Students, faculty learn in Kenya, Tanzania through International Programs
By Stefanie Kilts
Many of the students on Colorado Mountain College’s East Africa Abroad program this January dreamed of the moment they would reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. However, it’s what happened at the foot of the mountain that had the most lasting effect.
At the end of the descent, the nine CMC students and three instructors on the trip placed the items they no longer needed in a pile in front of the guides and porters who had helped them on their journey. The pile included items like well-worn hiking shoes, used coats, pairs of socks and a bag of animal crackers. The lead guide called out names in alphabetical order and the porters and guides excitedly picked what they wanted.
“They were all grinning from ear to ear,” said Shannon Harness, a student in the college’s Outdoor Recreation Leadership program. “Here were things so small that we didn’t think twice about giving them away. It was very humbling and very emotional.”
“The students did not realize people could be so happy with so few material possessions,” said Danielle del Castillo Shelton, a CMC geography instructor on the trip.
These interactions were a fundamental part of why del Castillo Shelton, Trey Shelton (her husband and CMC outdoor education instructor), and Cooper Mallozzi, assistant professor of outdoor education, coordinated this study abroad experience to Kenya and Tanzania. Although the Mt. Kilimanjaro climb was a significant portion of the 15-day trip, the class emphasized the importance of cultural immersion with the people and places of East Africa.
The public is invited to a free video presentation about the East Africa Abroad trip on Friday, March 22, at 7 p.m. in the KW Room, Climax Molybdenum Leadership Center at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville.
Like other study abroad courses offered at Colorado Mountain College, each semester students study language and culture, and earn college credit, while experiencing the world.
The East Africa Abroad course offered five credits in world geography, human geography and intro to mountaineering and trekking. Lessons on everything from geography and linguistics to gender issues were incorporated during brief breaks on Mt. Kilimanjaro, between field trips and even on the third-story balcony of their hotel, said del Castillo Shelton. The instructors and students organized field interviews, to hear from people living in the area. Students enjoyed learning phrases in the regional language of Swahili, but primarily interacted with most Kenyans and Tanzanians in English as both countries were once colonies of Great Britain.
“We had a lot of connection with the porters,” said Paul Barish, a CMC student in the outdoor recreation leadership program. “They wanted to connect with us on a personal level.”
After climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, the instructors and students spent a few days viewing wildlife in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, and then headed to Kiserian, a village on the southern border of Kenya.
The Sheltons have strong ties to this remote part of Kenya. In 2009, the couple spent four months there on a natural resource development and financial literacy joint project funded by the United Nations Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Initiative (SARD), Heifer International and various nonprofits. Since then they have remained in contact with many of the people they worked with there and thus planned a section of the trip to see this less-visited part of Africa.
“We wanted to show students what Africa was really like beyond the tourist places,” Trey Shelton said.
Kiserian is a far cry from a tourist town; as del Castillo Shelton said, “no one goes to Kiserian for fun.” The working community offered the students a rare glimpse of the Keekonyokie Maasai and their livelihoods. The students visited the Keekonyokie Field School, which educates illiterate Masaai through a mural-based system, and the Keekonyokie Slaughterhouse, a fundamental economic market for many of the regional Maasai.
“It was really eye-opening to life in a developing country,” Mallozzi said. “The students developed a great deal of empathy for what it takes to conjure a lifestyle in that part of the world.”
The slaughterhouse provides 70 percent of the meat for the capital city of Nairobi and a higher quality of life for the Masaai, del Castillo Shelton said. Their host in Kiserian, Isaac Ole Nemuta, explained how they are working towards converting waste from the slaughterhouse into biogas and will run electricity in the village.
“I think these programs prep students for being part of a bigger world,” del Castillo Shelton said. “My hope is they will understand how their personal decisions affect others on a global level.”
Other study abroad opportunities through the college this year are Spanish Immersion in Madrid and Granada (now underway), Cuban Revolution in the 21st Century (over spring break), Spanish Immersion in Peru (summer semester), and International Business and Literature in Ireland (summer semester).
To find out more about Colorado Mountain College’s International Programs, go to www.coloradomtn.edu/InternationalPrograms.