We had the opportunity to do a 5-day life skills training with a new school last week!  MWEDO (Maasai Women’s Development Organization) Girls Secondary School was the location of our most recent workshop.  Because my housemate teaches at the school I had heard a lot about it, but this was my first time actually visiting the school.  It is a beautiful and happy place with canary yellow buildings and a whole bunch of smiling young women!  Knowing that most of these girls are from rural areas and are fairly young, I told Uswege that we may have trouble with participation during the workshop.

I was right.  We did have trouble with participation.  We had so much trouble with participation that we had to be told 3 times to keep quiet on just the first day.  The girls were some of the most empowered students I have seen.  They were more than eager to learn, participate, answer questions, and help Uswege and I in any way that they could.  We covered topics from gender to communication to leadership to decision making to goal setting.  Each new topic we started in on, they enjoyed, participated, and swore to share the information with their fellow students.

These girls at MWEDO Secondary School are going to be leaders.  No, actually they already are!  Some of these students come from incredibly difficult circumstances and make daily decisions to motivate themselves and strive towards the life that they would like to lead.  It was truly a pleasure and an honor to work with these students.  Each day Uswege and I had HUGE smiles on our faces as we left the school.  Below are some of the remarks that the students made about the knowledge they gained!