Outreach - Kawangware

Thursday 4th October

Today - was a good day. Outreach was to a small school in the slum of Kawangware - that's where Cordelia's placement is. There's no school on Thursday and Friday so we used the empty(-er) school to tidy it all up.

It was an amazing experience, Che came with me, Corrie, Kait, Destiny and Bailey to the slum to help out too. The walk to the school through he actual slum was really powerful for me too. You read about it all in school and the news and stuff but experiencing it first hand is something else. A sort of sensory overload as well - smells of the black water that runs in a ditch alongside the road, exhaust fumes, food stalls, (you can taste most of the smells too!); hear so many voices (a lot of them shouting mzungu! How are you!?), engines, saws and welders, animals...it was pretty amazing actually, in a paradoxical kinda way. 

Once we were in the slum we had to cross the stream/sewer thing over a rickety handmade log bridge! Kait was not convinced, not something you want to fall into and of course, no hand rails. It was an amazing place to be - I just, I can't put into words how it made me feel, i think i was feeling a gazillion things all at once and was just a bit in awe of it all in a way. 

The school was made up of 3 small classrooms and a staff room And and a couple more little shacks that I didn't go into. There were maybe 7 or 8 kids there, 2 girls amd the rest boys and a few more filtered in and out through the day. They were age 6 to 10 mostly, with a few older ones, and they were the loveliest kids ever. I think this town gets less volunteers so everyone, adults included, was excited to see mzungus and to talk to us and ask loads of questions and touch our hair and things, it was really sweet. Their English was amazing too! I felt really inspired seeing Cordelia interact with them all as well, she's been in Kenya for quite a few months now and she's just so comfortable here, with the culture and herself and starting to get the language, and she's been at this school for a while too so all the kids know her, as do a lot of the adults we passed on our way, and she's just amazing with them. She's picked up a decent bit if Swahili too so has a lot of banter with them, making them laugh and messing about, it was so cool to watch her do her thing and see the relationship she has with them all.

Mine, Cordelia and Kait's main task all day was to eat away at the mountain of laundry that was out the front of the school - most of the clothes owned by the kids that go there I think. Cordelia said they don't really have chance to wash their clothes properly or shower where they live so they do it there. We were at it allllll day, made a good indent into the pile of clothes and blistered and skinned my "soft mzungu hands"!  Cordelia has a joke with the kids and the headteacher lady that she's half-Kenyan, she's got the technique down and has toughened hands, the kids all find it an hilarious concept.

The lady who runs the place is an absolute legend too and so kind - she looks after a few of the kids who live mostly at the school, runs it all, and is also an officer in the slum, she's a bloody superhero. Like this morning, she welcomed us and came to greet us all but had to leave because she had got a call saying someone was using a disabled child to get money on the streets, and she was going to rescue them and take the parents up on a charge of child labor and get them locked up.

When she returned later on she told is the child was only 4 I think, she could've said younger, and her legs stopped at the knee so she couldn't walk and her arms hadn't properly formed either, and she was sat at the side of the road with a cup propped between her thighs. It was the older brother who had set it up, they were orphans from Tanzania and so the teacher couldn't help them - she just "forgave him and told him never to come back to this place"... It's so awful that that's all she could do and that it happened right where I was - it all just kind of doesn't feel real. I bet she does things like that every day, with all the stories you hear about on Comic Relief and the Save the Children adverts in real life...

But yeh, Destiny took care of the dishes and utensils, then helped Bailey and Che cleaning the classrooms - removing the desks and sweeping all the rooms out and things. The girls did the washing with us a little but also just stayed in the security of the school and played or chatted or just watched us a bit. One of the girls, maybe 10, was totally on it - sorting us out and getting things DONE. Cordelia was saying too how it's crazy by like age 7, most of these girls could raise a family on their own - they know how to cook, they know how to clean, they can look after smaller children...it's crazy. She says on Thursdays and Fridays, she always goes in to help get the chores done faster so she can bring fun things in for the kids to do and to just relax and be kids - they're always working or cleaning or cooking, at home and at school, and i agree that it's so important they have chance to just - be children.

This is the kinda thing I love doing. This age is brilliant - some of the boys were so cheeky and fun, we had a great conversation with a lil 7 yr old about what superheroes we know, and they enjoy just being silly or telling us how things work or that each other/ what we were doing was "mbaya" - bad, or "masuri"- good. 3 of the boys were sat on buckets for ages, talking to us about anything and everything - our hair, where we're from, what we do, what they do, African country flags on the scarves we were washing - they went to get our water bottles too and gave us water as we were working! They were just so keen and pure and the whole day was just really fulfilling. (I do have a hilariously perfect burn line on my arm tho from standing in the sun washing all day!!)

I'd love to go back there or somewhere like it if I can, just to lend hand, talk to the kids, maybe do some classes like Cordelia does on her placement - she does English and maths and things i think but she also takes colours in for them to do some pictures or makes resources or lessons about brushing teeth and hygeine and things. It sounds tough but really good - she's incredible. The thought of it is a little scary but just being there for them is also enough sometimes and it's something I'd like to do. Because I also wasn't entirely sure of what my placement would be, it's also the kind of thing I was semi-expecting and preparing for so it was great to get a flavour of it.

It's definitely given me a lot to think about and a whole new lens added to my perspective of the world. Also really nice doing something altogether as volunteers - I'm gonna be looking forward to Thursdays all month!

I'm going to come back and add pictures and things from today when I get them, but until then it's off to bed for an early start to get to Hell's Gate tomorrow!! 

So goodnight and love you to everyone back home xxx