Kenyan time seems to run very behind the time I’m used to… it’s been the norm that we are late to EVERYTHING. But today… we are on time!!!

We visited three schools to see what they had prepared for the event on Friday, displaying the findings of research into modern day slavery. Again, we are filming this process in groups.

At school one, I felt a bit off with the group work. It’s been quite hard to engage the Kenyan students in the setting up process. Once this is done, everyone is happy to help though.

This was a secondary school. Their journalism club had prepared a poem. They read this in front of the school, about children running from FGM. The children were picked to come and preform, they didn’t come across like they wanted to do so though. Many girls were involved at this school in comparison to the boys!

Another student says she wants to make people laugh. She did her performance in Swahili, which I really enjoyed listening to. Seeing people speak in other languages and young students as they were at this school translating into another language really makes me feel sad that I never learnt languages.

Despite the performances not being what I expected, I enjoyed speaking to the students and seeing how they interact.

To finish, one of the Rongo students (Anjeri) reads a poem about the fate of life. The passion in her voice was so touching, you can really see how passionate she is about life.

At the next school, they performed a short skit about child pregnancy and abortion. It is still illegal in Kenya, so the general message was to avoid men who coerce you into these situations. I thought it was actually really engaging and loved watching how excited the children who weren’t involved were watching their classmates.

Watching the reactions made me so happy, I loved watching how affectionate these children are. Constant arms round each other or holding hands (even the boys) which is something you would never see in England. I love how open Kenyans are with each other.

At the final school, we waited for a long time. Although irritating, I was grateful for the view. It was honestly amazing! The rolling lush hills behind the school contrasted to the orange colour of the ground was beautiful. I never expected the landscape to be so lush and green.

They had another speech from the journalism club and another skit. The skit was about a child servant who was missing school, I was a bit confused as there was a lot going on but you could really see the thought that went into it.

Again, watching the children react was beautiful. Seeing them laugh together and connect through these issues is amazing.

On the walk back to the bus, we were approached by a group of primary school children. They were so cute!

It was quite difficult speaking to them – they kept repeating that we are beautiful. When we returned the compliment, they wouldn’t accept it and said you can only be beautiful if you are white. It’s really harrowing seeing how much media and society can influence a child at such a young age into these views.

Later that night, myself and the other Brighton students spoke about this together. We tried to understand each others experience of this and support each other with the emotions we felt. I couldn’t be more grateful for the group we had, I feel I have made lifelong friends and being able to connect the way we did really sold that for me.