Mt Kasigau climb and more in Kenya

COUNTRY: Kenya
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Community & Conservation
WRITTEN BY: Aram Geleris

Jambo once again! As always the past two weeks have been full of exciting new experiences, but also comforting familiarity. After finishing our Mt Kasigau climb, we spent our final week at Tsavo mainly working at Sasenyi Primary School as well as clearing the roads around the sanctuary, making it easier and safer for rangers to get around.

Our work at Sasenyi was by far the most rewarding, however, and at the end of our time it was difficult to say goodbye, both to the kids who were so enthusiastic about our being there, and the wonderful principal of the school, John, an amazing man who obviously gave his all to the school.

As part of our farewell, Ryan and Sam collectively donated several boxes of exercise books, pencils and pens, unknown to us, these gifts came just in time, as the school was just leading into exam season and the supplies were much needed.

Another generous donation was a container of female sanitary items courtesy of Emma Wilkinson.

Those supplies will go a long way for a lot of the young women at Sasenyi, and they were extremely grateful. I am also proud to say that thanks to the generous donations that we received whilst fundraising, James, Bri and myself were able to purchase a 10,000L water tank for the school, and while it hadn’t been bought physically, Peter assures us that it will be a huge asset to the school. So again a massive thank you to everyone that made that possible. On our last day we were treated to a beautiful farewell ceremony, where we handed over the gifts. The school then sang to us, and in return we then sang to them one of the few songs we all knew, One Thing by One Direction, we like to think it was a hit, although they may have simply been laughing at our improvised dancing…

One last thing that we did was spend a day at the Imani Womens Community Camp, where we spent the first half of the day painting a local classroom, and the afternoon we were taught how to make bracelets by the local women. It was a fun end to a wonderful day.

As our time in Tsavo drew to a close there was certainly an air of sadness around the camp. It had been an emotionally draining week and a bit, we had said goodbye to so many friends, first to those who were leaving permanently, and then to another nine who were spending a week on a Masaai Mara Adventure, although we will see them again soon. However, breaking through the gloom was a bright ray of sunshine. “We’re going home guys!” was the phrase often heard in the final few days. Home is of course Muhaka Camp, our first camp and most beloved of all places in Kenya. After leaving the dust and elephants of Tsavo, we returned to the humidity and mosquitoes of Muhaka… KEEP TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER OF THIS EPIC JOURNEY

Bye for now

Aram Geleris