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
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