Blog #10

So we told a guy today that we thought he must have a PHD in Rushing. He said he could only speak English and Swahili and that we better keep up on our bikes if we wanted to make it home in time for dinner.

One down, two to go, and it doesn’t seem like two minutes since I arrived here in Kimilili. I've experienced so much, and this has been reinforced this week with the arrival of new visitors with some starting here at the stage I was just four weeks ago. The days have been significant however it has been the evenings that have been full of the excitement.

Monday was John’s final day with us and we began the day with breakfast. I then continued the rest of the day working on the website. Today John had borrowed my bike, he was going for a final look around Dreamland and needed some transport to get there, as David, from Stocks and Supplies, had the Mission bike and was making his way there on that. Unfortunately on his travels he had a slight accident but luckily he wasn’t hurt and it was the bike that felt the most pain. He returned the bike to the compound at lunchtime so when evening came and it was time to make my way home, I had to take a stroll in the thunderstorm rather than a quick getaway on my “Hummer” as Dennis likes to call it. So we had a special meal prepared for Johns last supper. Kuku (the correct spelling) and Chapatti and some nice sweet Oranges freshly cut for desert. In the evening Matthew was preparing for his trip to Kisumu to collect the new visitors as well as pick up some supplies, and we said our goodbyes to John before going to bed relatively early.

Tuesday I woke up to breakfast alone. Today I was going to be working completely on my own as Matthew had set off to Kisumu at 6.30am and John had left for Nairobi at 7am. I took this opportunity to crack on with things and work through the project without any distractions as I was in the office on my own and could concentrate and allow my ideas to flow. After working at the office I came home where I found Dennis and Edgar hanging out at the Simba so after dropping my things off in my room, I went round to sit with them for a while. The clock hit 6pm and I knew it would be time for my evening meal, but to my surprise the guesthouse was locked up to which later I found out I would have the enjoyment of eating over at the house with the family for the evening.

Dennis had to go and get some milk for the family and this involved us taking a walk along the road to Edgar’s house. By this time it was beginning to get dark and the weather wasn’t looking as if it was going to be on its best behaviour either, but as there was a need for the milk we took the walk on, aiming to be back before it was too dark to see our hands in front of our faces. As we walked along the streets, which began to occasionally light up by lightening, the atmosphere began to get slightly less attractive however I did feel quite safe on my travels.

Late into the evening we began to eat where we all sat around the large table in the family area of the house to a very nice and well prepared meal by the girls. We all shared the food placed amongst the table and both Dennis and Ruth taught me a little more Swahili. I was on my own and it was great to be invited to eat and share my evening with the family.

Still on my own Wednesday morning, I woke up and continued my life and work as I normally would any other day here. I was expecting the visitors and Matthew to arrive back at the compound today but towards the middle of the morning I received a phone call and message telling me the visitor’s morning flight from Nairobi had been cancelled. Matthew had arrived safely in Kisumu the day previously and because there was no need to collect his visitors today, he could come home earlier in which he did and made it back for lunch.

After lunch and a discussion with Matthew about what he had purchased and the mishaps that happened along his travels, we head to the office and continued on with our work. I was creating a box template that could be printed onto card and folded to make a money box for one of the Transformation Kenya campaign’s and it was coming together very well looking very appealing.

Back in the evening, both Matthew and I had the pleasure of having our evening meal again over at the family’s house. We shared another delicious and well prepared meal in which I slightly helped clear away after, and finished off the evening with Dennis playing some Hymns on the Piano and some late night prayers.

Thursday began with me desperately trying to get the correct measurements and sizes for this box template, so that it could be completed and printed off to test the folding. While I did this, amongst with other things, Matthew tried to get the television at the guesthouse fixed using a local Fundi, but unfortunately didn’t seem to have any luck. I arrived at lunch time to find a television with its back removed and a Fundi fiddling with wires and knobs aiming the TV at a mirror perched on one of the chairs, as a guide and vision for doing his repairs.

We had some visitors taking a look around both the IcFEM compound and the guesthouse and had the pleasure of meeting and having a little chat with them. We arrived back home after a day of work and soon met the new arrivals that were going to be staying with us all for different lengths of time.

We first met Jane and Matthew, Grandmother and Grandson that had been due to arrived the day before but had the unfortunate case of a cancelled flight. They pulled up using Hosea, the taxi driver I arrived with, with quite a few bags in which we helped them carry along to their rooms they were to be staying in. Leaving the new arrivals to settle in and have a little rest, we made our way over for what was my third consecutive meal at the house and awaited the arrival of Solomon and another new arrival, Simon Daniels, from Nairobi.

We ate without the arrival of both Solomon and Simon, scoffing Chapatti’s and meat quickly into our mouths and chatting amongst ourselves, not at the same time though. Jane had been here previously, but it was Matthews’ first visit to the IcFEM Mission but not to Africa as a whole. So Jane had a bit of a catch up with things that had gone on over the time and we all continued eating and making our way through dinner. We finished and Ann had kindly prepared some Pineapple crumble and ice cream in which we shared between us.

During this desert Solomon and Simon arrived back from their long and tiring journey, and seemed very eager to greet everyone and eat. They sat at the table while we sat around in the living area and ate our crumble and ice cream. By this time Jane and Matthew had had a long day and we getting tired. With prayers not looking to be for a while, they excused themselves and head off to bed for the evening. It wasn’t long before I made a move myself as I was sleepy and was looking forward to a nice sleep in a newly cleaned and prepared bed. Along with Matthew and a few others, I made my way over to my room to hit the sack.

It was nice to start Friday morning with the new visitors. We ate together with the exception of Jane then made our way over to the offices for morning devotion and our days work.

At 9.45am we hopped on our bikes while Matthew (the new visitor, we are calling the old one Matayo, the Kenyan alternative) road a Buda-Buda along to Dreamland where I had the enjoyment of pretending I was on Ground Force. I was Alan Titchmarsh and I was planting trees, Avocado trees to be precise. I have pictures that I am going to post of me “getting my hands dirty”, which is something that I don’t normally do. I've never done any gardening or tree planting in my life, but it was an experience and something I probably wouldn’t mind doing back at home which I’m surprised with. We planted 10 trees altogether in which I planted 3, inserting the trees into a newly dug hole, removing the plastic bag holding the roots and using my hands, covered the lower part of the tree with the surrounding dirt. I made a great job of the trees I planted but after washing my hands I made my way back to meet Anthony at the office, leaving the two Matthews to take their trip around the Dreamland school and Medical Centre.

I made it back to the office with only 2 flys managing to enter my body, one through my eye and the other in my mouth. I wouldn’t exactly call it a pleasant ride back, but it certainly allowed me to sweat out some toxins and my fitness level is certainly beginning to increase.

So after lunch Matayo and I began to print out our documentation for my Transformation Kenya project, filing it all together so we can assess it and also show certain people for their opinions on the printing of it. We continued to do this while the new Matthew began his blog section for the Gap programme. He used the cyber café machines to fill in his online journal then came to our office towards the end of the day.

There wasn’t long to go before evening dinner, but back in the office Matthew had told us about some of our plans for the week ahead. We are possibly going to be working on the construction of a house and for this we were going to require some tools and overalls to keep of efficient and clean when building. Matayo had previously purchased gloves, boots and overalls for his Gap programme students and today I volunteered to try on one of the uniforms as an example as we would need to wear them in the next coming week. So I decided I’m more of a medium kind of guy so I reached for the medium sized blue overall and unpacked it from its plastic wrapper. Pulling it over my trousers I quickly realised that this uniform may be slightly small on me and that wasn’t just because I had trousers on. I got it to my crotch area and didn’t have the confidence to pull it up any further, so I removed the blue material from my body. The next size to try was extra large as Matayo had only purchased these two sizes for some reason. Extra large was still small on me surprisingly but too big to just wear as trousers, fastening it at the waste, so I think I’m going to settle for a medium and just wear it as a half outfit with my Gap team T shirt on top.

In the evening we spent our time hanging out in the guesthouse after a very large meal for dinner. Matayo began some more platting while the rest of us sat around talking. We were considering whether to watch a DVD, but we thought it would be much better to give it a miss allowing the visitors to talk and bond a little more.

God Bless x