Conestoga student gets real-life experience in Africa

By Blair Eberhardt-Ladd

While trying to decide how to spend the last month of her high-school career, Christina Gladney, a senior at Conestoga High School, went back and forth between ideas. Seniors at Conestoga spend the month before graduation outside of the classroom as part of their senior internship program. They are instructed to spend their time doing something they are interested in to possibly help when choosing which path to follow after high school. For Christina, a volunteer firefighter at the Berwyn Fire Company, who enjoys taking risks with new experiences, her original plan was to intern at the Tredyffrin Township Police Station. Then one day the idea of completing a mission trip came in to the mix. After much decision-making and planning Christina decided to skip the police station and skip town altogether, and head to Kenya, Africa. As part of Village Care International, Christina spent two weeks in Africa volunteering her time and experiencing life in another country. And while she plans to study criminology and business at Ohio State University, her experience in Africa was to be the first of many, according to Christina.

What made you decide to spend your senior internship in Africa?

I was originally planning to intern at the Tredyffrin Township Police Station, but changed my mind in late February. Completely out of the blue, I started checking out different kinds of mission trips on the Internet, and eventually narrowed a few choices down. The main things I was looking for was going with a professional group and working with children. I preferred going to Africa but didn’t necessarily have a preference as to which country.

What sort of preparations did you have to make before going?

I was able to fund-raise all of the money for the trip. Through selling Wolfgang candy, I made approximately $250. The rest of my money was received from family, friends, neighbors and teachers. I was so grateful and overwhelmed with all of the support my community gave me. Also, before going I received five immunizations, and I had a consultation with a travel doctor to get prescribed doxycycline, which is an anti-malarial medicine. I had to take it a day before arriving in Kenya, every day I was there, and I have to continue taking it for 28 days after my trip. Other preparations involved packing. I was only taking a backpack and a carry-on suitcase. I packed very carefully so that I could leave all of my clothes there. I brought two pairs of sneakers and left one pair there also. The hardest thing for me was fitting 3 fl.-oz. liquids into a one-quart bag for a two-week trip. I thought it was going to be really hard for me not to have my makeup, hair products, hair-straightener, and curling iron, but it was no problem at all. It was really nice to just be in a completely different environment and welcomed with open arms.

What were you doing while there?

Every day was a new experience. When we were at orphanages, we were introduced to the staff (usually volunteers), toured the facilities, played with the children and supplied them with rice and beans. Village Care International is not about giving money but more about teaching them how to improve with what they have. We taught about common diseases, sanitation and nutrition. Some examples of ideas we suggested were making hand-washing stations, starting IGA (income-generating activity) such as bead- or soap-making, and making a rainbow of colors on their plates to suggest more nutritional value in their meals. We had a day and a half on a safari where we explored the animals, learned about them and took many pictures.

How long were you there?

I left on May 15 from the Philadelphia airport, and I arrived in Nairobi at night on May 16 (Kenya time). There is a 7-hour time difference and it was very hard to adjust. I left to come home at night on the 29th, and I arrived in Philadelphia in the evening on the 30th. The travel time took about 18 hours altogether each way.

Where did you stay?

The first four nights in Nairobi, we stayed at the Gracia House Resort. We had flushing toilets, hot showers and electricity. We then spent one night in the village of Ol’Kalou (ole-kuh-lao). We were invited into a home where we slept in a room made of mud and sticks. The bathroom was called a choo and was similar to an outhouse. The next four nights were spent at the “Excellent Magere Guest House” in Kisumu. Then we headed west for three nights and stayed at “Mara West” near the border of Tanzania. That was our location to teach the Maasai and go on a safari. The community within the Maasai was called Olorien. For our last night we went back to the Grace House Resort in Nairobi.

What did you get out of your experience?

I learned so much about how people live in a Third World country. This experience has humbled me and helped me realize how lucky I am to have a family, a house, an education and everything else. I will never take anything for granted again because the amazing people I met had nothing and yet were so hopeful and thankful. The most unforgettable memory was the love, hope and joy in the children’s eyes. They were so unbelievable and all they wanted was to be loved, even by unfamiliar American visitors. I learned so much from the kids that I can barely put into words. Their love for life and strength to succeed was unlike anything I have ever seen.

How do you see this trip impacting your career choices at college?

This experience may affect my career depending on how my first year of college goes, but I know that this trip has impacted my future. I plan on taking frequent trips to Africa, especially when I am older and have more time to travel. I would love to go back to Kenya but also want to explore some other countries in Africa. Many of the orphanages we visited had guest houses for visitors or volunteers. I would absolutely love to volunteer at an orphanage for a few weeks. It really makes me excited because I would get to know the children really well and feel like I could accomplish a lot.

Best/worst part of the trip?

The best part of the trip was playing with the children at all of the orphanages. It was so fun to teach games and songs, and to learn theirs. The children touched my heart and I will never forget them. Every day I was looking forward to my time with the kids. I honestly cannot think of a negative part to the trip. Every moment was rewarding to me and I will cherish every experience I had. Sometimes I became impatient with the long hours of teaching and driving/traveling, but it was worth it in the long run. The roads there are extremely bumpy. I thought the potholes here (in PA) were bad, but they are nothing compared to Kenya.

For more information on Village Care International visit www.villagecare.com, and for a look at Christina’s experience click here.

Team member Amy Kay in Kenya with the Masai People, May 2009

I sat on the green grass with my legs covered by my long, purple skirt; my eyes were forced to squint in the African sun. Around me sat 35 Masai women. They varied in age from adolescence to over 100 years old. These beautiful women were covered in layers of beads--around their necks, wrists and ankles, and hanging from their long earlobes. Cows chewed away right behind my back. The women were excited.

How did I find myself here? It was all so surreal. Here I was, a professional woman with a myriad of degrees and credentials, with financial security and success these women couldn’t possibly comprehend. I was a woman from a different world surrounded by women with no social power, no education, some didn’t even have names, and I had never felt so connected in my life. I was absolutely in love.

I watched the buzz and the excitement ripple through the group as I talked about how babies were made. Old misunderstandings, misconceptions, and shame fell away and were replaced with knowledge and understanding. The questions were asked more rapidly as they became comfortable and more confident. And quickly, a group of women from different worlds became sisters in a community of loving that went deeper than a basic health education class.

At the end of class, a woman covered me in beads, placed her hand on my chest, and with tears in her eyes said, “You, Masai”. She embraced me… “Yes, Masai”.

This program comes out of my inspirational experience with a group of Masai women I recently had the honor of working with on a Village Care International trip to Kenya. They were a group of uneducated, impoverished, powerless, yet beautiful, inquisitive, hardworking, bright, divine souls. They live their lives in a social structure that puts them beneath men and cattle. They work hard to milk the cows, raise the children, feed the family, care for the home, tend to the needs of their husbands, make and sell beaded jewelry, and find water. A nomadic people, they live a life in constant awareness of the lions that may attack or the elephants that may trample. And they do all of this in many ways never being seen or heard for more than the function they serve.

When we first met, they were guarded and shy. The only assertiveness came in regards to questions about what we would do for them. There were expectations of handouts- food, water, money. This was a clear conditioned response to the white man’s actions- leave money and things as an act of salvation and when the money runs out, leave more problems and no solutions. We explained this cycle and they knew its narrative. We explained that Village Care International is about giving education and support for “Africans solving African problems”. We would give basic health and nutrition education this trip and guide discussion related to community-based efforts at income generating activities. We would not be solving problems, we would be supporting them in solving their own problems because we knew they could.

We did not know if they would even show for day two of the program. We were relieved to see them slowly trickle in that morning. We had no idea that the energy would shift and a deep bond would be created. And what was the catalyst? Was it the education? The material? I don’t think it was. As I sat and held a loving space for these women, I was deeply aware that what was happening was an awakening in many of them as we spoke. I was deeply aware that these women were being seen, heard, and loved in a way that they had never been before in their lives. And there was the magic. Because if a Masai woman could be seen, could be heard, could be loved by her community of women and most importantly, by herself, then the social structure, the poverty, the limitations all seemed to fade into the background.