11th - 17th August:

It has now been one week since I arrived home from Kenya. During that time I have just been trying to get used to how life is back in Ireland and the differences there are to the life I was used to living in Kenya. Since I was living in Kenya for four and a half months I think it will take a little longer for me to fully settle back into the different way of life here but so far I have noticed a few.

                                                                                                                                            I have mostly been visiting friends and family who I haven’t seen since I was last here, but getting around Cork is different from how I did it in Kenya. I was used to there not being any traffic lights and everybody making their own way on their own. It now seems strange to me how controlled and regulated the traffic is here and how good the roads are for example that every road is covered in tarmac is a different thing to see since I was living on a back country mud road which had many potholes and was in need of repair.

                                   The technological differences are huge for example when I was living in Kitale I didn’t have internet so if I wanted to check my emails I would have to go into town, go to an internet cafe and get online from there. Now I can just take out my phone and have the information at my fingertips. However there are some sides to take I miss for example I like the idea of not being contactable at all times. I Kenya I could leave the house without my phone and it wouldn’t be an issue, here it is almost unheard of for someone to not have their phone on them because we need to be contactable wherever we are.   

                                               One of the first differences I noticed is the weather. In Kenya the worst whether would be that it would rain for maybe an hour during lunch time. For the rest of the day it would be really hot and sunny. However in Ireland this is very different because we receive lots of rain and it is generally cold even during our summer time. It is strange to walk down the road and not attract attention from people like you would being a white person in an area where many people have never seen white people apart from on the television. Walking down the road without many eyes on you or without hearing someone call “Musungu” is very different because even though this was a very hard thing for me to get used to now that I am without it feels quite different.

                                                                                                                                    I know that now I am back I will miss some of the memories I have taken away with me. For example when I first started going to the Day Care the children didn’t know my name but they were thought to say “How are you” to a white person. A few of them thought that was my actually name and that all white people share this name so that is why you should say it to them. They would come up to one of the Sisters and ask “Is how are you coming to visit us today?”. 

7^th – 10^th July:

This week I visited a new project I would be working in called the Marian Centre. The Marian Centre is a home for children who are not living in suitable environments or situations. If the child is unhappy with the situation they are living in, they can be taken in by the Marian Centre to live for a certain amount of time depending on their situation. An average child will stay with the centre for around one year but other children who are living in extreme situations might have to remain for two years or more. While the child is staying in the centre the parents or parent are enrolled in a program to help them to build up their parenting skills and there is another program they are shown to which can help them to set up their own small businesses if the parent is suffering from financial troubles. There are 20 beds for children, 5 are for boys and the remaining 15 are for girls. The two genders sleep in different rooms. After the staff members working hours one of the staff members will remain throughout the night to make sure that nothing happens to the children when the other workers have gone home. This is also to ensure that the children don’t get into trouble or try to escape during the night.

           When the child is staying in the Marian Centre they are enrolled in the local school so that they don’t miss out in their education. If the child has not received any education in a long time, which can often by the case, the child can be home schooled for awhile to assess which class the child should be enrolled in. If the child is at a much higher age than that of other children at his level of education he might remain being home schooled during his stay because the centre thinks it is very hard for a child to go into school and to be put into a class with children who are all much younger than him or her. The Marian Centre has a teacher who comes every day to conduct home schooling classes with the children there. The Marian Centre also enrols children in a boarding school if they do not have room in the house for that child.

                                                                     While I was here I helped out in any way that I could. For example I set up an excel sheet which had numbers for all the names down the side and the months of the year across the top so the number of days in each month they stayed in the centre could be recorded. There was a total column at the end and in this I had put in the formula to add up all the days they stayed. This would then be automatically put into a total area for the amount of days beds were occupied for the whole year. Therefore if a new child came to stay all they would have to do is add his name and the days each month he stayed in the centre. It would then automatically add up these days and put them in his total column for the year and this would be automatically added to the total amount of days beds were occupied in the centre.

10^th – 12^th July:

My work was finished in Nairobi so I will be finishing the remainder of my time in Kenya back in Kitale. On my way back there I stopped off in Molo which is on the way because one of my friends from college is doing his work placement in Baraka Agricultural College. Also one of my lecturers from college was there for a visit. So for the weekend we all met up and went up to the highland area to go on a camping trip. My friend had been in contact with the school up there because the people working in Baraka College know them and they said we could camp on their schools land.

                                                                

     So we went to this school and this is where we stayed for the weekend. We met all the people up here who worked in the school and they were all very friendly and it was great that they were so happy to let us use their land. We spent the days hiking area the hills and spent the night in the camps. It turned out to be a great trip over and I am glad that I got to see another part of Kenya. The next day I got a bus up to Kitale to stay with the Good Sheppard Sisters again.

20^th – 25^th July: 

I spent all of this week in Jamanoor slum. Every day I would go with one of the Sisters and a development worker. The Sister and I would work with the children while the development worker would talk with the parents to try and figure out what type of situation they are living in and what are their main challenges or problems. He would then record these findings and we will all examine them at a later stage and try to find a solution.   

                                                                  The Sister and I have been working with the children by educating them in simple things. These include the alphabet, numbers and greetings in English. It is good because we can bring charts from Hekima Day Care and use these with the children. So far we have only brought a chart of the alphabet and have been using this to teach them. We would go through the alphabet getting the whole class to repeat each work after use and we would then ask student to come up on their own and to read out each letter. This has been great and they have all been getting better at it with each day.

                                                              For the numbers we would get the class as a whole to count up to 20 or thirty and then get individual children to do things such as count out load how many children are with us. For the greetings we have just gotten them to be able to answer “Good morning” with “Good morning Mark” or “Good morning Sister” and to answer “How are you?” with “I am fine”. In total there are usually 23 children consisting of both genders and ranging from 7 – 12 years old. I would prefer to divide the children into small and big so we might do that soon however we don’t have a class room and are just teaching them under a tree in the slum so this might pose a problem.

 We would usually teach them for around 40 minutes and then they would start be become bored so we would have break time. For this we bought two footballs and a few skipping ropes. We usually divide them into boys and girls and then divide the boys into big and small. The two groups of boys would play football and the girl would play with the skipping ropes. The development worker, the Sister and I would each take a group and play with them for the break time. However this isn’t always the case and sometimes the big and small children would play football together or the girls might play a bit of football and a few of the boys play with the skipping ropes.

After the break we would teach them for another short time mainly just going over what we did earlier in class to revise them on the topic before leaving them go home. Overall it has been great because it is building up our relationship with the children and they are becoming a lot more open with us. This means that they are more relaxed to speak up in class and they are also becoming better behaved. At the start a few of the children would try and leave the class and go back home but now it is not as often that this happens. They are also getting much better at the alphabet which is great because we can see an improvement with them.   

21st of June:
I got a bus from Nairobi city center and went to a place called Bomas of Kenya. This is a place which you can go to and learn about the different tribes in Kenya. Here I went around the area with a group of people and we had a guide to show us around and tell us about the different areas. In Bomas of Kenya they have replicas of tribal villages the way they were when they were very primitive.

 
As you can see these included things such as the huts they lives in. These had thatched roofs and some of them would have a back door for the animals to use because in some tribes the animals would sleep in the houses as well. They had many huts built for each tribes because there would be separate huts for the husband and there would be different huts for his separate wives, the number would depend on the tribe. Also in some tribes each of these huts would have a granary next to them to store the food in.

Most of these villages would also have things such as a place built outside to keep the animals inside if the animals didn't sleep in the house. This would be a sort of circular pen which would be built out of stick and grass. Each of these villages changed a lot depending on the different tribe that it was representing. For example in one tribe the doors to their houses were very low so intruders couldnt run into the house at speed, they would need to slow down to enter the door giving the owner the advantage. Some of these huts differentiated a lot in the materials used for building them as well.

After this we went to a large indoor area and people there did traditional dances for us in the different ways the different tribes danced. This was a very good show and went on for around an hour and a half showing many different styles of dance.

27th of June:
Today I headed down to Tanzania because for my one week holiday I am going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. To get down to Tanzania I booked a shuttle bus with Riverside bus company. To get over the border I had to buy a Tanzanian VISA which cost me 50 US dollars but for people from the United States it costs 100 USD. The process of getting across the border took quite a while because you have to get the VISA, a person has to check your vaccination card for yellow fever and a person has to check your passport to make sure everything is in order. All of these steps have separate lines which you must line up in so the entire process can take around half an hour or so.
                                                                                                                                    I made it to the area I am staying in which is called Moshi and is right at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. The company I booked the climb with, called Holly Adventures, booked me into a hotel in Moshi called Keys Hotel and when I got off the bus they met me and took me to this hotel. I spent one night here and went to bed early to start my climb the following morning. The accommodation price was included in my overall price for climbing the mountain.  

28th of June:
I got up early and was picked up by the people from Holly Adventure. They took me to a place where I could rent the gear I didn't have for climbing the mountain. These included a sleeping bag, walking sticks and two metal bottles of water, because they don't allow you to bring plastic bottles with you up the mountain in case you through them away. After this we picked up the members of the team I had which consisted of three porters, one cook and my guide. After meeting these people we got the rest of the things I would be needing such as food, but all this was already included in my price. We then went to the gate of the mountain to get started.

 After getting everybody ready for example weighing all the different loads the porters would carry, because each porter can only carry 20 kilograms we started the climb.

This climb up to the first hut was through a forest area and was filled with many plants and animals. The plants mainly consisted of huge trees which hung across the path and blocked out a lot of the sun light. The animals consisted of mongoose, dik dik and monkeys.

 This hike took around 4 hours and at the end we were at 2720 meters above sea level. This was called Mandara hut. The picture below is from this site and the building is where we ate our meals. This is a typical example of the areas where we would eat. All the food was included in the prices and I got three meals a day. They gave you a lot of food and it is important is try and eat as much as you can because you need all the energy you can get.

Next is a picture of the room you stay in. They consist of four beds but these beds only have a pillow and a sheet so it is important to bring a sleeping bag because it gets very cold at night.

29th of June:

I made my way up to the next hut which is called Horombo hut and is 3720 meters above sea level. This was a long climb and took me around 6 hours. This area of the mountain is called the hillside moon area because the trees thin out so a lot of light is allowed through and the area is very hilly.

When we got to the place where all the huts are the clouds and fog had settled in a lot. People say this happens almost every day after 2 o clock at this time of year. We spent one night here before moving on but some people spend an extra night here to clematis. 

30th of June:
I made my way up to the next hut which is called Kibo hut and is 4720 meters above sea level. This hike took around 4 hours and way through the alpine area. This area started out like the previous area but as you went higher up it changed a lot.

It then became full of rocks and there was very little grass or plant life because the elevation was too high up for many of them to grow. This resembled a desert like area to me.

In this area we went to bed very early because we had to get up at midnight that night to start the hike up to the summit.

1st of July:

We got up at around midnight and had a quick breakfast before starting the climb. It was night time outside but it was good because it was the night of a full moon which gave us a lot of light Therefore I didn't need my torch. The first part was the hardest because it was up a very steep zig zagging path of stones and before the end these turned into big boulders which you had to climb on top of and by this time I was very exhausted. However we reached the top of this which is called Gillmans Peak and I had heard that getting here is the hardest part and that it is a lot easier from here on which is true. There was also snow up here which was very different to see in Africa.

We then walked to the summit and got there at around 6;15 so it took us about 6 hours to reach the top. We were just in time for the sunrise which was very good.

It was very cold up here because of the height and the heavy winds so after taking a few pictures we left and started making out way down the mountain. This took us around another 2 hours.

When we got back to Kibo hut they only allow you to stay for one hour to rest because they want you to get down to lower altitude so you don't suffer from altitude sickness. Therefore after one hour we went down to Horombo hut and spent the night there.

2nd of July:

Today was also a tiring day because we had to make our way down to the gate of the mountain which took us around 6 hours. Luckily when we stopped for our lunch, which we stopped for every day as a break, there was a waterfall nearby which we visited and it was very nice. 

 When we got back to the entrance the car picked us up again and took me back to the Keys Hotel, a second night stay here was also included in the price. I said goodbye to everyone in my team and thanked them all. I also gave them a tip for their hard work. I booked a bus back to Nairobi from the hotel and went to bed early because I was very tired after the hike.

3rd of July:
I got my bus back to Nairobi. Getting back into Kenya was a lot easier because I didn't have to get a VISA again. When I was back here to went back to the same bed and breakfast I stayed in last time and I will be here for another week before going back to Kitale. Overall it was an amazing trip and it was a great way to spend my week holiday. I would advise everyone to lcimb Kilimanjaro but the day of the summit was very hard. Possible the most physically demanding thing I have ever done.

9^th of June:

Today there was a group arriving from Ireland who are also with Africa Direct. They arrived in Kenya two days ago but today they are arriving in Kitale. We spent the day getting house ready for them by arranging their rooms by putting in beds and giving each room a clean. They arrived around dinner time so we spent some time getting to know them. It is a group consisting of seven people in total.

10^th of June:

Today was our first full day with the visitors so we decided to show them around the area of Kitale and to the different projects we are involved in. We first took them to the slum in Kipsongo where we had a walk around to see the area such as the houses and the people. We then took them to Hekima Day Care where they met the children and were given a warm welcome by them and they got to see the school. After we arrived home we showed them around the compound so they could see the different crops we are growing and the livestock we have.

11^th of June:

Today we took the visitors to the maize farm in Bidii so they can see what wok the women have done there. We stayed here until lunch because we helped them by applying fertilizer to the maize and by thinning it. Thinning it involved pulling out maize crops where too many had grown in a small area or next to each other. We had to think them so there wouldn’t be any competition for soil, minerals and water. After lunch when we got back to the compound we uprooted some banana plants from our patch which we don’t need because they were also competing for the same things as the maize.

12^th of June:

We went to Kipsongo slum again because we had made a plan with the people living there to plant banana plants for them. These are the same plants which we didn’t need and uprooted the day before. They had already dug their holes or had them half dug. Therefore we needed to help them finish digging the hole and then plant the banana plant in the hole with some minor as fertilizer as well. These plants will take nine months to start growing bananas but if that happens it will be great because they will have a staple food source growing on their land. After we got home we all helped pick sukuma wiki from the garden.

13^th of June:

Today I travelled down to Nairobi by bus. I left Kitale at 9 o clock and I arrived in Nairobi at around 4. I then got a taxi to where I am staying and I found the place with no problems so it all went very well. The place I am staying is a bed and breakfast which is ran by the Yarumal Priests and it is in South B. This is great because it is only a twenty minute walk from where I am working. The place is very nice but the best thing is that it has wifi. I am actually glad that I don’t have it when I am in Kitale because it helps to get me more immersed into the work I am doing and not having it helps me to forget about home but it is nice to have it here for a change.

15^th of June:

Today I met with Simon and he brought me to where I am starting my work for the week in Songa mBele Na Masomo. When we got here he introduced me to everyone and showed me to their facilities. This is a school for those who have dropped out of school and it is also a school for those with mental disabilities. The facilities here include an office, two class rooms for those who have dropped out, a day care for those who are mentally disabled, a room for these people that they can rest in and a room where they receive physical therapy. In the compound there is also a kitchen, dining room, store room as well as toilets. There was a lot of people working today because Monday is the day that the physical therapy is done so there was an extra four staff members for this.

                                                                                                                                                   Today I played with the children with disabilities for awhile and helped feed them. After this I spent some time with the kids who donth vae disabilities. They were learning things about water including the clean sources and what one does with water. I spent this class with them in which I did an art exercise in which they had to draw all the main water sources which I did with them. There are two classes for those who have dropped out of school; one for those who are finding it difficult to work and aren’t doing great in school and then there is an advanced class for those who are doing very well. Most of these students attend here for about a year before they are ready to go back to school and between the two classes there are 16 students.

                                                      It is also good because there are three students from United States University Kenya who are the same age as me working here. They are here because to graduate from college they need to do community service so they are doing it with me. I am glad about this because they have only been here for four weeks so they are in a similar situation to myself.

27^th of May:

We visited the slum of Jamanoor again today but this time we went to have a meeting which we organised with the people living there. We met with the village elders and they outlined the main obstacles that they are facing and the problems that arise from these. They split these problems into four main categories which I will explain below.

 Education:

Almost nobody in Jamanoor has formal education. There is one woman who is a secretary and has graduated secondary school but apart from here nobody has graduated. One man made it to second class, another to fourth class and a third to eighth class but none of these men made it further. Therefore the chances of any of the people living here getting satisfactory jobs are near to impossible. Because of this lack of education they also lack a lot of basic knowledge such as simple hygiene and ways to improve their living situation.

Health:

On the 26^th of May a necessary pump in the well for the village broke. Therefore the people have had no water since then. They had been going into the forest which is beside their village to get water from a reservoir there. Elderly people cannot make the journey to this water source so they were left without water. Even the water that is here is not clean or healthy because mud seeps into it and animals such as cows use it as well.

                                                                                                                                        There are no toilets in the village so people must relieve themselves on the ground. Many of them go into the forest to do this and then when there are heavy rains and it floods with excrement is added to the water source that they drink from. Some have described this water to be a brown/red colour. Drinking this water has caused for many people to suffer from stomach ages, cholera and diarrhoea. Not having any toilets has also attracted many insects to the village.

Housing:

The people are living in the houses which are made by digging a hole in a circle and then placing sticks in this hole which then bend towards themselves which makes a dome shape. This is then covered with rubbish bags and plastic sheets. These houses cannot keep insect out therefore one of the biggest problems in Jamanoor are jiggers, which I have preiously talked about.

                         These houses do not have proper protection against the rain so when the rain is very heavy the water gathers on the floor and this flows into their house and gathers there on the floor where people sleep. This is a huge factor to the spread of malaria. Some people then try to sleep outside but because of the excrement in the area it attracts termites and these bite the people when they try to sleep outside. Bed bugs and flees also live in the houses because of the dirt and mosquitoes are a problem and people don’t have protective nets.

                                     Because of the water that flows into people’s houses pneumonia has become a problem because they are very cold. Their clothes are wet almost all of the time. People have tried to put up newspaper to keep out the rain but this hasn’t worked.

Land Rights:

Even though the people living here have lived here for over 50 years they don’t actually own the land. It is government land so it is owned by them and they are renting it out to another man. He grows maize on it but he allows the people to live there. Therefore we cannot actually start doing development work on it until we have been given the go ahead by the government.

                         We have been to the government about this but they have proved to be very uncooperative. They said that they cannot do any work here until they have a profile on the people who live here. They asked us asked us to first get many statistics for them before we can move any further such as the population of the village. This information they should already have because it is a community of people in the area that they are governing. We have gotten these and given it to them but since then they haven’t contacted us about making further progress.

                                             There is a strip of land running down Jamanoor which is no man’s land, nobody owns it. Therefore we can start building things on this land whenever we want because since nobody owns it then nobody will mind if we do what we want with it.

Income Source:

The people living here have no source of income. This is largely due to the fact that it is very for them to get a job since they have no education. Many of them get their income from begging in Kitale town but the little money they get from that must all go into food so they have no money surplus. They want to start small businesses which is similar to what we did in Kipsongo.

29^th of May:

We went to Jamanoor again today to have another meeting but this time the meeting was with the women of the village rather than the elders. We gave them a briefing on what we discussed during the last meeting. We then asked them what methods any of them have for earning an income apart from begging. Some of them collect firewood in the forest and sell it in the town. Two of them saved up some money from doing this. One of them travelled to Ludwa to sell fish but she had to come back to Kitale because she became sick. The other used the money to open up her own kiosk from where she sells brooms. Another woman helps farmers by digging for them and another went door to door cleaning clothes for people.

              We then split the women into three groups and asked them if they could come up with any businesses they could start. We explained that if they work together as a community they have a higher chance of being a successful business. None of them had thought of doing this before because they would get money on their own to spend on their family. They came up with businesses by selling soap, charcoal, fish, beads, plastic shoes, tomatoes and jelly. It is important that we get them to come up with the ideas themselves otherwise they would grow become empowered. We said we would think about the ideas they gave us and get back to them soon.

                                                                          We then went around the slum to cure the people there of jiggers. Some of these people we attended to last week and some were new people. It usually takes two sessions to fully sure a person so some of these people are now cleared of it. The man who I talked about last week who was very badly affected is now doing much better. He can walk fine now which he couldn’t do last week and most of the affected areas have cleared up very well. For him it will still take another session before he is fully cleared but he has made a huge improvement which is great to see

Trip to Naivasha: 15th of May

On the 15^th of May I left Kitale to go down to Naivasha for a weekend trip with a few of my friends from college who I would meet down there. The journey here was very long taking about 10 hours to get to Naivasha and from there I got a mini bus to the resort we were staying in. The name of this resort is Camp Carnelleys and it was really good. It was here that I met my friends. The resort is situated right next to the huge lake which is called Lake Naivasha. We got a small house to stay in which had a great view of the lake. All the houses are surrounded by trees and there are monkeys who jump from tree to tree and who can be seen running around the resort from time to time. The first night we just had dinner and caught up before going to bed.

                                                        The next day we organised a safari trip with the people who ran the resort. We went on a safari trip to a place called Hells Gate. This safari was a lot different than the last because we were dropped off in the national park and were then shown around on foot by another man. We walked for about two hours before the driver came to collect us. This was a lot better because we could get to see the harmless animals up close such as giraffes, dung beetles and zebras. We also saw some other animals from afar such as warthogs, baboons and buffalos. We then went to a small volcanic lake with a view from a high cliff. We got a lift most of the way up but had a short walk to reach the summit. We were then taken back to the resort.

                                                                                       The day after that we went on a tour of the lake in a boat. This was great because we got to see loads of hippos. There are around 4000 hippos in this lake because they stay in pack of around 20. We saw about 3 packs in total. They were either half or fully submerged in the water because they stay there to keep cool during the day then they bask at night. We also saw a few storks and eagles as well as some other birds. We then went to the resort right next to ours because they have a swimming pool you can use for a small fee. It was good because in this resort they have an electrified fence right next to the lake which they put grass on the other side of. Therefore hippos come up to eat this and you can get close to them on the land so we got to see this also.

                                                                                                                                                               
18th of May:
The following day on the 18^th of May we left the resort and after saying goodbye to my friends I travelled back to Kitale. I would advise anybody going to Naivasha to go to this resort called Camp Carnelleys. The employ people to do a wide range of activities with you, which you pay for separately. The activities we did are just a few out of the total amount. The food there is also really good. They have a menu filled with western food so it was great to have some Western food for a change from the Kenyan food which is what I had being having for the past 2 months. 

                                                           

21^st of May: 
We went to a slum in the area of Bidii called Jamanoor. We went here because there is a lot of people here who are suffering from Jiggers. These are insects that live under the skin. It happens if the area or house you are living in is very dirty and you are not wearing proper shoes. The insects infest in your skin and then it is very hard to remove them without the proper methods because to pull them out is very painful. When they have gotten under the skin they lay eggs which cause the infestation to increase. They start off on the feet but if they are left for a long time untreated they will move further up the body. The suck the person’s blood and if left untreated can be fatal. It is a lot more serious for those who are impoverished because they lack proper food and water so their blood being taken is very dangerous. 

                                               When we went today there were four of us. We met with the community and interacted with them before getting to work. A few members of the community helped us as well. We wore face masks and plastic gloves while working. What we did was put the liquid medicine into a bucket of water; this bucket was replaced after each person. We would get a person who is infected and get them to place their feet into the bucket. We would then use cotton wool to rub the medicine onto the infected areas. The areas which are infected can be very crusty and the skin may be cracked and blistered. This must be done twice for the infection to be completely gone so we will be retuning in one week.

                    One of the men we attended to was very badly infected. It had spread from his feet to his knees, buttocks, elbows, hands, chest, to the top of his back and even to his neck. This man requires attention from a doctor at a hospital however that isn’t an option. Therefore we will return and attend to him more than twice. The areas on his feet, knees and elbows were badly affected. They were very crusty and hard. Somebody attending to him had to rub very hard and even scrape away the hard areas. This was still the man’s skin so it involved his skin and the top layer of his flesh being removed. This left the area underneath extremely sensitive and raw and some areas bled. However there was little blood left after what the Jiggers had done.                      

Work since then:

The 6th of April:
The good Sheppard Sisters live and work on a farm which I help them with. On the 6^th of April we were planting maize on the farm. This is the staple crop in Kenya and is a huge cash crop. To help us do all this planting we hired 30 women from the slum in Kipsongo. The work involved were digging trenches for the maize seeds, planting the seeds there and then placing the soil on top of the seeds. These women do a lot of work for us when it comes to things which must be done on the farm and they are given payment for their work.

On April 14^th the workers and I dug many holes which bananas would be planted in. These hole have to be very deep and requite a lot of work to dig them, therefore this was very tiring work and in total about 70 banana trees will grow here.

Table Banking: April 15th

 I went to the school because there was a meeting held here for the women of Kipsongo. The sisters have set up business groups with these women in order to help them establish their own businesses so they can become empowered and generate an income of their own. There are 3 different groups that meet up and each of these groups has about 10 people in them. They are largely comprised of women but in each group there is one man. The sisters are hoping that these men who are part of it will encourage other men to join also. Each member of the groups has now established a small business of their own with the help of the sisters and the aid workers. These businesses are widely different from clothes cleaning business to selling things such as fruit. The meeting today was called table banking and the sisters were teaching the women about the different methods of banking and how they can benefit from banking. These meetings which discuss many different easy the women can develop their businesses are held every month.

                                                                                                          
13th of March:
I went to another of these meetings on the 13^th of March. This time I found out that the women take a short term loan from the people who run it, this loan is for one month. Since these meetings are on every month they return for the next meeting and they pay back the loan. They also give the money they have gotten as a profit and the people running it will put it in a bank account for them. They can then take out another loan if they want depending on how much of a profit they make.

                         In this room there are many other meetings held such as on April 16^th they held a parents meeting there which took place to educate the parents about the different ways they can discipline their children to ensure that they attend school and that they work hard. Here the sisters and aid workers all gave their own ideas and opinions and then after there was a time allowed for the parents to speak up and give their own opinions on the matter. These meetings are also held every month unless an urgent matter occurs and they need to be held earlier. If a person is late attending the meeting if they want to join in they must pay a 50 shilling penalty which is the equivalent of around 50 cent. I think this is a very good and fair policy because many people turn up late, some of them turn up as late as one and a half hours some times.

                                                                                                                                                 The sisters have also employed women from Kipsongo in the workshop they have in the compound. In this workshop they have many sewing machines and they make many things such as clothes, bracelets, bags, necklaces as well as many other things. These are then sold at a local shop in town or sometimes they receive orders from places such as a church or a school and they must complete the order. On April 7^th I visited this workshop and they had to complete an order of 200 dresses for a local school.

                                                                      
21^st of April 
I went to a funeral for a local priest whose mother had passed away. This was a very interesting experience for me because I had never been to a funeral outside of Ireland. In this funerals in Kenya there is a lot more singing and clapping. The entire crowd joins in which is different because in Ireland when people are asked to sing they usually shy away even if it is in a crowd. However if they are signing doesn’t mean they are happy and ok with the person having passed it is just the way they carry out their funerals. It was a huge event with around 300 people. They had it outdoors in the house that the person lived in. There were also 25 priests and the local bishop who is also Irish called Bishop Crowley.   

                                                                                  

Trip to Killgoia: 25th April

On the 25^th of April we left the house to go down to the area of Killgoia. This is because one of the sisters was having a church ceremony and a celebration for her having being a sister for 25 years and they were holding this celebration in her home. Half of us travelled in our jeep and we also rented a mini bus to bring more people who wanted to come. All the sisters came as well as staff members who work for us such as the people who do work on the farm, in the workshop making clothes and the women who runs the shop in which they sell these clothes.

                                                                                                                                       It was about a 12 hour drive so we left the house at around 8 p.m and travelled throughout the night. We arrived at their house at about 9 o clock on Sunday morning. We were given breakfast and talked with people there and the ceremony started at 12.

It went on for 3 hours and we were then given lunch before leaving to head back to Kitale. What struck me was the amount of people who went. From my experiences if someone was asked to go to a celebration which was very far away, as far as 12 hours, to not stay the night but have to come back again many people wouldn’t go. However for this loads of people arrived, most of them having to travel very far. One of the sisters said this wasn’t uncommon in Kenya and that for a celebration people will travel very far to spend it with you. I thought this was a really good thing that this wasn’t out of the ordinary and that people were willing to do this, different from what I had experienced. However after all the travelled I was very tired at the end of it and had to take it easy for the next two days.

April 30^th:
We went to Hekima Day Care today because one of the sisters had a meeting because there is a boy from the local slum and they want to send him to boarding school so he can be educated. His family wants this as well but he has been very reluctant to go before this. He spend a lot of his time scavenging at the dumping site and he is happy to stay there because it is now the situation and the way of life that he is used to and it is hard for him to break from this. Even though his family want him to be educated they don’t make a huge effort to encourage him to go to school or to stop going to the dumping site so it has been hard to encourage him to go. Now he has agreed to go so we were meeting to sort out when he will start and things like this.

                                                                      However a few days later when all the students were getting on the bus to go to the boarding school the boy was nowhere to be found. This was after he had agreed to go and the sisters had bought him everything he needed such as his uniform, books, pencils and pens. This is an example of how frustrating it can be for some of the sisters when they are trying to help someone but they are reluctant to be helped. We have met with his mother and have contacted a few of his other family members but none of them have seen him. We are thinking he is staying with one of his friends or many one of his more distant relatives.