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
