Mwaluganje Elephant Sactuary + week 2 for Kenya Gappers

In our second week our work groups switched projects, before quickly switching back after we realised we had become quite attached to our own projects and wanted to see them through until the end! Our whole group has an impressive work ethic but we also know how to enjoy our breaks: whether it's a relaxed chat, a lesson in Swahili, sampling each other's music (and watching our supervisor Yaya show off his dance moves to Rihanna, of course) or an all out mud fight! We've also begun to play football matches against local teams. So far team Muhaka (that's us!) have earned a fearsome reputation, winning 2-0 on Tuesday and then 3-1 on Friday, with a little help from the camps international staff including Cassim, our fearless goalie. On Friday night we had a well earned feast at a restaurant called Nomads, where we had by far the biggest table in the restaurant and by far the biggest servings from the mouth-watering Spanish buffet. Later that night we enjoyed a Tuska beer at the Masai bar as we watched a local performer go through an amazing array of acrobatics and magic tricks, from tight-rope walking to juggling a bottle with a knife sticking from his mouth. The next morning we were up early on the road to the vibrant city of Mombasa. After two weeks in the relaxed village environment, it was an experience to walk through bustling streets, sampling as many restaurants and shops as we could afford! The highlight was the zoo, where we saw tortoises, monkeys, snakes, hippos... and even fed giraffes!
The next week was spent in Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary. The new campsite was situated on a hill within the park and each morning we awoke to breath-taking views of the valley and, often enough, herds of wild African elephants! Each day we were assigned a new task to complete, including tree planting, building a mud hut, road maintenance, making paper out of elephant dung, building chimneys for the local school's new kitchen and demolishing the old one (which was a major highlight for all the boys). After the new kitchen was ready, the whole school gathered around and we were honoured to partake in the opening ceremony where we began making the first meal for the school.
That was my favorite day so far in Kenya, and we left the sanctuary with very high spirits! Seeing such a large project come to fruition like that made me realise that every small contribution we make to each of the projects here count so much, especially when you consider that the kitchen we finished had been a project for roughly four hundred people before us. As I write this we have just returned from snorkeling, back in Muhaka, on the pristine reef at Diani Beach. Those who are only staying for one month are coming to the end of their stay with us and though we will all be sad to see them go, the rest of us are very happy to have two more months in Kenya!