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Published: September 20th 2008
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Jambo from Kenya!!
8/09/08 - 09/09/08
Up early to get to Dubai airport, we gobbled down the last of the fruitloop balls (big sugar hit), checked out and caught a taxi.
Traffic is the same as Brisbane at peak hour, shocking, but we arrived at the airport in plenty of time.
Clearing imigration and checking in our bags, we made our way to duty free and the nearest cafe for a coffee. We had a bit of time to kill so it was nice to just sit down.
Departure was on time and the flight was smooth, so we landed in Kenya on time. For an international airport it was a little primative, but we weren't expecting anything too flash. We cleared customs fairly quickly, but it took a while to get our bags. Everything was unloaded by hand we think. With a look of relief on our faces we collected our bags and meet Okumu (our guide for our Kenya Safari), loaded the vehicle and headed off to visit a primary school on the out skirts of Nairobi. Unfortunately a hail storm stopped us, at this time, from getting to the school. With the volume of rain and
poor drainage we were physically unable to reach the school. We did however get close and this in itself was and eye opener as the school was located in the slums. And we are not kidding.
Unable to reach the school, it was organized for us to visit there tomorrow morning, so we made our way through the nightmare traffic to our motel in the centre of Nairobi.
The motel wasn't modern, as with everything in Nairobi, but it was clean and comfortable, and the food was good. After having dinner we made our way to bed as once again we were all ready for a good sleep. Still catching up on the time difference I think.
Morning found us up bright and early and we made our way down to breakfast. The girls were fascinated by the veranda where you could sit outside and eat. The only thing was, you had to climb out of a window to get to it. The girls had fun climbing in and out. We did sit inside however as it was a chilly morning.
Packing our bags after breakfast we made our way downstairs to meet up with Okumu again. After friendly greetings
simular to yesterday we set off for the school. The Kenyan's we met were all very polite and friendly.
We reached the place we managed to get to yesterday, then had to proceed on foot. In disbelief we made our way along a narrow walkway, about 3 metres wide. Underfoot was dirt and mud, washed out over time by the rain. Rough timber and corrogated iron shelters lined the path, which branched off into even narrower alley ways wide enough for one person only. Weaving our way we followed Okumu past people going about their every day chores of making meals, cleaning and making wares to sell for income. Little kids played in the dirt and looked up at us with big wide eyes as we past by. In the middle of all this was a school. This was was unbelievable.
We reached the school, which didn't look any different from the buildings around it. With tears welling in our eyes, we were greeted like royalty, by the 4 teachers who volunteer their sevices to educate the children. Behind the teachers was a room full to over flowing with bright eyed smiling faces of 100 or so kids ranging in
age from 4 to 9. We had 4 chairs and a little table to sit at and we were urged to be seated. prompted by the teacher all the children said hello and good morning. We were treated to a couple of traditional songs of greetings and welcome by some of the older children. This was way more than we expected and sat their humbled by the whole experience. We handed all of the school items kindly donated by families at Minden School, which the teachers were only to glad to take off our hands. The head teacher held up some of the items and childrens eyes lit up with excitement at the though of being able to use these in the classroom. The cash donation was used to purchase maths text books. We need to thank very much everyone who donated items for us to give to the school, these will make a big difference to the needy childrens education. Thankyou very very much. We were presented with hand made gifts, and had to fight back the tears. It was a very emotional experience, seeing how these children live.
The teachers each have a class of about 80 children,
and the classroom is no bigger than 4m x 5m.
Leaving the school we said goodbye to as many of the children as we could, they were all so beautiful.
We made our way back to the centre of Nairobi where we were to catch the shuttle bus to Arusha in Tanzania, the next leg of our journey.
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