Greetings from Kenya!

Nearly half way through the trip and I finally have a decent amount of time to do a blog entry!

Kenya, Kenya, Kenya - where do I begin? This is a whole different world let alone a country. The language, clothes, traditions, food, culture and education are all such a different expereience from that of the UK.

I have to admit that I found the first few weeks a little hard to come to terms with but as I've spent more and more time here I've gradually adjusted to the way of life and feel so much more settled than before.

Below I've included a week by week account of the work we've done so far, Enjoy!

Week 1: Orientation into the country and transportation to our new homes - I think I speak for the whole group when I say that we were literally ploughed with information as soon as we arrived but which we were all extremely grateful for as it has enabled us to stay safe and (mostly) healthy throughout our trip so far. We walked into the nearby village of Zambezi a few times during our stay at the hostel and began to communicate with the locals as well as take in some of the local culture shocks.

Week 2: We began work at a nearby primary school, about 30 minutes away from our house. Here we dug holes...and more holes...and even more holes until we'd dug enough to house a huge amount of small trees that will grow into bigger ones -they can then be sold on again and the money from this will benefit the school greatly whilst they are buying new equipment. As a group this was for some, a first taster of hard work since entering Kenya but despite the fact the week ended in blisters and sore hands, it was really rewarding to see how much progress we had made during the first week of work.

Week 3: We moved to the nearby Merithu primary school and met the lovely Mrs Njenga! I don't think I've ever met such a scary woman and her list of jobs for us seemed to be endless! But despite the ferociousness she is keen to learn about how things work in England and deep down has a heart of gold. This week we started on our teaching aids for the children -posters which will go up on their wall and support the information given to them by the government's syllabus. Towards the end of the week we began to help cut the hedges and trim the grass around the school grounds.

Week 4: Still working at Merithu primary school and despite a few minor trips to hospital this week has been absolutely PACKED with hard work from all the team. We started off by finishing the hedges and grass started at the end of the previous week and since then have moved onto painting a mural, painting the school signs back on and helping to fill up a few of the long drop toilets that are no longer in use. Digging mounds of soil and painting uneaven walls whilst in the blistering sun are not anyone's favorite tasks but the gratitude we received from the children and the staff made it seem very worthwhile indeed and so we will continue our progressive work into the fifth week.

As well as the work in the above weeks we have also found time (somehow) to fit in other activities, such as: visiting our host families ( a lot of fun and we have learnt loads from them!) working at a local dispensary, visiting a children's home, a giraffe park (where we got to hand feed and hug the animals) and helping out the old lady next door by clearing out her garden so that her maize can grow freely.

Overall, we've been a very busy and dedicated group of people and we look forward to the challenges that greet us in the remaining 6 weeks of the trip so keep following for more info on our work! X