In 2006 whilst spending my first year in Africa I went to work in Mombassa in Kenya which is on the east coast of Kenya and surrounded by beautiful beaches.

I had 2 trips to Kenya in May and July and only stayed for around 3 weeks in total in Kenya so for me it they were short visits. During my visit to Kenya I lived with 2 different local family's which our volunteers stay at. Both houses were in the city centre of Mombassa and were with women who were very welcoming and friendly. One night with one of the ladies I was staying with I was flicking through some of my Tonga photos with her and she recognised 2 of my volunteers who I was in charge of in Tonga who had stayed with her in Mombassa the year before, small world!

Living with local people is a good insight into the country you are working in as you get to discuss politics and other such matters and also taste the proper home cooking, also you don't have to see any tourists around because they would have no reason to go there which is great. In terms of work during my first visit I was just checking out our projects and making sure everything was running smoothly working with the Kenyan Manager Njery.

During my second visit I was setting up some sports projects in Diani which is a beach area about 40km from Mombassa. The area itself was beautiful and tropical with palm trees everywhere. The project I managed to set up was with a number of schools and also a community centre where by our volunteers could work in schools during the day coaching sports and then coach sports at the community centre after school.

My overall impressions of Kenya were quite good, I didn't really get to see much of the country because I was working all the time but outside of Mombassa the beach areas were very beautiful.