Blog #22

I just don’t understand it right, why call it Athletes foot when someone who doesn’t even make the effort to run for a bus can get it. I'm guessing that’s what I’ve got a little underneath one of my toes on my left foot. Maybe that’s what you get from walking and wearing trainers in such a hot and humid climate, I don’t know, but it’s irritating me and it feels so much better when I walk round rocking the red flip flops/slippers I was provided with in my room when I first came to Kenya.


So Monday morning we had initially planned to go visit the waterfalls in Webuye after unfortunately not being able to see them on the Saturday previous. We waited around in the office but about 10am were visited by Dennis who was to show us to the falls, as he was the only one who knew the way, who had now got piles of jobs to do with just one of them being filling in some forms for his University application. Knowing that the falls would still be there the next day, we decided to stay in the office and continued with whatever work we had to do. We left Dennis to crack on with his work whilst we did ours and in no time lunchtime had arrived as we were starving.


As we had made plans to leave for Webuye in the morning we had cancelled lunch to be made at the guesthouse. It was too late for us to request it again so we head off into town to Kim’s Dishes to fatten ourselves up on chips and sausage covered in salt and tomato sauce. Arriving and having to cram in a corner and order food, we found that there wasn’t the option to have any sausages so we settled for a Somoza instead. Finishing a large plate of chips and a meat Somoza in no time, we cleared up and paid for our meal which came to less that £1 each, that’s including a soda. I grabbed a Mandazi which was delicious and walked back to the office for 2pm.
Back at the office I began to work on some presentations I had to create using Power point and some of the information I had developed over my stay. Creating a template and using as much of my creative ability as possible I tried to plough through the work trying to finish it before dinner. Fortunately I managed to complete this, and then was visited by Tony who I hadn’t had a proper meeting with for ages. We were supposed to have a regular once a week meeting as he was my mentor, but as we had both been very busy of the past weeks, this hasn’t really been possible.


Back after dinner we sat and watched a DVD and lounged on the seats. We watched maybe three quarters of Mr Deeds until it crashed, so we decided we would do the same and left the lounge for bed.


We started off Tuesday in the office just checking emails before Webuye. We jumped in the two usual Matatu’s and arrived in Webuye for around 11am. We hired three Boda-Boda’s who were waiting at the side of the road and took a ride on to as close as they could take up before the landscape became too steep.


Getting dropped off by a school we walked up, along and down to the waterfalls getting followed by a group of school children curious to see where we were going. The children followed us all the way to the falls and stood with us whilst we took photos and rested. The sun was very strong and bright and fell on to the falls making it look even more glamorous. Taking many snaps from as many angles as we could reach we decided to head back for a long walk to get a Matatu home.




The walk back seemed very far. We reached the school we had got dropped off at and continued on past the Paper Pan factory that like always, gave out its horrible smell. We passed the housing that was provided to the workers and these buildings were giving letters to identify the housing instead of numbers like is more often used. Along the away to find a vehicle, we stopped off a café, grabbing some food before we head off back to Kimilili. Once having two very much needed sodas we got in to a Matatu where the driver and attendant recognised us from our previous visit to Webuye on Saturday.



On our return to no power it was a useless idea to go to the office so we head straight back to the guesthouse to do whatever we could there. Matthew did some washing of his clothes whilst I talked with Helen and got her to give me a lesson in preparing Chapatti and Chai, so that I could possibly make them when I get home, that’s if I still remember. After a quick lesson, we were fed with duck and then spent the rest of the evening doing a little ironing and watching the rest of our film.


With more work to do, I spent most of Wednesday morning continuing with the presentations I had to make. The one I was particularly working on today needed 50 odd slides creating and involved inputting text and several images on each page. I completed this and just before lunch decided I would start on creating some Postcards that hopefully could be printed and sold raising money for the mission. I began by just editing some images I had taken along my stay, but broke off for lunch time only completing a couple of cards.


After lunch I continued trying to make as many postcards as I could. I began by measuring existing postcards as I needed to get the canvas size correct as I didn’t want the images to be distorted if they were to be resized to fit on card. Towards 3pm Matthew left for Bungoma to pick up two new arrivals who were Gap Students for the programme. John and Emily were coming for two weeks and had taken a long flight and bus journey and it was now time for Matthew to meet them to bring them to stay in Kimilili. Towards the end of the day I had the pleasure for the second time this week of chatting with Tony and I was able to show him the work I had been working on for the past couple of months and got some very good feedback. At 6.30pm I went back to the guesthouse to hopefully meet the new arrivals and have myself a nice dinner.


They hadn’t quite arrived yet so I stood talking to Mark in the kitchen. They were soon here towards 7pm where the four of us sat down to dinner and got to know one another. The two of them are married and John works in a school whilst Emily is studying to be a Doctor at Oxford. During their stay their programmes will involve doing some teaching and working in a couple of hospitals in and around Kimilili. We sat talking about some of the things they will be doing over their stay and they asked me a couple of questions just to give them a brief idea about some of the things they will experience. I answered as best I could but explained that you never really know until you have experienced it for yourself, then after as they were obviously very tired, we left them to turn in for the night.


We woke up for breakfast Thursday morning to find the couple had gotten a good first night sleep. We head to their first morning devotion and then afterwards they began their orientation in a very similar way to how I did what was now months ago. It’s shocking and it’s really hitting home how time has passed, and it’s becoming seemingly more obvious how I have so little time left. With the arrival of new visitors I’m becoming less eager to come home and more confident and proud of being able to spend this part of my life in Kenya.


There was no power after a couple of hours of being at the office and I decided to go to the market with Dennis to see what was available. On the way I was chatting with Dennis about how the time both him and I have left here in Kimilili is getting shorter and shorter by the day. He leaves for University on August 13th and not many days later, I will be on a plane heading back home to resume life in England. We wandered round looking at lots of stalls and items of clothing laid out on the ground, and searched through piles of T shirts looking for at least one that was decent enough to consider buying. After some time of looking round I found a hat and a t shirt that both together came to 100 shillings. The T shirt is a little on the tight size and after washing the hat I found it was not very flattering, but never the less I didn’t spend much and they may come in handy sometime or other.


Just before lunch we arrived back at the guesthouse with still no power, so I decided to give my new items their clean and sit talking to Mark about how I could soon become a professor teaching Swahili. Lunch time came and I heard how the newest members to the Gap Programme had spent their morning and how they enjoy planting their share of trees at Dreamland.


The return of power didn’t look promising and with no battery on my laptop I was pretty restricted in what I could do. I decided to catch up with a couple of hours sleep before dinner so went to my room and tucked myself neatly underneath my covers. After waking up in plenty of time before dinner I left with Dennis for town for him to run a few errands on our bikes. We stood talking with Peter from Pioneer for a while discussing the condition of Dennis’ phone. With no power all day there was no progress made in fixed his phone so we came home leaving the phone still with Peter to be repaired another day.


Not having any power still, during and after dinner we used the gas lamp to light up the room. Eventually towards the end of the day it decided to return, where we were then visited by Solomon to see us and to also welcome the new visitors.


Back in my room just after 10pm I noticed as I walked in the door that I had a trail of ants forming a strategic line all the way along my wall. Slightly freaked out and worried that the little insects may have found their way into my bed, I took of my slipper and slapped the wall till all was left was a lot of black dots against the green paint work. The ants looked to have made their way onto my chair and again some of them found their way onto the clothes that were placed there. Somehow from moving my clothes, a few of the ants ended up in my bed, so I had to strip the sheets, shake and re lay them again. Consequently, being paranoid that I had not fully cleared my bed and room of ants, I had a poor nights sleep. I woke up feeling pretty tired and stressed that they might return again today.


Wearing my red Gap T shirt and carrying a packed lunch in my bag, Friday morning I headed to the office to wait to be taken to the official opening of the Kamukuywe Local Unit. We waited around and being one of the last to leave, we squashed in the back of a Landrover and made our way to Kamukuywe. We arrived and were shown to the visitors section where we found our seats. John and Emily were seated at a more central position at the front, whilst Matthew and I took different positions knowing we would be acting as camera men for the event. Matthew stood at the front aiming his video camera directly into the faces of the speakers who were stood at the front projecting to the audience. He occasionally focused the camera around the outside arena, probably capturing me yawning several times from the lack of sleep the night before.
A couple of hours of more of less solid Swahili we were presented with some entertainment for some local school children. They did a little acting and some singing so I stayed seated and watched this, but then made my way to the Mission Landrover to have some lunch. I sat and ate the packed lunch Mark had made for us in the morning and spend a little time away from the main speaking and discussion, wandering around taking snaps and talking with some of the other Mission staff.


Towards late afternoon after the launching had been in progress for many hours, Emily, John and I made friends with the some of the small children, whilst Matthew did some serious recording of Solomon, with the video camera. John and Emily got the children singing and doing the actions to “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes” which was great. The children loved it but unfortunately there was an old man who was drunk and taking it too serious. He tried getting us to buy them soda’s, getting them seated and telling them to expect some from us, however luckily they didn’t take much notice of him.


After the official launching and the cutting of the ribbon to open this particular Unit, the four of us decided to head back using public transport as John and Emily were tired and wanted some time to relax and rest before Prayer and Fasting which was to begin this evening. John and Emily got their first experience of riding a Boda-Boda and we shot home in a Matatu arriving for just after 6pm. Matthew and I went to the office to collect our laptops whilst John and Emily went back to the guesthouse for the evening. At the office we found there was no internet as the server was not back on with the late return of the power, so we packed up and headed back to the guesthouse.


We sat down and were all exhausted. I'm sure John and Emily must have been doubly tired with having their first long day full of Swahili and having still not fully recovered from their long trip here, and I was also beginning to feel a little sleepy. I had wanted to nod off all day, so tonight I decided to give the Prayer and Fasting session a miss as I wouldn’t have been on form, so the four of us stayed back and retired for bed early to try and regain our strength for a weekend of more activities.


There were still a few ants crawling around in my room and I now think they begin to come out after dark. I sprayed the room and specific areas with repellent and head to bed with the early stages of a headache coming on. I'm planning on giving my room a complete turnover and I am determine to get rid of the remaining insects. The thing that bugs me is that my room isn’t even dirty. I could understand it if I was messy, but I'm continuously cleaning it and trying to keep it as tidy as possible. I’ll see what happens after the weekend and hopefully the worrying with stop when the little creatures find somewhere else to hang out and have their parade.


Take Care x

Blog #21

Saturday and Sunday were pretty jam packed and it really seemed as if we’d had an extra long weekend with Thursday and Friday being a lot more laid back than usual. The weekend consisted really of seeing some of the close sights in Kenya and visiting people at a more leisurely pace.

I began Saturday with breakfast and then whilst waiting around after, I began on some more washing with just a few items to clean since my last wash. We were heading to Webuye to have a quick look around, maybe grab something to eat and a dip in a swimming pool if we were lucky. We also had the idea in mind to visit the waterfalls that Webuye had to offer as we had heard lots of stories of how beautiful they are and Matthew also thought it would be a nice place that the other Gap students could visit. Finishing my washing I waited around for Matthew and Dennis to be ready to leave but whilst waiting other tasks became more important so we had to postpone our journey for an hour or so.

After Matthew purchased some credit for Solomon and sent him the credit to his phone in Nairobi, we set off at around 11.30 for about an hour journey in a Matatu to Webuye. We were dropped off in town by Patice in the Mission Landrover. We changed Matatu’s at Kamukuywe and arrived in Webuye around 1pm. The weather could change at anytime so we decided we would head straight to the Villa Park Hotel where there was a restaurant and the swimming pool we may have our little paddle in.

Arriving at Villa Park Hotel we found ourselves a nice spot by the pool. The pool was crystal blue and it was hardly believable that we were still in Kenya. It really seemed like something you would find in Spain or somewhere warm that tourists would often visit, not somewhere that has all the associations with poverty. We sat occasionally hopping out from underneath our shaded umbrella to catch a little sun and after about an hour of relaxing decided to order some food. Matthew and I both got a sandwich and chips. Matthew had beef whilst I had chicken and Dennis had something a little more traditional and tucked in to chapatti, Kuku along with a few small portions of veg.

After a couple of hours of relaxing and talking, we decided to pay for our food and head back towards the junction to catch a Matatu home. By now it was approaching 4pm and we weren’t too confident about the idea of searching for the falls, especially with the sky not looking too appealing, so we jumped in the Matatu where Matthew and I were seated in the front with full vision out of the windshield. Switching Matatu’s again in Kamukuywe I found myself crammed in the back towards the front with my feet just above the engine. My feet were boiling and at one point I remember thinking I wouldn’t be surprised is the soles of my sneakers melted a little.

Back at the guesthouse we sat relaxing and waiting for our dinner. We had it slightly early this evening to help Rose out as she was standing in for Helen who was sick with Malaria and then after spent the rest of the evening in the lounge watching Jaws.

We were up early for breakfast Sunday and set off to meet Ken at 8.15am as we were going with him to visit his father’s house. We set off and walked to the junction by the D.O’s office where we met him and his daughter Tracy with their bibles in hand. We travelled to Kiminini a place in Kitale where Kens father lives and this particular morning we were going to attend an English service in that town. During the service we were introduced as visitors where Matthew and I spoke introducing ourselves. It seemed to be over in no time and then we left, walking back to the road meeting very many people along the way who were heading to the church for the Swahili service. After spending quite some time greeting and talking with passers by, we finally managed to meet with Ken’s father Francis where he took us to have a look around his book shop.

Francis ran a small book shop on the front of one of the streets that branches out from the main road. He showed us some of his stock and also showed us a project that a member of staff was working on whilst she was waiting for customers to come in and make a purchase. She was doing some embroidery designing a pattern on to a pink piece of cloth which was going to be used as a cushion. We spent a little time here until finally leaving Francis to attend his service and a meeting where he would later find and talk with us again at his home.

We set off on a long walk to the car that we were going to use to get to the house. We walked along a long street and stopped off at a shop for Ken to grab a container for some petrol and we also had the chance to grab a soda whilst we waited. Tracy’s little legs were getting tired also, so Tracy, Matthew and I sat on a bench looking out onto the road drinking out of our glass bottles. We were then reunited with Ken as he returned on a Boda-Boda with some petrol and then we set off for another long walk to the car with the sun beaming down on our necks.

We arrived at the Pathfinder Academy where the car was based and this place was the compound for another volunteer organisation in Kenya. It occupied several well constructed houses which were kitted out perfectly with nice comfortable looking beds and animal designs such as Zebras on the walls. We took a look around as we waited for the car. Matthew asked questions with the guy who was in charge about how they advertised and acquired volunteers and got some insight into how the whole programme was run. After some time, once the car was filled with juice, we all jumped into the car and set off towards the gates to embark on our journey.

The car was a little jumpy at first, that is until it cut out on us completely. We had just made it out of the gates where it finally died and wanted to move no more. After several restarts and a little bit of worrying from Matthew and I because the car was rolling backwards and there was no door handles from the inside, we realised that we were going no where in this vehicle so the best thing to do was to push it back into the compound and leave it there for some one to come another time and repair it. We pushed as Ken steered the car back through the painted gates and were fortunately then offered a lift by the guy in charge at the Academy. We jumped into his newer more sophisticated vehicle where he took us along the typical uneven roads dropping us just before Ken’s father’s house.

We weren’t at the house long before food was served. Rice, Kuku and Chapatti were served on a small knee high table and we all sat on the different lilac covered sofas that filled the room. Chickens roamed the house whilst we ate and one even left us a little present in the middle of the floor which was later mopped up and cleaned. I once again got to have a gizzard as it was tradition for the guests to have this part of the bird. It would be rude not to accept it so I chewed through the tough meat along with the other foods on offer.

After lunch Ken and his brother took us on a tour of the farm as their father was not back from his meeting yet. The farm was pretty large and had so many views that I just had to capture with my camera. We walked down towards the river which was based at the lower end of the farm as the sun began to gradually get lower as it reached around 4pm. Along our way to the river we passed a house that was based on the land for one of the workers and his family to live in. I think there were 8 people living in the house and it wasn’t much bigger than 4 x 6 meters. Walking on past the house we came to a section where Ken’s brother had been previously baking bricks. He’d had to postpone this project for a while due to rains in past days but he had made some good progress with lots of bricks stacked and covered by a plastic sheet.

After walking a slightly longer way to the river, avoiding a the more boggier areas as Matthew and I were still wearing our good footwear from church, we came in contact with an elderly man who was in the process of fishing. He had caught a few fish and still planned to spend more of the afternoon with his home made rod and worm for bait. Once we had seen the river that separated two Provinces, Western and Rift Valley, we headed back to the house where hopefully we would find Francis so we could spend some time with him like we had originally planned.

We made it back passing some children collecting water from the well. Francis was back already tucking in to his late lunch so we sat down across and around him discussing some of the projects he runs along side having the book shop business. This guy is intelligent and had some great ideas and business plans. He used to work for the mission but not he has just recently began a scheme which see him employed to inform and teach people how to manage both their finances and time. He agreed that there was a big problem with time management here in Kenya and felt that he had the ability to offer this service to the public and improve their lives just by teaching them these better skills. We had a few laughs and discussing about how he could do with some more staff to make his project more sustainable but unfortunately had to leave as it was getting late and Francis also had to attend another evening meeting.

We left around 5.30pm and walked with Francis to his meeting where we would wait for Ken and Tracy to catch up with us. We were introduced to the five members that were already there at the meeting and once reunited with Ken and Tracy, walked up a more even road than the one we came on, to the town. Around half way on our journey we were passed by three Boda-Boda’s who we tagged down and asked for a lift. We each jumped on the back of a bike, with Tracy sat on Ken’s knee, and made it back to the town for the Matatu in just less than 10 minutes.

At the junction just on from the bus stage, we paid the Boda-Boda’s. One of the Boda-Boda left without returning Ken some change and cycled off to blend in with the rest of the Boda-Boda pack that wait on the junction corner. Ken had to return some glass bottles we had used during dinner to a shop just along the road, so he left us with Tracy whilst he nipped on. Matthew and I walked on to just before the bus stage holding Tracy’s hand as we were close to the road. We waited for a little time until Ken came and we jumped on to a bus. This bus was bigger than a Matatu and had almost 50 seats. There was a television playing a Nigerian film at the front of the bus as the bus drove back and got us home for around 7pm.

We were late and Mark was waiting around as he had prepared us dinner. After lunch I was pretty much stuffed, but as time had passed I was hungry again and was satisfied with the chapatti and beans that we were given.

After apologising to Mark numerous times as it was not dark and he would be walking home, we sat in the lounge and watched some TV and relaxed. I got a phone call from the folks who had just got back from holiday and it was nice to hear they had got home safely. I heard about some of the funny stories that had happened over the past few weeks both at home in England and in Spain, and then later after speaking to them went to sleep to wind down from the long busy weekend.

Blog #20

I think I scared my parents this week when I sent them a text message randomly thanking them for taking me on so many holidays as a child. As I was taking a trip out to Eldoret with my passport to get my Visa extended, I begun to see similarities between the towns I was passing and the places I had seen in the past as a kid. I realised I had never really thanked them for a lot of the experiences they have given me and it is becoming seemingly more obvious how grateful I should be for the things I have got and have seen. I'm only twenty ones years old but I'm pretty sure from what I am seeing here, that most people aren’t even going to leave their town nevermind see what I have already seen in the whole of their life time.


Waking up to no power is great, NOT, but never the less we still managed to have a nice breakfast and discuss that if the power didn’t return in the next couple of hours that we would spend the day hammering out the 300 and odd wrist bands we needed to use as gifts and souvenirs for our programme. Luckily just after 9am it did return, so I head off to the office to begin my productive week of finishing off the website and getting as far in front as I could, knowing that time was ticking away and I was now into my last months stay. I spent most of the morning working, having a little break for lunch, then returned in the afternoon to continue with the working and researching on the Internet. Making it home for dinner we ate and then decided to spend the evening in the guesthouse lounge watching the remaining minutes of the film we had begun watching at the end of the weekend.


Tuesday I started my day with morning devotion. After this I returned to my office working on my usual trying to decide on images to use and manipulating them to try and improve the quality. I needed some specific images for the website and I knew where I could find some nice ones that would fit quite suitably. With this I grabbed my camera and head outside to take some photos of the IcFEM compound, capturing some nice bright photos. I even took a few snaps of some of the Mission staff, mainly the ones that were in and around the Cyber. Rhoda, Jose, Robert and Tony were just some of the staff that struck a pose but unfortunately I wasn’t very successful in capturing a very clear photo, even after multiple attempts. I continued working up until lunch then came back for a nice meal at the guesthouse.


After lunch I arrived back at the office and figured it was about time my bike was fixed as about a week ago the front left brake had either fallen off or was stolen. I had been coping until now but I thought maybe soon I would pull the front break a little too hard and the whole thing would snap because of the fact of a missing a pad. I told Matthew so soon after lunch he head off into town to get it fixed whilst I stayed in the office and continued with my work. Towards the end of the afternoon it began to rain really heavily. The ground soon became a muddy pit and unfortunately I was wearing flip flops and walking across the compound became an even bigger mission that usual. It soon became time to go home for dinner and both Matthew and I knew that riding in this condition was risky and we would have to go slow to avoid slipping. We set off home riding at snail pace getting drenched in water but managing to avoid having our backs sprayed with red mud or having to put our feet down.


We arrived home with no power as the storms had some how again stopped the electricity. We had our favourite meal and spent most of the evening sat in the guesthouse lounge using the gas lamp for light. Towards the end of the evening the power returned so we switched on the TV and watched an episode of LOST and the news before bed.


Wednesday mostly involved working in the office. I made some good progress creating some neat pages and began to use some software to create some Gift Aid forms. We spend the evening in the lounge cutting and platting cotton whilst watching the Dads Army movie on DVD.


Thursday morning I woke up and had breakfast. Instead of heading straight to the office I decided I would wash some of my T Shirts as they were beginning to pile up in my room and also my trainers needed a good clean too. I gave these a mighty good scrub leaving them considerably clean given the amount of mud that had managed to soak its way deep into the material. I left the clothes to dry on the line then grabbed my bike and set off to the office.


Just as I set off I noticed Matthew coming back through the gate. He had come home to get on with as many wrist bands as he could so I left him to do his thing in the guesthouse lounge and made my way to the office. At the office I continued with the Gift Aid forms and worked on some other materials along side checking my emails and researching on the Internet. During my stay in the office I was visited by several members of the Mission with one of them leaving me a large envelope for Matthew. I finished up with the work then came back to the guesthouse around half an hour before dinner, bringing the parcel back for Matthew to take a look at.


I found Matthew working real hard with a big pile of completed wrist bands sitting at the side of him on the chairs. He had a movie playing on the TV that was nearly at the end, and he was concentrating hard strategically platting. It was soon lunch time and Matthew had to break off from the good work. We ate and then decided to head off into town to buy a great big bunch of finger bananas just to see us through the afternoon.


We searched all the way to town for stalls selling finger bananas but none of them seemed to have any available. Finally after passing at least 4 stalls we found a lady selling some so we purchased three bunches, with each bunch holding about 16 fingers. A bunch cost us 10 Shillings each so we handed the money over to the lady and walked off where Matthew began to eat his share instantly. As the bananas were so small Matthew ate most of his in a matter of minutes, throwing the skins to the side of the road as we walked back to the guesthouse. Throwing the skins was allowed but Matthew admitted that he did feel slightly guilty at first as it is something we don’t tend to do at home.


Back at the guesthouse, after leaving a trail of banana skins that I'm sure Mr Locke from LOST would have had a field day following, I begun to iron some clothes whilst Matthew continued platting. An Old school episode of Superman was on the TV so I cracked on with my ironing, in between eating my share of the bananas. Towards the middle of the afternoon I decided to go back to the office to get on with some more things and maybe post a blog online. I worked for a while and was then visited by Mike as he was leaving the Cyber. It was around 5pm and almost time for me to leave anyways, so I left with Mike and Anthony and rode into town as they walked along side. Mike did a couple of things in town and then we made our way back in time for dinner. Leaving them I met with Matthew and ate then spent the rest of the evening watching the box and having a slightly early night preparing for an early morning as we were setting off to Eldoret.


Friday my alarm went off waking me at 5.30am. I grabbed a shower, got ready and set off to meet Matthew and leave the compound for 6.15am. We were to get the Eldoret Express Bus which leaves at 7am, so we made our way to the bus stage with my passport amongst other things in my backpack.


We got on the Bus that was considerably empty but I was assured it would get a lot more crowded as we stopped off at the destinations along the way. We paid our 200 Shillings each, which we were later told was a little steep and not the usual price, and sat down towards the back end of the bus waiting for it to set off. Waiting and watching the early morning people hover around outside, we saw a couple more people occupy the bus. A young boy dressed in a blue and yellow school uniform came and sat behind us on the bus. The bus had two rows, looking from the back, the right row had three seats and the left, which we were seated on, had two. Matthew was sat near the window leaning and the young boy must have decided he wanted to some fresh air. He slid the window open jabbing the tough plastic into Matthew leaning shoulder which didn’t leave Matthew best pleased at all.


We set off on time and the bus did begin to get full. I was surrounded by people and families travelling to Eldoret and the stops along the way. The bus was noisy and the ride very bumpy. I felt like I was torn between a day out in Alton Tower and a bouncing car scene in a rap video. We were bouncing all over the place hitting bumps and occasionally leaning into each other as we turned corners. It was fun but at the same time a little uncomfortable, as you had to be constantly aware of your knees, as every time you hit a bump, if you weren’t careful you would have them trying to pierce their way through the seat in front of you.


We made it there in once piece and after stopping off at a small restaurant to relieve ourselves we made our way promptly for Matthews 9.30 appointment at the Salon in Eldoret. I left Matthew to visit the salon whilst I nipped next door to have some passport photos taken which I need to be able to extend my Visa. I had a photo taken in the upstairs and then was told to return in an hours time where they would then have developed. I met Matthew as I was leaving the shop and his hairdresser hadn’t arrived yet. We decided to grab some breakfast as we had left without any, so we went to a close by café for two Mandazi and a cup of Chai.


Matthew then spent fourty five minutes with the lady hairdresser that was specialised in cutting Mazungu hair. He had a couple of trainee hair dressers stood around watching how the magic was done. The hairdresser did a good job of the cut and seemed to know what she was doing. She only struggled to put the shaving lengths on the clippers a couple of times which only worried Matthew a bit, but overall she did a good job and he left looking much younger and tidier.


We grabbed the developed photos, which were pretty good to say they were taken with a camera and I am not the most photogenic person in the world, and head straight to the Immigration office to extend my Visa. The lady begin the counter filled me out some forms and then sent me upstairs to have my finger prints taken as I was to be registered as an “Alien”. Glad I wasn’t going to actually become an Alien, I head upstairs to have my prints taken and passport stamped. I rolled my fingers in black ink and printed them several times onto a card document. This was all over in about five minutes so we took the stairs back down and left towards the front doors.


Just as we were leaving I turned to Matthew and asked, “Where do we pay?”. We had not yet been asked to pay and it was pretty obvious that we were free to almost leave with an extended Visa in hand. We turned back and head to the lady at the first desk we came to and asked where we pay. She told us we should pay upstairs but the two guys up there didn’t even ask us for any money. We visited the two guys again and told them we hadn’t paid. They were surprised that we were so honest, but nether the less still took our money for the service. We finally left the place knowing we had done a good deed and continued to look around Eldoret.

As we walked through the markets and streets of Eldoret, I noticed lots more similarities between here and the places I had visited in previous years. The place had a feel to it that reminded me of so many things and it was nice to be able to be once again filled with the memories from the holidays in my life.

We walked down one particular street where there were shops, stalls and people with sheets of material laid out on the ground presenting T shirts, hats and other items for sale. All of a sudden as we got about a third of the way down the road, several men quickly picked up the sheets of material that were on the ground, bundling them up in their arms and running away as fast as they could to our particular direction. As soon as I saw them coming I was expecting to be ploughed down, even if I moved to get out of the way. Somehow the guys would still manage to knock me down like the last remaining skittle and it wouldn’t be the nicest feeling in the world with so many people stood around watching. Luckily some other poor soul managed to get in the way first and one of the men running collided with her and saw himself hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. The lady was ok, but the rest of the running men took another route and made it away behind some shops. To this day I still don’t know why they were running, even after a lady shop keeper tried telling me, I never fully understand their rush. Maybe they were stealing someone’s things or maybe the Police were close by and they were selling stolen goods. All I know is they wanted to get away quickly and they weren’t taking anyone’s feelings into consideration as they made their escape.

We soon left Eldoret, getting on a bus to Kitale. This journey was even bumpier than my first bus ride of the day as we hit many pot holes throughout the drive. We both tried sleeping but it wasn’t really possible as we were getting thrown around all over the place, only being held in because of our seat belts. We arrived at Kitale and found ourselves a nice restaurant to eat and at the same time sit outside to enjoy the sun. We sat outside for a while until we were harassed by ants and insects, then made our way inside as the weather was beginning to take a turn for the worse anyways. Inside we sat at our table and waited for our ordered food. Eventually it came after a considerable wait, where the beef Pizza I ordered turned out to be vegetable and Matthews Ughali and beef seemed to consist of 90% bone. We ate up adding sauces to give it extra taste then walked back into the main town to the bus stage.


In the Matatu I got to ride shotgun, sat in the front cab next to a lady and the driver. The journey lasted about an hour and it found us caught in a thunderstorm with heavy rain. I had a short talk with the lady named Agnes who worked at Delta Cresent in Mount Elgon, whilst being seated in a much more comfortable place than usual in the Matatu.



Back at home we had our dinner and sat resting from the early morning and the long day. We were both pretty tired and there wasn’t much to do. The television wasn’t showing anything interesting so we decided to turn in for the night and get ready for what the weekend had to offer.


God Bless x

Blog #19

If you read my last blog you will probably be able to predict possibly how this weekend’s instalment will unfold. For the last couple of days I haven’t been at my best and slowly but surely I am now recovering. It’s nothing serious and nothing I can’t handle, but it’s definitely something you don’t wish upon yourself and certainly something you want to avoid catching again. I'm not sure how it happened and I guess there could be a number of causes, but all I am just assuming is that I have had an intake of some dodgy water somewhere along the way.

I woke up Saturday feeling quite a lot better and I definitely had some of my appetite back. Hungry from the lack of eating over the previous days I coated my stomach with cornflakes and Mandazi with jam. Matthew set off to Kitale to do a few jobs and I had planned to spend the day hanging with Dennis and the lads, along with other things of my own, that’s if they would let me of course. I spent some of the morning trying to refresh myself, showering and cleaning myself up. I was soon called on by Dennis and Mike to see what I was up to. I met with them outside the Simba and today the sun was especially hot. Walking around I was glad to be better. Mike left us to go home for some food but he was soon replaced by Edgar, his brother. We then head into town for a mid Saturday morning stroll.

Just as the three of us got into town I had an elderly lady come up to me speaking Swahili holding out her hand. I immediately thought she was requesting money from me so I walked on by ignoring her as I had been advised to. She came closer and she moved in to shake my hand. I felt guilty at first for assuming she only wanted money but as soon as I let go she began begging. I told her I didn’t have anything and I seriously didn’t have a penny on me. My hands were in my pockets to avoid her trying to go in them incase she tried. My keys were in my hand and I can only assume she heard them. I removed them from my pocket to prove they were keys and I had nothing but just had to continue walking at a much faster pace to get the message through and lose her.

Not even a minute later just after I got to the other side of the road, a man wearing a red base ball cap said something to me in Bukusu, a tribal language. He had his hand out to shake with me, so I shook his hand out of politeness. Once again I was then asked for money as he said “Give me twenty shillings”, slackening his grip but not fully letting go of my hand. I again told him I had no money and began to walk off. He was much younger than the lady and he began to follow, continuing to ask for money. I said “Pole sana”, which means “very sorry” but he wasn’t satisfied and began shouting. We continued walking as he followed for a short distance. I began to get mad, I didn’t particularly enjoy being harassed and neither did Dennis. To reinforce the fact that the man wasn’t getting anything from a “white man”, his words not mine, Dennis turned around and told him to leave us. He was soon gone and left somewhere in his dream world. I'm pretty sure he was a drunk and it wasn’t even noon.

After town we left Edgar by his house and Dennis and I returned back to the compound. It was soon time for my lunch so I left Dennis to do his own thing for a while whilst I went to eat. I began doing my washing once I had done eating. I needed to get this done as I had numerous boxer shorts and socks that needed some attention and the sun was warm and it seemed like the best opportunity. I began scrubbing and hanging the clothing on the line and was soon met by Mike who had returned after his lunch.

Leaving the clothes to dry on the line we went to the Cyber where we met Hilary, one of the guys along the way. At the cyber there was no power. On our journey the electricity must have cut out, so there were no computers working and with no key for the server room there would be no Internet when the power did return. It had begun raining heavily but luckily we were under shelter sat on chairs on the outside of the Cyber centre. Two white faces appeared through the gates of the office compound and these were two girls who were in Kenya with another charity, Rescue Steps. They were very disappointed, not just because there was no power but because they were absolutely drenched in rain from the heavy rainfall along their walk and Boda-Boda ride to the Cyber. They sat with us for a while chatting and they told me they were from “Up North” with a similar accent and way of speaking to me. Their names were Ellie and Ally, and Ellie was a nursery nurse with the ability to come out here 6 weeks. For Ellie it wasn’t her first time to this part of Kenya, she had been before and had seen Matthew and Mike when she was here two years previous. After spending some time finding out things about each other, they left to head back home to their accommodation which was how they described “not as luxurious as ours”.

Soon shortly we went back towards the house. Along the way we decided to go to the farm where the rest of the tomato planting could continue. For the past few days Dennis along with the Fundi’s had been filling the selected areas of the farm with the tomato plants. He popped home to change his footwear whilst the other lads and I made our way over to the farm. Meeting the Fundi’s there they began their hard work, evenly distributing the plants. I stood watching with Hilary discussing the Secondary school system over here in Kenya. I'm not being funny but if you think High schools in England are tough, there is no chance you would survive the standards and dedication they require here. Hilary and Mike told me how Secondary schools here are mostly boarding schools and how intense their working day is. They are up at 5am to what seems like almost continuous studying until around 4pm. They may then be allowed a couple of hours for game time and dinner, but then straight back to class for 6.30pm until 10pm. They are so disciplined and any slight slip up or lateness can result in being punished whether it be kaned or suspended for two weeks. They work so hard and they know so many languages. Hilary said to me, “Can you speak French?” I said “I was taught it in school but I can’t really remember much more than Bonjoir and Merci”, I felt pretty stupid. These guys are so smart and they work so hard and learn everything and it frustrates me that good people like these don’t get the lucky breaks that they deserve.

They asked me to describe a little about the school system in England and asked what happens to uncooperative students. I felt ashamed to say that students who don’t cooperate in class are rewarded by being taken on trips and activities just to keep them from disrupting. These guys are top guys and I couldn’t ask for better friends to have made while I have been here. I'm proud to have met them and I hope they don’t mind my company either. Aside from the work of setting up this new scheme which will hopefully help and give other good kids like these guys a better chance of a future, its days like today that really give me the feel and appreciate the fact that I’ve had the privilege and chance to come and live out and experience Africa.

Stood around talking to the lads saw me getting attacked by flies and I was getting pretty sick of being harassed today. After getting a hat and spraying on some repellent I returned back for the last hour’s worth of farming. My trousers and shoes were the muddiest they have ever been, even worse than when we did the mudding of the house. My underwear hanging on the line wouldn’t have dried either as the rain from the afternoon had mashed everything up.

Towards 6.30pm we headed back as it was reaching dinner serving time at the guesthouse. With no sign of Matthew I gave him a call to see how far he was. He was on his way back so I ate alone and got Helen to save him some chapatti and beans. The rest of the evening was spent in the Simba with Matthew.

Sometime during the night I woke up to the worst stomach grumbling sounds ever. It was more uncomfortable at first and made me start to question if I was going to be ill again. Maybe this worrying kept me up I don’t know, I tried sleeping but it just wasn’t happening and I kept drifting off but then waking up to a sickly feeling. It soon got 5am and I knew I was up in two hours anyway. As my stomach was making sounds like 40 lions having a roaring contest, I decided I would get up as I felt wide awake as it was.

So After breakfast I stayed in my room for a while hoping that the food I had just eaten wouldn’t disagree with me. I was fine and felt to be making a quick recovery, so I decided I would go see what Matthew was doing. I met him at the gates of the compound as he was just making his way back from the office, it would soon be time for lunch anyways so I just hung around with him and Dennis at the Simba until then.

After lunch we decided to take that trip back to the office. I hadn’t been in for a while with being sick so I wanted to check some emails and post some blog’s work out some other stuff online. We spend a little time at the office and then returned back to the guesthouse as Matthew was tired and wanted to sleep. Back at the guesthouse Matthew went to his room. It was still warm and I fancied a walk, so I went to find Dennis at the family house. He wasn’t there but I spoke to two of the girls from the house, Joy and Bithian, and they asked if they could join me for the walk. So the three of us took a walk down to the farm, me wearing my sandals as my trainers were still caked in mud, to see how the tomatoes were doing from their previous days planting. We also had a look at the house that Roel and Marianne are having built. It has come along more and more every day. Our walk didn’t last a so long but it was nice to walk round and be out in the fresh air Africa had to offer, rather than cooped up alone in my room.

Leaving the girls to go back into the house, I met with Dennis who was outside the Simba. We went into the guesthouse lounge and put the TV on for a while to see what was showing on a Sunday afternoon in Kenya. We watched an old episode of Wife Swap, the only really decent thing that was showing in English, and it was quite entertaining to see the way each family was reacting to their new homes. We were soon joined by Matthew who had just woken from a nice nap and come to see what we were up to.

After dinner we sat and cut some threads of cotton whilst watching some films. We watched the end of Oceans Twelve, and then as it was still early we started to watch another until the power cut out on us. It had been a long past week and with no power it was getting pretty difficult to see. I was pretty much fully recovered now but I knew that a good night sleep wouldn’t do me any harm, so I went to bed early using my torch to straighten out my bed cover and unfold my mosquito net.

Thanks for the concern over the past couple of days guys, it’s been nice to know you are looking out for me. I've been blessed with many friends here in Africa and it’s proven that I have a lot of good ones back home too.

Thank you and God Bless x

Blog #18

Right now its 5.27am on Sunday July 15th and I have nothing better to do than sit up writing this weeks blog. I’m sick and it’s certainly something I don’t really want to make a habit of for the remaining however many weeks left of my stay. Seen as though I'm up and I'm finding it hard to sleep, I thought I might as well do something productive and write up Monday to Friday’s blog. Its gets rather dry towards the end of the week as that’s when the sickness began to kick in and the eagerness to stray too far from my bedroom began to decrease.

Still shattered from the weekend Monday morning found me dozing off again straight after breakfast. I lay down for two minutes and I'm off. It’s great. I proper love sleep, I could sleep all day, but I wasn’t asleep for long and then met Matthew at the guesthouse to continue with my work. There was just Matthew and I for lunch today, the other guests were off visiting schools and having meetings associated with the Harambee foundation they run. We spent the afternoon back at the office and then came back to the guesthouse when the day was up.


Back at the guesthouse before dinner, we decided to watch a movie on the newly installed DVD Player and Television. It really does sound like all we do is watch movies, but if you were here you would surely understand that there is a limit to what you can do mostly due to security reasons. Watching Oceans Twelve we experimented with the functions on the television. We explored the whole range of two sound options and managed to almost master the remote control. We watched most of this film until dinner and aimed to finish watching when we returned.

After dinner we discontinued the film and instead sat with the two lads from Holland and played cards. We towards the end of the evening introduced to a new visitor who would be stopping at the guesthouse for a couple of nights.

Tuesday morning at breakfast I was made aware that today we would be going back to the house we had helped build a couple of weeks back, as today it was going to be officially handed over by IcFEM. Dressed in my red Gap T Shirt around 12pm we set off to Kamukuywe using public transport. On arrival I firstly spotted the children who had been helping us with the mudding and like always they were smiling and ready to great us. There were many people all sat gathered together on benches under what was a home made marquee consisting of modified trees and what looked like an almost work out bed sheet. We sat underneath here for an hour or so whilst some of the Mission staff gave some speeches, said a few prayers and officially handed over the house.


The house looked a lot better than the way we left it. It had been given another two layers of mud for stability and to cover the cracks that appeared after it had dried, and it had also had the ground inside coated with cow dung that had now dried and acted as strong and hygienic flooring. The cow dung when solid is not only a cheap method of flooring but it also prevents dust and avoids the risk of small mites which are called Jiggers, in your feet. After the short ceremony the Mission staff and a few other associates were shown into the house where we were seated for a meal. We were presented with mashed banana, soup, rice and kuku. It was brilliant, however I did feel slightly guilty as the flooring didn’t seem to have fully dried yet and the chairs we were sat on seemed to be digging in, just a touch into the floor.


Coming back from Kamukuywe we were caught up in the rain but made it home to get dried off in time for dinner. Having eaten at what was only like two hours previous didn’t stop me from looking forward to another well prepared meal. After guzzling down god knows how many chapattis the rest of the evening was pretty relaxed. We sat around in the lounge whilst everyone did their own thing, then I retired for an early night on a full stomach.



Wednesday morning I was presented with a letter that had been delivered to the Mission for me. Id been told weeks previous that I should expect some mail and today it had finally arrived. I opened the Airmail I had received and inside were three pieces of blue paper all with cheerful and constructive messages written from the people in my Mom and Dads Home Group. The letters were nice and I really appreciated the fact that these people, who I don’t really know and I think most only really know me through my parents, would write me kind things, so I just want to use this part to say Thank you to those people if they are reading this.

During the morning, once the Internet returned, I read an email from one of my friends Jack back home. What a legend this guy is and it was great to hear what he had been up to. This email was an unusually long one and explained lots of the things him and some of the other lads had been getting up to and also highlighted some of his plans and creative ideas he has for the next coming year. I gave the lad a quick short email to say hey and show my support for his plans then came back for lunch.

After lunch Matthew was out of the office and took a trip to Lugulu Hospital to have a meeting to arrange a schedule for a Gap student that is coming to visit Kenya. I was initially going to travel with him to see the place and area but it could have meant that for some time I would have been waiting around when I could have been back at the office progressing
Towards the end of the day I met up with Edgar and Dennis who were waiting by Roel and Marianne’s house for the Fundi’s to finish their meeting so they all could begin moving some tomatoes from the garden and plating them on the farm. It got late but finally they began to transfer the tomatoes onto the farm. Edgar went home to run some Milk errands so I helped a little with the positioning and re-planting of the tomatoes. After getting a small section of the farm planted we made our way back to firstly stop off at Edgar’s home to pick up some Milk for Anne.


Tonight we were eating over at the family’s house so dinner was later than usual. As it was the last evening for Roel, Marianne and the two lads, we had dinner on the large dining room table served with kuku, chapatti, mashed banana, sikumu and it was awesome. We all ate a lot and to show my appreciation I helped with drying afterwards in the kitchen.




Thursday morning there was just me and Matthew for breakfast as the family had left for Kisumu early in the morning. We ate our breakfast then headed to the office for a normal days work. It wasn’t long into the morning and I began to notice I didn’t feel as good as usual as I felt a little sick with stomach problems. I tried to sit with it for a while but as the morning progressed it began to get worse and by lunch time I was feeling it bad and couldn’t even stomach a meal. Matthew soon realised how serious I was about being sick as I hardly touched my food. Me and him had been doing some serious eating over the past couple of weeks, showing the people from Holland how Yorkshire lads can eat finishing the second helpings and also their left overs.

I couldn’t go in for the afternoon, I felt so sick and was worried that I could be coming down with Malaria or it could get worse. I slept for a couple of hours hoping to wake up and feel a lot better like it sometimes happens when I'm home. It didn’t. I woke up feel almost as bad if not worse, with headache and I was beginning to get cold. By the evening meal I was freezing and it didn’t help sat in the dark as there was no power. I still wanted to be sociable, I couldn’t stay stuck in the room all the time so I was kitted up in as many clothes as I could find, including Matthews hooded jumper, sat in the Simba. Apparently I looked a little bit like a homeless person as I was wearing the hat that I had got from the market and thoroughly washed. It kept me warm at least. I didn’t stop up too late hoping to go to bed and wake up in the morning feeling good as new.

Spending the night wrapped in clothes that could fill a wardrobe, I woke up feeling a little better. The sickly feeling and the headache was beginning to ease off and with no other symptoms I had already ruled our Malaria. I didn’t do much Friday morning, I just stayed around with Dennis rehydrating myself with soda and taking paracetamol at the prescribed amount of two every four hours. I hate feeling ill but I guess nobody actually enjoys it. In the afternoon I sat in the guesthouse watching some movies on the TV. I watched some more episodes of a Peter Kay comedy and also The Constant Gardener until the power began to cut out on me continuously and I became fed up with finding the correct place in the film all the time. Throughout the afternoon I was visited by numerous people to see how I was, they had heard I was sick and I was brought some chi and cake bread.

Towards the evening I was able to eat more. My apatite wasn’t back fully but at least I was able to eat a few things rather than have to avoid a meal completely. I was glad I was feeling better but hopefully one more nights rest will get me back to my usual self so I don’t have to lounge about doing nothing.


Hope you are all well x

Blog #17

I am really enjoying being part of this Gap Programme here in Western Kenya, but I have to say how much I appreciate the fact that this weekend I was allowed to spend most of the weekend in Bungoma, as it was exactly what I needed to refuel myself for the remaining month stay I have left here of my African experience.

Saturday morning I woke up for breakfast where Matthew had already left to find us a decent affordable television for the guesthouse lounge. I spent the morning trying to get a little more sleep and then woke up for a shower and got my stuff together that I would need for my over night stay in Bungoma. I went to the Cyber centre to check some emails before coming back to the guesthouse to chill awaiting the return of Matthew. He arrived back earlier than planned with a TV that looked pretty nice that we would install in the room when we returned from our trip. We waited around and had lunch before making our way for a Matatu to take us to Bungoma for a weekend break.

On the Matatu we were all fired up and happy to be able to have some time away from Kimilili and especially for me to see a little more of Kenya. We spend about an hour on the Matatu and the journey cost us 75 shillings each. We arrived in Bungoma at around 3pm and head straight for the cash point to draw out some funds needed for the accommodation and also some other expenses I owed to Matthew. We had several attempts at trying to find a cash machine that was willing to give us some cash as most seemed to be out of order, but finally after sometime we withdrew our funds and head to the hotel using a Boda-Boda.

We arrived at Pamus Hotel just as it begun to rain heavily. We looked round for the reception which was situated outside where we filled in our details and paid the lady 800 Shillings for our stay in a room that occupied a double and single bed with a shower and wash basin. We collected our room keys and went to the room to get changed into some cleaner clothing. After getting changed in our simple but decent bed room, we walked over to the hotel restaurant to get some food, avoiding the rain.

We had a few Sodas whilst waiting for the rain to stop. It didn’t look to be ending anytime soon and we didn’t fancy staying in the hotel restaurant for the whole evening, so we decided to ask the lady in the restaurant if she could phone us a Tuk-Tuk. Instead of calling us a Tuk-Tuk, which is a three wheeled small taxi car, she called for an actual Taxi which arrived within a matter of minutes. After paying the Boda-Boda’s for their unneeded service, even though they were staying anyway to shelter themselves from the rain, we left in the car to go into town to have some food and take a walk around the town, that’s if it had stopped raining by then.

Arriving in town it had stopped raining so we decided to take a walk around the town before we stopped off at a café to have something to eat and relax. We looked round a few shops and explored the town a little but didn’t see anything we needed or worth buying. We stopped off at a little cafe type restaurant and had what we love best, chips that came alongside a nice little side salad. After making a slight mess by dripping bits of tomato sauce on the table cloth, we decide to have a final look around the town before heading back to the hotel as it would soon be getting dark and we didn’t know the place well enough to be staying out after dark. Using the same Taxi driver who was called Dominic, we went back to the Pamus Hotel just as it was getting quite dark. Now we knew that the restaurant had a TV in it because we had spotted it earlier on of first visit to the hotel. It looked to have satellite channels so we had the idea to sit and watch the programs it was playing while we slouched on the comfy seating. In no time at all it was 11pm and closing time for the restaurant and the staff wanted to get off, so we left for our room. Matthew had brought his radio with him so we sat listening to that for a while. We soon began to send messages to the people we know at home and also call a few which cost us an absolute bomb. We continued doing this till the very early hours of the morning then went to sleep for some well needed rest.

I woke up during the night to find Matthew had either not put his mosquito net on properly or he was a very messy sleeper. I could hear the buzzing of a mosquito in my net as the net I was using wasn’t what I would exactly call “top quality” with holes and tears that even a rhino could probably sneak through. I quickly returned to sleep and surprisingly didn’t have any crazy dreams like usual, well not that I can recall anyways.

Waking up bright and early we packed up and left for a last look around the town and grab some breakfast. We took egg and toast at the restaurant then got a Boda-Boda into town. There wasn’t much left to do in Bungoma as it wasn’t exactly the most exciting place in the world but I was glad I had got to see what I had. Wanting to get back before lunch we got on a Matatu from the loading bay where we waited about 10 minutes for the bus to move and get us back home. Being sat on a crowded bus of people early in the morning surely makes you feel tired again. I wanted to sleep and sat with my hand resting against my head as we ventured along the long virtually straight roads.

We left the Matatu and walked back to the guesthouse, the staying up late and talking had really caught up on me and I felt as if I could do with another 8 hours sleep. Back at home I decided as they weren’t expecting us for lunch that I would go back to bed and get some rest prepared for the afternoon and the rest of the evening. I did but only slept for a couple of hours waking to go find Matthew and Dennis. I met Matthew on his way back from the office and I was hungry so suggested we could go grab a bite to eat from town just to see me through until the evening meal. We grab some chips to take away and headed back to the office check some emails. I ate my chips while Matthew visited the house of a man he knows and then we both went back to install the new television and had dinner with the people from Holland.

In the evening I was called up by my parents where we had a chat for a while. The lads and Roel and Marianne were doing there own thing in the guesthouse, reading and doodling, so I decided to head for my room and stayed there for the rest of the night.

It had been a good weekend and nice to break away from the normal routine of life in Kimilili. Hopefully I will have the chance to see other towns before I return home in what is nearly only a month’s time.

God Bless x

Blog #16

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and it’s completely dark and I'm not talking about any of this wait a few minutes and your eyes will adapt darkness. Yeah I'm talking about full blown, I need to eat a sack load of carrots darkness, and you soon become very reliant on either a torch or your mobile phone as a flash light to find your way to the toilet. Luckily my room is only small and fortunately the route to the loo is always the same, however hard I dream the walls never seem to move and I always seem to make it there in time without any accidents.I wake up frequently, maybe its too much Chi in the evening I don’t know, but all I know is I often need to go and I've been struggling to hold a good nights sleep for a while, especially with the constant crazy dreams going on.

On the way back from the office Monday evening I noticed that my bike pedal was on its last legs and I had been avoiding get it fixed for a couple of weeks now and I think it was time something was done about it. After suggesting we took the bike to the Fundi with Matthew, we went to the guesthouse to drop off our bags that had our laptops in, and then we would head into town for the repair job. Back at the guesthouse while we waited for Matthew to get his act together, I sat talking to Dennis. I pointed out the problem with my bike and explained to him our plan of getting it fixed this evening. As I was discussing this with him he squeezed my front break slightly and it snapped. Another job to be done with the Fundi but fortunately we were just about on our way so we could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. In town we stopped off at a store where Matthew purchased 4 new pedals, 2 for my bike and 2 for his, these were blue metal ones and would hopefully be stronger, and he also purchased a new break to replace the snapped one. Meeting with the Fundi we discovered that we would have to wait around twenty minutes for him to finish his current repair job, but with dinner not far away and huge dark rain clouds creeping over the top of us, we decided we would call back in the morning and get the repair done then.

Luckily I could still ride my bike. I had one brake working and the pedal hadn’t fallen off yet so I could still use both feet. I rode back as Matthew pushed his bike and we were in time for dinner. After dinner we all sat around in the guesthouse doing our own things. I wrote up my blog and we talked for a while. I then received a call from my folks on my mobile towards the end of the evening. I had missed several calls as they attempted to contact me yesterday so we had our weekly discussion and then I called it a night.

Tuesday morning I had breakfast then returned to my room. I laid down on my bed and was fast asleep again for an unplanned hours rest. Waking up shocked at the fact I had dozed off, I got dressed and washed again and went to the offices to meet Matthew. I walked to the offices as he had taken my bike to be repaired, I half expected him to be gone by now and in town with the Fundi. I met him at the gates where he was just on his way to get the bike repaired. We decided to go back to the guesthouse, pick up Matthews bike also, which had a puncture, and then go into town together. In town we left the bikes at the Fundi being repaired with the replacement parts we had purchased the day before and decided to have a drink of Soda at Mount Crest while we waited to collect them. We sat around waiting for about 25 minutes talking and discussing thing then made our way back for lunch at the slightly earlier time of 12.30pm.

Lunch was earlier today because Jane was leaving at around 1pm and when we arrived in the dining room, Jane was still packing her gear together into her suitcase as she was delayed during her last minute meetings in the morning. We began eating at around 1pm and were soon joined by Jane. Afterwards I helped Jane with the closing and stringing up of her suitcase to make sure it stayed closed throughout the journey. When Jane arrived 3 weeks ago the handle of her suitcase had snapped off so during her time here she had it repaired at the Fundi. He looked to have done a nice tidy job of attaching a new handle to the suitcase which was a wedding gift in the 1960’s, but on the travels carrying it to the front of the guesthouse the handle began to come away from the case. Trying to give it extra support we re strung the case adding more of the thick golden string around and along the case tightly. We saw her off approaching 2pm where she rode shotgun along side Anne as she drove to Kisumu.

The rest of the day was very ordinary. I spend a lot of the afternoon developing and modifying the website and in the evening sitting in the guesthouse.

Wednesday morning I began at the office writing up some material for the website. The power was off for some time with heavy rains the night before but then returned mid morning. I went back to the guesthouse after running out of steam and ideas for the material I had to write, where Matthew and Dennis were testing some Televisions for the guesthouse. The closest we had to a working TV was one that didn’t accompany a remote and looked like something possibly from an old film with buttons to change the stations. The guys attempted to tune in the stations and managed to come up with a couple of pictures on screen but these were pretty much shocking quality. The sound wasn’t right cracky either, with a screeching sound constantly in the background. Matthew was sorting himself out before we went to the office, so I waited around attempting to watch the TV. I was watching the news where they were broadcasting the release of Johnston the journalist. I watched the same clip possibly about 12 times of him being taken to a car and watched them drive away in safety. It was good to watch something at least, even over the top of the screeching and poor display.

We shared our lunch alone, just Matthew and I as Roel and Marianne were using the day to visit El Doret and purchase some furniture for their house. After lunch we continued on to the office then came back in the evening to watch 15 minutes of the legendary Art Attack. After watching the crazy hands and the talking head Matthew and I had a stroll into town where we spotted Dennis and Edgar in the Pioneer mobile phone store talking to Peter the owner. We spent sometime talking to the guys then headed back for dinner. Watching Big Daddy was the main entertainment for the evening, so we sat in the lounge watching this with still no sign of Roel and Marianne.

Thursday morning saw another power failure so we decided while we couldn’t use our machines we would have the meeting with Lois that we really should have had a couple of weeks back. Spending an hour or so we ran through how the Education System here in Kenya works and learned a lot that will stand me in good stead with this project. Once the power came back, I neatly rewrote my notes into a form that was much better for me to understand and use for material. I spent most of the day doing this with a few more brief power failures throughout the afternoon. In the late afternoon I returned back to the guesthouse where the two lads had arrived from their journey from Holland and their overnight stay in Nairobi. We sat chatting for most of the evening and learned how Roel and Marianne had experienced trouble with the Landrover the day previous which lead to them being late home. We shared some Dutch biscuits in the evening that the lads had kindly brought from home.

I began Friday morning by blowing up a couple of balloons for Marianne as it was Roels 58th birthday and she wanted to make the dining room a little more decorative. After wishing Roel a Happy Birthday I went to the office for an hours work.

At around 10.30 pm we went to Kimilili Boys school where Luke and Yip, the lads from Holland, had arranged for 4 schools to come together to participate in a football tournament. The Harambee Foundation is the name of the charity in which the family from Holland help contribute towards schools here in Kenya. They visit schools and supply them with funds and equipment and today they were running this tournament as a fun event. We hung around until 1pm where we watched the first two games take place. The teams were all dressed in their athletics uniforms which consisted of mainly a T Shirt with the colours of their schools. Kimilili Boys, Kamusinga, Lutonyi and Kamingichi were the four Primary schools taking part in the day. The first game we saw ended with the score 0-0 and the second saw a two nil victory for Lutonyi.

After spending some more time at the office after lunch we made our way to watch the remaining games of the tournament and show our support. Today there was going to be no Final as there were time issues with the students needing to get home before dark so the scores were all tallied up at the end of the day. After all the games had been played and scores were recorded, the teams and certain players were awarded prizes. The lads had brought over football shirts and trophies from home to give out to special players. The awarded players all came forward for a photo and their prize. Kamusinga was the winning team of the day and they received a trophy for their achievements. Matthew and I followed the team on our bikes as they walked home from winning the tournament and they were so happy and showed it by chanting and parading all the way home.

We still had a little time before dinner so we left the parade of blue uniformed school children outside the office. We were visited by a man who Matthew must know and he showed me a CD he had wrote and produced so I gave it a listen on my laptop. It was Gospel music with some songs in English but most in Swahili. It was nice to hear and he seemed very pleased and happy with his work.



The evening meal allowed me and Matthew to be fed more than usual with lots of food left over to be swallowed up. When we had finished, not a single plate was in the same position it had been first placed in. I was definitely full but because it was a birthday evening we were presented with a special birthday cake. Occupying 21 candles, Roel had the job of blowing them all out from the cake. We shared this and while doing so the power was out from 8pm. It didn’t last so long, maybe 15 minutes or so, and unlike usual we had been warned by the electric company that there was going to be a short power cut. They had explained the power would be out from 8 and that they couldn’t say how long for. Everyone expected to be 8 in the morning so we were slightly shocked it happened when it did.

We spent most the evening playing Uno on one of the wonky tables from outside. After wining one of the 5 or so games, I retired to my room to get my rest for the weekend which would involve a short break away in Bungoma, a town about an hour away.