Deidre H

There's a saying on this continent: T.I.A : This Is Africa. It means, basically, that whatever could go wrong will go wrong. Best to accept it. That is how my arrival in Ethiopia began. My departure started off excitingly enough; albeit also smoothly. After a tearful goodbye to my host family at IDP Pipeline, myself and two other volunteers headed down to Nairobi in a matatu to catch up with a teacher named Elvin we'd met at Lake Baringo the weekend before, and who'd very kindly extended an offer to show us around Nairobi and give us a place to crash there if we ever needed it (I'm not sure if he actually meant it or not, but we took him up on his offer anyway!). I have to admit I experienced some reverse culture shock ... read more

I've been trying to think of what to write in order to sum up my experience here at IDP Pipeline, and so far I've been drawing a blank. There have been so many moments, stories, experiences, challenges, emotions.... where to begin??? So, while I reserve the right to post later on about my experiences here, for now I'm just going to put up a few more pictures! ... read more

A couple weekends ago Grace and I went to Nyahururu, the highest altitude town in Kenya and located right on the equator. Of course the trip required a few bumpy, cramped, long matatu rides, but the sight of Thompson Falls just outside of town made it all worthwhile. The most interesting part of the trip - or perhaps I should say funniest- wasn’t the hike down the gorge to the bottom of the falls, or hearing the hippos grunting away along the river (actually spotting them was another matter altogether), or the city-wide blackout on the second night, but the number and variety of proposals I received in one day. It was a new personal record! I’m not saying this to brag since I’m not naïve enough not to realize the men see me and think ... read more

I’m halfway through my time here at the Pipeline IDP camp, and I’ve realized I haven’t even posted one thing about the projects I’m involved with! So here we go… First of all, I’ve been working at Aberdare Ranges Primary School, a school built by the NGO I came with, which was completed just a week before I arrived. The school currently has 124 Form One (First Grade) students, however they are one teacher short, leaving two teachers with 62 students each. Not fun. So in order to assist until the last is hired, I’ve been teaching various subjects including English, Math, Social Studies, and Science. The children speak very limited English (Swahili is their first language) which makes communication difficult, however I’ve mastered the art of facial expressions, hand gesticulations and a few (effective) Swahili ... read more

Yesterday I headed into town so I could go to the internet cafe and pick up some more water and a few groceries; nothing exciting, or so I thought..... For the past couple days I've heard that the Kenya police have been pulling over the matatus heading into Nakuru - for the pupose of extorting the drivers for more money. Unfortunately it's caused a lot of delays for people trying to get into town and they've even blocked off some major roads. I'd thought it was over, but of course 5 minutes after I'd been picked up, we were flagged over by a group of cops. One policeman came over, the driver got out out and went over to the squad car, spoke with them for a few minutes then got back into the matatu and ... read more

Today I saw a man on a motorbike with six live sheep strapped on the back. ... read more

Yesterday was my first full day at the camp. Since the other volunteer posted here, Grace, had left for a trip to Uganda and returning tomorrow, I was on my own. I met up with Naomi, the administrator of the new elementary school that just opened last week, to meet the teachers - which turns out wasn’t exactly the plan. After inventorying about a quarter of the books donated for the library, I was introduced to one of the teachers and found out they actually wanted me to teach one of the classes as they had only 1 teacher instead of 3 for all 130 children. As the school was brand new there was no lesson plan, the children had not yet been divided according to skill, and there were not enough supplies to go around. ... read more

So after spending a few days in Nairobi I came to Pipeline on May 3rd. In typical Kenyan fashion - which I'm learning very quickly - I was supposed to leave at 8:30am with a staff member of the NGO I'm volunteering with, however, I wasn't picked up until 9:30, then had to stop a number of times in order for him to do some errands. We actually left around 1pm. When we arrived we drove through the camp and the whole thing seemed so surreal; like the window of the car was more like a television screen.... My homestay family lives a five minute walk just outside of the camp, which makes it convenient. The place, while very basic, is clean and the family is wonderful: Peris (or Shushu, Swahili for Grandmother, which everyone calls ... read more