The work at the Islamic school progressed rapidly as we have all become very competent cement-making and brick-laying, and on Friday we put up the roof of one of the structures. Nevertheless it was hard work transporting the bricks, wheelbarrows, tools and cement from the camp to the school everyday, especially under the fierce heat. Most of us have tanned quite a lot since our arrival and we all have thickly calloused hands: the local guys joke that we are slowly becoming African. On Saturday we spent our last day at the beach at Forty Thieves and ate as many burgers and beef medallions as we could afford. The next day we awoke early and hit the road to Tsavo National Park.
Four and a half hours later (Arabella and Amy sang the whole way) we arrived at camp, located in the middle of the wilderness, far from any of the supermarkets or internet cafes we had enjoyed in Muhaka. On our first drive outside the camp we saw an enormous group of baboons, meerkats, mongooses, gazelles, elephants, warthogs, giraffes and my favorite, dik diks, a kind of minature gazelle. On Tuesday we visited the Imani women's group and worked on the Mama's kitchen which Belle raised money to fund. A spokesperson from the group told us about the difficulties many girls face growing up in rural Kenya. It is common practice for a family to arrange their daughter's marriage to middle-aged husbands in return for four or five cows - this can happen before they turn twelve. The 'wife' will never go to school or earn a wage, effectively becoming a slave in a new family.
The next day we woke at 5.30am before sunrise and set off for our Tsavo East Safari. The park was packed with wildlife: baboons, waterbucks, gerenuks, dik diks, gazelles, meerkats, zebras, buffalo, giraffes, elephants, vultures and... a female lion! The animals in the park are much more accustomed to the sound of vehicles so every time we were able to get much closer to the animals than ever before. The lion was spectacular but my favorite sight came right at the end, only fifty metres from the gate where we saw a tiny baby elephant, only a few weeks old, stumbling around after its mother.
The next two days were spent working at the local primary school building a new classroom. At the moment in Kenya the government is meant to provide each school with as many teachers as there are functional classrooms, and it was clear to us that the school desperately needs more staff. For most of the day classes of 60 or more students sit unsupervised, eager to learn but unable to work through their aged textbooks without assistance. For the first time we were given the opportunity to do some teaching for ourselves. This was definitely the most fulfilling work I've done in Kenya: the classrooms are overcrowded and poorly equipped but the kids literally begged us to come in and teach them.
We taught English and Maths to the year twos and the next day we helped the senior students study for their upcoming exams in maths and English. We helped the year sevens with their letters to their pen pals in England. Reading some of these letters was a real insight into the everyday life of the students: many were orphans living with relatives or were looked after by the Imani women's group and others had to commute nearly 10km by foot to get to school. In a stuffy classroom where there are only a couple erasers in a class of 70, and rarely any assistance from teachers, the children's motivation to work was inspirational.
On the weekend we climbed Mount Kasigau, an experience which Megan summed up with the words 'it was bloody hard!' It was an amazing walk through the rainforest and great training for the six of us who plan to tackle Mount Kilimanjaro in 5 days!
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