Kenya Maasai Volunteer Profile
Carley Kwiatkowski
Carley Kwiatkowski, 19 years old from Washington, USA is volunteering on the Kenya Maasai teaching program in the village of Olmararoi. IVHQ offers volunteer programs in Kenya Maasai from one week to six months with a typical volunteer generally going for one month – Carley however is not your typical volunteer. Known as Sanaipei (pronounced sa-nigh-pay) to the Maasai people (all volunteers are given a Maasai name on arrival in Kenya) Carley is volunteering in Kenya for an ENTIRE year.
Carley lives with a local Maasai family and has 14 brothers and sisters in her boma (set of houses/huts). She teaches at Olmararoi Primary School which has 178 children and 9 classrooms. Carley teaches English to a variety of classes aged from 13 to 18. In her spare time, Carley collects firewood, helps with cooking and general house chores. Over her time in Olmararoi she has become fluent in Maa (local Maasai language) which is no small feat in itself as Maa is only a spoken dialect (not a written language).
The hardest thing for Carley has been the frustration of not being able to communicate properly with all members of her host family when she could not speak Maa (older family members generally do not speak English) and adjusting to cultural difference between the Maasai community and America. Carley’s favourite experience has been learning about Kenyan and Maasai culture and the amazingly different world in which we live. She says her time in Olmararoi has really made her appreciate the life we live in Western countries and the little things we take for granted (such as an education). Her one piece of advice for future volunteers would be to bring patience and tolerance with you. Patience because everything in Kenya takes time (often referred to as “Kenyan time” or “African time”) and tolerance because you will have to tolerate cultural difference which you may not necessarily agree with or have at home.