This past week has been crazy busy, thus I have not been able to blog until today! Last Thursday, two new volunteers arrived. Lucia is from Spain and will be staying with us for a month and Jim is from the United States. He has been volunteering with Nyumbani for at least 5 years. He usually spends his visit in the Karen home, but now he has decided to spend some time in the village and split the rest of his time in Nairobi. Luke, the voluteer who arrived a week and a half ago, is his pseudo grandson/family friend from home. On Saturday arrived our final volunteer for the month, Tommy, who will be here until November. Lucia is going to run a video workship with the grandmothers and susus, while the boys will be helping with PE classes and renovating the playground at the primary school.
Last Thursday was Amelia’s (a volunteer from Britain) birthday so that night we hosted a bonfire at our house with chapati, smores, hotdogs and drinks. Some of the children that live near by our house even made her a “cake”. They cooked together sugar, flour, water and fat, to make a sort of breadcrumb substance that they called “pepe”. It was such a sweet gesture and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.
THE BOYS WITH AMELIA ON HER BIRTHDAY
In the evenings I have also been helping teach/tutor English with Amelia and some of the other volunteers. We have been working with the Form 1s and 2s at the high school from 5pm-7pm. Each class is with us for 1 hour. We have played various English games and even practiced reciting poetry/public speaking. It has been great fun meeting some of the older kids and helping them gain confidence in their English skills.
Last Friday, I traveled to Nairobi to pick up all the materials for the new rainwater tanks I am installing in the village. Myself and the procurement officer stopped in the Karen home for lunch then traveled to the industrial area of they city where our supplier, Metroplastics, is located. Below is a picture of our truck being loaded with all our supplies.
It was excited to see my tank proposal finally coming together! It was a long day, as we left at 9:30am and did not get back until 9:30pm, but definitely worth it to get all our supplies. Hopefully this week, construction will begin on foundations for the tanks. Yesterday the contractor Peter, and I went around to finalize the sites for the tanks. Also, the foundation materials like sand, ballast, marrum and gravel were all delivered yesterday. It seems to be coming together!
Saturday was also a huge day for the village because of the much anticipated arrival/visit of the British Minister of Health, Jeremy Hunt and the Lawson family, the British founders of the high school. Mr. Hunt has been involved in the village for years and was a crucial backer for both schools here. The Lawsons had never visited the village before, so everyone wanted to make sure they enjoyed their visit. All last week the high school children cleaned and prepared the school for the visit. By Saturday it looked spotless and had been decorated with welcome signs, balloons etc. The Lawson family and Sister Mary arrived by helicopter mid morning. The kids had been so excited to see a helicopter land on their football field and had been busy al morning wetting the field as to minimize dust. I have included a picture of the children running from the dust storm that was created by the landing. As soon as the dust settled however, all the children from all schools ran to get a glimpse. The guests were welcomed and brought to the high school for tea and mandazi (donuts). Somehow the volunteers and I finagled our way into the tea and were able to brush elbows and chat with the guests. Jeremy Hunt arrived shortly after by car and showed the tea. He was very nice and had even brought a birthday card from one of Amelia’s friends who works for him. Next followed a quick tour of the school and then an assembly/presentation for the guests. All the Lawson students (high school) were in attendance and they performed dances and poems for the guests. Next Mr. Hunt, Carol Lawson, and Sister Mary gave brief speeches about education and the school. It was a great event for the school and it was amazing to see the hard work of the students and teachers recognized by our donors. I think our guests were very impressed by the students and facilities and overall it was a great event. After a short tour of the village by car, the visitors headed back to Nairobi via helicopter again. It was a short visit but definitely exciting. The entire time they were here, kids and grandmothers alike surrounded the helicopter taking pictures and staring in awe. I have included some pictures below.
Saturday night all the volunteers, myself, and my coworker Angie, headed into Kitui for a nice birthday dinner. Amelia had celebrated her birthday Thursday, Tommy’s was that day, and Jim’s is in a week, so we figured we would celebrate all at once. We went to a fancy restaurant outside of town called Bavaria that is owned by a German ex-pat. The cocktails were cold and delicious and the food was great. I got steak and chips accompanied by a few strawberry coladas. For dessert we had ordered a huge cake. It was so big we had to bring home over half of it for leftovers. Another highlight of the night was the grandson of the manager of the restaurant. His name was Ryan and he was an adorable toddler who sat on my lap for the majority of the meal!
Sunday was also a jampacked day. After mass in the morning we had the environmental club and polytechnic kids help us with the foundation of our ecobottle bench we are working on. It took all afternoon but we finally figured out how to lay the foundation with sand, stones, gravel and cement. Then we had basketball/soccer club at 4pm followed by a cluster party. Back in August, cluster 19 had come second place in our talent show so they won 3 chickens. The party on Sunday was their celebration of their win and a change to have a big dinner. Staff and volunteers were asked to contribute something towards the effort. We bought cooking oil for them. They worked all day cooking and prepping. We ate some dinner at our house a bit before going to the party because we didn’t want to take food from them if they didn’t have enough, little did we know this was a mistake haha. When we got there we received a warm welcome and were promptly served heaps of food. It felt almost like torture haha because we needed to eat the food they gave us out of politeness but we were already full. The food was delicious though. There was chapatti, chicken stew, cabbage, rice and soda. After our feasy, they danced and sang for us. It was so cool and awesome to have been included. I have included some pictures!
It was a very exciting but draining weekend! This week we are continuing work on our eco-bench, collecting water data and teaching. I will catch up with y’all next week! Xx Maggie
* i wanted to have way more pics in this post but the site wouldn’t upload them properly… so hopefully next week!
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