Emma and David

I am very sorry for the very long delay in the updates! I have been incredibly busy with the upcoming exams. I have now basically finished teaching. Friday (yesterday) was the last day of school for class 8, and we all cried. Over the year they have bonded so closely with me, I was completely filled with nostalgia that now it was all over. They excelled in their last practice exam, so I was so proud of them and so proud of myself - I could not believe that I managed to teach them and they are now going confidently to their exams on Tuesday. Next week the school is closed so that they can sit for their exams on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. After that the rest of school is doing exams the next week, ... read more

Hello again! We have been without water for about 1 month, it has been insane. Now finally, after 1 month of "it will be fixed tomorrow", tomorrow actually came and our well was fixed! I am now so happy because of that. So school continues, we have 6 weeks until exams! I will be pleased when the exams are over, for several reasons - but I am going to miss my students so much. Now I am together with them 7 days a week, and for a group of 16-20 year olds they are remarkably good company. Today I discussed Iraq politics and the fate of Bin Laden and then they cooked for me some Kenyan porridge - I feel priviledged to have such a good teacher/student relationship. My students are back sleeping at the school, ... read more

Hello and I am back in Saikeri after a very nice holiday to Mombasa for 5 days with my parents and sister! They arrived and visited Saikeri, saw the closing ceremony at school and then we travelled to the coast. It was very relaxing but now I am back in Saikeri, I'm back teaching, the well has broken so we have no water, all 3 pick-up trucks are broken so no one can travel to Ngong, and there is the onset of another drought and famine in Kenya. However, I am still having a great time, absolutely loving it and am very happy! It is amazing how humans are able to adapt to live without these luxuries such as water, transport, etc... I am very lucky that today one matatu came from another town very very ... read more

I apologise again for the very long absence in update. We have had an extremely busy few weeks. Our host mother, Maggie, is setting up an organisation to help send students from Saikeri to secondary school - we have been helping with websites and powerpoint presentations. Basic idea is a central bank fund where fees can be paid using Paypal, because that is what people internationally trust, and then paid to the school - and to withdraw money from the fund to pay to the schools, 3 signatories are required so there are 3 witnesses for the school fees being paid. We also have had some very bad news - my closest volunteer friend here is a girl called Becky who arrived in April. Her sister died a few days ago, so it has been a ... read more

Greetings from Kenya! These past few weeks have been very very eventful. It seems to be football season in school, so there has been not so much school and a lot of travelling all over Maasailand to various other schools to compete. And here, believe me, football is taken VERY seriously - a whole day of school will be cancelled for just one game! It means I am seriously behind with my classes now, and there will have to be a lot of catching up when this is all finally over! It has been a lot of fun however - because I will repeat, football is taken VERY seriously. Yesterday there was a game in a neighbouring school which I decided to go to, so me and a Standard 8 girl called Mary managed to bargain ... read more

It is very hot here in Kenya today! We currently have an absolute overload of other volunteers, due to it being the month of the American holidays starting. I feel like I am very reluctantly becoming educated on every aspect of the American culture by very willing teachers - these teachers are usually absolutely shocked at how much T.V. I haven't watched, how many brands of sweets ("candy") I don't know about, how many ("totally") famous people I haven't heard of - I think the general opinion is that I have been in Maasailand too long. Anyway, aside from my slight mocking, everyone is very nice and friendly. We just had an exam for Standard 8s in school for all subjects, and it was good and bad. Because this was regarded by many as a sort ... read more

Hello, This is a very very quick update, since this has been a fairly insane week. Actually everytime I write in this blog I seem to be reporting on another crazy week, but this one was definitely an exception! Thank you so much to everyone who donated money for the food. On Friday I took all the donations we had so far and bought 720kg maize, 450kg beans and 60 litres of cooking fat, which was absolutely great. Today I have just received a few last donations so I am going to buy 150kg of rice with these. We buy maize and beans because they are the cheapest food here, and therefore can feed more people for longer, but I think it will be nice to have a break from maize and beans for once! We ... read more