Monday dawned as my first day to meet with the students for their Outside The Lens project. Meeting with the principal, head of curriculum, and co-founder that morning, I shared the work of Outside The Lens and the projects that I saw as the best match with their existing programming. Daraja Academy teaches to Kenyan content standards, rigorous requirements that prepare them for a major final exit exam. Many Daraja students dream of attending university in the United States, with a specific interest in the University of San Diego. Because of this, we had to make sure my projects fit within their curriculum, and many of the Outside The Lens classes will be taught as part of the WISH program: Women of Integrity, Strength, and Hope, an empowerment and self-esteem program created by Daraja staff.
Outside The Lens’ first class at Daraja was with the Media Club. 10 girls with an interest in media, journalism, and visual literacy met me in the library that afternoon to learn about diptychs. Their teacher Peris joined us for the lesson, and soon we were exploring the Daraja campus looking for different ways to shoot the bougainvillea growing abundantly around the classrooms, dorms, and rondavels. The subject was the girls’ suggestion, and for the next 45 minutes they shot close-ups, side views, birds-eye-views and worms-eye-views. They shot living flowers and dead ones, flowers with their friends smelling them and flowers with the waning light shining through.
With a few minutes left of class, we returned to the library to share our favorite photo that we took, and what made it our favorite. Shy Everlyne shared that her favorite was of a friend smelling the bougainvillea, even though (at this point she collapsed into giggles) they don’t smell like anything. “I like the smile on her face, and how it tells the story that flowers make her happy.”
After Media Club, I taught Visual Training Strategies to half of the Form 1 students. We looked at famous National Geographic photos and talked about what we saw. We made up stories about the characters in each portrait. One student, who hailed from the conflict-torn northern region, remarked of a famous portrait of an Afghanistani villager that “she looks tired. Her eyes look like she is fighting, and she has bigger worries on her mind than be photographed.” It was a powerful moment in the library, and reminded me again of the dual role these students occupy as high school students and girls occupying post-conflict zones.
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