Ndoto Volunteer Day "Let's Get Gully"

A bright Saturday morning it was! We had been eagerly awaiting this special day. Yes, the first ever Ndoto Volunteer Day in Obunga! “Let’s Get Gully” as we have now christened it is a day when Ndoto students and staff  give back to their community by cleaning dirty ditches, draining stagnant waters that are breeding sites for mosquitoes, planting trees and flowers, cutting grass/ slashing the compound, picking litter and keeping their community clean in general. This is in keeping with Ndoto’s mission of Jesus and jobs.  At Ndoto this is what we believe that people need. At the volunteer day, students learn to give back to their community and serve others knowing that however poor they are they have something to share with someone, and that they don’t have to wait till they are through with their education or are rich to give back; quite a challenge to most people in this part of the world.

I arrived at the Akili Library cum Ndoto Premises very early on this particular day. As a Ndoto staff, I have learned to always be at the venue before the students; mzungu time we call it here. To my surprise, a couple of students were already in the compound, among them two Ndoto students Caleb and Wekesa who live in the church and were so excited to fetch water from a nearby stream and fill up a 1000 litre water tank that we would use to water the trees and flowers we were going to plant on this day.

Soon, the students started streaming into the compound, one after another, from the tallest Duncan Aballa to the little Emma Juma. By 9am there were well over 90 Ndoto students and a couple of little non-ndoto students in the compound. No sooner did Allison and Lilian brief the students on where they would be working, their team leaders and supervisors and what was expected of them than we all set off for work. And working hard we did. I was amazed at how fast the primary school kids filled the 1000 litre water tank with zeal reminiscent of worker bees collecting nectar. College guys went for the dirty and murky ditches head on, ridding it of liter and household wastes. You should have seen Tobias aka Tabu constructing the bridge that we have yearned for so much with the expertise of a construction worker under the instructions of adept engineer Duncan Aballa (Ndoto student studying civil engineering at Moi University). At one point Duncan had to improvise his own cement from calcium carbonate; talk of creativity, Ndoto has it all. The high school and college girls were not to be left out either. They weeded the flowers, planted more trees and watered them all. We all worked so hard and tirelessly to rebuild the ruins of Obunga. At the end of the day, there was neither Ndoto staff nor Ndoto students, not even supervisors or team leaders but one Ndoto family making the community a better place for us all. Hard we worked until we were all sweating profusely as the work took the better of us. Our hands got sore and when we couldn’t handle it anymore we broke for lunch. Having taken snacks and relaxed for half an hour, we resumed work from 2pm with the boys leveling the grounds and fencing as the girls watered the flowers and swept the compound clean. As everyone got drained, Allison went round encouraging the students to use their last ounce of energy to make Obunga a better place. To the kids, she gave sweets to motivate them to go the extra mile. DJ Bon (Bonface Sadia, one of the new Ndoto students) and DJ Tabu (Tobias Onyango) of “Ndoto sounds” did not disappoint and kept the students dancing to some cool music during and after the work. It was so cute to see so many kids including the little Emma and Kevin Wekesa dance to the tunes having worked so hard the entire day.

   Not to go without mention is the fact that some parents also came to lend a helping hand! Like the students, they too worked really hard planting trees and flowers. The entire community was more than pleased to see us give back and be an epitome of change we wanna see in our community. I was a wreck by the time we finished working and all the students had left but happy that we had done it!!! A ‘’gotta” and a group hug was enough to put smiles on our faces and give glory to God for what He is doing in Obunga. I’m looking forward to the next “Let’s Get Gully” event next year already. Sorry if you missed this one!