English update (finally)

Finally we have found some time to write an update in English. Sorry for the big delay; hopefully we didn’t disappoint our English readers…… ;)
Difficult to decide where to start with, as so many things happened in the last 2 months (since the last time that we wrote in English). At this time, we have finished our work in CRC Thika and have 3 months to travel around the African continent before we fly back home.

CRC news
Idris, the boy from the last English story, has finally come to CRC. After being in the hospital for over 2 months, he was finally dismissed and brought to CRC to recover further on. Here a short version about our hospital adventures (to give you a small idea how this can go in a Kenyan District Hospital). After Idris was doing better the first week in hospital, he started to have convulsions all of a sudden. According to the doctors, he was still improving, so nothing to worry….. in the end, even the doctors decided that it might be better to go for a check up, as he was unconscious for days. So Rob took him to another hospital for a CT scan, but nothing seemed to be wrong in his brains (despite that his brains were not totally developed to the size of a 2 year old, probably due to malnutrition). After the CT scan, he got antibiotics and every day he was doing better. After a couple of weeks, he was even able to sit on his own again (something we thought he would never do again). We agreed with CRC’s manager that it was best for Idris to come to CRC to rehabilitate further. Because Idris developmental problems and his need for continuous support, we had to discuss some things through and through with the staff members. So after some discussing, everybody agreed that Idris was going to stay in CRC for one month and the volunteers were going to take care of him. Luckily everybody likes Idris and he likes all the attention very much. At the moment, he looks very healthy (compared to how we found him in the slum) and he’s able to walk with only one hand of support!
We didn’t find a new place for him yet, but we’re all hoping the best for him. Because it’s still not a good idea to sent him back to his mother, he’s going to stay in CRC till there’s another solution.

Besides Idris, we have 2 other new girls in CRC. One already came in September, the other just a few weeks ago. Because both of them need medicines (something CRC can not provide), it means that the have to leave CRC for another place in the near future. They’re trying to find a place where they can go together, so hopefully they will succeed in this.
Two other girls went home after staying a while in CRC. From Scolah, they found her parents back after 7 months! The girl and her little sister got lost in Thika in the beginning of this year while they were searching for water. Her sister was found death; Scolah was found and brought to CRC. Her father went to the Children’s Office (this Office brought Scolah to CRC) every week to inform about his daughter. But never dis they make the link between the two cases….after months, because Scolah mentioned something about her old school, one of the housemothers informed at that school. Soon they found the parents and this made a very happy end of a horrible time for the family.
The other girl went back to her mother & sister after a few months in CRC. She was mistreated by her family, but after a couple of conversations, the girl wanted to go home.
Umoja Wetu Children’s Project
As you maybe still know from the last story, we started a new project together with two other Dutchies, Mirjam & Esther. Umoja Wetu Children’s Project is a Pre Nursery unit for children between 3 and 5 years old. Fifteen children from the most needy families in the “Thika Three Slums” get food, attention and education here. The building is very nice, after Mirjam and Rene (other volunteer from Holland) painted the walls in Jungle Book style. After job interviews, lots of shopping, cleaning, visiting the families and a lot of other things, we had the Big Opening on 22nd of October. All the families of the admitted children were invited and present. The staff members (teacher Veronicah, cook/cleaner Grace and care takerWaithaka) were there, together with a priest, the children’s officer and the village elders. It was a very nice happening and the children seemed to enjoy it. The day after the opening all the children were at “school” in time (which is very rare in Africa), so that was a good beginning…..
We’re very busy with everything around the project, including starting up a website. We’re working on it, so we will let you know when it’s ready.

Holiday experiences
Besides all this work, we have also been on some very nice trips: Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Mount Kenya.
Halfway September Rob’s parents have been in Kenya for a couple of days. We went together with them to the Masai Mara to see the Wildebeest Migration. Because it was a rea; holiday, so we decided to sleep the night is luxurious lodges, which was very comfortable. During the day, we’ve been on some game drives with our private safari bus including guide. Amazing how many animals can be together in one place. We have been to quite a lot of National Parks so far, but never before the amount of wildlife was so plentiful. Around every corner were Buffalo’s, Lions, Giraffes, Elephants, Zebras and off course…… Wildebeests! I think we saw over one million of these animals, to bad never been eaten by a lion. We did not only see living wildebeests, but also a lot of death ones. The wildebeest migration is famous for the big herds crossing the Mara River on their way back to Tanzania. During the crossing, a lot of them won’t survive because of the crocs (these are the famous wild life programs you always see on Animal Planet or National Geographic Channel). We did not see crossing animals, but a lot of death bodies floating by in the river. Anyway, it is an amazing park, recommended by us from now on.
After Masai Mara we went a couple of days to Lake Naivasha; we had a nice boat ride in between the Hippo’s, saw a lot of Flamingo’s en had a game walk in the middle of Giraffes, Zebras, Elands and Impalas. Luckily we saw the Black Mamba (most poisonous snake in Africa) not on foot, but from the car…….after this trip Rob’s parents stayed for another couple of days in Thika.
Every year, 15 children go on Bushcamp to Lake Nakuru. Bushcamp is a project, sponsored by KLM (the Dutch flight company), organized for the less fortunate children in Kenya. This year in October, Anne joined the children, together with two other volunteers and three staff members of CRC. We went to the lake for 4 days and stayed in this National Park in tents. During the day we went on game drives and swimming. Very nice to see CRC’s manager swim (well, TRYING to swim actually). He only had experienced swimming when he was very young, so he stayed in the water the whole day (with an inflatable tube around his belly). The last evening, all the children performed something, varying from a nice song to dancing. After all this nice entertainment, Anne had to guard together with Mirjam. We had to fight with lion and buffaloes; but luckily they didn’t show up that night, so the only thing we had to do was walking with the kids to the toilet.
Instead of going on Bush Camp, Rob decided to spend his money on climbing to “ the roof of Africa”. Together with two other volunteers I went for a 5day walk to the 4985-meter high Summit of Mount Kenya. It was a very nice, cold and sometimes harsh experience, but more than worth it. The first three days were very all right, with fantastic views of the whole area and scenic walks through mountain forest, valleys and rocky areas. The 4th day (the day that we went for the top) was very hard, because we had to start walking at 3 o’ clock at night; besides that, it was snowing, which made it even more difficult to walk. But, after a 4hours struggle, we managed to reach the top!!! And it was amazing! I really had the feeling that I was on top of the world. The last 2 days we spent on going down on the other side of the mountain, which gave us more scenic views. Beautiful lakes, more valley and gorges and some nice animals on the last part of the track. After these 5 days, I was back to the “normal” world. Next trip is going to be in the Himalayas in Kenya….. ;)

To the coast
After Rob came back from Mount Kenya, we only had two days left in CRC. Monday morning we left CRC for Mombassa, where we arrived in the evening. We had a very nice welcome over there; all the mosques around us started singing and praying as soon as we stepped out of the bus…. ;)! The 2nd night we went to the casino, where we lost all our money. Luckily, we didn’t bring that much money. No wonder that we lost all our money, we did not even understand the whole game…But after all, we had a very nice night out! From Mombassa, we took the bus up north to Watamu. The road to this place was much better than Watamu itself, with a lot of Baobabs along the road (we felt back in South Africa for a while). In Watamu, a very annoying man tried to sell us a snorkeling trip on his boat and followed us all the way when we were looking for accommodation. We say this guy 5 times that day, too much even for patient people like us….
So we decided only to spent one night in Watamu before heading north to Malindi (another village on the beach), because Anne did not want to spent her Birthday in Watamu. Luckily, the atmosphere in Malindi was much more relaxed, so good decision we made! We spent two nights very luxurious in a lodge to celebrate our birthdays and treated ourselves on very nice restaurant. For the rest, we relaxed a little bit at the swimming pool and the beach and went for a snorkeling trip. After these “chilling days” we went up even more north to Lamu Archipelago. A very nice place, just off shore the mainland. The place is forbidden territory for cars, the only ways of transport are by boat, donkey or by foot. The atmosphere was very laid back here, perfect for a week to spent. We went to the beach (with warm water like in Mozambique Sumit), walked around the medieval towns and went on a Dhow trip (a Dhow is a wooden sailing boat). Very nice, with snorkeling, swimming and “a braai on the beach” on the way! After being in Lamu for a week, we are back now in Thika to finish the last things over here. Tomorrow, we start with our 3month trip back to South Africa. We hope to go to Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and then to South Africa……

We keep you updated about the trip we’re going to take. For photo’s from Mt Kenya, Masai Mara and the coast, look at the Dutch stories, which include pictures.

Lots of Love from Kenya,
Anne and Rob