YOU WANT TO BECOME A WHAT? — AFRICAN STORIES.
You want to become a what? Is a question I get most of the time when I tell someone from my community that I am studying to become a Graduate Gemologist. A career that most people in my community have never heard of. The next question would be, how did you even think of undertaking such a course? I would reply, “God.” I have no prior background in gemstones, no family member or friend who was involved in gemstones, zero prior knowledge in minerals. I was born in Eldoret, Kenya. I was in and out of school because of lack of school fees. I finished high school and enrolled for my diploma in Personnel management. I later got a job but I felt the need to do more, something that will bring profit and solutions to my community as well, I was looking for my purpose in life. I undertook online lessons on udemy for jewelry crafts, I crafted jewelry and sold them online.
I became curious, since I worked with imitation pearls, I wanted to know how real pearls and gemstones looked like. I enrolled for a ruby class on udemy but it made me yearn for more. I went online searching for schools where I can learn about gemstones, I landed on the Gemological Institute of America’s page, I looked at their fees structure and started laughing at myself. In Kenya, with a minimum monthly salary of $500 you can comfortably survive. The cost of living is low so are the wages. I managed to pull a bit of financial resources and enrolled for eLearning courses. I was awarded two partial scholarships which made a huge impact in relation to my studies. Since I was doing most of my classes online, I would go to the field and collect stones to incorporate in my learning. At first I would collect almost everything from quartzite, obsidian, rock crystals, volcanic glass, feldspars. One of the most fascinating but disappointing thing about living in Africa is that I would pick rock crystals on the road as I walked home and most people would walk by not knowing what they were. I did basic lapidary classes which gave me exposure to many different rough gemstones, cabochon grade and facet grade, interacting with the miners and people in the mining sector. I felt home.
We have two mineral laboratories in the country, compared with the gem labs in developed countries… we are still far. One or two expert staff who work in this labs. I am looking forward to finishing my final leg of the course on campus, which will take about three to four months. During those months, I am hoping to interact with gem lab equipment manufactures. One of my goals is to set up a well-equipped gem laboratory in the country that will not only serve Kenyans but East Africans as well.
