1 week gone already... i am finally online :)
i arrived in Nairobi on Saturday morning and straight away faced the first challenge as there was nobody to collect me from the airport... luckily i had the contact details for the ICYE in Kenya and after over an hour wait, I was on my way :)
I spent Saturday and Sunday at YMCA in Nairobi. On Saturday I decided to go for a walk in the city and, as expected, I got lost ;) luckily after a little while I managed to find my way back to the hostel and was in my room just before it got dark outside (in Nairobi it gets dark around 7pm). The two nights I spent at YMCA were actually really terrifying for me, as I was on my own in foreign country and unfamiliar surroundings . I survived though :)
On Sunday I had my orientation mtg with Kerubo (the lady from ICYE in Kenya) and then went out for lunch with Wilson and his family – Wilson works at NCR in Kenya, he has been very nice and helpful :)on Monday, before going to Kayole, I visited the NCR office and finally met Jane (the office manager) in person. Jane was very helpful before I even left London, telling me what I should pack with me :)
I arrived at Imani on Monday afternoon and it was quite an experience… I was assigned to the baby house and to the group of the youngest, currently 8 orphans (3 boys – David, Antony and Ben, and 5 girls – Grace, Mary, Jessica, Susan and Michelle). There is pretty strict routine that needs to be followed and not too much time to actually play with the children, which is quite a shame… we have a choice of 2 shifts a day, starting either at 6.30am or 12.30 pm… I had quite a busy week as on some days I actually covered both shifts and worked whole day, which is very exhausting… the baby house is spread across 3 floors and although my group is located on 1st floor, there are very frequent trips to the roof to collect dry nappies… we also take babies outside, on the ground floor so there is a lot of going up and down the stairs…
As the host family was not ready when I arrived, after the 2 nights at the hostel, I spent the following 4 living with Maria – the girl that was brought up at the home and who now is 25 and works at the home 7 days a week at least 12 hours a day… she lives in Kayole, where the home is located. The area is really rough and I was absolutely terrified when I was there the first night, especially that we had a power cut from about 8pm on the first evening and the following morning I had to have a wash at 5.30 in the dark without running water, as the water only comes in Kayole on Thursdays and Saturdays… and even then – its cold showers only…
Maria has been a great host though and we have already become really good friends. She has been looking after me the whole week, even when she had to go to another home and I was staying at her flat on my own…
On Thursday we took 8 of the older boys to the local clinic for the check up and it was the first time that I saw the “plumpy nut” distributed and the arm bands used to establish how malnourished the babies were (as I support Unicef, I have heard of both and even had 1 of each sent to me, but it was so overwhelming to see it being used). It was even more overwhelming to realize that the babies we carried to the clinic and thought that they were about 1 year old, were actually all more than 2 years old and severely malnourished… they did not want to even stand up, never mind walk, didn’t really talk… and really wanted to just cling onto to you when you picked them up… it was almost heartbreaking when you had to put them down and move on to care for the others… in that group there are 16 babies and just 2 people taking care of them…
Since Friday I am staying with the host family who are really lovely. I have a host mum – Jane, sister June and a brother Zanaya… Jane has 2 other children but they are studying and are away from home. Zanaya is goingt o boarding school on Monday. There is also another girl staying here – Janet, who is Jane’s relative.
The flat is really small and I am sharing a room with June and Janet but it’s all good as the girls are really nice.
Today June was showing me how to use the public transport to get to Nairobi as I was meeting up with the other volunteers and I can tell you the journey was an experience in itself. They drive here like lunatics… especially the “Matatu” drivers (the small 8 people mini-buses who are actually legally allowed to transport 14 people(!!!)
I went to the Massai market and it was really nice – loads of beautiful things but I have resisted the temptation… :)
We also saw the remains of the supermarket that burnt down on Wednesday – it was very tragic, many people were trapped and died and many are still missing. I was there last Saturday so it was very upsetting for me to find out what happened just 4 days later…
I haven’t yet decided how to spend the extra money that you have helped me to raise, still observing and trying to work out whats needed the most. From next week I will start doing few late evenings so I can help older children with their homework… I will also try to meet with Faith – the lady that started the home over 20 years ago… I can already see that they could do with couple of washing machines (there is constant supply of water at the home, unlike in the rest of Kayole) as currently all washing is done by hand and it takes all day every day to ensure that there is a constant supply of clean nappies and clothes for babies…
I don’t have many photos from the home as we are not supposed to take any but I will try to get the permission so you can see what it is like here…
I will try to write another update soon.
Thanks for visiting my page,
Liliana :)
i arrived in Nairobi on Saturday morning and straight away faced the first challenge as there was nobody to collect me from the airport... luckily i had the contact details for the ICYE in Kenya and after over an hour wait, I was on my way :)
I spent Saturday and Sunday at YMCA in Nairobi. On Saturday I decided to go for a walk in the city and, as expected, I got lost ;) luckily after a little while I managed to find my way back to the hostel and was in my room just before it got dark outside (in Nairobi it gets dark around 7pm). The two nights I spent at YMCA were actually really terrifying for me, as I was on my own in foreign country and unfamiliar surroundings . I survived though :)
On Sunday I had my orientation mtg with Kerubo (the lady from ICYE in Kenya) and then went out for lunch with Wilson and his family – Wilson works at NCR in Kenya, he has been very nice and helpful :)on Monday, before going to Kayole, I visited the NCR office and finally met Jane (the office manager) in person. Jane was very helpful before I even left London, telling me what I should pack with me :)
I arrived at Imani on Monday afternoon and it was quite an experience… I was assigned to the baby house and to the group of the youngest, currently 8 orphans (3 boys – David, Antony and Ben, and 5 girls – Grace, Mary, Jessica, Susan and Michelle). There is pretty strict routine that needs to be followed and not too much time to actually play with the children, which is quite a shame… we have a choice of 2 shifts a day, starting either at 6.30am or 12.30 pm… I had quite a busy week as on some days I actually covered both shifts and worked whole day, which is very exhausting… the baby house is spread across 3 floors and although my group is located on 1st floor, there are very frequent trips to the roof to collect dry nappies… we also take babies outside, on the ground floor so there is a lot of going up and down the stairs…
As the host family was not ready when I arrived, after the 2 nights at the hostel, I spent the following 4 living with Maria – the girl that was brought up at the home and who now is 25 and works at the home 7 days a week at least 12 hours a day… she lives in Kayole, where the home is located. The area is really rough and I was absolutely terrified when I was there the first night, especially that we had a power cut from about 8pm on the first evening and the following morning I had to have a wash at 5.30 in the dark without running water, as the water only comes in Kayole on Thursdays and Saturdays… and even then – its cold showers only…
Maria has been a great host though and we have already become really good friends. She has been looking after me the whole week, even when she had to go to another home and I was staying at her flat on my own…
On Thursday we took 8 of the older boys to the local clinic for the check up and it was the first time that I saw the “plumpy nut” distributed and the arm bands used to establish how malnourished the babies were (as I support Unicef, I have heard of both and even had 1 of each sent to me, but it was so overwhelming to see it being used). It was even more overwhelming to realize that the babies we carried to the clinic and thought that they were about 1 year old, were actually all more than 2 years old and severely malnourished… they did not want to even stand up, never mind walk, didn’t really talk… and really wanted to just cling onto to you when you picked them up… it was almost heartbreaking when you had to put them down and move on to care for the others… in that group there are 16 babies and just 2 people taking care of them…
Since Friday I am staying with the host family who are really lovely. I have a host mum – Jane, sister June and a brother Zanaya… Jane has 2 other children but they are studying and are away from home. Zanaya is goingt o boarding school on Monday. There is also another girl staying here – Janet, who is Jane’s relative.
The flat is really small and I am sharing a room with June and Janet but it’s all good as the girls are really nice.
Today June was showing me how to use the public transport to get to Nairobi as I was meeting up with the other volunteers and I can tell you the journey was an experience in itself. They drive here like lunatics… especially the “Matatu” drivers (the small 8 people mini-buses who are actually legally allowed to transport 14 people(!!!)
I went to the Massai market and it was really nice – loads of beautiful things but I have resisted the temptation… :)
We also saw the remains of the supermarket that burnt down on Wednesday – it was very tragic, many people were trapped and died and many are still missing. I was there last Saturday so it was very upsetting for me to find out what happened just 4 days later…
I haven’t yet decided how to spend the extra money that you have helped me to raise, still observing and trying to work out whats needed the most. From next week I will start doing few late evenings so I can help older children with their homework… I will also try to meet with Faith – the lady that started the home over 20 years ago… I can already see that they could do with couple of washing machines (there is constant supply of water at the home, unlike in the rest of Kayole) as currently all washing is done by hand and it takes all day every day to ensure that there is a constant supply of clean nappies and clothes for babies…
I don’t have many photos from the home as we are not supposed to take any but I will try to get the permission so you can see what it is like here…
I will try to write another update soon.
Thanks for visiting my page,
Liliana :)
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