Together for a world in peace
From 1.3.24 to 18.5.24 Esther and Joy from Kenya will be volunteering with us via kulturweit incoming. We are very much looking forward to working with them. Among other things, they will represent PüG at the international conference Level UP 2 of the LidiceHaus and work at the World Heritage Conference of the UNESCO ASPnet in Bremen. Most of the time, however, they will be observing at the GSM. Esther and Joy are German teachers in Kenya.
It has been 1 and a half weeks since the Germans arrived in Kenya. The flight was very long and exhausting, but when they arrived, everything felt better.
The Germans were picked up by the Kenyans from the airport. Right after, they had lunch in Mombasa and it was very fun.
The students got to briefly introduce themselves to each other. Upon arrival at Lulu High School, room allocations were done, and since everyone was tired, they all slept immediately.
On the next day, the students got to know each other well enough and team-building tasks were done.
On day 2, the German students were able to visit the classes of the Lulu High School students. The students also visited the market in Ukunda where they bought fruits and they ate them that same evening. They were so delicious.
On the third day, the students all began working on the topic. They started with a big word web and ended with finding ideas on how to present. Since the group members are so close to each other, they decided to work together on one big musical.
The adults were at first skeptical about managing a big group project, but the students were well-prepared and proved them wrong; they divided different roles amongst themselves and started right away. The first song was written and recorded the next day. It was very exhausting but the students learned that when they worked together, they could achieve anything.
On Saturday, things did not go as planned, and a lot of time was wasted when crossing the ferry. We didn’t get to do everything that we planned for that day, but we were able to go to Fort Jesus. And the students were very productive in shooting their musical.
At the end of the day, the students were able to shop for Kenyan candy and snacks at the mall. This made them very happy. When teamer Chilloh arrived later that evening, they were even happier. The bus arrived when it was already late and dark, but this did not stop the students from having a bus party. Lots of music and laughter were present. We ended the day eating chapati.
The next day, the Germans were able to visit the service in the church, there was so much singing and dancing, and they had a chance to introduce themselves. In the afternoon, the students from the virtual exchange visited the group and watched the 360 movies that they made, together.
On 07.11., we arrived at the camp on the beach. After pitching tents, the whole group had fun in the warm ocean water.
After some really hard teamwork tasks from the teamers, we had an amazing bonfire, while listening to music, catching crabs at the beach, while slowly getting tired. The bonfire lasted until 10 pm.
On 08.11., midtime evaluation took place, the students were able to express their thoughts and feelings in their log books and shared them with the rest of the group.
After some fun time in the water, they had to solve some more tasks in order to grow even more together.
We have daily evening meetings, that pair the genders or the nations. Sometimes, we also meet as a whole group. The students are able to talk about their feelings in a safe space and evaluate their days.
We are looking forward to the next 1 and half weeks. Some students are already sad that the program is halfway through:D
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From April 8th-18th, 2022, the first round of the exchange of skilled workers 2022 took place between MYFF and PüG in cooperation with the LidiceHaus in Kenya. Up to 8 professionals from both organizations could participate. The return visit is planned for August 9th to 19th, 2022 in Germany.
The exchange started with the participants talking about there goals in the encounter followed by a session about the North and South context was introduced to the participants by Samuel and Babu, this made the leaders understand that there is always a perspective to what is and it all depends on where you are standing and looking at it. This session was later followed by an intense discussion on the topic of racism, the participants got to learn of its origin and the effects it has on people without even them realising, this made the participants to understand that for everything to change its has to come from within.
The group was then introduced to Mr. Salim Mohamed who was going to be the moderator of the exchange. He briefly introduced himself and took us through organising of our goals and gave the group a challenge of MYFF making brief history about PÜG and PÜG does the same about MYFF as shown below.
This was followed by the group have a discussion on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this is to make sure that all leaders have a clear understanding of the origin of the SDGs and there targets in regards to location and also the time frame of when they are expected to be accomplished. Afterwards the group ventured into an afternoon filled with team building activities that would bring bonding into the circle and make the going smoother.
Under the heading Passing on responsibility – Best Practice: NGO partnership “out of the box”, an article about the partnership between MYFF and PüG appeared in the handbook Shaping Global Education Partnerships and Projects for Change
At 4:30 a.m. the alarm clock rang again because the bus was picking us in half an hour to take us to the airport. The mood was scattered.
We sat exhausted in the bus and let the last moments together fade away.
Saying goodbye was very difficult for us and it wasn’t easy to break away from the hugs while time passed too quickly and forced us to pick up our suitcases to check in. But the prospect of seeing each other again next year gave us a ray of hope.
So we took off on the plane at 8.30am and left Nairobi – for now!
Mohamed Mwinyi Mwalamba, known as Chilloh, was actually supposed to start his federal voluntary service with us in August 2020. Now we are glad that he was able to come to Germany in mid-May ’21 despite Corona to work, laugh and celebrate with us.
Chilloh is an alumni of the first out of the box meeting round 2013/14 , took part in the summer encounter 2017/18 and supported the encounters in Easter 2017 and in Summer 2019 as a team leader.
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