Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So I finally got internet sorted! I bought a modem and credit on Sunday on our drive from the Orphanage in Karen to Kitui and the Village. Was a pretty interesting journey! I'd been warned already about the roads-overtaking is an art form over here and I defiantly don't have the stomach for it. Then as we got higher the roads got more ridiculous-and I looked over to see how fast the driver was going and was only 100mph. Pretty safe stuff.
The village is amazing! I can't believe how big it is I obviously don't have a very good concept of how big 1,000 acres is! Everyone is really friendly. The guest house is really nice too, rooms are really basic but as what I expected. I think it will take at least a week to get used to village lifestyle everything from the heat, the dust, the food and the bugs. One thing that might take a little longer is the Eco-Toilets. They're a necessity in the village because of the lack of water access as everything they have goes to the crops, but also all the waste is filtered and used for manure. So that leaves us with a whole in the ground which gets cleaned out every now and then. Not sure how I feel about it being in my room but better than a communal one I guess!
Sunday and Monday were bank holidays so we took tours of the village and got to know the other staff and volunteers. There are 5 of us here at the moment, 3 American and one Kenyan another American coming back on Sunday who's here for 3 months from Princeton College. Tuesday and today we started on organising ourselves and where we want to be working and based. Basically you're welcome in any department in the village.
·Admin/Head office
·The clinic (nursing/counselling/lab work)
·Home Care
·Primary and secondary schools
·Polytechnic
·Agriculture
·Sustainability
There's probably more I haven't come across yet! At the moment I'm starting to organise a dance project with the dance club at Lawson's High school, be involved with the counsellor on dance therapy with all the community, working in the tailoring and dress making dept of the polytechnic, Home Care which deals with the welfare of everyone in the village and hopefully nursing although I may not be able to contribute much with that due to confidentiality. Sounds like a lot but they may all end up being spread over 2 months and things like the dance project can only be a few hours a week working around their school hours.
Getting on well with the others so far so that's all good, after work finishes around 5 and at weekends we're pretty much at our own devices so last night was the first of many games of monopoly. I have no idea why some brought monopoly out with them-for once it seems I'm the lightest packer!
Hope everyone's well, please drop message on my board or facebook and will defiantly love reading them even if I can't reply, not kicked in yet but sure at some point homesickness will arrive!
Love Charlotte
- comments
mum I have added a comment on facebook--please note spellling corrections!!!- and have just had a great conversation with Charlotte. Hope the secondary giirls like your dance and that you can learn theirs.
Anne-Marie Wow Charlotte. I am very impressed with your reporting skills. So glad you are settling in. We all look forward to hearing more news of your life in Africa. Hope you won at Monopoly!