Chilaxing!!

Its soo beautiful here the beach is just amazing! I'm so gutted that I am not here for long boo! My friends arrived this morning we headed strait to the beach to soak up the sun My mouth dropped when we got to the beach my sister was right in saying no other beach will ever come close to that! I had been to the beach yesterday but this one in particular was beautiful! Even though i am having a nice time I do miss the children already... I will be back next year for sure and at least next time i will have a good idea of what to take with me and what they need. Oh by the way...I made a friend today as you see in the picture, tomorrow he is going to take me along the beach! cant wait.

MOMBASSA

I decided to travel to Mombassa yesterday night I arrived this morning at 7am. However because i came up earlier than planned this ment i had to travel here alone...Ok call me crazy. I left Nicky and Maddy in Nairobi as they has to stay for a meeting but they will be here tomorrow morning to join me. It took 10hours to get to Mombassa, no body spoke english and I was the only white person in the whole place its actully quite nice to experiance what that feels like. The coatch driver made sure I was ok and new where I was going which was nice of him but I was fine. The coatch stopped right outside my hotel I had previously booked, I went strait to bed untill 12pm when i headed to the beach. Its stunning! White sand and crystal clear water just as i had imagened! "ahhhh" i thought. "This is the life". I just popped to the supermarket to stock up some food so i do not have to come out alone at night...very risky. Next time i am on here I would like to let you know about what happened at Outreach but as its costing 3shillings per minute i must kep it short. Mum & Dad I know you will most probbably have a heart attack when you read i traveled in africa alone but im fine and safe, staying in tonight and meeting my friends early hours of the morning. Love you hope your not getting a better tan than me in sunny spain.xxx Lucienne thankyou for writting on my blog I get home sick and your messages really help, Mum and Dad are crap! hehe xx

Out Reach

I am off on out reach this morning untill sunday. I will be visiting KCC (slum), Hells Gate National Park, IDP Camp and then the Garbage slum for my final time...... On Sunday I will stay in Nairobi with friends then Monday morning i am taking a coach to MOMBASA! for A WELL DESERVED REST on the beautiful white sand. I attempted to book into the stilts hotel but was unfortunatly booked up. I am going with Maddy and Nicky( it will be her birthday whilst we are there).
Saying goodbye to my Kenyan family last nigt was quite emotional( i had to fight back tears). I presented them each with a piece of jewelry which they loved and a card with individual messages.
Life in Kenya is hard graft even if you are more well off than others like my family. Living with them has taught me many things which i shall not forget. Overall Kenya has shown me that We dont need all these extra things we all get caught up in buying, As long as you are HEALTHY this is the main thing. My bus is outside to pick me up......to be continued.xx

Working Hard!

I have been very busy typing up children's profiles starting extremely early till late. I apologise if you have been logging onto my page to read whats going on as Ive not had time to up date. Well as expected my safari was fantastic I got to see all the animals on my list apart from the leopard which is very hard to find! A lion walked right beside our safari van I could not believe my luck! We were all snapping away trying to get the best pictures. All the animals we saw seemed to almost pose for the pictures and they were fully aware that we were there but this did not faze them in the slightest. They just carried on with whatever they were doing. There is so much to talk about the safari and i don't have enough time to talk about it as i don't have long before i leave for home and there is so much work to do.

Today I came to Nakuru with Maddy to meet Ross and Finish off typing up the children's profiles we started at 10am and its now 4pm. The top 30 most needy children are typed up and ready now, with a picture of them to go with it.
We have also set up a Facebook page just to get the slum recognised. But soon we will develop a web page with all the information about the children on there, hopefully in the near future we will look into having an online sponsor account.
Well I had better be off as we are going to paint the boxes to go in the supermarket to collect rice,flour, cooking oil and clothes.

Safari time!

Hi everyone! So as i will be safariing for four days.. you know relaxing, checking out wild animals that kind of thing...:-) i will not be able to up date till sunday when i get to a hotel that has internet access. Safari plans... DAY 1-I will be hitting Great rift valley for an aerial view then we will be heading to Narok town for lunch we then leave Narok and head straight to Maasai Mara camping site to check in and freshen up with chai tea before heading to the game reserve for my FIRST GAME DRIVE SOOOOO EXCITED!
Day 2- We will have breakfast at the camp and leave for the reserve at 7.30am(dawn and dusk are feeding times for a lot of animals) We will have a picnic lunch at the game reserve and then continue with our drive. We leave at 3.30 and head to camp for evening tea. Later we go on to the Maasai village where we interact with the maasai and get a glimpse of their lifestyle. We will get to see their homes (known as manyattas)and some of their cultural practices.....I dont think i want to see(i heard they drink blood from a cow YUCK) this is to give them "strength".

Day 3- Today we arise at 6 and leave camp by 6.30 to get snaps of sunrise. We expect to see somthing get killed-a predator feeding on its prey. Get back to camp around 8.30 for breakfast. We then leave for Nakuru at 10am which takes 5hours!(van appreciation day) Stop off half way at Narok for lunch. Once in Nakuru we check in the hotel and spend time chatting,phoning and as for me i will be updating my blog.

Day 4- Have breakfast and leave for Lake Nakuru National Park at 7.30. Nakuru is the home to endangered rhino and rothschild giraffe. Its also a bird sanctury with a big variety of birds but best of all FLAMINGOS! ALSO BABOONS. We go back to the hotel for lunch then separate back home.

So dad i am sure you will look this all up and enjoy following me each day. xx

Covered in paint!

Today Maddy and I went to Monicas to paint the new school for them. We started at 10am and were dead by 1pm! Ok pretty pathetic i know.... We walked back home to get some lunch and ended up falling asleep, but in all fairness we did paint a lot! Not much else happened today so i will leave you with some pictures from yesterday, although they are quite disturbing and some from today. Love to home and friends.xxxxxx

A day at the garbage slum

What a day!
Woke at 6am this morning, got ready and set off to town to jump on the matatu. Arrived at Nakuru for 9am and i was met by Ross(volunteer) and Pastor(a kenyan volunteer). We had a few jobs to do before going to the slum, this was to organise with the local supermarkets to get public support for our project. We are making up tins to go at each checkout to collect money, but first we have to get permission(which we got today) next we will design and make up the tins. They have also agreed to have our box that we have also designed and made up to collect clothes/shoes and sanitary pads. When we finally arrived at the slum it was extremely hard to take it all in and i was very chocked up. Ross had previously explained to me but its totally different when you see it for yourself. The family's that live there were all picking through the rubbish including children as young as five, there are thousands of flys everywhere you go, rats skins piled up high and pigs running all over eating the garbage. We were greeted by the kenyan family's and Pastor showed us around. Myself and Maddy rounded up all the girls and took them away from the slum to a local field to play games and distract them away from their daily dutys. Whilst Ross took the boys to play football. I have left my toys with them and have warned them(the adults) not to sell them and that i will check each day to ensure they stay there. I have told the children if they look after them i will bring more. At 12 it was lunch time for them and i spotted a garbage truck coming in, they all rushed towards it to grab the fresh stuff. We walked with them to the sorting area. Men gathered around the sacks as another poured it out. They sorted out what to them was edible and what they could not eat they chucked to the pigs. Myself Maddy and Ross stood watching in astonishment as the children picked up bits of chicken smothered is shit and ate it. How do people live like this! Going around the local town showing pictures that we had printed, bare in mind its just up the street from the town. People had no idea about the slum and that people are living like this they seemed shocked when they saw the pictures. But how can they not no...I think they choose to ignore it as its out of there hands. I feel somthing good is going to come out of this project and we are all dedicated. We have Pastor whom lives in kenya and we can trust him. It does not stop here we are going to make somthing positive happen i can feel it and i am proud of everyone who is pulling together to make it happen.

A change of plan

I have been in Nevasha for a week now, working at Monica Memorial. I have enjoyed every minute, however as time went on my self and another volunteer realised that the children are getting a lot more support than we originally thought and were told. They have a brand new bit of land that has been bought for there new school. They get meals everyday.
Nine Kenyan volunteers teach them and eventually when they get to class three they are excepted at the government schools and are supplied with a desk, pencils and books. There for I have made a decision to make use of myself else where.
From next week I will be working in Nakuru at the garbage slum. My fellow volunteer is already based there he is setting up a feeding program and other things to help the children. This will be quite heavy work as i believe more than half the children there have been raped and some are left pregnant. Through the day they rummage through the garbage for food. Some of the children have been abandoned as the parents have gone to make somthing of them selves and cant afford to have a child dragging them down. When Ross told me of the garbage slum i felt nothing but anger! When i attended church on Sunday i could not help but notice they were building an extension on it which costs them an awful lot of money and yet you go fifty yards up the road and there are children, baby's with nothing!! What is this about!
Tomorrow i am going to catch a matatu (bus) which will take me to Nakuru, this takes an hour. Ross will meet myself and maddy the other side and show us around so we really know what to expect before we make the move... This is off this subject but i feel i must mention the fact that you could just be walking along the street and spot over 50 children under 10 sniffing glue, its shocking! Where is the support? why is this happening? It is extremely hard to not get involved with Politics here.

A trip to the family church

It was an early start this morning up by seven thirty,made the bed, quick tidy of the room and packed our bags ready for the day. By 8.30 all the family had had breakfast apart from Wallis (the father) whom takes his time but will be the first to tell everyone else to get a move on. Everyday without fail he makes us all laugh with his sarcasm and joking, its great to have him around. By quarter to nine we were all in the car and ready to go!
We arrived at nine ( we were suppose to be there at eight thirty but hay "this is Africa" as they say. As we were guests to the church we had to come to the front and introduce ourselves to around one hundred people..very embarrassing, they welcomed us.
The service went on for around an hour and i can say i was well and trully bored ten minutes in, felt like a life time. Nothing like i was expecting! I cant really say anything much about it that was exciting the singers were painful. I asked Wallis why they put their selves through that. He laughed and said "if we change the singer she will feel lowered so we let her get on with it" hmm not sure what i think of that.

Tomorrow I will be at Monica's. Until then....x (very home sick today)

My second day at Monica Memorial

On Wednesday we were advised to stay inside because of the voting that is going on so there was no work for us. Myself and the other three volunteers were getting restless so we asked our Kenyan father if he could take us swimming in Nevasha. We invited his three daughters and their two cousins to also join us. We got to the pool and found out that Kibe (the male cousin) could not swim he is around 21years of age. We paid for him to come in and attempted to teach him how to swim.....this was hilarious! Just getting him to hold onto the side of the pool and kick his legs freaked him out the noises he was making are just indescribable.

Today was my second day at Monica Memorial, I brought all my coloring pencils and nursery spent a good part of the morning doing just that. We then practiced spellings on white boards they are just on cvc words. As the day went on I made a swing out of rope and an old tyre, painted many nails this proves popular every time! I also got out my glitter spray and suddenly 100 arms appeared in front of me and little desperate voices saying "me,me,me,me". One of the volunteers Ross put his music on in the nursery classroom and we called them class at a time to come and perform dance moves to Shakera "Wakka Wakka" This was great fun until.......the volunteers were up! Oh dear not quite as shakera like as we had hoped a bit like Mr bean and Mr blobby combined. The children were a lot more open with us today i got a lot more children holding my hand and approaching me tapping me, they do not really cuddle.

Monica memorial development centre

Hi everyone ok so I am now staying in Navaisha with a beautiful family whom were so extremely welcoming! The mother and father are called Wallis and Loise they have three children Vicky(the eldest) Ester and bertrice. They take care of most of the house hold duty's supporting the mum, the dad works all day for the government.

I woke up at 8:15 this morning made the bed and swept the room as Kenyan families like everything clean and tidy ( it was one of the rules that was presented to me on my arrival).
After having breakfast with the family which consisted of fruits, egg, tomatoes and chi tea. Wallis took us to Monica memorial the children' s home. myself and the other volunteer Maddy were taken into the classroom which was unbelievably cramped with around 40 children they sang a welcoming song to us which brought a tear to my eye an experience i can say Ive never felt before. The children were so happy to be there. We then went outside where the children spent most of there time. I asked for a piece of chalk and began to teach the children there alphabet on a black board which was placed outside. They were enthusiastic such fast learners! We moved on to letter sounds and opposites also finishing off sentences I wrote on the board "I like to eat.... and they had to finish it, mango was a popular choice! Playing, holding and laughing with the kids was magical. I was pleased to see that Monica memorial supply the children with food, if they did not the children would not eat. They have porridge in a cup for snack then there main meal..there is no other way to describe it other than stodgy dough and strips of cabbage. Tomorrow i am not at work because of the voting that's going on and being a christian, I have been told to stay inside, a bit scary! I cant wait for Thursday, i will take them some toys. They have no toys there they just have car tires. My host family asked if i could tell you Mum and Dad that they love you and not to worry because i am in safe hands.xxxxxx

2/8/10 Yes there is internet! First blog

Well after a 9hour flight and waiting for my visa for an hour i could finally walk free into Nairobi. A man called chomlee picked me up from the airport and dropped me to my home stay for two days. As we pulled up outside i was greeted by a group of kids from the slum, I took my bags inside and came strait out to play with them. The kids were fascinated by my pink nail polish so i went to grab it and painted all 20 little hands half of those being boys...
I have noticed ive skipped driving from the airport to my new hom...i could not stop looking out the window and it was so hard to take it all in. Men walking in between traffic to sell newspapers, workers sat on the back of open trucks holding on 10ft pipes so they don't fall off the traffic is hectic! Cars coming from all diffrent directions but almost in a controlled manner taking a ride on a mototo (bus) is a scary experience. There are traffic police at almost every roundabout but i dont know what they do because it is just crazy if they are there or not. Yesterday was our free day to do what we liked.....well what can i say there is just too much to write but i will try to break it down.
We went to the elephant, giraffe, monkey and crocodile sanctuary WOW is the only word i can think of to describe it and to top the day off i road on a camel. So much to say but so little time. Today it is our orientation and i have found out my placement will be in neivasha in an orphanage called Monica memorial. As soon as i find another computer (i may not)i will update. Wish i had longer to go into detail but if there is anything you wish to ask me just simply leave a comment x

Five days to go..

So lets see.... Skipping ropes check! footballs check! puzzles, pencils and pens check! hairbands, hair clips and brushes check! sweets, jewelry, wipe boards check! little socks, toys and cuddly bears check! Toy cars, army men and paper check!... Suitcase well and truly full.

I wish I could take so much more, however I recently heard that you can send over a barrel to your destination full of things for only £25. I will have to do that next time.

I cant believe its five days away I am full of nerves but so much excitement. So many questions and thoughts are going through my head....

Next time I write I will be in Kenya! Wish me luck!xxx