For two weeks in September, six students traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to serve as delegates at the Round Square International Conference hosted by Brookhouse School.
Round Square is a global network of schools from 40 nations on five continents. Palmer Trinity has been a part of the Round Square community since late 2016. According to the Round Square website, the “theme for the conference ‘The New Africa’” will allow us to explore many ways in which the continent has evolved and is defining its position in the 21st Century.
For the first week of the trip, the students participated in daily safaris and got to meet locals in the area. The second week was the actual Round Square conference. During the conference, students listened to speakers, saw cultural performances, went to a national park, and completed service work.
“I learned so much during the conference,” junior Lia Advent said. “Not only did I learn so much about how other teenagers, like myself, live their lives in their own countries and cultures I learned a lot about what it means to be open minded and a part of a larger world, which means being educated in the world’s countries.”
The conference, according to Round Square, including opening and closing ceremonies, as well as an “Adventure Day,” “Service Day,” and “Democracy Day.” On Democracy Day, for example, students heard from African politicians, public speakers, and business leaders.
“From them I learned that Africa is a developing and highly achieving country that doesn’t fit the stereotypes the world has about Africa,” Advent said. “We learned that the world should learn from Africas values: how its people treat each other with hospitality and how they live with their environment instead of against it.”
Students also got to visit the Golden Naboisho School in Nairobi, Kenya to get a feel of what education is like in another country.
“I met people from all over the world and had a chance to bond and learn about their cultures,” junior Helenna De Melo Gomes said. “I think the best part though was meeting the children at the school and playing games with them.”
In addition, students focused on learning Swahili, the language of Kenya.
“We’ve been learning a lot of Swahili here, everytime we talk to our safari guides were always learning and asking how to learn more Swahili and were trying to implement it in our daily conversations,” Advent said.
Junior Jake Keller said he decided to attend the trip because he had traveled to Africa before and “wanted to become closer to the country of Kenya.”
“I learned how to open up and meet people from all over the world,” he said.
Advent said the conference showcased Africa’s people, its beauty and its hospitable culture.
“It was a super unifying process to look at Africa’s beauty through an open minded lens, despite being from my own culture and being around so many other cultures,” Advent said. “Sometimes I feel conditioned in a way to look at the world, but Africa has an ability to open your mind. I think the conference helped me see that.”
