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!