August 1, 2009
Firstly, thanks to everyone for your birthday messages, phone calls, emails, etc. They were all much appreciated being so far away.
I spent my birthday weekend on Safari to the Masai Mara, a large wildlife reserve in the south west corner of Kenya sharing a border with Tanzania and joining the Serengeti.
Standing on the [...]
July 21, 2009
This weekend I headed to Nairobi once again. I was in the company of Nicholas, the IT teacher at Mang’u Youth Polytechnic, who I’ve been working with during my days. The entry begins after leaving Mang’u, passing through Thika and heading to Nairobi in the company of Nick and another teacher, Sammy.
We arrived [...]
It’s around 10:30pm and I’m told if we don’t get the water now by 4am it will be gone as others come in the early morning for their own supplies. This water, filled with leaves and debris is used for washing clothes, utensils and ourselves, for drinking there is a dwindling supply of rain water stored at the house.
It’s not uncommon to be trailed by ten to twenty school children for most of the way, some running to catch up to the white man striding along. The walk is mostly spent trying to interact on some level
In general goat meat tasted a lot like pork and the goat sausage wasn’t so bad either. It was when I reached the small intestine thinks turned for the worse. It started of very sweet by quickly became a chewy bitter disgrace on my tongue. I made a casual exit for the toilet
The boys bought a mattress, some outdoor chairs, a whole heap of exercise books, chalk and some flour for the orphanage. Getting it back to Mang’u was an exercise with Wambui’s father, James, original telling us he’d come a pick us up. Two hours later we were still standing outside the supermarket and it was becoming obvious he wasn’t coming.
On Sunday I was invited by Lynna to go on a day safari to Nairobi National Park along with the family she’d been staying with. It’s a large open plain zoo arrangement not to far from Nairobi itself (in fact you can see the city from some parts). Lynna had hired a nine seater mini [...]
(NOTE: It’s probably better to start with Part One below this post.)
Walking to and from town I must say hello or habari? (how are you? usually answered with nzuri – fine) 30 to 40 times. People, especially children, will stare until I great them and then they will smile and be on their way. Some [...]
Today marks the end of my first week in Kenya. The orphanage of Familia Mojo is on the main road about have way between the village and the farm. It houses 27 children from two and a half to 15 years old along with three staff who live with the children.
This is just a quick one. I have access to a computer so I can draft entries a bit better and not have to write on the fly in the cafe.
I have spent a great deal of time at Familia Moja and am slowly learning the way of life for an orphaned child in Kenya.
In [...]
