Day 2 and it already feels like we've been here ages! Yesterday we were greeted, singing and dancing, by our Kenyan counterparts. Today we have spent the day training and getting to know them. It was interesting to find out their preconceived perceptions of what we would be like! One group said they'd imagined we would be 'built and huge', but were surprised to find that we were 'mostly slender', another group said they'd imagined we would be slender, and were surprised when 'some fat ones came off the bus'!
We've also learnt more about the host homes, (they won't all have toilets!) And we got to state a preference as to our placements. My first choice was one working with children to get them off the streets, I really want it! Found out however that we will be expected to get to our placements on our own! On the back of a bicycle for 20 shillings or on some other thing I've forgotten the name of! I can't find my way around the hotel, let alone Kisumu!
We went for a wander, a few of us before tea. Once you're outside the gates and down the road a bit it's a different world. The houses, the roads (my feet came back red from the dust!) And the people. It feels so surreal being here, I can't get over it.
Friday, 3 February 2012
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Day 1
We boarded the plane as a group - with no supervisor to help us out. After an eight hour flight, we landed in Nairobi, found the man with the sign and loaded our 23kg bags onto the top of the bus, with the help of a man who then asked for money, which none of us were prepared for!
When we got to the hotel we were kindly fed and watered and dispersed to our rooms, with another early start the next morning and what we thought would be a 3 hour drive to Kisumu. So now, another 8 hour bus ride later, we are all absolutely nackered. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, but I don't want to close them in fear that I'll miss something; there is so much going on! And Africa, wow. It's everything I'd imagined it would be and more. With its huddles of corregated tin shacks, soil red as brick, and the trees, so many trees! The views are amazing, and the people so friendly. It seems that they are as much intrigued by us as we are by them, they don't half stare! And they seem to be everywhere, walking barefoot along roads to an unseen destination, lying on the ground outside shops soaking up the sun, walking herds of cows.. it's absolutely perfect. Everything seems to be handmade; the stalls on the side of the road, roofed with plastic sheet and selling browning bananas, to the wooden scaffolding balanced precariously on half built houses.
Of course, when we stopped for a rest break and to look in a gift shop they tried to rip us off, but that's all part of it, right? It is now quarter to 6 in the evening, the sun is setting and we are dodging pot holes on this bus. It's so beautiful, I can't even describe.
We boarded the plane as a group - with no supervisor to help us out. After an eight hour flight, we landed in Nairobi, found the man with the sign and loaded our 23kg bags onto the top of the bus, with the help of a man who then asked for money, which none of us were prepared for!
When we got to the hotel we were kindly fed and watered and dispersed to our rooms, with another early start the next morning and what we thought would be a 3 hour drive to Kisumu. So now, another 8 hour bus ride later, we are all absolutely nackered. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, but I don't want to close them in fear that I'll miss something; there is so much going on! And Africa, wow. It's everything I'd imagined it would be and more. With its huddles of corregated tin shacks, soil red as brick, and the trees, so many trees! The views are amazing, and the people so friendly. It seems that they are as much intrigued by us as we are by them, they don't half stare! And they seem to be everywhere, walking barefoot along roads to an unseen destination, lying on the ground outside shops soaking up the sun, walking herds of cows.. it's absolutely perfect. Everything seems to be handmade; the stalls on the side of the road, roofed with plastic sheet and selling browning bananas, to the wooden scaffolding balanced precariously on half built houses.
Of course, when we stopped for a rest break and to look in a gift shop they tried to rip us off, but that's all part of it, right? It is now quarter to 6 in the evening, the sun is setting and we are dodging pot holes on this bus. It's so beautiful, I can't even describe.
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