Week 6

It has been an interesting week in Kenya. It started really well; I spent the whole Saturday (28th of Feb) with my host-sister – June. We went to Nairobi and had really great time at the Maasai Market (I have become an expert at bargaining) – I really love this place, you can find so many interesting things here and all so cheap if you know how to haggle :)
We got few nice things – mainly beads (earrings, necklaces etc…)
After the market and a little rest over a cup of coffee and a huge ice-cream :) we went to visit the elephants. And it was a really great experience again as this time I actually got to hug Kimana (the one that I sponsor) and Ndii (who shares the pen with Kimana). We also saw again the little baby Rhino which was 2 months old (every time I see him, he looks bigger – you wouldn’t believe how much it changes just within 2 weeks…). We actually had some time to play with him and stroke him which he definitely enjoyed :)
I already cannot wait for the next visit in a couple of weeks.

Also on Saturday my host brother Zanaya – came back from boarding school for half term. However – the half term in Kenya is only 3 days…

On Sunday, as usual, I went to Imani to do the homework with children. Unfortunately I was told that they weren’t there as they went to Imani B. so instead I played with my little Mary and the other children. After that I went to visit Maria before she needed to leave to come to Imani for the night shift.

On Monday I did my usual afrternoon shift but this time I also did the class in the evening. As Maria was doing the night shifts whole week I could not stay at her house and instead slept at Imani. But I didn’t go to sleep until after 1am - I did the homework with older children until 9.30pm and then was helping to feed and change the babies. There normally is only one person on the night shift at the baby house and therefore a lot of work as 2 groups of children need to be fed at night – the 11 that I work with and the slightly older group in which are also around 10 babies.

The next morning I needed to be up before 6.30am to do the morning shift but because the children get up at 5am at Imani, this was also the time I woke up.
That day the doctor came to Imani so I took Mary to see him as she wasn’t well. As I have been spending a lot of time with her, I was able to give the doctor a lot of information about how she was in the previous days. She was then given some antibiotics and need to have some test done.
After Imani I went with Maria to see a friend, who is a taylor and promised to make me an African dress :) from there we (Maria and I) went to Nairobi for coffee and cake :)
We very rarely get time together outside work so it was very nice for both of us even though we didn’t have much time at all as Maria had to get back to Kayole in time for her night shift… :)

I went to work on Wednesday for the afternoon shift again, after having spent the whole morning hand-washing my clothes – if you can believe that ;) This time I was supposed to do the class, stay the night at Imani and leave early on Thursday morning (around 7 am when it is not dark anymore) and get ready for my trip to Nyeri (to visit another home) that day. However, when I was almost finished with the class, I got the txt msg from my host-mum Jane saying that there will be a Mungiki strike the following day and that I should check with Faith or Maria before leaving home as it might be too dangerous to travel. I didn’t really have a clue what “Mungiki” was but straight away I spoke to Faith about it and she confirmed with the police that there was a strike planned for Thursday and therefore it will not be safe in Kayole. As it was already after 10pm I could not go back home so had to stay there until it was safe to travel back home. It was quite clear that the trip would have to be postponed to at least Friday. Indeed, the volunteers were warned not to come to work on Thursday in case of trouble in Kayole. But I was already there…! I just hoped for the best and carried on working with Maria feeding babies. That night I spent with my little Mary – she was so sweet and slept well despite of not being too well. I went to sleep really late that night again – and I didn’t sleep well as I was checking on Mary to make sure she was ok. I don’t think I got more than 4 hours sleep. And was up again at 6am.

Kayole seemed so quiet – there were no matatus as they were fearing the Mungiki. I guess now I should probably explain what Mungiki is…
According to Wikipedia “Mungiki is a politico-religious group and a banned criminal organization in Kenya. The name means "A united people" or "multitude" in the Kikuyu language.[2] The religion, which apparently originated in the late 1980s, is secretive and bears some similarity to mystery religions. Specifics of their origin and doctrines are unclear. What is clear is that they favor a return to indigenous African traditions and reject Westernisation and all trappings of colonialism. This includes rejection of Christianity, and the practice by the Mungiki of forced female genital cutting. The ideology of the group is characterised by revolutionary rhetoric, Kikuyu traditions, and a disdain for Kenyan modernization, which is seen as immoral corruption.[3] Mungiki is often referred to as Kenya’s Cosa Nostra, Yakuza, or Kenyan Mafia due to its organization.”

From what I was told, when there is a Mungiki strike they mainly attack the matatus as it is an easy way to paralyse Nairobi and other cities as people are fearing to take the matatus and therefore are unable to get to work.
As I wrote in my previous blog – the matatus are very loud, they tend to use their horn a lot and these are much louder than in normal cars. When I stay in Kayole with Maria I cannot sleep from around 4am when they start appearing on the streets collecting people who need to get to Nairobi and other places…
But on Thursday it was very quiet – no matatu noise at all, I think the last time I heard any was around 3.30am… I was wondering how I was gonna get home.

I stayed at Imani until about 11am and then was dropped home by Faith as she was going to the hospital in Nairobi (Doonholm where I am staying is on the way).

We obviously did not go to Nyeri on Thursday which was just as well as I wasn’t even packed :) but the plan was to go the following morning. So I got home and tried to rest a bit – so many nights of very little sleep made me feel really light-headed… but before trying to have a nap we decided to go for a walk with June to get some fruits. When I got home I finally went to sleep for about 2 hours. Then it was time to pack for the trip. I went to sleep still very tired and set my alarm for 6.30am…

I left home around 7.45 am on Friday and after a short delay due to heavy traffic got a matatu to Nairobi. However, on the way I got a msg from ICYE office that we should not go to work or town again as the strike wasn’t over… as I was on the way to Nairobi already, and so was Ena – the girl I was going with, I decided to get to town first and then decide what to do.

When I got to Nairobi and met up with Ena and her friend, after a lot of deliberation and advice from 3 different people we decided to postpone the trip to the following week. But as we were in Nairobi already we wanted to visit Kate – another volunteer, who had been in hospital the whole week. I left my bag at NCR office (thank you Jane :) and we set off. But before we went to the hospital we’d gone to Java House for breakfast (we had amazing banana pancakes and some fresh juice to keep it healthy ;)

As I didn’t go to Nyeri, and it looked like I’d have weekend at home, I was invited to Wilson’s daughter’s birthday party on Saturday – she was turning 4 :)

I got home totally exhausted and surprised everyone as they thought that by that time I was already enjoying my time in Nyeri :)

The next morning – on Saturday – I left home really early again and set off for Nairobi. I was supposed to meet Wilson at 10am and had quite few things to do, one of them was to visit the Maasai market. But first I need to find a present for Lynn which I managed to do quite quickly. I then set off to another shop in which I saw a really lovely African dress in my first week in Kenya – I could not stop thinking about it since then and therefore finally decided to buy. It was a pleasant surprise when I found out that the dress was reduced in price!
From there I set off for the Maasai Market, which I now love so much. Can you believe that some of the people there actually recignise me now and I need to stop for a little chat?? :)
I bought a few things and luckily Wilson was running a little late so I didn’t need to rush my favourite activity – the bargaining :)

When I met with Wilson we set of for the party. It was a joint party for 3 children from the Bible club and as you can imagine – there were many children, just under 30 I think… the party was in a very nice place, with a swimming pool, so the kids had a great time :) the Birthday Girl - Lynn seemed to have really enjoyed herself :)

We got to Wilson’s house in the evening. I didn’t even plan to spend the night there and had no change of clothes but Beatrice was so nice and she arranged for everything that I needed (it is quite amazing how lovely everyone is to me – I feel at home no matter where I am). We had a very nice dinner and shortly after that I went to sleep. The following morning, yet again, I needed to be up early as I had to get back home by 9.30am.

When I got home, I only had time for a shower and the lady that was picking me up at 10am was there. We were going to visit the home which she started many years ago from her own house. It is called “Motherly Care” and based in Ruai – you can visit their web site http://www.motherlycare.org/

As soon as we got there I could see that they do not get as much funding as Imani – everything is much simpler there… the children don’t even have a dining room and have to eat ouside. The sleeping facilities are not great either as all of the children need to share beds, 2 or 3 in one bed… the classrooms need painting, the kitchen could do with a gas stove (at the moment there are only 2 wood fired “things” – like a placement where u put a large pot with a fire underneath…), they need to built another floor on one of the buildings and also recently they managed to purchase some more land next to the home so now need a lot of money to build more facilities. The children are schooled within the home due to big difference in ages and also normally when the child arrives at home, no matter what age, they wouldn’t have been going to school. So the education needs to start from the basic, i.e. teaching to read and write…

Despite all those difficulties though the children seem really happy and well looked after. They were singing for us and it was so nice to see so many smiling faces.

I now want to think of some ways how I can help them. They are quite far from where I live and I could not get there on public transport. I don’t want to spend at least another day or two there to learn how the home is run in more detail.

Straight from Ruai I went to Kayole for my usual Sunday class at Imani. Now the children are used to me it just gets better and better. Can you believe that they are actually asking me to give them some extra work if they have no homework to do?? Seems like my students are really enjoying doing maths exercises :)

Again – I came back home so tired, but also very happy that I managed to do everything I planned for the day :) I love spending my time with children and really enjoy the classes, especially on Sundays.

Lets hope my trip to Nyeri will not have to be postponed again :)