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Published: November 11th 2006
forty thieves
our local beach - we spend most of our free time here. well who wouldn't?!WELL>
sorrrrrry its taken so long for me to get onto this site!!ok i hardly know where to start...
so i'm in diani beach at the moment, in a little internet cafe near where i bought my second pair of flipflops..god this feels so weird i havent had internet for over a week! i was saying to georgie just now that it feels like so so much longer..
ok so name dropping there - if i told ppl about the whole 'yeh theres gonna be 16 ppl when we arrive, 6 two monthers and 10 three monthers'....that was SO wrong. when we arrived on thursday morning into camp, we were greeted with a garland of flowers round our tent, fresh coconuts, and a table full of FIFTY other campers. both ozzies and brits. so basically the camp is HEAVINGGG> although ppl keep going off every week or so, cos if you;ve been here for 3 months they let you have independent travel so ppl just bugger off for a week to mombasa or this orphanage or to the masai mara, which i WISH i could do but sadly have not got the funds to do so..seeing as i
spent quite a heftly sum on something i will mention later...!
basically for the first few days we did pretty much nothing - they normally sp[end the week doing project work and then the weekend is free time, for internet, shopping and generally going to this restuarant bar place right on the beach (down the road from here) called 40 thieves (40s) where we spend the day sunbathing and eating food. so thrus we arrived, met 50 ppl and basically ran away back to our tent where we slepttttt alot.
ooh i say we and that means me, becca (american and 18 and verrrry independent and loaded, went to baording school in new hampshire+hasa beach house in the hamptons)and jemma (english and 21, finished at reading uni and misses it.) we;re all in the same tent, along with an australian three monther girl called Jo who;s very nive although i got back from mwalaganje yesterday to discover she'd kiunda stolen my EUROPE converses for three days cos hers were wet..
anyway theyre all nice ppl so its all good.
so then friday we got up,had a wander around the camp, basically didnt talk to anyone cos it
the village boys
typical Makongeni was too damn daunting!! and then we found out it was this girls birthday hence we went to the town and bought alcohol and eventually the day had passed and we got slightly drunk.. and this girl Kyle was all 'Flora's going to be FUN to have round camp!!'
the SLR got its first trip out at that point, cos i'd been so embarrrassed of its heftiness that i hadnt removed it from its case yet. luckily now everyone knows i have it and its not so embasrrassing. HOWVEVER mum im very sorry but the video camera still hasnt made an appearance, and i dont know if it ever will...it just looks too damn keen and i dont like it!!
anyway fri was wicked, went to 40s and sat on the beach in a haze, and then sun we recovered.. monday and tuesday were our first days of project work. now it wasnt very clear on the website cos camp kenya have athree month contract with the village of Makogeni where we're staying, to build a schoolhouse and staff quarters. three yrs is nearly up and so theres resllllly very liuttle to do at all. plus the kids have
our lovely toilet+shower complex
i'm now more than used to showering with slugs, millipedes and the ever present mozzies.. exams at the mo so theres no way we can work on the schoolhouse, even tho all they need to do is put the books into the library. so theres basically in theory 50 ppl working on building a roof and whitewashinga nd cementing walls togethere - cementing is known fondly as 'slappy slappy' and involves getting very dirty.
but everyone seems to skive off prject work, so there arent too many ppl to do the few things needed to do. we get stuck in as much as poss cos we feel so guilty coming out here to save africa and all we get to do is whitewash a wall...
anyway mon was good, we did the work and felt all worthy.
and then came tuesday, when i left project work, went to the beach with kyle, georgie, jo, kat, nathan, jonny and matt to do summat i never thought id do.
thats right folks, i went SKYDIVING.
and it was the best experience of my life!!!!!
cost me 120 quid tho so im a bit out of pocket - not much time left in here so im being more brief - i obv couldnt
camera shy?
the kids get so excited if you show them their photo - screaming with total happiness, it's so adorable.. take the sLR camera up with me (!!!) so i bought a disposable that im guarding with my life unitl i can get it developed!! then on wed we left for mwalaganje, the elephant sanctuary, where it rained NONSTOP for three whole days. so on wed afternoon we had our one and only game drive for 15 mins and saw one red pinprick in the distance that Tommy our camp manager claimed was an elephant.. i dont belive him. we basically sat in a verrrrry picturesque landscape on the top of a hill in a kind of valley for three days, with the cluds slowly getting lower and the the thunder getting louder, till eventually on thurs night we were in the middle of the biggest storm ive ever seen. nathan and jonny woke us all up at 1 in the morn screaming cos of the thunder and lightning.. it was really fun tho cos we got to know ppl a bit better, and we did get to make elephant poo paper and while away quite a few hours painting said paper.. which was ace. thennnn we decided to leave a day early when it stopped rainging, mainly cos the
skydiving
that\'s me landing by the way.. road wasnt ASD screwed up at that point so we made a break for it. the truck did almost overturn tho and verity posed for me in a hole the size of her that the truck had to get through.
and THEN on the road home we ran smack bang into a bloody great elephant, who ran into the bush quicker than anything..and no one got a photo!@!!! i kinda got the very back of his leg...
and now it's today and thats basically a diary, although doesnt tell you everything at alll!!! its still quite weird with everyone, purely cos they know each other really well and its obv hard to infiltrate that. the ozzies are rather a tight bunch so i've been chatting to a few englishers on a one to one basis and feel like i know a few ppl prettyt well tho, so ts all good.
just to get it in quickyl, the villagew is amazing althou \ not quite as poor as you'd think. cos even tho they live in little reed huts and theres rubbish everywhere, half the african teens have mobiles.. basically they have this buddy system at the camp
mwalaganje accomodation
even if we saw no elephants AT ALL in the reserve, the location was still pretty good.. where an african kid will come and claim you by talking to you, getting your name, and then making you a brcelet with your name on which you have to wear. once you're wearing it the kid thinks he basically owns you - all other kids back off if he's talking to you, and he assumes that us brits are obligated to give them things when we leave. hence some v weeathly ppl have given away their phones and ipods...which will NPOT be happening with me! my guy, Teacher, (no that rewally is his name!!) keeps asking me for my phone number - he wanted me to call him when i was in the elephant sanctuary cos hwe was 'going to be so lonely...' and he keeps asking me to go down to the mangroves...which is very dodgy. im slighlty scared of him.
agg i need to carry on checking emails and looking at anna;s blog yayy in thailand!! i really want to do summat else later in the year cos literlally evertyone here is going on to somewhere else more amazing and for ages after this, like asia and thailand and oz and india and ............ iu want to go find soewhere else to WORK PROPERLY cos i feel redundant here. although lots of ppl are going to be away next week and its my first full week of project work sdo hopefully ill do enough.
and im going to try and check my email again tomoroooo so EMAIL ME as well as commenting on here, spill your thoughts, ask questions, trigs im looking at ytou!!!
god i miss everyone masses tho - its sosososososo nicwe to realise and rewmember that even if im finding it a bit hard out here, EVERYONE is back in sunny london and loving me from afar. and im loving you all too!!! sosososo much!!!! i miss everyoine LOADS and your all coming and living with me when im back, i want everyone!!
loads and masses and tons of hugs and love and kisses and everything possible that i can give,
FLORA xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<3<3<3<3<3<3<3xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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AnnaBucks
Anna Bucks
Sounds a blast!
Dude! Come to Thailand! It's fab, although Africa sounds absolutely fantastic! xxx