Escape to Kenya

We had our first group meeting on Tuesday. Our students liked it a lot, at least it looked like they did, but the teacher who was there with us to translate, wasn’t too happy just translating and was saying things against our will and trying to change things and didn’t let us explain things for the students. I don’t know what we should do.. At least we need to talk to the teacher, but how can we tell her that we are here to learn and want to do the mistakes for ourselves and that we want to be the ones who are guiding the group and she is there only because of the language problem and to observe. Well we’ll see how it goes next week. We have this same group every week once during the time we spend here. We are also having these creativity guiding sessions in one class per day a few times a week. This is how we decided to do our internship here, because we wanted to work with all the students at some point and give something nice and different for them to remember and also of course to practice planning different things. I think this is the best way to learn it.

African time is so different to Finnish time that we have been quite a many times annoyed and amazed by it. Some teachers arrive to school 30 minutes late and the students just wait in the classroom doing nothing and not having anyone to supervise them during that time. Also every time we were supposed to go somewhere with the school the bus or some people have been late, some even for two hours or more! This week we are going to have a lady here who’s going to make braids for me and Anna. I heard our principal tell her to come on Wednesday and Thursday mornings very early. That was the only advice she got, the only time, very early! I asked the principal “what means very early” and she told me it means 7 or 7.30 or 8.00.. I was ready at 6.50 waiting for the lady on Wednesday morning. She never came. She called though at 8.30 she called that she can’t make it today she will be here on Thursday and Friday.

I think to the African time there is also included the “how long something is going to take”. Usually they always say it is going to take about one hour or two hours. It means it can take anything between 30 minutes to five hours so that is something to be aware of.

Tomorrow we are going to west lands, which is a part of Nairobi where all the rich people live. There are also all the embassies ect. We are going there to buy something healthy to eat like oats, muesli, yoghurt, lakritsia, some bread and so on. It is also worth seeing the fancy part of Nairobi as we haven’t seen it yet.

Now it has been quite cold for the few days and we have got some rain too. Some of the teachers have told us that is the short rains season. What that means, I am not so sure, but apparently it is going to take 2weeks to 6 weeks and then it is going to be very warm. At least that’s what they say. We’ll see about that. But now some warm socks made from wool, fleece long sleeves, good shoes and scarf have really been useful!

We were yesterday with Sinikka in our first Kenyan funeral. Our schools deputy died for cancer two weeks ago and they asked also us to come for the funeral. So we left at 7am from the school yard with the school bus and two small cars. We were told that the funeral will be held in a small village 2hrs drive away. Well it took us a bit longer because our buss broke down on the way and we had to try and get another one. We got one of these big matatus and so we continued. First we went to this place where people go and see their lost one and then collect the body and take it home for the ceremony and to be buried.

The teacher’s home was a beautiful place with a lot of banana trees. There the ceremony was held on the backyard with at least 100 guests. Most of the guests were standing during the whole ceremony which lasted almost 5 hours! Ceremony included a lot of photographing around the coffin (they asked also us for two photos), many speeches, some singing (I think it was gospel, tho I didn’t understand anything), a lot of sermons from at least 4 priests. We were able to understand half of our principals speech plus on sermon from a priest, and it felt like he meant that sermon for us.

We got back around 7pm without eating more than a few bananas and drinking only a little water during the whole day. It was very long and interesting day, also very different to Finnish funeral. People were wearing anything from black to bright yellow and some were crying, some laughing. I didn’t take any pictures during the day.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to Nakuru national park and to Nakuru city for the weekend. The school is now closed for Thursday and Friday because of a mid brake.

First week is almost gone now and I can’t really say if it went fast or really slowly.. It feels like we have been here already a month. Days feel sometimes long here in the slum when you don’t have much to do in this small yard and apartment. I have books with me and of course a lot of schoolwork to do (but I can’t do the yet because I don’t have that cheaper internet yet).

We have been working from 8.15 or 8.30 to 14.00 or 15.00 everyday. So far it has only been orientating us with the school, kids, teachers, classes ect. We have been now in three classes so we still have quite a few to go. After we have been one day in each class we will decide how we want to do our practical training.

On Saturday we were in this big event with the school where they celebrated the inventor of Special Olympics. There were some games, music, dancing ect. It feels like these people like to dance everywhere, it is amazing how they can move their bodies like that!  The day was nice but long. We were on that trip altogether for 12 hrs. We were supposed to leave at 7 am but we waited for some of the kids and we left two hrs after that. Also the bus trip was supposed to take about 45 minutes. It took almost 2 hours, again because of some waiting on the way.

On Sunday we went to Fourteen falls near Thicka which was amazing! It felt so good to get away from the city and the slum to the countryside for a day. This country is really beautiful outside the cities The falls were nice and we all got an adventure that we really needed. We paid 4000 KSH for the taxi driver to take us there and back (it took 1,5 to 2 hrs, on way) and we also paid 800 KSH for the guides at the falls. Then we had to pay entrance fee which was 400 KSH (residents would have paid 60 KSH) + 500 KSH for each cameras we had. Of course we only had one… so it all came up to maybe 15 Euros.

Miisa was washing her clothes so now we have electricity break (I think it’s our shower that does it because we also got one the other night when I was taking a shower..) so I can’t write anymore, running out of battery soon.

Some pictures from our first week:

First days in Kenya

So we arrived to Kenya in the middle of the night, which made us a little nervous because all the stories we have heard. We had called for a taxi driver people from this school knew, so that he would come and pick us up. He didn’t come, but we found some other guy who took us safely to our hotel. The hotel seemed quite scary too at two a clock in the night so we didn’t sleep much.

Now we have been here in Mathare special training center for one night already and this place seems nice. I probably wouldn’t go walking outside the school walls in the middle of the night, but at day time this area (even tho the neighborhood  is the Mathare slum) seems quite safe. Also our facilities are pretty good. We have hot water in the shower, we have toilets with water, we can do cooking and we have also oven, electricity, locks on the door, nice beds ect. Everything is not always working (like at the moment we don’t have lights and our shower does not have hot water, but the fridges are ok) but it’s the same thing back home right?

Today we were first time in a same class for the whole day. We went to primary two, which had six pupils, teacher and teachers assistant. Some of the pupils were very excited and did the exercises well, but some of them didn’t do anything. It is pretty hard to work with people when you don’t know any of the language they speak. Maybe we will learn some and maybe we can teach the children some. Also this gives us a nice challenge for few of our school projects.. ;D

Today after work we went to Nairobi city center by Matatu (Matatu is like a small bus made out of a van). The city looked big and different and also quite confusing, but there were some really nice buildings and Anna and Sinikka (who came here one month ago) knew quite well where to go. This time we only took care of “running business”, went to the post office, ATM, supermarket ect.

So tomorrow we have a new day. we’ll see how it will go. Maybe we go travelling or then stay in Nairobi and explore this city. I will write here again when I have the change

Asante!