Home from Home

And so, I have arrived in my final week in Mombasa (sob sob), as part of the volunteer teaching team at Precious Vision School.

This is an emotional week, as it has been the most rewarding and fulfilling experience of my life. An experience I will never forget, and a break from the norm and the trivial moans and groans of 9 to 5 UK life.

So, the project. Precious is a small school located in the slum area nearby to where we are staying. 

Precious Vision Children at the entrance to the school

Many of the children live in the slum area, and some of them only get one meal a day  - the lunch at school. (Typically, maize, beans or rice, pretty much every day). This is just one reason why the work GVI is doing here is so important.

The role the volunteers take is literally teaching the children – it is not as difficult as it may sound, as the children are more intelligent than people may realise, and they have a hunger and drive to learn and do well that I do not personally believe is matched by UK schoolchildren.

Standard 5 children concentrating hard on their lesson

One of the children in Standard 5 happy that he finally understood the lesson

You don’t have to be a trained teacher. You just have to plan your lessons and look at the material, and you can teach. And, just maybe, you can teach these amazing kids something that will help them develop their future and escape from poverty and a difficult life ( a life, by the way, that they do not see as difficult).

GVI volunteer Joe working with one of the children in his class

It is not all work, you meet some amazing friends and get to partake in the Mombasa nightlife, a safari , whatever floats your boat.

This place ends up being a home from home.

Joe laughing with Standard 5

I will never forget it, and I will be back.

Joe, July 2010

Home from Home