John Cooney

On the 3rd August I met with another volunteer, Victoria, at Heathrow airport where we began our journey to Kenya to volunteer for Out Of Afrika. Upon arrival we met two OOA staff, Grace and Sylvester, at the airport, changed travelers cheques into Kenyan Shillings and then took the car back to Ruiru. Stopped off at a petrol station on the way, Sylvester picked up a newspaper. Flicking through it saw lots of politics, and a women’s boxing match covered on the back page! Weather was a bit grey, but it was warm, found Kenya to be greener than I’d imagined.

Got to Ruiru and unpacked. Grace showed us round the apartment and then took us on a walk around Ruiru town, showing us where the hospital was in case of any problems, and the supermarkets for food. Then we had a meal and a chat in one of the local hotel’s.

Over the next few days we were introduced to the staff of Out of Afrika, shown around their projects, visited the new Institute just outside Tika for example, which is still being built, but should be opened to students from January 2007, and just generally settled in.

Ruiru itself is a very small town by comparison to UK towns. By the apartment there are lots of mechanics, metalworkers building doors and gates, and lots of small shops selling bits and bobs. There are a computer store room, a cyber internet café and a computer classroom on the ground floor of the apartment block, as well as some other small business’. During the day it is quite noisy with the hammering outside, the children playing in the halls and landings, and music coming from the apartment blocks. It is a living, breathing community of people.

I began helping Davey with the reconditioning of the donated computers. This involved installing software such as Windows XP and Microsoft Office, so that they were ready to sell on to raise money for the organisation. In the meantime I took lessons in Swahili from another lady also called Grace. She tested me out, but I was a bit rubbish! I did remember some of it though!

In between we visited the rehab centre, catching the infamous matatu’s for the first few visits. These are like mini-buses, only supposed to carry 14 people, but often they squeeze in a few more. The conductor communicates over the reggae music to the driver by tapping a coin against the vehicle, 1 tap to go, 2 taps to stop at the next opportunity. To the rehab, prices were around 20 - 30 Kenyan shillings (about 25p), for a journey of 5 - 10 minutes.

At the rehab we were introduced to the staff and the kids. As they were off from school they were playing (having finished their chores earlier in the day) every time we went there. We took games with us for them to play, football, cards (snap was a big favourite), colouring books. They loved listening to Victoria’s Cds and posing for photographs - the young ones especially seemed to get a kick out of inventing various poses for the camera.

We visited Nairobi to meet with Cosmas, the director of a partner organisation called Sikizana Trust, which is based in the rural district of Kibweze, halfway between Nairobi and Mombassa. Victoria was to spend 2 weeks there teaching English to the kids in that area. On the way, unfortunately whilst stuck in traffic someone put their hand through the open-window of the matatu and grabbed the bag from her lap. It was very quick, so be warned! Either close the window or conceal your bag if possible. Nairobi was very built up and very busy.

On one of our days off we visited the Safari Lodge hotel for the day. The manager knows some of the Out of Afrika staff, so he treated us to half price for one day’s admission to the pool and Jacuzzi etc. (600 shillings each - about £5). Was a nice day, and like a different world compared to outside its grounds. On the way back we caught the wrong matatu, but the driver and conductor were very helpful and pointed us in the right direction after we’d realised our mistake.

I helped count the number of computers and monitors when a container arrived back at Ruiru on one of the Saturday afternoon’s. The guys in the town turn up to help out as they are paid for their assistance, and they form a chain of people passing everything through from the back of the lorry into the store rooms. All in all it took about 3 - 4 hrs to complete and was a good natured example of teamwork.

For a couple of afternoons I helped to teach some basic computer skills to a lady who had never used a PC before. This was good for me to learn how to teach someone starting right at the beginning. Within two days she had managed to learn quite a lot and I was pleased to have been able to help.

Also went to see prospective students for the new Institute at their rural school in Kigaa. People in this area generally have their own land where they live and grow their own crops. Some of them work for very low wages (as little as 80 shillings a day - about 60p) on the coffee plantations, where prices for the crop have fallen over the last few years.

Towards the end of the trip I joined Victoria in Kibweze and was shown around the area as Cosmas visited various households to catch up on the situations of those most vulnerable. This region hasn’t seen rain for years and there are a lot of cases where kids are fending for themselves as orphans, some have extended families to help care for them, but others are not so lucky. Some also have pressing medical conditions and need funds urgently to pay for treatment, one kid hadn’t received treatment for his leg since he’d broken it 4 months earlier.

Another home we visited was that of two kids aged 10 and 12. This brother and sister lost their mother in 1993 and their father in 2004. Since their father died they have been taken in by an aunt. Their land is not being farmed to its full potential, and their buildings have been damaged with their roof having been stolen the day after their father passed away. They are typical of the cases that Sikizana Trust are working with to help.

The next day we visited the Safari park at Tsavo, where we endured two punctures and had to wait while the park rangers gave our driver, James, a lift to get the puncture repaired. In the meantime we had an encounter with some monkeys who tried to steal Victoria’s sandwich, which they succeeded in doing having spooked both of us enough to get their way! The park was a good day out, and we were accompanied by our own ranger (with gun) just in case… Saw lots of animals, zebras, giraffes, antelopes, hippos, crocodiles, fish, birds and lizards. The scenery is quite good too, especially if you get the chance to climb up to the roaring rocks (named so because of the effect when the wind is up), where you can see the world and imagine it in a time before humans entered the scene.

On the last day we went to the rehab centre and said goodbye to the kids. Then took the walk back to the apartment, safer than the matatu and especially nice as the day ends, takes about half an hour to walk.

Overall I found Kenya to be an interesting kind of place. There is a real mixture of cultures, what with the British influence, the church and the traditional tribal cultures all mixing together. The infrastructure is quite undeveloped compared to the UK, roads are improving but still quite poor in a lot of places. The politics are very confusing, its difficult to know what they are really trying to achieve, I would hope that things will continue to move in the right direction though, with more emphasis put on the welfare on the nation of Kenya as a whole. This is definitely somewhere worth coming if you are thinking of visiting Africa in a voluntary capacity, the staff at Out of Afrika are excellent, committed and hardworking. They looked after me well while I was there and I would recommend them to anybody. And be prepared to hear “How are you?” from *everybody*!!!