Where to start…. It’s great to be back! I arrived on Wednesday morning and spent the day catching up with other volunteers and visiting Fremo’s clinic – they have opened another branch!! It is small and a little isolated but in a perfect location for the locals. Even after its first week of opening, it has already proved to be a success. In the last 4 days, we have also celebrated 2 of the staff’s birthdays – Doctor John and Doctor Tony – Jane decorated a cake for them and they absolutely loved it. Birthday’s in Kenya are rarely celebrated (many do not know their date of birth), so they were definitely in high spirits.
Thursday was spent preparing for a visit to the IDP camps – Jane, Izzo and I have been working on the website and forms to profile each of the 270 school children ready for sponsorship. Thursday night we went out for Ethiopian food I have come to like very much and Friday morning, a bunch of 12 new volunteers and us left early to the IDP camps.
Jane and I were dropped off first at the IDP camps and the others went on to start their ‘outreach weekend’ with a visit to KCC – they were to join us the following day when feeding the families. Jane and I were the first to see the school in full action – after months of hard work building the school and preparing the families, it was overwhelming to see the children in school, on chairs with desks, a blackboard with chalk and with brilliant, qualified teachers teaching classes in English. The hard work and dedication of each individual volunteer over the past 3 months is staggering – I just wish each of them were here to witness the extraordinary impact and the delight on the kids faces in person. Moments like watching the school in full swing and knowing I had an impact is simply indescribable. To be part of something that will change the lives of so many and prepare them for a bright future means so very much.
During their break (they don’t’ have lunch yet, but we hope to implement that soon) they played seesaw on this massive flimsy piece of wood, 16 children squeezed onto it at once and had a brilliant time! How it didn’t break, I will never know! I can’t wait to experience moments like this with mum.
On Friday morning we spoke to about 35 children with the help of a translator where we asked them a bunch of questions. We managed to get information pertaining to what they want to be when they grow up but the basic stuff like their date of birth and family history they did not know. We then decided to ask their parents (via the children) to visit the school the next morning (Saturday) to speak to us direct. With that, we had the afternoon free so we decided to visit a few of the families ourselves starting in the less fortunate camp. We found being in their environment and speaking to them as a family in their home allowed them open up a little easier. It also allowed me to have one on one quality time with the families I have seen many times now, but I found it terribly disturbing learing the massive impact the post election violence in 2007 had on each of them.
On the way back from visiting the families, we stopped by the local little pub to watch the South Africa v Mexico game. The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. When they scored, chairs went flying and drinks were knocked over in the rush to the front of the screen to see the replay. Talk about the African pride! It was a brilliant experience.
That night Jane and I stayed with a local in the 3rd camp. It was absolutely wonderful, we woke up to the sound of birds and children laughing and playing in the distance. The air was so fresh and clean it reminded me of visiting my parents in the country. At night, there were so many stars I had almost forgotten just how beautiful they are. We were invited to a couple of homes; I had also forgotten how simple life could be and how few possessions we really need to be happy. In Monica’s home she had a kid (baby goat) roaming the main room – until about the age of 5 months they can die from the cold or be eaten by hunting dogs. They are a very precious animal here. Jane also milked the kid's mum – it was absolutely hilarious listening to her eeeww’s and ‘gross’ remarks, damn it I should have had a camera! What a cack!
Starting at 8am Saturday morning, we had a massive and incredibly successful day meeting with the families and gaining full profiling information on the children. Some parents still had difficulty remembering things like their children’s birthdays but we managed. I am so happy to be doing what I am doing but it makes me absolutely sick to the core at some stories I heard – I am willing to share them if you want to know, but find it inappropriate and disrespectful to write about it in here.
We ended up profiling over 200 children with their families, some families waited over 4 hours to see us. I heard more horrifying stories I could ever have imagined possible, I have a better understanding now how so many of these people have become so hardened. Listening to their tragic accounts and holding back my emotion is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I also better identify now why some children do not talk or still have nightmares, almost 3 years on.
We hope to have our first group of 30 children's profiles ready to send to people within the next week. They will outline how each child can be sponsored if you would like to do that. I also hope to have information regarding other forms of donations - like to the land project, water project or mill project to name few.
I can hardly believe that mum will be flying to Kenya in just 3 days!! Wow that’s crept up super quickly, we have so much we can do starting with a free medical camp at IDP on Monday – very excited about that!!
More to come........
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