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I am 22 years young and heading into possibly the biggest 12 months of my life....and thought it was about time I started writing about it! Happy reading...Kyla22
Travel Blog Posts
August 24th 2010
Completion: come or bring to a finish or an end As the saying goes “all good things must come to an end”, and although I don’t always like to agree, in this case I think its right on the money. This is our last week of the program and I am feeling surprisingly content. I have had the most incredible last 9 weeks and know that it will probably take quite some time for me to process everything we have done and experienced here. What I know right now however, is that taking on this team leader role may have been one of the most frightening things I have ever done, but more importantly it is also the BEST things! I sat with each of my participants individually this week to hear how they were feeling ... read more
August 17th 2010
Fight: difference in opinions. Tonight our group had their first massive fight. It was fairly intense and involved raised voices and flared tempers….and it was all over a game of UNO! The girls…“No you can’t put a draw four on a draw four” Nick…. “But we could last week…so why can’t we tonight?” The girls…” no we couldn’t, these are the rules we have always played you idiot” Nick.. “Bullshit…when Leah and I played last week you could do it” It went on like this for at least 10 minutes. I just sat and laughed. Hilarious! I feel so lucky that these are the only kinds of fights we are having, even after spending 24 hours a day together for the last 8 weeks. Surely there has to be some kind of statistics saying that it’s ... read more
August 3rd 2010
Home: an environment offering affection and security I have lived in a few different places throughout my life and have found that whenever you move there is a period of adjustment that you need to get past before you can truly appreciate your new surroundings. This week we moved out to our new “home” for the next five weeks, Odede. I was feeling a bit sad to be leaving Mutumbu as we had such an awesome time there and really made great friends with the community, and to be honest my first impressions of Odede were not good. We arrived around dusk and when I went to check out the toilet I was greeted by two big black bats (one down the actual hole of the toilet and the other inside the toilet hut) three or ... read more
July 26th 2010
Halfway: equally distant from the extremes Right now I am in a matatu on the way back to Kisumu from Navasha town where my group and I have had an awesome four day “rest and relaxation” package. We stayed on lake Navasha and despite supposedly “resting and relaxing” managed to go on a 4 hour cycle through an amazing national park, a two hour hike through a spectacular gorge and a 4 hour hike through a national reserve, strolling past animals like giraffe, zebra, hippo, and baboon…very cool! So this weekend marks the half way point of our program…5 weeks down and 5 to go! We farewelled Mutumbu in style with perhaps one of the busiest weeks I have ever experienced (and for anyone that knows me knows I like to be busy so that’s saying ... read more
July 14th 2010
Amazing: surprisingly great, inspiring awe or admiration or wonder It’s amazing what can happen when you get 7 people of all different ages, from numerous different backgrounds, with different interests and skills, and somewhat completely different personalities and put them together to form a group. That group quickly becomes a team when they spend 24 hours a day together, sleep in the same room, eat the same meals, and more importantly work towards common goals and share not so common experiences. What is even more amazing however, is when the people that make up this team either by fluke or fate have some really important things in common, like compassion for others, passion for improvement, selflessness, a desire to take action, and also significantly, a great sense of humour. The results can be awe inspiring….and for ... read more
July 4th 2010
Police forces: organizations established to maintain law and order If at the beginning of this program, someone had asked me what I was most concerned about in term of things going wrong, I probably would have said participants getting sick and having to go to hospital. The thought of one of them getting thrown into a Kenyan police cell would have never even crossed my mind. Oh how naive I was… Also if before last night, someone had asked me what the most random thing I had ever done was, I would have had to put some thought into it. Now, sleeping on the floor of a Kenyan police station next to a family of refugees from Sudan would have to rank pretty high on the list. So if you are now wondering what on earth ... read more
July 4th 2010
Culture: the attitudes and behaviours that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization One of the things I love most about the Kenyan culture is that every day without fail, something new takes me by surprise. Whether it’s a good/laughing/funny surprise or a shocked/disbelief surprise, it definitely keeps you on your toes. On Wednesday I took a day off the worksite and headed into Kisumu to organise a few things for the team including our team “THROB” t-shirts (keep on eye out for photos very soon)! I walked outside our compound, flagged down a matatu and jumped in. I got my seat at the back and when I looked up I was shocked to see that instead of the usual run down mini van, I was in a first class one with a big ... read more
June 29th 2010
Community: a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other So today marks a week since we arrived in Mutumbu and there is so much I could write about that it’s hard to know where to start. All the team have adapted quickly to village life and love our new base. For us, home is now the “white house”, a large compound which until about two years ago was painted white, but now thanks to telecommunications company ZAIN it is a blinding shade of pink with a touch of fluorescent yellow. It keeps its nickname due to the fact that it has ‘whities’ staying in it almost all year around (all WYI volunteers). We have electricity about 70% of the time (blackouts have quickly lost their novelty), but no running water. ... read more
June 23rd 2010
Homeless: dispossessed: physically or spiritually homeless or deprived of security Talk about a flip side to every coin! After our experience at TEMAK, our groups spent the next few days settling into Kisumu and the Kenyan culture. My vollies and I had an awesome day of team building activities, I sent them on an ‘amazing race’ style scramble across the city, and we got to know each other better over some delicious meals. And just when everyone was starting to settle in and adjust to a new life, we hit them with another WAMMY. Fran and I decided a visit to an organisation called HOVIC (hope for Victorian children) would be good for our groups to understand the problem of street children in Kisumu. Little did I know however, the effect it was going to have ... read more
June 19th 2010
Gender: the wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between male and female entities, extending from one's biological sex to, in humans, one's social role or gender identity So my participants have all arrived, orientation is almost complete and I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the program! It’s hard to believe that only 4 days ago, we were all relatively strangers as everyone has bonded so well already. Both Fran and I have teams that couldn’t have been better picked for us. My participants are all really amazing individuals and I am completely blown away by each of them. They are a mature, like minded bunch who are so positive and genuinely passionate about doing ‘good’ in this world. They are also absolutely pumped to get into the program and start ... read more
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