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
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