Form 4s day trip

As our Form 4 students have been working very hard recently revising and preparing for their final exams, I wanted to reward them a little. As very soon they will be leaving Motherly Care I wanted to do sthg with them that they will remember for a long time – they wanted to go on a trip but I knew they didn’t have the funds to do so. I am trying to rally economise while I’m here to make sure that my money can last for a long time but I couldn’t resist paying for the trip for them – it will probably be the last reward that they get from Motherly Care. Obviously we will now be helping them to find work or funds for college but most probably they will not get an opportunity to do sthg as a group.

I hired a people carrier and we set of to town on Monday morning. We started with the National Museum – from what I could see the students (I keep calling them kids but they are adults already!) really enjoyed it. At the museum we also went to the snake park – this is not sthg that I particularly enjoyed but as they really wanted to go there so I gave in – after all it was a treat for them J

After the museum we were supposed to go to the National’s Park Animal Orphanage but we stopped at Uhuru Gardens on our way so we could have some lunch. It was really nice there and we decided to take some photos with the monument. After only taking a couple of shots we were approached by the park’s security and told that what we are doing is illegal as we are supposed to pay Ksh5000 (that’s sthg like £45)! This was absolutely ridiculous – we argued with the guard by he was not really listening. He asked one of the teachers to follow him to the office. When they returned we were told that indeed, in order to take photos in that place you must pay the fee – everyone was really outraged and we decided to talk to the guard again. For some reason he would not come close enough to us so we could talk it over. I then decided that if he doesn’t want to come to talk to me then I will go to talk to him. When I approached him with one of the teachers I asked why he just doesn’t come and tell me what the problem is (it was pretty obvious that the reason why he was so persistent that we pay the fee was the fact that I was white and he assumed that I had money). I was then told that he cannot speak English but if we give him some cash he will let us go. I was not really shocked – sthg like this is very common here. I did not cave in though and told him if he really insists that we pay the fee then I will just delete the photos that we have taken. I think he realised that he would not get any money out of me that he could use for himself and all of a sudden he let us go without paying the fee or deleting the photos.

As we already finished the snacks that we had, we decided to leave that place before they try to charge us for anything else. We proceeded to the National Park. As usual, because I am a foreigner – regardless to the fact that I am a volunteer not a tourist – I was really ripped off when it came to pay for the tickets – the children paid Ksh50, the teachers Ksh100 and for me? Well – Ksh1240! To be honest in my opinion that place is not worth paying so much money – it is much better to go to the elephant orphanage as you can interact with the animals much more there, but hey, it was the treat for the children and they wanted to go there – and they really enjoyed it.

As we didn’t have any money left in our budget, it was time to go home. However, the children really did not want to go back just yet. Instead we went to do some window shopping at a new shopping mall. It was so funny when I asked them to go up the escalator – they have never seen anything like that and were really afraid ;) the same thing with the lifts – they found it really amazing and we went up and down several times attracting a lot of attention. At least they were dressed in school uniforms so people knew that they were students and not a bunch of crazy adults ;)

I was absolutely shattered when we returned. I just wanted to shower and go to bed – and it was only 7.30pm! But there was another challenge waiting for me: about 20 min after we returned the power went off so I had to shower (and when I say that I mean bathe in a small plastic basin and 1 small bucket of water) just with candle light. The joys of simple life… ;)

Last night the Form 4s stayed up all night praying for good results in their exams – they start tomorrow. I wish them best of luck.

Today is a national day in Kenya – Kenyatta Day. Kenyatta Day is a day celebrating Kenya's freedom, named after their founding president Jomo Kenyatta.