Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye to kimilili

                                     

Well we knew that it wouldn’t be easy and it wasn’t, but I guess the more you miss a place means the bigger the space that it has taken up inside your heart and that surely can only be a good thing.

It’s not just the culture that we will miss, or the amazing views, the warm climate, the friendliness of passers by, the chapattis or the Mandazis. We will miss most the great friends we have made.  If any of you are reading this, sincerely thank you for the love and welcome you have shown us, for your openness to learn, for showing us how to hope and for challenging us to 100% relay on God for everything. Tu ta rudi xx

The Simplicity of Kenya and the people there is truly beautiful, even though we have only been back a few days we are struck by how much we can complicate our lives here instead of just focusing on our daily bread. The need to be constantly developing and planning ahead is addictive and feels like were moving forward but often we forget to stop and look at what we already have and appreciate it the way it is for a while. I don’t know how you balance out two extremely different cultures in the day to day but I hope that we can still keep an essence of our Kenyan experience and remember the simplicity of Kenya when we are back in the swing of our stressed up little worlds and remember the words that were uttered to us   “…chill out.. we’re in Africa’ 

                                                            ’

So although sad that the fantastic experience we have had has inevitably to come to an end, we are so very thankful to God for allowing this trip, for working in us and for faithfully protecting us….. And so very thankful for all those who have supported us while we have been away.

Asante sana sana.xxx 

One last trip to the house

Back to the house

So the chance came for me to visit the Soysambu house again for one last time before I returned home and I couldn’t miss it....

We decided an unannounced trip would be a good idea to really see what real progress had been made.

Just like every time before my stomach turned over as we drove down the narrow path that leads towards the house.. what would we find there…?

Well praise God. .it wasn’t just good news it felt like we were witnessing an actual miracle. To witness such transformation in a family in such a small amount of time brings tears of thanks to my eyes even just thinking about it.

We found the father Edwards smartly dressed, clean, shaved and washing the families clothes.. The feeble shadow of a man that we had once met was no longer and a different man stood tall before us.. It was so encouraging to see that in the day to day there he was working and providing for his family and taking on his fatherly duties once again.. You could see that along with this new responsibility he had adopted a sense of self worth.

Of course it is a long journey for him and getting over any addiction especially when you are surrounded in poverty is no small task but here he was, wearing a clean and bright yellow shirt, trying his very best.

We were delighted that Laurence (who works at IcFEM for the fathers ministry)  had agreed to come along for the trip. We felt it really important that Edward, being the farther, was the one who could really make or break this family and yet was the one member of the family that we had spent time with the least. Laurence , Elliud and Simon just chatted to him and listened to his worries, they spent hours together  talking listening and praying. I think Edward was genuinely stunned that this day was all about him and in those few hours you could see him coming out of his shell. 

Well it wasn’t long before the children came home for lunch..They walked in to their new house,which was now home, with their new little shoes, red socks and no jiggers or limping or sticks in sight. They beamed when they saw us and came to sit on our knees. We sat there drawing together communicating through the pics . Its strange how we have built up this close bond with these children with barely no words, but  we have worked hard together, cried together  and we have witnessed and experienced something life changing together. I guess that speaks louder than words. 

                                   

Saying goodbye to the children was something I was dreading. These children have firmly established a place in my heart and in all honesty I was scared about a big and uncontrollable outburst would embarrassingly take me over..

But it didn’t, instead I just felt a real sense that they will be alright now..that our work here was done and that there was nothing really more that we could do for this family. They seemed now so different to the way they were before, a few months ago we greeted the unpopular, dirty, jigger ridden, mixed up and very needy group of people. and we said goodbye to a hopeful, beautiful, clean, inelegant family unit. So as we said goodbye we were aware we were handing them over into Gods large and very capable hands knowing that there they would be safe.  

Heres the beautiful Abel showing the world that he can now jump as his Jiggers are gone. 

                                                      

On leaving Edward walked right up to the land rover , looked us all in the eye , shook our hands and said thank you so much…he hadn’t ever approached us before let alone had any eye contact, that itself was powerful evidence of transformation

                                         

Driving off, that was confirmed for us as, the whole family stood together as a family and waved us off together

                                    

I know and believe that God promises to do more that you can ever ask or imagine, but to actually see him at work with my very own eyes was just incredible and something I must never forget.

                                                 

Sun, chips and swimming trips

Sun, Chips and Swimming Trips...

                                  

We took a few treat days to the swimming pool about an hours drive out of  Kimilili. These days have been time out and chance to enjoy the lovely climate. They have also been chance to get to know our colleges more by just spending a day chilling with them by the poolside.

Those who we have seen and worked with daily have now transitioned into becoming great friends who we are blessed to have and who we will greatly miss.

                                       

(We’re rooting for the IcFEM guest house to get their own pool, it would be the only one in Kimilili…surely there’s a business idea in the making.)

 

The new IcFEM gift and book shop

The IcFEM Gift and Book Shop

                                   

So working in the shop was one of my favourite projects…it was a joy to see that with a small amount of work it could be transformed.

what was a bit of an embarrassment for a shop became another asset to icfems great list.

We decided the shop was in real need of a refurb.   We set ourselves a target that we would be finished and ready to re launch a few weeks later in time for the arrival of 10 teachers from England.

                We painted and scrubbed the room, designed shelves (made very nicely by Evans the carpenter) and branded the place with lots of posters, signs and price tags.

                                      

Linet held a big book sale to clear some of the old books. Selling over 40 books in 2 days It was a success and with the money raised she was able to order lots more stock from Nairobi.

 

The IcFEM gift and bookshop is now a place where many want to sell their wares and so even the IcFEM staff were revealing great crafts that they had made such a Julius the night watchmen who makes African jewellery and key rings really nicely. Of course the tailoring shop, now one of Linets biggest suppliers were working away and brightening up the place with there new and exciting wares.

                                   

Linet was just beaming with her new place, she finally got the lockable draw that she had been asking for and always had African music playing .the atmosphere is completely different. The shop is a nice place to be in and the sales have absolutely rocketed.

Taking more profit in one day than they had for the rest of the year, Linet was enthused and excited about her work and began to sell whole heartedly, she has a good eye for products, knows her prices and most importantly loves her job so I know that the place is left in capable hands. I really enjoyed my time with Linet and her willingness and openness to learn.  I will miss working with her and seeing that beaming smile that she now wears everyday.

                                  

DreamLand School

Dreamland school

It was great to get back to school and dreamland school was just a special as I remembered it.

We have both been teaching lessons which has been a real blessing. It is amazing to see just quite how well behaved the children are and how they are all so keen to learn, they value their education so much and it’s a delight to see. You wonder sometimes how they can love and value these lessons so much as the way they learn is so very different to our ways but dreamland school are certainly doing something right to be producing such studios, well behaved and delightful children.

Christmas card competition..(jo Finlay)

Gemma and I ran a Christmas card competition with the year 6s and 7s classes.. We arrived in school and within 10 mins we were winging a lesson that we hadn’t prepared for, but the children were just so well behaved and so eager and interested, that we soon felt at home.

We asked the four classes to come up with original ideas for their card by firstly getting them to write about their Christmas day.

I felt all choked up when one little boy, Tim, read his piece of writing aloud. It started..

“On my Christmas day there is no snow, there is no Santa, there are no gifts… but we have an amazing day….’’

The Christmas designs we asked for were to be African, Christmassy and unique… i guess that was a bit of a tall order, but we were pleased with the results that we got and the enthusiasm that they approached this task with.

It was a real incentive for them to know that the winner would have their card printed and taken to all kinds of places in Europe, places that theythemselves may never get the chance to see…it just reinforced nicely the message that I was trying to get across that there is such a relevance and a place for art, that if you have the guts to share your imagination out loud or on paper.. then who knows where it may take you.

One of the boys Joseph, I could really identity with… He sat scribbling away and could hardly get his ideas down quick enough. No sooner would he have started one sheet before he was asking for new paper for another idea…his drawings were scruffy and rushed, but he had something. At first I though he was just a bit hyper and he would soon calm down…but he came back to continue this artwork in his lunch break and after school, it was like he had found deep inside himself an new and special gift that he was desperately quickly trying to unwrap.

We selected 4 finalists and presented them with a prize, and I was delighted that Joseph was one of them. The finalists came up one by one and as they did they received a big round of applause and they proudly accepted .. We saved Joseph till last, I felt most proud of him and the passion that he had put in. As Gemma called his name we didn’t hear applause, instead the room filled with laughter and Joseph walked to the front with his head hanging low. It was awful like we’d got him up there to humiliate him….

I asked the teacher later why the children laughed and her answer was

‘’no one would ever expect joseph to win, even me…he does not excel in any subjects….. ’’

I wondered if I would have been in the same boat as joseph, if my education was in Kenya? I really felt for all those wonderfully creative beings living all over this continent that are branded as stupid because they don’t have academic minds.

However, I was proud of Joseph and was all the more delighted that he proved them wrong. As far as I was concerned he was the one who had excelled most of all.

Look out for the Christmas cards, or do ask me for more info, as they will soon be printed and available to buy in time for this Christmas.

Art projects ( Finners)

One of the things I really wanted to do on my return to Kenya was some big art projects in school… and moreso after the whole joseph Christmas card comp thing. I went back to dreamland to work with more children and again to encourage their creative minds and abilities. Again encouraging the thinking that your idea can start small but become turn into something big and beautiful ..they know ‘art’ as tracing in the back of their lined exercise books and so i wanted to challenge that.

.

This project was on creation..Each child drew a day of creation on a large circle and we stapled the circles together to create large 3D orb globes that we hung, instantly brightening up the huge dark stairwell.. as we were in te process of hanging them, I disappeared off to get some more staples and returned to see a huge crowd had formed around the globes. The children stood around in wonder.. and with a sense of ownership that their piece of work contributed to something such as this.

Dreamland (Jo Riley)

My last few weeks were spent teaching in the school and hospital.

For me it was my first time in Dreamland school and was a real privilege to meet and teach these wonderful children. I taught classes in years 5,6,7 and 8 about the heart. I wanted to make the lessons as interactive and interesting as possible as their lessons usually consist of just copying off the blackboard or from an exercise book. In my first lesson it turned out they had put two classes together and so I had 60 pupils and the teachers deserted me. They were so well behaved and enthusiastic to learn though, so it was not a problem. They never seemed to want me to stop. Sometimes the teacher that should have been teaching the next lesson never turned up or it would be lunchtime but they would not leave the lesson . I also taught each of these years a few first aid classes which were good fun and had them all bandaging each other up. I also saw some of their more mischevious side during these lessons!

The hospital staff were so enthusiastic and eager to learn. They made me feel really welcome and part of the team. I taught them basic life support, ECG performance and interpretation and first aid. They really work as a great team at the hospital so much so that all the staff including the groundsmen turned up for my teaching sessions! This was really nice but made the teaching a little bit difficult particularly when teaching ECG as I could see that some of them were struggling to understand what I was teaching. Even though I kept saying this teaching might not be relevant for some of you so feel to leave, none of them did!

I spent a week teaching the main doctor at the hospital physics of ultrasound and ECG interpretation. He was really eager to learn and a quick learner and it made my job easy. Since I've been back he text me one day really excited to say he had performed and interpreted an ECG on a lady and diagnosed an MI. I was really excited to hear this especially if you remember from a previous blog entry that until then the nearest place to get an ECG was a 2 1/2 hour drive away. (However, the ECG machine is very old and is unable to record all 12 leads plus it takes about 1/2 to do what would take 5 minutes and be much clearer with a more modern machine). During my time there I had lots of people coming up to me worried about their heart or chest pains and I realised that there is a definite need for more knowledge and facilities in this area.

I learnt a lot during this time especially about being flexible. One day I was to teach first aid to the health co-ordinators from each of the local units. It was due to start at 9am and I was all ready to go but there was no sign of anything happening. It got to 11am and still nothing had happened as not all the health coordinators had arrived I started to get a bit worried by this but was told "Relax Jo this is Africa. If you can't do something today you just do it tomorrow". How I wish that attitude worked in the UK we'd all be a lot less stressed but I am determined to take this more relaxed attitude back with me.

On our final sunday we visited Dreamland's sunday service (a service for all those who board there) It's is a service that's organized and led by the children. Its began with 30 mins of worship, some leading the singing some banging upside down barrels as their drums and every other child dancing.. there wasn’t a stationary person in that building (except us of course) and it was just so lovely to see a complete lack of inhibitions.. Where regardless of age and gender all these children were dancing and worshipping god.

The children of dreamland really are a joy to be with and it was a sad day when we said goodbye. The children sent us away with a wodge of thank you letters each…

Dear Jo Artist

The reason causing me to write is to say thank you.

I never knew I would be able to make my own Christmas card but I did. You made me know the true colour of art and its to have your own imagination not copying.

As you go back I hope that you will come back again.

God bless you for everything you’ve done to make us use our imagination.

May Gods grace be with you till we meet again,

Bye,

Yours faithfully,

Tim

Dear Jo Doctor

My main aim to write is to thank you for sacrificing your time to come from England to Kenya to Kimilili to Dreamland to teach about the heart.

We are very glad for that good thing you did for us even we know how to give first aid to a victim injured by fire or when playing on a football pitch.

Now we know how the heart pumps blood to other parts of the body and we say thank you

Yours faithfully

Kelly

Painting stuff

Painting stuff

Painting signs, walls and pictures and anything else that may need a lick of paint..

                                                                

Its great to be practically doing stuff with the paint and paintbrush as creative work these days is often computer based and a rare percentage of any job is the actual painting. So It was exciting to just go at a blank wall with a brush and see what happened…

We painted a mural in The Upper Room, a room soon to be a café area at the HQ for the IcFEM staff encouraging them to fellowship over lunch. We were asked to paint leaves and flowers.. so that’s pretty much what we did.

Again so many popped in to visit us and to encourage us as we worked…We asked the IcFEM staff to contribute to our wall by painting a flower.. they could approach it anyway they liked                                                   

.....and it was just lovely to see the results.

For some this unveiled creative talent that any didn’t know they had and they enjoyed their chance to add their mark to this artistic project.

It would be great to be able to take the time to train some of these people and give them confidence to be able to colour the many drab walls that Kenya has and brighten them up with a splash of their imagination.

As we painted the requests came flooding trough from people asking us to paint their house, school, church or office.. if only we had more time.

Chocolate cake and 24

So we may have taken a slightly indulgent and addictive turn ..we could blame it on Jo’s birthday (as that’s where both the cake and 24 dvds were introduced), or we could blame it on Matt leaving. But, we have been making cakes and watching the series ever since. We’re not proud of it but we do feel that after experiencing many withdrawals such as dairy milk, a proper cup of tea, internet access, hot shower and a gin and tonic, we are allowed a few luxuries. However we’ve gone cold turkey this weekend and man it’s been hard!

Fortunately Jo Riley needed to borrow the projector for a seminar so we scored the it for over the weekend and managed to watch the final few episodes on the big screen.. wooh(made it very scary tho)

The return to the Jigger house-New House, New Feet!

New House, New Feet!!

Well we had to return back to Soysambu where we had left our little friends and their troubled feet. It’s the usual procedure that once we build a house, when its completed we go back and have a handing over ceremony. We were an equal mix of excited and apprehensive about what we would find there? Would the jiggers be gone, would things have improved, or would things have just slipped back to like before?

Well as we drove up we saw a sight that we will remember forever - the two youngest boys, Able and Hilary ran up to the car with huge smiles and big waving hands.
If it wasn’t for them wearing the cleanly washed t-shirts, we had given them last time, we may not have recognised them. Not because we didn’t know so well their little faces but they were standing up straight without their sticks, they used before, standing tall and their feet were flat on the ground. It seemed unreal like looking at different children’s feet almost and crazy to think that they had just crawled for so long before. They were closely followed by the grandma, who wearing her new blue scarf, was pointing down at her little black pumps delighted that she could now wear shoes.

…And they were all so happy to see us. All the pain of that week was forgiven and we set off, across the field together to see the completed new house.

Well, the house looked really good, as did the oldest son Collins and the Father, Edward soon shyly emerged dressed in Tim’s painting shirt for the occasion (it looked good on him too, sorry Tim but he was working it better than you!)
We had a ceremony that closed with members of the community giving them small gifts that ranged from clothes, soap, bowls, and food along with the blanket and new mattress that we brought to replace the old ones, which were well overdue for a change.

The time for us to leave came far too soon, but it was such a comfort to know that they were in much better way than when we had first met. The children although much skinner than we remember (very malnourished) would be starting school the following week (thanks to some kind people from York paying their fees). This means they will be getting a square meal every day, a valuable education and an equal start in joining the other kids.

So concluding this emotional and worthwhile chapter, we said goodbye to all those involved in this project with a sadness but a sense of feeling resolved. Realising that sometimes God places people into your lives for a small time to help, and then disappear. We felt that God had used us to reach out to this family, but more abundantly we felt changed. The humbleness, openness and sheer beauty of these children richly blessed us. Who knows if we may ever see those lovely children again..but the Zigugu family will certainly never be forgotten!

Jo Riley:

For the last few weeks I’ve been settling into the world of Kenya Health Care which has been really interesting and a real eye opener! I spent a week with the Rotary Doctors. They employ mainly Kenyan nurses and dentists but also have Dutch doctors who come over for six weeks at a time. Every day they perform a clinic in a different area some of which were very beautiful places set amongst the mountains although very poor at the same time. We saw all kinds of patients but the biggest problem was Malaria. This killer disease is rampant here and is not choosey about its victims. We came across a few babies who were extremely sick with it and one day one poor little 1 ½ year old girl was so sick that we took her in the landrover to Kimilili government hospital, about ¾ hr drive from where the clinic was. If we hadn’t have been there that day she would have to have taken her on a buda buda the whole way (if she could find one that was willing to travel that far). Two of the nurses dropped her off at the hospital and we then went off for their usual “team building” end of the week drinks. Driving back from the hotel an hour later the driver noticed the mother walking down the road with the dying girl in her arms. We stopped the vehicle and when we questioned the mother as to why she wasn’t in the hospital we found out the appalling yet typical situation that had occurred. The hospital did not have the correct cannula to give the baby the treatment so they sent the mother away to see if she could get together the money to buy the needle from a pharmacy. This poor mother could not afford to buy the needle so she was making her way back home with the critically ill baby. We told her to get back in the vehicle and found the correct needle and medication in the rotary doctor’s supplies and took her back to the hospital.
A little later that afternoon myself and Paul (the Dutch doctor) had arranged for the 2nd time to have a tour of the hospital with medical officer (they don’t like us looking round by ourselves in case we are spying). However, having waited half an hour for our tour guide to appear we gave up and Paul showed me round. He told me that I would be shocked by what I would see but not to show it as the staff are very proud of their hospital. It was too difficult a task for me, it would seem, as Paul told me my face said it all. There were a few inches between each bed and every bed contained at least two people- the patient and their carer (everybody has a family member to care for them as there are few nurses and they do not got fed or watered in hospital). In the children’s ward, however, there were four to a bed, two patients and two mothers (great environment for spreading all those nasty viruses!)
Another patient who particularly stood out for me that week was a 14yr old boy who was very short of breath with signs and symptoms of congenital heart disease. He needed an ECG and an Echocardiogram (both of which I was eager to do) but the nearest place that has this equipment was a 2 ½ hours drive away in Eldoret. Discussions with the boy, who had come alone, were discouraging as he did not think he would be able to afford to travel to Eldoret for these tests let alone afford to see a Cardiologist and have these investigations. So all they could do was a write a letter to the boys father stressing how important it was for the boy to be seen in Eldoret.
It’s very frustrating to see such need, daily, and not be able to help due to the lack of equipment that we so easily take for granted in the UK.

One morning I sat in on the HIV testing and counselling which is offered free to anyone attending the clinic. One young mum tested positive that morning but it was upsetting to observe the lack of emotion shown by her as she was told the result. HIV sufferers, however, if caught early have much better prospects than they used to have and counselling and treatment is readily available here.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week with the rotary doctors learning lots and being made to feel part of the team. I was very impressed with their skills and eagerness to help people. On the bank holiday Paul and Geraldine (the Dutch couple) invited me and Jo to go to a sugar factory where they would be playing golf but where we could go for a swim. We were very excited about this even though it was an hour and a halves drive there. We had a fantastic day swimming and sunning ourselves by the pool with monkeys observing in the surrounding trees. We somehow managed to have the pool to ourselves and we had that holiday feeling for the day.


Dreamland Hospital:
This hospital is a world apart from that of Kimilili District Hospital but needs prayer as it is not as busy as it should be for the wonderful care it offers. This appears to be for two reasons, the main one being that because it is not a government hospital and that some Mzungus work there people think the treatment will cost a lot more (in fact, it usually ends up being cheaper than the mismanaged government hospital). The second reason is that the hospital is a bit far out of town for people to easily get to. Please pray that these issues can be resolved so that people of Kimilili can receive the kind of care and respect they deserve.

This week I taught the staff at Dreamland basic life support. They were quite nervous at first and scared by “Ivan” the Manikin but most of them managed to forget their inhibitions and were willing to embarrass themselves slightly in order to learn.

My attempts to get the archaic ECG machine at Dreamland Hospital working have so far failed and as the equipment is so old it is likely to take half an hour to perform an ECG if I do get it working, rather than the usual 5 minutes. I am hoping that when I get home I will be able to raise the money to provide them with a more modern “working” machine if I manage to train the clinical officer sufficiently on how to interpret them before I leave.

I was excited to find a second hand “talking” defibrillator one day at the hospital (which had come on a container from England) but then to my disappointment discovered that there was no charger for the battery. However, I managed to contact the company who made it and was delighted when they said they would send a charger free of charge so I am now eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Jo Finlay

I’ve been doing a bit of everything. There are various bits that need doing at the headquarters so I’ve just been moving round seeking opportunities.

Gift & Book Shop

The shop in all honesty needed a fair bit of attention. Rather than feeling assured you were in the shop, you felt as if you had walked in to some ones private office where all that greats you is a 3 legged wooden giraffe lay on the desk on his side.

Linnet, who runs the shop has understandably found it uninspiring sitting in there day in day out with no customers. She definitely needed some help and to see the shop with a fresh perspective.

As nothing was on show you kind of had to guess what the shop sold. I wanted to buy some phone credit but I was encouraged to buy from someone else who had a lockable draw as she didn’t feel safe holding money.

The shop has been waiting for the last year to move to town so everything’s been in boxes all this time. But who knows when that shop will move so we decided it was time to make do with what we had. Gemma and I set to work doing a stock take on every item in there. It turns out that the boxes contain thousands of brand new books

Well it all just seemed a bit back to front so you can imagine our surprise when one day we arrived to find that Linnet had completely rearranged the place, swept and cleaned and found a set of shelves .She was getting the stock out of the boxes and putting them on display. It was not only 100% better it was just so great that she did it off her own back (you worry a bit that when you turn your back some will just stop so it was so encouraging to see her motivated and taking responsibility and using her skills to make something better).

We have bought some paint and are having some shop fittings made so it should be looking good in no time.

Tailoring shop

I next went over to the Tailors, there’s three who work their, Elizabeth, Joshua and Eugine.They sit and make anything you want pretty much, but…… in between the customers they just sit!My plan was to make to get them to make some stuff out of scraps while they were waiting for c

ustomers and supply the shop with this. Three big sacks of scraps were produced and I was in my element!...We started with hair scrunchies, then pencil cases, then mens ties, womens scarves and lastly patchwork delights. Its been so exciting as they are so very skilled but, for some reason don’t mix their skills with their imagination and occupy their time creating new things. Anyway, the ties especially went down a storm and now the tailors supplie the shop with all kinds of goodies. Everything, we made came from scraps and with the time that they would just be sitting so, these items didn’t cost anything. 

(Time here is valued so differently.. I guess the labour costs are low but it seems odd to have people sitting around waiting when there is lots to be done)I can’t wait to hit the market and 

get more products on sale in the shop too.

Painting the gate

We (Gemma and I ) have spent the last two weeks painting the main gates at headquarters. The gates were in great need and I think were last done 13 years ago.

I've found this a little challenging as it hasn’t been a creative job, more a job for a mathematical mind (bring on Jo Hardy the architect who loves to measure!) A further challenge was the fact that it rains every afternoon, so it was just a morning job, working with sticky gloss in the blazing heat. 

Sometimes you would turn round to find three or four

 people had been standing watching you for the last three wonky letters that you had drawn… it was such a public job where any mistakes were seen by all. But, every single person that passed said something...‘thankyou for this good work’ ....‘nice to see girls doing mens work’ or ‘may god richly bless you for doing this’. Many of these people weren’t even from IcFEM but it was so nice that pretty much every person who walked through the gates took it on themselves to thank us wether it was anything to do with them or not. Between the three of us we got there, in the end, and its now complete.

Jo’s birthday- 25th April

So Jo Riley got to send her birthday in Kenya and so we tried to make it an experience to remember.. though that appeared harder than we thought as there’s just not really that much to do in terms of the usual ways to relax…entertainment etc.. It makes you realise how spoilt we are having all these choices on our doorstep.

Our day out consisted of travelling to Bungoma, the nearest city. So, we took an hour long drive (on the matatu) to get some chips for lunch and visit the large(ish) supermarket to enable us to ‘get the treats in’ then returned home. It was still a fun day out, though, and we ended our trip by getting ice cream, a novelty we haven’t laid eyes on since being here. We sat and indulged on the bank steps it was a real moment where we were all thoroughly content and in our own little happy world.

Sunday felt a bit more like the usual ones at home. We attended church, had toad in the hole for lunch (made by Jo Finlay and Jo Hardy from what they purchased at our supermarket day out) and then held a little party for Jo who became ‘guest of honour’ Ann made us a delicious cake and some choc ice ream which we had with chai and played party games such as “who am I?” and pass the parcel.

JIGGER DAY!! (Thursday 16th April)

We decided that there was no point in moving these little, jigger ridden feet from one house to another without addressing the problem that this family just seemed to put up with. So, we decided to treat them so that this new house would be representing a new start and new feet! Little did we know what we had started! We gathered up the children, and they were told to wash their feet, however, the clean water washed away the thick mud to reveal just how bad this problem was. Seeing hundreds of jiggers living in one foot was almost too much to stomach, how could this have got so bad. There was something so horrifically unforgettable about seeing an 8 year old boy scrubbing away at his rotting feet in fear of what we were about to do..

Tim got his surgical gloves and needle and got ready to take the jiggers out one by one. And in fairness kept his head down until every single jigger was dealt with…
Knowing it was such a painful thing, and seeing the boy with tears streaming down his face, there were times when we wanted to just stop and say it was all too much. But the evidence of the rotting feet just reminded us that it had to be done and so all you could do was hold onto a frightened, little hand and let it continue. Tim persevered to the end and deserves a medal. Even the father humbly came forward to have us help him which was a great sign.

It took a while to put right with the children what had just happened, but, they were forgiving enough and the following day greeted us with big smiles. You could already see some improvement and they had all benefited form a pain free sleep, possibly the first in years.

The children were all awarded with a new clean t-shirt which made them beam even more. As we had overlooked the Father, Tim gave him his creased paint shirt which strangely enough looked to be an improvement. It was a rewarding experience to watch him pulling up his collar and walking tall with a new sense of dignity.
The grandma told us that we had brought hope to the family again and she never thought that would happen… WOW what a pleasure to be part of all this but ‘oh my’- what a week!

House building (13-17th April)

This work felt like the proper hard graft that we had imagined we’d be doing. When we got digging deep in the blazing heat, hammering, sawing and even preparing the mud (which meant squelching in our wellie boots for hours until the mud was soft). However, it was a new and exciting work and most importantly by the end of the week we would be giving someone who desperately needed it a new home.

The family consisted of a Grandma, a Father and four children age 2,5,8 and 14. This family had a small mud house already but on many occasions the grandmother and the children would be thrown out when the Father came home drunk, forcing them to sleep outside. The closer we looked at this situation the more needy they seemed. The mother had left a few months previously as she couldn’t cope with the situation.
Also... the family were ridden with jiggers (these are horrid little tic things that get under your skin, multiply and eat away at your flesh. Not only are they really itchy they are very painful making it difficult to walk). Jiggers come from certain types of mud.. the type of mud that we were handling daily to build this house. (You can imagine there was quite a bit of paranoia on our part as we were constantly checking our feet hoping that the jiggers hadn’t decided to visit us!) It seemed clear that there was a whole lot more that this family needed than a new house.

Holiday club (6-9 April)

It feels as though we are settled in fully now, and its all starting to feel familiar and the norm. We have started to feel accustomed to the ways here - passing mud houses is just normal, as are the power cuts and hearing every child you pass ask “how are you?” However, now and again you look up and see an eagle circling above, or pass a guy on a bike carrying 8 mattresses on the back and you quickly remember how different it is to back home and how special it is to be here.

We feel a bit exhausted after the holiday club but it was well worth the work. We were in charge of organising all the games and activities for the week. The age group went from ages 4-20.. so we weren’t quite sure how it would all work! The three of us brainstormed together to come up with some new ways to have fun, use the resources we have and give the children a whole load of fun.

We decorated the headquarters with multicoloured bunting and put up balloons, we set the age groups in to teams and made a scoreboard. Monday morning at 8 am and we were ready to great all the excited children, but where were they? A few drizzled in at 9am , then at 10, ‘what time was this thing due to start?.. or had it already started?’ Finally, about 1pm, we began and it all seemed to go well from there. It all seemed very relaxed, sometimes things just didn’t happen and sometimes they just happened 4 hours late, like lunch, but you just learn to work around it and to be ready when you get the nod.

In our planning meeting we were told they respond well to wide games (big, exciting field games) “leave those to us” we said.. it was only on day two we realised we misunderstood and they had said “word games”.. no wonder the blank faces when we explained the rules of this long and complicated wide game we had made up. However, we were soon reassured by the shrieks of laughter and the buzz of excitement that filled the playing fields. Their only play normally is organised sports. We got the same blank faces, too, from the children when we told them about their craft activities. The concept of making something from nothing was difficult to explain when we pointed to a pile of mud and told them to transform that lump into a model of themselves. Again, we got there in the end and Jo Finlay had to remind herself of the slogan on the front of her sketch book ‘creativity takes courage’ (thanks for it lins - love itx). It certainly does here when people just think you are crazy. The craft they do here is all paper craft, if not just tracing, so 3D was a lot to take on…. but the results were great. All these amazing models came out of the clay and each one seemed so pleased with what they had made. The best thing was that this activity cost them nothing, just the clay they walk on (great idea Luce), the trees and for the 7 year old newspapers that had already been paid for. Oh well, it’s all a learning curve and just reminds us that you have to persevere on these things.

Many have said what a success the holiday club was and that this time it seems new and different.

At the end of the week the winning team were each awarded with a lollipop and then we let all the children come and get a prize. The boys and girls delightedly placed their little hands in the bags to pull out a treat, a punch ball, a yoyo, a little plastic flute, but, then mayhem filled the headquarters. The children all went charging around the field with their new toys. Everyday since then we think we have heard someone somewhere blowing on their little plastic flute.

Kimilili here we are....

Well, we have completed our first week of our adventure, and so far so good.
When we arrived the grounds looked just as we had left them and it almost felt as if we had never been away (except where were the other 14 fellow Mancs that shared our previous experience?) I think it was then that it hit us that we were not going home in a few days time, but, for the next 3 months this place is now our home.

All those we had met on our previous trip remembered us and made us really welcome with their wide smiles and funny handshakes. “Karibu karibu” was the familiar cry, even from the cockerel, the noisy cow and the rowdy dogs who are still going strong. Introducing ourselves to everyone else is proving a bit tedious as the concept of a girl called Jo is confusing enough, let alone explaining that all three are called Jo… “All Jo’s - does that mean you are sisters?’’

Our first day was a Sunday and we lay low... in fact some of us did not get dressed till about 5pm, so I guess we are feeling pretty at home already!

Visiting four schools built by IcFEM was first on our agenda. The children asked us so many questions as we stood at the front of one of the classrooms:

“Are you near the equator?
“Do you know Wayne Rooney?”
“Is Polygamy allowed in Manchester?”

The rest of the week we’ve done a little of everything. Prayed and taken rice parcels, visited the local market, where we met those on the Corel loan scheme, and gone into the community. We didn’t know what ‘going into the community meant’. For us, it meant that two mins before we rolled up at a mud hut Sarah informed us that we should prepare something to preach.. (thanks for the warning!) We all shuffled through our bibles in a bit of a panic. Jo Riley rose to the challenge and was the muzungu preacher for the day speaking on god’s promise of hope. They all listened attentively and we prayed for 20 of them who came forward for prayer. Only later was it explained to us that they were standing to make a commitment!

We've arrived!!

27th March 2009.
So we have arrived in a whirl wind but, we’re here and have made the most of our journey…

As we are waiting in Nairobi for Jo no.3 to arrive, before we make our final journey all together, we thought it would be only right to see what this city holds..
So this morning we hit the town and it’s been quite a day.

During our short stay in Nairobi we've:

visited an elephant orphanage: very cute. We saw rhinos, and water hogs, tortoises, as well as the little orphan elephants.

sat in 29 degrees, with an ice-cream, soaking up the sun.

kissed a giraffe ( literally!)

designed and had made our own jewellery

ate a pizza.

shopped, haggled and lost!

hit Nairobi market where we were mobbed.

And now, sitting on our beds sipping mint tea we could feel a little bit guilty from the fact that we came here to do 3 months of honest hard graft.. when so far it’s not been too strenuous! Today has been quite different to our other experiences of Kenya, so it’s good to see more, all we’d seen before was Kimilili. Here there seems more wealth, and we guess more tourism, it’s certainly more westernised yet still keeps its Kenyan charm.

On our luxurious ride of the city we saw some amazing views from the top of the hill, the mixture of green trees and big building, across the landscape. If you half closed your eyes you could possibly see miles of brown fields, but on a closer look we realised that the brown that stretched across the landscape were thousands of sheets of rusty iron, or roofs as they are better know to the slum people that live underneath them. It really was quite shocking to see people in poverty in such masses, and within this rising city. Apparently it was a million at last count that live in Africa’s biggest slum. Despite this Nairobi has left a really good impression on us and there would still be lots more to do if we had the time.

So as we sign off for today Jo Finlay would like the world to know that giraffes have very long, strong, grey tongues that are very prickly to kiss!