After settling into my second year of university, I quickly realized that college life was just not doing it for me. I felt as though I was beginning another year of being trapped inside my “bubble”. I graduated from high school and had moved straight to university. I had made good friends, but none whom I felt were pushing me to step outside of my comfort zone. This is when I decided that I would finish out the semester and take the following semester off of school. I began researching potential gap year programs I could sign up for. I looked into a few of the popular ones, but I was most familiar with AV, as my brother had done their program a few years back and spoke very highly of it. I met with an AV representative via Zoom and asked them all of the questions I had. After debating it for about a month, I decided that I was going to take the leap and apply. AV was the only gap year program I had applied for- I was drawn to the cultural immersion aspect of the program. Many of the other programs had a very touristy feel to them, however I liked how the AV program kept us in one place for the full 12 weeks, finding a good balance between both independence and supervision. After completing my interview and being accepted to the Kenya program, I put my head down and finished out my semester with the best grades I could’ve gotten. I remember moving out of my dorm room in the middle of December, and just hoping that I was making the right decision. (Spoiler alert… I was!!)
The longest I had ever been away from home was 4 weeks, and the thought of being away for 3 months, and all the way across the world in an entirely different time zone nonetheless, made me extremely nervous. Come early January, AV emailed out the list of all of the volunteers who had signed up for the program. We were all put into a groupchat and began chatting. I quickly became distracted by how nervous I was with how exciting I realized the whole thing was going to be. On the date of departure we all met in Heathrow airport and had our briefing with Andrew. After arriving in Kenya, everyone in the group experienced the same adjustment period that we had been prepped for. The first 2 weeks were spent trying to adjust to the heat and the culture.
I had a rough start, after accidentally drinking the tap water and falling very ill, ultimately missing out on my first week of teaching. For me personally, I felt as though the first 2 weeks there were the hardest, as I missed the comforts of home and wondered if I was in fact cut out for another 10 weeks living in both the heat, and the basic accommodation that we were provided with. However, after that initial period of settling in passed, I quickly fell into a routine that I loved. Sure, it was very different from what I was used to, however that was also exactly what I loved about it! I would wake up, eat my breakfast and head off to school on the back of my boda boda. After a combination of teaching, playing sports or painting, and chatting with other teachers I had made friends with, I would return home anywhere between 1:00-4:00 pm. The other volunteers and I would either relax in the house, go to the beach and swim, or sometimes even go into Diani to get dinner. On the nights when we ate at home, we rotated who would cook and clean.
Although we were all very well prepared by the entire AV team regarding what to expect throughout the program, in many ways it felt as though my group and I were thrown into an entirely new life in Kenya, in the best way possible. After arriving, our local guides helped us transition to our new life there, and made it clear that they were there to support us with anything we needed, however we were also expected to do everything ourselves. Between grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and keeping track of our own schedules, we were all of sudden living very independently, and were forced to learn many new skills. In addition to learning new things about living independently inside the home, my group and I also learned many new things about the culture and lifestyle outside of our home.
The local community, both within our village and at school, was very welcoming to us all. Between inviting us to dinner, weddings, celebrations, and anything in between, the locals made sure to treat us as one of their own. As a result, we were both able to form very meaningful friendships with members of the community, and create memories that I will always look back on fondly. I happily remember a wedding we attended where we were given henna tattoos and dressed in our traditional dara and head scarfs by a local friend we had made. Although we were very clearly outsiders, we were always made to feel included, which is something I will always remember about my time in Kenya. When I first began searching for potential gap year programs, my main motivation was to find a program that would give me the right push outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to have new experiences that I could not have in my current life at home. This is exactly what my time with AV yielded. I can confidently say that I feel as though I took more from my 3 months living in Kenya than I did from my 1 and ½ years at university. I both met amazing new people, and learned about a world outside of my own, but most importantly, I learned alot about myself as well. I discovered that I am mentally stronger than I could’ve ever imagined.
Even 9 months ago, if somebody had told me I was going away for 3 months to the other side of the world, I would’ve said “no way I can’t do that!” But I did it. In fact, I had such a great time teaching in Kenya, that I even extended my trip and traveled for an extra month after the program ended, ultimately making my trip 4 months long. My time away from home also taught me that there are so many more possibilities for me than I could have imagined. I am not taking the standard, American route through university, and I’ve realized that’s okay. This upcoming fall I plan on transferring to a different university, where I will continue my studies in Psychology. I look forward to beginning a new chapter and having yet another new set of experiences, although nothing will ever quite compare to my time in Kenya.
