GOODBYE!

So we have only two more days at the orphanage before we head off on safari which is really sad but also really exciting!

We have just been teaching again this week but it has been really fun. I now prefer taking the pre-unit and baby class. The teachers are a lot more helpful in this class which makes our job a lot easier! Clare had a book about how to dress yourself and the kids read through it with us saying 'Nooooo' everytime the bear in teh story put his clothing on wrong. We then had people the Clare had drawn and lots of items of clothing all cut up that we gave to the kids and let them glue them on their people and 'dress them'. We did a practice one with the whole class and one of the babies, Lucy, was called up to stick the shoe on and she actually put it on the ear! It was very funny the whole class just burst out laughing.

We were unfortunate enough to have Ugali for dinner the other night, which I can't stand! It was funny though because we ate all the spinach with it and then put our plate out and then turned around to run out before Mama caught us! All the kids started laughing and yelling 'run! run!' as we went out the door. we got away with it :P On other food note, we finished our lunch, like the whole thing (we got given two bowls full of food just to serve ourselves) and our cook came in to get our plates and she started jumping up and down saying 'thank you, thank you', just because we ate all the food!

We ended up seeing 'Meet the Spartan's' which is a like a mock of the movie 300 and for anyone reading this I don't recommend you go and see it. It was amusing but only because we sat there paying the film out.

We spent yesterday afternoon doing beads with Ann and Jane and it didn't start off so well as I broke my needle.... OOPS! The bracelets we are making are really funky though, I'm quite proud of myself... we haven't finished though, we have to wait till this afternoon. Ann also asked us when we were leaving and we told her on friday night and she started telling us that we would be missed and we had done so much for the kids with all our teaching ideas and were so creative with the activities we came up with, Clare and I just went silent, i think I will miss this place!

I went out to play basketball with the kids afterwards and then played with the older girls, just mucking around while Clare was inside with all the little kids. We then came out with nail polish to start painting with the older girls. In the end Clare got ehr nails done by a security guard who came over and sat down and joined in. I ahve also lost my ipod because one of the older girls took it to bed to listen to the music!

Later that night we had a torch flashing in our windows, I know, deja vu! It ended up been the security team we had met ealreir coming to 'check' on us and exchange numbers. It's quite eventful over here!

Thats all for now, we met up for brekkie with the other volunteers this morn to say goodbye. Back to the orphanage to teach for the next two days before we head off. We are hoping tocome back and visit one day before we actually leave though!

So for now I am off to see lions and HIPPO's (Clare's fav) and hopefully not get eaten by them!

Crazy Weekend!

Clare and I are absolutely exhuasted!

It was a very crazy weekend. We did end up going out to dinner on Saturday night with all the other volunteers and then we went back to a Guest House in Spring Valley where two volunteers were staying. It was a reasonably late night before we headed back to the orphanage and then we were up nice and early the next day! One thing we have learnt while staying at the orphanage is that 5.30am is wake up time. We are lucky enough to be directly below the boys dorm and for some reason EVERY morning (not exagerating) the kids are up at 5.30 and there are beds scraping along the ground. It is pretty impossible to sleep! I think Clare's still getting used to early mornings over here :P

We started playing with the kids on Sunday but then got in trouble because they were meant to be in Church so we were told to go to the Guest House so the kids couldn't see us and would stop leaving the Church. Oops! We decided that was our cue to leave and Clare, Jack (one of the volunteers who satyed over) and I headed off to Junction for lunch. We then went to 'New Life' which is a babies home and was so cute! We spent 3 and a half hours just nursing babies and feeding them their bottles. There were ten of them in the room we were in, all really really young, but there were 48 kids altogether under the age of 3 at the orphanage.

Clare slowly got used to holding the babies, although I thin she was more than happy to go back to the bigger kids. She did have a favourite baby though, Henry, while I had George :)

We taught this morning, it was very frustrating because we were doing a word search, which none of the kids understood so needed a lot of help with. The teacher just sat at the front reading her book while Clare and I were struggling to explain to them how to do it, she eventually got up and told them in swahili then sat back down again while we had to deal with all the kids who STILL didn't get it. Lucily we got out of class this afternoon, meeting up for a movie with the other volunteers which should be good!

Kenyan Birthday

So another year older! No longer a teenager but still as immature!

I had a very interesting birthday here in the orphanage. Luckily Clare was there because it was a teaching day and I told Clare that it was my birthday so I didn't have to teach :) It worked like a charm and I spent the morning sitting at the back of the classroom making up worksheets because the photocopier was broken!

At lunch time Clare and I sat down to make party hats (they're prettttty cool) and all the kids would walk past our house and just burst out laughing when they saw us. We wene to class and had ALOT of kids in there, we thought it would be fun to make party hats with them. It was actually quite stressful stick the crepe paper and tinsel on all the kids hats but they did all look really cute! I was then extra special and had a big chorus of 'Happy Birthday' sung to me, it was in english but a different version to our one. We also gave them lollies at the end which was extra exciting for the kids. I took pride in walking around in my party hat for the rest of the afternoon, although decided to take it off when we headed off the shops.

We went to Karen and I met up with Crystal, Cameron, Christina and Kelsey where we enjoyed chocolate cake and mango smoothies. YUM! I also got homemade birthday cards form all of them (actually I believe Crystal made them and the others signed them) but it was really nice! Then it was back to the orphanage where we played basketball and soccer with the older boys. I had threats that they were going to tip water on me because it was my birthday but in the end the truth got out and they were all too scared of Mama to actually do it!

We bought cake for dinner that night and the kids were very very very excited. I got another chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and Mama had great fun cutting the cake and handing it out. The kids were like vultures and just snatched at it! We also had lollipops to hand out. One of the older girls came up to me with a birthday card that had a poem that she wrote for me on it which was really nice!

Thats about all over here, Clare has headed off to the Giraffe Center which I passed on, still no desire to kiss a giraffe. I do believe we are off to a guest house tonight for a bit of a social outing with the other volunteers.

Only one more week at the orphanage! It's very sad to think we will be gone next sat, as exciting as the safari is!!!

Oh and Clare got her hair braided today, they tried to et me to do mine but I refused, I know, I'm boring. It looks very funky hahaha, her scalp is very white!!! I'm waiting for it to get burnt :P just teasing!

More photos!

So its looks likes more pictures have uploaded! Its pot luck what images actaully manage to upload so here you go.

Catch up!

Wow! It has been quite a long time since I have written in here properly.

Here is a quick catch up for you all...

Well last friday the teacher called in sick (no-one told us though) so we were stuck teaching kids who didnt understand us! I spent most of the morning teaching them english songs which was good, they all enjoyed it. Now as we walk around the orphanage kids will come up to you randomly and start singing to you! It wasn't till after morning tea that someone told us that the teacher was away (no-one had even come to check on the kids who would have just been left there alone!) so after we went and joined with the other class for the rest of the day. Dinner was a very exciting event because I finsihed ALL my food! I got a round of applause at the table because it was the first time! I'm not even sure what I was eating (it was dark) but it tasted good!

Florence went away on th saturday to Lake Naivasha, so I spent saturday waiting for CLARE to arrive! She was meant to be there at 2pm, but knowing Kenya time, wasn't actually there till about 5pm. It was chapati night and we went to help the girls cook, I am useless! They even got me to actually cook them and I burnt myself and refused to go back.

Sunday, we were good children and went to Church. Luckily I was able to borrow a skirt from Clare since all my other clothes are brown now! It was a good experience and our singing voices got quite a good workout :P It was embarrassing though as we were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves! Right at the end of the service though a little baby ran in (she was about 2!) and waved at us and ran across the Church. Then as soon as people started leaving she ran striaght over to Clare and I and started shaking our hands and just smiling at us. The only word she knew in english was 'yes' and just kept saying it over and over again. After the english service they had the swahili service and ALL the kids play outside while the parents are in church. The guard even came in and handed us his little baby son for a few minutes while he walked off. Clare and I had a blast! Clare is going to be the one bringing a baby home, she had a little girl who was falling alseep in her arms. Unfortunately for Clare that girl wasn't an orphan!

We went to eat lunch with the kids afterwards in the hall and there was a little boy there who was SO frightened of us because we were white. He started bawling his eyes out and Mama just started laughing and explaining that we scare him! In the end they had to take him out of the room to eat his lunch.

Monday Clare and I had our first teaching experience together. It involved doing puzzles with the kids and we even had to teach Rachel the teacher who was struggling to put the pieces together. After break Clare taught them 'The Ants go Marching' (I was her back-up getting the kids to repeat after her) and we made a big poster with ants on it, witht he words to the song on the back. We spent lunch time scrunching up tissue paper for the kids to stick on and decorate a butterfly. I don't think they had ever done anything like it before because they were amazed by it!

On tuesday it was off to visit Hosana's college (for me the second time!) and it was SUCH a tiring day. Firstly, I made us get off the Matatu too early (we naturally had no map) and we walked for an hour, 15mins of it in the wrong direction, before we finally managed to get a cab to pick us up! We were then early soooooo we went shopping :) Then it was off the college, where Hosana turned up 30 mins late but we sat and ejoyed the show. Finally Hosana came AND Clare was conned into by one of the guys to dance. Yes, do not worry I did film it although the camera moves up and down because I was crying with laughter!

We had an interesting experience to end the day at the Masai Markets. These guys pounced on us straight away, taking us around the markets (seperately might I add). I kept telling them I wanted to go back to Clare but they would point her out and say see she's fine, she's fine! By the end I think we got majorly ripped off! It was an expensive experience, but compared to our first offer I think we did bargain quite well! (maybe not enough though) Gem, I got my first marriage proposal today as well. I was given a business card with a number and told he was looking for a White wife so when I was ready I should give him a call. He also offered to take me out for beer and dancing on my birthday :P

By today we were exhausted. We got up at 7.30 to teach but went straight back to bed for the morning. We didn't start teaching till after morning tea. We were with pre-unit today so we just repeated the activites from monday which meant another round of 'The Ants go marching!' We have been playing outside with the kids all afternoone involving chasing, piggyback rides, shoulder rides and spinning around. We are ready for bed BUT instead we are in Karen meeting all the other volunteers for dinner!

Clare says: 'Hi Mum and Dad...I'm safe!'

Flick says (yes me again): 'Happy Birthday Pat!'

Slums

Ok. Well. The other day we went into the slums and it was the saddest thing I think I have ever seen. What made it worse was the fact that we actually knew the kids who lived there from the orphanage from the school. One of the social workers, Jacinta and Ann one of the teachers took us into the slums to meet the families. I had tears in my eyes as we were walking around!

So thought I would post what I wrote to give you an idea of what it was like.

'Today you opened your heart to Africa. You felt pain and sadness. You cried for those you did not know.

Before today you had walked out into the streets of Kenya, acknowledging expected signs of poverty. You turned a blind eye. You ignored that little girl who followed you down the road asking for money. Hapana. No. Poverty is everywhere across the globe. You have become desensitised to the pleas of beggers on the streets... to the needs of those less fortunate. You are sympathetic, you offer money, you support charities. yet through all of this you have subconciously distanced yourself from the problem.

Today you not only step beyond the gates of the orphanage but beyond any prior knowledge or understanding. You are leaving to recruit children from the streets for the school in the orphanage. Mentally you are prepared, clutching on to an image of your poverty stricken neighbours, an image that instantly shatters. You walk further into the slums and for the first time you open your eyes, accepting the orphanage for what it is. A safety zone. Comfort. Food. Education. These children are fortunate, they are provided for. You mindlessly wander. You focus down on the rocks and stones jutting out in every direction along the dirt path. You look up...pain. you want to stretch out your arms, just to hold one of the children. you are jolted back to a harsh reality; you are there to watch, to experience; that is all.

A mother of six welcomes you into her home. Home. That is what she calls it as she takes the opportunity to kick some cups across the floor of dirt to clear some space. You struggle to accept what you see, wishing, hoping that your eyes are deceiving you. All you see is four walls sheltered by tin. You stand at the door, allow your eyes to tour the 'house'. One bedroom, one kitchen, one sitting area... one room. A home for six children, yet only one bed. She carries the youngest in her arms. No more she is told. No more children or things will get worse. You want to laugh but you know better. You cannot even begin to comprehend this notion of 'worse'. Only one of these six children was to be offered a second chance, an education. Just one. You say nothing. You smile and walk away.

A Mother sits nursing her daughter on her lap. She welcomes you in. You duck as you enter, allowing your eyes a few moments to adjust to the dim surroundings. It only takes you a quick glance sideways to take it all in. Her house. A house that could not even sleep three children. You are told the eldest sleeps at a neighbour's. You don't even look surprised... there is just no room. The middle child was deprived of his education. This family couldn't afford the exercise books or uniform, he couldn't go to school. You watch the little girl carefully, admiring her innocence as she smiles shyly from her mothers lap. You say nothing. You smile and walk away.

A mother and her two-month-old baby boy greet you at the door. She is flustered as she finds the key to let you in. You want to ask what belongings she could possibly be protecting behind the locked door. You know the answer before you even walk in. She has been working. Casual work...washing clothes. There is no-one to look after the baby, he goes too. You walk into a room. No...you walk into a home. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the blankets on the ground. Once again you want to speak, you want to question... you want to be wrong. Her bed. Not even a mattress for her and her three children. You say nothing. You smile and walk away.

A little baby sways at his mother's feet. He peers down at his belly, lifting his shirt to get a better look. You smile for a second. You are told a story of abuse, a story of a violent husband. You are told lies. This mother leaves for days on end, leaving her kids on there own. She tells you she is escaping abuse, really she is escaping reality. She is a drunkard. Her husband is a drunkard. Her children are alone. You allow your mind to wander...What will happen to these children? You say nothing. You smile and walk away.

A grandmother smiles as she leads you into her home. She warmly accepts your company, truely glad you have come to visit. Her daughter is dead. A woman in her 80's she is left to raise the children. She is struggling, too old for casual work, yet determined. You take the opportunity to gaze across the room. There are two beds in this house...two! Then you discover there are nine children, other abandoned children in her care. Suddenly it doesn't seem so much. She grins at you and thanks you again for coming to visit. Once again you find yourself questioning, What will happen to these children once she is gone? The truth is harsh. You say nothing. You smile and walk away.

As you make your way back towards the orphanage, you hang your head, buried within your thoughts. You think of the double bed you sleep in alone, while some of these families are left without a mattress. You think of that steak you sent back because it was overdone, while some of these families have no food. Some no work. Most no fathers.

At the orphanage you are in the classroom teaching. You teach them about numbers and shapes and colours. You watch them smile and you smile with them. You watch them laugh and you laugh with them. Now you have been to their homes, the place they go at the end of each day. You fight back the tears. They don't cry, you cry for them. You want to say something now. You want to shout and scream in frustration. You want to...but you don't. You cry for the world you have come from. You cry for the meals you couldn't finish. You cry from the comfort of your bed. You cry for their smiles, for their laughter. You cry because you realise, you just took the first step to becoming desensitised.'

Anyway, yes Clare is here now which is great! We are both safe and sound!

Photos!

Yay photos are working. (1) The first one is of four of the babies (these are the youngest kids) In the picture is Grace, Lucy, another Grace and Victor. (2) The next one is of dinner time! They weren't meant to be sitting on the tables like they are in the picture and mama came out shortly after to yell at them! Thats good old beans and rice though! (3) The next one is our animal masks that we made in class! These are all the cats standing at the front of the class. (4) The last one is me (in there somewhere) on my first day at Day Love. All the kids just ran over to us and our cameras!
Well thats all I have been able to upload! Plus there is one photo in my last blog! The net has decided to cut out so thats all folks! Hopefully one day there will be more up here!

Break Time!

The most exciting thing ever happened to us Monday night... we went and saw a movie! It was Monday Movie Madness where it was like $8 for ticket, popcorn, drink and chocolate, so off we went! We saw 'I am Legend', it was the first bit of Tv we had seen while here and hmmmm, it was a bit scary and had a bad ending. What I really needed was a good chick flick but there were none showing!

We went back to teaching middle class on Tuesday and found out that while the kids are very good at copying letters and words, they actually do not understand the sounds that the letters make or anything like that. So we decided at lunch to bring in old magazines and we spent the entire afternoon going through the alaphabet letter by letter, making them find the letter in the magazine and cut it out. It took a long time but they are pretty good at the alpahabet now and have a nice poster too! We were left on our own for the end of the day and went out to see the kids across the street. Each day we help the kids who don't live at the orphanage across the street before they run off home.

I spent the afternoon with the 'babies' on the oval. The youngest, Mary and Lucy are sisters, who we could have sworn were twins! The teachers told us they were twins, although we found out from their sister that one is like a year older than the other. The first time we met these two girls they ran away from us and wouln't speak to us and were soooooo shy! Yesterday afternoon I had Lucy pulling me around the oval and Mary jumping into my arms and chasing me around the place, they are so cute! We can't get them to stop talking now! We don't understand what they are saying though because they don't speak english! The kids love coming to our place to colour in pictures and stick them on the wall and we try not do it every afternoon because it is so tiring and messy! Yesterday though, Lucy pulled me off the field and wouldn't even let me put my shoes on and when I asked where we were going she said 'colour time'. We ended up doing a bit of colouring and then Florence went and painted all the girls' nails! Unfortunately she only had clear nail polish, I told her I think we should now go and buy hot pink!

We had a special meal for dinner that night which was good, although i felt so guilty! The kids were eating just plain rice by itself and Mama had made us a special meal with chips and carrot and cabbage. I felt so mean eating it in front of the kids AND THEN not actually been able to finish it!!!!!

We had another day of teaching today, I think we were meant to help paint the orphanage but that never happened! Instead, we did some work on animals and writing and in the afternoon had all 26 kids together and drew bees for them to colour in and then cut out crepe paper wings to stick on.

Looking forward to our break tomorrow. Two social workers at the orphanage, Carol and Jacinta are taking us to visit other orphanages which I am really excited about!

PS:i am so excited because I managed to put a photo up! This photo is off Mary, Miriam and Lucy.

Another week

Ok, so we came he and found out that the internet closes in 10 minutes! So you are going to have to deal with a really quick update of what has happened over the weekend.

We ended up going into town and visited the city market. We had been warned that it was more expensive than the normal markets and it was! Though naturally that didn't stop us from spending! I almost lost my cap as well because a guy in the shop thought I could give it to him as a present. I had to explain that I would look like a beetroot without it!! It was quite a hectic day, as markets are and we had to make sure we were back in time for dinner!

It was chapati night again (i think it happens every saturday) and this week Mama wanted us t learn how to make it. We helped the older girls, who had a good laugh at me attempting to roll the dough into balls and the roll it out with a rolling pin. One of them even asked if I cooked at home... thats how bad I was. It was great fun though, my clothes are COVERED in flour! They also wanted us to cook it though I was too scared i was going to burn myself so we gave that a miss :P

Florence and i made a great effort to finish our food that night and we practically did (Florence got caught giving some to the kids which is apparently a big no no). I was STUFFED I told Mama we wouldn't need to eat again till the nexts nights dinner.

Sunday, I ended up staying in while Florence went out (wasn't feeling the best and think I just needed a day doing nothing). It was church day and you could hear people singing all day, and people coming in and out of our house to use the kitchen. We finally met Magaret, the owner of Day Love, and turns out from Wednesday they have some painting jobs for us to do which might be a nice break from teaching. Apparently Magaret had also been by earlier to see if we wanted to come to the morning service though we were asleep, so it looks like Church for me next Sunday!

Ended up with the kids back in our room doing colouring for the afternoon before dinner time. Once again I got in trouble for not eating all my food. I have decided i need to go out and buy a baby plate, though we decided they would just stack the rice up! Florence and I have even suggested we share a dish, Mama didn't like that idea though.

Back to School on Monday and turns out we had all 24 of the kids in teh same classroom which was definately a challenge! We didn't have enough activities for them all, although we did find out that there is a photocopier at the orphanage, so all those nights we spent tracing things for 10 kids were unnecessary! We did some maths with them and spent the afternoon colouring boats and stick on paddle pop sticks (thank you humpty for that idea!). I also taught them 'Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream ahhhhh!' and they loved it and sang it over and over, I videoed it because it was so cute!

Thats about all for now, we are off to a movie tonight which is quite exciting after having no TV at all.

Two long days!

It's finally friday and we are looking forward to the weekend! I think we need a break!

We have spent two more days teaching, the middle class this time, and when we aren't in class we are preparing for lessons, cutting things out, drawing things, etc etc. It can be quite hectic!

Nothing much new to report, although spot has become our classroom hero! We found a 'Where's Spot' book in the shops and read it to one class and they loved it. All we could here was a chorus of 'noooooooo' when we lifted each flap and when we finally found spot, they all were so excited! We went out yesterday and bought more spot books for them. They don't really understand them but they love the flaps and the teachers translate for them.

They are renovating the orphanage at the moment, making room for a high school, so the little kids have been kicked out of their classrooms and we have been moved between the Chapel and the food hall teaching.

We have been left alone a few times with the kids which is the hardest. They don't really understand english at all which means they don't understand instructions we give them and they like to muck up for us! If we tell them off, they just laugh at us, which is just kids being kids but is also quite frustrating! After school yesterday I got some of the older kids to teach me some swahili and my favourite phrase is 'Mocono Jera' and as soon as I say this in class all the kids put down their pens and cross their arms and listen! It's great!!!!!! (or sometimes they just laugh at me because I pronounce it wrong)

Florence wasn't feeling well yesterday afternoon so I was in the classroom by myself which was an experience. We had some fun with shapes though and cutting out (which I don't think many of them had tried before so it was all new). We attempted some math this morning, which was especially difficult for them, some were able to do it, but alot didn't get it (or just couldn't understand us).

It's such a change all the hot weather we have been getting! From rain to sun! I have been putting suncreen on (promise mum!) but I still always get burnt, so yesterday when i went out to play soccer with the kids, I decided it might be smart to put a hat on. As soon as I stepped outside all the kids laughed at me!!!!!!! So mean! Even the older boys there doing carpentry started laughing! I kept it on though and didn't get burnt! :P

Hosana, one of the girls here, has become our hero. Lately at dinner time, she has been hiding our left over food from Mama, so we don't get in trouble for not eating all of it! The servings are slowly getting smaller from night to night, although they still have a long way to go before we will be able to finish it!!!!

We brought lollipops out again last night and the smallest kids started jumping up and down getting really excited, so I think we need to stock up on those!

Not sure what we are doing for the weekend, though I think we need a break from the orphanage! We have just found out that some other volunteers are here at the moment, so we are off to meet up for dinner now!

H-O-T

Just a short post today! We are busy waiting for Hosana (the girl from the orpahange) who is still at college, so we thought we would use the net!

We came into town today to come see Hosana at her college and it is so HOT. I don't think there is any pleasing us, at least it is better than the rain though!!! We caught a matatu in and luckily a man on it, got off with us and led us to where the college was otherwise we would have been soooooo lost! Hosana is at an acting/singing/writing college and these guys that she goes to college with put on a show everyday at 1pm. There is no way to explain them except 'Jamaican Kenyan's', Hosana also joined in the singing and dancing and tried to get us up there too! Don't worry though I told her I would come back with Clare and that Clare would love to go up and dance!

They are a great group of people and the music was great, I think we are going back later today when college is finnished to see more... not too sure.

Had my first and last experience washing my clothes the other day. I have a blister from trying to wring out the water and it wasnt very successful at all! It also took like two days to dry. At least I can say I tried it and from now on I will definately be paying to get it done! :)

EXHAUSTED

The last two days have absolutely tired us out!

We came home on Sunday and I went off to find what the kids were up to. I was dragged upstairs to where all the kids were dancing and pulled right into it told 'I HAD to dance!' They all had a good laugh at me as I attempted some of their dance moves!

We got woken up at 5am on Monday as we heard all the kids getting up, we don't know why so early! We have the boys dorm above us and they decided to play basketball at this time, so all we could hear was 'thump, thump, thump, thump' for the next hour or so. Florence spoke to them at dinner that night and said 'NO more basketballs upstairs', the boys were just laughing so she said 'I might just come right up and take it away', which made them laugh harder. Then I was asked by one of the older girls 'so what of theirs will you take away if Florence is taking the ball?' It wasn't till we said they wouldn't get a lollipop that they all agreed :P

It was back to school on Monday and this time we went to help in the pre-unit class, these guys are older than the middle class, although they joined with the baby class to make a grand total of eleven kids. We still haven't worked out why the baby class join with the oldest class rather than the middle one! So confused!

So, here Florence and I were, sitting at the back of class after meeting the two teachers Ann and Jane, ready to watch and help out when... we were asked to come up front and do an activity with the kids. AH. Since then it has been non-stop teaching, we have now become 'teacher! teacher!' in the classroom. Luckily we had stencils and they all had a great time tracing them and colouring in that they refused to go to break at morning tea, we had to force them out the door. Florence and I quickly realised we needed more activities so spent our break drawing shapes on long strips of paper for them to colour in and then when they had finished we linked them all together to make one long chain. They laughed and laughed and thought it was great, so it is now hanging in their classroom! After lunch we organised to do animal masks with them, teaching them about the different animals AND much to our surprise all the primary school students from the orphanage don't go back to school in the afternoon (their school is out on the street) so they can do what they want. We had 7 of them decide they wanted to join in on the lesson and we were extremely unprepared but managed! The rest of the time was spent playing with balloons, now we have run out! I think we definitely have to buy some more!

That afternoon Ann and Jane gave us a lesson of our own in bead-making! I now have a fabulous bracelet, I think you would all be surprised by how talented I am :P We went back to the guest house and immediately all the kids ran in. Thats right, for us school doesn't end at 3.30pm, all the kids come in hoping we have colouring or an activity to do. We had big beads and decided to make bracelets with them (nothing like the ones Jane and Ann helped us make) and put bells on them and so now they all jingle when they walk! They didn't stop till all the beads were used up and it was dinner time. Mama had cooked us our own meal, seperate to the kids with potato, dried banana, zucchini and I'm not sure what else, it was really nice, though once again we couldn't finish! Mama told us that she was trying to fatten us up and the idea was to stretch our stomachs so that by the end we will be eating it all!!!!! At least that what she said has happened to other volunteers and some even came back for seconds in the end! The kids were eating something called ougali which is flour and water and hmmm, wasn't very nice, we were glad we had our own meals that night! That night we also had lollipops for all the children, little did we know they were whistle pops! We gave them out and ran straight to our rooms to escape the noise!

Tuesday... straight back to teaching with the same class, and once again we were put in charge for the day, I think we are running out of teaching ideas now! We went through the alphabet with flash cards, and created a dot-to-dot for them to do, its quite difficult as half the class are a lot older than the other half so we need separate activites for them. I also taught them a humpty song which was quite exciting. I sang 'three cheeky monkeys swinging in a tree' which has lots of hand actions and in the end the crocodile goes SNAP (where the kids do a loud clap) and eats the monekies. The kids loved going SNAP and made me sing it again straight away! After lunch we knew we needed an art activity because we would have the primary school students, so we decided to make sunglasses and decorate with stickers. We prepared for the 15 kids (more turned up to school today) and the 7 primary kids and we walked in and there were 7 MORE kids who had come in because they saw the activity. So once again we spent the lesson trying to cut out more glasses for the extra kids, but we have some great pics! We spent the rest of the day playing outside with the balls.

We get a break tomorrow as we are going to visit the college of one of the girls in the orphanage. It is an acting college and she asked us to come watch her, which is good because we need time to think of more activities for the kids, especially since they come back to our guest house each day wanting todo something. *YAWN* We also saw the other teacher, Rachel, who's class we sat in on during our first two days here and just helped out. Now she wants to know when we will be back to teach her class, telling me that this time we could pick the activities!

Now I am off home to shower! Haven't had one in two days now so I must really smell!! We never seem to have water in the morning so night showers it is :)

JAMBO

Back again and guess what... it's still raining!

I had to go out yesterday and buy a raincoat AND an umbrella and they are getting lots of use! We met up with the other volunteers, Crystal, Cameron, Kelsey and Christina and went to the giraffe sanctuary yesterday and it was a very new experience for me as we caught a matatu! The matatu is kind of like a really crazy mini bus where people squeeze in and hop on and off, you just need to know what number to catch and then its alright, and it is MUCH cheaper than a taxi! We got to feed the giraffes with their freakishly long tongues and then gave them giraffe kisses where u put the pellets on your lips and let them lick it off. I think i was the only one of the six of us who refused to do it, I decided to watch and take photos instead :P I know... boring, but the idea of giraffe slobber didn't really excite me!

On our way home we stopped by Nakumatt in Karen, a big store that pretty much sells everything, and bought exercise books for all the kids as well as pencils for the classroom. We also got some balls for them to play with since they have a huge oval that they don't tend to play on. I took the soccer ball outside when we got back and as soon as the kids saw they ALL charged over to grab it and run off and play. As you can imagine they were all MUCH better than me, though the boys still had lots of fun laughing at me when i couldn't get the ball from them!

In the evening we had plans to go to dinner with two Australian sisters, Hannah and Laura and their friend Sarah, who had been in Kenya for a while already (so knew alot more than we did) and funny enough the sisters were from Sydney and went to Brigidine.....Randwick. Mama was cooking japatti (dont know how to spell it) and insisted we try some before we went out and all the kids were so excited as japatti is a treat for them. It is like a crepe thing and was really nice. We went to a Cuban restaurant in Westlands which was a nice change from the food we had been eating!

We decided to brave town today and caught a Matatu all the way in to city centre and made our way to the museum only to find out it was closed soooooo we went shopping instead :) The markets are a tiring place, Will i need you here to do the bargaining for me!!!!

School tomorrow so I think we are going to help out in a different classroom and see what that is like. Everything is still very new, especially at the orphanage so we're not too sure what to do besides helping the teachers with the little kids.

No more men knocking on our doors which is good, although yesterday we heard loud bangs and all the kids screamed and ran up shouting 'guns! guns!' so Florence and I jumped up and walked outside to be told straight away that it was just an electrical surge haha!

Anyway I think it is time to find our way home, which is actually proving to be quite difficult! Not many cab drivers know the orphanage and we are finding it especially hard to describe it and got very lost last night! Ha ha we drove past the orphanage but Florence and I didn't recognise it in the dark. I think we need to invest in a map!

First days in Kenya

Hey guys!



So i decided i was sicking of emailing the same thing to everyone and thought i would start a blog instead. SOOOOOOOOOOOO if u are indeed interested in hearing what i have been up to you can come to this website, if you dont care thats cool i enjoy talking to myself anyway :)

Most of you have already heard about my first few days experience here, but for those of you who havent.. here is an update. The first two days were spent at orientation where we met all the other volunteers doing the program. There were 9 of us there and i think about 20 pulled out because of the situation in Kenya at the moment. We spent the first day hearing about what Kenya and the program and the second day we went t the animal orphanage. Unfortunately it was raining! (i didnt expect it to rain so much but it has for the last 3 days, i'm thinking i didnt quite bring the right wardrobe with me) We still did manage to see quite a few of the animals there though which was great.

I have been placed with a girl from France called Florence, who is staying at Day Love for two weeks (when Clare comes) then she is going to her final two months at a home stay near a different orphanage. We have both agreed that it makes a difference to have someone else with you! We finally went to the orpahange yesterday and it is really big! There are about 30 orphans who live there but during the day all the students from the primary school outside the orphanage come in for lunch. I found it quite scary at first as we were shown to our guest house but weren't really sure what to do. The house is nice we have a bathroom, bucket shower, kitchen and even lounge room. We met Winne straight away and she cooks us lunch each day in the guest house.

We were then shown around the place by Eunice and saw the classrooms and where the children sleep and eat and then back to the guest house. After sitting around for ten minutes wondering what we should do we stepped outside and went to the little playground where all the kids were playing after school. They were all so friendly and ran up to us straight away asking our names and where we were from. We then took out our camera's and they all got so excited, we didnt get them back for the next hour as they kept taking pictures and going back to look at them.

We had dinner at 7.30pm and at night time we eat with the kids in the hall and the portions the serve are HUGE! The food was quite nice but we definately couldnt finish the entire serve. Mama (the cook) asked us why we werent eating and it was hard to explain to her that we were full. We were watching the kids, even the little ones who all had large serves and ate their entire plates! The next night we went in and had beans and rice and asked for smaller serves, and while it was a little bit smaller we still coudlnt manage to finish it! Once again we keep trying to explain that it is too much but i still felt bad and had to keep reassuring Mama that it was very nice!

We had a bit of a scare on our first night there when we had quite an experience last night when at one in the morning we were woken by men bashing on the door. We had only been at the orphange a few hours and hadnt met any men yet so we were a bit concerned. Then they came up to our window and shone the torch in and started bashing on the window. After they sta outside and were just sitting around talking. So Florence and I had a big pannick but later found out that it was the new security guard with some Masai men and they thought our door was the entrance to the orpahnage.

On Thursday we were meant to go with the social workers into the street recruiting more kids for the school, but there was a demonstartion in the morning that went past the orphanage so we couldnt go out. Instead we had our first day of helping out at that school. We were helping one of the teachers Rachel, who taught the middle class with 4 and 5 year olds. We gave them the crayons that we brought when they were doing their colouring in and it was great to see thier faces when they jumped up to grab them. They were learning the colour green so at lunch Florence and I blew up all the green ballooons i had brought and took then into the kids! They played with them for 45 mins n the teacher was even having a fantastic time. It was so cute to see how excited they were!

On Friday we went back to the same classroom and brought stencils and coloured paper and textas and they spent the entire morning colouring with the stencils and didnt even want to leave when the bell went for morning tea! In the afternoon Rachel asked us if we had more balloons and we brought them out and began playing with them outside where naturally they all popped on the grass, then moved on the gravel where the kids just had to fight against the wind.

So far it has been great playing with the kids and getting to know the people at the orphanage and i think the hardest thing has been learning all the names!!!!!!

Well thats all for now, we are off to meet the other volunteers to go to the giraffe park (i'm actually not quite sure where we are going)