Mombasaaaaa

Amazing

Just spent the weekend in a little bit of Paradise! This weekend I got to take off work and jetted off to Mombasa on the East coast of Africa :) We spent the weekend at a hostel which was about 5mins walk from the beach and had its own pool :-D On the Friday we arrived nice and early at about 9am to the hostel. We had an hour to chill and change then we hit the beach!! :D Whoop! I absolutely loved it, the white sandy beach, the beautiful scenery and the clear waters. We chilled by the sea all day then went to Mombasa Beach Hotel to have some drinks and lunch by the pool. We had a wee waiter, it was fab! :-D We met so many interesting and cool people at the hostel, so at night we would all sit out side and have a drink together by the pool, telling all our adventures! This one guy was travelling all the way up the East coast of Africa by Kite Surfing!! :o Was so cool! And he was sleeping in a hammock at night, with a rain cover. There were lots of monkeys chilling by the pool with us every day at the hostel :) They had blue balls! hahaaa

On the Saturday we chilled by the pool and went for a swim in the sea with some of the others from the hostel :) At night I went with Seeyian, my flat mate from Nairobi, to go and visit her Aunt just out of Mombasa, She made us a huge meal, it was lovely :-D

Then on the Sunday we spent the day again, by the beach and then went to this place called Mamba Village, its a big crocodile place, I got to hold a Crocodile!! Just a baby one tho, but still!! :P We rode on a Tuk Tuk there which was fun and so cheap, then we got one back to the airport, but omg that was a scary journey!!!  Those things are brave!! :P That's about it. Oh and I had a Kenyan Pedicure! It was great! Feet feel so smooth! :P xxxx

Matheri's Neediest Children

Not for the Faint Hearted

One of the volunteers told us about this orphanage in the middle of the Matheri Slum, she had said it was really bad but I was in no way prepared for the emotional roller coaster that I went through today. We all decided to pitch in 1000ksh and buy as many loaves of bread as we could as well as some basic meal ingredients such as maize flour so that they could use it to make ugali.

This orphanage is not run by the Thomas Barnardo place that I am with, so we were doing this ourselves. When we first arrived I was greeted by the owner/mother/woman that looked after the 240 children. She gave me the most heartfelt hug I have ever had, and she was an absolute stranger.

She knew that we had come with some supplies. This woman does not like to see children on the streets so she takes them into her "orphanage" and tries her best to provide for them, she sells milk from her cows and begs in order to get by and buy the smallest amount of food for the children. I don't think they have regular meals, 1 small meal a day if they are lucky.

When the children saw us, they were all sitting in a dark room and then they all came to see us as they could tell we had food for them. We then started handing the loaves of bread out in halves. The kids got half a loaf each. I have never been so shocked in my life. I watched as they grabbed the bread out of my hands and ate it as if they have not eaten in days and days. It was so upsetting. I tried not to get emotional in front of the kids as they obviously don't know any different, but some of the other volunteers found it too much too. I had to leave the room as I couldn't bear to watch for much longer. I saw two of the children sussing out the volunteers and realising that he could get more than everyone else, so he did and he was hiding bread up his T-shirt. It was very obvious as he was so skinny but it just shows that he is aware that he might not be eating again for a while, so it is really everyone for themselves. I sat with some of the younger ones as they shared out their bread and on wee boy kept trying to offer some of his bread to me, but I was giving it straight back to him.

We then got a "tour" round the orphanage from the mother woman and she showed us where they all sleep. There is a boy’s bedroom with about 8 bunk beds, and she said that 70 children sleep there. In the girls room there are 42 kids! And in the mother's room there are about 60 between 3-4 beds and she sleeps with many in her bed.

 

In this picture the kids look so happy and I can’t really imagine what they have to smile about. There were flies all over them and they didn't even move. It felt like watching something that you would see on the TV, but it was real life.

Sobering Experience

Kibera

Today we got taken round Kibera Slum by one of the guards from the school who lives in Kibera, he was taking me to meet the man who is helping me with my dissertation :) This slum is the largest in the world! I was taken aback by how horrific and horrendous it was. I can honestly say I was not expecting it to be such a brutal harsh environment! It absolutely STANK! And there was a train that goes right through the slum and twice we had to move out of the way to let it past. The train had to stop and the workers had to get out and dig around the tracks because there was far too much rubbish and shit for it to move! It is so crazy to see how these people live, no wonder there is so much disease around, they fling their shit out the side of their house or let it run into the running river that flows down Kibera, but this is not a pretty sight! The place has no proper paths, my boots are literally covered in what I hope is mud! :| The most ridiculous thing is that Kibera is just across the road from my complex, and the people on this side live nowhere near as hard a life as the people in Kibera. Thomas took us to his house and I was not expecting what we went to. It was one small, dark room with a tiny light bulb that flickered on and off! I was really quite shocked because I thought he would be on a good enough salary to get him something better, I met his daughter who is 20, the same age as me, and 2 of his sons, and they all sleep in this same one room! I can’t imagine they get much sleep ever. He pays 3000KSH a month for this tiny "house". When we went to the school where I was meeting the man, there were so many children. He says that in Kibera there are 35 schools for 18000 children. They have about 40-45 in a class, and the only way the teachers get paid is from the school fees that the people struggle to afford. The only help the government give are the occasional donation of books but they are limited to one donation per school every 2 years! They follow the curriculum that the government has set up, yet they help in no way whatsoever. Many of the children have to be sent home if they are not paying the fees, in one day at the Jonathan Gloag Academy I saw 3 children being sent home because they had not paid. In one class they can have about a 3 year age range because some children are too poor to be able to eat, therefore cant focus properly on their school work. The place is literally a huge sewer and a dumping ground for their shit and rubbish! It is absolutely disgusting, I almost slipped and fell in it at one point because the ground is so uneven! Phew so glad it is over to be honest! Something I can safely say I did not enjoy and would never want to experience again. 

Best Day in Kenya so far!!

On Sunday we travelled just over 2 hrs outside Nairobi to get to a town called Naivasha. Then from there we got the matatu bus to Hells Gate national park, well the sign. From the sign we had to walk 2Km to get to the gate of Hell’s Get! But it was beautiful. Best scenery I have ever seen! The day was just fantastic as we were right in the Rift Valley. We hired bikes that we could cycle round the national park following a guide through the paths and we were literally cycling amongst Africa’s finest wildlife :) It was absolutely breathtaking! This is the only national park in Kenya where you can cycle round. We were even allowed to get off our bikes and walk closer to the animals off the path and get pictures taken. We saw maasi giraffes, zebras, gazelles, buffalo, vultures, warthogs etc all in their natural habitat. The national park is in the volcanic region so there were lots of volcanic rocks around, these were literally glass as one broke and it cut my finger. The guide reassured me that it would be fine as they are least likely to infect you as these are what the maasi people prefer to use for circumcisions spearheads! Ouch! The Cycle was bout 8Km and when we got to the end we had a wee picnic next to tonnes of baboons waiting to snack our food! Then we got to have the most amazing experience of my life! We went gorge walking where they filmed the Tomb Raider film. It was like nothing I have ever seen before! So hard to explain everyone should see it!!! It was really quite tough and I was really scared at 2 bit because there were no ropes or anything, not that it’s really too high but I was really scared when I was going down a 15-20m drop and couldn’t reach the foot hole so basically only the rocks were holding me up! But I managed and it was fascinating. We walked all the way along the gorge which was about 15Km the guide showed us the water that was flowing down was steaming because it was like volcanic or something. Then we got shown water just next to the steaming water, which was so cold! It was so surreal! So hard to explain but the trek was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! Then the guide made us climb all the way up to the top!! This was so scary! Lol I was just about shitting myself when we reached the top and I looked down!! But it was worth it! The view from the top was absolutely amazing! It was so peaceful and beautiful, nothing like being in the fast, loud, dirty town of Nairobi. Then the guide found a rock that we cracked and there was this red stuff inside that the maasi people use as face and body paint, so we got some of that which was fun :) Then I was excited to see an actual maasi man, in all of his maasi traditional dress with dangly ears in the middle of the maasi land! The guide was also maasi so I asked him how to say hello and I said “Sabu” to the maasi man! :D He said “hi” back and waved!! We were meant to cycle all the way back after the trek, but some nice lorry man gave us a lift with the bikes in the back!! :-D Best Day Ever!!! :D Couldn’t get any better!! :D xx