From Va. to Kenya, Serving Others

Teacher-Turned-Parliament Member Taught Pupils: 'It's Never About Yourself'

Joseph Lekuton, a McLean social studies teacher, was elected to Kenya's Parliament in July. Above, he greets a former student, Kendall Banks. (By Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)

Kenyans know Joseph Lekuton as a new member of their Parliament. But students at the Langley School in McLean know him as the teacher who showed them what it means to be poor and insisted that seventh-graders memorize every country and its place on the globe.

Lekuton, a longtime social studies teacher in suburban Virginia, grew up in a cow-dung hut in northern Kenya. For years he has straddled those worlds and helped connect them. This summer, he decided to return to Africa for a reason many in Washington would appreciate: He ran for a seat in the Kenyan Parliament -- which he won.

Yesterday, between visits to a U.S. congressman and international aid agencies, Lekuton came to the small private school where he had taught for a decade to say goodbye. He was greeted by students who screeched and cheered so loudly that the head of the school asked them to clap and not pound their feet on the gymnasium bleachers.

"You know I am still a teacher in my heart," Lekuton told the students. "It's never about yourself. It has to be, 'What can you do for someone else?' That is how you keep your dream alive."

In his years at the school, Lekuton led families on summer trips to Kenya to visit schools without running water and help dig latrines. Students whose families pay about $22,000 in tuition each year experienced life in a country in which the annual per capita income is $530, the World Bank estimates.

The school, which has about 465 students through grade 8, raised money for Cows for Kids, a nonprofit organization that gives livestock to Kenyans in drought-ravaged areas. The school's parents also have supported a scholarship fund for Kenyan children.

Max Queenan, 13, an eighth-grader who is thinking about becoming a scientist or an inventor, said Lekuton's lessons inspired him to design an aqueduct system that he imagines would bring water to Kenyan villages.

Thanks to what Max called Lekuton's "infamous test on the whole world," he and his classmates know the locations and capitals of nearly all the countries. (Lekuton gave them a break on identifying tiny island nations.) During one Africa trip, Max played soccer with boys who wore shoes made of tire scraps or were barefoot.

Max said Lekuton treated his students like adults. "It was serious, open discussion," he said. "I don't like that I don't have him this year, but at the same time I feel great for him. He's going to make a difference."

Lekuton, born into the nomadic Maasai tribe 37 to 39 years ago -- he doesn't know precisely -- was a boy when government officials came to his village and demanded that each family send one son to a missionary school. His older brother was supposed to go but hid in a hyena's den. So Lekuton went.

Lekuton excelled in his studies and eventually made it to a quality boarding school. He came to the United States in 1989 with a full scholarship to St. Lawrence University in Upstate New York. The education was free, but the plane ticket wasn't. His countrymen sold goats and cows to pay the fare.

"Taking that from real poor people was huge," Lekuton said. "After I was elected, people reminded me of that: 'I gave you that black cow.' "