Elephant Bedroom in Samburu National Reserve... a wonderful get-away

For the long weekend in November (22-24), Brian and I went up to Samburu National Reserve with our good friends Devin and Sue. This was our first trip to Samburu and we were absolutely blown away by the beauty of the landscape and the amenities at Elephant Bedroom camp. Indeed, the elephants do wander right around the tents to feed; both nights we were woken up to find a large male elephant (named Samburu) standing right outside our tent. The first night, in fact, he stood looking across the mesh screen at us for about 10 minutes before moving on to eat some fruits from the duom palm tree. It was absolutely magical. Throw in 12 new birds, a leopard, a lioness, gerenuk (long-necked gazelles), Somali ostrich, and some oryx... the combination was unbeatable. What a fabulous weekend.

Biggest Freedom Through Learning delivery to date...

On Saturday, November 9th, Brian and I visited Thunguma, a small village near Nyeri (Mount Kenya region) with two of our ISK colleagues. One, Peter Mubia, grew up in Thunguma and took us there last year to see a brand new secondary school (the first one ever for this area!) that had just been opened. There were some basic facilities but no resources at all. In the biggest Freedom Through Learning delivery yet, this past Saturday we brought 622 books to the school, enough textbooks for the entire grade 9-12 curriculum! This was very exciting and we had a wonderful day. We were given gifts of loose tea (the most delicious black tea in the world comes from this region), eggs and tomatoes; we were so excited to partner with this school and we look forward to seeing what happens for students there.

Golden Hearts and service at ISK...

On Saturday, November 9th, Cora and I spent the day with 15 of the 17 local Kenyan students who came to the GISS conference on scholarship last year. What an amazing day! These students have launched incredible projects in their communities and, as a result of participating in GISS, have begun to reach out as leaders about HIV/AIDS awareness, poverty for street kids, micro-finance in their home communities and much more. It is a privilege to work with these amazing students and continue to facilitate their leadership training. Thanks to Tito Kuria and the Jump! Foundation for ongoing support for this program.

Spirit of Trent Award...

We are so excited that last Saturday (November 9th), Freedom Through Learning was honoured with an award at the Trent University Alumni Awards ceremony. Our organization has received the Spirit of Trent award (link below to article); this award recognizes an alumnus(i) who embody the spirit of Trent and make a different in the world. We couldn't get back to Peterborough to accept the award but were so happy to have my mom and dad, Rebecca, Hannah and Rebecca's boyfriend Jon attend the event. Our dear friend Melissa Fritz introduced the award and Hannah and mom accepted the award on our behalf. Hopefully this will raise more awareness about what we're up to here in Kenya!   :)

Trent University Article: