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Published: April 24th 2007
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Pirates Beach
Never has the saying "a picture says 1000 words" been more true Volunteer House Day Two in the Big Volunteer House... What a few days I've had! I'll start where most good stories start - where they left off in their prequel!
Sunday morning I was up at the crack of dawn (9am) to have breakfast (melon, scrambled egg, bread, banana and tea - although not all at the same time!). The i-to-i coordinators - Alice, Isaiah and Louisa - turned up at 10:30am and we spent the morning getting to know each other and the other volunteers who had arrived this weekend. There were 5 in total - me, Karen, Rob, Alex and Mark. All were very nice and friendly and the morning involved being told a bit about our projects, a tourists guide to Mombasa, a whistle-stop tour or Swahili and just general Q&A's. It was very useful and made me feel a lot more relaxed. We all went for lunch in a cafe called the Blue Room which was very tasty! I had a fish curry with rice. The Blue Room also serves the best mango juice you could possibly imagine! After that the coordinators went their own way and s 5 volunteers were let loose on the streets of Mombasa!
Pirates Beach
Wasps weren't the problem at this beach near Mombasa...! We made our way to Pirates Beach! It is hard to describe how idyllic the beach is here in Mombasa. There's about a mile or two of sand length-ways and then just clear blue waters stretching out to the horizon. Palm trees line the shores and there are people
everywhere! The sea itself was also so warm that even Dad wouldn't have complained! It was like a giant bath it was so warm! We all swam for a bit then sun-bathed a little longer then headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
At 8am Monday morning the i-to-i coordinators collected us and our baggage from the hotel and took us across to the volunteer houses. Me and Mark are sharing a room. Mark is a 33-year old business man from China, although he is actually English. Very nice chap, extremely laid back and easy to get along with so I'm please about that. Unfortunately he's leaving on Saturday! Anyway, when we got the volunteer house we briefly bumped into some of the other volunteers and exchanged "hellos" but then they had to go to their respective projects and we had to take another new volunteer to the
Rooftop Shindig
A nightcap on the roof with some of my housemates - (from front centre going clockwise) Riccardo, Lucy, Sam, Pete, Holly, Mark and Alex other house. Once we had dropped their stuff off we took our first serious ride in a 'matatu'. These are very difficult to describe without actually being in one! They are like small mini-vans and work as a public transport but you can get on and off anywhere and the ride isn't exactly what you would call "smooth". The driving here in Mombasa is hair-raising! Narrow misses, undertaking, horn honking, wrong side of the road, off-road... You name a driving offence in Britain and the matatus have done it! As potentially dangerous as it is, it's suprisingly exciting and as all the locals use it it really feels like you're part of the community. The other great thing about matatus is that a) there are SO many of them, all the time! and b) they are VERY cheap! Arriving in a place called Mshomni (don't think that's the correct spelling but it'll do!) we walked through a fairly slummy area of houses for about 5 minutes until we reached New Hope Children's Centre. It's currently Easter Holidays so the school is run in the mornings only. Me and Mark were introduced to Japheth, the guy who opened New Hope; Dickens, the headmaster and a couple of other senior members of staff. We sat in on a couple of lessons and then had lunch with the kids. There are about 33 orphans who live there full-time and at the moment about 50 - 60 kids attend the school but in term-time (not the holidays, like now) there can be up to anywhere between 100 - 150 kids!! The classrooms are tiny and every available space is utilised as something! The kids were very intrigued at first, if a little nervous. But once lunch was over and we were outside chatting and playing most of them soon got over that! There was already another girl volunteer there, Lucy, who eased us into it and explained several things to us which was really useful. In the afternoon we took all the kids to a nearby "field" to play football. The field is a large sandy area with several palm trees dotted around where local kids tend to hang out and the boys from New Hope (including me and Mark!) played them at football! It's so bizarre playing football with Swahili-speaking kids, in the middle of a sand pitch with palm trees to rest under and blue sky to gaze up at! Beautiful!
Yesterday evening we got back home and introduced ourselves to most of the rest of the volunteers. Most of them are very friendly and nice and I can see myself getting along with them. There are one or two who seem a little grumpy and anti-social for whatever reason but the others said that they're always like that! About 10 of us went out for a drink at the Little Chef (a bar NOT the restaurant!) in town and got to know each other a bit better.
Today at school, me and Mark took our first lesson teach 8 and 9 year olds English! It went relatively well and they all paid attention and generally seemed to understand. I then took a half-hour computing lesson which was going great until they had a power cut and nothing would turn back on!! So of course we took all the kids to the field and had another game of football!! Brilliant! It's very fun to walk between the centre and the field as you have to walk through the local village and all you hear is "Mzungu, Mzungu!" which means "white person", but not in an offensive way - they're just very suprised to see us! The only other thing they know in English is generally "how are you?" so you hear a lot of "how are you? how are you?" everywhere we go! Even tiny toddlers can mutter 'ow are 'oo! It's very sweet!
It's so hot all the time here! Even when you've got the shower and dried yourself, you're already sticky with sweat! But as everyone is the same it's not too bad!! It's rained a couple of times since I've been here but only early in the morning or during the night. I've been bitten 3 times by mossie's - in the same place, my elbow! - but apparently all of the other volunteers have been bitten as well and I've remembered to take my doxycycline so I should be fine! No sunburn as yet but I'm browning quite nicely!
I've found a really good internet cafe nearby (where I am now in fact!) and I should be able to bring my camera and cable along next time and upload some photos so I hope everyone is waiting with baited breath! Thank you to everyone who has emailed me or left me messages. It's nice to hear from people and it's good to sometimes let this place go and think of back home!
I'm sure there's so much more I've missed out but I've been here over an hour already (a grand total of about 70p worth of internet!) so I better go grab some dinner! Beer is nice and cheap here which is... useful! A bottle of Tusker is about 80p!! Woohoo!! Wow this is turning out to be a long journal entry...
Anyway, keep in touch! I've got a new Kenyan SIM card but I don't know how the country codes work! The number I've got is 0729342272. I think Kenya is +254 at the beginning but don't hold me to that!!
Love to you all, I'll be in contact again soon. Xx
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Sam
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JELOUS!
Oh my gosh, it sounds like you are having a fantastic time i am so unbelievably jelous you have no idea hehee! I cannot wait to see all your photos and iot sounds like you are well on your way of achiveing your goals.....coming back a black man! Lol how's the old beard coming along???? Whilst your off galavanting and playing football, it has been raining here all day, and is completely overcast! I only left the flat once and that was only to go across the road to pick up a letter, other than that i have been revising, which is soo unbelievably dull i think my mind might implode!!! My flat mates granparents are over at the moment, and they are playing cards and speaking in some of the strongest welsh acents i have ever heard lol! All that food you are eating sounds lush, fresh mango juice......not fair heehee. I'm glad that you have found that you get along with the people you are going to be staying with, thats always useful lol. are you one of the youngest people then? i didn't think 33 year olds took gap years lol well i shall love you and leave you, can't wait to hear from you agin, take care my dear x x x x x x