Another hectic few weeks. I can't remember what date I updated last, so apologies for any repetition. The most stressful recent event that had everyone contacting me was the terrorist attack in a shopping centre, which only ended a few days ago. Luckily, I was on safari when it started, and was hours from Nairobi. When I came back to the city, it was recommended we stay away from our local shopping centre for a while, as it was the exact same as the one that was targeted- a rich, Western mall. As we were on safari, we were in a bit of a media black hole, and only stayed up to date by reading the newspaper from the weekend. Some of the articles about what happened were pretty freaky- such as how some of the terrorists escaped, or the ways hostages were tortured before they were killed, so I stopped reading them after only a day. Some of the other volunteers were in Mombassa for the weekend, and had to stay there a few extra days as they were told it was not safe for them to travel on the bus home. Things have pretty much returned to normal here, though some of the other volunteers still feel pretty tense when we are in busy public areas.

The teacher we hired for the special school was due to start, however decided her university timetable conflicted with the hours of work and didn't show up to her first day- but didn't think to call us to turn down the job. Just an hour after school started one of the candidates we DIDN'T hire turned up instead- an awkward morning! We started our second choice of teacher 2 weeks ago, and he has turned out to be great. He is working on creating individual education plans, and is working on setting specific goals for each student, utilizing our new folders we have created to ensure that there is some continuity between volunteers and an actual record of information on each student.

The other volunteer on my project, Mary Alice, and I visited the local doctor to hear information on every student to help us kit out the folders, a fascinating experience. Almost every student at our school would not need to be there if they had been treated correctly. One student contracted cerebral malaria when he was 5 years old, however his family did not have access to appropriate medical care, and his central nervous system (CNS) was affected, leaving him with lifelong epilepsy. His parents do not believe in medication, and he is having seizures every few days. Another student had meningitis, and the family did not take her to the hospital in time, and she is left with a moderate to severe intellectual disability, as well as a physical disability where she is confined to a wheelchair. Our third student had HIV from birth, however her family were in denial that she was HIV positive, and she was not told she had the condition, and hence remained unmedicated, until the infection reached her CNS and she had a stroke at 14.

The fourth student was in a car accident, and the medical team did not know how to fix her broken legs, so fused her joints instead, and she will never again straighten her legs. The final student has an intellectual impairment as a result from alcohol abuse from the mother while in the womb. It was frustrating to hear how many of these conditions could have been avoided if access to the necessary care had been provided! It was also incredible to hear how the students were treated before the school was started- with some being locked in a room in the mud shacks all day, without any entertainment, cold food in front of them and a bucket to toilet in often left out of reach, so they were required to soil themselves.

This doctor was an inspirational person. She had conducted her master's thesis on healthcare available in the slum we are volunteering in, and became so attached to her patients she started her practice here. As so many of her patients are very poor, she accepts people paying only 70% of her fees, or payment plans that span several years. Some patients are struggling to pay their bills so much that they don't want any more children, but have to take contraception in secret, leaving any record at the doctor's clinic, rather than take them home. If I have any fundraising money left before I leave, I will donate some to this doctor, as working within Kibera leaves her so tight financially that she can barely pay to replenish her medical supplies.

I didn't run as many physical therapy sessions this fortnight as the last as it rained a lot, and the dirt roads in the slums get so muddy it is impossible to get the students' wheelchairs through the hilly slush. Not a fan of walking through Kibera myself when it rains- the ground becomes so slippery and I have mental images of slipping into the open sewers! Because of the rain, one of the students had not turned up in almost two weeks. Before the rain started we were assisting her to take out her braids. When she returned, no-one had finished taking them out, and she had half completed braids everywhere, that were wet, mouldy and stinking. When I had finished taking them out for her, my hands were a filthy black colour.

Government officials came to the school to have a meeting about what we do here, and discuss the possibility of adding a primary school when we relocate. They were very impressed with what is run at the school, and are hoping to be able to assist with fundraising.

One of the girls here spent a few weeks with a Massai tribe, and was there when they completed a female circumcision on a young girl. Apparently they cut out her clitoris, as they believe if the woman cannot experience any enjoyment from sex that she will stay loyal to her husband. They then cut the inside of her, and bind her legs together for a month so that the skin heals together. They then slaughter a cow; dig a hole and line the hole with the cow skin and fill it with blood. The men of the tribe are then required to complete this rite of passage by kneeling by the hole and cupping their hands and drinking the blood. Intense!

One day we decided to clean the school (or more accurately, the 2 rooms). As the slums are dirt roads, the buildings get filthy very quickly. There is no running water in lots of Kibera, so we carried 10litres of water the 30 minute walk to the slum, up and down the muddy hills. We carried warm water to help get the dirt off, and one of the students had not experienced warm water like this, and kept trying to get handfuls of the muddy water we had washed off the walls and pour it over his face and hands!

I went to the local women's centre for HIV positive women, and we gave them an afternoon of pampering- complete with hand massages and nail painting. One of the volunteers here is writing a book about volunteering in Africa to fundraise, and has been going around the house interviewing all of us for content. I will keep you updated on this front. She is travelling for another 10 months, so it might not be out for a while. She is visiting Aus for 3 months over the new year, so you might get to meet this awesome friend of mine!

One of the exciting events of the last fortnight was going on safari! We drove the 6 hours to the Massai Mara to visit the game parks for a few days, and stay in tents. We saw so many animals- vultures, wilder beast, zebra's, leopards, lions, elephants, monkeys, baboons, giraffes, gazelles, cheetah, ostrich, impalas, crocodiles and hippos! I had to keep reminding myself that these were real animals lying just metres from me, and not ones locked up in a zoo! We had a picnic lunch in the middle of the game park under a tree! There were lots of cows in the park as there isn't enough land for everyone's stock to graze, so they risk their cows (and young children herding them!) getting eaten by lions for the chance of being able to feed them! On the way home children would run up to the van as we drove past, begging for water and food. We gave out some bottles of water, and our leftover lunch.

While I had been gone, Mary Alice had taken one of our students to a free gym for HIV positive women who use it to learn to walk again (lots of them are bedridden for 18 months due to weakness and need to re learn how to walk). When the physio volunteer and herself arrived, however, it turned out it wasn't 'Sarah's Gym', but rather 'Sarah Gen's Massage Parlour'! Nevertheless, our student is enjoying the massages to loosen up her muscles, but it appears if she is going to learn to walk again, it sure won't be at this ''gym''!. En route to the gym they were also enlightened to a common belief in Kenya that malaria is contracted from eating a banana on a cold day, or without a cup of tea! After the ''gym'' my friends visited an orphanage, where they were provided with lunch of a peanut butter sandwich- bread with butter and chunks of real salted peanuts!

A few days ago I arrived at school and shook the hands of one of our students, only to find he was soaking wet. Apparently he had had an epileptic seizure and had fallen into the massive sewerage river outside the school! It was a rainy day, and he was shivering violently from the cold. This student had not showered in three weeks, and was now covered in raw sewerage. Without access to running water, the only thing we had to clean him off with was wet wipes. We had to call his parents to come with spare clothes, and go to the women's centre to get some tea to warm him up. After school we were locking up and walked out into the street and he was punching up the driver that picks up our wheelchair bound students. Aggression is usually his post seizure behavior, and the driver informed us he had had another seizure on the road. He took off running down the road, and the driver had to catch up with him and calm him down. We decided to walk this student home as he wasn't having the best of days! After he has a seizure he often likes to hold your hand to calm him down, so he reached for my hand. Needless to say, a white girl walking through the biggest slum in Africa holding the hand of a man with a clear intellectual impairment that smelt of sewerage attracted attention, and my friends and I had 20 children and 10 adults following us as we walked him home!

I had agreed to pay for a panel beating course for one of our students with a mild intellectual disability, and we went to the garage during the week for me to hand over the money. The ''office'' was amazing- giant holes in cement, filled with the shells of old car seats, encased with rusty tin as a roof. The student started the same day, and the $180 in total I paid for him means he will have an 8-12 month paid apprenticeship- something that will hopefully change his life for the better. We are hoping to do a check up visit on him this week.

I'm having a quiet weekend this weekend as I have come down with a flu- didn't sleep very well during the terrorist attack, but have a lot planned for October. 5 weeks until I'm heading home! Time is flying! Internet is very temperamental as the electricity in the area is often off for days at a time, so texting me is best. Love to you all!