THIS PAST WINTER, BECAUSE OF A HANDFUL OF KEY COINCI- DENCES AND THE GIFT OF BEING ON A GAP YEAR, I was able to travel to Kenya with a former classmate of mine, Tule Horton. The trip came about because Tule and I both were itching to travel, and because an opportunity had been offered to us that was too enticing to turn down. Because of Tule’s neighbor’s affil- iation with St. Andrews Church, we were able to meet Evalyn Wakhusama, the founder of a K-8 school in rural Western Kenya, as she was fundraising across the United States. Evalyn told us that she loves having visitors at the Nambale Magnet School, and that with my music teaching experience and Tule’s skill in soccer, photography, and various other fields, we would have a lot to offer to the students at the school. Before we arrived at Nambale Magnet School, we were informed a bit about the realities of daily life and family strug- gles that exist in rural African communities. Western Kenya specifically had been intensely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and onward. Many of the children at the school were there on scholarship, because their families could not afford even a small school fee (about $400 per year), and many more were boarding from kindergarten until eighth grade because their parents either died or could no longer take care of them. Humbled by this understanding, I was looking forward to meeting kids who were growing up in a relatively un-globalized part of the world where that is the only reality they have ever known. Having been surrounded by privilege for my entire life, I wondered if I would be resented for having so much without having to work for it. This was also going to be my first time on the African continent, and I was going to be further from famil- iarity than ever before. Most of Tule’s and my apprehensions were put to rest within a few hours of arriving on the Nambale Magnet School campus. The students, fairly accustomed to having visitors, approached us right away, introducing themselves and barraging us with questions. Their curiosity and eagerness to share with and learn from us remained throughout our entire eight-week tenure. Before the end of the first night, we participated in tire-rolling races, soccer games, and a (painful) hair-braiding session. We could tell that the learners, as students are referred to at Nambale Magnet School, would be a joy to teach and to play with. Tule and I were allowed to design our own program schedule, and to teach whatever class we wanted to. This freedom was surprising, exciting, and daunting all in one. It was a relief knowing how much Evalyn trusted us, but we also wondered if we were qualified to teach any class we chose. The learners, who had so little free time during the day due to the rigor of the Kenyan curriculum, only had a slot from about 4 to 6 p.m. each day for extracurricular activities. So it was in that two-hour span each day that we held our lessons. We started with music,
Ukulele practice
which was my primary focus over the eight weeks. As we handed out our 21 ukuleles (many of which were donated by generous Cathedral School families), we saw the kids light up with excite- ment; many of the kids had probably never held a musical instrument before. Though ukulele was a fun staple class of the “Tule and Timmy After-School” curriculum, the most rewarding classes were the ones in which we introduced the learners to important skills that are not emphasized in their curriculum. The Kenyan curriculum has one objective, which is to prepare the students for the KCPE exam, which is essentially a seven-day SSAT test that is the sole metric by which students are admitted to high school. What this narrow curriculum leaves out are essential skills like public speaking, creative writing, designing, and even reading for pleasure. These are all skills and practices that we emphasized in our after-school classes because Tule and I, benefitting from progressive educations, realize how important these tools are in becoming successful adults. Seeing the shyest of kids projecting their voice for the first time, or the amazement on the students’ faces as we told them rudimentary facts about space were the most rewarding because we could tell that we were broadening kids’ perspectives and, hopefully, inspiring them to pursue other interests—academic and otherwise—at a time when internet access and general exposure is increasingly easy to come by. The amazing, well-rounded educations I received at Cathedral School for Boys and Marin Academy were sufficient preparation to take this trip and share valuable skills and ideas with less- fortunate kids. For anyone reading this who is thinking about taking a gap year in between high school and college, or anyone who has a child approaching that age, I highly recommend it. My time at Nambale Magnet School was one of the most thought- provoking and rewarding experiences of my life so far.
MY GAP YEAR: NAMBALE MAGNET SCHOOL BY TIMMY STABLER ’13
FALL 2018 • RED & GOLD | 47
46 | CATHEDRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
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