Joining CorpsAfrica as a Volunteer has to be the hardest decision I ever made. Having to leave a job that I had just started, to a volunteer role seemed absurd to not only my closest people but also to myself. After getting to Tumaini Conference Center, I felt like I had just lost my way and there was no way out, or turning back. The first two weeks of PST were so difficult for me, as I tried to console and convince myself that it was all God’s plan. However, my days were made better by the sessions that we used to have, in that, I would find myself learning a bunch of new things in a day. It was astonishing but incredible at the same time, having to learn almost everything that I did in a day. This literally built up my interest since it felt like starting life all over again.
Learning CLD, ABCD and HCD has completely changed my views and perspectives about community development and life at large. I have come to realize that if only we gave our communities a chance or a platform to express their needs, to speak about development in their villages, to point out areas of great concern, to come up with solutions for their problems and be leaders of projects implementation in their villages, they wouldn’t be villages anymore. They wouldn’t be referred to as ‘’under-resourced’’ areas. We would be having a better Africa in terms of development.
Learning the Kalenjin language was the greatest challenge I encountered during CBT. However, I learnt a few words and that made me feel like I could hold a community meeting and speak to them in their language. I learnt that pushing yourself to learn a new language helps you to identify with the community and also plays a vital role in integration journey.
The whole PST experience has been very informative and enlightening. I have been equipped with vast skills and qualities, that will enable me to facilitate development in Meru, in my Country and also make my life better. This comes with an element of mindset change, which all of us need in order to make ourselves better. The practical aspect of ABCD was made better through a lot of hands-on skills that we were trained on, by our fellow volunteers. Personally, I had never thought I could make a scarf, a bracelet, or worse, swim. Now am half way to finishing a scarf, I have made several bracelets and now I can even dive into the deep end of a swimming pool. This got me asking myself, ’how have I been living without all these skills…what have I been doing all this time? ’I just discovered that there’s a whole life beyond being a vet and am loving it.
