Christmas in Kibera

Christmas in Kenya, certainly one I'll never forget! Christmas eve we had an overdul house, people sleeping in the living room on sofas and the floor. There are usually only a few people at the house this time of year apparently. Some people arrived back from safari that day, and were keen to join us on the feeding programme Christmas day so stayed the night. Usually there would be maybe 5 or 6 programme on the tour, yesterday, 15 volunteers, plus Jack and Dan from Kibera and the pastor who had left the church service to his wife to be with us and the families. A fantastic turn out, thank you to everyone who came!

Christmas eve we got some drinks in to celebrate, and listened to Christmas songs in the house whilst I wore my recently purchased Santa outfit. The following morning, a couple of the girls cooked pancakes for us all, before heading into Kibera with the food, my Santa outfit, and lots of sweets for the kids.

Reactions throughout Kibera were mixed, the kids were excited just to be given a couple of sweets, some people expected us to have something to give to every single person, asking what we are doing to help them specifically, and some said they don't celebrate Christmas. It was positive reactions for the most part though.

We did our usual route, stopping at a viewpoint over a large area of Kibera for photos and a brief talk about what Kibera is (I left the speeches mostly to Jenny this time, a volunteer who started last week who is helping me on the programme for a couple of weeks). Then off to the disability school, although closed for Christmas, just to show people what else the money goes towards on the programme. Then the four families on Tuesday's visit.

Quinta, who I took to apply for university last week, had her computer course results, passed! And, has been accepted on her university course, starting 7th January! We also have the money now to help her mother start up a business. With Quinta moving to the university campus, this means the family can be removed from the programme as soon as the business is set up! Before leaving, we had to get a few photos of me in my outfit with her (as usual I forgot my camera, so will have to post those at a later time when I steal them from others), then headed off to the other families.

Nothing too exciting to report on the others, everyone was doing well and so happy to see us on Christmas. Got photos with some of the others too, and we also visited the pastors family. Finally, at the end of the tour, Dan took us back to his place where his wife had cooked us chapati and lentils for lunch. It was a bit tight with all of us sitting in his living room eating (as it had been in every other house too), but we managed and were very thankful to he and his wife. Finally, we headed off too the bar for a drink in Kibera, before heading back to the house for Christmas dinner, pasta, chicken, and vegetables, the hosts must have been cooking all morning to prepare that!

The rest of the day we just chilled out at the house, more music and some snacks. Overall a fantastic day, a Christmas I'll never forget and will probably never experience anything like it again!

An Overdue Update

Haven't got round to updating for a while, at first because there wasn't much to report on, then I have been too busy to write anything up. So long post incoming.

Last Monday Dan and I had our first class with the computer course, the lesson was mostly basics about how the computer works and how to find your way around it, to make sure everyone was at the same level. It's sometimes difficult to get them to understand things, but with trial and error, we're beginning to learn what works best with them.

The second lesson was due to be on Wednesday, however this was Kenya's independence day, or Jamhuri Day, so the school was closed. And Friday the school had no power, so we had to postpone the class again.

Tuesday I went along with the feeding programme in Kibera again, with another volunteer, Mac, who had just taken over from the previous volunteers running it who left last weekend. However Mac is now wanting to try something new, and switching placements today. So Thursday, I took over the programme, giving my first tour, and writing up the weekly report for the director of the programme currently in Canada.

This Tuesday, I saw one of the girls on the programme who I've not seen since the first time I went on the tour, a 20 year old girl, Quinta, with HIV, recently recovered from TB, and previous suicide attempts due to her health. The first time I saw her she looked unwell, depressed, this was the one that got to me the most. However, when I saw her yesterday, she is looking so much better! Very happy, just finished a computer course and awaiting her results and certificate, feeling pretty confident about it. And excited to be applying to go to university in January, thanks to funding through NVS. Today I was asked to join her, and one of the guys in Kibera who helps with the programme, heading into town to take her to apply. She'd not left Kibera for a while, so was a little scared with all the traffic in town, grabbing my hand as we crossed the roads.

After queueing in the bank for ages to pay Quinta's application fee, and wandering around looking for somewhere to get passport photos for her, we finally completed the application, to find that it has to go to the campus in another town. This means another trip for Jack (who came with us today) and Quinta tomorrow, though it is good for her to get out of Kibera and see something new, and I think the campus that she will be staying at for her studies.

As Christmas falls on a Tuesday, there is interest from some volunteers to join the tour on Christmas day. It wasn't yet decided whether it would be happening or moved to another day, however I've persuaded NVS and Dan in Kibera (who also joins us on the tour) to go ahead with it. This will likely mean packing the food the end of this week and taking it back to the volunteer house as the office will be closed Christmas week. After speaking to the families when on the tour yesterday, they are all going to be around Christmas day, and welcome us to visit them! Especially Sebastian, in his 70s, who is very much looking forward to receiving a photo of he and the volunteers who joined the tour yesterday. Hopefully Quinta will have received her results for her course by then too and will have good news with that.


Saturday I went to my first Kenyan wedding, of one of the guys working for NVS. This meant orientation, which usually happens on the 1st and 15th of every month, was postponed until Monday. The wedding was interesting, 15 minute long songs of praise and worship, most of the Kenyans very enthusiastic for it, whilst all the volunteers looked a little lost. However it was still a great experience, if not a bit long. The food at the reception was good though, volunteers invited to eat first, food piled up on our plates, far more than I could possibly eat! There were many new volunteers for Monday's orientation too, so it was a good opportunity to meet some of those.

As I'm now running the feeding programme, I figured I would be wanted to speak about it at orientation, so went along to that (the lunch is also good there, so I was keen to go for that!). Having only given one tour before, I wasn't very prepared so kind of blagged it. The other volunteers insisted I didn't do too badly though! Next time I'll make sure to have something better prepared. Someone also told Joe, the head of NVS, about my pick pocket and mugging experiences, so he asked if I could do a talk about that. With only 5 minutes notice about that, it was even more of a mess than the feeding programme talk! But I guess it got the message across, don't walk at night, and be careful in the clubs and bars. Then finally, as Kush spoke about the Outreach weekend, he decided, as I was one of the most recent volunteers to go, to put me on the spot and talk a little about it! So once again I blagged another speech. I guess I'll be more prepared for all 3 speeches next time.

Due to orientation, I was unable to make it to our second computer class, though as there was something else going on at the school that day, only 5 students attended. Then again, as I was out with Quinta, I didn't make it back in time for today's class, leaving Dan with a full class, quite a struggle. Hopefully nothing else will come up for Friday, and I'll have some better progress to report on that.

Besides all that, I've been showing some the new volunteers around. With so many having left recently, I and the others who were at my orientation have become some of the most experienced current volunteers. I'll be sure to take people to the monkey park every opportunity I get!

A trip to the police station

After losing my British SIM card a few weeks back, I now find myself with no phone at all. Last night we went out for a few drinks again, visiting a bar we have not yet been to. As I walked in I felt something at my pocket, and quickly put my hand in my pocket as it seemed someone was trying to slide my phone out. Shortly after I felt a hand in my back pocket, fortunately I had nothing in that pocket but I moved away quickly anyway. After this I was trying to keep as aware as possible, but it seems I let my guard down at some point as I checked my pocket later to find my phone was gone. One of the other guys also had his wallet stolen, with a couple of thousand shillings, debit card, drivers licence and social security number, I guess I got lucky!

The bouncer on the door was quite helpful, apparently someone had reported seeing a guy run off with a wallet, a guy who had later returned, and so the bouncer called for a cab, taking us, the person accused and the person accusing to the local police station. Not really where I wanted to be at 5am. As we gave statements to the police, and they searched the guy and hit him with a stick, we began to wonder whether this really was the guy. All we had as evidence was the word of a random Kenyan girl (who we later decided was quite likely a prostitute). We told the guy if he can get our phone and wallet back, we wouldn't take it any further, but as the police continued to hit him with a stick, he showed no sign of wanting to help us get it back. Either he was innocent and this girl had something against him, or he just doesn't care and doesn't want to confess. We are kind of worried that we've really ruined someone's day, but the police and bouncer assure us this is not the first time they've had such dealings with him. I guess the main thing is we have a crime reference number and hopefully the travel insurance will cover it.

This comes just a few days after I and another volunteer were almost mugged. I say almost, I don't think they were serious muggers, more just trying their luck hoping we would get scared and give them everything with little effort on their part. They approached us, demanding 'give us something', we explained we had just come from the pub and had no money left, as we are simply poor volunteers, not rich mzungus that they seem to think all white people are. They felt my pockets, asking what was in there, I took out my wallet and showed them the few shilling coins I had, and my phone, which they made no attempt to take from me, leading me to think they weren't serious muggers. We continued talking to them for a while, explaining why we have nothing to give, they asked if we were going to try to run, I guess trying to make us feel intimidated. Eventually they asked what we do as volunteers, teach in Kibera. 'Oh we live in Kibera, you are helping us!' They then shook our hands and somehow we became best of friends.

Hopefully that and the pick pocketing is the worst we'll experience in our time here, else I'll be beginning to wonder whether extending my trip was a good idea!

Disability School Party

Yesterday the term finished for the disability school, and so to celebrate, we had an end of year party, inviting the parents/families of the students along too. NVS put some money towards it, and so we had hot dogs, biscuits, juice and balloons, as well as some bits for the families to take home.

Fortunately all 5 students were able to make it, unlike the previous 2 days where we only had 1 person due to a broken wheelchair, seizure and the weather making it difficult for this in wheelchairs to get to school. The school now has a teacher, who started about 2 weeks ago, up until then, the students were taught by volunteers only, which is quite challenging as they are not all good with English. The party was the first opportunity the parents had to meet the teacher, so there were a lot of introductions to be done, volunteers and NVS staff included.

There were plenty of hot dogs to go around, and even some to go to the kids playing outside the school. Unfortunately I managed to forget my camera yet again, so I've only got a couple of pictures from my phone, though I have a load of pictures from the day before, when Collins got hold of my camera.

Given the chance, Martin would have probably eaten all the hot dogs in front of him. He had his fair share though! Wouldn't even stop to answer us when we asked if the food was good:

Gertrude and Elizabeth listening to Jack's speech before we eat:

The kids playing outside the school:

Group photo of the staff, volunteers, students and families (stolen from Josh's Facebook, thanks!):

After the party, we helped to clear up, as the school would be closed for a month. Then one of the staff, Dan, invited us back to his home in Kibera for a drink - nonalcoholic on this occasion, but we aagreed we'll be back for a proper drink soon.

On another topic, my new favourite place to get a burger is Steers. Recommended by a former volunteer a few weeks ago, I finally got round to going. Unfortunately, as with most places, it lacks bacon. I guess I'll have to find some and take my own when I go to get a burger!

Monkey Park Round 2

Yesterday I finally got to go to the monkey park again! No thanks the matatu conductor trying to charge us double price, despite having a sign outside the matatu when we got on, clearly listing the price. Fortunately, we reached the park whilst arguing with her, so in the end she had no choice but to accept the price we were willing to pay, telling us to never get on her matatu again. Deal, we'd rather not travel with people trying to rip us off.

The monkeys were trying harder this time to steal the bags of peanuts. Unfortunately one managed to bite through the bag I had, causing them to spill, but there were still plenty more to go around. Managed to get 3 climbing on me this time! Link to photos below, think I managed to make the album public so should work.

Monkey Photos

And I will of course aim to head back there as soon as possible, next time with bananas :D

New Teaching Programme

After discussing with another volunteer, Dan, plans for the rest of our time here, we found we were both interested in trying something new. Both of us have an interest in computing, and due to lack of funds, it is something not many students get the opportunity to do here. We decided we'd like to try setting something up to introduce more students to some basic computing skills that would help to extend their future job possibilities.

I was aware of a couple of schools having computers, so knew of a couple of options of places we might be able to set something up, we just needed permission to do so. Dan spoke with Maggie at NVS about the idea yesterday, who seemed quite keen on it, and contacted Pastor Regina (who's house I stayed at on my very first night in Kenya) who works at a school with some recently acquired computers. She also seemed keen on the idea, as despite having the computers, only her and one other teacher are able to teach, but do not have the time for it amongst everything else. We went to visit Regina at the school this morning to discuss the idea and look at what we have available on the computers, and were surprised to find they were brand new with up to date software installed, perfect for what we had planned (we expected some old out dated systems donated to the school).

We hoped to teach a couple of children per computer (10 computers so 20 students per class), however, due to the size of the room, this probably wouldn't work well. Instead, we have asked Regina to provide us with a class of 10 students, for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, if there are enough interested (she seems confident there would be more than enough eager students). First we'll need to try to bring them all to around the same level being able to use a computer in each class, then we can move on to teaching them some more advanced stuff. Ideally we'd like to have some sort of 'course', a lesson plan for each week, over the course of so many weeks, then roll over to a new class. With something like this in place, it would be easy for other volunteers to come in and take over from the previous week, and hopefully keep this as an ongoing project after Dan and I leave in January. As long as NVS can help to get more volunteers involved, it should be possible.

It may take us a while to get some structure to the programme, but hopefully we'll have it running smoothly by the time we leave. We have almost a week to prepare for the first classes, which will likely be just assessing abilities and teaching the very basics of using a computer, giving us a couple of weeks to get together some lesson plans using Word, Excel etc.

Too Many Goodbyes

Over the past 5 weeks I've seen a lot of people come and go. Some I only know for a few days, some only a few hours. But some I've known and lived with since my first couple of days in Kenya and so have gotten to know quite well. Several people are leaving this week, strangely I kind of miss them more than I do home. That's not to say I don't miss home, just that I know I'll be going back to everything there in a couple of months, whereas these people I'll probably never see again.

No doubt there'll be plenty more people to meet over the next fee weeks, and many more sad goodbyes, but it's been great meeting every single person I have here, and hopefully at least stay in touch with them.

Strikes

Walking back from Junction this morning (after going for a malaria test, not been feeling well the past couple of days so everyone recommended I should - I don't have it) I heard a load of shouting and car horns. I look back to see 4 buses blocking the road, people climbing on the roofs and running around the road. They soon moved off again, but were driving all over the road, forcing people to turn around. A little concerned as to what was going on, I kept my distance from the road, being the only white person around, I figured if violence was going to kick off, I'd be an easy target.

The buses continued like this, followed by even more, about 15-20 of the same company passed by in total, most only having a driver, and 1 or 2 people sitting on the window shouting out or on the roof. I got back to the house to see on the news that there are matatu and bus strikes. From what I can gather, what I saw was the start of the strikes, the fleet of buses forcing other buses and matatu to turn around and go on strike. Walking back to Junction this afternoon, there was not a single bus or matatu in sight. Lucky none of us headed into city centre this morning else we'd be screwed getting back. Taxi drivers must be making a killing today!

Diani Beach/South Coast Backpackers

Friday night a group of 10 volunteers caught an overnight bus to Mombasa, to head to Diani for the weekend (with another 2 already being there, and 2 more on another bus). After 9 hours sat on a humid bus, with only one toilet stop at around 2am in what is quite possibly the dodgiest looking service stop I've ever seen, we arrived in a rainy Mombasa (oh and the windows leaked too!) just as the sun started to rise.

Luckily the rain cleared up pretty quickly, and as we got off the bus we were harassed by taxi drivers, and with us being white, they correctly assumed we were headed for Diani, which is far enough for them to earn a few thousand shillings. The most common taxis in Mombasa are tuk tuks, basically a motorised trike, enclosed with room for usually 3 passengers in the back. With 10 of us, this would get very expensive needing 4, so we opted for 2 standard taxis (squeezing 4 people in the back of each). The journey to Diani includes a ferry crossing across a river, (all I need to do now is ride in a tuk tuk and a train, to have pretty much every transport option covered in Kenya). It's only a 2 minute crossing, but with no bridge, the only option.

This is followed by a 40 minute drive through a couple of towns, all looking pretty standard for Kenya, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Diani, having heard good things about it. But as we reached Diani, with one main road running along the coast (though you can't actually see the coast from it so we didn't realise how close the beach was at this point), buildings became further spread, the area looked a lot more peaceful, and there were signs pointing to some nice looking resorts. Oh and of course, monkeys along the side of the road!

We were staying in a hostel, South Coast Backpackers, for only 850 shillings a night (and 3 for 2 as NVS/IVHQ volunteers). The taxi drivers were pretty confident they knew where it was when they picked us up. However, they took us to a resort, and immediately went to confirm with reception whether it was the right place. It was not. Their excuse was there are two backpacker resorts so they weren't sure which. There was no mention anywhere of 'backpackers' at this resort, but we got back in the taxis trusting they now knew for sure where they are going. Nope.

We drove down the road for a while until they decided to stop to ask people. This seemed to be of no help, so we got our driver to call the resort for directions. At this point the other driver disappeared off elsewhere. We arrived at the resort with the new directions, and waited 20 minutes whilst the other driver got lost instead of following us. When he eventually arrived, he then had the cheek to ask for extra money for the extra fuel used. Maybe next time he won't be so quick to say he knows where somewhere is just to get the business.

It was around 7-8am when we eventually arrived (hadn't slept much on the bus, so was a little tired to remember the time). Technically check in wasn't until 3pm, however we were welcome to drop our stuff off in the room, use the pool, and begin our tabs for drink and food. With 2 volunteers already there (1 of whom kind of works there temporarily, helping at the bar in exchange for cheap stay), we were shown around. For a cheap hostel, it was really nice. Large garden area, decent sized pool, fully enclosed with an electric fence on top of the wall (mostly to stop the monkeys getting in, disappointing for me I'm sure you can imagine), and security at night (Masai people with bow and arrows, again I was disappointed when they wouldn't let me have a go). Plus 2 guard dogs, a one eyed cat named Cyclops, and an unknown number of tortoises (there were 2 initially, but apparently they are at it like rabbits, with up to 20 babies having been spotted around). I had to educate some people on the difference between turtles and tortoises, though this resulted in everyone calling them turtles anyway, just to annoy me!

The guys that run the place are pretty awesome. Started by a Canadian named Scott and a French guy named Louis, they also have a couple of other friends working with them, as well as some Kenyans who cook, clean and help run the bar. They all make the effort to get to know all the guests, and are happy to advise on places to go, or even take us to the local bars. Unfortunately, most stuff is quite a way down the road, so there is a lot of travelling on matatus and motorcycles. After this weekend I am far more comfortable riding on the back of a bike than I was when I went to the ostrich farm, it has now become my favourite mode of transport. However I would still never touch one in Nairobi.

We jumped in the pool pretty much as soon as we had been shown round and dropped off our stuff. By 10am we had our first round of drinks and getting to know the other guests. We were having a relaxing weekend away so I think that's a reasonable time to begin drinking. Scott took us down to the beach to have a swim and play some football, and later in the day we headed to the local Nakumatt to get some cheaper drinks (the guys running the place are OK with this), and the whole day was pretty much spent around the pool drinking. In the evening a DJ arrived, and there was a buffet dinner, this was supposed to be a party for 2 of the workers returning, however they were delayed until Sunday, the party went ahead anyway though. Later in the night they took us down to come of the local bars, Forty Thieves. A bit expensive on drinks, but good atmosphere, music, and access to the beach, with a couple of pontoons you can swim out to.

Sunday we woke up feeling a little rough, understandably, so we didn't start the drinking quite so early. Instead some of us headed off to do some snorkeling. We went to the beach where some guys took us out in a wooden boat (slightly leaky, so there was some bailing of water to be done) to a coral reef. Although I've been snorkelling before in Egypt, something about this made me uncomfortable, perhaps partly due to the hangover. I was breathing heavily from the start and out of breath quickly, that I ended up getting back in the boat after about 10 minutes. As I sat watching the others, I began to feel sick. I figured a hangover and sitting in a boat rocking in the sea were just a bad combination. Fortunately the sickness feeling passed, however shortly after my hands began to tingle, followed by completely ceasing up. This is something that has happened before, which I guess is quite lucky, as having no idea what was happening would have been a lot more worrying, especially being stuck out at sea. These same symptoms occurred over a year ago, during a stressful period at work, it was diagnosed as an acute stress reaction, so I figured whatever it was about the snorkelling that had me uncomfortable had caused a similar reaction, though not as bad as the last time it had happened.

I was happy enough sitting there whilst the others snorkelled, and having explained to them the similar reaction before and that it would soon pass, they were happy knowing I wasn't going to die on them. By the time we were finished and back to shore, one hand had fully recovered and the other feeling was coming back to, and I've been fine since. Though unfortunately it seems that wasn't the only thing trying to ruin my weekend. I also managed to have a bottle of Jack Daniels stolen whilst I was at Forty Thieves one night, and chipped a tooth, on a burger of all things. Hopefully my hosts at the volunteer house can recommend a dentist, and that my travel insurance will cover it. Despite all this though, I still managed to thoroughly enjoy the trip. The 4 days were all pretty much spent the same, pool, drinking and playing card games until early hours of the morning. I'm looking forward to getting a good night sleep when back at the house, as I've only slept for a few hours the past 4 nights (on the overnight bus back to Nairobi as I type this so probably very little sleep tonight, and the night before Diani we were out in Nairobi, my body definitely needs a break from alcohol!).

This week back in Nairobi I need to confirm with NVS my extension and pay them the extra fees, as I would have been flying home tomorrow (Wednesday) night, these 4 weeks have gone so quick! And obviously I haven't been able to talk them due to being in Diani. I'll also hopefully confirm my next placement and what I'll be doing for Christmas. I'm hoping for a few volunteers to be at Madison House orphanage, though I think some plan to travel elsewhere for Christmas and New Year.

Anyway hopefully I'll have news on the new placement soon, and will get the chance to actually post all this, and hopefully it all makes sense, as I'm sitting on a bus at 1am with very little sleep.

Night Out In Nairobi

Last Thursday we had a couple of volunteers return from Masai land for the Diani trip at the weekend. We took this opportunity to go out in Nairobi, first time for me. We headed to a club about 9.30, apparently it had been pretty good there previously, not so much tonight. After one round of drinks and an argument with the waiter after he gave us wrong prices then tried to charge us more, we left (we were the only people there). We headed across the road to a bar our taxi driver had recommended.

We arrived to hear singing inside and quickly realised it was karaoke night, we decided it could be fun, so we walked in, and of course had everyone stare as we were the only white people there. Everyone was pretty friendly though, and we even did a group song. As the karaoke finished we thought it was pretty much the end of the night. We started to get ready to go, paying off our tab, when a Kenyan guy named Jimmy got chatting to us. He ended up offering us drinks, so of course we accepted and stuck around. The music continued, and the bar staff started dancing. As we chatted with Jimmy some more he ended up buying us more drinks, and the bar staff dragged us up to dance with them. The only way I can really describe the dancing was a borderline lap dance, the girls bending over in front of one of the other guys, Mac, and I, rubbing their butts against our crotches. Certainly was not expecting that.

More drinks from Jimmy later, and we started to think something was odd about this. I don't think many Kenyans can afford to buy 4 people more drinks than we had bought ourselves all night. We think he may have been doing it in an attempt to hook up with one of the girls with us. Of course we made the most of the free drinks, and then tried to slip out. At this point he was offering to arrange us a lift home. We decided our best option at this point, having not already called for a taxi, was to decline telling him we had one waiting down the road, and walk quickly down to The Junction to catch one from there.

Maybe Jimmy was just a rich, friendly guy. We'll probably never know, and are probably better off not knowing, if he were to attempt anything. But thanks anyway Jimmy, I really enjoyed the Jack Daniels (doubles even) he was buying me all night!

Side note: walking through Kibera slums hungover is not the most pleasant of experiences.

It's Official - 20th January

After the airline office here contacted the London office to confirm the costs for changing my flight, it turns out I am entitled to one free change! Of course, any difference in ticket price would still have to be paid, so finding a cheap date was a little tricky. High season is until 15th January, so any dates up to then would cost an extra £180. 16th-19th were fully booked in economy class, so an upgrade would cost £75. Although tempting, I decided it would be worth hanging on a few days to get it free, the money saved is more than enough to keep me going those few days. So I won't be back in England until the 21st January!

7km Walk, Ostriches and Motorcycles

Add to that bus and matatu and that's 5 modes of transport in one day. Wednesday this week I and a couple of other volunteers, Amber and Kylie, headed off to an ostrich farm in Kitingela (after the girls had attempted to go there on Tuesday, but ended up getting lost before they even got out of Nairobi). It took a couple of matatu rides to get to Kitengela, where we stopped off at Kylie's old host house for chai tea and chapati, before catching a third matatu to the farm...or a road 7km to the farm. From here we could either walk or jump on the back of a motorcycle, we opted to walk there.

An hour later we arrived at the farm...after the 10 mile bicycle ride at Hell's Gate, it was pretty easy, but still pretty tiring in the heat, so first thing was a cold drink. Then off to ride an ostrich. Not the most comfortable of things to ride, but still pretty fun, despite how short a ride it was. Once again I forgot my camera, so I'll have to get photos from the girls at some point to upload.

There was no way we were walking another 7km, so we called for a motorcycle ride. My first time on one here, and the road wasn't the smoothest, sand, rocks and big bumps. I'm usually OK on roller coasters and such, but this was pretty scary, not being able to see exactly where rocks were in relation to the wheels and thinking we're going to be thrown off. The driver must have enjoyed watching my facial expressions in the mirror. After the 7km road however, the road was smooth, so I was happy to continue on back to Kitengela, it's cheaper than a taxi, and more fun than a matatu (and arguably safer...no one is able to pick pocket you, but in just shorts and T-shirt, no helmet, it could be safer, I'd certainly never get on one in Nairobi the way they drive there).

In Kitengela it was back on a matatu to Nairobi, followed by a bus back home. Nothing exciting to report about that part of the day. But we got home to find we had a working DVD player in the house, so we no longer have to crowd around a laptop...unless the power is out, then it's that or playing cards.

Headed to the airline office again today hoping to confirm my flight change, however I'm now waiting to hear back from the London office to confirm the fee, as the lady I spoke to today gave a cheaper price. Hopefully I'll have that all confirmed tomorrow as most of us at the volunteer house are off to Mombasa tomorrow night for the weekend leaving very little time to sort it next week.

MONKEYS!!!

KICC Tower

Lazy Weekend

Having had a fairly busy week, and visiting the city centre the previous weekend, I haven't done much this weekend. Though I have been considering extending my trip, as school finishes on Wednesday, I'll be switching placements, but will barely be there for a week before having to leave. I had seen a Kenya Airways office at one of the shopping centres earlier in the week, the Ya Ya centre. So I headed back there Saturday to see how much it would be to change my flight. 222USD, ~£140, I was hoping for a bit cheaper, but not too bad. I still have money in the bank, and with the most expensive things being done in the first week, I've not spent much recently. This week I'm going to head down to the NVS office to discuss what is happening with my placement after Wednesday, and what it would cost with them to extend my stay. I've pretty much decided I will extend it, it's just a question of how long I can afford to stay.

I also did some laundry for the first time Saturday, it's a long process, filling 4 buckets with water, 1 of which has some washing powder in, the other 3 to rinse. I opted to not wash everything at once, that wold take far too long, so I'll just wash some every few days to keep me going. Of course, when I have laundry hanging outside to dry, it has to rain.

Saturday evening the power went out again (it's becoming almost a daily occurrence, for varying lengths of time, but it doesn't really bother us too much, we're used to it by now), but instead of heading to the cinema, we sat in candle light playing card games and chatting for hours. A couple of us also headed to a local shop (even the shops stay open in candle light) to get a couple of beers, Kenya's local lager Tusker, about £1 per bottle, and you get 20 shillings back when you return the bottle. The power eventually came back on about 11pm, but we were happy enough charting away for a couple more hours (Kenyan TV isn't that great anyway!).

Now Sunday, we woke up to no running water, not too much of a problem, there's a tap outside we can use to get water to boil for washing up and tea. The water came back after a while, only for the power to go out shortly after. The shower is electric, so no hot showers for us this morning. With the weather being pretty crap today, I've taken the time to finish writing up these posts for the past week. I'll head down to Junction in a bit to upload this and hopefully some photos too, if the battery will last. I'll try to update more often too, hopefully with details of my new placement and when I'll be staying until.

Free weekend and week 2

With no safari and Outreach over I had a free weekend this week. I took this time to explore the city some more, catching a bus into the city centre to have a look around the Masai market and the shopping centres. I also went up the Kenyatta International Conference Centre tower, where you can get a view of most of Nairobi. A couple of volunteers living with us who have been in Kenya a while were kind enough to show Grace (an Australian girl who started the same time as me) and I around, as we'd probably have never found the tower on our own. I was also hoping to go to the monkey park over the weekend but the matatu conductors were wanting to charge us twice the price for the trip (we confirmed with a couple of locals what the price should be), so we gave that a miss. We did, however, head to the elephant orphanage on Saturday morning (we had a few people stay at the house Friday night after Outreach, so we shared a taxi between 6 of us, the driver was pretty good, waiting for us there then dropping us back off at The Junction for little extra cost as he had to go back that way anyway).

Saturday night we decided to head out for dinner to a bar at The Junction, the only place I have seen bacon whilst here! So I had a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a few drinks. Sunday night the power went out at the house, so rather than sitting in candle light not knowing how long it would be out for (sometimes up to 24 hours at a time), some of us headed to the cinema to see Skyfall, 550 shillings, less than half the price of most cinemas back home, so much more leg room and the film was great!

On Monday I went back to my placement, it was only my third day as I had been busy with safari and outreach the previous week. The children have exams this week so the main thing was revision, the teacher gave me a textbook and asked me to ask them questions for English and science. As they had exams the rest of the week, I wasn't really sure what use I would be at the school for the next few days, so I joined the feeding programme in Kibera. Every Tuesday and Thursday a few volunteers head into the slums with flour and beans, visiting families who are a part of the programme to give them food. This is to help them get back on their feet while they try to find a job, so NVS monitor their progress to make sure they are trying, and not just using the programme as a way to get free food.

As we visit a few families, it also acts as a tour around parts of Kibera, with some history and information on the slums, and background on each of the families, why they are a part of the programme. It was good to actually learn about the individuals we are helping, unlike the Outreach feeding, though no doubt there are far more families NVS don't know about that could do with the help too.

After the feeding programme on Tuesday, I finally got to the monkey park! We couldn't be bothered with haggling with bus and matatu conductors so we got a taxi. Our hosts Milcha and Wambui were helpful with negotiating prices with the driver before we left (it was only Grace and I so the cheaper the better). Again the driver was happy to wait (he had never actually been to the park before so he seemed to enjoy watching). The park is free entry, as it is literally just a park with trees and benches, that monkeys like to hang out at. All you have to pay for is peanuts or bananas for the monkeys, otherwise they wont be interested in you. We bought a few bags of peanuts and headed in, as we barely got in a monkey came running towards Grace and stole a bag from her. She had a total of 7 bags stolen, whilst I managed to keep hold of my bags, feeding them a peanut at a time. They don't like to share much, trying to snatch the nuts whilst I'm trying to feed another, and fighting with each other. I had a monkey sitting on my shoulder when suddenly another dived out of a tree, tackling the other one off my shoulder. Though I soon had others jumping up, having 2 at a time on my shoulders at one point. Got quite a few photos, which hopefully I'll get on here soon, and I plan to hear back there at some point as it was awesome!

With more exams on Wednesday, I and a couple of other housemates decided to visit one of the orphanages where another volunteer, Jack, was staying, Madison House. NVS helped arrange us a taxi as we had no idea of the address, and we headed down hoping to get there before Jack had to take lunch to the children at school. Unfortunately NVS hadn't let the orphanage know that we were coming, and he had been asked by one of the children to attend his pre-exam ceremony. So the lady at the orphanage walked us part way to the school and pointed us the rest of the way. I've no idea how Jack manages the walk everyday carrying the kid's lunch!

It was almost lunch time she we arrived, so we sat in on the ceremony for a bit, then sat and had lunch with the kids. There is also a dog at the orphanage, bought for them by a past volunteer not long ago. Simba follows Jack to the school everyday, and so he was wandering around the school grounds. Some of the kids at the school also feed him a little, then he lays down with the kids from the orphanage until Jack is ready to leave (and of course helps to finish off any left over lunch). After lunch, we head back to the orphanage with Jack and Simba, and have a tour of the house, and seeing the cow we had helped to raise money for at orientation. I had also brought lots of colouring and craft stuff which I thought would be better placed at the orphanage than the school, Jack was very appreciative of this, but unfortunately as our taxi was coming to pick us up at 4, I never got to see the reactions of the children.

Thursday I joined the feeding programme again. As orientation for new volunteers was also today, Kylie who usually gives the tour wasn't able to, so Grace volunteered to stand in (with the help of the pastor who comes to visit the families with us, and another local who works with the programme and disability school in Kibera, as we still don't really know our way around too well). It was also Grace's final full day in Kenya, leaving Friday morning, so Thursday evening all the volunteers at the house headed to the bar at Junction again for a meal and a few drinks to say goodbye.

Friday exams were over, so I went back to the school, along with another volunteer, Kyung, who had her orientation the day before and was staying in the volunteer house also. I also had to say goodbye to Grace before heading to the school as she would be gone by the time I got back. It's a shame she had to miss out on the last few days of school, as these involve lots of singing and dancing, she was signed up for the music education programme at the school, but ended up teaching in a nursery class, so never really got to do what she wanted.

Kyung also taught them (and me) a bit of tae kwon do, as she is signed up for the sports programme, though most of the day was spent watching them rehearse for their graduation ceremony on Wednesday. Still not quite what we signed up to do, but still an enjoyable day doing something different.

A bit of a long post, hopefully it all makes sense as I've been writing it in parts throughout the week. It's now Sunday morning as I finish this, but I'll do a separate post for the weekend so as not to make this any longer, and hopefully try to update more frequently over the next week.

Safari Photos

Outreach and Pride Rock

Thursday and Friday this week I went on Outreach 'weekend'. As in my first post, this consisted of visiting three slums/camps, as well as Hell's Gate National Park. There were 21 of us on the trip (excluding NVS staff), apparently a fantastic turn out for this time of year. Squashed into 2 vans (Toyota Hiace's, the main passenger vehicle in Kenya, used for matatus, and some with openable roofs for safari) and a car, we headed off to our first destination, the KCC slum project, set up by past volunteers to help with education and feeding of children in a small slum area. As soon as we arrived, the kids were very excited to see us, and we found ourselves walking either holding hands or carrying some of the kids. We had a look around the school, gave the children their porridge, and walked down to the slum to have a look around. This is also where the Olympic medallists have their placement, and their happened to be New Zealand reporters down that day too to interview them.

After KCC we went for lunch at what was pretty much a service station, but had a few cheap, good places to get food. I had a beefburger, chips (very big portion) and a bottle of cola for about 350 shillings (less than £3). Definitely needed the food for energy for what was coming next, a bike ride through Hell's Gate.

We arrived at Hell's Gate and our bicycles were waiting for us before the entrance to the park, which of course had to be further up hill, on a gravel road. Not a great start for someone who hasn't been on a bike for nearly 10 years, I was surprised to find I even remembered how to ride! Though it did take me a while to get my balance right. So off into the park we went, where it became a dirt road, trying to avoid rocks sending me off balance, drifting to the side of the road in a ditch, skidding in sand and dust from getting in my eyes.

Having already been on safari, the novelty of seeing the zebras, bufallo and gazelles had mostly worn off, but it was still kind of cool seeing them whilst not stuck inside a Hiace. We passed by Fischer's Tower, which I was hoping we'd get the chance to climb as was suggested by someone in a comment on here, but unfortunately we were short on time and it wasn't part of our itinerary. So we continued on, until we reached Pride Rock, probably the thing everyone was looking forward to the most, as we were listening to Lion King songs on the way to the park, courtesy of one of the girls, not me, I should add.

We were told we had about 5 mins to attempt to climb it, but since we're in Africa, that could mean anything, so we didn't rush. It probably took about 10 mins to find a route up, some people taking more awkward routes than others, pretty much everyone getting some sort of scratches. But getting to the top and looking out, remembering the scenes from the Lion King was pretty amazing. Unfortunately I can't say I was the first of our group to reach the top, however I was the first to find a route out onto the furthest ledge, raising my arms and shouting 'f*** yeahhhhhh', as the few who didn't fancy the climb took pictures from below. Also unfortunately, no one had a baby lion handy, so I had to make do with holding a large rock over the edge. Hopefully the guys that were below will email the photos soon so I can get them on here, hopefully I can also borrow a laptop from a housemate over the weekend to transfer my photos onto my tablet and upload next time I'm at The Junction.

Naturally the journey down was far quicker, and we were on our way again, with a nice long downhill stretch we could just coast along. We continued until we reached the gorge, where we dismounted for a hike through it. What was once one lake with a river outlet, is now 5 lakes, with the river now being a gorge, due to a volcanic eruption. As the lakes now have no outlets, they are getting quite high with the rainfall, very noticeable when we did the safari through Lake Nakuru, which risks being shut if the rain continues.

In the gorge there was some running water, and various signs warning of flash floods. Most interesting were the streams of hot (not warm from the sun, actually like hot running water) flowing down the side of the gorge, I guess heated by some molten rock within the hills. Then we to climb some steps, to a viewpoint looking down through the gorge, here we had a couple of group photos, then headed back to the bikes for the cycle back.

Of course I completely ignored earlier as I enjoyed the coasting downhill, that to get back to where we started, we have to go back up. I'd also not worked out how to use the gears at this point, which just made it even worse, but I had started, I had climbed Pride Rock, and I was determined to finish it properly. I was desperate for a drink, but I knew that if I stopped, I would just lie down until the van caught up with us, so I kept going, and despite how tired I was, and how long it had been since I had ridden a bike, I was within the first 5-10 back to the entrance. Glad for it to be over, I sat down to have a drink, until we were told we had to go back to where we collected the bikes. Whilst it was all downhill from there, the bumpy gravel road was not nice, and my butt was getting pretty sore from the hard seat by this point. But I made it, and I'm glad I did it, definitely a great experience. In total we cycled for about 10 miles, which probably isn't a lot to some people, but for someone who barely does any exercise and doesn't even know how to work the gears properly, I'd say its quite an achievement!

After the bike ride we headed to the hotel, which basically looked like a prison. We heard conflicting things as to whether it actually was a prison previously, so we're still not quite sure, but we're going with that story. I don't think my mum was impressed when I text her to say I'm spending the night in a prison! Some of the girls were worried about sleeping alone there, so ended up sharing rooms. Despite this, they still ran out of rooms in the main building, so I ended up in solitary confinement in another wing (or another building across the road). It was actually only me and one of the NVS guys there, lucky I wasn't scared about sleeping alone. The hotel was very basic, not even somewhere to get food there, we had to drive to a restaurant. I read a news article about Anders Breveik (is that right? The Norwegian guy who shot people in Oslo) complaining about his prison cell being inhumane, seeing a picture of his cell I'm fairly certain it was bigger than our rooms, and seeing some of the complaints, well he'd have hated it here!

Day 2

Friday morning I woke up hearing people chatting away and banging in the corridor, I checked the time thinking it must be nearly time to get up...3.30am, apparently that's an acceptable time to be making a noise in a hotel in Kenya. So I went back to sleep until breakfast time. When that came around we headed to the restaurant again, for egg, samosa and chips, which seemed a little odd. After breakfast we went back to the hotel, where we had sacks of flour and blocks of butter to separate into smaller bags to hand out at the IDP camp and garbage slum.

So we headed off to the first project of the day, IDP camp. We arrived and were shown around, the houses were made of any type of fabric they could get hold of, to form some sort of tent. Some materials had been donated by organisations, but would only remain waterproof for a few months so most would be leaking. We went into one of the houses where an elderly, ill lady was in bed. Since they can barely afford to eat, hospital was out of the question. We were also told of a baby who was in hospital with a few problems, including yellow fever. The family were behind on their hospital bills, and they were growing everyday. We all put some money together towards the bills and were able to bring the bills almost up to date (a few people took the money direct to the hospital to ensure it was all going towards what bit was intended).

Before leaving, we had to give out the flour and butter. One woman had a list with every family living in the camp, so one by one each family was called and given one bag of flour and butter. Some would not react at all (which is apparently normal in Kenya, they don't often thank people for things), but others were clearly grateful, one woman even dancing here way to us. Some of us had also bought other things to give out, such as lollies for the kids, and bread and pasta, so we gave out this also (I had children line up for a slice of bread each, and some of the pasta was given straight to the school there, whilst some people gave bread to the family with the ill lady). Once finished here, we headed off to the final project.

Arriving at the garbage slum, it was exactly as it sounded, a garbage dump site, with houses built along side. We even saw trucks coming in to dump stuff. As this happens, some of the residents race to the truck to find food, materials they can use to build, or items they can take to the recycling plant for very little money. As well as handing out food here, there are some volunteers who help to give the children here an education, in a local boarding school to get them out of the slums. Though most families can't afford to send all their children to school. Some are also sponsored by an organisation, or even individuals, though one organisation had just dropped out, meaning if the money isn't raised soon, they'll have to be taken back to the garbage slum.

Again we were shown around a little, including meeting a family and seeing their house, pretty much built from items found in the garbage, and flies flying around everywhere. It was quite horrible to see, and the smell in the whole area was disgusting, but due to running late we didn't stick around for long, which I guess we were all pretty glad about. So after handing out the remainder of the food, we headed off, back to the service station to eat, and were given a breakdown of where all our money for the trip went (apart from fuel, meals and accommodation (which NVS also put money towards) and Hell's Gate fees, all was split between the projects, and given how many of us there were, that was a fair amount). Then we were taken back to The Junction to enjoy the rest of the day however we liked.

Obama Day

Today I and an Australian girl I'm living with are American for the day. All the other volunteers in the house are actually American, but as we're all muzugus (technically a person who speaks English, but the word is used towards all white people) we all get 'happy Obama day!' shouted at us. Someone from NVS (the local organisation partnered with IVHQ in Kenya) even came to pick us up from school at lunch time to take us to a party in the slums. Unfortunately we could see there was a storm coming so left before the party got started properly, but it was good to see how excited the Kenyans were over the US elections.

I realised I can write out these posts offline whilst at my home stay and then post them when I get to The Junction, so I won't have to spend so long there. So I did that whilst waiting for the storm to calm down, then hopped on a matatu for the first time, not too bad, but not as packed as they usually are either. For only 20 shillings, can't complain!

Week 1

So I've been in Kenya almost a week now, this is the first chance I've had to post on here. Currently sitting in the local supermarket food court with my Nexus tablet using the free WiFi' unfortunately got no photos at the moment, so I won't go into detail on everything for now, but will try to when I get computer access.

Day 1 - arrival
Wednesday we landed half hour ahead of schedule, customs seemed pretty laid back, no questions asked with the visa application (though they did take fingerprints of everyone on our flight, but not other flights according to other volunteers). Didn't even see anyone get their baggage checked, England are more concerned about what is living the country than Kenya are of what enters.

Picked up my baggage to find no on waiting to pick me up, fair enough I thought, as we had landed early. I waited so e time before deciding to call someone to find out where the pick up was, 10 minutes away apparently. So I waited some more, until the driver called me to say another 10 minutes. Shortly after, I saw a girl on come off her phone and start heading towards me, turns out she was on the same flight, also volunteering and waiting for the same driver. We were both quite glad to have found someone to talk to at this point, as we waited a total of about 2 hours before the driver eventually arrived.

We were finally picked up, having no idea where we were headed for our first night, the driving in Kenya is crazy! Pulling out in the smallest gaps, tail gating as close as possible. Though after a few days in the country, I'm actually getting quite used to it. Still wouldn't want to drive here myself though.

We arrived at a house, where the only person to be found was a cleaner, we had no idea what to do, as we had the whole day left, and no idea what the plans were for orientation the following g day. So the cleaner called the owner of the house, who sent someone to pick us up and take us to a school where the owner works, where we sat in on a class and helped a little. We then headed back to the house in the afternoon as we were quite tired from the flight, and found one of the other volunteers who was living there, then there some new arrivals, and we began to feel like there was some sort of organisation to it all, rather than we had just been sent to a random house and left to fend for ourselves.

We had diner at the house, and were told what was happening with transport to our orientation the next day, and all headed off to bed for an early night.

Day 2 - orientation
We had our second experience of 'African time' on this day, as our pick up for orientation was an hour late, but this wasn't as big a deal, as we could take our time with breakfast, and get to know some of the new arrivals. At orientation we were introduced to the other volunteers and the local team, as well as told what our placements involved and some of the other things we can get up to in our time here. Afterwards we were transferred to our permanent home stays (apart from a few who would be taking an overnight bus to Mombasa the following night, so they stayed in the volunteer house where I was now staying.

Some of the other volunteers already at the house took us down to the local supermarket to show us around, then we went back to the house for dinner and to relax before our first day of placement.

Day 3 - first day of placement
As per tradition, we were picked up late to be taken to our placement. There we 3 of us to be taken to the Olympic Academy in Kibera (although one of them was only here until yesterday due to not being able to get time off work).

We were taken to the school and introduced to the pastor and head teacher, before being taken to separate classes to help. The students are mostly revising for exams next month, so after introducing myself to the class, the teacher asked me to go through some maths questions with them, doing a couple of examples on the board, then getting them to do the rest and marking as they do so. During this the teacher disappeared, I'm not sure whether to another class, or whether he thought he doesn't have to be there whilst I was there. I'm hoping its other first option, otherwise I can't help but think I may be better placed elsewhere.

The teacher reappeared at lunch time, then as the next lesson came, gave me the next set of instructions for their religious studies class, asking them questions from a text book in groups they were split into. At the end of the class I took out my camera to take a few pictures, the camera was hijacked and I now have many pictures of all sorts of things, guess I'll have to go through and delete some of the random ones at some point!

At the end of the day, we were picked up from the school and walked back to our home stay, from this week onwards we'll be making the journey on our own/with other volunteers working in the same area.

Day 4-7 -  safari
Over the weekend I went on a safari to Maasai Mara national park, and Lake Nakaru national park with some of the other volunteers (including 2 olympic medal winners from New Zealand, Rebecca and Juliette of the rowing team). Unfortunately I left my camera at the house, but one of the other girls was kind enough to let Meuse her spare one, so I'll get the pictures from that and do a proper write up of the safari at some point. Some of the highlights include watching lions feasting on a buffalo, and baboons causing trouble at the entrance of a park, raiding bins and getting in a car to steal fruit.

I'll leave it that for now, as it will be getting dark soon so should get home whilst its still light. Will try to get back on here and update again soon.

Tomorrow's the day!

So, after a couple of people suggesting it, I thought I would set up a blog for my time away in Kenya. I can't make any guarantees as to how often I'll be able to update it, as I've no idea when/how often I'll have internet whilst there.

I guess I'll explain what made me do this. Well, a few years ago my plan was to do some travelling after finishing sixth form, in a gap year before university. Unfortunately I never managed to save the money for it, and I had never really decided what exactly I was going to do. Most of you probably know, I also dropped out of uni after less than 2 months, and have worked in three different jobs in just over a year, so have never really had a clear direction of where I'm going in life, despite the 5+ years working in retail up until last year, before eventually giving up on chasing a career with that company.

But, years ago, I always had an interest in teaching, so when I saw the company IVHQ and the placements they have to offer, it was the perfect opportunity to do two things I had always wanted to do. Skip ahead a couple of years, postponing several times for various reasons, here I am today, almost packed and ready to go.

I'm leaving tomorrow, flight leaves Heathrow at 7pm, lands in Nairobi at 6.30am (GMT+3, so 8 1/2 hour flight). Hopefully I'll manage to get some sleep on the plane, though Wednesday there is not much happening as far as I know, picked up by the local volunteer company and taken to a host family for the day/night, before orientation Thursday. Hopefully there will be a couple of other volunteers arriving early, so we can have a wander around Nairobi (not too keen on doing that on my own on the first day in the country!).

Thursday we'll be picked up from our temporary host family and taken to orientation, to be given the final details of our placement. As it stands at the moment, I'll be teaching (Maths, English, Science and Social Studies) at the Olympic Education Centre in the Kibera slums, and will be living in a volunteer house, not in the slums, but close, looked after by two Kenyan ladies named Milka and Wambui. Though this is all subject to change, won't know for sure until Thursday.

Also at the orientation, we'll be able to book safaris, as well as the outreach weekend, visiting 3 projects started by past volunteers:

The KCC Slum Project (Reaching out to 130 slum kids through education, feeding projects and further projects.)
IDP Project (the combination of a feeding program for over 170 displaced families .currently we want to start several projects which will gear the development of lives of camp dwellers.
Nakuru slum Project (we reach out over 50 families living in the slum whose daily bread is earned by scavenging from garbage waste deposited near their homes. Currently only have a feeding program for the slum dwellers.)

During the weekend, we'll also take a bike ride through Hell's Gate, and help distribute food at the Nakuru slum. Oh and the opportunity to experience the night life in Kenya...with drinks being around a pound a pint, I'm definitely in!

Well that's everything I know so far, not sure what else I'll be up to over the next month, but I'll try to update this with my plans whilst I'm away. Hopefully people are interested in reading!