Adventures before Christmas

Christmas holidays have started and so far it has been pretty surreal! Magic tuc tuc rides, some ruins some drinking and a hell of a lot of donkeys!
We started off in Mombasa in a very grotty little backpackers which had the distinct look of a prison. We explored a bit and got very cold in the cinema watching Narnia and had a night of jim beams and coke in a bar.
Next stop Malindi which was amazing despite the state of the hotel which had bathroom door issues, but definitely a step up from the cell block style of the last one. Had a pretty amazing day that started with free coffee cheese and tuna , then 7 of us headed off in one tuc tuc to the gedi ruins. Really cool place, and our tuc tuc driver joined us walking around the ruins then took us home.  There were a few interesting nights out where far too much alcohol was consumed and definitely made the 4 hour journey to Lamu in a bus a pretty painful experience for some.  A new level of hangover occured for some.
So to Lamu on the ferry - what a place.  It is stunning and people here are really friendly. Have had some immense shopping trips and Last night we had the most bizarre but brilliant evening.   The group of 11 of us went to the house of a local man called ali hippy for dinner.  Crab, Lobster and prawns it was genius and only like 6 quid.  The night was also rounded off with Ali hippy singing us swahili reggae surrounded by a large group of children singing along and clapping.
Its now Christmas eve and we are either going to a floating bar or a beach party tonight and then tomorrow there is a random group christmas meal and possibly fireworks on the beach.  Certainly not a normal Christmas but gonna be pretty awesome to look back on.

The driving of the Shrew

Spent yesterday going up to Diani to do the mini shop and got a chance to get my driving skills tested.  Absolutely terrifying driving the shrew! A very old and large van that holds 10 people and does have the habit of breaking! Thankfully it all went well and because I was the only one who didnt have beer at lunch I was tasked with driving all the way home! Drivers here are crazy!  Matatus go wherever and whenever the hell they like without warning, people are walking on the road and I had a near miss with both chickens and goats which are constantly wandering around everywhere! But all in all it went alright - even the 15km along the dirt road which had me grasping at the wheel because it felt like the steering wheel might come off with the amount it was shaking.
ANyways the holidays have started now and am off to Malindi, Lamu and Mtwapa for Christmas and new years with a group of friends.  Happy to be celebrating Christmakah with my best mate out here sophie, of course it will be strange and would love to be with my family and friends but i believe cocktails on the beach will occur so its all good!

So have spent the day back on mkwiro sorting out the community room, taking inventory and seeing what new things i need to start my work in january.  It was nice to know that it's my room and i can do what i want with it!! Oh also got to pick my bed room for when i am staff which is nice - no more sleeping in a room with ten other people and living out of my rucksack!! Yey! then have basically spent the past hour chilling out and possibly buying some fabric :) Also on the boat ride back some of the marine staff swam the channel while we watched over so think i may have burnt a bit, but oh well!  On tuesday i am off to diani to do some of the shopping for when new volunteers arrive and then get to test my driving skills in the staff van - pretty much terrified because they drive like maniacs over here! Anyway needs to get off and start studying some more TEFL !!

My new placement!

So my 10 week expo is now done and Now it's time to be staff!!!
After waiting a very long time to - for 10 other people to be told where they will be placed I was finally called up to meet with Drew the base manager.  So he decided it would be very funny to tell us to pull placements out of a hat and see what we got .. after going through forest which just was never gonna happen and a placement at a sea turtle place he got a bit bored of the game and told me I will be working doing community work in Mkwiro!!! SO FREAKING HAPPY!!!
So i have a lot of work that I will be doing working with the primary school and teacher development, sorting out the timetables and lessons for the students who are being taught english and working with different community groups plus whatever other work they throw my way! Pretty intense and scary, but i am so excited!!
I am gonna beworking with a very funny scottish girl called breige and its gonna be awesome, am pretty much bricking it because i know its gonna be a hell of a lot of work, but cannot wait and training starts tomorrow!!
Will see how it gets on!! xx

FREAKING WEEK 10!!!

So I have now been in Kenya for 2 and a half months and it’s been a busy but amazing time! So I have decided that the best thing to do to keep people updated is this blog thing people talk about!

So in very quick summary, the past 9 weeks have consisted of 2 weeks on the Marine project with GVI getting data on dolphins and the like and saw a great big humpback whale and it’s baby – uber cool! Then 2 weeks trekking through the forest sweating my arse off and getting numerous bruises, but did get to see lotsa monkeys! And finally I got put onto the community projects! YEY!!

So the start of my community work was in Tsavo West at a small village called Kasaani.  One of the most amazing places I have been in my life!  Granted we were living in a chicken coop (no joke it was actually a house for chickens), but we got to wake up every morning to see Mt Kilimanjaro staring down at us.  The people were amazing in particular 2 old mamas called Pricilla and Veronica – didn’t speak a word of English but were two of the funniest people ever! Every day Pricilla tried to get me dancing and did teach a few of the girls traditional dance. Brilliant brilliant people who made us feel incredibly welcome. So we spent the week teaching about stock takes which can be a task when 1 its completely foreign to them, and 2 there was only a couple of people who understood English! We also did lots of trekking around to sights like seleta hill and lake chella, and on Wednesday it was washing day at the spring!  Bit awkward trying to wash yourself from a bucket, with about 20 school kids watching on! So onto the next village for our second week in the dust…. Mahandakini was incredible, and had the most adorable little kid in the world living there! We spent our week teaching about cotton products and accounting, though my student didn’t turn up, and we found that in fact he was in Mombasa for the week! The 2 weeks were incredible and I had a lot of fun, even though I was filthy dirty and so freaking hot! It was like the Africa you see on TV, oh and on the bus ride back we got held up by Elephants in the road! Pretty awesome.

Just quickly an apology for moving so fast through what I have been doing, but its been 9 weeks and don’t want to write a novel! Will do these more often so I can actually get all my stories in, a lot more has happened, but writing it all down now would take an age!!!

Anyway back to what I have been doing.  SO I then moved to Shimoni to work on the community projects there.  I was able to get involved with the womens group and designed their new cookbook, I sat in on some of the counselling training and got involved in the waste management outreach as much as I could.  I also taught about 6 advanced adult English classes and realized I really need to improve on my grammar because Abdul my student knew a bit more than me on some things!!  There is so much going on in that village its crazy – everyone is really enthusiastic and pro-active which is awesome to see.

So to now I am on the beautiful island of Wasini in Mkwiro village working on community projects her.  I have basically been swamped with work which is good, but very tiring! So far I have been looking at the infrastructure of the primary school & how it can be improved, teacher development – made lots of workshop teaching classroom skills, working on designing a new boutique and trying to design a tourist information board.  And on top of that I am studying for my TEFL qualification.

So its been a very interesting 10 weeks filled with mossie bites, interesting people, lots of fun and too may freaking weetabix, carbs and veggies for any human to handle!!

As I said will try and do these more often so I can put slightly more interesting things about whats going on!!  But that’s about it for the basics of the last 10 weeks. Will update soon when I find out where I am gonna be for the next 4 months of my life!!