Claudia Zaeslin has traveled to Kenya every year since 1998 to continue the mentoring work at Rudolf Steiner School Mbagathi on a voluntary basis. A former student and then teacher at Rudolf Steiner School Basel, she spoke with Nicole Asis about how she experienced gratitude as an essential core of daily life at the Kenyan Waldorf school and even as the heart of the curriculum and African culture.
Nicole Asis: Why did you choose Kenya as the location for your voluntary service?
Claudia Zaeslin: A former colleague of mine at Rudolf Steiner School Basel was in Kenya during her year off. She later told us about her visit to Steiner School Mbagathi during our school’s staff conference. I also had a year off ahead of me—after 8 years as a class teacher, I was allowed to take a year off—and I thought, “Yes, I would like to try that too.” But I wasn’t so sure. I asked myself: What can we, as Europeans, do for them there? What’s the point? Do they need anthroposophy? What are they doing there?
But when I was in Kenya and worked with the local people, I realized that Rudolf Steiner’s art of education is indeed universal and valid for all people. And I am convinced of this because I was able to experience how people opened up to everything that has a spiritual background. They wanted to know. In Nanyuki, at the Mt. Kenya Waldorf School, for example, there was a teacher with whom I was able to have particularly deep conversations. She beamed when we talked about Rudolf Steiner or anthroposophy. She had fully implemented these ideas. The teachers I worked with are excellent educators. They have a lot of imagination, their own ideas, a vivid language, a zest for life, and are wonderful storytellers. They can also improvise very well and simply take over lessons. Above all, their humor and the gratitude they instill in the children are very impressive.
What inspires you to continue this work?
The work there gives me great satisfaction because I can see the progress that the teachers are making. A wonderful example is the third-grade teacher in Mbagathi. He had no experience in teaching young children when he took over the first class and I started mentoring him. Now, he has excellent classroom management. Our collaboration has been very fruitful and has helped him to develop his potential. He is so calm and confident that he has the 35 children absolutely under control.
The work also gives me great satisfaction because of the gratitude that my colleagues and children give me time and again. I hear “Thank you” and “God bless you” from the children every day. It’s like a fountain of youth. I once helped a 9-year-old boy who was having difficulties in third grade. I went up to him and said to him, “I’ll do it and then you can drive over it, that’s how it works.” Then he did it. At recess, he came up to me and said, “Thank you for helping me! Can you also help me with my homework?” I replied, “Yes, of course!” After school, he came running to me in the middle of a game, picked up his exercise book, and started working. Then he looked at me with such a grateful look, and he said to me, “God bless you.” And you experience that there, again and again.
Saturday evenings for the boarding school children are also particularly impressive. These are organized independently by the 9th graders. They prepare little sketches, dances, and songs, a bit like our monthly celebrations. The eldest children stand at the front and announce the program. The other 100 children watch, silent as mice. At one point, they had also invited Judith and Neema from the school management. One pupil gave a proper speech and thanked the adults for their work on behalf of everyone. Before all the children went to bed, they prayed the “Our Father” together in a big prayer.
Gratitude is still intrinsic to the Kenyan way of life, and that is not often the case in our modern times. How was it cultivated at Steiner School Mbagathi, and how important is it to continue cultivating it?
The children at Steiner School Mbagathi come from families with very low incomes. Breakfast porridge and lunch are often their only meals. They live in the surrounding slums, where violence and aggression also prevail. But the teachers teach the children gratitude through their whole mood and attitude. I once said to the first-grade teacher, “At the end of the lesson, before they go out, have the children close their eyes with this task: think of all the wonderful things you have learned and done today.” That works well there—the whole class was very quiet. For a minute, two minutes, and longer. We did this every day until the third grade. Another teacher, who I had also mentored before, looked out of the window and said to the children, “Look at the sun; how wonderfully it shines and makes everything grow!” And again, the next day, he said hello to the rain. That was incredibly rewarding for the children because they were able to immerse themselves completely in the mood of their teacher.
And I’m also grateful because I was able to experience so many wonderful things at school. It simply made me more open, and it enriched me. I always do the math when I spend money in Switzerland, for example, 20 francs, and then I think, “Oh, that’s a month’s worth of food there.” On the other hand, the work has always inspired me. I now feel part of the college, no longer a guest. We can work together as equals in the college. I have experienced many deep friendships and that is a great wealth.
Information
Rudolf Steiner School Mbagathi is now over 30 years old. It has over 400 pupils, its own seminary, and it is the mother school of many Waldorf initiatives in East Africa. A school like this, which mainly teaches children from the slums, can only survive thanks to donations. If you would also like to make a donation or even take on a sponsorship, you can donate to the foundation:
Freie Gemeinschaftsbank Basel
CH26 0839 2000 0282 2031 5
with the reference: Fond Acacia – Project Mbagathi Steiner School Kenya.
More Rudolf Steiner School Mbagathi | Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners
Image Claudia Zaeslin and friends at the East African Anthroposophic Conference 2024. Photo: Nicole Asis.
