African Expedition Departs!

We are pleased to announce that a group of Explorations Academy students and teachers has embarked upon our school’s twelfth annual international service and learning expedition!  This adventure promises to offer a broad array of powerful experiences, some of which can barely be imagined by those of us who have never been to Africa.

Departing from Sea-Tac!

In fact,  the world’s second-largest continent is such a vast and amazing place that our stereotypes can’t begin to encompass it.  The Explorations group will be visiting parts of Kenya and Tanzania, so they will get but a taste of the diverse cultures and ecosystems of Africa.  We don’t want our students to be like a European who goes to South Dakota and then claims she understands the United States!

Yet just as South Dakota has its wonders, there is no shortage of colorful, varied landscapes or complex and beautiful cultures in Eastern Africa.

Assembling kits at Days for Girls

Our group is made up of ten students ranging in age from 13 to 18, along with three faculty members who are all seasoned international travelers.  They will be doing service projects at the Clay International School in Ngomano in east-central Kenya and at the Ogulului Ranch in Namanga in southern Kenya.  Trips to an elephant reserve, a Masai village, and the Tanzanian island of  Zanzibar will keep the kids busy.  And surrounding these service experiences, students will be studying a full range of academic subjects that focus on East Africa.

Sealing up individual kits

One of our service endeavors was working with an NGO called Days for Girls, which aims to provide feminine hygiene materials to girls across Africa that do not otherwise have access to them.  Last Tuesday, Explorations students spent several hours helping to assemble several hundred kits that they then packed up to bring to Kenya.  Those kits, along with boxes of art supplies, will be presented as gifts to the students at the Clay International School.

We look forward to hearing stories and seeing pictures as they become available, and will do our best to post them regularly in this space.  Thanks for following our group’s adventures!

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