Kenya Volunteer Journals

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Little-by-little we are approaching the end of this trip. I cannot believe how rapidly the time is flying by! It seems just as I am hitting my one-month stride here, the number of days until we fly home is ever-decreasing.
I am truly starting to love this country and these people, and as I become more comfortable with basic language skills, customs, and local travel, I  enjoy my time more and more. We have been slightly more autonomous at the clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays (though we are still not super comfortable with diagnosing conditions and prescribing medications, as Teresa, the [...]

Heute war ein ziemlich anstrengender und interessanter Tag^^ Ich habe ziemlich viel mit den groesseren Kindern gespielt, und sobald ich jemanden hochgenommen habe, kamen mind. 5 andere und wollten auch..^^ Ueber Mittag haben wir auch viel mit den Mamas und Studenten geredet und interessante Dinge ueber kulturelle Unterschiede etc. erfahren. Julie und ich leihen jetzt am Morgen meisten unser Modem an Liuba (Krankenschwester) und Rosemary (Sekretaerin) aus, damit sie einige Dinge am anderen PC machen koennen. Aber da das Modem so langsam ist, helfe ich ihnen meistens in dem ich meinen kleinen Lapi nehme und ihre Dinge erledige.. Julie hat [...]

Habari!
So, the latest update on my Kenya trip is that I decided to send 11 orphaned children to an orphanage with the money that has been raised in Canada for the IDP camp. These children were living with relatives that couldn’t afford them, and in some cases don’t want them. Many of these children had their parents die in the political conflicts in 2007 and quite a few have had their parent’s die recently (in the last year or two) from HIV/AIDS. Only one of the children has confirmed HIV status but a few of them haven’t been tested and [...]

Bericht vom Montag, 08.03.2010
Gestern waren Julie und ich in Nairobi und trafen einen taiwanesischen Freund von ihr. Wir sind rein zufaellig auf einen Masai Markt gestossen und haben uns dort umgesehen. Anscheinend ist es dort so ueblich, dass man einen Broker mitnimmt, der Dinge an denen du evtl. interessiert bist in eine Tasche packt und du am Schluss mit diesem den Preis aushandelst. Ich hab ihn extrem runtergemarktet, aber ich glaube ich habe immernoch zu viel gezahlt..^^ Ich bin nicht gut im Markten.. Jedenfalls werd ich naechstes mal sicher auch nicht mehr mit so einem gehen, sondern direkt bei den [...]

Bericht vom Freitag, 05.03.2010
Gestern, Donnerstag, sind Julie und ich am Nachmittag auf den Campus einer nahegelegenen Universitaet gegangen. In Kenya muessen Studenten alle 60 Stunden Community Service machen. Wir haben im Happy Life auch einige Studenten, die helfen kommen, und so hat uns einer jener Studenten auf dem Campus rumgefuehrt. War echt cool, vor allem war der Campus so gruen^^
Heute gab es eine kleine Feier zu ehren einer Mitarbeiterin, die gerade erst aufgehoert hat. Das war echt der Hammer, zuerst haben wir alle zusammen gegessen, und danach wurde gesungen und getanzt. Da Happy Life ein christliches Heim ist, haben sie [...]

Hi all,
I literally have mere moments to write this, so I will be uber brief.
The past days have been wonderful as we continue to engage with people in the camp and surrounding communities. I have slowly been building my language skills (though they minimal at best) and am daily learning more about the culture and traditions here.
We just returned from a 3-day safari in Maasai-Mara, which was incredible in every way, but I will save that for later. It was awesome to see more of the Kenyan country-side and to meet many Maasai people. And of course the wild animals [...]

Habari!
Things have been busy this last week. Ali and I have definitely gotten more comfortable with our role at camp and we have begun to take over the volunteer duties at the clinic. We spent Tuesday at the clinic helping dispense medication and hopefully we are beginning to cut down on the mass amounts of meds being given out at the clinic – we may have begun to use our discretion on the amounts of meds and we may not be exactly giving the whole amount prescribed when it doesn’t fit the clinical picture…
Wednesday was supposed to be our woman’s [...]

Ich bin nun schon seit drei Tagen in Kenya und ich find es klasse!^^ Die ersten beiden Tage war unsere Orientierung. Wir haben einiges ueber die Gepflogenheiten hier erfahren und einen Swahili-Crashkurs gemacht.. Wir sind insgesamt 7 Volunteers, die jetzt am 1. Maerz angefangen haben. Es sind alles wirklich tolle Leute! Am zweiten Orientierungstag haben wir einen Ausflug zum Nairobi National Park gemacht, um dort das Animal Orphanage zu besichtigen.. Das war wirklich unvergesslich^^ Jede Menge verschiedene Tiere, wir konnten einen alten Geparden streicheln und ein kleiner frecher Affe hat mir meinen Touchstick von meiner Kamera geklaut, als ich ihn [...]

In 10.5 Stunden fliegt mein Flugzeug in Zürich ab..! Aaah! Werd langsam aber sicher nervös..^^
Jetzt noch die letzten Vorbereitungen tätigen und ab gehts..<3

Hi all!
It’s been a while since I posted anything so I feel like there is a lot to catch you all up on. For the past week Ali and I have been busy getting to know people in the camp and I am feeling quite proud that I am beginning to remember names AND put faces to them!
The last week we spend Tuesday and Thursday in the medical clinic helping mostly to distribute what seems like masses of drugs. The Kenyan’s seem to be particularly fond of medicine, and every mama brings her “chupa’s” or bottles to get medicine for [...]

Hi all,
We are in our second week here in the Pipeline IDP camp outside of Nakuru Kenya, and it has been both very rewarding and tremendously heart-wrenching.
We are still adjusting to the life-style (i.e. using the squatty), trying to master some basic Kiswahili phrases, and to honor and work within the culture. We daily experience the realities of  ‘African time’ (for those of you who have been to Africa, you know exactly what I am talking about). Everything happens in its own time, and to be honest, I have been enjoying the slow and deliberate relational aspects of Kenyan culture. [...]

Tomorrow I will have been here for a month! It’s crazy, I feel like I just barely got here. This week was pretty good and fairly productive. The kids at Nariobi Children’s home finally know my name and are getting pretty used to me being around. Yesterday I took Kevin (the kid that I am sponsering) to see the school that he will be boarding at. It was a pretty long journey b/c 11 of us went on a 3 1/2 hour journey and only had 6 seats in a very hot squishy and exhust filled Matatu. It was [...]

Hi all,
I know it has only been a couple of days since my last post, but this one is important.
Sonja and I have decided we are going to help another volunteer to finance a poultry/chicken project (as I explained in my last blog). The community is going to use the proceeds to a) perpetuate the poultry project; and b) to fund the medical clinic, to supply school fees for children in the IDP camp, and to buy food for camp inhabitants.
As these are all very basic and fundamental needs, we feel this is very important work. Also, it is something [...]

Ali and I are starting to settle into camp life and are begging to get used to washing up at the rain water barrel beside the chicken coop (many of you know much much I like birds, especially chickens…), sleeping under nets, using the primitive bathing and sanitary facility’s. I think when we get back we are going to have had our fill of camping for a while! We are starting to feel more at home in Africa and are beginning to refer to ourselves as “muzungu’s” as everyone else does!
The last couple of days we have been learning about [...]

Sorry I am such a terrible blogger. By the end of my day I am usually too tired to make it all the way down to the internet cafe. Things have been going good. I think that I am starting to get pretty used to my life in Kenya. The last couple of days the kids have finally started calling me by my name instead of Jessie who is one of the volunteers who has been at the childrens home for months. I tell them my name is Katie b/c the think that my name Katie is pretty darn funny [...]

We arrived in the Pipeline IDP camp about 20 mins outside of Nakuru yesterday afternoon. Nakuru is approx a 3 hour drive from Nairobi inland into/through the Great Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is breathtakingly beautiful and we got some fabulous pictures on the drive yesterday of the valley, mountains/ dormant volcanoes, and some african wildlife along the road such as Zebra’s and baboon’s.
The IDP camp is like nothing that I can describe. The poverty is absolute and widespread. Most of the family’s are still living in the UN tents that they were given in 2007. They all cook over [...]

Hi all,
Yesterday we travelled from Nairobi to the Pipeline IDP camp, about 20kms shy of Nakuru, a mid-sized city. Along the way we spotted Baboons and Zebras on the side of the road, which was really neat. Also, we stopped to see the Great Rift Valley from a vantage point, before descending into it, and the horizon seemed to go on forever- absolutely breathtaking.
We spotted several of the other IDP camps- Jakawe and Gilgil- from the road. The former has largely been replaced by mud and cement houses built by the government and aid organizations. Gigil is still a rather [...]

Today is our last day of orientation before Ali and I leave for the IDP camp. We were given some internet time and I thought I’d add to what I wrote yesterday as there were a couple things I didn’t have time to get to.
The first day that we arrived in Nairobi we were taken to the Nairobi Children’s home by our “house mama” Charity. It’s about 20 min walk from the house that we are staying and VICDA has a volunteer project there. The home is government funded and houses approx 48 children ranging days old to 7 years. [...]

Hi all! I am really excited to update you all from Kenya after the long journey we took to arrive here.

We left Vancouver Friday February 12 at 0600 and flew to Chicago. We were in Chicago for about 2 hours before we left for Washington D.C. After another 2 hour layover, we boarded our Qatar Airways flight for Doha!

After our flight to Doha (which we only discovered was 14 hours in length during our check-in) we spent a rather sleepless night (likely just jetlag, though it felt great to stretch out and elevate our swollen feet and cankles) in the [...]

Hi all.
I hope that all is going well at home.  Ali and I arrived in Nairobi yesterday (Feb 14) safely at approx 1300 local time. We both feel like our internal clocks are pretty screwed up after two and half days of flying!
We started out in Vancouver the at 0500 on Feb 12 and then spent the next two days flying across the states and then a 14 hour flight to Doha, Qatar. For those of you who don’t know, Doha is in the middle east, right beside Saudi Arabia. We flew with Qatar airways from Washington D.C. to Doha [...]

Hello everyone!  I can’t believe its only 4 weeks until I leave for Kenya.  I am more excited than I can possibly explain!  I am still making plans and collecting donations for the orphanage.  I would like to thank all of my friends and family who have been so supportive of my adventure and the orphanage.   I have been touched by how caring and generous so many people have been while I prepare for the trip!  THANK YOU!!

Jambo.
As many of you know tomorrow I am embarking on a trip to Kenya. My friend Ali and I are going to be working in a refugee camp in Nakuru, Kenya, which is in the Great Rift Valley, approximately 3-4 hours outside of Nairobi. Apparently the refugee camp is approx 6,500 people and we are going to be working in the medical center doing everything from basic first aid to delivering babies, I am hoping that I am properly equipped for this range of skills with very limited and/or basic supplies. I guess I learned a good deal of improvisation [...]

So I made it safe and sound. I live in a beautiful area called
Spring Valley which is surrounded by millions of trees, some with
bright purple flowers all over them. I live in a volunteer dormatory
with 5 other volunteers. We have a host mamma named Charity
who is very nice and a good cook so that makes life pretty good.
The first couple days at Nairobi’s Children’s Home were pretty hard,
but good. I have been coming home pretty tired. There are lots of
kids that want your love and attention so you are constantly picking\
up one kid and then the next. There are a [...]

Almost all set to leave for Kenya. Two days ago we received some rather surprising news. We are NOT going to be working in or even that near to Nairobi. In fact, we are going to be placed in the Pipeline IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp in the Nakuru district about 3-4 hours North-West of Kenya. As we are going to be living and working in a rural area, I am off to get a few more anti-malarials!
Before I leave, I want to thank all of my friends and family so, so much for the tremendous love and support I [...]

Let’s get started.. Mein Journal ist aufgeschalten und ich bin in weniger als einem Monat in Kenya! Yay!^^

Well the time has pretty much arrived and I will soon be off on my African adventure!! My name is Katie and I will be volunteering at the Nirobi childrens home just outside of Nairobi. I have a huge bag packed and ready full of toys, crafts and games so I am excited to share them with the kids. I really can’t even imagine what my trip will be like yet, but I am very excited and nervous. I will keep you up to date on my future adventures!
Katie

Well – it came round so quickly – I hate goodbyes. I got picked up by a Taxi – and had to peel to small boys off me as i got in. I’ve never seen so many tears, both from the children and me. My heart broke – when one of the older boys asked if i was leaving forever, and if we would ever meet again. He continued on to say everyone leaves, and when was he going too. I do wonder if how soon i can be able to come back. Cheryls has touched me unlike any other [...]

Hey all,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – sorry for the delay with the first one but its been pretty full on.
I can’t believe that I only have 4 days left with the children – this month has gone to quick,  i wish i could stay for longer, but alas money is in dire need haha and i should come back for school!!
Christmas was amazing, and the children loved it.  The days leading up to it i was sitting in the boys dorm and chatting with a few of them about Christmas and whats their favourite part, and does it [...]

Tomorrow!
The big day has finally come. It’s been a marathon trying to get everything ready, but I think i’ve finally got it all packed. As of tomorrow i’ll be off to my 19 hour flight + stop overs. I’ll update my blog the first chance I get. Expect to see pictures!
Until next time,
Lindsay