Sunday 6th June

WIMWEGA (how are you?) - pronouced wey-mo-wega

On Thursday we visited three schools which past volunteers had helped improve over the last year so we could see what sort of things they had done. We got dropped off by the matatus at the fist school, then walked to the others. It had been raining earlier to it was really muddy and not the greatest to walk in. I ended up stabbing my arm on this bloody plant which hurt! The teachers made us feel really welcomeand we have been invited to attend one of them as part of our community work days to play a sports days type event with them. The thought of an egg and spoon and 3 legged race is exciting us. hehe. Whilst walking to the last school a dog had spotted us and was ridiculorusly happy to see us. It wasnt bothered about the kenyans which was funny. It lead us us round for about an hour and was protecting us from other dogs. The children gave us a dance and a song and one little girl acted out a script for us. She was well good! We stared to get hungry so we left for our digs. The dog had been waiting outside the school for us and even ran after us once we got back in the matatus for a couple of miles really trying to keep up. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Our supervisor was laughing saying it latched on to the last lot of volunteers and must have really wanted to stay with us. bless the poor thing!!

On Friday I woke up feeling like crap after a bad sleep. After the depressing daily boiled egg and once slice of bread for breakfast I warmed some water up on the stove outside to have a wash with....couldnt face a cold shower!! We had our first weekly meeting. I said I didnt mind chairing as everyone else went quiet and one lad took the minutes. These weekly meetings are platform2 know how the group is getting on and to make sure we are well supported. After the meeting we were made to watch a SA film on security and conflict. I took a funny turn during it so had to go to bed. That was me out for the next few hours feeling ILL.

Friday evening after a rest I was feeling better. We were told our pairs for our host family visit. I'm with Jas which we are both chuffed about. We were also told we have been invited to a wedding next saturday. We are all so excited because we really wanted to go to a wedding. Its mad really these people havent met us yet, they just know we are visitors to the village and want us to come. Think we need to practice our moves haha.

On saturday morning me and Jas were picked up by our "mama" Elisabeth and taken to her house which was a short walk away. We didnt know what to expect and by the sounds of stories from the others we got given a good family. Her garden was so pretty with cactusus and plants. They have a small wooden house with an outhouse for cooking and cleaning. They have a maize crop behind the outhouse and some sheep and a chicken. I was preying they wouldnt want to start carving them up...they were saving them for christmas....phew!! Elisabeth has 5 childen the youngest being 19 and two of her sons have children. Michael is about 3 and elisabeth is 7 months. They were so ridiculously adorable! Elisabeth has little dimples and smiles non stop for the whole 6 hours I was there. After being cooked a mean fried egg sarnie we offered to help wash up. We also helped prepare the food for dinner. I was pretty scared of the knife but ended up getting the knack of it. Her daughter dropped her plans to see us for the day and she gave us a kikuyu lesson. Kikuyu is their tribal language and mother tongue. they dont learn swahili and english until they go to school aged 4. They were pretty impressed with the bits we picked up. It was mad sitting in a kenyan family home!! Elisabeth was asking our hobbies and I mentioned I liked cooking so she said "oooh can you help me see how I can cook this.....(went to another room)...my husband brought me this but I dont know how to cook this...) I was intruiged to know what it was, thinking it may be a veg or tin of something then she popped on the table a jar of Heniz salad cream!! It was so funny. I told her cheese sandwich!! "cow or goat" I said definately cows cheese. So she is going to buy milk and make some cheese for next time. HHmmm wonder what that will taste like!!

Today is our day off...Get in!! Myself and 5 of the girls went into Nairobi. Now that was an experince. We went to the Maasai market which was abit of a joke coz there are alot of brokers which the poor people on the stalls are scared of. We want to go again but now we know who they are we will be a*******s and ignore them. I ended up buying a couple of nice things once I managed to get myself away from them and practiced my kikuyu on them which made them happy. Its been a pretty tiring day so I think a decent sleep before work starts tomorrow will be a good shout.

Til next time

Jules xxx