Seems like I haven’t written anything in ages… since the week of my night shifts at Imani… It was quite an experience and I am glad I was working with Maria. Normally there is only 1 person on the night duty for the baby house. The 1st night went quite well, we followed the routine and the babies slept peacefully. We had few snacks (i.e. bread with jam and cookies) to keep us going.When I went home in the morning and showered (it is unbelievable how much dust there is everywhere so showering often is a must). I then slept for about 6 hours and it was almost time to go to Imani again.
I did 5 night shifts and they all followed very similar pattern. The night shift runs from 6pm till 6.30am… as I was doing the class with older children each day until around 10pm, I was joining Maria just after she finished feeding the youngest group.
The routine was same every day – Maria would feed the little babies whilst I was doing the homework with the children and then we would feed the older group porridge, change the nappies and the bed sheets. Then around 1 hr break if the babies were sleeping. Then at 12.30am time to feed the youngest group again and also change nappies. Then tidy up, wash the cups and a little break until 4.30am… and again feeding the little babies… before finishing the shift we also need to boil 2 large pots of water for the day of making milk for youngest babies and also for the sugary water that is given to all babies… boiling of water is done in the kitchen outside on the wood fired stoves… it is not the most pleasant of jobs as it is still dark outside, very smoky in the “kitchen”, the pots are really large and dirty from the fire on the outside… we also wipe-wash all the babies and change their clothes to make them ready for the day…
I was quite lucky after my 1st night shift when I slept 6hrs during the day but not so lucky for the other 4 when I could not sleep longer than 1 or 2 hrs for some reason. You can just imagine how much coffee I drunk as a result…
After my nightshift on Thursday, on Friday morning, I went home only to pick up my backpack as I was going with Ena to Eldoret to visit Lewa Children’s Home – I met Phyllis, the founder of the home while I was still in London, in December last year. I have been donating money for that home for quite some time and wanted to see what it was like.
I met Ena in town and we set off to find transport for our trip. It was an experience in itself. As we arrived at the Easy Coach ticket office we found out that they only operate 2 runs a day to Eldoret – 1 in the morning that we missed and 1 in the evening that it wasn’t much good to us… we then decided to walk to another bus station where we previously saw busses to Eldoret.
As we got closer, we were approached by a man who just insisted that he would show us where to get the bus from and it did not matter that we weren’t interested. He walked with us and in some way it proved quite helpful as he kept telling others to leave us alone. However, as we got closer to the coaches for Eldoret it got quite manic as everyone started to fight about which coach we should get on and who should get the commission from our tickets (!!!). After a short debate we picked a coach that looked like it could make the whole journey, we purchased the tickets and picked our seats… then we realised that seatbelts were not working and with crazy drivers here it was quite an issue. Luckily, a very helpful man that sat behind us helped us to get them to work. We were all set; all we needed to do is to wait for the departure. It wasn’t long and we were moving. But here another problem arose – the coach seemed to have broken down (after moving sthg like 20m only!). We were all told to get off and move to another coach. We got to our seats and surprise surprise the seatbelts were not working… and this time we could not fix them. I asked if we could move to another seat but was told that they were reserved for staff… at the same time the coach was only half full, I’m not too sure what happened to the rest of the people but we had to wait for the coach to fill up again. And during that time there were many people trying to sell anything from hot sausages to padlocks coming into the coach and trying to pass one another… quite amusing actually but after over 1 hr also irritating…
I did manage to secure the “staff” seats for us though so we had working seatbelts in the end and a much better view :) We were finally on our way – it is about 300 km and the journey takes around 5 hrs but we had a stop half way at a petrol station which was good if you needed a toilet or a cold drink (as it was really hot) but then we stopped again in Nakuru to get more passengers and again – more people trying to sell us stuff. We even had 2 preachers on the coach (before and after Nakuru) – they got on, talk (or shouted rather) for around 20 min, collected some money and then got off waiting for another coach I believe… it wasn’t very pleasant as they both chose to stand next to us even though we could not understand a word of what they were saying… it gave me a headache but at least they did not ask us for money ;)
We reached Eldoret when it was already dark. Then we were delayed even further as there was a huge traffic jam – as it turned out we just missed the Kenyan president visiting Eldoret for an army parade of some sort…
We had to take a taxi (it is very unsafe to take a matatu after dark as you can get robbed or the whole vehicle could be kidnapped) and drive around the traffic in the fields; it was quite scary to be honest…
We arrived at Lewa home really late so only had time for supper and a brief chat with Phyllis but already we could see what amazing work she’s been doing there.
We originally planned to stay in Eldoret until Monday but loved the place so much that decided to add one extra day to our trip. We spent the whole time at the home with children apart from Saturday when we went with Phyllis to town to get some things for the children.
On Monday I did not feel too well so spent most of the day resting which was very frustrating for me as it seemed like such a waste of time…
On Tuesday morning we walked (or actually run most of the journey as the kids found it very funny… ;) with the nursery class to school and said our goodbyes to the children. It was time to go back to Nairobi… I missed my kids so much though that I was glad to be going back. I love them all now so much – there are so many characters in my class as well as in the baby house…
The journey back was much better as we took a smaller bus (a better version of matatu) so there was only one stop, no preachers and nobody selling stuff :)
I was back at Imani on Wednesday and that night I spent at Maria’s house in Kayole as I have not seen here for what seemed ages – we needed to catch up, there was a lot to talk about after my trip :)
The following day I did the morning shift and, as it was Kate’s birthday, we went to town for some b’day cake and coffee with girls. It was really nice to get together outside of work and chat a little. After we drank enough coffee we went to visit the elephants and Kate now also sponsors one :) it was a very good day and we were hoping to repeat it on Saturday.
On Friday when I came to Imani I found out that all of my babies were moved to the older group as we were expecting more babies to arrive from the hospital (between 10 – 15 babies)… I spent the afternoon revising maths and English with Chip. The rest of the children that I study with went to a birthday party.
Saturday morning I set out to go to the city where I was supposed to meet Kate, go to the market and then go to see the elephants with Ena as she also wanted to sponsor one… since the morning I wasn’t feeling too good though but I didn’t think too much of it… I arrived in the city and waited for Kate. We had a coffee but as were leaving I started to feel worse. I could barely walk up the stairs. I still thought it is just sthg minor but decided to go to the chemist to get some advice.
I then found out that I had all symptoms of malaria. I couldn’t even manage to stand there and listen to what the pharmacist was saying; luckily Kate was with me(if you are reading this Kate - thanks so much for taking care of me, I really appreciate it)... To cut the story short, I had to take a taxi (!) – I know, seems like such a luxury – to get home as I could not face a journey on a crazy matatu. I got home and had to stay in bed since… what a waste of time…!
I guess I shouldn’t have ignored the 30 mosquito bites on my leg after one of the night shifts at Imani… especially when I wasn’t feeling well in Eldoret… I think it was starting then but I just did not want to slow down… I was planning to go and get tested for malaria after I get back from Eldoret but I quickly forgot about it… there is always so much to do… well, it finally got me…
I do have anti-malaria tablets with me but they are like antibiotics and if you take them every day you must stay away from the sun which is quite impossible in Africa, where the sun is shining all the time! Therefore I have not been taking any... Also - there is very low risk of malaria in Nairobi... :)
If I live, you will have another update soon ;) only joking… ;)
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