Sunday, June 21, 2009

Kisumu

I have been in Kisumu for four days now and we are leaving for Mutumbu today. Kisumu is pretty quite. The hotel is nice and basic we have hot running water and a fan which is awesome. We went to a place called HOVIC two days ago which is a street boys drop in centre. They have just set up a night shelter as a part of that which was pretty cool. They boys were so cute and ranged from about 5 to 18. They just wanted to know about Australia and play with us. We took them some biscuits and handed out their lunch. It was really inspiring going to HOVIC because WYI painted the walls there and built the kitchen. It was also very challenging because the children take you aside and ask fro you to sponsor them. It is so hard to know what to say because you can't sponsor all of the kids you meet no matter how cute they are. I think they were happy to just play with us. Yesterday we had an 'amzing race' where we had this list of places to go in Kisumu to make sure we are comfortable catching public transport and just getting around. It pretty fun but Pip and I were sick so we didn't run which meant that our team came last. We have found this really cool resturant called the green garden which I am sure I will be going back to. After the amazing race we went to a place called shinners which is a refuges centre. We walked around the slums and even went into a couple of the houses. It was so eye opening. It's one thing to see slums on TV or read about them but to actually be in one is so completely different. In one of the houses I went into it was slighty bigger than my bedroom and had 29 babies and small children and one one women who was the grandmother or greatgrandmother of all of these children. As we walked around children followed us until there was about 40 kids following us. They just wanted to hold our hands and play with us. Well thats about all for now I am going into mutumbu today and wont have internet access for about 3 weeks. Hope everything back home is going well and i look forward to reading your emails when I can get to a computer again.
Peace and Love
Xx

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Nairobi

I have arrived in Nairobi now and have been here for two days. I was the second to get here so Sarah our team leader and Katy one of the other participants came and got me from the airport. The flights were okay and I managed to sleep for a lot of it. When we got to Upperhill campsite where we are staying for three nights there were some other World Youth participants who have been here fro a few months and I will be staying with two of them after I finish my action program so it was really inspiring to hear what they were doing two of the girls had set up a womens group for young mums and had also been educating the community on HIV and AIDS. After a bit of a rest and a nice hot shower the three of us went out for dinner. We met up with a woman called Natalie who is a friend of a friend of Sarahs and has been living in Nairobi for the past two months. The next day Melissa and Dani arrived and the four of us went to a baby elephant orphanage where we saw it was so cool. They look after these baby elephants and then let them back into the wild when they are old enough. After that we went shopping and out for lunch. Then back to the campsite where we waited for the others to arrive. Deanna and Kirby were the next to arrive. Kirby had already had her wallet and jacket stolen and Melissa had her wallet stolen when she was in Thailand. The last three didn’t arrive until 10pm by which time we were all in bed. They had some stories to tell though. Katherine’s flight had an emergency landing after being hit by lightning. Pips credit card had been eaten by an ATM. Then one the way home they were pulled over by the police for not wearing their seatbelts but they were but in the end all they had to do was say sorry and they let them go. Then when they were getting ready for bed Pip realised that her pack was in fact not her pack and she had accidentally picked up the wrong bag. So Sarah and Pip are at the airport at the moment sorting everything out.
We are going to have team meeting in an hour and then go out for lunch and then to a giraffe park. Nairobi is not as chaotic as I thought it would be but there are people on the roads everywhere. The school kids are so cute I will struggle not to take one home with me. I don’t feel as if I am really in Africa yet maybe because we haven’t really explored much but I’m sure by the time we reach Kisumu it will all sink in. Well that’s all for now I’m not sure when I’ll get to the net again but probably within the next few days when we are in Kisumu. Hope everything is okay at home and that Edgar feels better.
Love you all
Xx
ps i cant use paragraphs because the computer goes crazy