Sarakasi Trust

Perhaps the biggest component of the AU Abroad Nairobi program that attracted me to it was the internship program in which we all get paired with organizations that are of interest to us. Once my program director went through descriptions and explanations of the different organizations, I became enamored with Sarakasi Trust. As of right now in my life, the type of thing I want to be doing is working for an organization that uses either music or sports as an outlet to children in inner cities or lesser opportunities to have something or some purpose to identify with help make their lives positive. Sarakasi (Circus in Swahili) Trust is exactly that, as it provides youth from the different informal settlements a way to become trained in different performing arts such as different forms of acrobatics and other dancing, urban art, and drumming and other forms of music. For the last ten years or so since their founding, they have been at the forefront of bring more arts to Nairobi. They also put on a concert every year full of reggae and afro-fusion (sort of like hip-hop/r&b urban based) acts, as well as a showcase of their different African and in some cases world-renowned acrobatic acts. Over 60,000 people attend this 2 day concert every year. Sarakasi just recently bought a movie theatre that they converted into their main stage and offices, and have a radio station in Nairobi called Ghetto Radio, and they are also opening up a restaurant very soon. I was very excited that I got my first choice and have a wonderful opportunity to intern for this amazing organization for the next few months.

When I got to the Sarakasi Dome, I was amazed at how easy of a commute it was to get to. It’s just a short trip out of downtown Nairobi, and the matatu lets you off right in front of this theatre. As I walked in I was awestruck at the amount of energy in the building. Right as soon as I walked into the dome, I saw someone practicing balance techniques on a wooden board placed on top of a cylinder and jumping around and dancing on this. On the main stage there were many people practicing choreography for a future dance program. In the main lobby of the building is a very narrow metal-winding staircase that leads to the offices some four or five stories up on the top level of the Dome. Hanging from the top in the middle of the winding staircase are acrobat ropes of various materials for the flying acrobats to train as they grab on from the staircase (there is a mat to cushion any falling at the bottom as well). As I was getting a tour of the place, we stepped out onto the roof of the Dome, and I walked right into one of the most amazing views of Downtown Nairobi (pictures will come later when I take my camera to my internship). The tour of the radio station, Ghetto Radio, was amazing as it was a full-fledged radio station complete with people working on different productions, as well as people scanning world affairs for their news program, and even a street team. All of these youth came from informal settlements and now look like professional radio personnel. Viewing these radio people work, as well as all of the very talented dancers practice their performance gave me great happiness as I see the success of the lighter, more fun side of development. I am extremely excited to be working at Sarakasi and contributing to the future success of this great organization in the coming months. I’m not sure in what capacity I will be used yet but it is going to be a lot of fun getting to hangout with acrobats and get a feel for how performance arts and development work together.