The Rongai boys with their Principal in Kisumu.
Imagine a high school field trip where you saw airplanes land and take off, up close, for the first time.
For WSI-sponsored students at Rongai Agricultural and Technical High School, that was one of the highlights of a field trip they took a few months ago. The students loaded onto a bus with their Principal and spent a few days in the city of Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, on the western border of Kenya.
They visited Kisumu International Airport, where a member of the airport staff walked them through what happens there while flights came and went behind him.
They also went out on the lake by boat, and spent time at the Kisumu Museum. It has mounted wildlife, a snake and reptile enclosure, an aquarium of fish pulled from Lake Victoria, and geology displays.
On the way home they stopped in Kericho County to learn about tea farming. Kenya is the world's largest exporter of black tea, and Kericho is the heart of it, with mile after mile of hedged green rows running to the horizon. The boys were back at school that evening.
WSI pays school fees so that boys and girls can attend high school, and sponsorship covers everything, even field trips. Some of what school gives a student happens outside the classroom: the friendships built during hours on the bus, the experience of being responsible for yourself on a trip away from home.
The students were excited to tell you, WSI's supporters, about the trip, and asked us to pass their love along to you and your families.
Please consider a donation today to keep these students in school — and on the bus.