These last few weeks have just flown by I’ll tell you that for free and I’ve now got only a couple of weeks left of my stay and then ill be back home resuming normal life my with family and friends in Halifax. So far it’s been an amazing experience and I tell you what, the arrival of new visitors is making it even better by the day. John and Emily have been awesome these past couple of weeks and it’s been really great to have them on board along side Matthew and the other people who have been around during my stay. Music has always been a passion of mine and it’s nice to have someone around who can play an instrument. We have been rocking out the tunes on an evening and I’ve also witnessed John leading worship in a way so that we can party like its 1999.
I woke up Monday morning and the power was very unpredictable. One minute the power would be on, the next it would be off, so the idea of having a shower was pretty much out of the window. I had breakfast with Matthew, John and Emily and then returned to my room extremely tired from a very poor nights sleep. I decided, as the power was now completely off, that I would go back to bed for a while to catch up on some sleep, so I crawled back under my cosy bed sheets and had a long sleep, waking up at 11.30am.
Waking up feely pretty much refreshed but extremely lazy, I got ready to finally start my day and head over to the guesthouse lounge and did some ironing. I stood watching some television whilst I ironed and waited for lunchtime to arrive. I had soon finished my two pairs of trousers and five T shirts and with only moments until I would be served lunch, I made my way to the kitchen area to speak to our brilliant chefs. The guys had not yet returned for lunch, so I decided rather than eat alone, I would wait for them to arrive and talk to Dennis whilst I was waiting. They guys must have been held up somewhere so after talking with Dennis whilst he did his washing for half an hour, I decided to give up waiting and went to eat.
Most of the afternoon was spent in the office, tiding up my project and tying up any loose ends. Back at the guesthouse we had our dinner and were supposed to have our first session of evening devotion with the new guests, but unfortunately the people we had arranged to come had been working in the field all day and arrived back too late to come.
Not having an evening devotion we sat around in the guesthouse lounge drinking our Chai and hot chocolate. John took to the guitar and began strumming, playing some songs that I remember from school and when I attended church with my parents. I was reminded of so many memories and being sat round singing along to the acoustic sounds that John so professionally and wonderfully played, the atmosphere was so positive and had such a loving and united feel to it. Despite having no Hymn books at this point, we still managed to remember most of the words to each song and sang them pretty loudly and enthusiastically. The only real unfortunate thing about this particular activity was that I think Emily had all the songs stuck in her head as she tried to get some well deserved and needed shut eye, after a long and busy day of orientation.
I spent Tuesday morning printing out all the work I had done over my three month period so that I could sit down with Solomon and discuss and present him with all the information he needed to understand how the Transformation Kenya programme would work. The printer was very slow and there were continuous interruptions with numerous people wanting to also print from the same machine. I spent lunch time with just Matthew as John and Emily were off at Dreamland involved in workshops in the school and hospital.
Back at the office some time after lunch we were faced with once again a power shortage probably because of the rainfall we were experience at this time. Once the rain had stopped, I decided to head back to the guesthouse to be taught by Helen how to make an impressive selection of Chapattis that I could show off possibly with when I returned home. I helped with the nine chapattis that we were able to make from the big ball of dough that Helen worked so hard to prepare and then I added some oil to the dough and left it to set for about 20 minutes. After this I began to roll out the dough and create the chapattis which would be later deep fried. My first few attempts were pretty poor to say the least with the shape tending to be more square than round like they are usually found. Once I had gotten some practise, I became quite good at quickly rolling a nice round, even layer of dough and helped put these in the pan to be fried for what was less than a couple of minutes. We soon had a full meal prepared and I also made Chai under the instruction of Helen and we all feasted and had what was a successful and well prepared meal.
That evening we were visited by Francis where we had our first evening devotion session. It went successfully and John also assisted with the guitar whilst we sang one song. Once Francis had left for home in the pouring rain, John taught me a few chords on the guitar which I tried to learn and pick up for the rest of the evening.
Wednesday morning I ate breakfast alone with John and Emily out and about doing all kinds of activities, with Matthew with them showing them to their stations. This morning I had arranged to have the meeting with Solomon that would finalise my project and allow him to have a clear interpretation on what I had spent most of my time doing.
I called Solomon’s secretary to clarify my meeting and Solomon got back to me suggesting 11am as the time we were to have our meeting. Putting a few things together, I waited until 11am to be called to his office but like usual he was delayed, with another of his meetings lasting a lot longer than initially planned. I waited around and continued working on what I could until lunch time and then head back to the guesthouse to quickly grab some lunch and hurry back, as I could have been called for this meeting at any time. Unfortunately I spent most of the day waiting and never actually succeeded to have a successful discussion with Solomon at all. Before dinner I went to Spring’s café with Dennis and Mike for some Mandazi and Chai which was really nice and it was a chance to catch up with the guys who I hadn’t really seen or talked with for a while.
Back at the ranch I met with John and Emily who had both come back from a successful day working both in Lagulu School and out in the community with a mobile hospital. John proceeded to tell us about his day and how he used his musical talents to give across a spiritual and encouraging message to children, and then Emily explained how her day saw her working alongside doctors, meeting and treating patients with medical problems such as AIDS and TB.
After dinner we had our usual evening devotion and continued the rest of the evening playing the guitar. I had the opportunity to have a tinkle, so I practiced a few chords attempting to try and learn at least a little.
Thursday morning I was faced with breakfast alone again. This was becoming seemingly more common and I hope the reason wasn’t because I failed to have a proper shower for some of the mornings previous because of the power problems we were experiencing. They had gone early to start their duties and had quite a distance to travel to actually reach where they would be working. I spent most of the morning emailing people who could help with this program and also spent some time with Ann discussing the Education System as the details I had received were slightly incorrect. Sitting with Ann for about 20 minutes, we made a few alterations to the material I had strung together and arranged to meet again some other time to discuss it in more detail.
After lunch I came back to find the office being powered by the petrol generator. I spent the afternoon, working on some guidelines for my presentations and did a little more printing in the cyber area. We spent the evening in the lounge for devotion and all seemed to go our separate ways with another day ahead of us tomorrow.
Matthew set off to Kisumu early Friday morning so the table for breakfast was not full once again. I spent the morning just contacting some people via email regarding my project and took it quite easy with not a very lot to do. The rain soon began to beat down on the tin roof and continued all the way up to lunch time. I had to take a journey home in the runny slippery mud but fortunately this time I had been smart and worn my trainers instead of my flip flip/slippers which I had worn on previous very wet and muddy occasions.
Finishing lunch I took shelter under the slanting roof of the Simba and stood speaking to Dennis waiting until the rain calmed down before I embarked back on my journey to the office. As I waited I saw Solomon jump into his car ready to leave the compound. Quickly running over, I asked where he was going and if I could have a lift to the office. He was on his way to the office also anyway, so I got into the passengers side and we left for the office. During our short journey along the road we arranged to have the meeting that we were unable to have a couple of days previous. He told me that 2.30pm was a perfect time to come and see him so I should get my things together and meet him in his office.
At half past I made my way and sat with him and put forward some of my ideas for this project in brief. He seemed pretty happy with what I explained and excited to read the document I had put together in full and placed before him on his desk. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes and was very encouraging and left with both of us feeling positive about what would come from this over the next few years.
In the evening John, Emily and I sat in the guesthouse playing cards like amateurs. We didn’t really know the rules to the game we were playing so we improvised and dealt with any problems when we came to them. Matthew still hadn’t arrived back as he was picking up four new visitors who were travelling from Holland to stay here at the guesthouse on an internship for 11 weeks. 10pm arrived and we were all pretty tired so we head to bed to sleep and wake up with four new visitors to greet at breakfast.
Not long after we had hit the sack the new arrivals were heard dragging their suitcases and carrying their stuff along towards my room and then up into the guesthouse to be shown to their rooms. They all must have been so tired from a long and stressful journey, so they too quickly made their way to bed to wake up fresh and ready to greet the rest of their housemates and start on their new adventure.
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