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Kisumu Blog 2011: Weeks 3 & 4

Week Three

Our second week of placement already and all of us found ourselves at the front of a class with 30-50 eager faces staring at us, it was time to start. For all of us, it was a totally new experience and we all suddenly learnt the art of speaking slowly and clearly.

Most of us have been placed in older classes (Kenyans go to primary school for 8 years and so they end at age 14-16 years) and so managed to get a few Teneleni ice-breakers in, followed by a well-planned lesson. Others were given younger children, adapting quickly to the age range and coming up with our own (simpler) ways of playing games such as “Last Friday I was at the disco..” – which can now be heard in the surrounding areas of Kisumu Union.

We have found we have a mix of schools, ranging from those in the centre of Kisumu to the more rural schools. However, all the staff are lovely and we are really finding it easy to communicate with them and fulfil our volunteer role. The children are so enthusiastic to learn, and the calls of “Teacher, teacher!” with waving hands in the air are music to our ears.

In our non-formal placements, we are finding it so rewarding and interesting to work with the street children. Although it must be said that, when challenged to a game of draughts, one volunteer is losing multiple times! And when challenged with a plate of ugali, most of us are starting to struggle to eat the amount Kenyans do (even young Kenyans!).

The weekend ended with a trip to the agricultural show, where cabbages were inspected and we got a lot of attention being the only muzungus in the vicinity! We were joined in the evening by our family at Nyalenda Catholic Centre to wave off another volunteer who has been staying with us (4 of us stay at Nyalenda). It has to be said that some of the muzungu dance moves that we pulled out would have even embarrassed the children at school, quite literally “Last Saturday when I was at the disco…”!! But a good night was had by all and then we all rested on Sunday rearing to go for a new week.

Week Four

Kisumu now feels like home and I don’t think any of us can imagine leaving in 5-6 weeks time! I am going to take this opportunity to explain a little more about where we are all living.

Our 2 lovely Project Coordinators (Rosie and Melinda) and 2 volunteers (Abi and Jack) are staying at Nyalenda Catholic Centre, which is part of KUAP, we share our little part of Nyalenda slums with Mama Mary and her family. The whole family have been so welcoming and this is a family of infinite number! It is lovely to have people turning up throughout the evening when we are home and coming to have a chat. The centre used to house street boys but unfortunately due to funding they have moved to Panipieri, although this week they came for a “holiday” while their home is being painted, so there were even more smiling faces to greet us when we returned!

Two of the other volunteers (Declan and Issy) are staying at Kingdom Kids, around 40 minutes out of Kisumu. This is a home for street boys and they have been welcomed by them all and taken in to the family! They are living the life of luxery with flushing toilets (everyone else is very jealous, but once you get used to a long drop you can’t imagine why you would ever need to flush again?) and a busy house full of boys, although slowly but surely the boys are going home for a period of time before September.

Finally, Shantal and Alice are staying with Martin (headmaster of Ezra Gumbe) and Pamela with their family. The girls are becoming part of the family and getting stuck in with helping around the house (as we all are in our respective homes).

We all carried on with lessons this week, but it was lovely to start the week with Issy and Declan coming to Nyalenda to watch the art students there act out a play they had written. Mama Mary welcomed them with open arms (and lots of food, which we happily let them eat as we are all constantly stuffed). It was really nice to introduce them to the family and show them where we live, and hopefully we will soon be able to meet everyone at Kingdom Kids.

The week ended with a DELICIOUS indian buffet introduced to us by Ishmael from Kingdom Kids, Rosie’s 25th birthday and a trip to Hippo Point (and what I will say was a near-death hippo attack but everyone else would say was a big wave hitting our boat..) and a trip to Kisumu museum to see tortoise, snakes and crocodiles! We were all exhausted but raring to go for the next week!

Abigail Riley

August 16, 2011 at 5:09 pm | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2011: Weeks 1 & 2

Week One
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After an early morning flight, sleeping in a hut, a few kisses from giraffes in Nairobi and a broken-down taxi, we finally touched down in Kisumu airport. After waiting for our luggage next to a sign saying, “Wait here for baggage” outside in the Kenyan evening, the Tenteleni volunteers of 2011 finally arrived in what will be home for the coming months.

Having thoroughly approved of our night in the guesthouse, with fans, large beds and real windows and walls, we got up early to stroll down for our first view of Lake Victoria before we all bundled into the minibus to make our journey to Masinde Muliro University, Kakamega. This would be our home for 4 days for in-country training and our first tour showed a university with a library to rival that of any in England and staff that gave us our first Kenyan warm welcome.

Over the coming days we sampled three large meals a day, getting our first experience of Ugali, with mixed opinions, but agreement that none of us would ever be able to eat as much of it as native Kenyans.
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The training started with a typically energetic Tenteleni ice-breaker and from then on in we learnt all the information needed to equip us for the next two months. We even got the opportunity to be introduced to topics such as HIV/AIDS and the Kenyan curriculum by university staff, giving us the real Kenyan perspective on important topics for the coming months. Finally, with Swahili and Luo language lessons under our belt we felt ready to return to Kisumu (with a quick detour to the beautiful Kakamega forest) for a few more days training.
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By the time 2 o’clock on Sunday 17th July came around we felt like we had been together forever and felt strange about splitting ourselves to go to our separate accommodations. But the warm welcome we got from all that we are staying with helped us quickly get over these feelings and we all settled in quickly.

Week Two

Our first week of placement began for most in the early hours of Monday morning, we then set off to our respective formal or non-formal placements for the first taste of volunteering in Kenya. For some it was a day of being introduced to 700 smiling faces, getting warm welcomes from the staff and generally observing school life while others went to their smaller non-formal placements and started building friendships with the street boys.

The week that followed included a wild cat found in a placement loo, live chickens being chucked at volunteers on matatus, a 21st birthday celebration for one volunteer and a rain storm leading to some very soggy and mud-covered volunteers.

It was lovely to meet all the staff that we will be working with and slowly be introduced into the communities we have waited so long to meet. In most schools this week exams were taking place, so volunteers got to help with adjudicating and marking papers while meeting the children in less formal lessons.

At the end of the week, volunteers and Project Coordinators came together for a successful Working Together Workshop that bought together placement staff to introduce Tenteleni and what we are here to do in the coming months. It felt really great to reflect together on the first week and make sure that through communication with our placements we can make the most sustainable effect possible in the next 2 months.
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The first weekend was spent back in a guesthouse in town, sharing stories of first week antics and our new found “fame” with children running up to us in the street and wanting to shake our hands. I think some of the group enjoy this at 7:30am more than others!

Abigail Riley

August 16, 2011 at 4:57 pm | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2010: Weeks 1 & 2

Week One

(Training Week)

Hamjambo and Karibu to the Tenteleni Kisumu project blog 2010. Achio nade? That was a bit of a mash up of Kiswahili, Luo and English so as you can see the Kisumu group are now well and truly multi-lingual Kenyans (well sort of). It’s possible we need a few more weeks practice to enable us past the ‘Hello, how are you?’ stages of conversation; other than that all 14 of us are feeling our way in and around Kenyan life and making ourselves at home, (much like the cockroach I found in my clothes just now.)

But where are my manners… the 14 muzungu I speak of are Sam and Emma (our wonderful Project Coordinators) then Will, Johnson, Mia, David, Ben, Leila, Glori, Cathryn, Becca, Lucy, Hannah and I. Not forgetting of course our lovely Kenyan Shiriki volunteers- Sammy, Victor, Maxi, Christine and last but not least Kenyan PC Peter -all of whom volunteer right here in Kisumu at Family Health Options Kenya.

The Kisumu project really began when we came together as a group for the first time. After a tense morning of missed flights and awkward meetings we were on our way to the training venue in true Kenyan style…2 hours late on a very bumpy matatu! A few songs and cheesy group photographs at the equator later we were a true team. At the University of Kakamega we received just about the warmest welcome I’ve ever experienced in my life; never have I felt so comfortable, wanted and welcome somewhere within a day of arrival. I think we have all discovered time and time again since that day that welcoming is a big part of Kenyan culture and I for one am constantly being told to feel at ease, feel welcome and feel free; even a stranger shouting down the street at you ‘welcome home’ is not uncommon and is certainly a contrast to the English welcoming of foreigners.

The training week was an intense and tiring few days, but fun was had by all…and of course we learnt a great deal. Personally I learnt two things- eating with your hands is MUCH better than using cutlery and also that most people cheat at games at the age of 19 and above so expect kids on placement to do the same! A few more highlights from the week were Sammy’s 19th (and first ever) birthday party, the murder mystery held as one evenings activities and every single role play (some of the Kisumu crew certainly destined for Oscars).

Although we learnt many valuable things like how the curriculum and school structure works in Kenya as well as enough icebreaker activities to last a life time, a great deal of valuable time was actually spent over meals and throughout the day learning about aspects of culture and language from of our Kenyan volunteers. We are sure they learnt a great deal from us even in the first few days (maybe not Sammy who once corrected Hannah’s grammar much to our amusement) so being a Shiriki team was already proving fantastic!

The best thing we (certainly Leila, Glori and I anyway) took away from the weekend however was probably our Luo names (this is your Christian name and then a word which indicates the time of day you were born) given to us by Robert (FHOK extraordinaire). These have been wonderful at breaking the ice ANY time you introduce yourself to the locals either because they are so confused that it sparks long conversation or because you have shown interest in the local culture, but generally because you are a muzungu with a Luo name which is apparently hilarious. So armed with new knowledge, new friends and new names the shiriki team have begun the Kisumu project 2010 with style.
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Week Two

(first week of placement)

Having met up with the whole group at the weekend back in the centre of town it’s clear that the week was different for everyone. It was fantastic to see the team together again; as we spent the weekend gorging ourselves on any food that was not ugali, sleeping in past 6.00am and using a toilet that was not a hole in the ground there were many stories to be shared.

Between the group we are in a mix of placement settings ranging from about as rural as you could get to town/slum living to placements in the centre of Kisumu. David, Ben and Mia are working at Rabour and Ranjira primary schools, VisPa orphanage and living in a homestay 40mins out of town. To put this into context 40 minutes out of town means a few things. Firstly it means making new friends; these can be the frogs in your bathroom or the cows and goats that follow you down the road home. They can also be the ladies at the local market who are happy to stop and chat to you for as much time as you have and sell you their oranges (which are actually green?!) for local price (not muzungu price!) or fry you up some fish from the lake. It means no electricity, so a challenge here being finding anything you have put down after 6.30pm. It means no running water so trips to the well in the morning are pleasing Mia no end (not a morning person we discovered). However this is slightly preferable to showering and washing ones hair in one of the many heavy thunder storms we have experienced- a la Hannah after a few days at Pandipiri (a children’s home where Hannah, Sam and Lucy reside) without running water.

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So as you can see getting used to basic living is something we are all getting a grip on not to mention our personal hygiene taking a few knocks. However even if these little things are not enjoyed by all it’s a small price to pay for what we spend most of our time doing now, which is interacting with the children of Kisumu.

Will and Johnson are thoroughly enjoying working in HOVIC. This is a lively and busy centre in town where street boys can go for the day to have some lunch, wash their clothes and partake in some informal lessons or just some fun! From the Tenteleni pair there has been a fair few hours spent chucking a rugby ball around as well as much time dedicated to sitting around a chatting with them about anything they want to discuss. Many of us have had more informal contact around town with some of the boys who initially can seem abrupt or ask for things from you, but once you introduce yourself (preferably with Luo name of course) and make friends (mostly with some form of fist contact only used in England by people who do indeed think they are very ‘street’) they are interested to know all about you and flash you a smile or shout your name and wave the next time they see you in town. Their intrigue as well as their enthusiasm to find things out about us and where we are from or what we do and their friendliness is no different to the children of the schools we are at, in fact it might be stronger.

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It’s not all been plain sailing though, in addition to HOVIC Will and Johnson also work at Kunya Primary School where there has already been some shock at the perception of and knowledge about issues such as abortion from the children. However the implementation of an anonymous question box has already shown that children want the answers to things that confuse them and proven a useful tool for the pair in conducting useful sessions.

All in all the first week for everyone has involved mixed feeling and a lot of hard work; there have been stories of frustration and heart ache but also stories of success and achievement and the impression I leave you with is that most people are excited for more…

Rachael Sergeant

September 5, 2010 at 12:52 pm | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2010: Weeks 3 & 4

Week Three

(Second week of placement)

Week two of placement has just been rounded off with Peter, Sammy, Maxi and Victor (some of the FHOK volunteers) taking us to a local club to celebrate Lucy’s 21st birthday. In true Tenteleni spirit there was defiantly a lot of skill sharing going on, mostly in the form of the FHOKs teaching us rubbish English dancers some moves on the dance floor! It’s a surprise anybody had the energy for all that dancing after the week that has been had by all and once again the weekend was full of stories from volunteers and PCs alike. This week was the first time PCs Sam and Emma had a chance to visit placements to see what we are all up to.

Sam thoroughly enjoyed visiting Sammy and Becca’s placements Ebenezer and Kunya Primary school and witnessed them really getting the kids fired up and enthusiastic about issues that concern them through debates. One was held about the benefits of road against air travel and there was a healthy rivalry between the Shiriki pair at the weekend with Sammy quietly gloating that Becca’s team had totally flopped when arguing against deforestation! In addition Sam found herself thrown into a game of football Lucy and Maxi were holding at their placement Nyalenda children’s home when visiting, as well as watching sessions conducted with children emotions and feelings.

Leila, Glori and I stay at Kingdom Kids which is a home for street boys; it’s a large house with garden and is home to 13 teenagers. They have already taught us many things, like how to eat ugali with our hands the proper way and that even teenage boys are prepared to walk the catwalk and have a good time (during a laughter filled evening in which we held a Mr. Kingdom Kids competition- think Miss World but with better outfits and more inventive talents!).

In addition we work at Alango Primary, a rural school about 30 minutes down a very bumpy or muddy (weather depending) track. To give you some idea of what a rural school in Kenya means just close your eyes and forget about the named coat pegs, personalized trays and mountains of coloured card you were accustomed to at primary school; instead think 80 children in a class room, the class room being a mud hut with some holes for windows, and some chalk if your lucky. However what we have discovered this means is that the children that fill the class rooms are more enthusiastic than ever to partake in activities where they can use their own imaginations and really create something amazing out of nothing. The group of class 8 children we have been working with this week have created a short drama about teenage pregnancy and abstinence almost completely on their own (with a few encouraging hints and tips from us) and are extremely excited to show it at their school closing ceremony next week.

Most schools have closed for a few days this week and held these ceremonies which have proven a great chance for volunteers to be introduced to parents who attended and spread the word about Tenteleni throughout the community. So by now we are all well and truly settled within placements and the community (again prove last night by Will who we had to drag away from chatting to his teen mates from HOVIC who were on the street as we came back from an evening out) and next week I’ll let you know how class 8s drama went down with their own parents!

Week Four

(Third week of placement)

So the third week in placement for everyone has just come to an end and once again a slightly soggy, yet hippo-filled, weekend in town has left me with many stories to tell. (The aforementioned hippo related sogginess was time that some of the volunteers spent being guided round Lake Victoria on a motor boat in the pouring rain…we sure know how to wind down after the weeks work!)

This week many placements were closed due to school holidays and a vote on the new referendum taking place; however many of the informal education settings remained open and regardless the week was spent in a variety of different ways. Excitement and tension had been mounting in the days up to the referendum as to what the outcome would be, as well the building of an apprehensive atmosphere speculating what the reaction from the Kenyan public would be. However all was calm as news came through that a vote for YES, a vote for change, had won and that the new constitution would be amended. This time has proven interesting for the whole group as everyone has been talking about the voting, not only between ourselves, but the topic has yielded interesting and informative conversations with locals and placement staff. I’m sure I do not just speak for myself when I say a great deal of knowledge and context has been gained about the country, its politics and the public’s want for changes within certain areas. We are certainly here at an exciting time.

It was not all politics this week as many volunteers had a little time to relax slightly after an initial hectic two weeks. By many the second half of the week was spent staying in placement quarters. The time was filled by Will, Johnson and Emma (staying at Nyalenda) by playing a fair amount of card games with the children, when Emma was not out researching and meeting with local NGOs that is.

However many placements were still in action with Alango Primary (Leila, Glori and I) not closing until Tuesday. The day itself was a sight to be seen with the ENTIRE school seeking shade, gathered under one tree in the middle of the compound. Parents and various speakers from the community attended to watch the celebrations and interact. A fantastic talk was given by The Kisumu Youth Olympic centre (an NGO the school have a strong link with) on the benefits of parents watching out for all children in the community. Poems were read and songs were sung, and last but not least class 8 performed their drama with, it has to be said, much more style and action than any of our
training role plays! Staff and students alike really enjoyed it, as well as the parents but to be honest what parent would not love their kids dramatizing the fact they want to abstain from sex, not get pregnant, and stay in school.

Drama has been going on in other placements this week also with Ben and Mia conducting a lively session about peer pressure and the students acting out situations in which peer pressure occurs and of course how to react. From what we heard/ saw re-enacted by Ben (future Oscar winner of the bunch) much strutting and smoking of sticks went on. Time is flying by as next week is mid way through the project, so stay tuned for mid way review, mid way celebration and possibly bouts of mid way home sickness!

Rachael Sergeant

September 5, 2010 at 12:20 pm | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2010: Weeks 5 & 6

Week Five

(Fourth week of placement plus Mid Project Review)

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With week four behind us we are now half way through the Kisumu project 2010! To me this seems absolutely crazy and I can’t believe the time has gone so fast. Certainly I feel (and I’m sure perhaps for many) this has been the most turbulent week in the project so far and the Kisumu group have taken a few knocks this week. I begin with the sad news that due to unforeseen circumstances one of the girls has left the project. She has been an absolute asset to the group for the 5 weeks we have had her (I refer specifically to one very loud and song-filled matatu journey, she was certainly the facilitator of that initial and very loud bonding session!) and we all hope she will stay in touch.

To add insult to injury we are now minus one very special PC is flying home tomorrow due to illness (so although it sometimes seems like these PCs are otherworldly, with their sleep deprivation endurance and superhuman level of organization- they are mortal after all!) An unlucky girl she might be but she has been a fantastic PC for 5 weeks and we can’t thank her enough for all her time and effort. It is sad she must leave us now but she will stay with us for the rest of the project as a motivational voice in the ear on how even the smallest thing can make a difference, a general positive energy and most defiantly murder mystery organizer/ drunken pirate.

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However the Kisumu team soldiers on and at least whilst Lucy was cooped up recovering at Pandiperi, it gave her a good long time to observe the surroundings which are quite different to my more rural setting. Pandiperi is a centre just outside of the centre of Kisumu that houses children, Lucy lives with Hannah and Sam and here is what she had to say- ‘Living at Pandi (and I’ve seen it far too much over the last 2 weeks!) is fantastic. Location wise it’s great for town but very annoying on the sleep front; either we are awoken by revving tuk tuks late at night or at 5am by various animals wandering on the main road by our window- cows, goats, chickens to name a few’. So not SO different from rural living after all!

The week was also slightly turbulent for many in a good way; Ben, Mia and David all went to different placements this week as theirs were unexpectedly closed. Working with Maxi, Ben says he had an awesome week and that the kids were great! They played football and went fishing (I’m so jealous) at the Nyalenda centre and ran sessions on HIV issues at the Remand home. He comments that Maxi was great fun to work with and through working with an FHOK volunteer he learnt loads more about Kenya. In addition Mia ended up with Hannah and Victor at Mama Ngina’s playing ball games and teaching the children English songs such as ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. (Should have perhaps changed it to wheels on the matatu but hey!) At Kisumu union Hannah says they were finally able to fulfill their role as teaching assistants and helped in some standard 4 and 6 maths and English classes.

In addition this week to mark the half way point we have had our ‘mid project review’- something held across all Tenteleni projects as a chance to get the group together for some relaxing time, some fun and, well, you guessed it, generally review what has happened so far.

The slightly smaller than usual Kisumu team travelled a couple of miles out of town to stay the night. Generally a relaxing time was had by all and more soda drunk than ever before! It was also a great chance for people to chat about the things they were proud they had done so far, to share ideas and to set goals for the remainder of the project. I have to say my favorite activity was defiantly the group hugging, or perhaps tying David’s shoe laces together in a game of sleeping lions, (a tip for if you ever play this in Kenya, don’t lie in what is essentially a nest of giant ants.) Saturday night to consolidate our achievements (and in aid of me missing my own) a Kisumu Mid Project graduation was held and awards were handed out to all volunteers and PCs for the best tanning, the best ideas, the best organized and more. It was a great thing to do mid project for everyone and I’m sure my parents will appreciate the graduation photograph that is destined for the mantle piece of me in a newspaper hat and cloak!

Although slightly shrunken and sad after a refreshing rest and some hugs the Kisumu team soldier on, ready to take on the second half of their time in Kenya and make the most of it and more on behalf of the fallen team members, or as we should really call them by now, friends.

Week Six

(Fifth week of placement)

This weekend we exchanged tales of our tenteleni-ings under fresher and greener circumstances as half of the group (myself included) travelled 2 hours north to the Kakamega rainforest. Here we basked in the tranquility of the forest and relaxed away from the dust and noise of Kisumu which was a welcome break. We hiked from sunrise until lunch time and gained some leg muscles climbing a hill for the spectacular view of the forest. Unfortunately we also suffered loss as we became victims of theft; the thieves being tree dwelling, long tailed, pesky ancestors after our sandwiches!

This week it was highly noticeable that the Tenteleni ethos of skill and idea sharing does not just occur between in country placements and UK counterparts but that it is extremely beneficial within the group itself. At the mid project review the whole group shared lesson ideas and activities that had gone down well in their placements and this week several people were implementing these in their own schools or centers. At Rabour and Ranjira Mia has started to run a weekly afterschool session with the older girls, adopted from Alango Primary’s ‘Girls Forum’. This is a chance to discuss slightly more sensitive youth issues that only affect the girls and a chance for them to ask questions to an adult who is not their teacher (I’m sure we all remember not wanting to question our teachers about certain topics). In Mia’s case it was a chance to explain and discuss topics that the teacher would not have felt comfortable covering but that are important for the girls to understand.

In addition this week Glori, Leila and I adopted another groups idea of having the children write letters to English students, not only as letter writing practice but as a chance for them to get to share their thoughts with their age mates in the UK. This went down a treat and it was touching to see them get out their best biros and pieces of A4 paper (a rare treat). Not all idea sharing went as calmly and smoothly at the mid project review however and it can certainly be a more impromptu thing as we found out one afternoon when we had Ben on the phone – ‘Guys I’m doing a drama session in half an hour, what can I do!?’. But Ben’s afterschool activities with Ranjira kids went well with drama games and short role plays being enjoyed by all.

Rachael Sergeant

September 5, 2010 at 12:10 pm | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2010: Weeks 7 & 8

Week Seven

(Sixth week of placement)

All Tenteleni projects are different, that’s its charm of course, and I look forward to hearing stories from South Africa, Zanzibar, Malawii and more on my return to England. However the Kisumu project is one of the special few in which volunteers get a stronger sense of local life and even more integrated into the community through the live in placements we experience. The homestays vary themselves drastically of course from a street boys home here at Kingdom Kids to other children’s homes at Nyalenda centre and Pandi.

However a completely different experience is being had by the volunteers living with Kenyans in their family homes. Becca tells us what its like to live with a Luo family:

“Integrating ourselves into a Luo home is already having a lasting effect on not only ourselves , but the family and friends within our community. From getting used to the cold shower that lacks a door (tradition in the Luo homestead…not many doors anywhere!) to the constant stream of visitors, to the chickens hopping in and out; also on the affect we are having on breaking down cultural barriers and misconceptions of ‘muzungu’ (white people). Our washing and cooking are regular entertainment for the family and common comments include- ‘YOU WASH?!” as if we have never washed up in our lives. We are thoroughly enjoying attending church choir practices that occur most days; we have managed to avoid unleashing our voices so far but I’m sure that won’t last long. The youth choir has also opened us up to many new friends from the church community, which our house seems to be the centre of, which visitors calling 24hrs a day, not to mention the Masaai watchmen appointed for our safety. This also means there is very little personal quiet time, which we are still getting used to.

I have learnt a lot about the traditional Luo culture whilst on several walks around the area. There are many traditional homesteads; these involve the main house, the first wife’s house, other wives houses and sons’ house, all set out in a particular fashion. We are learning so much from this way of life that is both interesting and thought provoking as well as making so many friends. I hope that the family and friends we meet are also learning a lot from us too.”

As you can see by this point in the project everyone pretty much feels like their live-in placements are a home away from home- be it because we are introduced to all members of the community who visit the household, as in Becca and Cathryn’s case. Or because we entertain the young children and are left ‘holding the baby’, as I know Mia, David and Ben do in their placement. Some of us have certainly become adoptive daughters- in my own homestay Leila, Glori and I are literally mothered by the house mother who helps us wash our clothes, gives us cooking lessons and gets up extra early to make us lunch everyday for school (if only I had a lion king lunch box it would be exactly like being in year 4 again!) In addition, as she is the lovely lady who acts the role of deputy at our own school, I have heard Cathryn and Becca’s female head of household refer to them as daughters on many occasion.

Perhaps because in my own English household the tradition of eating around the table slowly declined over the years, without doubt my favorite time of day is being being sat around the giant table with 12 teenage boys, and Mebo & Ishmael (who run the home), munching down ugali together. No matter how much fun I’ve had at school it doesn’t compare to the feeling of having been completely adopted into these people’s home; even if I only understand the loud conversation bouncing round the table 5% of the time you don’t need words to be told you’re part of the family.

Week Eight

(Seventh week of placement)

Another big part of being on project is to enable schools to meet locals, NGOs or groups who would have something to offer them in the long term, and set up links between placements and groups that can carry on long after we have boarded the plane home. I myself was pleasantly surprised at the large amount of small NGOs (non- governmental organizations) you see as you wander around the town, some set up by Westerners who have come over but many set up and run by locals wanting to help the local children and youths have the best start in life.

This week at Alango primary the big news is that we have invited a charity called ‘Happy Kenya’ to come to the school to speak. The NGO distribute sanitary towels to needy girls who would other wise miss school for one week once a month, which is of course not ideal. The man who came, Moses, also engaged a lot of the older children in a session about behavior change and communication. The kids really enjoyed the break from average lessons and the charity were warmly accepted by the school who relished their input in areas that are so needed in the rural school.

In addition something I didn’t expect is a noticeable link between many of the placements we are in and this week my partners and I visited Lucy and Maxi in their placement at the Remand home on a visit with the social worker in Kingdom Kids. I ashamedly say we were very lazy and merely refereed the football match that was taking place, although this is of course a vital role. But amongst all the other valuable things I’m learning I now know from my own placement that there is no way I can keep up for longer than 5 mins against 13year old boys on the pitch, so best save myself the embarrassment now I think. This happening whilst Lucy and Maxi were preparing for a drama session the following day which I’m sad to have missed out on.

In addition many of the boys at Kingdom Kids seem to be friends with boys at Becca and Sammy’s placement Ebenezer Boy’s Rehabilitation Home which is nice to see and means we have been interacting with them also. Leila, Glori and I have also been heading to a street boys centre in town with Ishmael once a week (as part of our placement fell through). AGAPE is an open outreach centre where boys go on a Wednesday day time to have some lunch, chat to someone if they need to and generally get involved in activities off the street. We join in some songs, games, lunch and inevitably the washing up! (Don’t know if you’ve ever washed up the lunch pots of about 100 boys but it needs many hands!) There truly is so much to get involved in if you are passionate and excited about it enough and people are happy to welcome you wherever you go.

Rachael Sergeant

September 5, 2010 at 12:01 pm | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2010: Weeks 9 & 10

Week Nine

(Eighth week of placement)

By now we are all truly settled into our placements and homestays and it seems unimaginable that there really are only a few weeks left to go. All volunteers are truly into the swing of things whether they turn up and just hang out and play games with the friends they have now made- as is common in more informal placements such as HOVIC, where Will has been busting his moves and teaching the boys karate; or whether it means they have the trust and confidence to be running full sessions on more difficult topics such as HIV/AIDS or drug abuse.

At Ebenezer boys re-habilitation home Becca and Sammy have conducted youth issues sessions with the boys who live there about drug abuse. Many of the boys who live on the streets in Kisumu become addicted to sniffing glue but the boys were keen to learn myths and facts about drug abuse and get involved in sessions to discuss drugs, peer pressure and get creative about it making posters on the topic which not adorn the walls of the communal room below the bedrooms at Ebenezer!

In addition the teachers at Alango primary school have been keen for Leila, Glori and I to hold HIV/AIDS youth issues sessions with the older classes that we have been working with and now know quite well. The session we held with class 8 this week was mainly centered around myths and facts surrounding HIV and AIDS. After clearing the desks to the sides of the room to make a large informal space to hold the session everything became quite lively with the children eager to get involved and partake, even staying after the bell had run to ask questions.

Although as volunteers in schools and children’s homes we obviously, by default, spend most of our time and energy directed towards youths and children this week has also been a reminder that our placements are not purely about getting involved with the children. Of course many volunteers have been getting involved in the local community on a weekly basis by going to church, helping with cooking, joining the family choir, helping set up annual church meetings and more however my partners and I have come to realize a more direct helping hand can be given to the individuals who run our placements as although it can seem sometimes as though they are super human in there capabilities running a children’s home is a lot of work and lending a hand is part of what we can do.

This week the head of Kingdom Kids, Ishmael, had been driving all over the province making home visits to boys- a task that can become tiresome on ones own so we hopped in the car and tagged along, not only did we alleviate his work load but managed to get to see lots of the surrounding area and beautiful scenery filled with sugar fields and rice plantations.

Week Ten

(Ninth week of placement)

Well it is the penultimate week and we all can’t really get our heads around how fast the project seems to have rolled on. However this week has meant more than lamenting our exit, it has of course meant the FUN DAY! Although referred to by some as ‘the stress day’ as it is quite a task to organize without any budget, it finally happened against all odds, and much dancing, singing and indeed FUN was had by all.

This year’s fun day was held again at the social centre in the middle of Kisumu town and was attended by nearly all placements. Each group of volunteers brought along up to ten children their schools or children’s centre to take part in ‘Kisumu has Talent’- a talent contest in which each group devised an act to show off their greatest talent. Hosted by MC David and DJ Ben and attended by staff, children and FHOK groups each placement performed their act to the excited crowd as well as the panel of judges made up of (very unbiased) PCs, FHOK workers and volunteers.

Among the acts were religious songs, dramas about adultery and drug abuse, poems recited and even a rendition of Westlife. It was not all plain sailing as I would momentarily like to rewind to the night before at Kingdom Kids and give a word of advice…don’t ever try to choreograph a dance with 8 teenage boys in any form of organized manner. After about an hour attempting this, several tantrums and fall outs later we felt the best option was an erm ‘freestyle’ (aka ‘fine do whatever you like’) dance, which actually went down very well due to the boys natural talent at shaking it on the dance floor- lesson learnt here, everything will just be fine if you just play some hip hop.

Mid way through the day FHOK youth volunteers who had kindly joined us for the day performed a rather hilarious drama about adultery and staying faithful, which some how Becca managed to get roped into much to the amusement of the other volunteers. All in all, prior stress and tantrums aside, a fun day was had by all. The children enjoyed it, the staff enjoyed it and the certificates given out to all at the end were very much appreciated and were the talk of the school the next day!

As a weekend break and as it is pretty much a ‘must do’ when visiting Kenya on the last weekend of project some of the group have been off having some animal related fun. You guessed it, a few of us took a very long drive down Masaai Mara way and went on SAFARI! We stayed over night in a hostel type place where we were actually sleeping in a rather large tent with toilet inside and enjoyed two separate sessions of safari-ing (I’m not sure that’s a verb but hey it probably should be.) As soon as we entered the park we were greeted (not literally that would be odd) by gazelle, wilder beast and a heard of giraffe and the wild life just kept coming. We saw vultures, drove through heards and heards of wilder beast, marveled and secretly (at least in my case) got a bit scared at prides of lions right up against the truck we were cruising in. The next day we were up at dawn to enter the park just in front of sunrise with another heard of giraffe silhouetted against the red sky- it was truly something out of BBC’s Planet Earth and I basically had David Attenborough’s voice in my head the whole day.

The highlight for most of us was getting down to the Mara river to watch the animals migrating across and bearing witness to the gruesome (but extremely awesome) slaughter of a wilderbeast by ferocious crocodile as the beast tried, in vain, to swim the breadth of the river. If I remember correctly this actually IS a scene out of Planet Earth (disk 3 episode 2 ‘Great Planes’- not that I’m a fan much really), however the bit they leave out of that saga is all the jeeps of tourists lined along the bank snapping photographs and playing audience in this very strange theatre of nature. I have to add that the Tenteleni jeep was certainly the liveliest as not many of the more affluent and serious looking wildlife spotters, sporting their camo hats and binoculars, were jeering and shouting with fists in the air, cheering the croc on as if he were in fact Rooney in an England match striding for the goal, (don’t tell David I think he would be ashamed).

So as the last week approaches we have seen what not many will ever see but hopefully done work that many after us will continue to do. (If you are a prospective volunteer reading this, here is where you log onto Expedia to buy your air ticket, and also thanks for reading this far!)

Rachael Sergeant

September 5, 2010 at 11:50 am | Kenya, Projects | No comment

Kisumu Blog 2010: Week 11

(Tenth week of placement)

So we have completed the final week of the Kisumu Project 2010, and although we are a few pieces short of the set we began with the remaining volunteers and PCs, Tenteleni and FHOK alike are, I think and I hope, feeling a great sense of achievement as we look back over the last 10 weeks, if not also a little happy to be returning home to friends and family (the non Kenyans at least.)

In true Tenteleni style we have not only been creating links between placements and NGOs this week but between the children of the area themselves as students from Alango Primary have come to pay a visit to the boys at the home, this day culminating in a large placement vs. placement crickets match in the front garden with other kids from the community running over to join in. At Alango we were cooked a lovely hot lunch by the teachers to share in the staff room to celebrate, which was a token gesture that I’m sure we won’t forget.

There have been tears in many placements this week as Hannah and Victor were bought fare well presents by Mama N’ginas staff, and even David and Ben admitted to an emotional farewell at Rabour and Rangira Primary schools. However although leaving placement has been emotional it is probably nothing compared to how some feel leaving the project partners they have been working with over the last 11 weeks. Shiriki partnership Becca and Sammy can’t even bare to leave each other yet and Becca is staying with Sammy to visit his grandmother for the weekend. The footballing duo Maxi and Lucy were reminiscing at our last get together on Friday about all the times Maxi was late to FHOK in the mornings to meet with nostalgia that I’m sure will stay with them both for some time to come.

Overall there is not much that can be said to exactly ‘sum up’ our time in Kenya all together. We have all made great friends even if some are, in truth, friends we may no longer have much contact with, they are exactly the kind of friends you need to give you the energy for 10 weeks on the Kisumu project. For ten weeks we have been a great team and listened to each others stories, cried on each other’s shoulders and fed off of each other’s ideas. It will be strange to not all be together anymore.

In addition being a Shiriki team has made us unexpected friends in a place far flung from England; our FHOK friends have been an integral part of the team, be it the volunteers themselves or anyone and everyone down at FHOK who was willing to get involved with the project, the training, the Fun Day (you name it) and help out. They have taught us so much about Kenya and the different ways they live. They have also taught us that as young people wanting to just experience more, share ourselves and help where we can we are exactly the same.

Even though I can only comment on leaving my own placement I’m sure many of us feel exactly the same, in that the groups of friends and families, be they more conventional households or homes that become big families, were almost impossible to leave. Although emotional it was however nice to leave in a way as it really made us feel like we had been there. That may sound odd but only in leaving did the children and staff of placements really express how much they enjoyed us being there and how much they had learnt from us, and of course we told them how much we had learnt from them. The amount of people who have shared this 10 weeks with us stretch far and wide and some of them will stick in our memories forever.

So as half the team left Kisumu the other day in a tuk tuk trying to dodge the torrent of rain that came, clearly to prepare them for life back in the UK; myself and some others will continue our travel through Kenya for a couple of weeks. If you have read this blog the whole way through then congratulations you truly deserve a medal as it has ended up being rather a long escapade but thank you for sharing the journey as it were, and I hope you enjoyed it. It’s not really my blog though truly, it is made up of the Tenteleni volunteers, Shiriki PCs and unofficial PC helpers, FHOK volunteers, the children in placement who made it so fun, the teachers who taught us as much as we taught them, the heads of household, the women who became our mothers and the Kenyans who were so so welcoming to us and helped us at each step along the way. We will truly miss them all and without them we would not have had that which was, certainly for me, the best time of our lives.

Rachael Sergeant

September 5, 2010 at 11:45 am | Kenya, Projects | No comment

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