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Last Days in Kenya

Saturday 27th October My time here is coming to a close, I’ve definitely had an unforgettable experience and through all the ups and downs I’m so glad I took myself (very far!) out of my comfort zone and came to this amazing place - what a month it has been! Yesterday was my last day at Dada’s, I felt very emotional walking out of that gate, tears were shed. I’m gonna miss those kids, they’ve truly inspired me and I hope I helped them too. Saying goodbye was really hard, especially to all the little friends I’d made - I’ve gotten close to them over the month I’ve been here! To the mamas that work there too - older ladies that welcomed me into their family. The head Mama is an absolute legend, she’s very spiritual and just great to be around; she doesn’t have the best English, she wanted me to teach her, but you ask her how she is and pauses and goes, “my mind is good, my soul is good, my body...is good. The Great Benevolence is good today”. She’s great. She called me “my daugh...
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Travel Update!

Just a quick one - in the process of writing a last few days blog, its been quite busy moving round so not much time to write! But yeh, successfully made it to the airport! Bag checked in, queuing for security now :) Feeling surprisingly chill, think I'm too tired to feel any more feelings! Lydia hooked me up with a daughter of a friend that's on the same flight as me, chillin with her and her friends, all good! See you in the otherside ...the end of my trip is in sight! xxx
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Catch Up!

Thursday 25th October It's my last day on project tomorrow... as if I'm leaving in 2 days!? I'm gonna miss the people here at Marafiki so much, and the kids I've buddied with, and the matatus! Not gonna lie tho, I'm looking forward to not having beans and rice for lunch everyday - I'd be so ok with not eating beans again for a few months!! 😅 Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty quiet - exam time so not much to do! Went through finding answers to some of the papers to make our mark shemes, marking papers....teacher stuff! Tuesday afternoon was good tho, i got an hour in an actual classroom with actual kids! We revised for their social studies and CRE paper, Class 5, it was just me in there too so we had a good giggle at the same :) I was so happy to be back in the classroom they were laughing at my energy I think! Fun fun fun Had a small victory on Wednesday too - one of the Mama's daughters at Dada's, she's called Jasmine, is unsure of msu...
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Winding Down

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Monday 22nd October Can't quite believe it's my last week in Kenya..!? Feeling that weird combination of I don't wanna leave but I'm kinda ready go home...but I don't wanna go! Yesterday was a proper lazy Sunday - everyone was a lil dusty from their Saturday night adventures (I was happily in bed :) ) so it was a quiet morning. I tackled the mountain of washing that was left from dinner the night before and tidied up the kitchen so Sophie wouldn't have to come back to a tip! (Sundays are her day off and she'd left yesterday afternoon because it was another public holiday...Mashujaa Day I think..?!) Look at that pile of clean dishes! All dried and put away and surfaces/hob wiped down too. I was on a roll!! (I can already feel the comments about doing more of that at home... ;-) ) No Sophie also means we have to feed ourselves...yikes! So we went to Crave for lunch and then I bought an avocado from the stall (aka wheelbarrow) at the end of ...
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Another Friend Leaves

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Saturday 20th October  Time is a fickle friend - feels like Jen has been here forever and for no time at all and all of a sudden, she's in the car on the way to the airport. I'm gonna miss her a whole lot!  As for Friday, I had frustrating end to a frustrating week! Had a good hour at the start of the day with my class 6 maths group, working through some questions with them and things... and that's about it! The other classes were either doing an exam or Kiswahili so I was of no use, so me and Felix chilled together in the staffroom and he was challenging me to work out maths problems from the textbook - i think he was surprised by my maths skills! (I was too!) Whilst it was a bit of fun, it's not quite what I want to be doing with my time whilst I'm here! I was then invited into a meeting with the staff, class 8 and their parents to discuss what they're doing for their exams, and again whilst I appreciated being included, I a) didn't know an...
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Catch Up

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Friday 19th October We're back! Apologies, been a quiet few days but let's catch up on what's been goin on Tuesday and Wednesday at Dada's felt like longgg days! I spent most of my time sat in the staffroom, marking workbooks or mock exams - for the exams they have to give to the kids to practice, they don't actually have a mark scheme so the teachers have to go through the paper themselves and work out the answers so they can mark them.... so that's what I was doing all afternoon yesterday! Class 8 (age 14 ish I think) English and maths exams! I haven't done maths like that in maybe 3 years - parallel lines and angles and algebra and areas of shapes, gave my brain a work out! Quite proud of my memory for rules and equations tho, I was doing alright. Managed to get out of the office for 2 lessons across the 2 days, did PE with class 6 which was really fun - taught them a new game then played football, their favorite! - and also went through the En...
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Weekend in the Maasai Mara

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Monday 15th October The view of the Mara from the top of the hills behind the village What an incredible weekend. Feeling very humbled from our welcome to the Maasai village and seeing their homes and just in awe of the stunning Kenyan wildlife in the reserve!! (Get ready for a mega info amd picture dump!) We set off early on Saturday morning and after a long, bone-rattling drive we made it to the Mara! Seriously though, our driver Ken is a brilliant driver but he did scare me a few times! The safari vans we were in were amazing - off roading, through streams, out of ditches, up banks - major kudos to Ken and Bonny and they're mad driving skills! En route to where we were staying, Izzo pointed out to us some more of Marifiki's projects out in the Mara. We stopped off at one where they're building a mid-range camp and HQ for volunteers that's right next door to their water project. Hearing Izzo talk about it was so inspiring - by making water more ...
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