Jambo rafikis

Here is today's top news:

Pappa Chris has upset tummy.

Victory teacher overcomes Malaria for second time this year.

St Andrew's students given opportunity to visit Victory students houses for afternoon.

Four students recover from travellers tummy

Football team recieves further training

Matatus arrive on time at the end of school.

So everyone I hope you are fine, we are pretty much all fine.

Today's blog will not be as long as usual and will focus in a bit of a different direction this evening.

Up at the same time as normal this morning and after taking our morning Malarone (and Rhys his morning concoction also) we were off outside to wait for the Matatus. This is fast becoming the worst aspect of the day. Anyway, eventually they arrived and it was off to school. Billy was very anxious as he was set to teach English this morning at 9:20, but fortunately we arrived at 9:10 so he was able to go and teach a very good lesson, we are all very proud of what each one of them has achieved in the classrooms and Billy is no exception. I seem to take all morning running around purchasing water for our kids and staff as well as arranging soda for the afternoon and liaising with Mary about the day etc. I therefore see very little teaching in the morning. At 9:55 though I got to do a formal observation with Mary and was very impressed by her knowledge of the Science curriculum in teh school. As I have said before, she is the Headteacher and I am never failed to be impressed with her as a paerson and a leader for Victory.

I had arranged last week that we would spend the afternoon visiting 5 of the Victory students houses and at 12:30 we all gathered to be shown the way. In my group was Ben, Josh Collet and Mike and we were led by Mr Edward. We were to be taken to meet the uncle of Silas Odmianbo. We took 3 items as gifts which were sugar, maize flour and detergent. We left school as a group and walked directly through the slum to Silas's house. We passed all mannher of ramshackle buildings and burnt out cars and lorrys, through streets laden with rubbish, some of which on fire, through areas that were completely flooded and barely walkable and passed so many people and children. So many children running the streets. We arrived after about a 30 minute walk (which means about 20 minutes for Silas to fetch water) to find his uncle in a makeshift wooden structure with a grass roof. All of the wooden pole walls were fiklled with clothing and suits, it turns out that Silas's uncle is a tailor. We immediately shook hands and all moved into a large cream building. The front gate was solid metal with no windows, just an area to lock a padlock to. My first thoughts were that Silas must be very well off in comparison to the other students of Victory as the building was pretty large. We moved through the gate into a small outside hallway filled with washing and cooking utensils. There were small piles of smouldering charcoal on the right as we walked in and some ladies sitting doing their hair on the left. The uncle showed us to the first door on the right. There were about 8 rooms in all in the building, so at this point I was very impressed. The door we were about to enter was not a door, it was a sheet attached to the frame, it was pulled aside with a proud flourish to show us the entirety of Silas's world outside of Victory. A very small room, think maybe half the size of the gym at school, for those at home think about 3 metres by 3 metres. It contained a double bed, a sofa, 2 small chairs and a very small table. This small room was their house!

All the other rooms turned out to be their neighbours. To say that the boys and I were shocked would be an understatement. Later in the day all of the staff sat and talked about the moment that we walked in to each of teh students houses and unfortunately there is no way to describe the feelings that we had. All of the boys felt the same way. The only way I could describe it was like some Alfred Hitchcock moment whereby the camera zooms in at a moment of realisation. We were invited to sit down and the three boys sat on teh sofa, edward on a chair and I sat on the other chair, Silas and his uncle sat on the double bed, we were all effectively touching knees!

I must say that I could not have been prouder of Ben, Josh C and Mike this afternoon. they take the moment of the day jointly.  We all complemented Silas and his uncle on what a beautiful home they had and the boys asked really sensible and respectful questions. They ranged from how far to get water, what do you do for the toilet, what chores does Silas do, what chores does he uncle do, where do they all sleep, how do they cook etc. It was all very surreal. After about 40 minutes we said our goodbyes and began to leave, but not before taking some photos of the 'house' and also of Silas and his family, you see in that little room lives Silas, his uncle, three brothers and a sister! We also took photos with the neighbours and also of the uncles business. it was a very sober walk back to the school and the boys were lost in thought, though Silas was happy as he had taken responsibilty for my camera and was busily taking shots of the slums as I walked back talking it all through with Edward.

Back at the school we sat around as a group and discussed teh afternoon, all had amazing stories to tell of the hardships in Bombolulu. It emphasised to us all just what a miracle Victory is and truly what an oasis of kindness and love the school is. At this point I truly want to say a massive thank you to those of you that have already begun to support the charity by setting up direct debits. Your money works miracles here in the slum

So to yesterdays competitions,

Day 6 was what is meant by the term jambo, habari gani - it means hello, what's the news (literally) - but can be interpreted as hello, how are you and therefore a small Kenya related prize will be winging its way to Kate.

Day 7 was the total cost of the gifts to the nearest 100KES. The nearest 100 would be 400KES and so a small Kenya related prize will be winging its way back to James Clarke.

Well done to both

Also the day 5 question was actually waon by Mr Hancock who correctly guessed that 4 students would make the pool. I did say that no-one had won so please accept my apologies and know that a small Kenya related prize will be winging its way to you also

The competition for tomorrow is centered around the school visit to Haller Park and here it is :

We are taking staff and pupils from Victory and the 20 of us. Last year whilst visiting the park we discovered that the monkies have learnt a rather neat trick......they pee on people! So of the 170 people in our group tomorrow, how many will feel the sprinkle of monkey wee? As always, good luck.

Kwaheri rafikis.