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Soongies' Great Adventure
First day of official holidays for the kids at Safisha Africa school. As such, all the volunteers were also on holidays. Kate and Calvin were reflecting on their experiences at the school and a few things came to mind that really hit home. So many of these kids at the school don't know their birthdays. Some do, but most don't. Because of this, none of the kids celebrate their birthdays at school as it is unfair for those that don't know which day they are born - and those that don't know will start to make up their birthdays so that they get some attention. The realisation also hit home about how important education is - for these kids to have a future, to take care of their own health, to earn some money, to work out the systems in their country and also in the world. We take free education for granted in Australia and we talk about bad versus good schools, and private versus public schools, which extracurricular activities are available - really, any education is so valuable. Some morning FaceTime with Calvin's family to catch up with everyone was a nice start to the day. Calvin, Kate, Sofie, Sanne, Batu and Carmen went to Westlands today to go the shopping centres. Kate wanted to get a head torch - Kate's head torch got left behind somewhere along our travels. Westlands is quite a wealthy area and is really only a short distance from the slums of Nairobi. Kate was very excited to go to Westlands as there were potentially more mzungus there and hopefully we wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. We went to the foodcourt at the Sarit Centre for lunch - and got bombarded with 8 different waiters from different food outlets trying to get us to buy something from their menus which they piled onto our table. Kate and Calvin were missing Asian food so we got noodles and fried rice from the Chinese place - the copious amounts of oil swimming in the bottom of the plate brings back palatable memories. There wasn't anywhere in Sarit Centre that sold head torches so Kate and Calvin were recommended to go to Westgate Mall - about 10 minutes walk away. This shopping centre was even more wealthy than Sarit Centre and had more mzungus! Unfortunately no shop with head torches though. If Kate felt like a sore thumb, she wasn't prepared for a sore toe on the walk from Westgate to Sarit. Once again, Kate's feet had an encounter with the pavement - stubbing it and breaking a bit of skin. Off the pharmacy to find some band-aids. The road distance from Sarit Centre to our home is 18 km. Guess how long it took to get home on public transport at peak hour traffic (which goes from 3 pm - 10 pm)? A: The same amount of time it takes to drive from Geraldton to Perth (4.5 hours) B: The same amount of time it takes to fly from Perth to Sydney (5 hours) C: The same amount of time it takes to drive from one end of Denmark to the other (4 hours) Answer: C The 4 hour journey involved waiting for a matatu, sitting in a matatu in peak hour traffic, walking to the bus stop with hordes of people everywhere, waiting in line for a bus, sitting on a bus in peak hour traffic. Imagine having to do that daily commute! Left Sarit Centre at 4:30 pm. Got home at 8:30 pm. And the power was out when we got home. We definitely take electricity for granted in Australia too!
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