an extreme learning opportunity for me, as I look at Kenya as an infrastructure I am studying to develop, they help complete this vision by sharing the cultural challenges and responses.

As my days here continue the world from my eyes has ceased to be black and white. While the obvious states my life has been filled with perpetual opportunity, support, and resources, and theirs intertwined with battles and poverty, the right answer no longer lies within the “esteemed” red, white, and blue. For where I am weak, they are strong, where I find joy in certain things, they know it is a conscious choice to live their life in joy. Where I find faith in my country because it’s Obama standing at the podium, they raise their flag every Monday morning in song and prayer because they find faith in Kenya, the country. They are not oblivious to what it lacks, to how it has failed them or challenged them as girls trying to become women, they simply choose to spend their energy on cherishing the hope that exists. As we star gaze in our nighttime small groups, the girls often share with me their dreams of seeing the U.S., Great Britain, and many countries whose existence to them merely lies in their history textbooks. Contrary to what we might think as proud Americans, these girls yearn to travel but do not want to call these countries their home. To them, there is only one place that will be home, one place that will let them praise God loudly, sing and dance the traditions their tribe passed on to them, and give them the abundant opportunity to use their education and passions.

Next week, we are having a birthday party for all the girls whose birthdays have taken place in the term so far, complete with decorations, party hats, cake, and possibly a few games of “Honey I love you, will you please please smile?”- which they love! Hopefully Andy will grace us with his opera voice again, and the girls won’t go into a 5 minute giggling fit at the sight of my dance moves this time! We are also working on reforming study hall, WISH classes, and I am starting to understand the details behind the development side of Daraja, and how fundamental water sourcing is. It is an exciting place to be, Daraja Academy, I feel so fortunate to be here, and I will write again next week and let you know how everything is going!

Kwaheri!
Olivia

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Filed under News : Comments (4) : Jun 30th, 2009

Daraja through Andy’s Eyes

Building Bridges

Building Bridges

I have been volunteering at Daraja Academy for 8 months now (since October ‘08). I started out just cleaning and doing some simple renovations, but I’ve now moved onto teaching and doing anything else that is needed of me. I’m just as passionate about this school now as I was when I first arrived here, but I’m always amazed at the energy level of our short term volunteers. Not just the energy that they possess, but also the energy they create amongst our students and staff.

Every volunteer brings their own talents, experiences, and personality to Daraja to share with our girls and our girls love it. Whether it is a four-day soccer camp/painting water-color landscapes of the campus, playing improv games, or writing poetry. Our students give it their best effort and have a blast doing it! And our students share right back.

Our girls are able to open up to our volunteers and share their life stories—the funny, the sad, the everyday occurrences that make these girls special. It really touches the volunteers who have been here. They form close friendships so quickly; it truly is amazing. And it’s truly a heartbreaking sight watching two best friends say goodbye. They may have only known each other for a week or two, but it has felt like years to them. Though it is a sad moment, both are happy to have had the other in their life, knowing that they will never be the same afterwards. It is especially remarkable knowing that without Daraja Academy they would foreverl be distant strangers.

Yes, I have been at Daraja Academy for quite some time. Yes, I am very homesick. Yes, I miss my family, my girlfriend, my friends. But no, there is no place I’d rather be. This is a special place with wonderful people helping incredible girls achieve a brighter future. Daraja means bridge, and I am but one bridge. Will you be another?

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Jun 27th, 2009