Interview: A Kenyan Education

In February 2005 Education Week Assistant Editor Bess Keller travelled to the Meru area of Kenya, Africa, to visit schools and report on the impact of the AIDS virus on the education system. As one member of a delegation from the American Federation of Teachers, Ms. Keller stayed with Peter Kinoti Inoti, a local headmaster, and his family. Here Ms. Keller recounts the experiences of being an American reporter abroad in a land as foreign as it was enchanting.

Q: Can you tell us how the trip developed? How did an Education Week reporter come to travel to Kenya to write a story on education and AIDS in that country?

A: The idea came from my editor, who knew that the American Federation of Teachers was working with several African teachers' unions on the biggest crisis facing Africa—the pandemic of AIDS. This was a natural story for us because it connected American teachers who had donated to the AFT-Africa AIDS project and...