Ilfracombe College take Poi Poi to Kenya
In the spring of 2006 we started planning our trip to Kenya. We knew that part of the month long working holiday would involve spending time in schools, breaking down barriers, sharing skills and having some fun. It was during our school sports day that I came across a small group of pupils using their poi, a crowd had gathered round to watch and some were even having a go.
From this encounter an idea formed. How good would it be to take some poi out to Kenya with us, teach the children how to use them and then leave sets of poi as gifts.
With this in mind we contacted the Poi Poi to ask for their help and they very kindly agreed to donate several poi.
So onto the next problem, none of us actually knew how to use the poi!!!! We needed to do some team building ready for the trip as the 22 pupils going came from 3 different year groups and did not really know each other. Poi came to the rescue!
We started meeting in the school sports hall once a week to practice with the poi, what an ice breaker, with the help of two skilled poi users we had a really good time and a really good laugh. There are always those pupils who pick things up very quickly and fortunately they had the patience to help those of us who are much slower. Many a lunchtime was spent in fits of giggles and frustration, having great fun, gelling together as a team and acquiring new skills. We often drew a small audience watching from the balcony and suddenly extras started appearing in the sports hall.
On Saturday 14th July our trip to Kenya began, our first 10 days were spent trying to rebuild a dilapidated classroom. Every day a small group of pupils would go under the shade of a tree, get out the poi and start breaking the ice with the children who had been dislodged from their classroom whilst we were rebuilding it. What a great time we had, it was a wonderful sight seeing the fantastic colours of the poi flying through the air in the hands of small Kenyan children, we always drew a crowd. Barriers were quickly broken down and a lot of fun was had. At the end of our time there we left several poi with the headmaster to be used by the children.
Our remaining poi were then taken to an elephant sanctuary in the Shimba hills and once again some were handed as gifts to a local school. After this we trekked up Mt Kenya for 5 days and even demonstrated poi to our Kenyan guides on the day we reached the summit. Probably the first time poi have been seen on Mt Kenya, certainly at an altitude of nearly 5,000 metres.
Our final few days was spent amongst the Masai north of Mt Kenya from whom we learnt many new skills, we again pulled out our remaining poi from our rucksacks and did some impromptu demonstrations, so don’t be surprised if some day you see Michael Palin walking in the African bush and discovering a group of Masai using their poi against a backdrop of elephants and giraffes!
It was hard to leave the last of our poi behind but it is great to think of them being used by Kenyan children from north of Mt Kenya right down to the coastal areas near Mombasa and of course the first thing on the shopping list for many of us when we returned was another set of poi!
To see photos of our trip please visit the galleries.
