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