Korando and the weekend

So this will have to be a short blog seeing as the internet keeps disconnecting and it’s starting to get dark out.

I was in Korando this week with Solveig and Hinrika. We were staying at Anne Lauren’s place which was very nice but it took us a little while to get used to the fact that she had bats, rats and cockroaches the size of my hand in her house. But she is doing an incredible job here. She has raised a nursery in her back yard where we spent most our mornings teaching the little ones how to write the letters and numbers.

One afternoon we went to lake Victoria and took a short boat ride and then we carried water in bucket s on our head all the way from the river and home to the house, it was surprisingly hard! Part of our project was to visit old or/and sick people and give them soap and sugar, just some basics. It was quite hard especially when one old lady just burst into tears all of a sudden and started telling us that she had just lost her grand child the other day and started pointing to the floor and saying that she had been there just the other day laughing and smiling. This woman was also HIV positive and had a tumor on both her head and neck which were causing here a lot of pain.

The stories that we heard about the children were also very shocking!  Other wise this weekend has been great. We went on a boat ride on Lake Victoria and got to see hippos popping their heads up right next to the boat. It  was amazing! Then today we went to a Kenyan market and then to a museum and got to see crocodiles and loads of highly venomous snakes, very cool!

I think that’s all for now

Until Next time

-C

Kisii

The cuties  at the orphanage (baby class) 

So my first project in Kenya has come to an end. We went to a city called Kisii where we stayed at the home of a woman called Florence and her husband Dr. Manduku. They are angels on earth! They took us in as we were their own and gave me, Sunna and Hinrika a private room and bathroom in their home. Their house is by the way very large. We were expecting mud huts and a dusty floor but it was quite the opposite. Their house has at least 6 bedrooms and 2 living rooms. One of the living rooms had a plasma tv with loads of channels! so after a long tiring day travelling to Kisii we got to relax in front of the tv and watch MTV. It wasn't too bad.


So Florence and Dr. Manduku own a private hospital in town which is really nice, I got to experience it first hand, but lets not skip ahead! Our project revolved around an orphanage in the outskirts of town... in the country side really. The kids there are so cute that I just wanted to steal one and take it with me back home to Iceland! But I was able to control my self. We taught two classes, 8th and 7th standard. The kids in the same class aren't always the same age here. Like 8th standard was kids from 13-16. We were told that this was because the kids might not have the funds to keep on studying so they have to take a year off to raise money for their education. Sometimes on the other hand the parents look and their kid and still see a child and think they are not mature enough to go to the next class so they make them stay back and take the same year again.


We came in to the first class and were just supposed to teach them social studies. It didn't seem like a big deal until we took a look at where they were in their books and saw that they where learning about how the Kenyan government works and all kinds of stuff that we had no idea how to teach. We finally decided just to teach them about Iceland and they could tell us about Kenya and we looked at the differences between the two countries and looked at how different school systems work. Ended up being a lot of fun and the kids asked tons of questions!
The orphanage didn't have a water tank for the kids to drink clean water from or to wash the dishes or any thing so we decided to buy a 3200 litre tank for them to collect rain water in to. They seemed really happy to get it and were extremely exited to get to role it down a hill in the school yard. We spent 2 days at the school but on the third day I started getting sick again!
Florance and Dr. Manduku drove me straight to the hospital where I had to get an IV drip and loads of injections and drugs. Then I was driven in a wheelchair to a private room where I had my own bathroom, balcony, TV and sofas. Turns out it's the same bacterial infection that I got in India but because I didn't go on antibiotics it never cleared up. So now I have finally got antibiotics and it should clear up for good this time.


The weekend has been really nice except Solveig ended up in the hospital like me (because of this bacterial infection). On Friday we all went out to  a small club with 5 Kenyan guys keeping a very close eye on us the whole time. We didn't stay for long seeing as the night life here isn't the safest place in the world but we got to dance and taste a Kenyan beer which is really good. We danced our butts off to really good music for about two hours and then rushed back to the hotel. People here dance a lot more with their hips while we were danceing with our shoulders which seemed to be the main source of amusement amongst the people there.
Yesterday we went to the swimming pool and relaxed all day and today we started the day by going to a gospel church which was really cool. It was a very inspiring hour but after mass we left because we thought it was over so we missed the singing part. Next Sunday  I am definitely going again and staying for the songs.


Other wise life in Kenya is good!
Until next time
-C

Arriving in Kenya!

We have finally arrived in Kenya after a very long trip. Two plain trips, a troublesome 2 hours at Kenyan immigration and a 7 hour bus ride later and we are at our hotel in Kisumu! On the bus ride over here we saw antelopes, zebras and donkeys all over the place, just running wild! It was amazing. We also had to drive through an area that was not quite a dessert but not far off. It had a few shrubs scattered here and there and we kept on seeing these sand storms that looked like small tornadoes or something. Sand swirling up in to the air as high as you could see. Really weird!


Yesterday we spent all day by the swimming pool sunbathing, taking a dip in the pool and eating really good food at the hotel restaurant. This is not our hotel though, we are using the facilities of some other very fancy hotel. Oh no! our hotel has a different kind of luxuries!
When we arrived at the hotel I was bursting for the toilet so I ran in to the room and was happy to see a toilet but not so happy to see that there was just a shower curtain in stead of a door on the bathroom. Thinking that this wasn't too bad I went to the toilet but as I was flushing it all the pipes on it came loose and the bathroom floor flooded with water! I went down in to the lobby and asked one of the staff to come and take a look at it. He came up, plugged the pipes back in their spot and then asked me to come while he demonstrated to me how you flush  a toilet. This was a little embarrassing.


After the toilet flushing lesson I decided to take a shower which I did but when I was done the shower knob had come loose and wouldn't shut off the water. Again I had to run down to fetch the same guy to come and turn off the water. For some reason it wasn't broken any more when he came so he gave me a another lesson but this time it was 'how to turn a knob' lesson. I think the staff here think I'm a lost case.


A part from the bathroom problems the hotel is actually not bad. We have only found two cockroaches in our room so far and they where not very big. Yay!  Now we are heading off to the swimming pool again to relax and prepare our selves mentally for the tomorrow when we set off for our first projects in Kenya.


Signing off from Kenya in 33 degrees C!


-C