I'd have to begin this entry with an apology for the amount of times I will compare things to Nepal but on first impressions I suppose that is all I have to go by in terms of NGO's. So my last 36 hours have been pretty hectic but I think I'm beginning to settle in. The host family I have been living with for the past couple of nights are great although I am a little disappointed at the high standards of the house. There was something very liberating about not being able to wash for days, eating rice with your hands and living without electricity and running water. I suppose in the orphanage it gave me a chance to exerience what the kids were experiencing. However, as most of the day I will be working in slums it will give me a chance to recharge. I live with a family of four. The two beautiful daughters, Elsie and Ida are 6 and 8 and are giving me all the hugs I am missing from Rebecca and Kate. At the moment I am sharing their room but will move in to the volunteer room when one of the three current volunteers living in the house leaves on Sunday. I won't meet any of the volunteers from my group until orientation tomorrow but the ones I am living with are nice, particularly Shiama who is from London and who arrived from the VSN programme I did in Nepal two weeks ago. Shiama is in the HIV/Aids programme as well so yesterday I went with her to the clinic where she works. It's in a church hall in a slum called Dougoretti Corner and patients drop in for counselling, medication and company. The stigma and ostracisation here are worse than I had imagined and one woman's family even refused to feed her because she was 'diseased'. In the afternoon we did some home visits. This is the area I feel is not working and needs imrovement. During the two home visits did, five or six volunteers both Kenyan and international pile into this little shack and talk to the patient for about ten minutes about whether their medication is working and how they are feeling. These are people that are too sick with the disease to come to hospital. I feel that longer visits from one or two people would be more comforting for them perhaps for an hour where you could chat, build a raport and offer massage to ease their muscle pains. The slums themselves are shocking, even when you know what to expect. Hundereds of people crammed together in metal shacks, filth everywhere. I was basically walking in s*** for four hours, which in sandals is not the most pleasant experience. This mainly comes from 'flying toilets '. As it is thought to be too dangerous to go outside to use the portaloos at night, people do their business in a plastic bag and literally fling it out the door to wherever it may land. But as in Nepal, people smile through their misery and even those close to death seem to have retained their sense of humour. I'm loving it more here every minute and feel like there is a lot I can do here. VICDA is VERY unorganised and incompetent so you are forced to use your own initiative all the time and there is certainly a lot of room for development within the programme. Kenya has a very relaxed atmosphere and though it without doubt lacks Nepal's magic and tradition, you get much less hastle and people are friendly. They actually give you the correct directions to places. It is very westernised which means things are relatively expensive but it does mean that the English levels are high enough for good communication in the counselling sessions. In about an hour I am going to get my hair braided. Celia warned me not to try and look like an African, but I really couldn't resist as it's only $10 and it's cold here at the moment so it takes ages for my hair to dry. I am assured by the end of July it will start to get hot again. There aren't too many mosquito's around but just as I was considering stopping my doxycyclone one of the volunteers was diagnosed with Malaria (she was on doxy too by the way). Tonight should be interestng. It will be my first visit to Kibera, the biggest slum in the world. Over a millon people crammed into 8 square km. One of the volunteers had the idea to let $400 worth of fireworks off in the middle of Kibera after dark. If you are white and you are in Kibera after dark you are dead, so there are six armed guards escorting us. If we pull it off it should be pretty spectacular.... I'll let you know how it goes. I have had to painfully purchase a mobile phone as it is so easy to get lost in the slums here and it costs me only 4p to text internationally. Not sure how much it costs from the UK but it's the only way to call from here as the landlines just disconnect. So here is the number for emergencies (or just friendly calls :) ) 0736109337 I'm not sure if you need to put anything before it but I think it would be 00125 then take of the first 0 of the mobile. Not good with these things. Anyway, I'm doing good. Will contact some universities next weekend about my project and try and get that underway. love to all, Helen xxx ps. I bought some trainers to protect my feet from the poo Also, for the Nepal folk, there are many many evil marcy's here, but luckily a few Marcy Waltons x