We arrive at Nairobi airport more than 12 hours late as our flight was cancelled. Believe it or not it was cancelled the Friday before we were due to travel, but no one had informed us. Grace, Sylvester and Kerry were at the airport to meet us. We loaded up the bags on a four wheel drive van and headed to Ruiru (pronounced Reeru.) It took 30 minutes and what terrifying trip, traffic everywhere, vehicles hooting each other, pedestrians running around and everyone also on bicycles. We were both scared as it was utter chaos (apparently normal!)

Our hostel is called ParkView and its not quite five star, but its definitely a roof over our heads! The view is not of a park but of other fallen down properties, open marsh lands, numerous shacks selling all sorts of things.

The weather is cloudy, but warm (not too hot!)

We have been exploring with Grace and Kerry, we have been to visit the school, the nursery and Rehabilitation where we will be working. We have met the headmaster at the school and we are the New PE teachers! We start work next week.

We have been to the Safari Park hotel (five star hotel) to sunbathe and have a swim. They also have a gym, but we have not yet used it! We have to catch Matatus to travel around. These are 12 seater minibuses, that are normally crammed full of more that 20 people, they look as if they should be at the knackers yard, being sold for scrap!

They have a market every Wed and Sat, where we can buy fresh produce. Pineapples are about 20 shillings, which is about 20p. At least we are getting our five portions in!!!!

The streets in Ruiru have lots of shacks selling things from garden furniture, sweets to fresh milk and live chickens! There are also young kids walking around glue sniffing.

So far Debs has broken her glasses and is walking around with a plaster taping them together. Stacey managed to fall in some mud up to her thighs!

We are looking forward to starting work next week and have started planning our PE lessons.

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Week 2 - Kenya

We have to teach three classes a day from Mon - Fri. We take classes 3,4,5,6, 7 & 8. Each class is made up of about 70 children, so at time teaching is chaos! Also the field is very dusty and we both end up head to toe in dust.

We have taught Bulldog, Stuck in mud and Debbie has demonstrated some of her aerobic techniques for warm up and cool downs! The children understand our rules, but always want to be caught!! They are also touching and pulling our hair all the time. The other day we saw a girl get caned at the back of her legs. Not nice!

The deputy headmistress lets us sit with her in her room. She calls us her daughters (she has four boys!) and she is always giving us work to do i.e. marking! She also helps herself to our dinner and asks if she can come and stay with us in England. Stacey asked what her blue stick was used for, silly question, she then proceeded to use us as her subjects and smack us on the side of the arms!

We have taken the bubbles and crayons to the nursery. They went crazy and were constantly tugging on our arms (all 40 of them!) We had a good time and got some great snaps to show you all.

The school is in desperate need of a water supply. The headmaster is getting some quotes for us to use some of the money we have raised.

We walk to the Rehabilitation centre which takes 45 minutes. We plan to hold a footy match there in the next few weeks.

When we walk past infants at nursery they run up and call out MZUNGU, this means white people... they chant this everyday we walk past school

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Week 3 - Kenya

At school we have now progressed onto rounders. We nominate two captains to pick the teams and alternate fielding and batting. They really enjoy it. We have been told that some of the children's parents are pleased that two English girls are teaching their children PE.

We have taken a three day trip to Mombassa. We caught an overnight train to Mombassa. We preordered the tickets. They have got Debbies name wrong, she is now known as Barbara!!!

James - a Maasai - dresses up in traditional dress has been helping us with directions. When arriving in Mombassa 14 hours later, he took us to Dania beach and we hired a hut in Normads for 1,7000 shillings per person per night 10pounds per night.

The first day a monkey got into our hut and stole our bananas. It is very hot here and we have been sunbathing all weekend. The beach has pure white sand and the sea is warm. It is heaven, so quiet, relaxing. We keep get hassled by beach boys who want to sell you bracelets and shells all the time.

We have been snorkeling, Debbie fed the fish, Stacey just screamed when the fish came near her.

James met up with us on our final day to take us to the bus station. (the bus takes 8 hours to get us back to Nairobi)

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Week 4 - Kenya

We also saw two lions mating, it only took about 10 seconds and we even witnessed an encore!!

Their average daily wage is 100 ken Shilling (less than a pound a day!)

School Name: GITHUINGURE:

We have sampled some of the local food:

UGALIA - made from Maize flour and water (Debbies Favourite)

ANDAZI - Sweet bread

NORMA CHOMA - BBQ Goat meat

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Week 5 - Kenya

How quickly the days are flying by. This week has been full of
exciting things. We have taken some kids out from the Rehab. Florence (14), Maria (5)
and James (7). We took them to the Giraffe sanctuary and fed the Giraffes. The
kids really enjoyed themselves.

We have held a footy game at the Rehabilitation, it was a very
competitive match, don't know what the score was as we were too busy getting pictures.
But i'm sure Liverpool won!!!!!!! They were really pleased with the kit and
thoroughly enjoyed the game. It was sad to see some of the kids only playing with
one trainer, one boy only had one sports sock. Debbie was tempted to give
them her trainers to play in..

We have done a lot of sightseeing this weekend and we have also had a
bank holiday, Moi day (the old president of Kenya for 24 years.) We went to
David Sheldricks elephant orphanage, Nairobi National Park - which is a
safari walk in which you get to see animals, unfortunately not as exiting as the
Safari last week as some of the animals were in cages. We also went round the
National Museum and snake park.

We have now started to introduce netball at the school. It was a bit
mad at first as the girls kept running with the ball, some of the girls were
even fighting for the ball (some of them were on the same side!) Afterwards
the girls came up to us and thanked us for teaching them the game.

This Sunday we turned all religious (well for about two hours), we met
up with the deputy headmistress and four sons and attended their church. We did
lots of singing and praying. We also had to stand up and introduce ourselves -
Most embarrassing! Afterwards we went back to their house and were shown
endless photos of their family and friends. We also went for a soda with Peter
(24) the eldest son, who is very much into football (he took us to a pub that
shows sport live on TV!)

We have also visited 14 falls. We caught the Matutu (Local bus) to Thika, and
then we were crammed into a van and headed miles out towards 14 falls.
We were dropped off along a dirt track, we followed it and ended up at the
site. It was a fantastic view and had some amazing waterfalls. We have pictures
which will be on our website soon.

We have also been back to the Safari Park Hotel (5 star hotel) and did
a two hour workout, which included an aerobics lesson. There were more blokes
than women doing the class, it was really funny as the blokes could not get
co-ordinated when doing step. One bloke fell over at least three times. The
instructor looked a bit like Mr Motivator (but didn't have the leotard on
thankfully!) he had a problem with counting, his countdown went from 8 to 6 and then
back up to 7. Most enjoyable though. We also spent the evening in their casino,
we played the one arm bandits and roulette wheel. We didn't win anything, but it
was an enjoyable night out.

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Week 6 - Kenya

What has happened to the weather? It has rained over the last few days, one of
which we got caught in and had to run to find shelter under a tin roof. Stacey
had flicked dirt all up the back of her trousers and legs.. Flip flops and rain
do not equal sensible footwear!

We have made the most of this weather by going to the pictures in the afternoon in
Nairobi! The Terminal - Tom Hanks. OK film, killed a few hours for us!! We
have also been to the Maasi market which has a large number of stalls selling
everything from friendship bracelets, to flip flops (slippers) to handmade wooden
animals. They all want you to come and look saying 'looking is free'

Nairobi is as bad as the text books say 'nairobbery' it is scary, but we have
managed to get our bearings and explore this city without too much hassle. We
have also been to the YAYA shopping centre on a bus. This bus was very much like
ours, except everything has been stripped out of it. You have to pick the seat
up from the floor, you can see the driver changing gears and the doors don't
close. We must have inhaled lots of emissions as they seemed to be coming in
the bus. The bus also struggled up a hill, we must have been traveling at 2mph!
It was amusing, but have decided not to leave my lungs to a donor!

School is as exciting as ever. We have now progressed onto teaching volleyball.
They are very good and seem to pick the rules up really well. Some of the lads
are taking it really seriously and there are lots of verbals flying about the
court! Stacey and I don't play volleyball as they are a bit too feisty for our
liking! Enjoyable to watch.

We have put up posters around the school as we are planning to have a games
morning on Tuesday. We are having a netball game, volleyball game and then a
teachers relay race. We have been challenged by the deputy headmistress and
school secretary to a race as they think they can beat us. Some of the teachers
have been practicing for next week's competition. We have been telling people
there are prizes for winners!

Some of the teachers have told us that we will be missed from the school . Some
may even cry! We will both really miss the school especially the deputy
headmistress who has really looked after us and made us laugh.

The headmaster has provided us with a quote for a fresh water supply to be
installed at the school. He quoted a cost of $165,600 Ken Shillings (822 pounds)
which will go through Out Of Africa to compare to other quotes. So they should
have a sustainable water supply for the whole school (over 1,500 students.) Most
of them have to bring in water from home and there is a well at the school which
is not fresh water. So it is something they really need and we are happy to
provide them with the money you have raised to have it.

We have taught our first English lesson today, we asked them to draw or write a
little bit about themselves, their family and home. They really enjoyed it as
they were given pens, pencils and felt-tips to draw with. Some of them came up
to the front of class and talked to the rest of the class about themselves.

We had another bank holiday on Wednesday, Kenyatta day. We were really busy
helping out on a sponsor day for Out of Africa. All the sponsored children
through OOA got together at the Kigga school to be told about the organisation,
the help they are getting. Stacey and I helped some of the younger kids write
letters to their sponsors. Some of the letters were so sad, some have no parents
and live with grandparents, most of them have a large family (10 brothers
and sisters), they live in tin or mud houses, share a bed with other members of
their family and have to walk miles to get water. Their main worry is having no
food and some have no means of financial support, thank god they have sponsors.
Stacey is planning to sponsor a little girl from the nursery called Sarah. At
the end of the day we handed round sodas and a handful of biscuits and an Andazi
(deep fried scone - tastes a bit like a doughnut but with no jam.) we left
around 7pm, it was pitch black and a lot of kids had to walk home in the dark!!
We had to sit in the back of the 4WD van as we had to take some kids home...

We have been back to the Safari park for a major workout session, we were there
two hours and did the aerobics class. After we had a sauna and steam Stacey
used some of the free toiletries available (we are in a five star hotel after all
and they are free!) she used some spray in conditioner... What a mistake her
hair looked as if she had sprayed 'slow glow' in it (from the film Coming into
America - Eddie Murphy) it was so funny and she had to wash her hair another 10
times to get it out!

Debs

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Week 7 - Kenya


Our final week has come too quickly for us, although the pace here is slow, we can't beleive that we are leaving on Saturday. This week our diaries have been chocka of things to do.

We went to Lost Paradise and took with us Sarah, Michael and Francis from the Nursery. They (and us!) had fun rowing on the lake, horse-riding and camel riding. We also bought them lunch at our local hang out 'Gates Cafe' (beef stew, Ugalia, Chipata, rice, Spinach and some other vegetable that we have yet to identify!) all for 70p!!

We have started to paint the nursery, the walls were originally grey stone. So we choose a yellow for the walls and sunflower blue to stencil the numbers and the alphabet on the walls. It looks really cool and the kids and staff are really happy with the way it looks.

We have watched Norwich City v Everton footy game, we both had tears in our eyes, especially as it was a home game. We are trying to see if we could see anyone we knew in the crowds - but alas no Tovells, Sharon, Neil, Tammy or Sue! Although Debbie did get to see Fridge a few times! We were gutted about the score. It should have been a win for Norwich as we played so well.

We have spent a day at the YARD Youth Agriculture for Rural Development. Who is managed by Sebastian. We were told about the scheme and all the projects on the go. We were taken round and introduced to some of the women involved. At the moment they are growing carrots, spinach and learning about how to make organic fertilizer and about providing food for their family as opposed to harvesting crops to be sold (i.e coffee). It is teaching them about sustainability and survival from starvation. On our way back we were taken to see the OoA roundabout, which was a project sponsored by OoA.

We have taken all the games - ker-plunk, top trumps, sindy doll, space hopper amongst other things to the Rehab and held a games afternoon. The space hopper was a favourite, most of the time it was kicked round like a football!

We have managed to have a day to ourselves which entailed an hours workout at the gym followed by an hours massage. We were worried that it would be one of the gym instructors, who had massive rippling muscles, but alas (or thank god!) it was a woman. It was very relaxing albeit a bit rough on the knots. We both felt as if we had been coated in vegetable fat! We have also had our nails done, it was more painful than the massage, Debbie has no cuticles left!

We had a bit of a scare yesterday afternoon, there was a armed robbery at the downstairs store. Two men held up the shopkeeper at gun point. We arrived half an hour after it had happened. There were armed security guards and lots of people running around. We locked and bolted our apartment door and only allowed people in who had a password. Soar (OK). We also frisked and questioned the whereabouts of Sylvester at the time of the incident!

We must tell you about aids education out here. Apparently you can catch aids by sharing combs. Even more worrying is that you can cure aids by having sex with a virgin!! there is nothing said about practicing safe sex!!!

We have also paid a visit to a private school which is about 10minutes away from Githungari. They have six students per class, which is such a difference from the 60 per class we endured.

We have taught English to 4W, we asked them to tell us more about themselves. They had to draw or write about their family, home and pets (pets are normally cows and sheep!) some of them when they had finished read out to the rest of the class. Some were very nervous and were shaking. The deputy head mistress kept telling them off for saying I have 10 years, rather than I am 10 years old. We had fun picking out winners and awarding prizes.

By the way the kids in the nearby school are still chanting Wuzungo! (white People). They see us at least twice a day, we would have though they were bored of it by now!!

Today we held a sports morning at the school. It enabled us to say 'thank you' and 'good bye' to the school. We organised a netball game, year 6 v year 7. The score was 4-1 (to year 7, the girls played really well and didn't run with the ball. After the game they all started to chant 'win-win'winners' and jump up and down madly! We also had a pitch invasion, really scary when there are over 1,500 kids charging a you. We then played a boys game of volleyball, two of the male teachers joined in. Year 4 v year 5, score 2-1 (year 5). We then held a teachers race, we held four races each with 5 teachers competing for first and second place. The kids thought it was really funny seeing their teachers run. One teacher who was winning fell over and another teacher got swamped by kids congratulating her for winning. At the end of the games morning we got everyone together, a prayer was read and then we presented prizes to all the entrants of the competitions. We also gave special prizes to the captains who had helped us with our PE lessons and to the deputy headmistress for looking after us. We also made a speech to thank the school. The headmaster closed by saying ' thank you and how much they had appreciated our efforts and work with the kids. We are going to be missed by the school, kids and teachers.' It was very emotional and they had bought us a present and farewell card. We were invited back to the staff room for soda and biscuits and to say our final farewell. Wot a fantastic way to spend out last week!