Hello again, before I tell you about what’s been going on I want to share a poem that was performed for me by a guy called William who is living with HIV. I met him on Wednesday at a project called ‘Live with Hope’ in Kericho that works with people who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. He is part of a support group that we went to visit because Piia and Sister Lucy are thinking of setting up their own here in Kiptere. He is also a poet himself and wants to become a performer and also get his poems published. He’s doing a distance learning journalism degree with Manchester University and is also a single father to 3 children. Anyway, we can only hope that his enthusiasm for poetry translates into real performances or publishing, must wait and see! Here is the poem.
ONCE UPON A TIME
by Gabriel Okara

Once upon a time, son,
they used to laugh with their hearts
and laugh with their eyes:
but now they only laugh with their teeth,
while their ice-block-cold eyes
search behind my shadow.

There was a time indeed
they used to shake hands with their hearts:
but that's gone, son.
Now they shake hands without hearts:
while their left hands search
my empty pockets.

`Feel at home´! `Come again´:
they say, and when I come
again and feel
at home, once, twice,
there will be no thricefor
then I find doors shut on me.

So I have learned many things, son.
I have learned to wear many faces
like dresses - homeface,
officeface, streetface, hostface,
cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles
like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too
to laugh with only me teeth
and shake hands without my heart.
I have also learned to say,`Goodbye´,
when I mean `Good-riddance`:
to say `Glad to meet you´,
without being glad; and to say `It's been
nice talking to you, after being bored.

But believe me, son.
I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you. I want
to unlearn all these muting things.
Most of all, I want to relearn
how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror
shows only my teeth like a snake's bare fangs!

So show me, son,
how to laugh; show me how
I used to laugh and smile
once upon a time when I was like you.

Friday 5/2/10: Today was the day for my first lessons in Eland school. I arrived there at around 11am to finish preparing and to also psych myself up for the unknown challenge ahead! I decided to teach the lower primary ‘I’m gonna jump up and down, I’m gonna spin round and round.’ (Google it if you don’t know it.) and also go through some of the songs they already know. I had from 2pm-3pm with them and when they arrived, all enthusiastic and shaking hands, I discovered that there were over 30 of them, aged from 3-8! Luckily I had 3 teachers with me too who were willing to join in my silly songs. It went very well and by the end I think even the smallest ones could follow the actions at least.
Then came the upper primary. I had planned to do some basic drama improvisation games and then get their expectations for the Easter play I’d been asked to do. They arrived and there were over 60 of them! I was stuck, my games could work for maybe up to 30 but there was no way I could really work with that many kids on my own. This time I didn’t even have a teacher along with me to help. We tried to do a couple of games but then (fortunately or unfortunately) it started to rain very heavily and we had to shelter in the shed. I tried to continue but it has an iron roof so it was really noisy and the kids couldn’t hear what I wanted them to do. So in the end I ended up just sitting and talking with some of them and answering their many questions about ‘my place’ (home, England). Really I was quite grateful for the rain, does that make me a bad volunteer? :-p
Spent the night in town and prepared to leave early for Kiptere in the morning for mobilisation and a board meeting.

Saturday 6/2/10: We arrived to then be told that we could not repeat any of the ideas from last week and had to come up with totally new things to replace the eating competition and 2 of the sketches. So I spent the morning with the boys frantically trying to get something organised and then we had a board meeting to discuss some of the funding we’ve received and how it’s being spent. Then Weldon left and I was to be responsible for the whole afternoon’s programme for mobilisation. Actually it went really well and I even took part in 1 of the dramas and also won the smiling competition (I am now titled ‘Miss Kiptere Smile’). The locals loved to see the Mzungu joining in and though I’m not sure if that was only because they were laughing at me, I don’t really care. If it gets them involved in the project I’ll be laughed at for a while if necessary (especially since I had to die and play dead for one of the dramas)

Sunday 7/2/10: I spent the day with the Sisters at St Frances. It was a really nice relaxing day and I was very glad of it. It’s really nice to be down at home and being part of the family but it’s also nice to get away for a while. I was able to teach them how to do some things on the laptops and also transfer files between old and new ones so that the old can be used in the school. Eventually I hope to be able to go down to St Clares school (run by Sister Imelda) to teach recorder to the choir master and some kids.

Monday 8/2/10 – Friday 12/2/10:
This week we’ve had some entrepreneurship training every morning. Well at least we’ve tried, most days the trainers have been late or not even shown up at all! Today is the final session and it’s almost 10am (we should start at 9am) but only 2 students have arrived and no sign of the trainer yet! Still an hour is not really late in Kenya, give it about 2 or 3 and people start to ask questions, so there’s plenty of time yet.
On Monday afternoon I was in St Frances girls secondary school again, this time we started around on time and Ken, one of our VCT Counsellors took the session on stigma and discrimination. It went really well and the girls were even properly interacting by the end instead of their usual blank faces. So it was a good day!

Wednesday, I’ve already said that Piia, Sister Lucy and I visited ‘Live with Hope’. We dropped Piia home because she had been very ill for a few days after drinking some infected milk. Weldon didn’t get sick at all, not surprisingly he’s probably very used to it. She’s a lot better now thankfully. We then had lunch at the ‘Tea Hotel’ in Kericho which was a real treat for me especially since I had meat to eat (and Lamb not Goat!). After lunch we went to the market to pick up a few fruits and vegetables and headed home. On the way Lucy suggested that I come home with her and have a cup of tea and a shower. It was hard to contain the excitement! I’d been staying in the village for over a week and it’s pretty much impossible to stay properly clean when showering from a bucket, especially washing your hair. So I would just like to announce that, Nuns Are Amazing! I know people told me this before but now I know it’s true. It looks like at least maybe on Sundays I’ll perhaps be able to have a shower after church. They even have hot water! Ok, a little too much excitement for one day…

On Thursday afternoon Weldon and I met with the youth centre in Kericho to discuss some Peer Youth Education training we’ll be holding from the 22nd. One thing I’ve noticed is that Kenyans like to dream. We’re sitting there in the meeting and the guys are thinking ahead to maybe 400 kids in school being trained as peer educators and even publishing our own curriculum etc, when we haven’t even planned a programme or chosen topics yet! So eventually I was able to pull them back to today and we now have a half decent programme for 4 months training and field visits to schools. Just hope that it actually happens and they don’t get some other crazy dream of some kind and start running with that instead of doing the training. Otherwise I know it’ll be down to me to organise the whole thing! So the plan is to try and keep their feet firmly on the ground and to do what is planned before jumping to something else. Fingers crossed!

So today I’m just waiting for the trainers/students to turn up and taking the chance to write the blog while I can. I can give an update on the biting insects for those interested. They are most definitely fleas from the 10 dogs we have at home and it is possibly starting to get a bit annoying now. At least I have last year’s experience to have prepared me for this but here I’m not sure there’s much of a solution. Weldon is supposed to be working on it, will update again soon. I have a bit of a cold but nothing to be concerned about. I think I will go to Kericho tomorrow to do some shopping for myself, fruit and some nice exciting things like that to keep in my room.

Hope you are all well and I hear there is snow again? Hope it’s not too cold, here on Wednesday it was 32°C….