Kenya Reflections (4)

I realise that I've done a lot of writing about Kenya over the last few posts but it's been on my mind for a long time. I'd never really taken the time to think about what I learnt from the experience and how I'm moving on from there now. There are many more posts I could write about what I learnt from the country, it's people and culture; as well as an equal number of things I dislike about Kenya, the things that have annoyed me beyond belief. The corruption, the lack of infrastructure, the gap between rich and poor, the traditional attitude to women/children/disabled people etc. at the end of the day those things get pushed to the wayside by photos like this one...

My recorder class each with their personal choice of colour certificates...

But I want to conclude this time of reflection with this post.
I have been incredibly lucky over the years to have met some inspirational, transformational, basically one in seven billion people (I know it's cheesy but it's the truth).
During my 18 months in Kenya my experience would not have been the same without the amazing people I met, lived with and got to know as family.
So I just want to take this chance to reflect on what these people taught me during that time...

Kenya Reflections (3)

I have a few more things that the people/culture of Kenya taught me that I would like to reflect on in this third post...

Home in Kiptere...

Kenya Reflections (2)

The second post in my reflections on what I learnt as a volunteer in Kenya for 18 months between January -December 2010 and April - October 2011.

My U14 football teams getting ready for training...

Kenya Reflections (1)

Yesterday I had the privelege of being able to spend the day with an amazing friend, one of my 2010 cohort of volunteers to Kenya and someone who I'd not seen for over 18months. Originally from Germany she's been over in the UK on an Erasmus study exchange for 6 months. Despite being only a few hundred miles apart since she arrived in January, life has got in the way of us catching up in person. (I am most to blame as I've been even more like a hermit than usual lately).

But anyway, we were able to talk about what's been going on since we left the country that had been home for 12 months (we even flew home on the same day/different planes on 29th Dec 2010). Friends and family quickly tire of kenya stories and photos of ragged but smiling children they can't tell the difference between,

only people who were there/been through similar experiences can really understand our need to talk about it, a lot. It's getting on for 8 months since I returned to the UK for the 2nd time and I certainly havent taken the time to process the year and a half of my life spent there.