It is not often that people can say they have found a second home across the globe, but a Canora Composite School student believes she can say that now.
Kelsey Chupa was selected to take part in volunteer work across the globe in Kenya through the Free the Children program in the summer of 2016. For Education Week, Canora Composite School students and staff celebrated by allowing Chupa to educate other students on her journey, which she called a “life-changing experience.”
Chupa described her trip, which she left for on July 27 and took part in over three weeks. She stated that she wished to volunteer to help the communities in any way she could.
“I remember watching TV as a child and seeing commercials with these starving kids and organizations asking for donations. Since then I had this little drive that ended up developing into something much more,” Chupa said.
Though Chupa was there to help the people of Kenya, she also believes that she was helped by the people she encountered.
“Africans value so much, like family and traditions. They treat everybody with the respect that people deserve and they’re so grateful for the simple things in life, like someone buying potatoes from them or being able to stand on the earth,” she said. It was an eye-opener for someone who spends a lot of time “caught up with technology.”
Chupa said that she took part in many activities to both offer her abilities to villagers and to experience the African culture. One of the most life-changing, she said, was the water walk. Usually completed by mothers, it is a journey to the river to fetch water. A woman completing the walk ties a 25-litre jerry can to herself and carries it on a two-mile walk full of bumps and hills. The women had to do this five to seven times a day, with children four and older also carrying 10-litre jugs.
The mothers deserve a lot of respect, according to Chupa, especially for their talents in singing and in beading.
Also deserving of respect were the Massai warriors. They are highly respected protectors of the community that were there to guide Chupa.
“On my trip, I was privileged enough to have two Massai with me at all times. They are so wise and knowledgeable about their surroundings while I can’t tell the difference between wheat and barley,” she said.
Some of Chupa’s volunteer time was spent building a boys’ high school. With her peers, she passed rocks down an assembly line to be stuck together with cement that was mixed by hand. She said she was especially impressed by the local community volunteers who never stopped working.
“I am grateful that there’s people with that kind of drive there and how they don’t just want missionaries to come and help, they want to contribute too.”
Chupa also loved going to a local elementary school to play games with the children.
“Talking to these kids is so amazing. Even though there is a slight language barrier, I felt like I knew exactly where they were coming from,” she said, adding that students were so grateful to go to school and that she was never going to complain about returning to school on Monday again. She loved hearing about the children’s dreams for the future, and said that they “dreamed big” regardless of their surroundings.
During her trip, Chupa attended a celebration for a hospital opening by the Free the Children organization. There was a ribbon-cutting followed by speeches and songs and dances. “Before the hospital opening, the nearest one in the community was two hours away on motor scooters.”
Chupa also went to a traditional market where all community members go to buy, sell and bargain items, which she found to be quite challenging as many didn’t understand English. The market was also extremely crowded, and she had to navigate it while usually pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with other shoppers. “Believe me when I say that it was worse than Costco.”
Another place that was visited was an all-girls high school that she said was incredibly impressive. They had books, laptops and smartboards, and were also working on building moving robots out of Lego, which were controlled by a computer.
Animals in the wild Chupa was lucky enough to see during her trip included elephants, zebras, wildebeests, hippopotamuses, giraffes, bats, and monkeys. She did not enjoy the bats or the goats, that often left her trapped in her tent, but was happy to take part in an African safari, as well as a supper near a hippopotamus pond.
Chupa found that one of her favourite moments of the trip was not getting to visit unique places, but simply travelling to these unique places.
“Many people in Canora walk, bike, drive or take the bus to school, and normally you don’t look outside because it’s pretty boring and one sees the same thing every day. Well, I took the same travel route in Kenya whether we were volunteering or doing other activities but there was always something new to see.
“That feeling is one of the best feelings in the world… exploring a new place and discovering hidden secrets,” she said.
Chupa ended her presentation by telling her peers that she did not regret going for any reason, and that every day was a highlight in her books.
“One of the discoveries that I made was that a home is not just four walls or even arms to fall in to, but it can be a place that holds a special spot in your heart. I am so thankful for this experience and to call Africa more than a place on the map but… call it my home.”
Chupa was able to travel in Africa partly in thanks to her involvement as a member of the Canora Composite School Social Justice Group. The group was created earlier this year by Colin Knight for grades 8, 9, and 10 students to have an opportunity to take part in opportunities such as WE Day, a youth empowerment event organized by WE Charity, also known as Free the Children. The CCS Social Justice Group has 28 members fundraising for volunteer opportunities like Chupa’s and they take part in food drives and other events.
