The story so far...

I finally arrived at Lewa Children's home near Eldoret at 11am on Wednesday 13th January 2010 having left my house and snow covered garden at 3pm on Monday 11th, over 40 hours earlier. By 3pm on my day of arrival I had been introduced to the babies (and even been weed on 3 times due to no warning about lack of money for nappies...) Some real nerves set in as I walked through check in at Heathrow- the 3 months loomed up like a lifetime- one of the rare moments when I dislike being alone- but once I was through I felt quite settled and prepared for a long wait. The flight left at 7pm, arriving 8 hours later at 6am local time. I emerged blinking into the sunlight having not slept more than 30 minutes, but successfully met my contact who helped me buy a sim card/credit and showed me where my flight up to Eldoret would leave at 4pm and the little cafe where I was supposedly going to wait for 8 hours until check in.

By 9.30 (2.5 hours and 2 cups of tea later) I was bored with my battered copy of Monday's times and felt more comfortable in my initially daunting new surroundings. A woman who had been sending off tours all morning came over to me for about the 3rd time and asked where and when I was flying. She explained that there was plenty of time for me to go on a private tour of the city and I could be brought back well in time for my flight. It would also mean for me that my heavy bags were locked safely in the boot of a car instead of being on my back or sat between my feet. In the end I paid only $45 for the 4 hour trip.

Firstly I was taken up to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage inside Nairobi's National Park but the journey was at least as interesting as the place itself. The first sight I saw leaving Nairobi airport was the herd of giraffes right by the road side behind the 3 layers of fence which mark the edge of Nairobi's national park. A strange sight but I suppose it went well with the woman riding a push bike in the wrong direction around the first roundabout I came to and the people running across a busy 3 lane carriageway. Large cars, matatus, buses, minibuses, trucks and motorbikes weave in and out of one another. The airport is on a main road lined with large companies the majority of which were assciated with the car industry (although the cars on the road had mostly been reconditioned overseas).

The Elephants were to be found up steep winding mud tracks inside the Nairobi National Park. My sharp eyed driver ( a little ironic as he was also cross eyed) pointed out warthog, baboons and buffalo, not to mention a terrified squirrel crossing the road. Visiting time for the elephants (11-12am) was also feeding time and the young elephants (3 groups of gradually increasing size) jostled for milk and attention from the keepers who seemed to know each elephant both by name and by nature. One of the keepers who spoke was really worth listening to.

A few facts I gleaned for your interest:
The baby elephants are kept under close supervision at night in horse-like stables under large blankets because they are prone to pneumonia. This is almost impossible to treat in elephants because they cannot cough, their lungs being attached to their ribcage, thus no symptoms show until too late.
They are fed on formula milk as cows milk is too fatty. We were told with extreme seriousness that these particular creatures recieved "S-M-A Gold" which gave a few westerners a laugh.

Anyway after taking some lovely pictures I returned to the airport via 2 viewpoints (and some much needed lunch). The first point was over an iincredible expanse of slums. Liz Scott who I stayed with for the first night said they were caused mostly by young men coming to the city to find work and having been unable to do so, finding themselves unable to afford the flight home. The second point was in stark contrast, over a ceremonial park next to government buildings which seemed to have had a role in protest for freedom from colonial rule.

My flight to Eldoret left dead on time (amazingly I now come to think) and I was finally able to sleep for a few minutes. I was picked up by Paul Scott and had dinner with him and his wife, in which time I learned quite a bit about the country and the area. Driving back to the house through Eldoret was interesting as every other building had a sign proclaiming itself a school, college, polytechnic, university or other miscellaneous educational institution. I had a lovely long sleep and the next morning was taken up to Lewa. After my first afternoon of exploration and introduction I helped Phyllis ('mummy'/'MAH-MI' to the 100+ children) with dinner and sat dwn to eat with Joss, the Dutch farmer who has been there since 1993, a Japanese volunteer who teaches PE at the Kip Keino school which the primary age children attend) Phyllis, and one of the children who rarely leaves her side. We had bolognaise- not very Kenyan I suppose but lovely nonetheless. The day starts at 5.30 here and so some time was needed to adjust tot he new timescale, temperature and altitude. this was done within 3/4 days with only 1 dizzy spell and a few afternoon naps!

The day after my arrival a Dutch couple arrived. They are both in their early twenties and speak excellent English, and we have since spent much time together. The 3 of us arrived and will leave at about the same time- really useful as we all had similar questions to be answered. It seemed much more necessary to provide breakfast and explanations for Swahili for 3 rather than just 1. Phyllis asked that we help at the busiest times- mornings and weekends- but otherwise could make our own schedule. So far an average weekday is as follows:
5.45 Wake up
6.10 quick cup of tea and then helping about 30 older children dress for school washing, moisturising and dressing the small children. (Toddlers- about 25 between 2 and 4 years old!)
7.15 Walk children to school
8.15 breakfast and prepare for the rest of the day
8.45-2pm Aside from a quick tea break this time is spent on activities with the oldest pre-schoolers and helping with chores around the farm, such as raking, weeding, picking seeds and on one occasion putting cheese in a bath...
4-6pm Homework help and entertaining all the children until dinner time.
After this we help with dinner and when we sit down to eat the day is pretty much over. Bedtime is usually at 9.30 ready to start over again 8 hours later.

Working with the pre-schoolers is difficult as myself and the other volunteers have much mor experience with the 5-15 age group. These children speak almost no English and try and talk t you a lot in Swahili- especially when they are crying (which is frequently). This makes it much harder to understand or solve the problem. They also have no concept of sharing which makes games difficult and even when colouring in the instinct is just to hoard as many crayons as possible rather than to colour (very understandable in their circumstances but frustrating for us). We are however making progress and getting some good things out of them. Thee is a lot of crying on the way but it will make everybody's life better in the end.

On Thursday (21st Jan) We had our first day off and first 'adventure' with the Matatus. The lady on the gate helped us to stop one and pay and a stereotypically packed bus with loud music and stickers pulled over. Judith (the Dutch girl) sat the whole way on my lap with her partner Rob behind us. We overtook almost everything as is the norm and the driving was almost as sketchy as it was on the way home but it was quite a laugh this way. Getting off at the matatu stand was not so nice as we were not expecting to be surounded by crowds of men shouting "sister, sister, mzungu, where are you going? Nairobi? Nakuru?" Once in town we paid about 50 Kenyan Shillings (about 40p!) for an hour and a half online and had a large coke, chips and beef burger in a friendly cafe recommended by our Lost Planet guide books (thank you Julie) for the equivalent of 2 pounds 50. This was mostly an uncomfortable first day in town as we looked very pale and lost but we have been twice since this time and thankfully felt much better.

Friday was lovely as there was a brilliant breakfast laid on for visitors, after which we were invited to attend a Thanksgiving day presentation at the school where we were able to watch the children singing, dancing and reciting poems. There were awards for good exam results and a nice lunch to follow. There was originally the suggestion that I would be assistant teaching but it seems the need is greater at Lewa- bad news for all my smart shirts! Hopefully though, at some point we will all be able to visit for at least a day; we also want to go to the dairy.
As most of the children at the home are boarders we have only those under 13 to look after at the home. Aside from the 30 aged 5-13 and the 25 toddlers there are 10 babies- lots more little ones than he home usually had. Many of the children were simply found abandoned as babies but there are of curse lots of other horror stories.
The kids find Judith's and my 'long' blondish hair fascinating, as all the children at the home have their heads shaved periodically and the women working there have it short and/or braided. They also love being picked up, carried, thrown in the air, racing you and generally anything which requires lots of energy. The kids all want to be picked up, hold your hand or sit on you and don't seem to understand that you have only two hands and not enough space for 30 people on your lap! I've even got used to not wearing mascara- I put some on after a couple of weeks and it looked strange, despite wearing it every day for the 2 years previous.

Anyway- after only taking one day off in 2 weeks or so, and having several South African volunteers staying for a week Myself, Judith and Rob felt okay to take a few days out. After dressing everyone yesterday morning (Thursday 28th Jan) we took a coach to Nakuru to visit the lake and put up in a 'hotel.' We had a lovely meal that evening and managed to arrange a safari in the National Park. We were up early and set out in a jeep with our driver at 6.30. We had 6 hours in the park and it was simply amazing, we were very lucky seeing lots of impala, buffalo and baboons, colobus monkeys, zebra and even rhinos and a leopard! You can see herW.e how close all of this was. Just WOW.

These are some of the famous flamingos, even though there are hardly any compared to usual due to low water levels, which makes that salt concentration too high for them to feed >>

We have all rediscovered why we came on this trip, especially as Nakuru is a friendly relaxed town compared to the 'untouristy' Eldoret in which we ourselves seem to be the main attraction. W have had lots of time to relax, to go online, to eat out. It would be nice to get a bus a little later tomorrow (we will probably leave at 11) as there is somewhere I would like to visit, but even if this is not the case, today could hardly have been better. I can't even begin to describe the park, you will have to wait for the photos!

Here's one from 'Baboon Cliff'

Happy Birthday Mum! Wish I could be there... well, I wish you could be here really!

Much love to all. Missing you already. Keep in touch x