OBERLIN — A student organization at Oberlin College that began in 2005 with the goal of relieving pain and suffering in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is continuing its work on an island community off the Kenyan coast.

In a few days, students Andrew Estep, Christopher Pray and Juliana Scherer will arrive in the villages of Tchundwa and Faza on Pate Island in Kenya, where they will serve as teacher’s assistants for about a month.

The group, called “Immerse Yourself in Service” turned its attention to Pate Island last year at the urging of Umra Omar, who was born in Tchundwa and spent many years there before becoming a student at Oberlin College.

“I was really surprised at how welcomed we were,” said Estep, who is returning to Kenya for a second year. “There’s not a lot of international travel and they loved the presence of Americans.”

The college students taught school on the island, which is almost entirely Muslim, and the Kenyan youngsters were “very well-mannered and shy,” he said.

It was a different ballgame on the soccer field, where “we were getting beaten consistently by 10- to 12-year-old boys,” Estep said with a laugh.

After committing to the project, students raised more than $10,000, with Estep funding his portion of the trip through a grant from the Bonner Foundation, which assists first-generation college students and minorities who attend Oberlin College.

While in Kenya, the students will tour the capital city of Nairobi before heading to Pate Island via Mombasa, Lamu Island and Port Faza.

Students will have the opportunity to teach any grade or subject they feel comfortable in from kindergarten to grade 12.

This year, they also hope to make themselves available to dig wells, work on farms, help create a computer center and assist in building homes. 

After their return, they will work to strengthen partnerships with communities in Kenya by working with the Oberlin Schools, the Oberlin Public Library and other community resources, according to Estep, who co-chairs Immerse Yourself in Service.

Estep said it is an eye-opening experience to enter another culture so completely.

He has photographs of himself around a dinner table — you eat with your hands — under the illumination of a lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Electricity there is scarce and there is very little running water on the island, he said.

Last year, the Oberlin students learned a bit of Swahili and tried different styles of clothing suited to the tropical atmosphere, where temperatures reach 100 degrees. In one photograph Estep is in an orange kikoi — traditional men’s garb.

In several months, Estep, 23, of Norwalk, plans to assist marine biologists from Florida International University in a project to study tiger sharks, sea turtles and sting rays in Shark Bay, Australia.

Estep, who also participated in the Hurricane Katrina relief trip, called his decision to attend Oberlin College “the best decision of my life, hands down.”

He said student projects like Immerse Yourself in Service “teach you to appreciate what you have and to communicate with others — it teaches you compassion, strength and makes you want to be involved and make a difference.”

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