On Friday 14 December 2012, Hatua students were treated to a trip at Gede Ruins monument and Malindi Marine Park.
This trip was both educational and fun as the students had a lot to learn and explore. Every end of year after attending school, mentoring classes, writing reports and performing well at their end of term reports, the students are awarded by being taken to a trip.
“It’s a way to motivate and encourage them to work hard,” said Mentoring and Career Guidance Coordinator Winnie. They choose a place that the students will have fun and at the same time learn something from. This time it was Gede historical site.
At Gede historical site, there was a lot to learn about the history of the the site which is one of the 12th Century Swahili towns along the African coast that retains memories of an evolved urban culture. The tour guide, Katana Mtsumi, was so conversant with the students as he happily narrated to them about the site.
The students had a lot of questions to ask as they were interested to learn more about the site; one of them asked what proved that the site was there many years back. This was answered by being shown remains of mosques, a palace, residential houses, elaborate pillar tombs and a tombstone built for the revered one with an epitaph incised in plaster with the date AH 802 (AD 1399).
They also learnt about different species of plants including both indigenous and exotic trees. They also visited Kipepeo, which is Swahili for butterfly. This is a project of rearing butterflies to help the locals. They asked questions as they saw different types of butterflies and some were interested about butterfly rearing.
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Later on, the students went to Malindi Marine Park; here they had fun on a boat tour, swimming and were allowed to feed the fish with bread. Most of them said this was the best part of the trip. “The best part is not swimming but eating
food,” joked one student as they were being served pilau, a common Swahili dish in Kenya.
Generally, the trip was a good treat as we all look forward to Christmas celebrations.
See more photos from the day on our Facebook page.