Saturday 29th May

Well my second week is just about over and I am starting to get very familiar with the area around the school. I can now walk by myself to Shanzu where the cyber cafe is and I am starting to recognise the shop keepers and parents who live in this area. The guys at the cyber cafe make me very welcome - I think I am becoming their most regular customer. The cafe belongs to the local catholic church and the building also houses an IT training centre so plenty of expertise to draw on if I need to.

I have now sat and observed all of the classes in the Kindergarten and on Friday I was back in MR Reubin's class. I now have a good understanding of what the children are learning and what materials would be useful to bring out from the UK. Mr Rubin has some of the older boys and their day is from 7am until roughly 4pm - a long day for the kids but they do get around one and a half hours off in the middle of the day to let them go home for lunch.

We are still working on getting my entry permit sorted out to allow me to volunteer. The school chairman went to emigration on Friday and came to school with a form for me to complete. I need a passport photo so Grace and I went to Ntwopa (the nearest town) to a digital photo shop and got some pics taken - that involved another journey in a matatu - never a dull moment. We were hurtling along the road to some Bob Marley reggie - surreal really but I love it. lol

Grace describes Ntwopa as Sodom and Gomorrah (not sure of the spelling here :-) but you'll get the general drift when I tell you it appears to be a favourite spot for white men and beautiful young Kenyan girls - and little old white ladies and beautiful young Kenyan men!! Anyway it does have it's other uses and I got my pics.

My sweet tooth has been giving me the gip - lack of chocolate and cakes etc - so we bought some cakes to take back to school. As luck would have it by the time we got back only Obadiah and Reubin were left plus a handful of kids so we al had a kind of inpromptu cake fest - it was great and the kids loved it. I think I might be encouraging the start of some bad habits around the school with my love of suger - and of course whatever I buy I have to share - no complaints so far.

Today I went along to the White Sands Resort to swim and see how the other half live - and my do they live! Thank you Maureen for suggesting I come along here (they are also letting me use their Business Centre to update my blog) I've had a really nice day relaxing by the pool - and no Claire this is not where I am going to be spending every weekend lol - but it has been a lovely day.

Tomorrow morning I am meeting one of the KG teachers at 9am and am going with her to church. Really looking forward to the experience and the singing - not mine I hasten to add!!

Then Monday back to school to spend more time with the children and teachers. Tuesday 1st June is a local holiday in Kenya and I've been invited to Mama Lucy's house for the day - Mama Lucy is one of the ladies who cooks lunch at the school. I've also found out why Mama Lucy - mums take the name of their first born and that then becomes a 'familiar' form of name greeting - that would make me Mama Claire lol

Well that is about 6pm and my taxi is due to take me back to the village. This has been a nice interlude - but not Kenya as I have come to know it - it has also made me even more aware of the difference in living standards within a 4-Kilometre radius.

Omani said to me last week "you know Jo-an in Kenya the rich get richer and the poor get poorer - I think he may be right.

I told him that in Belfast we used to say "the rich get richer and the poor get children" We had a laugh at that one!!

Offers of Help and Training Team

Thanks guys for all your offers of help. Can you contact Maureen direct - you will get her number on the www.educatethekids.com website.

Training team - we talked about sponsoring our own school child - Kathleen I know you have kept the 'Africa' account open - maybe we could use the funds in there to sponsor the education for a child. Again if this is something you would like to do you can contact Yvonne or Maureen direct.
Love and miss you all. xx

Uniforms

Thanks to Maureen for sending a big suitcase full of school dresses, shirts, trousers, etc back with Narshain. The children are very smart in their blue and white checked dresses and blue shirts and gray trousers - possibly the best dressed school children in Utange - if not Kenya lol

Hi again

Where do I start? Lots of experiences since I last updated my blog last Saturday. When Grace and I left the cyber cafe we went to a local store to buy food to make up food parcels for the parents of some of the children. Ladies from the church in Dunfermline had given me money to buy food to make up the parcels. We bought rice, flour, beans, sugar, etc as well as bags to make up the parcels in. Thank you Caroline and Sheena from Dunfermline. Getting our shopping back to the school to make up the parcels was fun! The food went on the back of a motor bike and Grace and I followed - on the back of a motor bike!! I am getting used to this mode of transport - Utange's taxis - however each time I arrive safely I say thanks. If you can imagine dirt track bikes racing over pot holed roads which are flooded in parts then you get the picture. All good fun. Sunday morning was lovely - the sun shine and I sat outside and had breakfast and finished my latest book - I'm on number three since I arrived! I could hear the gospel singing from the local church and it was amazing. In the afternoon I visited the Orphanage and the schools that Maureen and the charity hve built. At this point I want to clarify that the KinderGarten where I am helping out is a leased building and not a custom built school. That said I really love it - I love how the school sits among the trees, the swings in the shade that the children play on - I love to watch the children queue up for their morning porridge and fried potatoes. Whilst the building may lack some facilities the children are loved and happy and Grace and her team of teachers do a fantastic job preparing the children to move to the primary and secondary schools . The orphanage is a wonderful building - stone built with all the facilities that children could want to allow them to have a happy and secure home life. Currently there are twelve children in the orphanage - all well looked after by Omari and Pamela. Ormari is a kindergarten teacher and Pamela is his sister. Separate rooms for the boys and the girls of course which both contain beautiful modern bunk beds. The children have a lovely sitting area with comfortable sofas and a TV. Pamela was very proud of her kitchen - well kitted out to enable her to cook for the children. Most of the children were at church when I was there but I did meet four of the younger boys - all proud to show me their home.

I haven't been inside the Primary of Secondary schools yet but have been told that again they provide all the fantastic facilities to enable these kids to get a great education.

Sheena - if you are reading this - Grace and I visited town with Happy and she chose books, pencils, a maths set, etc with the money you sent. We then walked her home to help her carry her shopping. She was delighted with what she got - I have a picture for you of Happy and her mum. Also a big thank you from her mum and her dad for the food parcels you sent.

Caroline - likewise I have pictures for you of your sponsored children and their mums receiving the food parcels you provided.

What else have I been up to? Well I have had my first trip on a matatu - Kenya's local transport system. These are mini buses that provide very cheap and cheerful travel - the drivers compete for passengers - don't think I need to say anymore on that one, you'll get the general picture!! lol

I can't believe I have been here over a week now. I've taken loads of pics and just wish I could upload them to let you see this amazing country and the fantastic children and teachers I am lucky to have met and to work with every day.

Omar asked me today if I were to comment on my experiences of Kenya so far what would I say. He stumped me - I've taken in so much in the short time I have been here. There are a few things that have really done it for me so far. The first is the strong family culture in Kenya - certainly in Utange which is the only area I have experienced so far - families look out for each other and share what they have. Then there is the friendliness of the Kenyans - these people have made me so welcome I feel like I have known them for ever. And then - being a Belfast girl - another thing that I have found remarkable is the way in which people from different religions live happily together - in the school we have both Christian children and Muslim children working and playing happily together. It has crossed my mind on a couple of occasions that these kids could teach the kids where I grew up a thing or two about religious tolerance.

The saga of my visa goes on. Maureen is looking after me well (thank you Maureen) and Lemmy the head master and Omar the chairman of the school are both visiting the emigration offices in Mombasa today to find out what I need to do to satisfy emigration laws. So hopefully I will know soon and my visa will be sorted out.

For all you sun lovers out there - it is still raining :-) I have a good 45 minute walk ahead of me to get back from Shansu to where I live and I'm hoping the rain goes off to let me get back kind of dry at least.

The Indian Ocean isn't far away from where I am staying so this weekend I plan - weather permitting - to visit a hotel near the ocean so I can see the beach for myself. I have heard it is beautiful.

Oh - I should have mentioned I had my first class to look after this afternoon all on my own. The children are getting used to my accent - yes Maureen they are really getting to grips with this Belfast twang of mine lol - I'm not such a novelty to the kids now and they we had a great time reading and counting. Most of them are bright little sparks and soak up all the learning they receive.

Nothing much else to update at the moment other than to say I am really enjoying Kenyan food - I eat at the school every day which is great especially as I am off the don't cook, won't cook variety!!

Oh and just to say I am loving my time here - can't believe I am now down to nine weeks already!

More about the School

Saturday 22nd May 2010

I am totally inspired by how these children learn and how the teachers teach with the minimal resource. The kids use pencils until they are so small that they are no longer able to hold them between their fingers. Jotters are flimsy and dried from the heat and are treated like precious jewels. Erasers are scarce - the child with the eraser is very popular and shares with the other kids without a murmur. What I would give to have some boxes of erasers, notebooks and pencils to share with the children.

Text books are scarce - one text book between four children is normal.

Today it is raining - the rain started at 1am this morning and stopped about an hour ago. Grace and I went to the school to check on the water level in the classrooms. The roof leaks badly so we had a bit of work to do to move tables and chairs to drier areas in the classrooms. Anybody out there able to mend a school roof? It wouldn't take much - a ladder and some PVC would do the job and make a big difference.

My own roof leaks - I spent most of the early morning mopping up water and moving the few bits of furniture around however that is nothing compared to the damage the long rains do to the shacks the children live in. The baked mud turns to slime with the volume of rain and the shacks start to crumble and need to be rebuilt. Grace and I walked to the Cyber cafe today - the roads are flooded and on a couple of occasions we hitched a life on the back of motor bikes through the worst flooded areas.

I'm told the long rains last until the end of June - the Lonely Planet says the end of May - I'm hoping it's right!!

Please help these kids - this charity is no Tear Fund, Plan UK or Action Aid. Every penny goes to where it should and a few pounds a week makes such a difference. There are no fancy buildings or huge overheads to be paid, no advertising, no media cover. Just Maureen and Ian and Yvonne and her hubby and the other sponsors who donate anything from ten to fifteen pounds a month - this is nothing. Hardly the cost of a carry out meal on Friday night.

Please visit www.educatethekids.com or phone Yvonne on 01943 816557 or Maureen on 01506 494471 and ask how you can help.

Please Please Please.

love to all

Madame Jo-An lol x

The School and the Children

The school is a large wooden building with a thatched roof. It sits in a lovely shaded area which is great for keeping the head of the sun away from the kids however the down side is it also limits natural light and as the school has no electricity the teachers and children work in half light most of the time.

The children are amazing - they come from families who have next to nothing yet manage to turn up at 7am every day beautifully clean and in a fresh uniform - which gets washed outside and by hand every night. The children welcomed me in English - some sang songs. Each class has a mix of age groups - the class I am working with has children between 6-9 years - this is because some children get the opportunity to start school earlier than others. Even the 6 year old children speak approx three languages - English, their mother tongue dependent on their tribe or community and Swahili which I believe is the national language of Kenya.

Although School starts at 7am some kids don't arrive until 8am. This is as a result of them having to walk approx 4-miles to school and 4-miles back. This is no problem for them - they are just so happy to have the opportunity of an education.

I am officially Madame Jo-an - my name has been broken down into two syllables and pronounced the Kenyan way.

Time to go now as I need to get back to where I am staying before dark. Hope to be able to update again on Saturday.

Thursday 20/5/2010

Finally arrived in Utange on Tuesday 18th May. Did have to take the train to London after all but it was fine.

The sunrise from the plane was amazing - the sky was so clear I was able to see Ethiopia as the plane flew down to Mombasa.

First mistake was telling Passport Control that I was in Mombasa to do voluntary work for 10 weeks - I would have been better saying I was just visiting - even though my work is voluntary I still need a work permit so must get to Emigration in Mombasa and apply before they come looking for me!! I have learned so much already about life here even though I have only been here since Tuesday. Each area only has one public school so a teacher can have up to 150 pupils in their class - dependent on the size of the area. Can't imagine what it must be like trying to control a class that size.

My summer house is just as I expected from the pictures - I'm on my 5th cold shower. Just hope that when the weather gets warmer the water also gets warmer. We had out first black out yesterday - power came back on around 7pm last night.

The I pod I got as a presenti great and I'm using it every night in my summer house - Utange has been introduced to Leonard Cohen lol

Saturday 15th May.

I met my friend Brenda for lunch Friday and now have an assortment of letters and money gifts for several of the children. The money is to be used for food parcels for the children and their families and the letters are an opportunity for sponsors to catch up with their sponsored children. The money is in sterling so I will need to change it to Kenyan Shilling when I arrive in Utange then work out how much rice, etc I can purchase with each gift. I'm hoping the headmaster Lemy will help me with this - Maureen has assured me that he will.
Maureen has also given me an overview of what to expect - good and bad - so I feel more or less prepared.

Over the last two days I have become very aware of what we all take for granted - the way hot water flows the minute the shower is turned on and the fresh clean water that comes out of the kitchen taps. I'm expecting that won't always be the case over the next few weeks so I'm enjoying all the nice hot showers at the moment. I think my cat has expectations that he is coming with me - why would he have jumped in the case otherwise? lol He doesn't know it yet but he goes on his holidays tomorrow to my friend Caroline's. I'll miss him but know he will be well looked after.

Pupils from the primary school

The kids all look very smart in their school dresses - they also look very cool in the heat.

I'm really looking forward to seeing and feeling the heat of the sun each day.

The countdown is on - 4 days to go now. I hope the ash cloud behaves itself on Monday -

"ash cloud - be on your best behaviour on Monday please" lol

This is Muthoni - I am really looking forward to spending time with her - she looks full of fun and very happy. IT will be great to get to know her and her family.

Getting ready to leave

Tuesday 11th May, 2010.

It's hard to believe that this time next week (ash cloud permitting) I will be in Utange, a small villiage in Eastern Kenya located about ¾ mile from the coast. Utange which is a one street village is a suburb of Mombasa. Most of the houses are made from adobe (mud) and need to be rebuilt after hard rain. The children of the village have no place to play but they do have a school thanks to Maureen and Ian and they gather there as often as they can. The children start school at 3½ years old, if they are big enough (they must be able to put their hands over their heads and touch their ears).

I am looking forward to meeting the children especially Muthoni the little girl I sponser and getting settled into my little summer house which is in grounds belonging to a Kenyan councillor Mr Chirongo.

I'm not sure what to expect however I think the electricity supply isn't to be relied on so a torch and some candles are at the top of my list!

I've had all my injections and I have a bag full of malaria pills to take with me - so that's my health sorted :-)

I plan to update my blog as often as I can - dependant on the availability of an internet cafe!!

Six days to go!!