'I am definitely more open-minded to life and the opportunities that we find we have.'

Feedback from Lauren, age 17, after a recent trip to Kenya which focussed on delivering sports skills to children and adults.

What three things have you brought back from the trip?
I took back a lot of things, so to narrow it down to 3 is quite a task; the main thing I think would have to be appreciation. Living in the UK allows us to take things for granted too easily, obviously out there they have very little but unlike a lot of us, they take every opportunity to make the most of what they have. A quote that will always remain in my thoughts is that from of one of the preachers during church one morning; ‘we must be grateful and appreciate what we have and not take anything for granted.’ This stunned me and really allowed me to think about how, as a society, we don’t appreciate our little luxuries. Another factor that I’ve taken from my experience is enjoyment of life. Before I went away I was finding myself feeling a little low and often upset or distressed about certain things.

After coming home and looking back at all of the photos; the children are just so happy. They have practically nothing yet seemed to enjoy every minute of being at school, if they’re able to smile day in-day out then why can’t I? I guess the final point would have to be the importance of education; the one reason the children enjoy being at school is because of the amount of support they actually do have. We have many children over here in the UK that don’t want to go to school because they have PE that day, or they have maths and their teacher doesn’t like them or they are too tired and want to stay in bed. The fact that the children in Kenya are even able to go to school is a luxury, for them it is a safe environment where they have easy access to fresh water, food and toilets; the things that are very difficult to seek at home – the things that we have easy access to every minute of every day, the things WE take for granted! In Africa, education is a way to break out of current family lifestyles, going to school and studying hard will result in a good education and many hope it will open more opportunities for better careers. Since coming home I have a lot of frustration towards those ignorant enough to dismiss the great opportunities that surround them each day.

How have you changed in your attitudes or opinions?
We all hear about how life is over there but until you’ve actually been stood there, in the middle of the street, amazed by all you can see around you, you can never really understand. It didn’t hit me all that much until I went back in to college though, but when it did, it hit me hard. I walked in to our newly refurbished sports hall and it all came flooding back. When out there we were teaching on rubble, dust and rocks; some of the kids had no shoes on or only one shoe yet they still had big smiles on their faces, loving every minute of the sessions. But when coming home to find members of my class simply moaning at how cold it was in the sports hall, it really hit me of how unappreciative we really are as a society. I find myself comparing many different things from what we have here to what they have, trying to look at the similarities and finding very little – I am definitely more open minded to life and the opportunities that we find we have.