Jambo!
Hope you are all well and enjoying whatever/wherever you are over the summer. This is just a quick update on my first week in Kenya.
The journey started with a 2 day delay in Johannesburg due to a stomach bug (quite ironic since I have not been sick in Kenya yet at all). When the day finally came to depart, my flight to Kenya was delayed and I ended up arriving at the camp site at 1am. Everyone was asleep, so I awoke in the morning to a room full of strangers. To say the least it was bizarre! I met all the other volunteers over breakfast and by now we are all great friends. The people are cool, even though it is quite intense being on top of each other 24/7, we all get on really well. The majority is British, and unavoidably, my accent has adopted a slight English twang. The managers and staff at the camp are unreal and cater to every whim we have.
Our day at Camp Kenya, which is in a tiny village called Muhaka, begins with work from 9-12. Most days I have been teaching at the local school, while others do projects such as building more classrooms. Another girl, Lily, and I have covered subjects as diverse at the different types of teeth in the human body to English plurals and subtraction. Everything is taught in English and the children are surprisingly good. We try to make the lessons as fun as possible, teaching them songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and having them teach us Swahili songs like Jambo Jambo. The little children in the village are so friendly. Everyday they run up to us and we carry them on our hips while we are walking. They love playing with my glasses and touching my skin - I think they find white people fascinating. In the afternoon, we usually work from 2-4 on a project in the village. At the moment, we are planting a vegetable patch in the school so that the children will be able to learn how to grow fresh foods and be self-sufficient. So far, I have been hoeing soil to flatten out the land. The work is grueling, especially in the African sun. To be honest, I am constantly filthy, covered in a mixture of sunscreen, insect repellent and soil. The showers are only cold water, which sometimes runs out when the electricity goes, and even after showering, I still have to walk back to the rooms through dusty sand. My feet are never ever clean!
One afternoon, we did a cultural tour of Muhaka. We visited a bush doctor and he performed an exorcism on a psycho lady. It was one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed. We also tasted coconut wine, which is produced by the village. A 60 year-old man, nicknamed 'Monkey man' climbs all the way to the top of a coconut tree with a jar and cut the branches to release the sap, which is the wine. We all had a taste, and it is severely repulsive!
Evenings and nights involve playing cards, poker, pool (on a dilapidated table which is balanced on books), reading, dinner and major gossip sessions about our lives at home. The whole environment feels very much like school camp. The bedrooms are dark, filled with cobwebs and sleep eight people. My mattress and pillow are like rocks and I am cocooned in a mosquito net. There are no couches or cushions or seating with backs anywhere in the camp site. I suppose it adds to the whole experience, and is making me appreciate my creature comforts at home! We all help washing the dishes and wash our own clothes in buckets. The food is actually very good, but by now the meals are rotating and I know I will be craving sushi soon!
It's the weekend now and I am going snorkeling today which should be beautiful. We go to beach on Saturdays and Sundays, tanning on the whitest sands I have ever seen, swimming in the warmest waters and chilling at the tourist bar, Forty Thieves, which is the pinnacle of kitsch. I still love it though! Tonight I will be going to the only nightclub in the area, Shakatak, which reputedly is the funniest place on earth. I cannot wait : )
Coming up I will be going on safari, visiting an elephant sanctuary, having my birthday and working at an orphanage. I can only access internet on the weekends at the beach so look out for my update next weekend and please send me messages about where you are and what you are doing.
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