On October 2nd 2008, Ms Mwai’s class from Peponi House Prep School came by the Park for their Stirring up. This class comprised a wide diversity of cultures and religions. Many of them have traveled widely but have had not visited the Memorial Park before. They were intrigued by the history of the Park and had a lot of questions to ask. At the end of their visit they put together a Peace Tree using various symbols. This tree will stand in their class to help them recognize and celebrate their differences so as to live harmoniously.
On their way out they met Mr Douglas Sidialo who has been blind since August 7th 1998 and has achieved so much despite his misfortune that day. He got to chat with them.
Our Lady of Nazareth Primary School Class 7s and 8s also came to get stirred up this week on Tuesday 14 October. We hosted a group of 49 students who were very expressive and full of life. The history of the bombing was very new to them and what got them more was the idea that they each had potential bombs they each use daily on a small scale to hurt each other.
Some of them drew peace symbols they had learnt that day while others got to identify their potential bombs, look at their effects and make a decision not to use them again.
On October 21st, a day after the Kenyatta Day holiday, we hosted another class from Peponi House Prep School. These were 21 students who visited with Ms Faulkner. We had to have a high speed tour since they were late to arrive, thanks to the traffic jam that morning. The children had a great time learning more peace symbols and identifying those present in the Memorial Gardens. They got to make symbolic doves as reminders of their peace building efforts.One of the nearest schools to the Memorial Park finally got to visit.
Catholic Parochial School arrived nice and early but were not able to go on the guided tour of the Memorial Park because of the steady pour of rain on the morning of 23 October 2008. They instead got to learn of the history from the video narrative we show in the audio-visual room. They even got to meet one the the bomb survivors, Rachel Syengo, who shared her story with them and encouraged them to live positively. After a cup of tea and biscuits, we got down to sharing our views on peace building.
They were just 18 pupils but they left here determined to be agents of change in their school. Their patron Mr Olum was equally positive.