Students and Friends

As I was preparing to travel to Kenya and teach, I was unsure of the relationship we would have with our students and how they would perceive us. Would they be receptive to what we were teaching, would they respect us, understand what we were teaching? However upon arriving in Nairobi and beginning the program, I realized my concerns were unnecessary.

On the first day of class, it was apparent that all our students were excited to be there and eager to learn from us. They were extremely respectful of us in the classroom and enthusiastically listened to our workshop lectures and participated in discussions. During the first week of classes, the students were hesitant to open up and share their ideas voluntarily, however as we got to know each other better, we found ourselves having to cut off the discussions to avoid running out of time!

The fact that we were foreigners did not create a barrier in developing friendships with the students, but in fact strengthened them. As we shared our different experiences and learned about one another’s cultures through small group discussions and hanging out after class, our friendships deepened. Although we had completely different life experiences we found that we had quite a bit in common.

One specific experience that meant a lot to me involved a particular student from our teaching site that a few of us became quite close to throughout the three weeks. She shared her story with us, and we were able to see where she lived and the building she was planning on starting her business in. This tangible evidence of her goals was inspiring, and as we watched her draw ever closer to them through the business planning processes during our program, we were able to help her expand her ideas as we had a real feel of her dream.

By the end of the three weeks of class, we had become close with almost every student, which made graduation an exciting but also very sad day. It was heartening to see our students be well on their way to starting their businesses. Their eagerness to apply the concepts and knowledge we had taught them and their confidence in their own success made us very thankful to have been a part of the process. It was the last time we would see many of them, so we were not only saying goodbye to our students, but also our friends.

--Sarah Gale