Dear Neil Mason,

Thank you for your reply, it is great to hear from you. I hope you are well.

My Placement

The school I am working in is called Dada’s Community Centre. It has a school, orphanage, HIV clinic and some rooms where women come in and teach other women how to make baskets and clothes so that they can sell them at a market to make some money. There is so much going on in such a tiny space.

There are some tough stories I have heard this week and things I have seen. All the walls in the school are paper thin and made of tin, you can just hear all the classes going on all the time. There actually aren’t even any doors or any colours on the walls. I am hoping I will be able to make lots of posters before their new school opens up, just to make the classrooms more colourful.

The kids don’t drink anything throughout the day, I am not even sure why but in this heat it’s unbelievable. It’s already so hot and it is currently rainy season and the peak months of summer is from December-January.

The school books and pens are all in awful quality, in a class of 18 they have 2 text books and all of the children just crack on with no complaints.

Everyday all of the children have to clean the school, they have these little brushes, they have to chuck water in the toilet room and they have to clean the floors.

The students are rated in class, after they have there end of term exams the person with the highest marks get rated number 1 and the worst is last. It’s not a really good system at all. Their school system here is very different to home because they are split into classes depending on smartness not age. So there are people in the same class who are 10 and 14.

One awful thing they still do here is punish the children physically. I saw them beat small children with a long ruler and they were really crying. We just had to walk out. Yesterday, I saw a teacher just grab a girls waist and squeeze it really hard, she was crying and she looked about 14. They punish them for even the little things, each class has a prefect and the prefect has to report if any of the children have spoken Swahili during break or lunchtime and if they have then they will be punished. I really hate it and it is something I just cannot get my head around, but speaking to another volunteer, her school does the exact same and there isn’t much I can do to change it.

Their school uniform is shocking, they all only have one uniform but there are holes in every jumper and dress, some are so large that it just looks like hanging material.

I was able to go to the orphanage last Saturday and see the boarder children. I heard that one little girl called Betty, who is about 4 was just left on the doorstep of the orphanage and they have bought her in. Some other children are just bought here by crazy parents who are alcoholics or just can’t look after them and the orphanage have also just looked after these children. When I ask them what they do on the weekends, they just say they dance and pray and they love it. They were telling me that in their weekly after school debates one of the topics was if being a day-schooler or a boarder was better. The boarders won because being a day schooler you aren’t guaranteed any food especially if your mum is sick/not enough money. Whereas orphan children will always have rice and beans and food is always there. What a crazy world we live in!

Despite having literally nothing, these children are smiling all of the time and are so happy and welcoming. I always get so many questions, they always ask why I am white and how I am white. The hair on my arms fascinates them because they all literally have none! The girls just play with my hair all the time and they were so sad to hear that I cut it all off! They always ask if we can switch hair, it is because they all have their hair in these tight hair styles and they love soft hair! All of the kids absolutely love my phone and seeing pictures of my family. I will have no storage left soon because all they do is take selfies and videos. I have my absolute favourite class, class 5 who are 10-14. They are always asking when I am going to teach them and they are the first class where I know every single one of their names. At lunchtime they just really make me laugh, we were having arm wrestles the other day, they dance, they sing the Kenyan national anthem. I was taught how to make some origami too yesterday. When it is lunchtime it’s always a fight to see which classroom I go in and they block me from leaving it’s so funny! In the staff room one day, the teachers were all having a laugh and they just made every child that came in do a song or a dance as a group in order for their books to be marked. The older boys were so funny, just singing so loudly and really going for it.

The children are all so welcoming and lovely, everyday I am greeting with one thousand hugs and high-5’s. I am always asked questions about home which they are fascinated by, lots of children ask if they can come back with me to the UK. All of them are so smart, their English is amazing and they all want to be either a doctor, a teacher or a pirate… Many of their dreams is to travel and I don’t think I have actually met a Kenyan yet who has travelled further than Tanzania!

One day last week it was so hot, I was doing science with class 5 and we had finished our revision questions. They do not do P.E lessons, so I just went and asked the teacher if we could go and play outside.

They agreed and let us go and play in a field across the road, they were so happy. For the next few days from then, I have been responsible for taking different classes outside and playing lot of games. They are so happy and excited because they haven’t done it in such a long time! Although they do not even have one ball to play which shocked me.

If I wasn’t there teaching then the class would be left with no teacher and they would just crack on with their own work or be left with exercises.

The Volunteer House

Last week a girl called Rachel left, she was a 25 year old Lorry driver from the UK. She had been here a week before I arrived and was really struggling and planning to book her flight home.

However we were put together working at the school and it really helped her and we loads of fun. Sadly she left this week but now she is dying to come back and wants to come back this Christmas! It is sad because lots of volunteers leave after a month or so, just after they have really settled in and are forming good relationships. All the children are so happy to hear I am still there for Christmas and it makes me feel so happy!

Outreach-Service

For the last two weeks on Thursday we have been at Dada’s Orphanage painting! I told my leader that is looked quite dull and the paint looked worn. So we painted a lot of the outside of the building blue and brown (their chosen colours). There was paint everywhere, I still have it all over my hands and feet! It was good fun though but hard work in the baking heat! I was speaking to a girl who lives in the other volunteer house and she is working at a women’s refuge centre.

She was telling me that they are looking after this 6 year old boy who was sold by his parents for money in Tanzania and bought to Kenya. Then people have blinded him because they knew they would get more money from him from begging. Hearing stories like these, knowing they are happening right here just breaks my heart.

Weekends

I have been going to the orphanage on Saturday for a couple of hours just to play with the children. We told them we were coming and they just sat outside the gates to see when we arrived! Since Rachel left last week, she had to give away all the donations she had collected.

A local church offered to make her loads of knitted African animal hand puppets and teddy bears. There were loads, enough to give away one to each of the kids. Whilst they were being given out all the children just sat there in silence and were very grateful, even the older children. Then she bought balloons and games and the kids just loved playing with us and we’re so excited it was a good day.

The other weekend I also ventured in Nairobi City! I was able to eat some proper home food and explore the Masai Market. The market is full of African souvenirs and clothes. Musungu’s are harassed and shouted at though!

Sunday I went to church and I managed to get there by myself which I was happy about. Even walking alone in the street you can’t be left alone, people just shout at you or talk to you. That evening the volunteers we have in the house (4 other girls) all made a huge three course meal. The fruit here is just unbelievable, you can just see avocados on trees and they are 10 shillings each with is 7p. I also got 10 passion fruit for 70p, I am loving it!

The highlight of my week:

As I mentioned earlier, Rachel left this week. So we decided we would do something special on her last day. On the Tuesday morning we went to the supermarket to buy balls and games for the kids. We bought a football, balls, tennis balls, skipping ropes, frisbee and a bat. When we bought the stuff to the school the teachers’ faces were priceless. The were ecstatic and they argued whether the kids should miss lessons and go outside. The male teachers were shouting that they had just been given a football and they were not going to do lessons.

Then they gathered the whole school together and some of the teachers ran to get their football kit on. The whole afternoon we just all played with the kids, it was one of the best moments of my life just seeing 200 people so excited at such a small thing that cost us less than £30 and it was the best feeling ever. One of the girls told me that her school had never done that before, they had never all gone out to the field to play games. It really was a good day and one I will not forget.

Kind regards,

Tilly X