Week 11 & 12
I have survived the malaria but had to spend the entire week in bed. It was a terrible experience. My host family looked after me well though and I am so glad that I am staying with them. In fact, everyone that I have met in Kenya has been so great. I am very lucky to have so many friends here.
By Good Friday I felt better so went to church and then met up with Kate – we went to see the elephants together and since it was Easter we bought some treats for the keepers (biscuits, crisps, juices etc) – they are all doing a fantastic job at the orphanage and it is so clear that they love what they do so we wanted to do sthg nice for them :)
I really love going to visit the elephant orphanage, by now I know most of the keepers and it is really nice to talk to them and to learn more about what they do and elephants in general.
We stayed the night at Kate’s friends’ house – a very cute little cottage; it was so peaceful there – such a nice change from the loudness of Nairobi… It was the first girly night I had had since coming to Kenya so I really enjoyed it. It was also good to get out the house and not too tiring (malaria really drained me and even small activities made me very tired).
After a very lazy morning on Saturday I set off to town again, wanted to go to the market for an hour or so and then I was invited to stay with Jane & her husband and spent Easter there. I had a really good time – I really enjoy my visits to Jane’s, she always makes me feel like I am at home. We went to church together Saturday night. On Sunday we went to Don Bosco church, we stayed there quite some time and I was helping Jane sell the hotdogs to raise money for the church.
We had such good time that I decided to stay until Monday, instead of Sunday as originally planned. I met Jane’s brothers, we had a bbq for lunch and went for dinner to her sister’s. I should mention that the food was really delicious ;)
When I got back on Monday, I met my other host sister – Easterlina, who came back home on Friday evening from the US, where she’s studying. I was planning to go to Imani that afternoon but was told by Maria that the children weren’t there so I decided to stay at home. We watched movies with June the whole afternoon :) It was very nice as I always miss them when I go somewhere and don’t come back home for the night… They really are becoming my second family and I am not sure how I am going to be able to say bye to them when my time in Kenya is up.
On Tuesday I finally went to Imani and it was so great to see my children. I missed them so much and it was an amazing feeling when Chip run to give me a big hug as soon as he noticed me coming through the gate. And others followed. I spend the entire afternoon with the children and we studied quite a lot as I stayed the night there so didn’t have to rush home. I love revising with my class and it makes me really happy when they come to me and ask if we can go and study together.
I forgot to mention that all babies from my group graduated to the next one and I had no babies to look after… We were expecting more babies to arrive from Kenyatta Hospital but it was taking a little longer than originally planned.
The next morning I carried on revising with few other children, amongst them Yan, one of my favourite kids. In Kenya there are school holiday through out April which is why I could spend so much time with my class… normally I would not see them until around 6pm…
I have survived the malaria but had to spend the entire week in bed. It was a terrible experience. My host family looked after me well though and I am so glad that I am staying with them. In fact, everyone that I have met in Kenya has been so great. I am very lucky to have so many friends here.
By Good Friday I felt better so went to church and then met up with Kate – we went to see the elephants together and since it was Easter we bought some treats for the keepers (biscuits, crisps, juices etc) – they are all doing a fantastic job at the orphanage and it is so clear that they love what they do so we wanted to do sthg nice for them :)
I really love going to visit the elephant orphanage, by now I know most of the keepers and it is really nice to talk to them and to learn more about what they do and elephants in general.
We stayed the night at Kate’s friends’ house – a very cute little cottage; it was so peaceful there – such a nice change from the loudness of Nairobi… It was the first girly night I had had since coming to Kenya so I really enjoyed it. It was also good to get out the house and not too tiring (malaria really drained me and even small activities made me very tired).
After a very lazy morning on Saturday I set off to town again, wanted to go to the market for an hour or so and then I was invited to stay with Jane & her husband and spent Easter there. I had a really good time – I really enjoy my visits to Jane’s, she always makes me feel like I am at home. We went to church together Saturday night. On Sunday we went to Don Bosco church, we stayed there quite some time and I was helping Jane sell the hotdogs to raise money for the church.
We had such good time that I decided to stay until Monday, instead of Sunday as originally planned. I met Jane’s brothers, we had a bbq for lunch and went for dinner to her sister’s. I should mention that the food was really delicious ;)
When I got back on Monday, I met my other host sister – Easterlina, who came back home on Friday evening from the US, where she’s studying. I was planning to go to Imani that afternoon but was told by Maria that the children weren’t there so I decided to stay at home. We watched movies with June the whole afternoon :) It was very nice as I always miss them when I go somewhere and don’t come back home for the night… They really are becoming my second family and I am not sure how I am going to be able to say bye to them when my time in Kenya is up.
On Tuesday I finally went to Imani and it was so great to see my children. I missed them so much and it was an amazing feeling when Chip run to give me a big hug as soon as he noticed me coming through the gate. And others followed. I spend the entire afternoon with the children and we studied quite a lot as I stayed the night there so didn’t have to rush home. I love revising with my class and it makes me really happy when they come to me and ask if we can go and study together.
I forgot to mention that all babies from my group graduated to the next one and I had no babies to look after… We were expecting more babies to arrive from Kenyatta Hospital but it was taking a little longer than originally planned.
The next morning I carried on revising with few other children, amongst them Yan, one of my favourite kids. In Kenya there are school holiday through out April which is why I could spend so much time with my class… normally I would not see them until around 6pm…
That afternoon I went to see the elephants again – now that I am getting closer and closer to leaving this beautiful country I want to use every opportunity to go to the orphanage. Kate and Ena came with me and we were really lucky that day – when we arrived there was no other visitors and only 3 more were expected. That meant we had Maalim (the baby rhino) all to ourselves – we played with him, took turns to feed him and got lots of great photos. When we were leaving, Steve – one of the keepers – was also going to town so we all went together which was great for us as it was getting dark so it was much safer with male escort :)
I woke up on Thursday morning quite early feeling really sick – very similar way I felt that Saturday in town when I got sick with malaria. I wasn’t even able to get out of bed… It was very frustrating as I did not want to spend another day at home…
Unfortunately it wasn’t the only bad thing that happened that day. As I wasn’t feeling any better as the hours went by I decided I need to go to see a doctor again, I didn’t have any cash on me to pay for the appointment so had to go the ATM. Before I left the house I decided to check my account quickly as on two odd occasion my card was declided when I tried withdrawing money. When I logged in to my account I almost fainted as it was no only empty but heavily overdrawn and there were many transactions that I did not recognise… in total someone has taken over £2000 out of my account… I had no money left at all…
I cant really describe how I felt at the time, but when I finally calmed down I called the bank to let them know what happened. They stopped my card and told me that the only thing that they can do is to send me a new card to my home address along with some forms to fill in so they can investigate what happened. When I asked what I should do in the meantime whilst I am in Kenya, I was told that there is nothing that they can do…
The only nice thing that happened that day was that Gladys – a girl that also volunteers at Imani (she is from Nairobi though) – heard that I wasn’t well and she came to visit and make sure that I am ok :)
I called ICYE office in Kenya and they lent me some money so I could go to the doctor the next day, so on Friday morning I went to the clinic but I was told that it is probably just a fever… got some tablets and set off to town to report the incident to the police.
This was an experience in itself… My insurer requires that the incident is reported to the police within 24 hrs and the police in Kenya takes ages. As I couldn’t go there on Thursday as I was sick and didn’t have any money on me, I only had Friday afternoon. But there were many people at the station and I had to almost beg someone to take my statement without waiting for my turn. When I finally got to speak to someone they couldn’t understand what I was trying to tell them – it was like they did not believe me that the money was actually missing and were asking me how it was possible!!!
In the end they wrote the details down on the piece of paper, gave me the reference number and said that they would update the records in their book. So now I have no clue what they actually wrote but before I go home I need to get the copy of that – I guess it will be interesting to find out…
After that I went to see Jane and Wilson at NCR as they were really concerned about me and wanted to find out what exactly happened. They are really great friends.
As part of the money that was stolen (£1200) was what I collected for the project, it meant I wouldn’t be able to do what I planned. I spoke to ICYE in the UK about this and they agreed to lend me £500 which I wanted to use for the children from Imani on a day out that I promised them and for another children’s home as I wanted to do a party for them – there are 170 children there and that home doesn’t get much funding so I wanted to organise sthg fun so kids could enjoy it. The remaining £800 I wanted to use to buy new beds for the babies but now it will have to wait until I can get the money back from the bank (I really do hope that I can get it back).
I was so drained from all that happened that again I had no energy for anything and had to spend the whole weekend at home. I find it very frustrating as I hate doing nothing and it felt like I wasting time. I guess though it was pretty unlikely that all 16 weeks would go as I planned… It is just another challenge for me…
I woke up on Thursday morning quite early feeling really sick – very similar way I felt that Saturday in town when I got sick with malaria. I wasn’t even able to get out of bed… It was very frustrating as I did not want to spend another day at home…
Unfortunately it wasn’t the only bad thing that happened that day. As I wasn’t feeling any better as the hours went by I decided I need to go to see a doctor again, I didn’t have any cash on me to pay for the appointment so had to go the ATM. Before I left the house I decided to check my account quickly as on two odd occasion my card was declided when I tried withdrawing money. When I logged in to my account I almost fainted as it was no only empty but heavily overdrawn and there were many transactions that I did not recognise… in total someone has taken over £2000 out of my account… I had no money left at all…
I cant really describe how I felt at the time, but when I finally calmed down I called the bank to let them know what happened. They stopped my card and told me that the only thing that they can do is to send me a new card to my home address along with some forms to fill in so they can investigate what happened. When I asked what I should do in the meantime whilst I am in Kenya, I was told that there is nothing that they can do…
The only nice thing that happened that day was that Gladys – a girl that also volunteers at Imani (she is from Nairobi though) – heard that I wasn’t well and she came to visit and make sure that I am ok :)
I called ICYE office in Kenya and they lent me some money so I could go to the doctor the next day, so on Friday morning I went to the clinic but I was told that it is probably just a fever… got some tablets and set off to town to report the incident to the police.
This was an experience in itself… My insurer requires that the incident is reported to the police within 24 hrs and the police in Kenya takes ages. As I couldn’t go there on Thursday as I was sick and didn’t have any money on me, I only had Friday afternoon. But there were many people at the station and I had to almost beg someone to take my statement without waiting for my turn. When I finally got to speak to someone they couldn’t understand what I was trying to tell them – it was like they did not believe me that the money was actually missing and were asking me how it was possible!!!
In the end they wrote the details down on the piece of paper, gave me the reference number and said that they would update the records in their book. So now I have no clue what they actually wrote but before I go home I need to get the copy of that – I guess it will be interesting to find out…
After that I went to see Jane and Wilson at NCR as they were really concerned about me and wanted to find out what exactly happened. They are really great friends.
As part of the money that was stolen (£1200) was what I collected for the project, it meant I wouldn’t be able to do what I planned. I spoke to ICYE in the UK about this and they agreed to lend me £500 which I wanted to use for the children from Imani on a day out that I promised them and for another children’s home as I wanted to do a party for them – there are 170 children there and that home doesn’t get much funding so I wanted to organise sthg fun so kids could enjoy it. The remaining £800 I wanted to use to buy new beds for the babies but now it will have to wait until I can get the money back from the bank (I really do hope that I can get it back).
I was so drained from all that happened that again I had no energy for anything and had to spend the whole weekend at home. I find it very frustrating as I hate doing nothing and it felt like I wasting time. I guess though it was pretty unlikely that all 16 weeks would go as I planned… It is just another challenge for me…
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