Its Friday lunch time and today is a Public Holiday. I feel a bit under the weather. I feel as if I have tonsillitis, a headache and the fact that it sounds like I have an army of people on my door step praying, while I’m trying to sleep doesn’t seem to help the situation very much either. Matthew has gone off on a day trip somewhere so I’m using my time wisely to try and recover for the afternoon. After lunch I’m supposed to be meeting Anthony to go with him to see his group perform but I don’t really feel up for it. I'm going to see how I feel after lunch and if I’m still not in the mood I’ll call him and let him know.
The week got off to a slow but productive start. Monday we began our project, working on the Analysis part for the documentation we had to prepare. Using a guideline to make sure we didn’t miss anything we had to account for, we wrote up exactly what the programme was about and in what ways we were going to achieve donations for child sponsorships. We cracked on with this all morning, working right up to lunch, barely stopping to talk to others who wanted our attention. After lunch we were straight back to it again and got a considerable way through, leading to an even more productive afternoon.
Over the weekend Matthew had gone out and bought me a bike. I mentioned the idea to him previously because he has a bike himself, but never expected for him to go out and buy one without telling me. It was cool though, I mean I would have probably put off buying one so the fact he just did it moved things on a little quicker. I got to ride this to and from the Office. He had taken it to the Fundi to get properly checked over before I rode it, because they can often break or become faulty in the first week of using them.
In the evening Julius, one of the guys from the Mission came round for evening devotion. Today we were just going to be sat around talking about ourselves. He is a good man is Julius and it was nice of him to take time out and come round to sit with us. He lives quite close so it didn’t take him long to get to us and he spent about an hour and a half with us. By this time we didn’t know where the evening had gone to. That was another day gone by but luckily for the project side of things, we had a lot to show for it.
Tuesday morning we decided we were going to sit down and blitz the first part of our project, trying to finish the documentation. With a confident start yesterday we knew we could get the basics over and done with quite soon. We made flow diagrams and wrote down a few ideas for promotion and continued this till lunch.
John has been taking packed lunches for a few days now so lunch was now just provided for me and Matthew. The great thing about this was that they still put out the same amount as they would usually serve for three people. We love it. We ate it all up and were still hungry. We even debated putting Peanut butter on the remaining skin from our Mango for desert. After lunch we went into town on our bikes to buy some biscuits. We initially thought bananas, but then we realised they can be hard to carry when riding a bike, so we settled for the less healthy option. Back at the office we munched the biscuits down while we got on with the project. Suddenly the power went so had no Internet access and everything at the offices came to a stand still. Luckily for me, I had my laptop and all my work was saved and the battery was working great. We continued on with things, however having to change things slightly because of there being no Internet. Some Americans who are working for the charity Rescue Steps came to the Cyber Centre but obviously with no power their trip was useless. They hung around for a while spitting out their American slang while we continued to discuss our project.
After a while my battery began to die so we couldn’t go any further with things. We also needed to access something over email so we were kind of backed into a corner with the whole process. We gave up and decided to go for a short bike ride before evening dinner. Just as we unlocked and got on our bikes the power came back on and because it was getting late on anyway, we decided to still go for the ride to Dreamland and back.
We set off back to the guesthouse to drop off my laptop first and then set off to Dreamland for the short ride. On the way students were walking home from school. This was the first proper ride I had been on in a while and not being used to a bike, my bum instantly started hurting from the hard seat and my hands sore from the grips on the handle bars. Not only that but some of the journey was uphill and even though it wasn’t a ridiculous slant, it was still a climb and exhausting. Along the side of that I had flies shooting towards my face and eyes and all these students saying hello to me wanting replies. I couldn’t win. I got to Dreamland school and was shattered. We stayed watching some children prepare a dance routine for an event for about 4 minutes then set off again back for dinner.
I got back in once piece but was slightly tired, however not as bad as I imagined. I guess the down hill stretches on the way back must have been a life saver. After dinner we didn’t have any devotion so we watched a movie. Coach Carter was our choice and even though I have seen this before, it was cool to recap on it.
“Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
Wednesday Matthew went to El Doret to get his hair cut. I was originally going to go with him but I knew I would have other opportunities to see the place so I could take a trip out there when I was less tired. I woke for breakfast but then once Id finished it I went back to my room. This morning, rather than going to the office I was going to stay in my room and complete some work there. I laid down and had an hour or so nap before waking up and switching on the laptop.
After lunch I went for a short ride as I still had a little time to spare before I went on to the office. I took the trip to Dreamland almost, turning back before I got the steep section. I went to the office and unlocked it with the keys Matthew had lent me. I worked in there for a while until Matthew arrived back with shorter hair and some new jeans.
Matthew said he fancied watching another DVD so we decided we would finish watching Shawshank Redemption again on the laptop. I knew what was going to be said next as Dean from work knows the script off by heart, so instantly I knew when the “I hear you’re a man who can get things” parts were coming in. We watched this late into the evening and I could feel that I was lacking sleep and needed all the rest I could get.
Thursday had arrived and I didn’t even realise how special this day was. You know the theory about busses back home, the fact that you wait for one and none come, then they all come at once? Well that’s basically what happened this week. We waited all week for things to happen and they decided to all happen at the back end of it.At 8.30am we were at the offices and the power decided to die on us again. I don’t know why but my laptop wasn’t charged so it wouldn’t switch on, and I wonder if I hadn’t turned it off from the night before and it had drained whilst in my bag. So we couldn’t get on with things so we had to find something else to do with our time. Matthews’ bike needed fixing as his chain was bust and his mud guard had snapped. We took it to the Fundi where he used his special skills to somehow repair it and still make it look as good. We left him to it and went to check out the market as today was Thursday and that meant Market Day.
We went to the cattle market, the clothing market and even got to see and smell the fish market with the privilege of walking through it and inhaling all the fishy odours. We scouted round here for an hour just basically getting the feel for a traditional African market and seeing what Kenya had to offer. The Cows and Bulls were in their pens for customers to view and situated by the side of the roads were people selling all kinds of things ranging from vegetables to second hand shoes. I met the second drunk of my trip so far and we exchanged the touching of knuckles as we tried to pass by him as quickly as possible. We went back to claim Matthews bike which was now fixed and went back to the office.
The power still wasn’t back on and there was nothing we could do. We went to the guesthouse hoping for an early lunch. We played some games of Uno, a card game where you have to match the colours or numbers, with Rose and Mark and I think I won about 3 games. So after lunch we sat in the lounge and drew up some designs in my sketch pad. Well that’s what we planned to do but we were real tired so we had a little kip on the couches in the lounge. I went to my room because I wasn’t comfortable, but when I got there I realised I had stripped my bed in the morning ready for the blankets to be cleaned. So I laid on my bed occasionally feeling bit cold. At this time I starting coming down with this headache I’ve now got. I think I fell asleep for maybe an hour on and off, but was woken by the sound of voices. After chilling for a bit I decided to rise from my room and see what was going down with Matthew and Dennis. I went to their Simba, which is the African name for where they stayed, where we listened to some music before dinner. The power still wasn’t back on but luckily the cooker was gas heated so we had a nice meaty dinner to guzzle down.
After 6 it starts getting dark here and soon it was pitch black. We had to use our torches to move round and we had to travel from Matthews’ room all the way over to the guesthouse lounge in the pouring rain. We were then informed the power should be back on in around 35 minutes but as it had now started to rain and was as heavy as always, we found this very doubtful. To our surprise the power did return but only to go out again when the thunder and lightening started.
Now at the guesthouse we had quite a lot of visitors from a local church, who have rented out the conference hall for a three day prayer and fasting session. Bearing in mind because I am staying here for what is interpreted as a long period of time, I have the pleasure of staying in a room that is not in the main building of the guesthouse. So if you like I have my own little crib separate to the main ones in the compound. My room is situated to side of this conference hall and it seems like the group that have rented the building are having a 3 day “as-loud-as-you-can” praying competition.
They all have the greatest intentions at heart and I admire how dedicated and under the influence they are. All I could hear was the sound of repetitive voices and someone using the room next door to go to the bathroom. So this went on to late into Thursday night and stopped at around midnight. I remember waking up to silence and thinking what a relief. Then I remember waking again after around 2.30am to the sound of loud voices and that’s when I began to think they were all camping outside my door.My alarm woke up at 7am this morning, where it is now Friday the 1st of June. I still had my banging headache and was really wishing it would have disappeared during my sleep the night before. I began to get ready for breakfast and started to clean my teeth. The praying outside was still taking place and quite amusingly I then got a knock on my door. It was John knocking to see if I had woken up as he quite regularly likes to do. I found the fact that he even had to ask pretty funny as he even had to raise his voice himself to speak to me.
So after breakfast at 8am I went back my room where I was going to go back to sleep and try and get rid of this nasty feeling inside me. I got under the covers, put my head on my pillow and guess what, they shut up. How convenient. Wanting to sleep so badly, I put my head down and tried to get there as quickly as possible before the chanting started again. 5 minutes into my attempt it unfortunately started up again, but I had my ear plugs in and maybe because it was during the day, it didn’t seem so loud.
So it’s now Friday afternoon and I didn’t end up going out with Tony after all. Not because I wasn’t feeling any better, because I am a bit, but because he wasn’t back in time as he took a journey out in the morning to Bungoma. Instead I spent most of my afternoon chilling with Dennis, on a bike ride, playing Uno and finish this blog off. I'm just waiting for dinner now and I’m going to wait for a phone call off the folks this evening as I haven’t spoken to them over the phone since I left.
God Bless x
The week got off to a slow but productive start. Monday we began our project, working on the Analysis part for the documentation we had to prepare. Using a guideline to make sure we didn’t miss anything we had to account for, we wrote up exactly what the programme was about and in what ways we were going to achieve donations for child sponsorships. We cracked on with this all morning, working right up to lunch, barely stopping to talk to others who wanted our attention. After lunch we were straight back to it again and got a considerable way through, leading to an even more productive afternoon.
Over the weekend Matthew had gone out and bought me a bike. I mentioned the idea to him previously because he has a bike himself, but never expected for him to go out and buy one without telling me. It was cool though, I mean I would have probably put off buying one so the fact he just did it moved things on a little quicker. I got to ride this to and from the Office. He had taken it to the Fundi to get properly checked over before I rode it, because they can often break or become faulty in the first week of using them.
In the evening Julius, one of the guys from the Mission came round for evening devotion. Today we were just going to be sat around talking about ourselves. He is a good man is Julius and it was nice of him to take time out and come round to sit with us. He lives quite close so it didn’t take him long to get to us and he spent about an hour and a half with us. By this time we didn’t know where the evening had gone to. That was another day gone by but luckily for the project side of things, we had a lot to show for it.
Tuesday morning we decided we were going to sit down and blitz the first part of our project, trying to finish the documentation. With a confident start yesterday we knew we could get the basics over and done with quite soon. We made flow diagrams and wrote down a few ideas for promotion and continued this till lunch.
John has been taking packed lunches for a few days now so lunch was now just provided for me and Matthew. The great thing about this was that they still put out the same amount as they would usually serve for three people. We love it. We ate it all up and were still hungry. We even debated putting Peanut butter on the remaining skin from our Mango for desert. After lunch we went into town on our bikes to buy some biscuits. We initially thought bananas, but then we realised they can be hard to carry when riding a bike, so we settled for the less healthy option. Back at the office we munched the biscuits down while we got on with the project. Suddenly the power went so had no Internet access and everything at the offices came to a stand still. Luckily for me, I had my laptop and all my work was saved and the battery was working great. We continued on with things, however having to change things slightly because of there being no Internet. Some Americans who are working for the charity Rescue Steps came to the Cyber Centre but obviously with no power their trip was useless. They hung around for a while spitting out their American slang while we continued to discuss our project.
After a while my battery began to die so we couldn’t go any further with things. We also needed to access something over email so we were kind of backed into a corner with the whole process. We gave up and decided to go for a short bike ride before evening dinner. Just as we unlocked and got on our bikes the power came back on and because it was getting late on anyway, we decided to still go for the ride to Dreamland and back.
We set off back to the guesthouse to drop off my laptop first and then set off to Dreamland for the short ride. On the way students were walking home from school. This was the first proper ride I had been on in a while and not being used to a bike, my bum instantly started hurting from the hard seat and my hands sore from the grips on the handle bars. Not only that but some of the journey was uphill and even though it wasn’t a ridiculous slant, it was still a climb and exhausting. Along the side of that I had flies shooting towards my face and eyes and all these students saying hello to me wanting replies. I couldn’t win. I got to Dreamland school and was shattered. We stayed watching some children prepare a dance routine for an event for about 4 minutes then set off again back for dinner.
I got back in once piece but was slightly tired, however not as bad as I imagined. I guess the down hill stretches on the way back must have been a life saver. After dinner we didn’t have any devotion so we watched a movie. Coach Carter was our choice and even though I have seen this before, it was cool to recap on it.
“Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
Wednesday Matthew went to El Doret to get his hair cut. I was originally going to go with him but I knew I would have other opportunities to see the place so I could take a trip out there when I was less tired. I woke for breakfast but then once Id finished it I went back to my room. This morning, rather than going to the office I was going to stay in my room and complete some work there. I laid down and had an hour or so nap before waking up and switching on the laptop.
After lunch I went for a short ride as I still had a little time to spare before I went on to the office. I took the trip to Dreamland almost, turning back before I got the steep section. I went to the office and unlocked it with the keys Matthew had lent me. I worked in there for a while until Matthew arrived back with shorter hair and some new jeans.
Matthew said he fancied watching another DVD so we decided we would finish watching Shawshank Redemption again on the laptop. I knew what was going to be said next as Dean from work knows the script off by heart, so instantly I knew when the “I hear you’re a man who can get things” parts were coming in. We watched this late into the evening and I could feel that I was lacking sleep and needed all the rest I could get.
Thursday had arrived and I didn’t even realise how special this day was. You know the theory about busses back home, the fact that you wait for one and none come, then they all come at once? Well that’s basically what happened this week. We waited all week for things to happen and they decided to all happen at the back end of it.At 8.30am we were at the offices and the power decided to die on us again. I don’t know why but my laptop wasn’t charged so it wouldn’t switch on, and I wonder if I hadn’t turned it off from the night before and it had drained whilst in my bag. So we couldn’t get on with things so we had to find something else to do with our time. Matthews’ bike needed fixing as his chain was bust and his mud guard had snapped. We took it to the Fundi where he used his special skills to somehow repair it and still make it look as good. We left him to it and went to check out the market as today was Thursday and that meant Market Day.
We went to the cattle market, the clothing market and even got to see and smell the fish market with the privilege of walking through it and inhaling all the fishy odours. We scouted round here for an hour just basically getting the feel for a traditional African market and seeing what Kenya had to offer. The Cows and Bulls were in their pens for customers to view and situated by the side of the roads were people selling all kinds of things ranging from vegetables to second hand shoes. I met the second drunk of my trip so far and we exchanged the touching of knuckles as we tried to pass by him as quickly as possible. We went back to claim Matthews bike which was now fixed and went back to the office.
The power still wasn’t back on and there was nothing we could do. We went to the guesthouse hoping for an early lunch. We played some games of Uno, a card game where you have to match the colours or numbers, with Rose and Mark and I think I won about 3 games. So after lunch we sat in the lounge and drew up some designs in my sketch pad. Well that’s what we planned to do but we were real tired so we had a little kip on the couches in the lounge. I went to my room because I wasn’t comfortable, but when I got there I realised I had stripped my bed in the morning ready for the blankets to be cleaned. So I laid on my bed occasionally feeling bit cold. At this time I starting coming down with this headache I’ve now got. I think I fell asleep for maybe an hour on and off, but was woken by the sound of voices. After chilling for a bit I decided to rise from my room and see what was going down with Matthew and Dennis. I went to their Simba, which is the African name for where they stayed, where we listened to some music before dinner. The power still wasn’t back on but luckily the cooker was gas heated so we had a nice meaty dinner to guzzle down.
After 6 it starts getting dark here and soon it was pitch black. We had to use our torches to move round and we had to travel from Matthews’ room all the way over to the guesthouse lounge in the pouring rain. We were then informed the power should be back on in around 35 minutes but as it had now started to rain and was as heavy as always, we found this very doubtful. To our surprise the power did return but only to go out again when the thunder and lightening started.
Now at the guesthouse we had quite a lot of visitors from a local church, who have rented out the conference hall for a three day prayer and fasting session. Bearing in mind because I am staying here for what is interpreted as a long period of time, I have the pleasure of staying in a room that is not in the main building of the guesthouse. So if you like I have my own little crib separate to the main ones in the compound. My room is situated to side of this conference hall and it seems like the group that have rented the building are having a 3 day “as-loud-as-you-can” praying competition.
They all have the greatest intentions at heart and I admire how dedicated and under the influence they are. All I could hear was the sound of repetitive voices and someone using the room next door to go to the bathroom. So this went on to late into Thursday night and stopped at around midnight. I remember waking up to silence and thinking what a relief. Then I remember waking again after around 2.30am to the sound of loud voices and that’s when I began to think they were all camping outside my door.My alarm woke up at 7am this morning, where it is now Friday the 1st of June. I still had my banging headache and was really wishing it would have disappeared during my sleep the night before. I began to get ready for breakfast and started to clean my teeth. The praying outside was still taking place and quite amusingly I then got a knock on my door. It was John knocking to see if I had woken up as he quite regularly likes to do. I found the fact that he even had to ask pretty funny as he even had to raise his voice himself to speak to me.
So after breakfast at 8am I went back my room where I was going to go back to sleep and try and get rid of this nasty feeling inside me. I got under the covers, put my head on my pillow and guess what, they shut up. How convenient. Wanting to sleep so badly, I put my head down and tried to get there as quickly as possible before the chanting started again. 5 minutes into my attempt it unfortunately started up again, but I had my ear plugs in and maybe because it was during the day, it didn’t seem so loud.
So it’s now Friday afternoon and I didn’t end up going out with Tony after all. Not because I wasn’t feeling any better, because I am a bit, but because he wasn’t back in time as he took a journey out in the morning to Bungoma. Instead I spent most of my afternoon chilling with Dennis, on a bike ride, playing Uno and finish this blog off. I'm just waiting for dinner now and I’m going to wait for a phone call off the folks this evening as I haven’t spoken to them over the phone since I left.
God Bless x
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