Lake View Hotel Kisumu

... ploughed for agriculture but little rain has been and little grows. It is very very dry and dusty – it must be a very hard life for the people that live here. Soon however we were amongst small valleys and hills covered in lush tropical vegetation, a stark contrast to dry arid plains we had seen so far. As we drove further, tea plantations could be seen stretching off over the hill as far as the eye could see.


As ...

... interact with the community on issues they wanted to involve us in which turned into something quite useful. I spent a lot of time with John Otieno who leads the local development group, talking about how they might tie in more members of the community and also diversify their income generating schemes. By the end of the week we had brought together the four self-help groups who operate within the geographical confines of Samanga (a development group, a youth ...

... sort of commitment to the community here and seeing it out for another week wouldn’t have killed anyone… We’re now down to eight international volunteers – almost half of our original number.

We went out as a (now smaller) group to Homa Bay yesterday to see a bit of the surrounding area. Homa Bay is the largest local town and is a port town on the shore of Lake Victoria. It’s a scruffy little place perched on the slopes of the ...

... didn't want to pay "muzungu price" for some animal sex so managed to persuade Felix to haggle for it for me. The bus journey home contained yet more drama as the two bus mechanics had gotten drunk in the sun in Kisumu and proceeded to try to pickpocket on of the boys during the journey. Felix intervened but got attacked by the men. A few of us went crazy and insisted on them being kicked off the bus and a stand off occurred until the driver agreed and ...

... on a piece of land donated by a man who is the patron of the two community groups were are working with - or so we thought! After three days it became obvious that there was some tension between the groups and problems started to come to the surface. We were then told by the patron that the two groups had been fighting and refused to get along and that two separate tree nurseries that we visited were, in fact, private enterprises. Naturally, we were angry with the groups ...

... we went down to the KVDA office in the city centre to sort out some administrative things. Because there were so many of us it took an age which meant we missed the tours of Karen suburb and Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa. I can't say I was disappointed - touring a slum isn't something I agree with anyway. There are plenty of Kenyans who think that Kibera has been used as a begging pot by the government for years with little ...

... of her foundation. Apparently she has even been sent Orphans, being expected to be able to care for them.

It came as quite an ego-trip to be asked to help her foundation and to extend the Swansea College Kenya Project to support it. We politely told her that we would pass her details on to the current committee although how they could help I'm not sure. Mama Sarah must really have the most marketable name for a ...

... d much prefer to call here home with its greenery, shade, lake and plentiful game, especially when compared to the dry dusty Serengeti. The lions here also climb trees... bummer if you're being chased by one and seek that as an avenue of escape.

Whilst others actively kept their eyes peeled for game I read Cosmo and admired Louboutins shoes. Oh they are beautiful. Would make an ideal birthday present I think.

Came across a mama and dada rhino grazing with their bubba so ...

So during the HIV home visits, staff from the school visit people's homes (typically mud houses) to see how "clients" are doing on their medications and to educate them on how to prevent spreading HIV, nutrition, hygiene, ect. I travelled for a morning on these home visits with Joan. We walked to the main highway, took a matatu (basically an overcrowded minivan that serves as the local method of transportation for eveyone), then took a bodaboda (which ...

... on a vehicle leaving in approximately 15 minutes. The particular bus we managed to book had no storage compartment for luggage, which meant that the narrow aisle was completely blocked by passengers' belongings and was navigable only by hiking over mountains of boxes and suitcases. I did fortunately have a little girl for a seatmate and so thankfully didn't have to ...