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.