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Published: January 17th 2007
Hiya everyone,i know im pretty late in typing this up, but this week has been so hectic, i cant believe itsonly been 4 or 5 days, it seems like more! I am quite settled now and really enjoying the project a lot, 3rd day there today and becoming a lot more interesting and productive.
So, the story from the top, as short and concise as poss-
Day 1
Got into mombasa at around 10 after delay in heathrow and a really easy flight- i cant believe i was scared! But anyway,got met and there was it turned out another girl at my flight, Kirsty who is like 27 and travlled loads before. Anyway, it was like 35C at 10 in the morning and its pretty much like that all the time now, getting used to it now. Anyway, went to hotel and met 3 others, dumped stuff, went down to fort jesus for a gander and came backto hotel for drinks. All fine up till here, after i was very homesick and sobbing down phone to mam!I cant believe its me writing this now. I think the problem was the adjustment between the speed and comfortof life between home and here. home felta lot more safe/comfortable and Mombasa didn't and kenyans seemto be a lot more chilledout about things in general and i wantedto feel safe whereas on day 1 whereas the project people werelike, ah Mombasa,easy man...
Day 2-induction,got met by alice and isiah, the project coordinatorsin Mombasa. We has induction and it was cool, bit of swahilli learning and stuff like that.They were a bit vague about the projects though, still didn't know much about mine by this point and was still pretty worried/anxious.
Day 3-First day at project, although it took ages to get to by the time i had dumped stuff at the house which is in central Mombasa, really nice for what can be expected and safe enough, well very safe, securtiy 247 i think. The people here are nice too, 12 or so others in my house. Glad i wasn't in the homestay option, that seems slightly daunting i think for me, it would be cool but i think would be much more boring in the evenings. Anyway, we got taken(meemily,kirsty) to our seperate projects and mine was last on the bus(although we hadto taken 4 different ones)(oh yeah, when i say bus, i mean matatu,a 12-15 seater vw van type thing which come by certain palces every 5 minutes and are like 30 ksh(20p abouts) and are generallyall round class things, best public transport ever!) and by the time igot there it was around 12.30-1.Mine looks better for me than the other 2, fora start theres a nice girl poppy who is in the house and the project with me, so its easier walking and its been easier to get to know the kids and get into the project this way.
The other girls who arrived with me had a)a far out school in the middle of a mud hut village, and a long walkto it and b)a childrens centre like mine, but in a dustier place and a lot less well facilitated. Anyway my center has 27 kids there,from 2-12 i think.My first thing was too teach the oldest class of four kids english/maths. Fair to say it was in at the deep end and the class were buggers to say the least.Its so hard to teach the, they refuse listen or try and they know very little. And also the teachers and people who run the centre are a bit stuckin their ways,i hadto teach these repetitive things out of a book,so boring and the kids clearlydidnt understand the concepts, just knew answers off by heart. It was okay though,goodto get in there asap.
Poppy showed me this cool as hell resteraunt by the placetoo, we've been there every day . Our project is quite far out, v. poor part of Mombasa called port reitz. Theres there reteraunt outof the way,off the the road and its so beautiful, colorful and no one goes there,i think its mainly for weddings but its so nice.
Anyway first night at the accomodation was class, weall just sat on the rooftop balcony drinking tuskers(kenyan beer)(well i did,all the girlsdrunk wine) and chatting,it was cool. The other people inmy palce are, as far as i can remember-poppy,emily,hannah,simon,john,ashley,and loads more i cant. Everyone is nice and friendly. Simon and John are a little seperate from the girls i think but are coolenough, we went to the cinema us 3 last night.(going off track sorry). But i eventually retired to bed after sayign i would4/5/6 times at like 12.30.
Day 4.
Very early get up-6.30i gotup to makes sure we got there by 8.Not ncie getting up smelling everyday but ill get used.Day 4 was pretty similarto day 3 apart from i had to-clean toilets, sweep floorand do rubbish jobs in morning. The guy who runs dicksons(nameof center) came in and toldus a few things, we are apparently doing 3 classrooms out which are under the house(house is like 3 floors, bottom is outside with open rooms which the kids play in, so dangerous with loads of broken wood laying around. But thats one thing we have to do, another is painting stairs, which dont sound hard but it is- have to scrape away glue which tiles were on-so hard and i got dust all downmy throat. Afternoon was same except me and poppy took the oldest kids together and brought sweets as bribes-worst idea ever. They wouldnt shut up or do anywork without demanding a mr berry reward(name of sweet). Then when we left at 4, the kids contrived to lock us in behind the gate and hangoff us, trying to steal the remaining sweets.
oH YEAH, some of THE KIDS-
Moses-like 2, just the saddest looking kid ever-chubby cheeks,never ever smiles, he did today(day 5) when i pushed him on the swing for a while though, so nice to see. He has pissed on Poppy twice(shell be glad for me to say so)
Mwangwi-like 2/3 too, hes like king of the little ones, they alll love himhes got a wickedsmile and has like 5 more sponsors than any of the other kids cos of it.
Vincent-like 9, loves 50 cent i think hes been on the streets most of hislife, has unexplainable scars on his legs and arms. Has the Meanest face i have ever seen on a child.ever.
Theres loadsmore, they are the main ones i can remember,ill add more later lol.
They are generally okay but the older ones who onlyare there in afternoon when im there are so moody and do no work, take everything personallyeg wont talk toyou if you tell themoff etc. The young ones try to pull everything you have off,ie bracelets,bags,wallets,asthma pump.
Hair.
Lots.
Someof them are so small though, really thin and that, but they are pretty well looked after there.
Anyway day 4 night i got in at like 6,after a small gander round a few shops. Had food, the food is quitegood in the place, have had chapatti-lush, and rice and stuff.its so many carbs here too-i feel bloated like a baloon half the time.everything involves rice/bread.
Anyway the two guys asked if i fancied a late night gander down to the localcinema which it turns out wasnt very local and was a long matatu ride away. Got there to see Casino Royale at 9.15. Like 300ksh for the fiulm- about 2 quid and like a pound for the biggest thing of popcorn ever.Only appropriate for it was bucket really, not even bigest size lol.
Anyway, it was class, we had to stand upfor the national antehm at the sratt of the film-howcool is that!!!And there was an interval-just like a theatre, how dickensian can you get!.
Anyay,good film,good laugh but there was small problem of no matatusback.We managed to catch a ride(got offered!) by these girls who were sat by us. It was random but typical of Kenyans, the ones who talk to you are normally so helpful.
Today-day 5
Got up earlier because the work dont start in the place really until like half hour after we come in and weonly were later yesterday because we got lost somehow, just getting to the matatu lol.Same as yeterday,getting to know the kids names a lot more now and someof them are warming to me. Didnt bribe kids with sweets, and we tried v very hardto think up ideas about lesson plans, putting tefl course into action.It worked kinda, they are so impossibleto teach but there were sparksof hope and joy as we did seemto get through on some levels,but its hard-they dont even know their 2 times tables, its shocking!!!
But we tried hard and the ideas seemed to comeoff, one girl worked jyumwa worked hard and was very good, so good to see a response like and first time i thought yeah i made a difference. Offto meet upin castlehotel with all other i to i people tonight whichshould be cool.
Bye bye for now.
Lloyd
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Mikey
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Little Lloyd
Hello buddy. I sounds like a wikid time your having. ceri sends her best wishes and hope ur take care. keep in touch buddy and stay safe. mikey c