Kenyan gappers arrive home from safari

COUNTRY: Kenya
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Community & Conservation
WRITTEN BY: Nick McArdle

And I'm back.

All of a sudden our volunteer group’s time amongst the snickering, pestering monkeys comes to a short halt as we venture off to a new camp, Makongeni.

Arriving within half an hour, unpacking our dirty clothes and pulling up stumps, all of the volunteers soon gathered that Camp Muhaka was in fact our home away from home. The formidable prospect of delving into a limbo of unhappiness crossed our minds. Yet soon enough a homely atmosphere surfaced when the rains prevailed and we were caught bickering about the week ahead. Unfortunately, the short excitement towards the rain muffled and became repetitive and monotonous, preventing much of our planned volunteer project work for the week.

When the rain wasn't dampening the mood, we were able to muster together and pump out some solid volunteer work in the short stint of the sun. We worked on the mangroves to secure a fish catchment for the local sellers. This soon developed into a heated battle, using the dark sluggish mud as ammunition.

Amusing photos shall surface eventually.

As well as building the catchment walls, the volunteer group were ordered to search deep mangroves for seeds to plant in open areas. Inevitably, an animated Jock, was inspired by the interesting terrain to enforce a mini guerrilla warfare. Girls vs guys.

There will be no need to state the winner. I think we both know who won that battle.

The next couple of days we completed laborious endeavours on the local school near Camp Makongeni. It was very rewarding grassing around the school whilst the children sang English songs inside.

In no time, the majority of the group were heading on their way to the lovely island off Tanzania, Zanzibar. Despite a few border hiccups, which will always be inevitable at an African crossing, the group of 20 odd arrived safely at the hostel '1001 Nights'. Eventually, the political unrest occurring within the island became too dangerous for a bunch of Anglo-Saxon volunteer tourists and a change of location was most certainly necessary. The next resort was incredibly safe. We splashed out and in return received a beautiful location on the beach with secure boundaries.

Our short break/holiday was dragging on and we were eager to get back home and start sweating profusely.

Home sweet home and we began working on a half built concrete house across the road from Muhaka. We were required to fill up hundreds of bottles to use as stabilisers/bricks for the walls. Monotonous, but a necessary step to the completion of the building. This week flew past incredibly quick and eventually we found ourselves finally working on our most desired location, the nasty never ending grey water pit. We continued our development after the heavy water damage and enjoyed a solid week of work fixing it up.

As we come closer to the end of the trip, it becomes more and more apparent that the feebleness of Kenya doesn't affect the mentality of the locals. The families don't know life otherwise and therefore live blissfully, gaining tremendous satisfaction receiving such petite aid in the scheme of care and welfare. Although we are assisting them physically with various projects, it's nice to know the mere fact we are here, heightens the spirit, confidence and disposition of those we encounter.

Nick McArdle