Braless in Nairobi !! Read on …

                        9^th Feb … ignore the automatic blogger date.

I'm here in Nairobi !   Lying on my bed gently sweating … not surprising really as I left home yesterday in a temperature of minus 6 C, and here in Nairobi it's approx 25 C.   No wonder I can't stop drinking water.   Maybe it might be a good idea to add some rehydration salts to what I'm drinking, at least for a day or two until my body gets over the tiredness from the flight and adjusts to the heat.  At the moment my body is telling me I need a rest … hence lying on the bed at 5 p.m.

Its wonderful to be back !   Remember Pope John Paul II used to kiss the soil of each new place he went to ?  I feel like doing that every time I come here, if I could creak my way down to the ground, … but I think I'd either get arrested, or more likely, not be able to stand up again afterwards !  

I was met at the airport by Peterson, the Anglican Guest House  taxi driver.  He took me first to the bus office in the River Road area of town to book my onward ticket for tomorrow to Kisumu.

About £10, which is a lot cheaper than flying … which would be about £150.   And I'll get to see the glories of the Rift Valley .  On the way to the ACK Guest House, the traffic was its usual appalling self; long blockages at traffic lights, cars winding in and out, people dashing across roads and between buses.  I saw a lovely local 'Citi Hoppa' bus … which had a three piece lounge suite tied on the roof rack … with a man sitting on one of the chairs up there, as the bus weaved in and out of the traffic !   Welcome to Africa !  Nairobi (apart from the ever-increasing traffic problem) looks and smells just the same, and I love it; bougainvillea, hibiscus flowers, palms and fever trees lining the main roads,  and the smell of hot dust, sweaty people, and spices … welcome back to Africa !

The guest house is a nice place to stay; I booked in and as my room wasn't ready, went to the outside 'cafe' area, which is small open sided bandas, and shading trees, to buy a cup of tea.   I had forgotten it wouldn't be English tea, in a tea pot, with a jug of hot water to add, but instead a mug of boiled powdered milk and water, with a tea bag and sugar added.   Boiled powdered milk has a taste all of its own … so welcome to Africa again !   An American man came and sat for a chat, (he was an agricultural advisor on sustainable farming in the drier areas) and I asked him about the forthcoming general and presidential elections.   They appear to be being held either in August or December … I need to know so we don't have a HATW team here during them … after the riots and killings of the last general election.

My room is large, with two well netted beds, and a separate shower room, which is where I headed first.   I threw my undies into the shower to wash them.   They would dry in an hour or so pegged onto the window burglar mesh.   But then … BIG problem !   I appear to have come to Kenya with only one bra, which I wore on the journey and which was now soaking wet !  Solution … the 37 assorted bra's I have for the mission ladies !   So I tried on several and found two that fit !   A bit more gaudy and lacey and up-lifting than my usual style … but needs must !   Thank goodness I had them ! 

After an excellent lunch here, (tilapia, curried potatoes, sukuma wiki (a type of chopped dark kale), a sort of ratatouille made with tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and carrots ?  … and chappatis, followed by pineapple, pawpaw and water melon … I had a nap, setting my alarm for 3, when I went in a taxi to the main bookshop to have a look see at what they had on the Luo people.   I found a few books, and a child's reading primer for step-grandson to be, so he can see what children here learn on.   My taxi driver this time was Alec, half Maasai, wearing a Yorkshire flat cap ! 

Back at the guest house, I dropped off my books, and went out, by myself, on foot, to find where I could buy a Kenya sim card for my spare phone.  I'm getting braver … and after asking several askari's found a shop where I could get one.   They are all so polite and want to be helpful.  The man there fitted it, and topped it up too all for a few pounds equivalent.   So now I'll be able to call Paul, and Morris the tuk-tuk driver at local rates … about 3 bob a call, or next to nothing !

The guest house has wifi … but I can't for some reason get connected to it.   I guess I'll have to wait 'til I get to Kisumu and the Cyber Caff with the Arabic keyboard and the missing keys !  What fun !

Today has arrived !

And the sun is shining !   A good omen I think !    I saw our Bishop yesterday who wished me well, and gave me his blessing, which was nice.

Last minute panic ... I had to go to town to post something to son; then I went to buy a cheap, cheap mobile phone to take with me, so I can use that one with a Kenya sim card for local calls there.   My usual phone will have its UK sim card so I can text family.   Its charging .... must remember to pack it .... better do so NOW !!

I've been thinking about the altitude in Kenya.  People just don't realise that when they are in Nairobi, they are about a mile high from sea level !    And in Kisumu, I'll be about three quarters of a mile high !    It will be wonderful to see the Rift Valley opening up as we leave Nairobi .... one of the seven wonders of the world in my opinion. 

This is Africa ... be prepared to weep.

http://www.hatw.org.uk/default.asp?section=7&id=145

Money, money, money ...

Since I returned from Kenya last year, I've been putting all my small change (1p, 2p and 5p coins) into a small Luo pot which was given to me years ago by Josephs mother.    I also bully my friends and anyone I know to donate their small change to the pot.  Everyone seems to have a small change jar.

Last year, from March to the beginning of December, I collected over £100 in small change, from myself and friends.  It was hell to count and bag up, but it swells the HATW coffers.  

I'm still collecting, and have continued to spread the word, helped by a talk I did at the local W.I.   So as the pot was full, I counted it today ... £22 since Christmas.    People are knocking on the door with bags of change !   SOMEONE, who hasn't owned up yet, pushed a bag of 1p's through my letter box, and it burst as it hit the floor ! 

My Luo pot for pennies.

Three days to go.

I've packed and locked my big bag, (medical kit and childrens clothes and ladies bra's is all it contains) and my neighbour came round to help me hoist it onto my spring balance.  Took out a couple of books and its now 1 kg under weight, so thats OK.   (22kg of ladies bra's ??)  Only my smaller bag to pack when I've done some ironing. 

Been thinking about the number of times I've been to Kenya.   When I first went in 1968, Nairobi was only just loosing its 'settler' look, after independence in 1963.   Then, the Maasai still walked down Kenyatta Avenue wearing nothing but a red blanket over one shoulder.   My mother when she visited and we took her to the Ngong Hills, sat down to chat to a Maasai elder ... the wind blew his blanket aside !!   She went nearly as red as the mans blanket.

Nairobi's streets are now all tarmac, whereas I remember some still being red murram earth.   The city is rapidly becoming just like any other city in the world; sky-scrapers dwarfing the few remaining buildings like the Norfolk Hotel which date back to the 1920's and 30's.   Those were the days when one was asked, "Are you married, or do you live in Kenya ?"  !!   Ahh ... the time of the hedonistic happy valley set; Lord Errol, Hugh Cholmondeley,  Josslyn Hay, Karen Blixen ....  Thankfully, its all different now, though some of their descendants are now Kenya citizens and run farms. 

Enough of that; I'm going to be visiting a shanty town which couldn't be more different to life in those days.   I've been considering trying to set one of my short stories in Pandipieri, with the locals as the characters .... just as I set some of my earlier ones with the Maasai ... want to read one ?     I'll see if I can find them !  


UPDATE:     I've found them in the files my son rescued from my laptop when it went wrong; trouble is, I can't open them !  I'll have to consult him .... when I get back.

Medical matters and shopping and other things ...

I collected a medical kit I'm borrowing from HATW.   Goodness me !   Enough stuff in it to equip a third world clinic !   At least there are some things I can weed out ... like the penicillin (I'm allergic) and the first aid handbook, and about 100 plasters and two tubes of Savlon.    And as for the self-test kit for malaria ... ugh !   I don't fancy sticking needles in myself !   The senna tablets are definitey no use, with all that lovely fruit available, so they are staying here.   I hope I dont need to use all the sterile syringes.

I went to town today and spent what seemed like a vast amount of money ... currency ... 36,000 Kenya shillings - sounds a lot, but its not; my malaria tabs, £50 on my phone; some treats like English (sorry, Scottish !) shortbread for Paul and Lucy, and sweeties for kids on the work site. 

Packing .... well, I've done a lot of it, as I always do.   Then the day before I go, or even on the morning of zero day, I unpack and repack !   Doesn't everyone ?   The daughter of an old friend of mine has offered to take me to Heathrow; its really kind of her.  #3 daughter has promised to collect me from Heathrow when I get back.   Better remind her to take a thick coat and maybe a hot, hot water bottle when she collects me !   Last year I gave away the coat I took with me, so needed some warm clothes the moment I stepped off the bus !

Six days to go !

We had a meeting at Hands Around the World this morning, at which we discussed what I need to find out, photos to take, finance to discuss.    Brought more paper work home, and more has already come via email.   I won't need to take a book to read ... I'll have three inches of paperwork !   It is very necessary for us to have good accounts, and forward planning and projections for information for trusts and benefactors that we ask for money.   But its very hard to try and get this over to the African half of any project.   It is assumed that any white person or European/American country is awash with freely available money.   Accountability isn't considered at all.

I hadn't realised a picture on the wall that I look at every time I'm in the office was of a previous project at Pandipieri, done by HATW ... the lady in the sleeveless top might be a familiar face to some people ...

Bala House, at Nyalenda .... part of the Pandipieri mission, which has buildings to do with projects scattered here, there and everywhere in the poor part of Kisumu.

Nursery rhymes, African style !

I've been trying to give some traditional English nursery rhymes an African slant !   Children love talking to a white person, and I love chatting to them !   I must see if the children living near the work site still remember 'Four stiff standers, four dilly-danders ...' which I taught them last year.

How about this for a start ?

"This little goat went to market,
This little goat in the shamba.
This little goat ate ugali,
This little goat had none !
And this little goat went 'baa, baa, baa, all the way home' !"

Lists

I keep thinking of things I need to take with me; a friend suggested that if I were more organised, I'd have a list !     I don't 'do' lists, I never have ... I just muddle through.   But I am charging up my iPod, so I can put some new stuff on it to take with me.   And I must find my flight socks ... and a soluble aspirin to take before boarding the plane.   Does either do any good ?   But I always do the socks and aspirin, and somehow it seems tempting something or other NOT to !  

I saw the nurse at the surgery today, and have ordered malarone.  She says the reason most people dont use it, is that its very expensive.  She's right there !   £86 for a months supply !   Phew !

Had several emails today from people in Kisumu, or others connected:  one from the sponsor of Lucy at the Covenant orphanage (he's an ex Kenya teacher friend now living in Thailand).   He wants to send her some money via me.   Another email from Nigel/Gill who went on the project last year - they want to send small gifts.  One from Lucy (wife of Paul who is in charge of the project) asking me if its possible to get her a nurses breast watch.  It is.   Amazon to the rescue. Another from the manager of the guest house where I'm staying telling me again how much it will cost, rather than answering my query about whether they want cash, or can I pay Visa ?   I must have worded my question wrongly as its so easy to do when asking questions in Africa !  

I must get out my Luo language books and have a quick look through them again ... 

I go a week tomorrow ...    

Life

Here's a thought which I read in the paper I was about to use to light the fire ! 

"We should add life to our days; not days to our life !"    

My attitude exactly !   This is why I'm working in a slum in Africa !

Ten days to go

The last week has been somewhat hectic.    I've checked my innoculations; got air tickets; my visa for Kenya has come and I've tried out doxycycline (anti-malarial) again.   Last year I tended to feel sick after taking it, but put that down to Nigels porridge (!) ... but having had it a couple of mornings, have decided I ought to forgive Nigel, for I felt sick again !   I'm going to see the nurse again on Tuesday and ask about malarone instead of doxy.   If the worst comes to the worst, I'll have to stick with doxy.   I've checked at the office to see if I can borrow a medical kit which will save me buying sterile syringes, etc., and various drugs.   My mozzie net is OK, no holes.    My spare bed is getting covered with piles of stuff to take, including bags and bags of childrens clothes and bra's ! 

I've made contact with Joan, the bereavement counsellor who is also going to be in Kisumu at the same time as me ... she is training African women to be bereavement counsellors for children and adults who have lost someone to HIV.   It will be interesting to have long talks with her.  We are both staying in the same place.

Also, Pat who started the Covenant Orphanage and school we visited last year will be there and I've arranged to visit her and give her the collection of childrens clothes I have.    Bra's in sizes from minute to double jumbo will also go with me, to the Pandipieri womens clinic where I'm sure they will find new owners.

Later this week, we are having a special meeting with Nigel, myself and David, the CEO of Hands about the PALUOC project  which we worked on last year, and questions I will need to find answers to.   We have had a report from Paul, but it poses more questions than it answers !

I'm starting to get quite excited !   This isn't going to be a safari in the usual tourist sense, but more of a working holiday, in a place I love.   And as its snowing outside as I write this, certainly a bit warmer !   You can see why I don't go out in July !

Children like these are the reason I'm doing this ...

Off soon !

Today I booked my flights, and I have somewhere cheaper than the St Anna guest house I mentioned last time to stay in Kisumu ... the Mill Hill missionaries guest house.   I've contacted one of the sisters and she has booked me in.

I'm working my way through a list ... I've been to the doc to check what shots I need ... none, fortunately, as they are all still valid from last year.   I need some anti-malarials.   I'm posting my visa application later today.   I've booked flights ... going with Virgin this time, for a change !    I've booked somewhere to stay a night each end of the visit in Nairobi.    Its all happening. 

Better get my cases down from the loft to start packing ...

I'm off again soon !

My plan now is to go back to Kisumu sometime in February/early March, for about two weeks or so.   I want to check up on the project and its almost impossible to get a good idea of what is happening there via occasional emails.   We ask questions ... they are side-stepped and other unasked for information is given !   Its not the fault of Paul or Lucy ... its just the African way; you tell people what you think they want to know, not what they are asking !     We soon got used to this when we lived in Kenya; you never ask 'Is this the road to so-and-so ?' for the inevitable answer will be 'Yes !'     Rather you ask the question 'Where does this road go to ?' ... then you get the answer you want !!

I've found what looks like a nice place to stay, at least at the start ... a covent run guest house ! 
http://www.stannaguesthouse.com/index.php?pageptr=home       It costs about KSh. 2000 per day, or around £16.    It would be far cheaper to cater for myself, and see if I can find somewhere free to stay, but as I'll be by myself, I thought a bit of security was worth paying for.   I'll contact Morris,  the tuk-tuk driver we used all the time last year as transport.  

Now to get the visa .... and the flights !   Maybe fly to Kisumu as I think I want to avoid Nairobi as security is on high alert there.

Its December now ...time for an update !

I haven't  written anything for several months, but I've not been idle !    Since the late summer, I've been volunteering in the Hands Around the World offices, which are about six miles from where I live.   Mostly office work, but interesting.  I'm getting familiar with incoming emails, banking, CRB's,  where the UK embassies are in the countries we work in, how to mend and dip mozzie nets, etc etc., ... and I make the office teas !    We are a group of about four volunteers, who are trying to cover the work done by two paid staff, to whom the recession has sadly brought redundancy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Meanwhile, I'm still doing a lot of reading linked to Kenya, street children, HIV...

A few sentences from Bill Bryson's recent book  'At Home'  could be describing African street children  (as well as the Victorian poor in the UK).   "By the time they were seven or eight, many children were sent out on to the streets to fend for themselves.  By the 1860's, London alone had an estimated one hundred thousand 'street Arabs' who had no education, no skills, no purpose and no future. 'Their very number  makes one stand aghast,' one contemporary recorded."

I managed to find in an American secondhand book shop (isn't the internet wonderful !) a copy of this book:- 

It is the result of studies done twelve years ago in Nairobi, but it applies equally to all cities in Africa ... and indeed in India, South America ...

Some of it is heart-rending:-

"A street child in Kenya is labelled 'chokora' a derogatory term that denotes a rubbish scavenger.  This name-tag has demeaned and stigmatized street children, cutting them off from the rest of the human race."

and ...


"The street child is 'chokora'.   This means that he is one with the very rubbish on which he depends for survival, and which is the material context of his daily life. Like rubbish, he is to be thrown away.  Society has no further use for him. He is a non-person, someone who is not thought to have any rights, or even to be recognized by the law.  Adults can therefore treat him as a literal 'outlaw', one to whom the law does not apply. He is rubbish."

I wept ...

Street children

The boy on the right has a badly ulcerated leg ... hospital treatment may well have to be paid for, and if he attended hospital he would undoubtedly be questioned about who he was, where he came from, who his parents were ... and many street children are very reluctant to volunteer this information to anyone.

People just don't want to know !

I went to a tea party today, and ate far too much of sandwiches, scones, cream, strawberries, cakes.   Someone there was saying how, when she was a student, she used to pinch food which was on the last sell by date out of the waste skips outside Tesco's, as if it was somehow daring - and perhaps not really necessary !   I remarked that many children in Africa would love to have access to such food, but had to make do with what they could scavenge from the rotting food on rubbish dumps, before the birds and hyaenas got to it.  Deathly silence ... and a rapid change of conversation. 

In this village where I live there are many, many very wealthy people.  Bringing up African poverty, shanty town living, street children in conversations with them ...and again, a rapid change of topic.   I rarely go to the pub, (too expensive on my pension !) but many local people eat there, for the food is very good.  A full meal for one, plus drinks can easily run up £40 or more... and couples think nothing of spending over £100 on a Saturday evening out.   Yet if I asked (and I have !) for donations for the street children projects ... they either look away, or offer a couple of pounds.  If everyone who went to the pub for an evening out, DIDN'T go on one Saturday in the month, and gave the money to a charity such as Hands Around the World ... WOW !!  

What is it that stops them ... what blocks their giving hearts ?   Are they embarrassed ?  Why don't they want to know ?   Are they ashamed to think children in other countries can live like that, when their own are well fed, go to good schools and have more than everything a child needs ?   Are they confusing, as so many people do, 'wants' with 'needs' ??   I wish I knew, and I wish I knew how to get through to them ... and their pockets !

Africa is a worm ...

I'm still reading all sorts of books about Africa ... and got one from the library this week.  It's about a couple who toured the continent ... but the quote on the back that got me, was:

"Africa is a worm, that makes its way stealthily into your being.  Sometimes it sleeps and sometimes it wriggles about, but it's there, just under your skin ... "

Oh, SO true !  

HATW newsletter

The latest newsletter is out, and there are three reports about our project, as well as my photos ...

Six months on ...

Since I returned to UK six months ago, I've spent a lot of time thinking what I should do next.  Going to work with HATW on the workshop project has changed me; changed my thinking, changed my life in fact !   Its not in me just to sit and say, "Well that was an interesting experience; I'll sit back now and enjoy retirement." 

So what have I been doing ?   Well, I want to go back to Kenya a.s.a.p. ... but ... there's lots of 'buts'.   I need much more knowledge, more skills, more reason to go back. 

Firstly, I've been doing lots of reading about Kenya in particular and Africa in general ... politics, education, people.   This is resulting in me wanting to research more about how African society breaks down, and how kids end up on the streets, and families live in slums like Kibera in Nairobi, or Pandipieri in Kisumu.

It soon occurred to me that street kids in African towns have a lot in common with the poor described by Dickens and other Victorian authors and reformers.  Fagins boys ... pick-pockets;  Tom the chimney sweep;  the Little Match Girl.   So I've been trying to find out how these social situations changed ... and to consider if that sort of change can be applied to Africa.  I've found it very hard to find books describing social reform dealing particularly with children but I'm still searching.   Maybe Mr Google is my next port of call !

Meanwhile, eastern Africa is suffering once again from drought and the resulting famine.  Huge numbers from Somalia have crossed the border into N E Kenya, itself in a drought situation, and ended up in Dadaab refugee camp,  which isn't a camp ... rather a small city in the desert with a population of up to a million people.   Children in the camp have been there for so long, they are now adults.   They can't return to Somalia; they can't be assimilated into Kenya which hasn't enough employment, food, housing for its own population. 

Googling for information about Kibera, I found this blog ... well worth reading.  It could equally well apply to parts of Kisumu. 
http://hannahinafrica.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/kibera/

Hannah has an up to date blog, for she has returned to Kenya ... here it is ...
http://comealivewithme.wordpress.com/

Tying up the loose ends ...

This was in last weeks local newspaper.   (I've deleted my name ... those who follow my blog know who I am !)

Importants updates on the project ...

Firstly, the main doors were fitted soon after we left, and we have received photos of them in place, with Paul looking on proudly ! 

Secondly, there are four orphaned boys starting to learn carpentry with Paul in the workshop.

And thirdly, and this is really hot news ... this was in this weeks Monmouthshire Beacon, our local paper ! Good news or what !

This injection of funds for this one of HATW's projects will mean that the second storey can be added, plus a proper roof, thus completing the building.   There have been suggestions of sending another team out soon ...

What is YOUR impression of Africa and its inhabitants ?

Ask a friend who has never been to Africa what their impressions, their ideas are of the continent, and they will give a variety of answers.   Poverty, starving children with big tummies, AIDS, robbery, slum dwelling, guns, corruption ... they might mention the wildlife programmes they see on TV ... but this isn't the Africa I know.    True, all of the above do exist and happen in Africa, but there is SO much more that is good, than that which is bad or negative. 

We build our impressions of other countries and peoples on what the media what to show us, to give us to read.  Bob Geldorf ... Angela Rippon ... Princess Diana holding a black baby ... Nelson Mandela ... 'The Constant Gardener' film which showed us the Nairobi slum of Kibera.   But our friends impressions and the offerings of the press are only scratching the surface; Africa is so very much more than these. 

Walk along a lane in rural Africa, and everyone catches your eye and smiles; if you respond with a greeting, you are drawn into a complex series of greetings 'How are you ?'   'I'm well'  'How are YOU ?'  'Well'    'How are your family ?'  'They are well'  and so on ...any bad news is kept for later in the conversation.   Africans are on the whole very friendly, welcoming, generous, hospitable.   You are their friend, before they are your friend !   The media impression of strangers being accosted, robbed, injured is just not as it is.    True, in the big cities like Nairobi, things are different ... but there are certain areas of British cities I wouldn't want to venture into after dark ! 

When it comes to all the bad things about Africa we read about and watch on TV, probably 99% of Africans never suffer famine, total poverty, violence ... but do we ever hear about calm, every-day life in African communities ?    Why not ?   Because its not newsworthy !   Just think how often countries like Canada, New Zealand ... even Botswana in southern Africa, feature in the news.   Just about never ... because they are not newsworthy !   The citizens of this vast continent go about their every day lives, as they have for generations, ignored by the outside world, who hunger for drama !  Africa is a beautiful continent, full of wonderful people, most of whom have enough for their needs.  

Take my word for it ! 

Visiting schools (2)

One day we all went in a taxi out of Kisumu about 12 - 15 miles to visit two schools very close to one another.  Gill had previous connections to one of them through a friend who had donated money for buildings and uniforms, and her home area in the Forest of Dean had connections and exchanges with the other, bigger school.

I think photos will tell the story better than lots of words !

School desks are VERY basic and often seat five children to each desk.  

The desk in the foreground is not the roughest we saw !

Classrooms have a blackboard ... and very little else in the way of equipment.

What can Kenyan children learn from a poster of Postman Pat ??

But the gift Dan brought of two balls was VERY welcome indeed !

Gill helped the teacher to help a child with learning difficulties. 

We felt there was SO much more we could have done in the schools we visited.

Using mud to make letters on the floor as an aid to reading.

New uniforms, paid for by English donors !

(All Gills photos)

Gill, Nigel and I were all teachers, and we felt keenly the frustration of not being able to stay and help the teachers to learn more of techniques for teaching, especially of handicapped children.   As a speech therapist, Gill was able to show one of the teachers a few simple things to help her with children who were deaf and therefore couldn't hear speech to copy.  I would have loved to have the opportunity to take spoken English classes with the younger children, teaching them rhymes and riddles and some of the African traditional tales to enlarge their vocabularies.  Art too, using simple materials found locally, would be good for young children. 

I want to be able to do this as a volunteer later in the year if I can ... and it would be fun to see if the children near the work site still remember  'Four stiff standers, four dilly-danders, two lookers, two crookers and a wig-wag' !!



STOP PRESS !

I've just had an email from one of the team, saying that Paul has now started on training young carpenters ... four boys ... and a GIRL !  

That's something I hadn't expected ...but why not !

Hopefully more will start to be trained soon ...

Visiting schools (1)

One morning Gill and I managed to sneak away from working on the site, and instead went to visit the Lutheran School for the Mentally Handicapped.

It is situated right next to the main road that we travelled each day to and from the worksite, so we had been curious to see what went on there !   Also, Gill was a recently retired speech therapist, and was keen to see if speech therapy was in use in special schools in Kenya.

The school was pleasantly shaded, with verandahed classrooms, and we arrived just as school started for the day, so we went into the assembly.   There were about 60 or 70 children (some obviously more than children ...maybe 20 - 25 years old) ... and the handicaps of many were plain to see.   We sat at the back and observed the assembly, which was conducted in a mixture of English, Kiswahili and Dholuo.  Many of the children were unable to control their limbs, and some shouted out involuntarily.   But the atmosphere was happy and friendly, and the children were encouraged to join in with simple hymns and responses to questions about the date and the time of day. 

One little boy, about 8 or 9, wandered in and came to the back of the room where he studied us closely; he then climbed quite unbidden onto Gill's lap and went to sleep !   He slept quite peacefully for half an hour; then as the assembly finished, one of the teachers quietly got a mat out of the cupboard, and laid him gently onto it to finish his sleep !   We learned later than he had been abandoned outside the school gate, tied with string to the fence, and the teachers couldn't locate family, and had no idea what his name was, or how old he was, or even what tribe ... for he appeared not to be able to speak.  

We went to see the class of badly autistic children who were being taught by two or three teachers plus helpers to wash their faces, and clean their teeth.  Soap, water and toothpaste everywhere !   It was encouraging to see the teachers all wore surgical gloves for this task, for it is quite likely that some of the children are HIV+.   (Another day, just before we left, we dropped off a box of 100 surgical gloves which we had taken with us, in case we needed them).

Next we visited classes, from those for children who were learning very basic skills such as sorting objects, to simple counting, and then classes where they were being taught to write and even read very simple words.   The aim of the school was to train the children so that when they returned to their home communities, they would have some skills which were useful.

The almost total lack of equipment which we expect to see in special schools in the UK was very obvious.   But the commitment and love of the teachers and helpers, three or four to each class, was apparent. 

Finally, the oldest or most able children were being assessed to see what work skills they could be taught, to give them some chance of employment.   Simple carpentry, sewing, laundry and ironing, and cooking were taught to those most able. 

What UK or US resources could do for these children !  But I compare what is being done now in Kenya to how things were 40 years ago, when handicapped people were obvious on the streets as poor ragged beggars; now at least they will have a chance in life.

I didn't take any photos in the school, as I didn't consider it to be appropriate, but these flowers were growing in the school compound. 

 

I haven't forgotten my blog ...

... but the weather has been so wonderful this last ten days I've spent every hour possible in my garden.   I will get back to this as there are several more 'stories' I want to tell ...

... so I will leave you with this for now and will be back in a day or two !

Reading

In English schools, and in our society generally, we learn to read, then we read the daily paper, or books and magazines ... some read the Daily Mirror, others prefer The Guardian ... it doesn't matter; reading is part of our culture, and most people read something every day ... even if they don't read novels or go to the local library ever !

It doesn't seem to be so in Africa. 

Both Lilian, the lady we employed as our cook, and Lucy, the wife of Paul who together started the carpentry workshop project, both commented at different times when they saw us relaxing in the evening reading, or that we all had two or three books next to our beds.   "We don't have a culture of reading for pleasure" was what they said. 

True, books are VERY expensive in Kenya if they are imported 'bodice rippers' and Dan Brown ! ... but there are African writers such as Ngugi Wa'thiongo and Grace Ogot from Kenya, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria, as well as many others, some of whom are published in the cheap Heinnemans African Writers series.

No, reading seems to me to be something that is taught in schools, as a skill for learning other things, a route to knowledge and possible employment , not something to be pursued for pleasure. 

I visited a couple of homes while I was in Kenya ... not one book to be seen anywhere.  Such a pity books that don't sell in charity shops, or at our twice yearly church fetes, for example, can't be shipped to Africa and given away FREE !   But like so many things ... its the cost ...