It was such a busy week - but so fulfilling... :D

This week we were really happy to host a team of 4 dentists and a nurse from the US accompanied by a local dentist. The team came to Motherly Care to examine and treat our children. I was very glad I had the opportunity to be part of their team for the time they spent at the orphanage. I guess you can say I was the receptionist :) but working with them really reminded me of the job at NCR - arranging, organising, coordinating, ensuring we had correct info, etc... We were so busy that I did not have time to eat or a drink... It did not matter though, I have really enjoyed it, especially that it all resulted in all of our children examined and treated by the dentists and having their teeth cleaned. The kids were also taught about the oral hygiene, how to use the dental floss and all got new toothbrushes, paste and floss - none of our children knew what flossing was...

I also did some more teaching as class 4 was left with no teacher as 2 of our staff are sick... I'm concentrating my efforts on maths and English - I plan to do more work with those children from next week, even if the teachers are back as I really enjoy it and I believe it will really help the children, especially that soon they will have to do their exams...

All of this is not happening without challenges - main one being the children's expectations... So far all my trips to the orphanage meant bringing lots of gifts, especially food... and this time, as I need to preserve the money I have for the most pressing issues I am not able to do this any more... But I think the more time I spent there, the more they understand that I am only trying to help and that it is necessary that we prioritise what we do next... I try to speak to them often and I am already seeing a change in some. One main thing about our children is that they all come from very different and very difficult backgrounds so working with them is not an easy job... There's also a language barrier... - as many of them did not start their education until arriving at MCCH, the level of English is very poor... I am really hoping I can improve this.

I have started to buy daily newspaper so the Form 4 children can read it and by doing that stay tuned to what is happening in their country as well as practice their English. We are going to have weekly discussions about the current events and as soon as I get the new aerial cable for our TV they will also be watching evening news every day.

The situation in Kenya has started to worry me quite a bit - there has been many killings - 7 very brutal ones in last 7 days in Nairobi alone... There are cases of human body parts trade for witchcraft... It is all very disturbing... I am trying to stay at the orphanage or Jane's house and not even go to town at the weekend as I prefer not to tempt the fate...

Today I did some calculations on my spending and, without counting the money that I spent on things for MCCH, I realised that I live on less than £2.50 a day :D this is all thanks to Jane as she is letting me stay at her house and makes sure that I don't go hungry... My weekly expenses only consist of groceries for when I go to MCCH, newspapers and mobile top up really... very rarely I buy anything else... I guess this is gonna be a really good rehab for me :) staying away from shopping hasn't been very difficult though... I have all I need for my work here...

I will post some more photos soon...

The challenge continues

The scary night incident has not been repeated so far, much to my relief. However, I am not spared the stress as there are many issues here which need to be resolved asap but due to the luck of funds they keep dragging on... On Thursday morning we had a visit from the electricity company - it was due to the unpaid bill for last 3 months - as a result we were cut off... Luckily, on Friday Mary managed to convince them to reconnect us but they only did it under a condition that this week we sign an agreement with them about how to reduce the debt. To be totally honest, I have no idea how we are going to do that as we simply have no money, not only to spare but just to cover the essential monthly expenses like staff salaries and bills... I am very stressed over this. I have however started to monitor how we are using the electricity and look for ways to reduce the costs... This will not make the problem go away though - we still need more donors and finding them has been a real struggle.

I was supposed to come back to Motherly Care on Sunday but the driver has not showed up yet again (we pay him very little and it is quite likely that he has found a better job - it is quite common for people just not turn up). I asked Mary to look for a new driver as the one we had was very unreliable - it will be a difficult task though for the pay that we are offering.

Because the driver did not come to work on Sunday, we could not collect the food from Uchumi (this is a supermarket near Mary's house that donates all unsold fruits and veg to us). Luckily for us, when Mary came to collect me on Monday we went there and all the stuff for MCCH was still there waiting to be collected.

The food that we get are the rejects and a lot of it is half rotten - so you can just imagine what a horrible task it is to go through boxes of vegetables that are going off... But if it means that we get food for children for free, we have to do it. I have attracted a lot of attention as you never see white people doing this sort of job, but I wanted to get this done asap so we could get to Ruai before it gets dark. There was a lot of stuff - pineapple, watermelon, spinach, beans, potatoes, carrots, etc...

These days we do not have such a big problem with feeding the children as we get food donated from few places. The problem is the lack of money for petrol, salary for the driver and also the vehicle. The car that we have is ancient - really on it's last legs and it is costing us a lot to keep it going but as we do not have money to get a better one, we simply don’t have a choice. I must tell you - every time I need to travel in this car I am worried that we will break down on the way - and the areas that we need to drive through to get to Ruai from Nairobi are not very safe... I am very glad each time I reach my destination...

Scary night

I have finally made it to Ruai and was very happy to see the children. They were very happy to see me too and straight away I was surrounded by so many of them - everyone wanted to hold my hand or get a hug. They kept touching my hair and then started braiding it - it was quite a painful process and I lost a lot of hair as a result when I tried to bring it back to normal. But still, it was fun spending time with the kids after such long time.

I spent the rest of the evening talking with Stanley, the manager of MCCH about various things that I want to work on whilst I am here. I didnt even realise when it got really late, we were so absorbed in the conversation. As he needed to get up by 5am we decided to continue our discussion the following day.

I was in bed around 12.30am, I am staying at the guest house where Stanley, Hilda and few of the children are also staying. Ruai is very rual and there are not so many houses around. It is usually very quite except for the airplane noise...

I fixed my mosquito net, locked the door to my room and turned off the lights. Just this in itself was pretty scary for me as I just hate to be alone in the room at night, I think it is some sort of a fobia... I was lying down and listening to the noises outside. All seemed OK... I must have drifted off for less than an hour when I suddenly woke up. I did not know why I woke up but again got really worried about all theh darkness. Just as I was hoping to go back to sleep I heard the noise made by the front gate... Alarmed I started to listen out for more sounds and to my terror what I heard next was the gate to the back of the house. I was completely paniced by then but unsure of what I should do. I was lying in bed, terrified. I could hear someone walking around the house and outside my window. All of a sudden I felt very claustrophobic - it was the mosquito net, the room everything, I was finding it hard to breathe... There are bars in all of the windows so nobody can come in through that but still I found no comfort in that... And then I heard someone trying to open the back door... I really wanted to scream but was too afraid to... Luckily they did not manage to get in and et again I heard someone walk around the house... It was too much to take. The moment I knew that they must have been on the other side of the house I jumepd out of my bed, put the lights on, got out of the room, turn on the dining room lights on and run to Hilda's room to wake her up. However, when I enetred her room I couldnt find the light switch and I could not see which bed she was sleeping in. Instead I just saw the children sleeping there and I really did not want to scare them. Everyone in the house was fast asleep. I decided to wait it out. Too afraid to go back to my room (as it was just opposite the back door), I stayed in the hallway for over an hour trying to decide whether I should wake anyone up or not. Finally around 4am when I did not hear anything else I managed to go back to bed but I left the lights on and could not sleep. I could hear many dogs barking in the distance... I was still scared.
Finally just before 5 am, when I knew that many people will be getting up I was brave enough to close my eyes and finally fell asleep.

As a result I am really really tired today and even more terrified about spending 3 more nights here this week... Maybe the tiredness will help me sleep through the night... I have many weeks to go and I dont want it getting in my way of achieving what I set out for myself.

I spoke to Stanley and Hilda about what happened. We will put on some security lights outside and try to close the gate better. I also want to get a dog, I really believe that we need to make this place more secure. It is not easy though when the funds are so limited and everything costs...

On the happier note - seems like the cold season is finally over - we have had 3 great sunny days now and it is very hot here today.

Sthg to think about

I came across this today and I really like. I think it sums up quite well what I have been doing since last year...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

I still havent been to see the children as it was time to slaughter the chickens for sale (it's an income bringing project that we started about 2 months ago) and I really did not want to see this. Instead, I am meeting with a potential volunteer tomorrow morning. Hopefully she will agree to spend some time at the orphanage and help with the teaching as the school is starting on Monday and one of the teachers has just informed us that she is not coming back. Now we have to find someone for her place very fast...

More in few days time...