Sorry about the title Mum :) ! Thought it would grab the attention - luckily not my arm.
29 Feb – 2 March – Pretty normal week. Thursday 1st was staff performance appraisal day so the Polytechnic was shut again. A day working from home and enjoying daily life a the orphanage and in Kandara.
The weekend was spent around Kandara too and I took the opportunity to play with the camera and get some more photos of the great kids having so much fun with so little. See for yourself in the photos - refer to the previous blog post too.
Newton - escaped from the Baby Unit with his Breakfast!
With no school on a Saturday it is chores.
This terrace and steps get cleaned daily with towels and buckets!
A sheet and some rope and you have a hammock - who needs John Lewis!
W/C 5 March
Having had a couple of quiet weeks things seem to have got busier again.
Monday, trying to cram a weeks stuff into a day and a half. I am spending most of the week in Nairobi. The next intake of volunteers arrived 3 March and I offered to give the rural view of volunteering. When I arrived the existing volunteers were all Nairobi based and they have a very different experience.
Tuesday 6th - Before I set off to Nairobi I had a meeting with Songa Mbele who are a micro finance charity in Kandara who support women to set up finance groups. I had spotted them when I was at the internet café in their office block and thought they may be of benefit to our graduates. We had a good chat and they are coming to the Polytechnic in May to present to the Trainees. Both boys and girls will be invited as raising awareness of micro finance initiatives and groups won’t do any harm.
Then it was in a Matatu to Nairobi via Thika. Once in Nairobi Ihad to get a bus to the hotel. It being around 5 I had the famous rush hour to cope with. Whilst on the bus I got a call from a couple of existing volunteers saying they were at a pub near the hotel and it was happy hour till 7pm. I dropped my bags at the hotel and was there! A couple of the newbies turned up too which was nice.
A night in a hotel with a real WC and warm shower was a novelty. I am pretty used to the squat toilet and morning bucket wash at my house now though and this modern stuff is beginning to feel strange rather than back to normality.
Wednesday 7th – Breakfast with the new volunteers then a catch up with Erin (existing volunteer from Western Kenya and the VSO chap we were co-presenting with that afternoon. I offered to spice up a very wordy presentation with some photos and then we are set for 2 hours of “3-way Partnership” this is the link and working relationship between VSO, The partner organisation and the volunteer. We were mainly there to add real experiences to the points raised and then answer the many questions.
The new intake
The evening was spent chatting to the new volunteers and their many queries – just like we were 4 months ago!!
Thursday 8th – after breakfast Nicole and I were supporting a VSO chap with his presentation on “Transparency and Governance”. He had not been in touch in advance so we felt we were just down for the Q&A at the end. 8.30 start. At 8.40 he had not turned up so I turned to Nicole and said “shall we wing it? Luckily I had the presentation from our training on my laptop. Using that background we managed to get a few laughs and keep them awake for 2 hours. Using real experiences of corruption etc from speaking to other volunteers helped to make it real. I did however use some examples of the UK to just to show it was not just a Kenya problem.
A chill out for a while before our 2pm session which was 3 existing volunteers and just the new volunteers (no VSO staff or partner organisation representatives) so they could ask anything they were not comfortable asking. We also shared our experiences of what happened after leaving training. We had very varied placements and experiences in the first few months so it was a good mix. I don’t think we scared them too much and we did add we were having a great time and mostly were thinking of extending.
The only real problem with the training is they are in a bit of a sanitised bubble and after 5 days everyone just wants to get stuck into the placement.
There is a Chinese lady (Judy) starting at a polytechnic near to mine so it was good to meet her before she travels out Kandara way.
Friday 9th – finished with training so I dropped into the /VSO office and was handed a parcel slip to add to the one I had with me. Unfortunately it was some time since I had been told I had a parcel and on reading the slip I noticed that they charged you for storage. I worked out the combined bill was 4-5000 kenyan shillings –circa £35 – for storage plus any customs charges. I knew the contents and it was not worth that so I thought I would test my negotiation skills. I also had to go and sort out my full work permit and accompanied Meshak to the office to get this done first. Much security at the office and we were not even allowed to linger outside the building. Probably had something to do with the bulky rucksack on my back!!
30 mins later I was officially allowed to work in Kenya. Then to the post office to pick up my permanent driving licence. Then to the parcel centre. “Closed” for lunch so Erin and I then decided to spoil ourselves with a burger and chips before returning to our respective placements and traditional Kenyan food. Erin set off back home and I returned to the post office. Expecting the worst I went to the first counter. My parcels were picked up and I was sent to the customs man to open them. I played the charity worker fundraiser for Kenyan youth card and he waived all customs charges on both parcels!!! Then to the post office official to tot up the storage. She spotted the customs chaps waiver and then let me off too so I just had 150 shillings on each parcel not the 5000 I was expecting. That paid for the burger anyway J.
The Thika superhighway is nearing completion now so the Friday rushhour was not it’s usual nightmare and I was home in an hour and a half. Home to open my last Christmas present and eat Chocolate and other goodies from home.
Sat 10th – A quiet day planned and I dropped by Jane's place to say hi.
Guess what's for lunch!!
Me with Grandma Kibe (101 years old!) Grandma Kibe looking more cool than me in
my baseball cap and sunglasses
After and hour or so with the family I was told there was a wedding on next door and I was invited to join them. Luckily the goats had been slaughtered earlier in the day so I missed the blood but thankfully not the meat so shepherded via a fleeting introduction to the ladies to the men around the fire and meat. I was handed a lump of Kenya sausage on arrival. Then passed the real delicacy of the tongue of a goat. This is a great honour apparently and actually tasted OK. There was another live goat in a pen nearby looking a little nervous but I think she was safe for the day at least!!
This was a traditional Kikuyu tribe wedding which was quite a spectacle. The bride and groom cut a leg of goat rather than a cake. Then Uji (porridge) is brought and fed in a special cup to the groom by the bride. The groom has to pretend not to want it and the other women help the bride force him to have it. Then he returns the favour. The bride it then passed from one lady to another to be carried on their backs like a baby. This I was told is to bring the luck of child birth to the couple. Then more singing and dancing etc. I was the only Mzungu and was made very welcome. I had the only camera too so gave it to the daughter of the groom to take photos and record the day which they were very grateful for.
The Bride and Groom cut the goats leg
The Girls shake it!
It was dark by the time we finished and I had a 4km walk down and unlit dirt track. I was escorted half way and then was alone. Luckily a Piki arrived (motorbike taxi) and I decided that was the lesser of the two risks and was safely home in no time.
Sunday 11th – There were rumours of the Vice President of Kenya coming to the orphanage but by 3.30 pm I decided he probably wasn’t and dropped by Kiranga Polytechnic to check Judy was settling in OK. All was good and she was being well looked after by the team there.
It was falling off from this very position that little Kuria (on top) broke that left elbow!
Monday 12th – Took Chai with the orphanage team before setting off to work. I was pointed to little Kuria (about 6 years old) who had hurt his arm on Sunday. On inspection it was pretty obvious the elbow was broken. He was being very brave but was clearly in a lot of pain. There was a doctors strike so no chance of any treatment for a couple of days. This along with two extreme stomach upsets were examples of the suffering of the innocent and vulnerable at times of industrial disputes.
Tuesday 13th – luckily today Kuria manages after 48 hours Kuria was finally x-rayed and now sports a pot from his shoulder to his hand and his fantastic smile had thankfully returned.
In preparation for the inter polytechnic sports day we had a friendly today with a nearby very small polytechnic (just 20 students and only 2 classrooms that also double as office and store). We played football and volleyball. A fair crowd formed from the small town as they played in 30+ degrees some barefoot etc. Ithiru won the volleyball 2 games to one and the football 7-2 so it was a good day. Hopefully things will go the same way on Thursday!!
The Ithiru boys in Red v the barefoot neighbours
One of the locals keeping me company
The Ithiru Volleyball Team in action - or is it Ballet!!
The full line up from both Polytechnics
The girls netball team meanwhile were training back at the Poly.
Need to work on the smile for the photos!
No comments:
Post a Comment