The FInal Chapter!!

Well this is my final blog entry as I have no idea how but I am now in my final couple of weeks in Kenya! So with time short, here is your last update…

The scout camp competition went really well, and the boys loved the experience. Throughout the weekend they were judged on their teamwork skills, creativity, discipline, and scouting knowledge. Gadgeting – consisted of the boys having to make ‘gadgets’ out of bamboo and string. They made a fantastic picnic table and rabbit hutch! The fantastic news was that AFCIC scouts won the competition for their age group, which meant they got through to the divisional camp. We were so proud of them! I camped the first night and then brought all the boys to join in the campfire on the last evening.

Unfortunately we couldn’t actually attend the next camp as it clashed with the ‘Day of an African Child’ which the scouts were all performing in. This event was also a success with all the boys taking part in a parade around Thika town, and then a few of them representing AFCIC by performing a short play based on going to the streets, a poem, and doing an acrobatics display. Again we were all very proud of them and their performance received a great reception from the crowd. The Poem we created in ‘Hear Our Voice’ classes, where the boys told us what their journey was like to the streets and then we put it into a poem:

Hear Our Voice!

It’s you! It’s you mum!

It’s you its! It’s you dad!

No food! No Care!

Your beatings everyday!

To the streets I went

Hoping for a warm welcome

Easy money and shelter

A better life than home!

To my dismay it was worse!

Sodomy the street license!

Beating from older boys

And forced into drugs

Our question to the government

Don’t you think it’s our right?

Can’t you use some resources?

To put us in a better living

I know I can make it

With your support and help

The future is in my hands

It’s me! I can change!

Hear our Voice!

Debating club at the two schools is going well. The pupils are definitely improving their confidence in speaking and their understanding of the terms to use and ways to address the speaker and house…and as you can see I have been learning too! The guy from the UK comes in the beginning of July to do his sessions and then hold the debate with all the schools. I am looking forward to meeting him, and seeing if my preparations with the clubs have made a difference. What is a shame is the debating competition will be held after I have left so I wont get to see my school teams battle it out.

The school reading club is also continuing, I never got any volunteers joining me which was a shame but I hope they will sort someone to carry on the project after my departure. I have had a very generous parting donation which I will spend a portion of on getting the school a couple more desks and some essential reading books.

The art project I have been working on with outreach work is almost complete, The collage looks great and last week I went round with the boys taking pictures of places they hang out and scenes related to their lives on the street. We will use these pictures in the other art pieces. We will give the work to AFCIC and if they don’t auction them off I hope they will display them on the new land when the charity moves.

The boys at the ICC are great! Being in my final weeks I am really appreciating the time I have with them, and enjoying hanging out with them. I have also delivered a successful anti bullying and children’s rights session, which they responded well too.

At the weekend I went to visit one of the staff’s family home up in the tea and coffee plantation in Maranga. It was absolutely breathtaking scenery and quite hard work walking through the valleys to reach his family home. I was welcomed warmly with food and tea and enjoyed meeting his parents who sent us back with arrowroot and japati.

For my penultimate weekend I will be going back to Mombasa and the paradise Tiwi beach, joined by Emma, Hester and Daniel one of the staff members to soak up my last rays of sunshine and sea and sand for a while.

My last weekend I will spend in Thika, saying my goodbyes and being with the boys. Another volunteer is coincidentally leaving on the same day as me and we plan to hold a little goodbye house party for all the staff!

This really has been a fantastic experience, and an amazing way to spend half a year of my life. I have learned so much, and have been truly welcomed to the AFCIC family and Thika town. Africa is beautiful country with fantastic scenery, natural wildlife, and warm and friendly people.

There is so much we take for granted back home, so many unnecessary stresses mainly focused on material things. I have quite happily lived for 6 months using a hole in the ground as a toilet and a bucket shower and I can only hope that on my return I don’t slip too quickly back into my north London ways. (I am looking forward to a power shower all the same!)

I am looking forward to seeing you all and moving on with the next chapter in my life. Whatever I do AFCIC will always be a part of me now and I will carry on supporting and fundraising to help these children however I can. I hope you will also continue to support me support them!

I am completely attached to the boys at the ICC. They are all wonderful and such individual personalities and strengths in the face of all their challenges. They are funny, smart, cheeky, happy, sad, energetic, creative, and above all just boys growing, learning and developing. I am going to miss them so much!

Thanks to all of you who have helped me get here, and who have supported this incredible charity. I hope I have given you an insight into how your help has made a direct impact out here.

If I am honest I am not ready to leave…

See you all very soon!

Love Sarah x

BUFFALO!!

Hellllooooooooo

Well it’s now the end of May and I know I keep saying it but I truly can’t believe where the time has gone. It really doesn’t seem that long ago that I was planning this trip and now I’m about to enter my final full month here. I am still really enjoying this experience and I am very settled into my routine of work and the Kenyan lifestyle.

In my last blog I talked about the scout group and how I was supporting one of the workers to get funding and support so the boys can enjoy the same opportunities as other scouts. With support from the local rotary club we held a pub quiz to fundraise for the camping weekend, in which I wrote (with a lot of help from google!) the questions and was the quizmaster. We had a fairly good turnout and they seemed to enjoy my questions, although I don’t think anyone appreciated my Shrek question – but it had to be done! We raised enough money to almost cover the food budget for the weekend, and with the kind donation from mummy and daddy Serota, we now have enough to take them to the camp this coming weekend! It’s a competition camp, so from what I understand the group will participate in different scouting activities competing against the other scout groups. I will be going along with them so I will let you know more about it in my next update. As well as raising money I have also been trying to raise awareness of the group, we took a trip to Nairobi to the Kenya scouting headquarters and met with staff that will hopefully be able to support the group in coming up with income generating activities so they can fund themselves in the future. It would be really great to get them uniforms and for them to be able to participate in more activities, I plan to talk to UK scout groups when I am home to see if they can also form some links, and maybe help too. One more thing on the scouting… they need bamboo for the competition – something to do with gadget making?! So I went along to collect the bamboo that a local school had kindly donated. Little did I realise we would be cutting down the bamboo ourselves, so you can now picture me with a machete trying to hack down the trees! I was pathetically week and ended up just helping to chop off the branches, as I couldn’t cut through the trunk. Whilst cutting a monkey in the tree obviously not happy with us destroying his playground urinated on Njenga the staff member I was with which I though was hilarious. All in all it was a slightly surreal experience but very amusing.

The boys at the centre are thriving, they seem to be well settled now and I have noticed the difference in my classes where they have been more engaged and willing to learn and less disruptive. They defiantly have their moments though, and there are individuals who are a lot more challenging and can influence the group in a negative way, but all in all considering their individual cases and their lives before arriving here they are all progressing well. They have started running club and now and four mornings a week they go running round Thika at 6am. I have so far been once, but will try to join them a couple of times a week, it’s just so early!

We took them swimming on Friday afternoon and it was a really fun trip out. I enjoyed it just a much as them as I have missed the regular swimming I used to do in the UK.

Reading club at Karibaribi School is going well. The teachers have fed back that they have seen an improvement in class with the boys I have been doing individual reading with, and that their confidence from having the one to one support has grown. We are hopefully going to have some local volunteers starting next week to support with the reading club, which will be great as we will be able to work with more pupils, and give them more time.

In July there is a guy form the UK coming out to Thika to run a debating competition between the local schools. He has been doing this for the last few years, but this year AFCIC wanted to support the schools before he arrives. I was asked to start debating clubs in two of the schools, one being Karibaribi where I do the reading and another school St Patrick’s, that I have previously delivered leadership sessions with, to prepare some children for his arrival. I started these clubs last week, and although not a debating expert myself! I aim to improve their confidence, self-esteem and communication skills, as well as giving them motions to practice debating.

In the outreach work I do with Ruiru street children, we have started work on an art project. We are creating an art collage with the children that depict their lives in Ruiru and experiences on the street. We have had a large wooden frame made by a local carpenter and last week the children started work on the background, sticking down all the newspaper and magazine cuttings they had previously chosen with words and pictures that relate to their lives. When finished, depending on how it turns out we hope to either auction it as a fundraiser or give it to AFCIC to display in the office and be a feature for the new land when the charity moves.

On the 16^th June it’s the ‘Day of the African Child’ with the theme this year being ‘street children’. There will be an event where local children will take part and do performances around the theme. In Hear our Voice drama classes at the centre I am working with a couple of staff to prepare our boys for a performance. So far we have created a poem with them, based on their experience of being on the street. We need more though and there isn’t much time so its quite stressful, but it will come together!

Two weekends ago I went with Emma to Nairobi on Friday evening, where we met up with friends we now know that work there. We stayed at theirs and then got up at 6am to go and climb Mt Longonot. In true Kenyan style our bus didn’t leave for over an hour, as it had to fill up first, and this was after we wasted an hour trying to find the right bus as we were directed to the wrong place. So, for leaving just after 6 to climb in the cool, we didn’t actually get to the mountain until 11am. Putting that behind us, we started the climb in the hot sun. It was hard work, but such an adenine rush when we reached the top, and the breathtaking view of the landscape and the huge crater of the volcano. It took us about an hour to climb to the top of the crater and then we hiked round the crater which took around 3 hours, and was actually harder than the climb up with lots of peaks to hike over, climbing through rocks and getting covered in dust/ash. It only took me about 40mins to climb down as I practically ran down the mountain, something to do with slipping and sliding down most of it! I have to admit I was a bit nervous when I decided to go and climb as I wasn’t sure if I was fit enough as I haven’t climbed for a very long time, but I really enjoyed it, and there is a great feeling of achievement pushing yourself physically - despite aching a lot after. Mt Longonot is a national park and the views, beauty and wildlife was spectacular.

Last weekend I went to another national park called Hells Gate, where Hester (a volunteer from Holland working for another organization in Thika) and I hired bicycles and cycled around the park. We had been given advice to go really early as that is when the animals are out, and wow was that great advice…At 7am we were cycling in the road with Zebras, Impala, Giraffes, and Warthogs just by the road and even in the road. It was great…until I spotted one lone Buffalo in the bush on our left, I warned Hester we needed to be careful as I know how dangerous buffalo can be, and then we looked to our right and there were at least 20 Buffalo coming towards the road! At this moment I felt my heart beating so fast and I started to panic. We had to make a decision whether to stop and let them pass or just cycle really quickly onwards. When they started running towards the road we were in, we had no choice we sped off and in my panic I fell off my bike, panicked even more as it felt like a life time trying to get back on, and then rode away looking over my shoulder paranoid they were going to charge after us! As we turned a corner and got far enough we were happy they were left behind, we started to calm down. I have never felt so vulnerable in my life. There was just Hester and I and our bikes! Completely open to these animals that could be unpredictable, and because we were there so early there was no-one else in the park and we wouldn’t have stood a chance if g-d forbid the worst had happened. We carried straight on to the gauge where we knew their were rangers, and when we told them what happened they laughed at us and said the Buffalo in the park are used to people, that people even walk, and there has never been an incident. I replied there is always a first time for a first incident! We then walked through the gauge and the hot springs before cycling back through the park, but this time there were lots of people and cars around and the animals had moved further into the bush. We didn’t even see one buffalo. We can laugh about it now, and apart from the Buffalo incident we really enjoyed the cycling and the animals at the beginning. I think if I were to do it again I would still cycle just maybe with a gun!

There is only Emma and I volunteering at the moment and this weekend I am staying in Thika, its not the best place to spend a weekend, but I am getting time to read, watch some DVDs, be with the children, and write this! 

I have confirmed my return flight for Friday 15^th July, so see you in 47days!

Love Sarah x

Going gray

everyone!

I am really sorry it has taken me so long to write this, and I want to especially apologise to Grandma and Grandpa who have just reminded me I have not written since March… all I can say is I have been very busy as you are about to find out!

I wrote last time about how I was busy planning and preparing as a co-ordinator for April holiday club, this has just finished and was really successful. The holiday club was held at a local primary school, which is just outside of Kinundutu Slum. The holiday club is a preventative project to provide the children who mainly come from the slum area with fun and informally educative activities to keep them occupied during the school break and in turn off the streets. Coordinating the programme involved me recruiting local volunteers, planning the timetable of classes and activities, I created staff information packs and resource packs, held staff meetings and supported the day to day running of the club. We had over 450 children attend the club, and they were split into 7 classes according to age, they got a free meal everyday. An example of the activities we provided were… life skills sessions, painting, puppet making, singing and dancing, parachute games, team games, football, first aid, and practical science. We themed each week and recognised staff and children for their good work. At the end of each week I ran a club wide competition where all the classes competed in the same activities to win a prize. On the first week we had a talent show, where each class spent the day preparing their performance, making costumes and posters. It was great fun and the children loved watching each other and performing. There were many talented dancers!  It was extremely rewarding to coordinate a programme that helped so many children and gave them new experiences, whilst knowing how many we were potentially preventing from turning to the streets. I really enjoyed the experience, and although it was no Camp America or EDRS Kaytana I defiantly brought some of my ideas, games and activities from them!

Coordinating the Holiday Club has meant I have worked away from the centre for the last month. It was good to break away, and nice to be involved in something different although tiring with still going back to the centre in the evenings and wanting to spend time with the ICC children as I hadn’t seen them all day.  I am just getting back into my old routine of teaching certain classes, going on outreach and the reading project at the local school. I received a donation for two desks (thanks to the Cambell-Stanway family), which were made very quickly and are now being enjoyed by the youngest class in the school.

The boys at the centre are all doing well, they seem to be fairly settled although they defiantly have their good and bad days! They are now in the process of being taken on home visits with the social workers, and have started individual counseling sessions in addition to their group counseling. They have formed with one of the workers a scout group and are extremely enthusiastic about scouting. Scouting defiantly teaches them good morals and discipline and I can see the benefit of their involvement in their rehabilitation. I am supporting the worker to get support and funding for the group so they can get uniforms and go on camping trips. There is a camp coming up at the end of this month and we have managed to get the camp fee wavered. We just need to raise money to buy the food for the weekend and then hopefully I will be able to take them camping. Like with the desks if anyone can donate any money for this trip, you will see directly where your money goes and how it is benefiting the children. I estimate we need around 4,000ksl to feed them for the weekend, which is only 40pounds. So just 5pounds from people will go a long way! 

Now some extra curricular activities…

I went to visit Kibera Slum in Nairobi a few weeks back. This is the largest slum in Kenya and I had a friend working for a charity within the slum that I wanted to visit. I really don’t think I can put into words what I saw, but it was a huge eye opener and something I think everyone needs to see. I recommend if you can get a copy reading the book ‘It happened on the way to war’ by Rye Barcott. He worked in Kibera and set up Carlonia for Kibera the charity I went to visit and puts into words what I cant.

During holiday club, I took another trip to Nairobi to extend my visa. I am now stamped and officially allowed to stay in Kenya for another 3 months. I only have just over 2 months left now, and although have not confirmed my return flight it will probably be on the 15^th July.

It was Emma one of the volunteers birthday so we took a trip to Naivasha, this is just a really nice place to visit not too far from Thika, where we relaxed all weekend on there big cushions, ate good food and enjoyed the beauty and the lake.

Over Easter weekend we went to Sagana, again not so far from Thika to stay for one night. This was a good trip as we went with some of the Kenyan staff and their families and enjoyed hanging out with them outside of work.

Adelaide the volunteer who I went to Zanzibar with sadly left us a couple of weeks ago, she had been volunteering for 9 months. I was sad to see her go as we had had a lot of fun together, but I will hopefully go and visit her in the US at some point. There are now only 3 volunteers at the moment but hopefully more will come out before I leave.

My biggest adventure would have to have been last weekend when I went on Safari. I have visited a couple of game parks for just the day since I have been here but this was a proper safari for 3 days! I went to Tsavo West, which is famous for its scenery and wow I can see why. It was like being in Jurassic park, and defiantly one of the most natural and beautiful places I have ever been. Due to the incredible scenery and thick bush it was harder to sport animals, but we managed to see most of the big 5 and with the other parks I have previously visited I have now seen them all. My highlights would have to be 1) The incredible accommodation – due to it being low season we were upgraded from what was going to be a tented camp to these beautiful rooms overlooking the park. 2) Seeing a leopard – its rare! 3) The Elephants and Buffalo that came to bath at the watering hole by our room.

Returning to my room at the centre after the Safari I was greeted by the biggest, hairiest spider I have ever seen! It looked like a tarantula! I slowly back out of my room and called Edward (my hero the rat killer!). I said to him ‘don’t laugh if its fake’ as I suddenly thought what if someone was playing a practical joke, ‘but there is a huge spider in my room’. He came out 2 mins later with a butchered spider, and confirmed it was infact extremely poisoness and if it had bitten me I would have been paralysed if I wasn’t treated in time! SCARY! I don’t know how I did and how I still am sleeping at night, but I defiantly check my sheets before I do now! 

Also I would like to report that on the 13^th of April 2011, one of the boys said ‘Sarah you are old’ I asked him…why!? And then he plucked a grey hair form my head! So at the age of 25 I am turning grey. As funny as the situation was, I am quite upset really and am hoping it is a one off due to sun exposure or stress!

That’s all from me! Please keep in touch and know I’m thinking of you all. See you all in 2 months. J

Love Sarah x 

Its been a while but here goes...

I have to start by apologising for not updating my blog in almost a month, time just runs away with me here and now I am struggling where to start to update you with everything. For this reason it might be a bit a little all over the place, so bear with me!

The first Saturday of this month we did fundraising at the local supermarket ‘Tusky’s’.  It’s a great way of raising local awareness of the charity and appealing to people to make food donations, which we greatly rely on to help with feeding the boys at the centre. All the staff take turns and work a 2 hour shift, where we talk to customers, and hand out leaflets. Two of the children also come along to stand by the food donation trolleys and say thanks! They love doing this as it’s a reward to be chosen to come with, its also good for them to see how people can be really generous and the effort the staff make in fundraising for them. I actually quite enjoy working my shift, its fun to talk to lots of new people, smile sweetly! and encourage them to give. In my 2 hour shift I managed to get some cash donations too, mostly from men who couldn’t be bothered to shop for the food! I worked the last shift of the day and it was great to see the 4 trolleys full of food donations we had fundraised that day.

The Saturday evening after Tusky’s I spent with the boys at the centre. Njenga one of the Kenyan staff organised a bonfire for the children. He is really into his scouting, and leads sessions with the boys during the weekly timetable. He certainly used his scouting skills, as he made the most impressive ‘scout’ fire I have every seen. Finished off with a Kenyan flag on the top! It was a great evening of singing songs, dancing and watching the boys really bond with each other.

On the Sunday I got up nice and early to go with the director and Toby a new volunteer to a Rhino game park. It was a private park, and really quiet, only seemed to be us driving around which was pretty special. The park was beautiful, and we saw many animals. I joked after paying the entrance fee that ‘if we didn’t see any Rhinos would we get our money back?!’ I can say I was not disappointed, we saw loads! There were even some hairy moments where there were so many of them right by the road we just had to patiently sit it out until they moved and it was safe to drive past them. We also saw 2 lions (Simba in Swahili) which was awesome! One was so old his face was all droopy and aged, like the King of the park!

Two of the international volunteers finished their time with us a couple of weeks ago. Nik who was from London, was here for 6 weeks through a programme that sends accountants out globally to organizations. She took unpaid leave from work, and is now back working at her previous job. Although short it was nice to get to know her and strange to see her leave as she arrived about the same time as me. Hopefully we will meet up in London when I get home. The other volunteer was Ann-Katrina from Germany, she had been volunteering for 6 months, working in the law department of AFCIC but also leading beadwork and math’s lessons at the centre. We threw them both a leaving tea at the centre, where we sang songs with the boys, and the staff spoke words of appreciation. It was especially sad to see Ann-Katrina go, not only did we get on really well, she had volunteered for the same time as I am planning too, it made me think that it will be me in her position in only a few months. Time really is going so quickly out here!

In my last blog update I spoke about the new reading project I was setting up in a local school. This is going well, and I now have another volunteer helping me out with the individual reading. The boys I am helping one to one are 16years old but their English reading is poor, so I am taking them back to basics and helping them improve. What’s lovely is they are really grateful for the help and really willing to learn. I also have a reading club with 11 more able students, we have just started group reading where I am getting them to practice reading out load to each other. I appealed to you for donations to buy desks for the classrooms, and so far have funds for two. These are being made this weekend and should be ready for class on Monday! If anyone else can help please let me know, the school is so grateful and is in need of lots of resources.

On the 11^th March I took a week off work and with Adelaide a volunteer from America we traveled to Tanzania, and this Island some of you may have heard of… Zanzibar! Adelaide has been volunteering since September and has just a couple of months left, I was planning to maybe do this trip later on in my stay but I took the opportunity to go with her before she leaves.

So getting there wasn’t the most enjoyable of experiences, a 15 hour coach ride from Nairobi, with no i-pod as it has broken and I cant read as I get travel sick. Also apart from the border where we got our Tanzanian visa’s the bus only stopped for 15mins the whole journey! The views were pretty spectacular and I guess best described as your stereotypical image of ‘Africa’ but after 15 hours even they became monotonous. We finally arrived in Dar Es Salaam late in the evening and were greeted by a friend of one of the AFCIC staff’s who organised our accommodation for the night. The next morning we went to visit his project that he set up to help vulnerable children in his local village. That afternoon we got the ‘budget’ ferry – I say no more across to Zanzibar.

Arriving in Zanzibar we spent 2 days in Stonetown a beautiful small town with incredible architecture, narrow paths, and lots of life. The ‘gardens’ at night turned into a colourful food market with lots of stalls selling skewers of fish and meat, Zanzibar pizzas, sugar cane juice, and much more. From stonetown we also took a boat trip across to ‘Prison Island’ named this as it used to be an island for prisoners! It now has a tortoise sanctuary with these ‘giant’ tortoises, seriously the biggest I have ever seen! I got to see some tortoise ‘love’ which I found quite entertaining to say the least. After Stonetown we traveled an hour north to ‘paradise’. The whitest beach and bluest sea, defiantly the image of Zanzibar I had imagined. Apart from moving to another beach with even whiter sands, we spent the week relaxing, reading, snorkeling and socializing.  It was a great trip, and something that I probably would never have done from the UK, but with budget traveling, and being so close in Kenya its great to have been able to have that experience.

Returning back to the Centre after a week away, it was so lovely to be greeted by all the boys. They had so many questions, mainly why my skin was now ‘red’! I tried to explain it was a tan, but they prefer it white apparently! I really missed them while I was away and it was a really warm feeling to be back with them and the staff, and back to my Kenyan reality. It was also great to see that in my time away we had recruited 5 new boys from Ruiru, where I do outreach work on Wednesdays. I have worked with them all on outreach and it was great to see them settling into the centre. The boys wanted to see my pictures of my trip so I created a slideshow for them, which we watched an evening this week.

This week has been really busy for me. After being away I have spent all day and most evenings with the boys catching up with the time I missed. I like the evening time, where they tell stories, talk about their day, and draw in their diaries – a project I started with them to record their time a the centre.

In 2 weeks it will be April holidays for the schools, and I am coordinating with one other staff member a 3 week holiday club for 500 children to prevent them from going to the streets. This means I am very busy creating the timetable, planning sessions, recruiting extra volunteers and getting everything organised. In my next blog I will talk more about holiday club as it will be happening!

The rains are now coming and it has started to rain a little but heavily everyday, I hear in the next couple of months it will rain a lot more! It is much needed, as the land is very dry. At least it reminds me of the UK a little.

I have written too much – so note to self, write less but more often! Thank you for reading if you made it here J

Please keep in touch, I love to hear all your news and know that life back home is the same as I left it!

Lots of Love x   

Karibu (Welcome) to my blog!

Habaree? (How are you) 

Gina Langu Ni Sarah (my name is Sarah)...I thought I would start by showing off the little but also impressive Swahili I am learning! I don't know many sentences but I have picked up quite a few words that I like to throw into as many conversations as possible! As for the boys there is such a noticeable change in their English. Even the smallest boy who didn't even speak Swahili but his tribal language can now say 'My name is Joseph' I am really proud of them! 

Another couple of weeks have passed since my last update and I am still really enjoying myself out here and making the most of this experience. I wrote last time of how a few of the Thika town boys had run away, unfortunately only a couple returned so we have now recruited new boys in their place as there was only so much time we could try and wait for them to return and it was time to give some other boys a chance at rehabilitation. The new boys are settling in well, and it has been good to have a full house again. There are a few boys in this group who are very clever and their English reading and speaking is very impressive. It helps to have them to be able to translate for me to the other boys, and I can really see them doing very well at school after their time with us. 

The new timetable is finally in place, and is a very busy schedule for the boys with a variety of activities to keep them busy, educated. motivated, inspired, whilst supporting them with rehabilitation. Activities include life skills sessions, Maths, English, Science, and Social studies lessons, Football (lead by a Thika United Player) Acrobatics, Arts and Crafts, Hear our Voice (Drama) and much more. This is complimented by individual counselling and group counselling sessions. I will be responsible for leading some life skills sessions, advocacy sessions, bead work, and conversational English lessons. I have also set up a reading club at the centre where i have created a schedule so each staff member is allocated boys they will read with on a one to one basis each week. While all this is going on the social workers are out working with the parents and child's family so if possible all the boys will be able to return home and back to school. 

As well as the work I am doing at the centre, and helping out when i am around as I am living there! on Wednesdays I am doing outreach work in a place called Ruiru working with the boys on the streets. I have spent the last couple of weeks getting to know them, but hope to do an art project with them later on. We do activities with them, and also get them lunch. These boys will be referred on to the centre for the next intake or supported in an inter work programme, the workers are working with their families and may give economic support so they can return to school and leave the street. 

Last week I had a meeting with a local school that the charity is supporting with one of our staff members as  a teacher and support where they can. We agreed that I will work with them on Tuesday afternoons by doing individual reading with there students and setting up and running a reading club. The school is very poor and most of the children are very vulnerable as their families mainly work in the fields so poverty is high. The classroom I will be doing my reading club in is for the smallest grade, they only have 4 tiny desks for 30+ children! I want to work on fundraising some more so i can buy them some more desks. A desk costs around 2,000 kenyan shillings which is about £20, so if anyone wants to donate more money or buy a desk let me know - it will be much appreciated! Asante! (thank you)

On Thursday this week I am going to another school as I have been asked to talk to their new elected prefects about leadership. I will do an interactive session with them for an hour or so, so quite excited about that. It will hopefully be a good start in developing some advocacy work in the school which the director is keen for me to do. 

So as you can see work wise I am pretty busy and most of it is just getting off the ground so i am sure as my projects/sessions develop I will be very involved! As well as working hard, I am also making time to socialise, meet new people and travel. Last weekend I went to Mombasa for 3days with one of the volunteers and the director. I camped on Tiwi beach which was just paradise, ate coconuts, snorkeled in the natural pools and worked on my tan! It was easy and cheap to get too as we got an overnight coach straight from Thika, apart from it taking 10 hours and being the most unconformable coach ever with the craziest driver, but was all worth it when we arrived and I was laying on the beach by 10am. I will definitely return to Tiwi beach hopefully at least one more time over the next few months. 

Hoping to take some time off in a few weeks and travel to Zanzibar...I'll let you know developments on that but potentially very exciting!

Please keep in touch, email me your news and let me know if you can help with donations :) 

Lots of Love Sarah x 

'The Rat'

Well I’m definitely being kept busy out here, the last week has flown by and I really can’t believe that I have already been here for a month. We have unfortunately had a few boys run away from this recruit, its due to their addiction to sniffing glue and although you can really see that some of them do want to change and get off the streets the addiction is ruling their bodies and even though they get food, bed, activities, education, support and most of all love, their addictions sadly take over. When I see them around town I try to persuade them to return to the centre, just yesterday another volunteer and I managed to get one boy to come back with us, hand over his glue and return to the ICC. Unfortunately he ran again last night and although it is such a shame it’s the hard reality of the situation, and the work we are doing. 

On a positive note, the remaining boys are doing really well, they have settled in now, and its great to see them forming as a group. Their personalities are really coming through, and they are really fun to be around and work with. There are some really young boys and its so sad to think of their situations and why they are staying with us, but there is also so much hope now, and with our help and rehabilitation they will make it back to school, back home is possible, and off the streets.  They are a lively bunch and the language barrier can be a challenge but I can already see their English improving with me being around and I am picking up some Swahili too! On Friday I taught an English lesson, going through the Alphabet and coming up wih words for each letter. I attempted to sing and teach them the alphabet song, which I bet you all wish you could have seen it was very amusing!

Staying at the centre opposed to the volunteer house which is a 20minute walk away is defiantly good for me in a youth work role as it means when I get up I see the boys in the morning, work with them all day, and then get that special time with them in the evening, where we eat dinner, sing and play games, talk about the day and then my favourite is saying goodnight to them. It’s helping me to build relationships, and I get to see the boys and their progression daily. The only negative is I can find myself doing 14hour days (which is normal for me in my usual work!) but no real escape to relax living at the centre. I am trying to be strict and keep my weekends off and at least an evening a week, where I will go out or spend time with the volunteers at their house. 

Last weekend I went to 14 falls, about 30mins from Thika town, which was beautiful. I went with one of the Kenyan staff and his friends, and we lazed around in the sun, had a picnic and then attempted to cross the falls – badly. The stones were so hot my feet were burning and we had to be helped across the big jumps, and I still ended up socked to my waist. We then went to a local pool for a swim, or should I say a paddle as the pool was so crowded, (no lanes Dani) and due of cultural respect I was wearing a t-shirt over my costume. Still it was nice to be in the water and escape the 30 degree heat, and a nice end to a fun day out.

Yesterday (Sat 12^th) I went out with a staff member who showed me his village where he grew up. Literally in the middle of no-where, we walked, got a motorbike to finally reach his land. He also showed me a children’s home where he used to volunteer, these children are all orphans and stay until they are 18. Another real eye opener, the home doesn’t have a sponser so relies on local donations but are desperate for help and need a lot of work done to the home, even still they are doing a great job. In the afternoon I went to a local hotel with one of the volunteers and we hung out in the grouds, read, slept and just relaxed, it was a nice escape. Next weekend I am going to the coast – Mombassa, I am really looking forward to this and working on my tan! 

So all in all a good balance between work, and seeing Kenya.

I want to briefly tell you of my experience the other night, went to go to bed and was convinced I could hear an animal in my room… tried to ignore it and fall asleep but couldn’t. Finally had a stare down, where I turned off all the lights and waited to spot it. Caught its beady eyes reflecting at me from under my wardrobe and I jumped out of bed and text the night staff ‘there’s a rat in my room!’ he thank g-d came to the rescue with a stick! Found the rat nestling in my wardrobe drawer and it was seriously the biggest rat I have ever seen! I left Edward to sort it and after hearing thumps, bumps and a thud he emerged with the beast, sadly not so alive anymore. Needless to say it took me a while to get to sleep after but all in all I was very brave and didn’t even scream! Its defiantly an adventure living at the ICC. Also a huge bird flew into me this week as I was walking from the office back to the centre, was very surreal and I had a headache all afternoon! No idea what’s going on but having my own Safari adventure it seems!

That’s all for now, any questions email me :-0

Also, please if you want to donate you still can and it will really help me stay out here for the whole six months and help the charity with all its work. www.justgiving .com/SerotaSarah

Love Sarah x 

Updates...:-)

Last week we had a staff strategy meeting and family integration meeting, which was good to be involved in as I got to be a part of the planning for 2011 and see more the process of how the different projects run. We start and end each meeting with a prayer and a song which is nice - maybe something i should start doing in my work in the UK!
I went to Nairobi on Saturday evening where we stayed at the directors friends where we had wine and food round a fire in her garden.The journey there was quite stressful when we hit traffic and then impatient drivers cut us up and off the road on a made up diversion with 10 lanes!and I thought we might actually not make it out alive! Luckily we didn't and Eleanor's driving and calmness saved us.  The roads are crazy here and every journey is more of an experience, i will not complain about London drivers again! On Sunday we visited Nairobi national park where we drove around in a jeep and saw lots of wildlife i.e zebras and giraffes it was a very beautiful park surrounded by Nairobi skyline and a relaxing day out.
I finally had my interview with the director where we discussed my role here and the projects I can get involved with. I will be starting up a reading club at the centre and also at a local school. I will also be leading life skills sessions, co-ordinating the holiday activities where we get 300 children attend! and I will be setting up school advocacy clubs/councils.
I met Jane - who is hte house mother, she cooks the meals for the boys and staff and does all the domestic work as well as some counselling. All the boys call her mother and she now calls me her daughter. She is very sweet and even got me bread as I hate the porridge the boys eat called 'Ugi' which to me tastes like drinking sick!
On Monday we got the first boys of the new intake, and on Tuesday and Wednesday more, so by Wed eve we had a full house of 23 boys.  They are all lovely with their challenges but it was amazing to see the transformation from them turning up filthy to being washed and given clean clothes and a good meal. The first boys even commented how dirty the second lot that arrived were, which made me laugh as they had looked the same only the day before! Most of the boys speak very little - no English which is a challenge but I am managing to lead activities sometimes needed a staff member to translate. I am picking up some basic Swahili from them although some of them speak 'kakuhu' which is their tribal language.
Up until Friday we also had no electricity or water which was fun, although we have had some nice candle lit communal dinners. Its back on now and i really appreciate the basics in life!
This week I have been spending most of my nights at the centre and going to bed between 9-10 when the boys go to bed! It was nice to go out for dinner with the volunteers on Thursday and we watched a  movie at their house last night. Tommorow I am going to 14falls which is a waterfall quite near to Thika so I am looking forward to that .
This week coming will be busy with the new timtable starting and some structure into the week. Some of the boys have also been running away due to drug craving so we hope they will be back and we can work with them.

Keep emailing me with your news,

Sarah xxx