October-November 2023, Kenya

Four years after my first visit to Kenya, I returned for a trip that felt like the beginning of an important new chapter for Village Projects Foundation.

The purpose of the visit was Project Sayansi: the construction of a new science laboratory at Kaimbaga School. The word sayansi means “science” in Kiswahili, and the aim was to give students the opportunity to experience science practically rather than learning everything from a textbook or blackboard.

Although I had visited Kenya before, this was my first time travelling to Kaimbaga. Our connection to the area had begun in a completely different part of the country four years earlier.

During my first trip to Kenya in 2019, we visited Kangemi, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements. It was there that we met Nash, a local man who helped introduce us to a side of Kenya that very few visitors ever experience. We stayed in contact after the trip and, over the following years, Nash became the link between Village Projects Foundation and the Kaimbaga community.

Meeting Nash again after four years was a special moment. Our first meeting had been part of an unplanned visit during a travelling holiday, long before Village Projects Foundation became a registered charity. Now, we were meeting again because that chance encounter had led us to a school where we were preparing to build a science laboratory.

It was a brilliant example of how one conversation can eventually lead to something far greater than anybody could have predicted at the time.

Kaimbaga is a rural community surrounded by farmland and beautiful Kenyan countryside. Arriving there for the first time, I was unsure what sort of reception to expect. It soon became clear that I did not need to worry.

I was welcomed with an enormous amount of energy, curiosity and warmth. For many of the students, I was the first white person they had ever seen. This meant my arrival attracted a fair amount of attention around the school. Some of the children were confident enough to come over immediately, while others preferred to watch from a safer distance until they had decided what to make of me.

Before long, the initial curiosity disappeared and I began to feel genuinely part of the school community.

The teachers are amazing people. They are passionate about their students and determined to provide the best education possible, despite having limited facilities and resources. They immediately understood what the new laboratory could offer and were enthusiastic about making it an important part of everyday learning at the school.

One of the most energetic people I met was Peter Karanja. Peter is the local roads secretary and also serves on the board of Kaimbaga School. He is an incredibly charismatic figure who seems to know everybody and have an answer for almost every problem.

Peter brought an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm to the project. Whether we were discussing the school, meeting local people or trying to organise the next stage of the work, he approached everything with the same energy. Every community project needs people who can turn an idea into action, and Peter was certainly one of those people.

I was also very generously hosted by General Njoroge and Mama, who have since become my Kenyan family. From the moment I arrived, they treated me as one of their own and made sure I was fed, looked after and made to feel completely at home.

General and Mama are a huge source of energy behind Kaimbaga School. Their commitment to education and to the local community is clear in everything they do. Although Village Projects Foundation could help provide funding and support, it was people like them who gave the project its momentum and ensured it belonged to the community.

Spending time with General was also an experience in itself. He had commanded within the Kenyan military and later served as Kenya’s ambassador to Israel. He had an incredible collection of stories from his career, including his experiences during periods of violent unrest in Kenya.

He also spoke about his time in Israel. I happened to be visiting in October and November 2023, just as the conflict in Israel and Gaza had escalated dramatically. Hearing from somebody who had lived and worked in the region gave the events an especially interesting and personal perspective. General was able to talk about the country, its politics and its people through his own experiences rather than simply through what was appearing in the news.

There were also incredible stories from his time commanding the Kenyan Army during the Civil War in 2007. Al Shabab, the international terrorist organisation, and infiltrated the streets of Nairobi, and General was left with the task of coordinating the army against them.

Much of Nairobi was destroyed in the carnage of 2007. However, this was in fact how Kaimbaga was populated, General explained. After the destruction, the damage for many households was so great that the Kenyan government didnt have the funds to rebuild. Instead, Kenyans were given a parcel of land 5 hours from Nairobi in the scarcely populated and required to fend for themselves.

Some evenings with General felt like private history lessons. I could have listened to his stories for hours, although I suspect we occasionally tested Mama’s patience by continuing our conversations for slightly longer than intended.

Another person who made the trip particularly memorable was Mwangi, who quickly became a close friend in Kaimbaga. During my first visit, he took the time to show me how the local farming and agricultural industry worked, explaining the importance of the land and how many families in the community earned their living from it. Once the day’s work was complete, Mwangi, Ndegwa, a few other friends and I would gather in the evenings to play cards. The games were always competitive, involved plenty of laughter and became one of my favourite parts of the trip. Those evenings helped turn Kaimbaga from somewhere I had simply travelled to for a project into a community where I felt genuinely at home.

The main reason for the trip, however, was Project Sayansi.

Science is an important part of the school curriculum, but it is extremely difficult to teach subjects such as Biology, Chemistry and Physics properly without a suitable place to conduct experiments. Students could learn definitions and theories in the classroom, but they had very limited opportunities to observe reactions, use scientific equipment or test those theories for themselves.

Our aim was to help change that by constructing a dedicated science laboratory at Kaimbaga School.

The laboratory was designed to provide a safe and spacious environment in which students could carry out experiments and develop practical scientific skills. It would also be equipped with resources including microscopes, chemical reagents, laboratory tools and appropriate safety equipment.

As I had learnt during our previous projects, completing a building is only part of the challenge. A room does not become a useful science laboratory simply because it has benches and equipment. It needs teachers who are confident using it, students who are excited to learn and a school community committed to looking after it.

Fortunately, Kaimbaga had all three.

The teachers could immediately see how the laboratory would change their lessons. Scientific concepts that had previously existed only in textbooks could now be demonstrated in front of the students. The children would be able to observe, question, test and sometimes get things completely wrong—which is often one of the best ways to learn.

As the project progressed, I began to understand how much it meant to the wider school. This was not simply another classroom. It represented new opportunities for students who might want to continue into higher education or pursue careers in science, healthcare, engineering, technology and other related fields.

It also showed the children that their education was worth investing in.

The completion of Project Sayansi was an incredibly proud moment. For the first time, Kaimbaga School had a dedicated facility where students could participate properly in practical science lessons. The teachers had a new environment in which to develop more engaging ways of teaching, and the students had access to equipment that could bring their lessons to life.

No trip to Kenya would have been complete without visiting the Masai Mara. After spending time working at Kaimbaga, going on safari gave me the opportunity to experience another remarkable side of the country. Driving across the vast open plains and seeing elephants, giraffes, lions and other wildlife in their natural habitat was unforgettable. The scale of the landscape is difficult to appreciate until you are there, and there were moments when we could drive for miles without seeing another vehicle. It was a brilliant way to finish the trip.

Looking back, what stands out most from the trip is the people who made it possible. Nash created the original connection between us and Kaimbaga. Peter brought constant energy and local knowledge. The teachers welcomed the project and committed themselves to making it work. General and Mama opened their home to me and made me part of their family.

My first visit to Kaimbaga began with plenty of unfamiliar faces and a lot of curious students. By the time I left, it felt as though Village Projects Foundation had found another community with which we could build a lasting relationship.

Project Sayansi provided Kaimbaga School with a science laboratory, but the trip gave the charity something equally important: trusted friendships with people who are passionate about improving opportunities for their community.

In 2019, Nash was simply somebody we happened to meet during a visit to Kangemi. Four years later, I was standing with him at a rural Kenyan school, celebrating a project that would benefit generations of students.