Girl Writes Back

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...

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

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

Friday 12th October Wednesday and Thursday this week have just been absolutely amazing - just what I needed after a tough start to the week. Outreach on Thursday was something a bit different - Shei wanted to try something new and it was so much fun! We were split into 2 teams and our task was to make a 1-2 minute video on what it's like to be a volunteer here. Shei wanted to break the stereotype that it's scary and all hard hard work and that kind of thing. We could go to any of the outreach projects we wanted and the rest was left to us! Our team was me, Bailey and Tora and Shei came with us, then it was Corrie, Stephanie and Jennifer and Dan was with them. We went to Bailey's clinic first to get some shots of him and Doctor George - he's such a nice guy, very funny - and then we went to Corrie's school, where we went last week. The other group was already there and we just played with the kids and filmed a little bit of stuff but basically just had an hou...

Wednesday 10th October I've had a really lovely day today :) Even though it was a national holiday and I didn't technically have to go in to Dada's, I went in anyway to help out and see the kids who live at the orphanage there and chill with them. I'm so glad I did!! It was so lovely, playing with the young young ones, maybe 3 or 4, doing hand slapping games and songs and things with the mid-age kids who didn't want to play football and then chatting with some of the older girls who were 12-14 ... and then singing High School Musical when I mentioned I enjoyed singing - the makings of a good day off! The morning was spent doing chores, sweeping the yard and tidying the bedrooms (which they'd done by the time I arrived at 9:30 ish!) And then cleaning the newly built toilets - they're all white tiles and had just been finished so there was dust and clay all over, it was a fairly big task and they did a great job, using tshirts and jumpers, buckets of ...

Tuesday 8th October Update: we have a new volunteer! Her name is Veronica, she's from Portugal and she's at Dada's with me and Jennifer. Jen had her first day yesterday and Veronica's was today. I'm finding it a little difficult to find my feet with it all at Dada's - a new and different structure, culture and way of teaching in the school...I'm just so out of my depth and working to stay afloat! I'm doing ok, just being a helping hand and happy to do whatever they need me to - it's a crazy, kinda scary thing that I'm standing in front of class and trying to teach in a place where their first language isn't English! A lot of them have very good English though, but like at any school it just takes a bit of time for the kids and a new teacher to get comfortable with each other and suss it all out. Makes it a little more challenging for sure but I'm enjoying it, I do have fun when I'm there, there's just a part of me that stil...

Sunday 7th October I've officially been in Kenya for 1 whole week!! It feels like it's gone so quickly but also like I've been here forever... Can't quite believe it Today was our zip lining excursion - I forgot how much I love outdoor pursuits ! Hiking, biking, climbing, ziplining, I just love it so much! Especially when you're somewhere where the landscape around you is just so amazing, flying over a waterfall, forests and the occasional elephant! (I missed it but apparently there was one there) Well worth it, we did a total of 6 ziplines all across the hills and it was epic! You could see for miles at the top it was gorgeous and green, made me think of the Peaks back home. Me, Jennifer, Tora, Stephanie, Yvonne and Izzo went today and we had a lot of fun. Izzo has been a few times and really loves it, he started a bet at the the beginning that whoever didn't make it to the end of the zip line the most times has to buy everyone drinks! I m...