Half Way Camp

So about 20 volunteers from ICYE,
Some from Youth Volunteers for Change,
and a few locals,
Met together in a small village called Mituri near Bondo in Nyanza,
To evaluate the last 6 or 12 months in Kenya and to help a community build some structures for a school.

We attempted to build:
The stand for a water tank,
2 Semi Permanent Classrooms,
A Kitchen
and Pit Latrines.

We didnt manage to finish all but we have made a start and hopefully will have inspired the community to complete the rest of the work together.

We also visited two secondary schools to play football matches and on the last day visited a primary school to give a talk about HIV.

During the week we stayed with host families in a pretty rural setting. This was nice for those guys volunteering in Nairobi or other towns to see how the other half live.... to me it was actually an upgrade from home in Kiptere. The reason we visited the last school was because I'd mentioned to my host mum that I work with youth and HIV prevention in my project. She decided it would be a good idea for us to go and talk to the school...so unfortunately it was up to me to organise the programe of what we would say and to try and remember all the stuff I've learnt on HIV in the last 6 months. In the end the I had expected to be really nervous to be leading something like this in front of all my volunteer friends, ICYE Kenya and maybe 200 pupils. But really it wasnt so bad, seems that with practice these things don't scare me anymore!

Then we played some crazy Kenyan circle games led by one of the Kenya volunteers (Who's going out to spend a year in Switzerland) and then a game of human tug-of-war where the girls decided to immediately let go so we lost 3-0.

On the final evening in Mituri we went out to the local pub and then made a camp fire. It was Mid summer's eve...which to most people means nothing....but it seems in Sweeden and Iceland (according to our volunteers) it's actually a pretty big deal! So we sang songs and told stupid stories and generally had a really good evening. Then at about 5am most of us decided it was time to sleep, since we had to be back in our host families to pick up luggage by 7am. There being no places inside to sleep, we slept outside next to the fire in a long line of about 10 volunteers all from different countries but all in Kenya together.

So then we basically wanted to sleep for the whole day! But we had to go to Kisumu where we ate some really good food, went out to watch the USA vs Ghana game and then stayed the night. The next morning Bianca and I went searching for fish at Lake Victoria but didnt find anything that was what she was looking for so gave up. Most of the volunteers took a matatu shuttle back to Nairobi where as I and one other volunteer headed in another for Kericho. I picked up some shopping for home (Seeing as we get through 2kg of sugar in a week and the kids always appreciate lolipops!).

When I reached home I found out that the weekend had also been my host-sister's wedding and I had missed it all! It's a long story as to why she's got married at 16 but maybe I'll tell it sometime...otherwise you can guess for yourselves....

Since that week I've spent a week in the office and then last weekend in Nairobi with Jana and Lisa. Who treated me as the village girl I am and almost held my hand as we crossed the crazy busy roads. Nairobi is too busy for me and I don't know where anything is so I'm not so keen on the place. But it was nice to be with friends and to see their project etc. The reason I went to the big city was to renew my visa, get a work permit and to apply for my Alien card (residents card)...that done on Monday I was able to drink a really good coffee before heading home on Tuesday morning.

There is possibilty I might be back in Nairobi for 17th since there's some partying to be done to say farewell to the volunteers that were here for 12 months or only staying 6 months. But things are busy in the village so I will have to see what happens.

Ok, I need to finish planning for my recorder lesson this afternoon...teaching songs for them to sing at Mass... Yeah I know, you can't run away from church no matter how hard you try! :-)
Then I should be starting the computer classes from Tuesday next week but I'm not even sure if they've arrived yet so that might not happpen... I'm hoping that I'm actually able to teach comupters because I've never tried anything further than instructions to my mum on how to do things! I think I might be a bit out of my depth here but we'll see!

Anyway hope you are well where ever you are and that you're having a good week!
Missing you all!

Ok...so I'm a little useless but here is my latest update that I sent to my church in Coventry, Some of it is repeating what you already know but some could be news....
Something to read anyway!

It’s unbelievable that I have now been here for six months! The time has gone so fast and I have done so many different things that it’s hard to know what to tell you first.
Maybe I will give a bit of an over view of my work in the project. As I mentioned before Community Watch and Rescue Team (COWART) work with HIV prevention and peace building. We are trying to reach out to the young people in this rural area. There are very many who are just sitting idle waiting to go to college next year or looking for jobs. Not unlike the young people back in the UK after exam time is over!
We try to provide them with some positive activities to fill their time and to help them with applications for colleges/jobs.

Peer Youth Education: This programme involves about 25 young people who have finished school coming to the youth centre for training on HIV prevention and peer counselling. They come on one morning a week and then on another afternoon I send them out to different schools across the district to teach what they have learned to the students in school too! This way we get to reach a vast number of people with correct information and training in a short time. This set of trainees are about to graduate in a couple of weeks and it is amazing to see the difference in them now after spending 4 months together, some who wouldn’t speak about anything to even a group of 4 people can now hold the attention of a class of 60 for 2 hrs!

Football: From Feb to May I also had the company of another volunteer from England called Lucy. Over the Easter holiday in April we organised a football tournament involving primary and secondary schools as well as some outside clubs. The event took place over the weekend of Easter and was a great success. The finals were held on Easter Monday and the District Officer (one of the most important people in the area!) came to give a speech and to kick off the last game between the youth centre’s team (COWART FC) and Sosiot (A neighbouring village). Unfortunately our team did not do so well and we lost 3:1. It was a great opportunity to get together with the whole community and to talk with them about peace. There are big problems with tribalism here and the upcoming elections in 2012 are expected to cause violence, as in 2007. We are working hard to encourage dialogue between different tribes and one thing that always brings people together is football!

Tree Planting: The major source of water for the people in Kiptere village is the river. Most go and collect water for their homes and all of the businesses rely on the donkeys that bring containers up several times a day. In the past the river was very high but today it is barely a stream. There have been a lot of Eucalyptus trees planted along the banks and these are drinking up to 200 litres a day! We are hoping to mobilise the community into helping us remove these Eucalyptus and plant indigenous species of tree in their place. This is going to involve planting up to 3000 seedlings over what we hope will be a two week project. Our only problem now is looking for the seedlings from big companies like Unilever Tea Company (Formerly Brooke Bond) and the local forestry ministry. We are also searching for some funding to provide lunches for the local volunteers who will be helping us. Since the project should be starting in a couple of weeks, we have to get moving fast! Unfortunately… nothing happens fast in Kenya!

Income Generating Activities: Kiptere and the surrounding villages have one of the highest percentages of unemployed youth in the whole of Kenya. As I mentioned before, a lot of youths are just idle waiting for the next activity. We find that they are not very motivated to find work and sometimes expect the Europeans to find it for them! So we are working on some projects to encourage them to set up their own businesses. Currently we have a video show which will be showcasing matches from the World Cup and people will pay around 20p to come and watch a game.
We are also looking into setting up a hairdressing salon or a shop selling fresh juice and puddings. The problem here is getting the youth motivated to work and to believe that they can achieve something. Hopefully soon we will show them that they are capable and don’t have to wait for handouts, they can do for themselves!

Computer Training: I am also starting up a computer training school to begin teaching people some basic skills such as word processing, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. Most people here have never really used a computer and look at me amazed if they see my typing…apparently they didn’t believe it was possible to type so fast! I am running this project with Sister Lucy and we hope to start the classes in the next two weeks.

Building a Youth Centre! At the moment we are renting some rooms in a building near to the village market. It is in a good location but really the building is almost falling down and is not very welcoming for the community. So we are looking to find some land to build our own centre that could incorporate a library, recreation room, space for our HIV counsellors, a training room, computer lab and offices for the staff. It’s proving difficult to find land but hopefully soon we will find some and start building! I can’t go looking for land since the unfortunate thing of having a white face means the price is tripled so I am waiting for the locals to help me out… as usual ‘slowly, slowly’ is the order of the day!

Holidays!
I’m now looking to see if I can get a chance to climb Mt Kilimanjaro (on the border of Kenya and Tanzania) at some point during my remaining six months.

Half Way Camp: I will be spending the next week meeting up with the other ICYE volunteers to review the experience so far. We will also be building a water tank and classrooms for a school in a place called Bondo which is near by to Lake Victoria. It will be really nice to meet up with everyone again after all of this time. I’m really looking forward to a week with 25 other Europeans, not entirely sure the small village we’re visiting are ready for such an invasion!

I hope that everything is going well in the UK and that summer has arrived now to stay for a few months! Last time I wrote I asked you to pray for rain…it has now been raining everyday for the last 4 months! This is really good for the crops and for the water supply in the villages but it does mean there is an awful lot of mud everywhere!

I would really appreciate your prayers in these areas:
* Health – I have recently been ill with malaria and a bug I picked up from the water here, and then followed by a bad cold. I’m almost back to 100% now and would like to be able to stay that way so that I can get on with the work needed here.
* My host family – They are very poor but always want to give me everything they have. Please pray that they would stay well and perhaps that my host father will find a job to allow the family to survive more comfortably.
* For the project – That we can secure more funding opportunities to continue the work we are doing here.
* For Kenya – There will be a referendum on the proposed constitution in August and at the moment there is a lot of campaigning from different sides of the government trying to get the country to vote Yes or No. Last week there was a grenade attack in Nairobi at a prayer rally for the No side. We are really hoping that the referendum will not cause violence like that after the 2007 presidential elections. Prayers are really needed for peace between the tribes and the Yes and No campaigners.
* For all ICYE volunteers – For their health, projects and host families around the world as well as their families waiting for them to return home. There are a number of volunteers leaving for home in July after being abroad for 1 year and then a large number leaving their home countries to begin their volunteering experiences in August.

If you would like to send me a letter, I love getting post out here, you can write to:

Laura Griffin
St Francis Catholic Mission
PO Box 39 – 20213
Kiptere
Kenya
East Africa

Thank you very much for all your support and prayers.
I look forward to seeing you all in January 2011!

Hello again,
I'm sorry for the absence in writing. I really have no excuse but I hope that I can improve in the future!
I have a lot of news over the past month or so, perhaps I'll separate it out a bit and try to give you a picture of what I've been up to all this time.

19th - 31st April
HOLIDAYS!!

As you've now seen from the pictures I had a little bit of a holiday. Lucy and I met up with Bianca (A volunteer living in Kitui but from Austria) to go off on a Safari to Massai Mara National Park.
In order to get to Narok (where we were meeting Bianca and the rest of the group), we had to take 3 matatus. First from Kiptere to Kericho, Kericho to Bomet and Bomet to Narok. This was all to avoid having to go to Nairobi to meet with the safari company. We made it to Bomet in plenty of time to be changed by the conductor to the next Matatu. Unfortunately they decided to try a little 'take advantage of the white people' plan. They put us in the front of a car that was leaving immediately and we headed out of the bus park. Only to be stopped at the gate by the watchman telling us that we had to get out because the driver was under arrest. We turned round to see 2 policemen, complete with their weapons, waiting to arrest the man. Apparently they had thought that the police wouldn’t cause a stir if there where Muzungus in the car...... Sadly not and the driver did not get to escape!
So we then had to transfer to another vehicle which to start with was actually missing its driver, we waited about 30mins before he appeared and then another 15 mins until the minibus was full. By this time the safari company were calling me to say they had arrived in Narok and were waiting for us. I had no idea how far it was between us and them...it turns out that it's pretty far....about 1hr travelling at over 60km/hr, but we did stop after every 5 mins to either drop someone off or to cram a few more people in. If you've not seen a full Matatu then you probably don't really get the real picture but imagine a youth group minibus designed for 14 passengers...crammed with around 26 people, their luggage and often their chickens too! It's an experience I repeat on many occasions since it's the only way to get to places at a reasonable price...I know those 'grown ups' reading this are wanting to tell me not to travel this way but up country there are not any busses and this really is the only way to travel!
So we arrived about 1hr late to meet the group but were still able to eat a good lunch to prepare for the rest of the journey. The group consisted of the 3 of us ICYE volunteers, an American girl also volunteering, an older guy from Jordan and another older guy from Japan. We drove to the campsite, which was not DofE style at all...the tents had real beds, electricity and a real toilet and shower inside the tent! The 4 of us girls shared, Jordan guy stayed alone and the Japanese guy went off to his luxury lodge inside the national park...to be honest I didn’t really care, we had a toilet and a shower, that was luxury to me!

Since the Japanese guy was leaving the next afternoon it was organised that we would visit the 'Massai Village' that evening. It was located about 5 mins walk from the campsite and not to let my scepticism take over...was strategically placed to cater to the tourists. Anyway, it was nice to see the traditional houses, dances and 6guys attempting to make fire to convince us they don't use matches! We finished the visit at their market place where every family tried to show us that the things they had made were better than any other. There was also a fair bit of convincing to try and tell us that the traditional Massai blankets they had for sale were made there in the village...along with the plastic wrapping they came in too! Ok, I might be a bit unfair here but I think that comes from actually living in Kenya with a 'real' family and not being the usual 'fly in-fly out' tourist. So I'll stop complaining! They showed us some traditional dances and the horn of the Kudu that is blown during celebrations. Since I was the musician among the group obviously I had to try it. First I tried to ask the guy if I blow it like a trumpet or like a recorder, demonstrating each. He said 'Just blow'...not much help there then! I tried it and did make some small noise but not very good. I think with a bit of practice I could master it, maybe I'll find one to bring home!

The next morning we set out on our safari at around 7am. You can see some of the pictures from the trip but we saw very many animals. Impala, Elephant, Gazelle, Giraffe, Hyena, Vulture, Hippo, Wildebeest, Buffalo, other Birds, Cheetah and very many Lions (including those eating a buffalo, two on honeymoon and some resting under a tree). My favourite animal was the elephant. I think it was a real treat to see so many in one day and to even see the occasional calf with its mother too! We spent one final night at the campsite and then headed out for another drive in the park at 6am the next morning to see what other animals we could see before returning to Nairobi.
It was a really nice safari and even though it was only 1 full day we really saw a lot of the animals. The only one we were left searching for was the Rhino but hopefully I will see some before I come home.

We travelled back to Nairobi to decide what to do next. Lucy and I were staying in a hostel while Bianca was able to stay with relatives of her host family. We had dinner together near by the hostel and made plans to visit the ICYE office in the morning. First thing after breakfast Lucy and I headed down to the infamous River Road (one of the not so safe places of Nairobi but actually about 2mins from the hostel) to find a bus to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our bus company was called Spider and we would soon find out, wasn’t quite up to British standards! The next one was leaving at 11pm that evening so we would reach our destination at around 3pm the next day (apparently!). We went to see Judy in the ICYE office in Westlands and spent an hour or so giving updates about our projects and how things had been going over the last 3months or so. It was really nice to talk to the staff who are looking out for us, in person rather than over the phone or by email. We don’t get much contact with them so it was good to have a real catch up. We left Bianca back in the city centre and found lunch. After a little look around and picking up some supplies for the long bus journey we went to wait back at the hostel. We decided that since the place the bus was picking us up at wasn’t the safest place to walk to at 10pm, we would go to the office at 7pm just before dark and wait there until the bus arrived. This was a surprise to the staff there especially as they probably already knew that the bus wouldn’t arrive until after midnight! I spent the journey sitting next to a rather rounded Tanzanian lady who thought I could speak fluent Kiswahili… fortunately I knew enough words to communicate but most of the time I tried to sleep. About half way there she pushed an envelope at me saying ‘address’, we had hardly spoken the whole time but she still wanted my address… African’s fascination with white people never ceases to amaze me! We reached the border at around 4am and after getting our visas had to wait until 6am when the border reopened for the day. More travelling and we arrived in Dar at around 7:30pm that evening…so much for 3pm then! Luckily one of the guys from the bus found us a safe taxi and we made it to the YMCA very tired but in one piece. After finding breakfast the next morning we decided to look for an ATM to get money and go directly to the ferry to Zanzibar. Dar was a big city a little like Nairobi and neither of us were too concerned with seeing it. Bjorn (from Iceland) and Josh (from USA) had already been on Zanzibar for about 4days and we were going to join them in Nungwi at the very north of the island. We bought tickets from the first office we went into and probably got a terrible deal but at the end of the day it wasn’t too bad once you converted it to £. Kenya has about 115 shillings to the pound and there are 19 Tanzanian shillings to 1 Kenyan shilling. So sometimes the numbers were scary but in reality not so bad. We took the slow ferry there and arranged for the fast one to return. I had read that it could take 6hrs to get there but in the end it took only 3, a real improvement on the usual African time! We then joined with a Zimbabwean young lady who’d been studying in Glasgow to get a better price on a taxi to Nungwi. When we got there we found the Baraka Bungalows that the boys were staying in and discovered that Josh had already left that afternoon and Bjorn was sleeping off a hangover. So we wandered along the beach and around the local village to see what was around. It was a really beautiful place with white sands, crystal clear waters and hardly anyone around. We eventually met with Bjorn and were able to catch up a bit. He’s in a school near Kisumu (about 2hrs from me) but we’d not seen each other since January. Being in a school he gets 3 months off during the year and was certainly taking advantage of this first holiday with plans to head to Namibia to see his Uncle after Zanzibar. We joined the group of friends he’d made while being there, all guys, two Germans, one Canadian and a Swiss guy who had driven with a friend from Switzerland to Namibia after finishing their military service.
That first night we ventured into the local village for supper and managed to find what we came to understand as the national dish…chip omelette! Not bad but not exactly the exciting food I was looking for as a replacement for Ugali from home!

We spent the next 3 days enjoying the sea, sand and the peace and quiet. Avoiding the local skippers who would always come looking for customers ‘you want snorkelling trip…sunset cruise…I have good boat…I give you good price…’ I was able to finally do some reading and just relax. After the food in the village the first night we ate at hotels near the beach for the other nights. The luxury of cheese burger was too much to resist since we don’t often get meat in the village and if we do it’s interesting to say the least! There’s not much to tell from Zanzibar except that it was a really nice break and by the end I did not want to go back to Kiptere (Apart from the millions of biting insects that decided to feast on my legs! – thought I’d get away from things like this but not so lucky!)


We took the fast ferry back to Dar and since there was a storm over the ocean it was a little bouncy… I think ¾ of the boat were seasick that day and it also still took 3hrs so not much improvement there! Then we walked back up to the YMCA. We didn’t know if we would be staying the night as we’d not found a bus back to Nairobi yet, so we took a taxi to the bus station (a task that became difficult since the taxi driver hadn’t really understood where were wanted to go, the traffic was terrible and the rain was making the roads even worse!) eventually we got there and about 30 bus company guys crowded around the car while I tried to negotiate a price for the guy to wait and take us back to YMCA. Since I suspect that he wasn’t even a registered taxi I was not giving in to his demands and eventually won. He waited for us while we conveniently found the Tanzanian office of Spider coaches who let us pay in Kenyan shillings and told us the bus was at 6:30am the next morning. To keep the taxi guy happy I organised that he would pick us up at 5:30am and drop us at the bus. A wise idea I think since it was raining and obviously still dark. So we found supplies for the return journey and got some sleep before the early trip. The journey back went fairly smoothly and since we didn’t have high expectations of arriving at the time they’d told us we were not too bothered when we reached Nairobi at 11:30pm. A couple that we had seen around Zanzibar and Dar, who happened to be on the bus with us, kindly offered to walk us back to the hostel we’d stayed in previously and we headed for sleep!

We had hoped that we could travel back to Kericho the following morning but when we got to the coach station we found that all seats were booked. So after organising to leave the next day we had a whole day to spend in the capital. We visited the tourist shops, the internet café and had some good food knowing that it would be back to Ugali the next day! After one last night at Greton Hotel we took the ‘Easy Coach’ (look I didn’t say matatu mum!) back to Kericho. It was actually really nice to see the tea plantations and to know that we were almost back home. We picked up some shopping for ourselves and for home then made the final journey to Kiptere. Everyone was very pleased to see us back and our host-mum said to me as we were eating supper (ugali and greens!) “I’d missed this, everyone together”. It meant a lot to me that she had missed us and even more that she used the little limited English she has to tell me.

So that’s the story of the holiday. I know that it was an adventure and that on occasions the ‘grown up’ world would tell us that things were not so safe. We were totally fine and there was no need for anyone to worry about us. We had no problems and apart from a thief opening my rucksack at a crowded bus stop and making off with my pen knife (He left my toothbrush!) everything was really good.

Now I’ve written a lot and my laptop battery is not going to last much longer. Once again I’m at the Tea Hotel for my weekly visit. There are lots of things from the past month since the holiday that I will write about next week when I can and then hopefully we’ll be all up to date!

I guess one major last thing to tell you all is that Lucy has now gone back to England. Her 3 month stay in Kenya was over and she left on the 15th May. It’s really strange being the only Muzungu in the village and especially as we spent basically every waking moment together over those 3 months, things are very different now. We all miss her at home and I no longer have my One Tree Hill partner for the lunch times. But we’re getting on ok and just as Kenya went on before she came, we will continue now she’s back at home. She’s a very determined young lady and it was a pleasure to get to know her over the time she was here. Now she’s going off to study English Lit at Reading University and I am certain that she’s going to do great things! Just as the footballers learned at the COWART Cup in April… Don’t mess with Lucy Millgate!
Good luck in everything Lucy and I look forward to whatever you can smuggle through the post!

I’ll leave things there for today since this is probably the longest post yet! I’d appreciate to hear from anyone who’s reading this if you have the time to write back. I’ve also sent quite a bit of post out to lots of people so if you’ve not received something yet, look out it could be on the way! Kongoi (thank you and goodbye for now)

First things first, I’m still alive! I’m really sorry that I’ve not been in touch for so long. Things have been pretty busy lately and one other small problem has been that I have not been well for a little while. I managed to pick up what they diagnosed as amoeba, probably from drinking water. I had a really high fever for about 3 days and then lets just say interesting things going on with my guts. I went to the hospital in town to be tested for whatever it was that was making me ill and had a blood test. The guy who did it couldn’t find a vein and basically just stabbed me in the wrist with a needle and poked around until he found one! Not the most pleasant experience but he then did ask me out on a date so it can’t be all bad I suppose! He then told me that thankfully didn’t have malaria or typhoid but had got a bug from water. Great!
A weeks worth of medication was prescribed and I realised one day in that I hadn’t read the box properly (actually my 9yr old Kenyan brother realised) and instead of one tablet three times a day. It was in fact 2 tablets 3 times a day. This was written in big letters on the outside of the box, but in my slightly weakened state I’d not understood properly (that’s what I’m telling myself anyway). So eventually once I started taking the right drugs I began to get some appetite back. On the last day of my medication Lucy and I went into town for our day off and had lunch at the Tea Hotel () I was just about able to enjoy our coffee followed by chicken and cheese sandwich (Sounds strange but when you’re living on maize mush/Ugali it’s pretty amazing, even when you’re sick!). This day we also went to the post office and I was able to pick up some more of my birthday cards, thank you very much to those of you who’ve sent post! It’s such an exciting thing to go unlock the posta box and find a letter or card. I will write back!
I’m now basically back to 100%, though am still eating like a small child and everyone is always telling me to eat more ugali. I’m so glad that I’m back to normal because it really is no fun being ill in Kenya. I’m not used to being weak and not even able to walk into the office with my backpack. It was very annoying! I was very well looked after by the Sisters and by Lucy, as much as it was repetitive them telling me I have to rest, it was true!

Anyway, I should probably let you know how things are going in the project and host family. Things at home are still really great. It’s lovely having lucy around and we often get told off for talking English too fast. Every evening we sit in the kitchen with mum and our brother/sisters, laughing and telling stories or going back to old stories like when Laura ordered Ugali Plain in a hotel. (Apparently a big no no!) Memo, our younger sister is now back for the month of April on school holidays and it’s really nice to have her back since she was such a big part of my moving here in the beginning. Weldon is building a house next door and has also moved back to the village in the meantime. I’ll put up some pictures of the house in progress when I remember. Maybe I’ll move in when it’s finished!
We went to visit our uncle’s house in the next field a few weeks ago. It’s a brick house, has inside toilet and running water, tilled floors and even provision for power when it eventually reaches the village in a few years. Lucy and I were a little shell shocked, we kept repeating ‘it wouldn’t be the same experience if we lived here’. It’s true, we wouldn’t have the same memories if we didn’t have to use the long drop or pick the flies out of the bucket before having a wash! The biggest thing is that that house is empty for most of the year since the family live in Nairobi… why could we not just move in while they’re away?! (‘it wouldn’t be the same experience if we lived here’)

Things in the project…
Piia has now left and got a job in Nairobi working for the Finnish embassy so its now just Lucy and I. Weldon is often away at training or in town. Recently he went to Finland with Piia while she was training for her job so we’ve been coordinating the whole project for a couple of weeks. I’ll give a bit of a run through of the projects we’ve been doing so you get an idea of how things have been going.

Peer Youth Education
This is a group of youths out of school who we’ve been training in conjunction with the Kericho Youth Centre. About 23 of them come to COWART every Monday morning for training in HIV prevention and peer youth counselling. Then on another day of the week they go out in groups of 3-4 to a school to teach a group of about 25 students what they’ve been learning this week.
It’s been going well. Even though schools have been really slow to contact us and we have to chase them and the PYE students have been a bit nervous to go into schools without taking a ‘white person’ with them! Otherwise we’ve been well received and things are going well. The training is supposed to last for about another 2 months before they get their certificates but they’re now asking if we can fast track the rest of the training because some of them want to go off to college in May. This is proving a bit of a dilemma because we really wanted to train them to become a team who could constantly be going into schools and training students rather than just get their certificates for their CV’s and leave. We’ll have to see because really the Kericho Youth Centre are running things and will have the final say. I’m running a session on Values, Attitudes and Beliefs on 3rd May so will get to planning it soon to try and make it as interesting and Kenyan friendly as possible.

Football
Over Easter Lucy organised a football tournament for primary, secondary schools and outside football clubs. Three days of matches ending with the finals on Easter Monday. It was a really amazing event, hundreds of locals came to watch and the teams really enjoyed playing. On the odd occasion the clubs complained a little (Well… a lot) about the state of the pitch, the ball, the fixtures etc. But she handled them all like a pro! You’d never know she’d not organised something like this before. Weldon arrived back from Finland in time for finals day and we also had the District Officer, Ministry for Youth and Sports, Sister Lucy and others make speeches about peace and youth working together. It was exhausting but really good! Even though out team from COWART and the primary school we live next to both lost in the finals… next time we’ll get the trophies back!

Other than those things we’ve been spending a fair bit of time organising finances and other things within the office. Paper work is not a Kenyan strong point so it’s been a bit difficult, especially with Weldon away all the time but we’re getting there.
We’re also now hoping to begin training two Kenyan guys to be office assistants so that when we leave the project it will be able to be sustained by local people and not rely on international volunteers as much as it does at the moment.

In other news, Lucy and I along with Bianca (another volunteer from Austria) will be heading off to Masai Mara on the 19th for 3 days and then possibly joining Bjorn and Josh to go to Tanzania for a few days from the 22nd. We’ve been working out the costs and things, it looks like an expensive holiday but after 3 months basically working solid I think it’s going to be much appreciated!
I was also wondering if any of you know of any youth projects out in Kenya that I might be able to go and visit while I’m here? I’m working on how I could see the country and figured that visiting other projects might be a good way to network and also see new places too. Let me know if there are any or any people you know who might have contacts. It would be much appreciated!

ICYE UK and Kenya have been really helpful lately in listening to my moaning about Kenyan work ethic and small CBO’s so I’m really grateful to them for that. Also those of you who have been on the receiving end of my ramblings about things as usual, Thank you! Things here run so differently to at home and everything is much slower so sometimes it’s frustrating but maybe I’ll get used to it.

I’ve added a few more pictures too so hope you’re getting more of a picture of life in Kenya.
Once again post is appreciated; I do have a new address though.
Will now be using the Sisters address because it’s easier to pick up post from there rather than going all the way into town.

The address for now is:
Laura Griffin
St Francis Catholic Mission
PO Box 39
Kiptere 20213
Kenya
East Africa

I do miss you all and hope you’re having a great 2010 so far! Cant believe I’ve been gone 3 months now!
See you relatively soon! (Sooner if you want a Kenyan holiday!)