The ultimate field trip
Renfrew students explore life on the plains of the Maasai Mara
Michael Wright stood for a moment and took in the sprawling vista of the Maasai Mara. “The plains went on for kilometres,” says Wright, a geography teacher who brought his grade 10-12 students from the Ottawa Valley to Kenya in March 2012. On the 11-day educational trip, they dug the foundation of a new school, made friends in the community and deepened their understanding of themselves and the world. In that moment he considered who else might benefit from the experience.
“If I had the opportunity, I’d take every student in my high school,” says Wright.
School trips such as these, organized by EF Educational Tours in partnership with Me to We, enable students to explore new ways of interacting with the world through voluntourism. For Wright’s students at Renfrew Collegiate Institute, disconnecting from technology was an opportunity to reconnect to their own experiences and discover broader horizons.
“They can’t go to social media and ask, ‘ What should I be experiencing?’” says Wright. “They actually have to find out for themselves.”
Their adventure included a two-kilometre walk to fetch water from the Mara River. The group had discussed the significance of the water walk with facilitators and understood the challenges of water access in the Mara, but it wasn’t until they began the trekking that the reality hit home. “The kids were shocked that these women did this five or six times a day,” says Wright.
Mama Leia, a local Maasai leader, led the walk and told them about life in rural Kenya. She later sat down to give the kids a lesson in traditional Maasai beading. Her pupils followed along, completely rapt. “They still talk about her,” says Wright.
Every day brought new discoveries, particularly when the group left the communities to explore the sweeping grasslands beyond. “On the way to a safari we saw our first zebra and made the driver stop so we could take pictures,” says Wright. “He was chuckling beyond belief. We didn’t know we’d see thousands more later.”
And the visitors themselves were the objects of curiosity at times. A Kenyan boy named Moses would peek his head out of his classroom to keep an eye on Wright’s students as they dug the foundation of a new school room. “Almost deep enough!” he would yell. The cheeky kindergartener made for a memorable foreman.
When the kids returned to Canada with stories of Moses and Mama Leia, they also brought back new perspectives and a greater sense of their purpose and potential.
“Three of the kids I took to Kenya are running for student council president,” says Wright. His students have also fundraised for three schools, two water projects and two alternative income projects.
“I think a lot of them found themselves in Kenya,” says Wright.