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)