By Sharon Mwangi, 13, Mombasa, Kenya
I learnt lots of things from the guided tour of Nairobi National Museum during the 9th Lola Kenya Screen festival in Nairobi. Lola Kenya Screen had organised the tour with the National Museums of Kenya as part of our training in cinematography that was beginning the following day. We were to be educated on cultural heritage, get inspired and bond with one another ahead of the five-day training as we were from five different countries: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi. Nigeria.
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I saw the Hall of Kenya, the Great Wall of Mammals, bird and art galleries, and was introduced to the evolution of human beings.
I learnt that there are 1 300 species of birds in eastern Africa and that 1 050 of them are in Kenya.
I learnt that Nairobi National Museum was closed from 2005 to 2008 to allow for renovation and expansion of her galleries.
I was fascinated to learn that the heaviest flying bird is called Kori Bustard and that the White Pelican eats fish.
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Later on, after having toured all the galleries, we went to the Nairobi Botanic Garden within the museum. The garden is a beautiful place but there is some pollution which requires cleaning up, especially the water mass that flows outside the walls of the museum but emits a bad smell into the garden. This impressed on me the need for environmental conservation that had been stressed to us during the Room for Giants: Art for Change exhibition in the Creativity Gallery of the museum.
At that art gallery, I had learnt that some animals like the white rhino, the elephant, the giraffe, and the lion are on the verge of getting extinct due to the poaching menace.
I learnt that we should try as much as possible to sensitise others about conservation just as I had just been made aware of it during my tour of the museum.
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