I tell a lie, in fact the first time I heard of her was on the plane coming over to Kenya, sitting next to my fellow volunteer who mentioned that she had just read the biography of this amazing woman who began the Green-Belt movement in Kenya in the 70's.
It was quite bizarre then that in that first week of us being in Nairobi, during our 'in-country orientation' training, that the woman who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 (the first ever African woman to be) passed away, aged 71.
From the tributes I read in the newspapers and saw on tv, Professor Maathai had led an extraordinary life, faced incredible opposition and was greatly loved by the Kenyan people.
My first week of work in my new home town, the week following her death, I was to see for myself, the impact that this woman made on her fellow countrymen. One of the local schools decided that they would like to honor Professor Maathai with a tree planting day. The following Friday and some of my colleagues joined around 70 children from 3 different schools to plant 100 trees between the grounds of the schools and our main office.
I believe that I have mentioned the dustyness of my location in a previous update and this is to be reitterated along with the lack of foliage or any greenery really. The town is so close to the drought regions that are being shown on news reports across the world and food aid is often dispensed from town. But on the morning of tree planting day, as if we were receiving some sort of divine intervention, the first substantial and long-awaited rains of the season arrived!
This was of course wonderful for the tiny saplings and meant that we did not have to carry buckets of water to our freshly planted trees, but boy-oh-boy the mud made moving a busload of children to four different locations a real challenge! We got stuck several times in the thick unyielding mud and the rain barely paused for respite, but through it all the children, teachers and my colleagues laughed and joked and told each other what a blessing it was to receive such a downpour.
My role for the day was official photographer and I was glad that I had invested in some wellies/gumboots at the supermarket on my last visit. Trying to hold my umbrella under my chin to protect my camera whilst taking pictures I must have looked quite a sight and the children were amused and fascinated by my prescence, gradually geting braver as the day progressed until the afternoon when they were calling me over to take their photo.
I have to say it was a wonderful experience for my first week of work, a great day of fun and a chance to meet so many children, get to know staff and volunteers from my own organsiation as well as local teachers.
I learned so much about the Kenyan's great sense of humour and faith, was heartened to see how quickly the schools had mobilised to organise the event and impressed at how my new workplace contributed to the community.
And of course I got to learn about a new inspirational human being who proved once again that one person really CAN make a difference and I am proud to have been part of an event to carry on her legacy.
In a large group of schoolchildren it was definetely me who received the biggest education that day!
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