Spending time at the school!
Hi everyone.
Well its been a few days since I'm updated the blog so I thought I would come and let you know how we are doing. Last thing you heard from Nige was that we had arrived safely Monday night at Nyharuru and that on Tuesday morning we had seen the school, met the students and teachers and joined in two lessons with them.
Well since then we've done more practical jobs around the site. The girls wash room needed painting. It was in a bit of a state from the last paint job (which was pealing and brown at the edges). So we gave it one coat yesterday and one today. Then we will give it one more coat tomorrow and then wait a while before applying the final oil coat. Its quite relaxing painting although the paint is quite thin so when you've finished it almost seems the same. But hopefully at the end it will be quite different. And just for my dad's satisfaction, the paint is magnolia. The girls were really appreciative of what we were doing, checking in on us from time to time and even helping to clean up. They are a really sweet bunch of children, very polite, hard working and fun to be with. They have a bit of trouble pronouncing our names, especially Nigel's, which is always amusing.
We stoped for lunch on both days around 1 pm and joined with the students and teachers in the dinning hall. The meals are quite basic but the portions are enormus. We all had to request smaller bowls as it was very filling. Yesterday we had a traditioanl Kenyan dish called _____ which is bascially beans and maize. Maize is one of their staples here and used in almost all dishes. Then today we had another traditioanl meal called ___ which is bascially the maize made into a mash and served with cabbage and a bit of beef. Its quite flavourless but enoyable when you have with some sauce or cabbage. They don't serve drinks with the meal and also desert is not a big thing here either. They are also not ones for snacking during meals - probably because it costs too much.
Around 4 pm the children finish lessons and then have free time where most of them do sport. As we had finished the painting around that time, we joined in with them. Nige preferred table tennis whilst Catherine and I joined in the netball. As they don't have hoops yet they simply passed the ball around in teams. It was great fun being with them! And I got to experience the high altitude as I was exhausted after 15 mins. It didn't help that it had recently rained and the place was muddy and on a hill. But it was a good laugh. Hopefully once the netball nets come out we will be teaching them the rules and perhaps even drawing out a pitch with some paint in order that we can play a proper game.
The evenings here and the mornings are quite cold and nobody does much. So usually after we have finished at the school we head back to the house, have dinner and pretty much chill out in the house, play games or watch TV. We have headed into town a few times for supplies. It takes about 15 mins to drive in and longer by matutu. The people there act like they've never seen a white person before. We continuously get called out to in Swahilli with greetings such as hello white person, hello british person. Once we conincided with the local primary school coming out and got a little crowd of children follow us right down the street, wanting to shake hands and saying "how are you, fine". I think they were also hoping for some sweets.
It has rained quite a bit in the last few days but today has been completly dry so far. It makes walking to the school by foot a lot easier as when it rains the mud becomes very thick and your shoes almost double in weight. It also becomes harder to dry washing. I don't think there is much chance of getting a tan here! Catherine's chickens are a constant amusement. I think she has ___ overall and each one is named and with a personality. The three baby chicks are the most adorable although some of the more cheeky ones are entertaining too. We try and help her feed as often as we can. I don't know if she will ever be able to kill them for dinner - she's too attached to them.
So tomorrow we will be putting the 3rd coat on the washing room. The big science lab also needs painting but that will probably happen when the others arrive. I'm hoping they might bring out some rollers as all the painting we are doing at the moment is by hand brushes. On Saturday we are planning to visit the local Thomson Falls and also ther Equator(which is just a few minutes from their house). Then in the afternoon we will be visiting a family. Church on Sunday will be in the school with the children and then in the afternoon I think we are doing a bit more travelling to see some local places. We intend to update the blog again on Monday.
Hope everyone is keeping well and we miss you all! We will try to bring you all back something from Kenya. Take care
Well its been a few days since I'm updated the blog so I thought I would come and let you know how we are doing. Last thing you heard from Nige was that we had arrived safely Monday night at Nyharuru and that on Tuesday morning we had seen the school, met the students and teachers and joined in two lessons with them.
Well since then we've done more practical jobs around the site. The girls wash room needed painting. It was in a bit of a state from the last paint job (which was pealing and brown at the edges). So we gave it one coat yesterday and one today. Then we will give it one more coat tomorrow and then wait a while before applying the final oil coat. Its quite relaxing painting although the paint is quite thin so when you've finished it almost seems the same. But hopefully at the end it will be quite different. And just for my dad's satisfaction, the paint is magnolia. The girls were really appreciative of what we were doing, checking in on us from time to time and even helping to clean up. They are a really sweet bunch of children, very polite, hard working and fun to be with. They have a bit of trouble pronouncing our names, especially Nigel's, which is always amusing.
We stoped for lunch on both days around 1 pm and joined with the students and teachers in the dinning hall. The meals are quite basic but the portions are enormus. We all had to request smaller bowls as it was very filling. Yesterday we had a traditioanl Kenyan dish called _____ which is bascially beans and maize. Maize is one of their staples here and used in almost all dishes. Then today we had another traditioanl meal called ___ which is bascially the maize made into a mash and served with cabbage and a bit of beef. Its quite flavourless but enoyable when you have with some sauce or cabbage. They don't serve drinks with the meal and also desert is not a big thing here either. They are also not ones for snacking during meals - probably because it costs too much.
Around 4 pm the children finish lessons and then have free time where most of them do sport. As we had finished the painting around that time, we joined in with them. Nige preferred table tennis whilst Catherine and I joined in the netball. As they don't have hoops yet they simply passed the ball around in teams. It was great fun being with them! And I got to experience the high altitude as I was exhausted after 15 mins. It didn't help that it had recently rained and the place was muddy and on a hill. But it was a good laugh. Hopefully once the netball nets come out we will be teaching them the rules and perhaps even drawing out a pitch with some paint in order that we can play a proper game.
The evenings here and the mornings are quite cold and nobody does much. So usually after we have finished at the school we head back to the house, have dinner and pretty much chill out in the house, play games or watch TV. We have headed into town a few times for supplies. It takes about 15 mins to drive in and longer by matutu. The people there act like they've never seen a white person before. We continuously get called out to in Swahilli with greetings such as hello white person, hello british person. Once we conincided with the local primary school coming out and got a little crowd of children follow us right down the street, wanting to shake hands and saying "how are you, fine". I think they were also hoping for some sweets.
It has rained quite a bit in the last few days but today has been completly dry so far. It makes walking to the school by foot a lot easier as when it rains the mud becomes very thick and your shoes almost double in weight. It also becomes harder to dry washing. I don't think there is much chance of getting a tan here! Catherine's chickens are a constant amusement. I think she has ___ overall and each one is named and with a personality. The three baby chicks are the most adorable although some of the more cheeky ones are entertaining too. We try and help her feed as often as we can. I don't know if she will ever be able to kill them for dinner - she's too attached to them.
So tomorrow we will be putting the 3rd coat on the washing room. The big science lab also needs painting but that will probably happen when the others arrive. I'm hoping they might bring out some rollers as all the painting we are doing at the moment is by hand brushes. On Saturday we are planning to visit the local Thomson Falls and also ther Equator(which is just a few minutes from their house). Then in the afternoon we will be visiting a family. Church on Sunday will be in the school with the children and then in the afternoon I think we are doing a bit more travelling to see some local places. We intend to update the blog again on Monday.
Hope everyone is keeping well and we miss you all! We will try to bring you all back something from Kenya. Take care
posted by Unknown | 2:26 pm
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