Another Goodbye, Another Hello, and the Last Month

Jambo Jambo readers : ) Very glad you could spare some time to read my blog so thank you :)

This week another goodbye has been said to a wonderful group, and another hello to a new group who I feel will make this last month fly by, but I'm not going to complain about that.


The start of this week has been spent at Amadeous Childrens Home, where we were to begin work on a number of different projects, such as making 'gikos' (I'm not sure of the spelling) which are basically stoves, to replace the traditional 3 stone cooking method that is used in all of Africa, putting up a roof, and of course playing with the kids. We were greeted by the children singing to us, and we immediately got roped into to playing some African childrens games, pretty similar to things like 'Duck, Duck, Goose!' and others. We then taught them the 'Okey Kokey' which was great until you had 3 African children hanging off you swinging, when you ran into the middle :D

This was our first day, which was glorious sunshine. However, the next day the weather changed for the worse and hasn't changed back yet. Therefore we had to stop our painting of the roof beams, (just like we did in Tanzania to repel termites) and me and Tommy, went to town on the 'gikos'. We made one each, and I have to say, as 'gikos' go they look magnificent! We then went inside because of the rain, and played more games with kids, and they had great fun with our cameras! Taking pictures of absolutely nothing, seemed to be enough to totally entertain them :)

Our final day at the orphanage, as the rest of the group left on the Thursday, was spent with me and Tommy, straddling a 11 foot high wall, trying to lift the A-frames for the roof, up and into position without falling off and killing ourselves (we found out later that we wern't supposed to be doing this, but T.I.A) It took a lot of effort to put them up, but by the end of the day we had the entire roof up and ready to reinforce. It was a great sense of achievement, similar to the one in Tanzania when we finished our roofing there :D

The last night together in Kenya, was spent playing MORE drinking games, and staying up until the early hours and then crashing out on the bed. Many dares were played including, one such as steal Rufus' clothes, steal the fire extinguishers, and flashing 'Tree Man'.

The day of the departure of the rest of the group was not good. As everyone was packing and getting ready, the next group arrived, which meant that our group must leave. In all honesty, I had not thought that I would be aywhere near as sad as I was after leaving Tanzania, because this was only 1 month etc, however I felt very sad as I said goodbye to Lexi, Tommy, Phoebe, Seena, Emily, and Ruth, and even more sad as they all drove away. However, it was straight back into meeting new people, and the new group are just as easy to get along with, as everybody else, which is FANTASTIC!!

Friday was spent going around on the new guys orientation of the village, Muhaka, the school, and the general area. We then shifted a tonne of bricks to help make the 'gikos', whilst shouting 'Jambo, Mrembo!' to every girl we saw (it means Hello, Beautiful) We got a mixed reaction, but the overall reception of yells was positive. In the afternoon, we then went to help out and cement the foundations, of a new camp thats being made in the sacred kaya in Muhaka Forest, which took very little time at all.

The Saturday, unfortunately, was spent undercover at the beach, as the rain has not stopped for the last 4 days. It has rained solidly for 4 days! My little colour is vanishing!! Also, because of the rain, we were told there are more criminals out, as everybody is inside, and so there are less people to witness their crimes, and so beacuse of this we had to have an armed guard force, at the club of 40 Thieves last night, where we stayed until 5 o'clock, after running into the sea, and busting some moves on the dance floor, and taking many disgusting shots, that the girls gave me, but it was AWESOME!

Tomorrow, we are beginning work at Muhaka School again, and then it's going to fly by after that I think. It's so weird thinking I only have a month left, considering how fast 4 months has flown by. I have the beginning of mixed emotions about the end of this trip.

Until next week readers,

Much loveage

Josh