Stargazing and School Visits

I feel like my time here is going by so fast. 4 weeks is simply not enough time to get all the work done and do all the exploring/adventuring I need/want to do. Alas......I shall do what I can. So the girls and I have been working hard and playing hard. We took a short impromptu overnight trip to the Kakamega rainforest. Poor Jess had a delayed flight, so she arrived about 18 hours before the trip. Not much time for jetlag recovery, but she has proven to be a trooper :). Two of our coworkers and new friends, Ben and Sam, also joined us.

Somehow I talked them into waking up at 4:30 in the morning and I led them on a little sunrise hike to a lovely spot above the tree line where you can see the whole forest. This group was apparently in better shape than my previous groups, and we made it up to the top well before the sunrise, and got to watch the stars for a while. Thankfully we had ample snacks to hold us over :)

Waiting for the sunrise.......

A few days later I took them on another gorgeous and grueling hike to the top of the mountain behind my house, to Emmatsi Primary School. We gave an off-the-cuff address to the entire school of +400 kids, since they were all waiting for us, and our presumed words of wisdom :). After that we pulled all the class 7 and 8 girls out and taught them all about (giggle, giggle) pads, periods, and things of that nature. The female teachers were also there and also received pads. They will be available to the girls to answer questions and talk more if they have questions in the future. (Take a look at toolittlechildren.org to learn more about our cloth, reusable maxi-pad project).

The girls were particularly fond of the pads with the frog print backing-Nice work Rio Verde ladies!

We met with the male teachers before our talk with the girls, and we pleasantly surprised at their ability to talk about menstration and their desire to help their female students. What gems. I didn't know they also had a secondary school (high school), so I will be returning to the mountaintop on my next trip to distribute more ;)

My doctors thoroughly enjoyed the 45 min hike up winding, unmarked mountain paths between log cabin-sized boulders to get up to the school. For some reason, these narrow, unnamed trails are forever etched in my memory, while I often need google maps to get around Durham, despite the fact I've lived there over 6 years. Funny how the mind works sometimes......
Xoxo,
Jessie

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