Kenya, where 'Hakuna Matata' is the way of life

After an early arrival at Sydney Airport, the group was off on our first of three flights. After three long flights and several longer stopovers, we arrived in Kenya the following day. As we hopped off the bus that picked us up from Mombasa Airport, we wandered towards the dining hall where we met the additional members of our group, with people from Britain, Holland, New Zealand, the US and Australia. We soon met the Camp Manager, Eustace, who gave us a warm welcome. He then gave us a tour of the camp as well as a tour of where we would be doing our projects along with our project managers, Yaya and Sampuli. After a delicious dinner, we were given a talk by Eustace reinforcing the importance of what we are doing here, and how much groups like us contribute to the Muhaka community.

The next day we began project work, with the group finishing off a Trust house that was started last year. This primarily consisted of gathering sand and water, then combining them with cement, and then “slappy slappy“ which consists of throwing globs of cement at the wall and then smoothing it over with trowels. After a couple of hours, people began to become strangely inaccurate with their throwing, oftentimes hitting others instead of the walls.

This led to bonding within the group, including those from outside Australia, although this has certainly had consequences. Several fights have broken out between the British and Australians on how words are pronounced or what things mean (they call a meat patty a burger, and singlets vests…) Tension has broken out over intercontinental pool games between Europe and Australia (Score is currently tied at 9 games a piece) It has also been enjoyable discovering the more flamboyant aspects of different people’s personalities. Whether you laugh, scream, and even on one occasion, dress like a member of the opposite sex (Joe Sibbald, the personification of a British gentleman) or if you ask a certain blog writer to marry you and name your children in advance (Sophie Lewis, a lady of obvious class and culture), or maybe you’re just naturally talented and can step on a nail after only three days of work (Shane Teale, who’s nickname Rusty came quickly after a quick trip to the clinic).

It was unanimously decided that the weekends were a much needed break after a week of intensive manual labour, hence we went on our first night out and danced to the local tunes. The following week we were divided into two groups with one finishing the Trust House before moving onto making finishing touches to a grey water system that will utilise all waste water from the camp in order to provide water for the local farms instead of relying on the erratic African rainfall. The other group began work on a traditional house for an elderly man who was relying on others in the village for shelter.

Since then we have had another great weekend at the beach which included an evening beach barbecue.

After finishing the grey water system, we have begun work on an emergency ward at the local dispensary clinic comprising of two toilets and two emergency wards, one for gents and one for ladies. The groups are in positive states of minds, having been able to do project work that we can tell is having an immediate effect on this community and this is reflected in the people that we have spoken to and their attitudes towards us.

This is not, however, apparent when we play with them in soccer and volleyball where it appears that no amount of goodwill and compassion is any sort of substitute for skill and ability. After managing a close draw and narrow win (with the help of a few locals) Mzungu F.C (“white person”) was given a stern lesson in reality with a 5-0 defeat to the local secondary school with several of our players also being injured in the process. Joe, naturally being the most fragile, took a painful blow to the ankle and was sidelined for a few days following. That said, the volleyball team has seen far more success, going undefeated now for three games. It’s moments like that, that make coming to Kenya all the more worthwhile.

It is interesting also to see how people’s attitudes to things around have changed over the past two weeks as everyone has settled into the rhythm of Africa and the increasing idea of Hakuna Matata (no worries) has spread throughout the group. Already we grow less and less surprised when we see monkeys frolic not five metres from our dinner tables, we flinch less from the cold water showers and we swear less when the roosters wake us up at 6am.

The entire group has done their best to totally immerse themselves into the Kenyan culture that we have plunged ourselves into. It is not at all uncommon to simply pick up a mango that has fallen onto the ground and eat it there and then. Again, there is this underlying idea of Hakuna Matata. Dinner is going to be half an hour late? Hakuna Matata. Power’s out? Hakuna Matata. A green tree snake drops onto your table? Well, the British boys thought that was plenty of Matata, if only their girlish squeals were anything to go by.

However, all that being said, things run very smoothly here at Camp Muhaka and everyone is enjoying themselves immensely. Everywhere we go we hear the cheerful shouts of “Jambo!” (Hi there!) and “Karibu Kenya” (Welcome to Kenya). It is so comforting to know that we are so appreciated and it makes getting up early every morning and working so hard every day just that much more worth it. I feel I speak for everyone here when I say that I am in a truly beautiful country and enjoying every moment more than the last.