Hello, hope you're well. Here's the next installment!
So we spent two lovely relaxing weeks in Mombasa - sunshine, beaches and shopping. Also made a few potential contacts for SCI if it chooses to branch out there, as well as some lovely new friends! We had one funny evening when we were directed to a good local seafood restaurant, but were unprepared for the high prices - luckily we had brought much more money than we thought we needed, but even then we were 4 shillings short! And that was just having a starter and pudding!
Last Wednesday we boarded the bus again and made our way back to our 'HQ', Nairobi. The bus journey ended up being 10 hours long which was rather exhausting, but we eventually made it and were greeted by Fred, Isaac and Mike. After one nights' rest at Fred's house (which just feels like home now!) we started at Kibera on the Thursday. Spent loads of time chatting with the girls who had so so many questions on almost all topics you could imagine, from boys to the economy. The KGSA girls are just some of the most lovely girls ever, and we had great fun with them. The school seems to be more like a big family than anything else. All the teachers at KGSA are volunteers and the school runs every day of the week- it's so admirable all that they do and they're such a happy, enthusiatic group. We were told the average staff age is 25!
On the Friday we had the opportunity to take a walk around Kibera, accompanied by 2 of the staff, Jared and Victor. Really interesting to see what it's really like for ourselves, without having to see it through the eyes of the media. What surprised us is that we felt so much safer than we ever thought we would there. Obviously there are many problems and dangers, but walking around with the two guys there was absolutely zero hostility to us; everyone seemed pretty friendly if anything. We also popped into Victor's house and then Jared's house where we ate home grown sugar cane and watched a 4 year episode of Neighbours on the TV! But it's just so different to anything we've exerienced before, walking round the slum. Rubbish, waste and general dirt line the streets and there are filthy ditches of water everywhere. Even so, the smell of home made chips and bbq-ing maize usually fills the air and there seems to be such a strong community spirit, more so than anywhere else we've been.Our maths skills were put to shame on the Saturday when we were sent to help the F1 girls. (GCSE equivalent) They ended up pretty much doing it all themselves; we were only really useful as subjects for ahirdressing! They adore playing with our hair; combing, styling... What really struck us is how positive all the girls are ,no matter of their situation. And they have incredible ambition - we spoke to budding cardiolgists, actresses, economists.. When we joined the F3 girls fro lunch one day they were all hard at work as they ate - in their lunch break! So admirable. And it's so nice chatting to them as many are around our age anyway. Also on Satruday we headed to the Kibera soccer pitch as there were any 5 aside matches taking place, including some games that KGSA were competing in. It must be so difficult to play on the slippy, dusty pitch but they all played so well. We had one dodgy moment when the girls beckonmed us over to see a dance off that some cute young boys were doing - amazing bum wiggling! But after a little while we were pulled away and told to return to the pitch side - apparently some people had been planning to steal from us. Quite a wake up call. We went to Kiki's house on the Saturday night for Chinese and movie which was lovely. On Sunday we had the opportunity to see the SCI teams training in Umoja. Steve, who we're living with now in Umoja, is the main coach. We interviewed all the players and are going to make player profiles for all of them. Lovely group of boys who are obviously so so passionate about football. The only shame is that only one of them said he wanted to play for a Kenyan team - all the others were English or Spanish teams! But it was brilliant to see the charity's work in action.
We're thoroughly enjoying our time so far in Nairobi.
Speak soon Jess and George xxxxx
Monday, 29 June 2009
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Goodbye Mumias - Hello Mombasa
The final week at Mumias was spent doing the same sort of thing - feeding centre, coaching and - when there was power - computer data input. The coaching was great fun and we took sometime to explain the rules and draw out a pitch - thinking about sending out some England matches on DVD to them so they can see it in action. Also did some defending with the girls and they took to it like fish to water - there's so much talent there!
One evening we had dinner with the mayor, which was very nice. It was quite funny when the waiter came to take our orders"What would you like to order?""What is there?""Chicken and rice""umm...errr...chicken and rice please!" Brilliant :]The Mayor is a really nice guy who told us how he enjoyed England, singing Alan's praises for his hosting skills!
On our last day we had little tour around the local villages and met some of the people that SAIPEH are helping. We went around with 2 other people from the UK who work for a charity called The Chello Foundation; they do scholarships for children and were inquiring how they might help work in unison with SAIPEH. Linet cooked us all our favourite foods for our leaving meal...we mean ALL our favourite foods. There were "Irish potatoes" (deep-fried whole spuds), chipati, pilau and chicken. Yes people, we are getting fat. We said our goodbyes (and we shall really miss the new friends we've made) and got on our coach for a thrilling 8 hour journey to Nairobi.
Fred met us at the station and we went back to his to rest until the next evening when we would get another coach to Mombasa. The journey took a lot longer than anticipated because the coach kept running to a standstill, also the driver was some sort of maniacal, raging idiot. Anyway, it was relatively painfree and we arrived bright and early at 6.30am, having left at 9pm! We were met by a member of the Mombasa police force, as Justin kindly asked a friend for a favour, and taken to our hostel...Oh here the story begins!
It was much further out than we thought and to get to the beach you had to go through a whole rural village of mud huts...then when we arrived a loud sign proclaimed "closed until 10th July"!!!! Oh dear. The owner was around though and said we could stay if we wanted, they were just revamping and the bar wasn't open. Needless to say we were slightly downcast at our hopes of a few weeks relaxing. The beach was rocky and dirty and the area was secluded. I'm sure it's lovely in high season but right now we wanted to meet some new young people and read on a white, sandy beach. Thus, we called in our knight in shining armour, Fred, and asked whether he knew of any other places or had any friends that would. He rose to the challenge immediately and a friend of his, and a member of SCI - Samuel - trekked his way to the hostel and picked us up. We really had no words to thank him, and couldn't begin to explain how relived we were. He took us to another friends house, Esther, where we were so warmly greeted we wanted to cry. We had a bed (after 48 hours of no sleep), food (after 24 without food), and hope for the next day (after 12 of despair).
The next day Esther’s niece, Charity, took us for a walk along the beach whilst we waited to hear news of any potential places. Amazingly our host came through with a place that would be about the same as the previous hostel, but with lots more. We expected a shabby room and a hole in the ground but got a bedroom, kitchen, living room, balcony and bathroom with running water! We are currently loving Mombasa and everyday making new contacts and friends. The beach is lovely. The food is good. Not much else to ask for really. The area has a few SOS schools which we're going to have a look at in the next few weeks, just to check out whether there is anything that SCI can offer that they don't have. After all this place is so happy I'm sure a bit of sport and support would be greatly received. So, so far so good. Mombasa is such a lovely place. We've also been given more Kenyan names! Jess is Bwibo Sabasaba - which means one who was first seduced by a white man(!) and George's is Bwibo Oronda - which means beautiful one with big legs(!!) ha-ha charming! At least that's what we were told they meant!!
Any ho, can't wait to see you all
Kwaheri
One evening we had dinner with the mayor, which was very nice. It was quite funny when the waiter came to take our orders"What would you like to order?""What is there?""Chicken and rice""umm...errr...chicken and rice please!" Brilliant :]The Mayor is a really nice guy who told us how he enjoyed England, singing Alan's praises for his hosting skills!
On our last day we had little tour around the local villages and met some of the people that SAIPEH are helping. We went around with 2 other people from the UK who work for a charity called The Chello Foundation; they do scholarships for children and were inquiring how they might help work in unison with SAIPEH. Linet cooked us all our favourite foods for our leaving meal...we mean ALL our favourite foods. There were "Irish potatoes" (deep-fried whole spuds), chipati, pilau and chicken. Yes people, we are getting fat. We said our goodbyes (and we shall really miss the new friends we've made) and got on our coach for a thrilling 8 hour journey to Nairobi.
Fred met us at the station and we went back to his to rest until the next evening when we would get another coach to Mombasa. The journey took a lot longer than anticipated because the coach kept running to a standstill, also the driver was some sort of maniacal, raging idiot. Anyway, it was relatively painfree and we arrived bright and early at 6.30am, having left at 9pm! We were met by a member of the Mombasa police force, as Justin kindly asked a friend for a favour, and taken to our hostel...Oh here the story begins!
It was much further out than we thought and to get to the beach you had to go through a whole rural village of mud huts...then when we arrived a loud sign proclaimed "closed until 10th July"!!!! Oh dear. The owner was around though and said we could stay if we wanted, they were just revamping and the bar wasn't open. Needless to say we were slightly downcast at our hopes of a few weeks relaxing. The beach was rocky and dirty and the area was secluded. I'm sure it's lovely in high season but right now we wanted to meet some new young people and read on a white, sandy beach. Thus, we called in our knight in shining armour, Fred, and asked whether he knew of any other places or had any friends that would. He rose to the challenge immediately and a friend of his, and a member of SCI - Samuel - trekked his way to the hostel and picked us up. We really had no words to thank him, and couldn't begin to explain how relived we were. He took us to another friends house, Esther, where we were so warmly greeted we wanted to cry. We had a bed (after 48 hours of no sleep), food (after 24 without food), and hope for the next day (after 12 of despair).
The next day Esther’s niece, Charity, took us for a walk along the beach whilst we waited to hear news of any potential places. Amazingly our host came through with a place that would be about the same as the previous hostel, but with lots more. We expected a shabby room and a hole in the ground but got a bedroom, kitchen, living room, balcony and bathroom with running water! We are currently loving Mombasa and everyday making new contacts and friends. The beach is lovely. The food is good. Not much else to ask for really. The area has a few SOS schools which we're going to have a look at in the next few weeks, just to check out whether there is anything that SCI can offer that they don't have. After all this place is so happy I'm sure a bit of sport and support would be greatly received. So, so far so good. Mombasa is such a lovely place. We've also been given more Kenyan names! Jess is Bwibo Sabasaba - which means one who was first seduced by a white man(!) and George's is Bwibo Oronda - which means beautiful one with big legs(!!) ha-ha charming! At least that's what we were told they meant!!
Any ho, can't wait to see you all
Kwaheri
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)