I didn't have a chance to write what I got up to in the last week so here it is.......this is abit of a long one!!...........
W/c 26th July
On Monday and Tuesday we rotered to be in the two schools, Merithu on Monday and Teikunu on Tuesday. We had practiced the HIV presentation, which we had split into three parts and my group decided to do a non-vocal role play about stigma with Jas being the narrator. We were pretty pleased with it to be fair and so were our supervisors.
On Monday, the usual with Merithu school (mrs trunchbulls) we weren't really needed and we didn't feel appreciated. They had something important on the following day and told our supervisor they would "fit us in, if they could" I was fuming at the cheek of it as it had been in the rota planned for us and we had practiced it. Summed up that school like. Anyway letting our supervisor know we weren't happy we ended up being squeezed in right at the end of the day so I don't know whether it would of had much impact that late in the day. The Kids were practicing some dances for whatever event they had on the following day. The whole school was made to come outside on the field and each class had to perform at the front. As with many Africans, alot of them were brill but as with everything not all classes/pupils were good at it or enthusiastic...so of course they got put to one side to be potentially caned!! baring in mind the teachers practically had no input for this "very important event" the children came up with all the songs and dances themselves and the cheek of the teachers at the back, rather than support them, they stood there laughing. I was fuming at the audacity of them! Grrrrr
Thankfully the kids had a chance at coming back and saving themselves from being caned in front of everyone. They had a few minutes to prepare a new dance and make it sound good. They were in classes so it wasn't so bad but they did so well to pull it back....even though it seemed to go unappreciated. One thing that endeared me greatly...there was one boy who had been pulled from his group for not being able to dance/sing. Anyway he was up for the caning unless he could pull something out of the bag. His younger brother came up from the rows of children sitting down and asked the deputy head whether he could join his brother to help him. He obviously new he wasn't so great at performing. They came back with this acting piece and it was really good. They were clearly talented in that area.
We refused to walk Jenga to her matatu stop that day but she ended up walking our route for a while. I heard our supervisor mention to her that she had some talented students that she should nuture and encourage. She replied "Really?? I don't see the point in extra cirriculem activities" GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Tuesday was a completely different day. We were at Teikunu, a much poorer but lovely and welcoming school. With the headmaster Gabriel being a particular favourite amoung the volunteers although he wasn't in that day. We were doing some flower beds in the morning then in the afternoon we had our slot to do our HIV presentation. We were given a room this time so it was much better! After the presentation we were invited outside with the whole school and the "entertainments team" gave us some tribal dances and songs to thanks us. It was brilliant. We were then given some handmade Kenyan bracelets to remember them! how canny!!
On the way home that day we had an interesting chat with a volunteer from the school who thought mzungoes have lots of money and they sometimes burn some. We chatted to him for about an hour explaining on expensive it is to live in UK including all the costs that we have. That night Gabriel came to visit us, as he had missed us that day. Kenya had the biggest political day on the day we were leaving and he was working on the polling stations for the voting. He was telling us about that and also how good our work has been including the art, trees and he even mentioned the lesson me and Millie took about The Solar system saying he had gave his class a test and they had done very well and remembered the song we had taught them to help them remember the planets.
On Wednesday we were with our host families but me and Jas went to Limuru market with ours. Some of us chipped in for school shoes for Teikunu and school bags for the orphanage.
We managed to buy 16 pairs of shoes and 10 school bags which we were to take on Thursday. After a very hectic day of haggling with Kenyans we had some nice food in the cafe :)
On Thursday morning we told Gabriel to expect us. He was really pleased we were coming again. We wanted to be really discrete with these shoes because we obviously couldn't afford shoes for all the children as much as we would of loved to so we had them in bags and went into his office to explain what we had done. We wrote him a letter, Kenyans love cheesey stuff, they are much more open that us about feelings etc so in short we just explained we had really enjoyed being at his school, the kids were lovely and that we had noticed a lot of poor footwear and wanted to give a gift. We had planned to leave it hear and go home but he wasn't having any of it. "We are going to do this the African way..." we didn't know what this meant but he insisted and we went along with it. Next thing we know the bells getting rung... classes stopped...the whole school including teachers outside...us lined up. Bloody hell! It was so surreal but we went along with the "African way". He read part of the letter out to the school and explained what we had come for. He explained it in a really nice to way to them. We managed to fit all 16 pairs onto some needy children's feet. The teachers were buzzing! One teacher inparticular expressed his joy that his "mentally retarded" pupil got a new pair of shoes! Gabriel asked them, even though they didn't all get shoes, if they were happy for their brothers and sisters who got a gift. They all said yes then sang us a song in Kikuyu which translated to god bless you! Before we left we were asked to come into the staff room and they expressed their joy and one of the teachers told us we would make good mothers. How canny!
The best day mixed in with the worst day.....we had arranged to see the orphanage and play football with them. We took bags and bags off items for them and thought it was abit weird it got shoved in the back and the kids didn't get it in front of us....to cut a long story short it turns out the whole orphanage is corrupt, the director sells gifts for money and keeps donations for himself. George who I had previously mentioned is more or less a peado and has tried his luck asking for sex in exchange of school fees. Bloody appalling! Roshan and Jas went back with then children and handed out all the items which included bedding, clothes, shoes etc but they had a nightmare trying to get the bags as the director had locked himself in the office. They managed to get all the stuff they could to the kids making it not look like they knew but once we discussed what was there, there was definitely stuff missing. We had to report this obviously. Not a great way to enjoy our last night in the village!!
Friday....our last day in the village. Really sad day. All the children and all the villagers we knew came to say bye. There must of been 50,60 people in our courtyard! Tabitha from next door (little old tribal lady) even came! It was really emotional. My host mam Elizabeth was sobbing saying she'll miss us! When our bus pulled off, the kids chased it down the path! Alot of us were sobbing at this point.
As our promised trip, we spent the weekend in Lake Navaisha. We had little cabin bunk bed things and were surrounded by monkeys and a bar. No curfew or alcohol restrictions so most went slightly mad! We also went on a boat trip and saw hippos and eagles and pelicans and some of us hired some bikes and went for a ride along Hells gate National Park. It was great. Even had a pool so t was like a wee holiday. Flight back to the UK Wednesday morning...
All in all it was an incredible experience and we are hoping to go back in 2 years. We are planning to do some fundraising for the community including Teikunu primary, the health centre and the orphange kids although we'd need to think about the latter.
Thanks for reading.
Jules xxx