It's now 11 pm in Kenya and the temperature doesn't seem to drop, even in the evenings.  Thank goodness for air conditioning in our room. Shirley and I have had another busy day.  We met the headmistress at Mombasa school and so we now have to wait and see if they have a place for Elvis and Hamisi.  They are both on the waiting list at the moment.  Norby was back from his honeymoon today, and so we had lots to catch up on with him, particularly with regard to our sponsorship programme.  The concert that Jacob put on at the Aga Khan was really good, and we met the Principal there, plus other teachers.  They seem keen to give us some support at Victory which would be great.  Tomorrow morning I am taking part in their morning prayer and praise which is 8 am - 8.30am.  Tomorrow is our last day, and it has gone quickly but we have been able to achieve a lot in a week.  Lala Salama, Amani ya Bwana - which in English is Good night, sweet dreams and the peace of the Lord.  Love Carol and Shirley

We visited the Architect this morning in Mombasa to discuss plans for more buildings on the land.  After this we went back to Victory Freretown to have a meeting with two of our apprentices Rashid and Samwell.  They are doing really well as Teaching Assistants and are very hardworking.  We were impressed at how committed they are.  It was a very productive meeting and they are both very keen to become trained teachers one day.  This of course, will need financing, but we hope that we can help them onto the next stage at some point.  We went back into Mombasa this evening for a meal with Jacob.  Jacob cooked us a first class - African style meal and it was a lovely evening.  Tomorrow, we have a meeting with the teachers and some of the parents and we are returning to the Aga Khan school to see Jacob on thursday evening, as the pupils there are putting on a concert to raise funds for Victory school.  So far we have had NO mosquito bites - amazing.  More news tomorrow.  From Carol and Shirley

Very busy day yesterday with the wedding.  Got to church at 10.50 and service finished at 4.30 - so very long service.  Very special to be there.  Norby and Eddah very happy. Good to see Jacob, and he played and sang at the end of the service.  A teacher from the Aga Khan was also accompanying him on guitar. Busy day today (Monday).  Met Mary, Edward and Joash for a meeting, took photos in KG2 classes, and had further meeting with Joash on further education.  Meeting Nazir at 9 am tomorrow in town, so early start as traffic will be bad at that time.  Also meeting Samwell and Rachid for apprentice update later in the day tomorrow.  Will finish tomorrow with dinner at Aga Khan with Jacob.  He is going to cook us an African meal - looking foward to it.  More news on Wednesday, and attach a few photos for you.  More photos to come.  Love and best wishes Carol and Shirley.  P.S. No mosquito bites yet!!

Day 5

Today was a very anticipated day as it was our last day at the school. We began our day by shopping for souvenirs at the old town. We arrived and went down a street full of little souvenir shops. We were given the challenge of haggling prices with the locals for the cheapest prices. We bought presents for family and friends as a memory of our time in Mombasa.

Arriving at the school this afternoon we were given a huge welcome from the school as they were excited for our planned games. For the games we were divided into two groups. One group of people went to play games with the nursery school children, which were then split into even smaller groups, and the other group went with the slightly older students and split them into smaller groups. Then all of the children in their groups went around and played various games.

Next they had organized a group assembly where they sung us various songs and we created a mini talent show for them. Everyone sang and danced and we handed out some medals for the best singers, dancers and teachers. Then we came to saying good bye to the children.

When we all said goodbye, the children were quite upset. They were saying how they will miss us very much. Some wrote letters and asked for our emails, to keep in contact with us. Also, some of us became very emotional while saying goodbye to the kids. That was it for the trip and now, tomorrow morning we are leaving for the safari!

Emma & Belle

Day 3

Today was a fun day at the school. In the morning, as always, it was hard to get up, which was made worse by the fact that the first lesson of the day was PE. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm and effort that the students put into the dance and sport activity. Let’s just say that Kenyan kids can really shuffle and do the moonwalk!! Every day we are surprised by the laidback-ness and social skills that these children possess.

Other science lessons were taught that day by Nathaniel, Francesca, Emma and Cris. We sat it on all of them and they were quite fun. All of the students got involved in shouting out the answers and playing games. Emma and Francesca taught a lesson on flowers, pollination and germination whereas Cris taught the children food webs and Nathaniel talked about plants versus weeds. Mrs. Stolk did an art lesson and the kids drew very well. She is planning on framing a map one of the boys made!

Later in the day we did a letter activity in which we went into the standard 7 classroom and asked them  4 different questions about their lives. They then had to write letters to answer the questions. We just read them this evening, some were very sad but some were very happy too.

During the day, like all other days, we got involved in sports with the children not in classes  (today was volleyball), we played with the youngest children, and had conversations with many people. First Aid and the last shoes were given today too, just like yesterday. We filled plastic boxes with the school supplies we bought from the Nakumatt for each class.

After leaving the school we went to visit two houses of the children. It was very sad and also very humbling. It was definitely different from what we have in Holland. One house had just one small room with a bed for  7 people to sleep in. The room served as a kitchen, living room, and a bedroom. The second house was slightly bigger, but the story of the family was heart wrenching. The father of a little girl had died recently and the family was still mourning. The whole experience was humbling and really showed how life the  Kenyans live here is quite different from what we experience in the Netherlands.

                After such a HOT day, getting back to the hotel and diving into the pool was satisfying. Dinner, as always, was survival of the fittest: Who would get to the pasta bar first?! Unfortunately we have to go because the malaria mosquitoes are out to get us! TO THE REPELLENT!!!

Sincerely, Ines and Francesca

Jambo rafikis

Here is today's top news:

1.Staff and students of St Andrew's shed tears in final assembly

2. Kenya 15 enjoy final day surprise of a T-shirt with Victory School logo

3. Well nears completion and plaque is photographed for St Andrew's

4. Elvis and Juma dance in final assembly

5. Mama Noura brings house down....not literally!

So good evening from Kenya everybody for the last time. I hope you are fine, we are all fine.

Today was our final day here at Victory and boy did our students make the most of it. After tablets wemakes round to the Nakumatt to spend our last remaining monies on the staff and students of Victory. After 30 minutes of rushing round the big shop we emerged with enough exercise books for every student, lots of pens and pencils, huge amounts of sweets and some good luck and thank you cards. The matatu's we waiting for us so wejumped straight into them and arrived 15 minutes later at school.

The morning was nice and relaxed as none of us were doing any teaching, just getting readydoor the final assembly. We arrived at around 10:00 and the boys immediately got themselves ready to practice their section of the final assembly. We got the water supplied and then Miss Riggs and Myself discussed the trip with Mary, the Headteacher. It was a sort of review meeting, Mr Norbert also joined us after about 10 minutes. Theyexplained how much they loved us coming here and what a difference it makes to their young people and that they pray we can always organise trips to see them. Their students get extremely excited for weeks before our visit and apparently take days to stop asking about our children when we leave. It was a really reassuring conversation.

At midday we all had lunch and then at 1:30 took some nice photographs of all the staff and students of St Andrew's and all the staff of Victory as well as some pictures of their new well which has been paid for by monies raised by the staff and students of St Andrew's. Then at 2pm the real part of the day began...the final assembly.

Each class performed a song or poem or little play and our kids loved it. Our kids alsoperformed for the Victory students and their students loved it too. Highlights we're kindergarten, Theo Yambo and of course Juma and Elvis dancing.  It was over all to soon and all throughout their were many tears shed that our trip was coming to an end.

At the end of the assembly there was time to clear up and then dive into matatus ready for the drive back to the hotel and more tears. Saying goodbye is always hard and for our students it is particularly so on this visit. They build such close bonds with the staff and students of Victory that it can seem like they are being wrenched apart at the end. To helpthem get over this we t.oom them for burgers and chips at a local restaurant which they thoroughly enjoyed, but all evening the conversation was animated about Victory. 

They are all packing now or in bed and as you know the Internet is down here apart from the lucky few with wireless. 

I wanted to say that I could not be prouder of our Kenya 15, they hAve touched lives and swelled hearts of many here in Mombasa and none of them will be easily forgotten by the staff and students of Victory. I could not have asked for a better bunch of students to take thousands of miles and make a difference. And to the staff all I can sway is that you have made my job so much easier and less stressful. Special mention to my co trip leader miss Riggs who has definitely made my life easier out here in Kenya.

The number of Mama Noura shouts was 8 today and so no winners for last nights competition. You will all have to make do with the prizes you have won and getting your babies back!

So for the last time I wish you all the very best, take care of yourselves and we will hopefully see you at about 8pm or so tomorrow night.

Kwaheri rafikis

Ps did I mention how grateful I am?

Day 13 - Last Day at the school.

This will be a short blog.  Hardly any of the computers working in the hotel.  Lots of people wanting to use them.

Very emotional saying goodbye to all the children and the staff of the school.

Assembly was fantastic, each class produced something muscial or creative as did our boys.  We even managed to get some sports awards in.

Early start so packing and then bed.  Just heard the Yr8's have made it through to the football final on Thursday so will be back home to watch that one.

Blog over and out !!! :)

Jambo

Sorry for the lack of blogs recently. I have missed a few, due to not feeling great (ear problems) and being on safari.

Safari was amazing (i'm sure everyone is saying that, but it was). We drove for about three hours up to Savo East and stayed overnight in a hotel overlooking the safari park. The views were to die for, all you could see for miles was nature. We were also lucky that the hotel has two watering holes right by it with a hide for us to peek at the animals.

The safari buses were open-topped and I (and Straw) did end up with very orange faces from the dust. We saw a variety of animals, inlcuding Elephants, Ostriches, Baboons, Deer, many Birds etc. Also we managed to glimpse a lion, though it didn't want to come out and play.

We has three drives, afternoon, dusk and dawn. One of the highlights would have to be taking Isaac and Joseph from Victory with us and watching their amazement, along with our own, at both the views and the animals.

Tomorrow is our last day and I am already feeling a little sad. Not too keen on coming home, although will be pleased to leave the bugs behind.

Hope all is well

K xxxx

safari was awsome as always, saw loads of animals and some cools birds, didnt get to see an animal get killed though  was kinda hoping to see a giraffe get hunted down by lions... did see a dead giraffe though, with things hanging out, that was wicked. saw some lions again but once again they were being lazy and just lieing down, and aswell as the animals the lodge was cool, had a couple of swims in my boxers in the very cold pool and ate alot of melon . i thought taking the two students was a genious idea, you could tell they were having an amazing time and it made me happy to know that they were having fun and definately made the safari worth while. got back after a very long sweaty car journey and went straight to the pool. after that we had dinner and i spoke to my parents, that was my highlight for today and i cant wait to see my mummy and my daddy, and two sisters... shhhh  xx

So we are back after our wonderfull weekend on safari. It's was really nice chilled weeken.  Which I think everyone deserved after the hard work we have all put in for these pafew tendays. Everyone really enjoyed it and we got to see all the animals pretty much apart from a few

It was nice to be able to tell the boys what some of the animals were after last year you get to know a bit   I seen to have slept  alot this weekend   

Everyone had an amazing weekend apart from the few that was ill

Goodnight

this weekend was really goood as it meant i got to go on safari again which was good i was also looking forward to sleeping in the van. we saw plenty of elephants, girrafes and..... birds but we also got the chance to see water buffalo, lions, wart hog and ostrich this morning i wasnt feeling well so i slept most of the day and had to go to hospital when we got back. at the hotel now and off to bed safari was great apart from getting ill

night

Hey Guys,

so we haven't been blogging for the past two days because we have been safariing!!!! It was amazing we saw so much like giraffes, dead giraffes, lions, elephants, buffalo, zebra, eagles and so many more but the bad thing was that my camera ran out just outside the park so I couldn't take any photoes... darnnnnn.

but i had dinner on a cliff top resteraunt and went to bed with a view of lions drinking at a water hole.

So we woke up had breakfast and left for the hotel ( a nice 3 hour long drive needing a wee... great )

We got to the hotel and had a swim and that's it for today so peace out and mum i will be having chinese love you

The Kenya 17s epic Safari adventure is over (we added two kids from victory to our party to bring us temporarily to the Kenya 17, it was nice to count to a different number for a change). The buses turned up with Chris, Karen and the two Kenyan students, Isaac and Joseph, who had been chosen by the teachers to join us for the weekend for their hard work all year. We piled into the safari vans and before we even left the Nyali area most of us were asleep. For Me, Straw, Cheesmur, Page and Mrs Farmer it was the first time in the two weeks that we have sat down for that length of time without anything to do or anyone to look after and we crashed out for most of the journey.

Once we reached the safari park we all moved to the back of the buses and opened the roof so we could stand up and look out the top. It meant that one person in each bus didn't have a seat but we could all see the lovely animals. At the start of the safari we didn't see much as the animals cleavily stay away from the main road from the gate, I took this opportunity to have another unintentionl nap whilst sitting of the floor of the bus.

The rest of the day we spotted lots of creatures (See Mr Straw's blog for the whole list), we also rescued another safari van who had gone off the main road and got stuck. After lunch at the lodge we looked at the elephant hide and the hyrax and lizard visitors to the hotel grounds before setting off for a dusk safari. After dinner the boys went off to practice their song for tomorrow and myself, Mr Cheesmur and Mr Straw remained chatting in the restaurant. Suddenly a giant (and I mean giant, 6cm or so) fell onto the plate in front of us. As it rolled around in the butter Straw was the only one who remained at the table, from across the room me and Cheesmur regained our composure, only to realise that the thing had wings and proceeded to repeatedly fly at us. As a responsible trip leader I of course made sure that Cheesmur and Straw were ok and in no way use them both as a human shield.

After the drama of the beetle attack the staff all went to sit outside overlooking the watering hole, the place was silent and all we could hear were the insects and the sound of birds in the distance. We looked at the many stars in the sky (the lucky ones spotted the shooting stars) and made many jokes about how funny it would be if we turned around and there was a lion standing there. The lodge has armed guards as such things do happen. We became convinced that we could see animals down by the watering hole (half of our "sightings" turned out the be rocks in the harsh light of day) and speculated about what the sounds were (we thought elephants). So we sat out like this for half an hour or so, making jokes about lions creeping up and beetles dropping out the sky, everyone was a bit jumpy and became convinced things were crawling on them (the lodge had a lot of insects so this was most likely the case). In a lull in the hushed whispers three of us on the end heard a growl. No jokes. A growl. We decided that it was time to move back inside, we proceeded to do so as a group, thinking that if we didn't travel as a herd the mystery growler would pick the weak and slow amongst us off. It wanted us to split up! Back on the stairwell further giant flying beetles launched themselves at us, but we were now a herd, a jumpy herd. We used Cheesmur as a human shield to get back to our rooms safely.

In the morning me and Page woke up at 5:30 to see the sunrise from the window of our room and we set off for a morning safari. One of the highlights of this weekend for me was how the boys accepted Joseph and Isaac into our group, buying them drinks and ice cream and sharing their ipods. It was lovely to see and both boys really enjoyed their weekend so another big thank you for the fundraising efforts :-)

Tomorrow is our final say at the school so a roller coaster day ahead, whole school assembly bringing the happyness of the singing and then the goodbyes :-( Hope you haven't missed the blogs too much over the weekend xx

Jambo rafikis

Here is this weekend's top news:

 1.Lions, Zebra, Ku-du, Elephants, Girrafe, Dik-Diks, Water Buffalo, Ostrich, Pumba, Owl, Tortoise, Egyptian Goose, Mongoose, Ants, Beetles, Hyrax, Lizards, Baboons, Water Bucks, Go Away Bird, Impala, Eagle, Ealand, Antelope, Gazzele Girrafe, Stalk and Vultures all run for cover during two day siege of Tsavo East by the Kenya 15.

2. Italian Tourists rescued by Kenya 15 after leaving the road in Tsavo East - don't even say thank you!

3. Rhys, William, Josh Collet, Page all infected by lazyituss or some sort of real bug, but don't worry they are all fine.

4. Kenya 15 survive Safari Bus ride from Tsavo East through diversions and all sorts of other hairy moments

5. Kenya 15 become Kenya 17 as two Victory students join them for Safari

6. Staff contemplate swapping Alfie and Ben for the two Kenya students!!!! It was a close call, but the two Victory Students (Isaach and Joseph) turned us down!

7.Staff survive beetle attack at the end of dinner.....just

Well good evening everyone I hope you are fine, we are all fine here and guess what? We are back, but only just!

So Saturday morning came early and everyone took breakfast with their tablet and then piled into 3 nice Safari Buses. these are basically up marked matatus with a few armchair stykle setas in them. Staff donned their headphones and enjoyed a blissful 3 hour drive without bieng disturbed by a single question, moan, whine and absolutely no jibber-jabber - wow! Unfortunately we could still smell the children though, so goes to show you can never have everything!

At around 11am we arrived at the Safari gate of Tsavo East and had a reather enjoyable bartering session with the hat salesman whilst we waited to be let in at the animals. The best bit was winding up Cheesmur that the hat he had bought for 700KES all the kids had bought for 400KES. It was of course a lie, but filled 10 minutes.

Straight into the gate and after about 10 minutes we came across our first animals. Cows! The Maasai are allowed to keep cattle in the park as they are herders, it always surprises me to see cows where the lions are (in Keeeeeenyaaaaaa and the zeeeebraaaaa (ask the kids for the youtube link) but there they always are. Pretty soon afterward we  say an elephant and then all the animals came after that. On the way to the hotel we were flagged down by a group of Italian tourists who had strayed from the path. I mean ahve these people never watched an American Werewolf in London...REALLY! So they had driven off the path and got stuck, our driver argued with their driver in Swahili for around 15 minutes before they all finally trudged (very slowly in my humble opinion (and didn't even speed up when I shouted "look! A lion! Though it could have been due to them speaking Italion and not English!)) to our bus. We gave them a lift to the nearest lodge and dropped them off and they didn't even say thank you, or Merci or whetever they say in Italian! Anyway, we left them and hurried of for lunch. We arrived at the hotel and quickly dropped bags off at rooms (nice little three bed rooms with direct views out on to the plains and the water holes below) before heading for lunch. Lunch was good and after we had about an hour before the afternoon safari. We all went down to the Elephant Hide to have a look up close at the water hole. It was at this point that a small lizard charged Alex, much to the screams of panic from him and the cries of laughter from everyone else. There are a lot of steps down to the hide and Alex had to bound down them as someone told him that the little mud home on the walls were made by GIANT spiders (heehee, ahem!), even though they are made by rather cute little birds. There was a lot of poo in the hide, which I found quite worrying and a small herd of elephants outside posing for some nice pictures.

After our given time we all met back up at reception and dived back into the buses to go on the evening safari. The highlight of this was seeing the lions. Everyone got to see them and the two Victory students were extremely happy. For a full list of animal see Top News today.

Dinner was very nice back at the hotel, but most of the boys took the chance to go for a dip in the pool, which is ice cold by the way, and in their boxer shorts, yuk! At the end of dinner Cheesmur, Riggs and I were sat having a safari related natter when something huge hit my hand. It was a very large beetle! Riggs and Cheesmur handled this with alots of grace and beauty, in other words they fought to get out of the way. I haev not seen either move so fast this whole journey! It had landed in the butter on my plate so i carefully used my napkin to try to wipe it clean, whilst the two of them made small whiney squeaks in the background whilst Riggs used Cheesmur as some sotr of shield. The beetle then spread its wings and flew around the room with me chasing it demanding a picture after all my care and attention, it landed on teh floor and was swiftly kicked away by a waiter! All this time Riggs and Cheesmur were ducking and diving a cowering and Riggs ahd pulled up a hoood and was holding it tightly about her head.

After that incident we all enjoyed a coffee in the bar. Cheesmur sat on the edge of the wall and spent most of his time looking around guarding against Leopard and Lion sneak attacks. Lions go there regularly, but Leapards are rare we are told. Anyway, neither showed themselves last night, the Kenya 15's singing probably had a lot to do with that as they were practicing for tomorrow's leaving assembly! Anyway, the staff then went and sat out on the clifftop for an hour listening to the animal noises.....and Riggs.....until sleepy time came to all.

Up at 5:30 am 5this morning to meet at 6:15 for coffee and the morning safari. Saw a lot of animals before heading back for breakfast which was lovely! In the buses again and f\off for final safari before leaving TSavo east at 11:45. Long old journey back to the hotelome hairy driving, but all made it back safe and sound.

3 minutes after getting back to the Hotel I was back in a taxi with Rhys, Josh Collet and William to visit the hospital. Two ear infections and a bacterial infection later we are all abck at the hotel and I have now enough drugs to supply a small nation for approximately 3 weeks! The boys are off practicing for tomorrow so I thought I would take the opportunity to do a blog early for once

Not looking forward to the goodbyes tomorrow as it is always very difficult for all even though the Victory students will give us a good send off! It is going to be hard for a lot of our kids due the friendships they haev made here in Mombasa. Anyway, thats a problem for future Straw, present Straw is off for dinner.

But first, we saw 5 lions! That's right 5! That means James will be recieving 2 Kenya related prizes and one of which will be safari related...Well done X2!

Today's competition

How many times during the goodbye assembly will Momma Noura do her shriek whilst the children are singing? this is an amazing moment during the singing and always gets the children to sing louder!

Kwaheri rafikis x

ps Did I mention how lucky I am to have such amazing staff and students with me and how much we appreciate your support......thanks for everything x

Jambo rafikis

Here is today's top news:

1. Pineapple shortage causes outrage at breakfast, well for me anyway!

2. Standard 4 overrun by spiders.

3. Where's Wally fever grabs standard 1.

4. PPI leaves Stewart breathless.

5. Page battles on despite losing ear!

6. Football mania strikes Victory.

7. My sprite is warm.

8. Rhys didn't get me coffee and he threw a spider at Riggs.....the boy is out of control!

Well good evening everyone I hope you are fine, we are all fine here.

So this morning arrives like any other, with a rather annoying alarm, and so everyone is up, the staff shower (though not all together) and then down for breakfast for the morning Malaria fighter and food. To our utter shock (yawn) Rhys and Alfie have "lost" some Malarone, but both have enough to see them through their time in Kenya and we will have replaced their "lost" pills by the time they leave for England.

Arrived at school at 9:10 in plenty of time for PPI which took place at 9:20. PPI was awesome yet again and was seen by Mrs Stewart for the first time. It was really interesting watching her reactions as at times it was like she was utterly breathless! The only way I can describe certain points of PPI ( especially when they all sing in unison) is that it's like a wave of euphoria. If you could bottle the feeling, people would never need to smoke or drink again! The Keny15 were also laughing and clapping and singing their hearts out, there was no awkwardness or embarrassment, just a genuinely good time with us all jumping up and down, stamping our feet and waving our arms in the air furiously. Cheesmur said that it was more like being at a festival than an assembly. Chris did his Sherman with the help of Ollie, a monkey puppet and some of the Kenya 15 performed a piece of drama about the man who built his house on stone.

PPI ended all to soon, but not before tears from Mrs Stewart! So only 1 person cried at PPI, which means no one won last nights diamond watch! After PPI the boys continued teaching their lessons and we had a minor medical emergency when one of the girls fainted. We got the girl in the shade and made sure she was comfortable. It is amazing to see the compassion show for each other here at the school as she was surrounded by friends and concerned staff. In the end we decided that the best thing to do would be to send her to Dr Luke. About 1 hour later she returned a much healthier and happier little girl than when she left. 

Today I saw several lessons, but was bowled over by Mike Jones who takes te moment of the day today. He was showing standard 4 how to make jiggling spiders and the amount of colour and joy in the room was wonderful. So much cutting and folding and paper that I almost forgot I was in the middle of a slum in Bombolulu and could have sworn I was back in d lab. Mike was assisted by Patrick, Ed and James and they all did amazingly well. Te lesson continues on Monday, the kids are excited.

Later Mrs Farmer gave out 26 Where's Wally hats to 26 Standard 1's. My goodness did the sun come out for those little boys and girls. They were so excited and Mrs Milan the teacher said the class was almost untraceable after this as they were so happy, they sang Christmas songs and had a great time. See Mrs Farmers blog for more details.

Alfie, Alex and Riggs also taught Science today and at the end set off some mini fireworks, you can imagine how well this went down! Kyle taught amazing CRE lesson and Louie once again excelled at drama. You should all be very proud of the impact your sons have had on the students out here in Victory as some of the memories they have created will be treasured forever!

After lunch it was time for football and Victory was playing another school. Te noise of support was incredible, but unfortunately we had to leave for the hotel way before the end. As we were leaving we thought Victory had scored and the celebration was amazing, with everyone dancing and singing.....the ball had just trickled wide, but in all the excitement we had all been fooled. 

Anyway, just time for the weekends big question...how many lions will we see on safari? A special safari prize to the winner, so good luck. There will be no blogs tomorrow night, but instead why not see what's happening on our Facebook page?

Kwaheri x

Ps have I mentioned how happy your kids make the students of Victory? If not, thank you, thank you for everything. X

Woke up this morning at 5:20am to hammering on the door, leaped out of bed thinking someone was sick or mike had stood on some sort of puffer fish again but as I opened the door I realised that it was the hotel staff banging on the too next door for the inconsiderate reason of safaris leaving. After my heart rate returned to normal it dawned on me that it was PPI today :)

The whole school was sat/stood/crouched in an area the size of 1 and a half B labs. Perhaps half the music room at st Andrews. It was stuffy and very very hot. Dripping with sweat hot. Then Mr Edward started the singing, all the childrens's voices filled the room and echoed off the metal walls and roof. We smug my favourite song called "I am happy today" with the best line ever of "and the way to be happy is to make someone happy and have a bit of heaven down here". Every person in there was singing and clapping and dancing. At one stage we were all jumping up and down to the song "victory is mine" and I felt shivery cold at the feeling of togetherness.

Lessons then continued as normal for everyone as I took my first trip to doctor Luke's with Pagey. At lunch we gave out games and I taught some little ones to play jacks for a good ten minutes before they all decided they wanted to keep one of the jacks or the bouncy ball and took off in different directions leaving me sitting on the dusty floor in the mid day sun wondering what happened. 

Safari this weekend so no blogs. Love to all x

jambo,

- today was a very enjoyable day, starting with the P.P.I first thing which was especially held back for us. its a really moving assembly for me knowing in england we all sing half heartedly, while they sing as loud as they can constantly prasing god and their ethics. at the end of P.P.I after they had been told to stop the teacher conducted yet another song which lead to the whole room jumping and shouting.

- today i didnt had any lessons to teach but i went to help in kindergarten so i could go see stacey and abdul, but then got coughed all over by stephen and ended up rolling sausage shapes with plastacine for an hour and becoming yet again another human climbing frame.

- tomorrow another early start getting up for safari which means no blogs, so on that bombshell.. speak to you sunday about safari.

night,

Today was yet another good day's teaching :).Today I taught an English lesson with Will that went very well and I taught a good PE volleyball lesson with Mr Cheesmur which also went well. Me Mike and Edd also taught an creative arts lesson due to Josh ad Louie not being able to d it because of the football game that the kids had against another local school. In that lesson ,we got the kids to draw what they thought heaven is like to them, which saw some nice outcomes to it. After that lesson, I noticed that the same class didn't have a teacher in their classroom, so I went over to the class and found out that they were doing maths, so I did an impromptu maths lesson with them,showing them methods ofmultiplying. That was one of the highlights of today as I am happy that I did that and proved to myself that I can do a lesson on the spot, which is something i'm sure will come in handy for the future as I want to be a teacher. So after another day and another 3 lessons taught, i'm feleing good and ready to go on safari tomorrow!!I almost forgot to metion the wonderful PPI (assembly) that we saw today.The energy of the kids is absolutelty amazing!!The way that they get so involved in the songs and are so enthusiastic is enough to give anyone chillsa dn put a massive smile on your face!I wish that I could witrness the PPI's every Friday as it could turn any bad day into a good one through the electricity of the kids!Mum, I recorded the PPI songs as Iknow you will LOVE them!

today was fun and extremely evenetful :) we started by being late to school... again, whih is really wee weeing me off now, but we were still alloud ti attend the school's PPI where the kids sing their blooming hearts out so loud you  cant even here your self think, im not evening joking, if you havnt witnessed it then words can not describe how enthusiastic the kids are at praises god. ITS AMAZING! p.s i love it when muma nora goes eyayayayayayyayayayayayy

i taught two lesson, science and maths, both were very good and went to success. however if you ever intend to go out to the school and you bring stickers into one of your lessons, i 100% advise you to bring some sort of self defence weapon or polish up on you karate skills before you do so . the science lesson was about energy and enery transfer and i finally got to light the sparkling candle things.

visited the beach after and got a couple of things, a present for a student, a monkey called fredrick and a mask called UNAKAMAKATIIIII! dinner was lovely and im looking forward to safari tomorrow and i hope i see something get eaten, but not something cute. or small. has to be ugly. and big. but the thing eating it has to be cool. not a dic dic. or a baby elephant...

night night x

We were at the school most of the day, i was going to teach a lesson on the heart and respiration but it got canceled because of an Assembly. Our Mutatu driver (one of them) is never on time and so we missed the period that was meant for the assembly, for our sakes the school pushed it back to the next period overlapping what was meant to be science with standard 6. 

I performed a little bit of a mime, i thought it was terrible the jokes the narrators had to read were cringe-worthy.

I helped out in a creative arts lesson with standard 4 and spent a lot of time playing with some of the little ones from KG and STD 1.

the day at school finished with a football match between Victory school and another local school. Louie played for a while on our side, but the mutatus arrived and we all had to leave the match, when we did so the score was 1-0 to us.

the water here finally tastes normal.

day 11-

we started the day as normal, eating breakfast with bad moods... We went to the school and attended their assembly which is held every friday. The singing from the school gave me chills and i can honestly say ive never had those chills before, it was amazing and inspiratational to see the enthusaim they put into their beliefs and seeing that has inspired me to make that more a common thing in st andrews. In the assembly me and other students performed a short drama piece which was about the man who built his house on rock and sand. The kids laughed and smiled soo obviously it had a positive effect. By the end i was jumping, dancing clapping and singing my heart out with the school as it was such a great atmosphere. After assembly a girl fainted. Her name was grace and i was with her a lot of the time before she was taken to the doctors. It was great to see her friends applying basic first aid and were brillaint to have around why looking after grace. I teached a couple of lessons and spent a lot of time with lewis (my sponsor child). Its sad to think that after monday i wont see him for a very long time, he is such a lovely boy and its him and all the kids that makes me want to give everything i have to the less fortunate. Me and a lot the st andrews stundents and staff are dreading leaving the friendships weve made.... hope everyone is well xx

another absolutely fantastic day! friday is when the school has their p.p.i which is basically an assembely. now whenether the word assembeley is metioned in england you will get a chorus of moans and sigh's, but if they were to have the same assembelys that they have over here than you would hear a completely different reaction. its impossible to describe exactly how you feel as an entire school sing there heart out with such entusiasm, its kinda like when your standing infront of a huge speaker at a concert and you feel every word throughout you body and you cant help but join in. also the whole experiance is amplified by the schools caretaker mama nora, who at 48 ( old in kenya ) i one of the inspirational women i have ever met. as she was telling me and billy, she is thankfull to god because she is not like evryone else who is her age, and she is still able to dance and sing despite her age. anyways the rest of the day went pretty usual witht the exception of a football game taking place at the end of the day between the school were at anbd another local school. were still not ertain as to the result as we left early, but looking at out \r teams performance it looked pretty promasing. later on we made our final trip to the beach where i made some final purchases. anyways i wont be able to speak to you tomorow as were on SAFARIIIIIIIII!! which im very excited about.

speak soon xx

today was our penultimate day at the school. today was a great day as we had PPI which was amazing the singing and dancing is amazing, it gets to me everytime. after this i taught a lesson with kyle to std 4 which was really good as we worked well together we taught english and got them to write letters and read them out which was very interesting. after this there was a football match against another school so we went down to cheer on victory school this was so much fun as we sang HOW HIGH DO YOU WANT THE GOAL when the other team missed which they all loved after this we headed back to the hotel and went to the beach where i almost left my flip flops. overall a really great day!

off to safari tomorrow yay

today was our last day of teaching and was also ppi day which almost made me cry because the sheer emotion they put into their songs is surreal and i just went in that morning soo tired and came out of PPI so awake just because of the enerjy they put into their singing it was like magic.And mama nora is one of the most insperational people in the world at 48 (old in kenya years) she has the enerjy of a 5 year old after eating 5 tubes of smaties and shes soo happy :) .

and mum now i m sponsering a kid check dads emails every day for a little while i cant spell his name though xx

bye

howdy!!!!

so today was are penultament day at the school and i didn't really do much because i was ill so I literally just sat in the staff room printing picture but i did go out at the end of the day to watch the school play football. The atmospere was brilliant when victory scored everyone just went wild!!!!!

So we came home, got changed and went down the beach where i bought some last minute gifts for family!

So thats all for today i don't know weather i will be blogging tomorrow as on safariiiii !!!!

so see you later. Peace Out!

Wow, the week is really going quickly. Day at school today, as always some wonderful lessons being taught and a baloon extravagansa at lunchtime with all the balloons we had being blown up and given out :-) I loved the card making lesson with KG today, "The I love mum/dad/big sister etc." cards they were making were lovely and I kept thinking about how they would go home and give them to their family and spread the love a little further then the gates of the school. Cheesmur and I sat in on Alex and Alfie's poetry lesson and spent our time writing them a poem that earned us a gold star. So proud.

We left school a little earlier today and Mr Straw and I spent a long time picking photographs to share with you all (hope you like them!) whilst we sat by the pool with a drink :-)

Tomorrow is PPI again and I am really looking forward to it but I am aware of the time going quickly and as much as I want to see family and friends I don't want to leave the school :-( We've got into a routine and it feels like we have always been here!

Riggs

jambo

today was a normal day we went to school at the normal time and did the normal school things. my first lesson was a pe lesson i did sprinting with ben and tom, i didn't do eny sprinting my self. Then i teached a scinence lesson about microsopes with louie. after the science lesson i did another pe lesson i took the warm up but it didn't work as well as i hoped as they wern't that intrested because they only wanted to play football. after the warm up we tried puting them in to teams to lay bench ball but this didnt work so we just let them play football.

i little note for mum i rely need you to take my best No.1 uniform to the dry cleners to get it cleaned and pressed for befor i get back, if you do do this the brass on the shoulders need to be taken off and put in my cap box thanks.

Good nignt all.

Today for me personally, it was the best day. This is because i taught my second lesson on Martin Luther King. In the lesson that I taught to standard 6, I read to them the second half of the I have a dream speech and analyzed it bit by bit. The class were a lot more responsive than they were in the first lesson and some of them came up with some really good suggestions as to what each part might mean. I was blown away by some of the answers given as the class came up with ideas that I wasn't expecting them to come up with. The class proved to be understanding and listening to what I was saying as half way through the speech and at the end of it, I got them to tell me what they had picked up so far, to which almost the whole class enthusiastically took part in! I ended the lesson by telling the class how far America has come in terms of black segregation and mentioned Barack Obama being the US president as a huge sign of success and the dream that Martin Luther King was talking about. I felt really really good after this lesson and I felt a buzz that you feel when you know something went well and your proud of it. And giving the praise I received by so some of the teachers, it helped reassure me that it was good. This experience was what made the day seem so special to me and made it worthy of being my best day so far. In other news, I also taught a creative arts lesson which went fairly well also. So overall it has been an absolutely amazing day in which I will remember and treasure for many many years to come.

jambo,

today was a pretty basic day nothing really amazing apart from a bird dropping its load on miss page which was hilarious and having a look at the children i want to sponsor. i gave norbit a couple of names which he then had a look at financial and said it should be no problem.

- in the morning i spent the early ours with kindergarten making cards for teachers saying thank you for welcoming etc. the lesson was well tought by billy and was enjoyable. i later tought games with kindergarten last 2 lessons which was a shambles but then was saved by song and dance from others. which ment i became a human climbing frame.

tomorrow another day of teaching with an early start of P.P.I.....

night,

Today i tried to teach standard 7 P.E. but they had other ideas. If the kids are too young, they don't pay attention in P.E. (kindergarten) but if they're too old they just play football like they normally do (standard 7). I gave up and let them play what they wanted, Rhys spent a while trying to teach the girls who wouldn't behave why sport is important, didn't work, he gave up.

i taught maths to Standard 6 with Dighe and Mike (awesome guy), it wasn't great but a lesson is a lesson and the more I teach the better.

Took a few photos of Myself James and Mike with some of the kids we were trying to show off our logos to put on a website for our sponsors. Abdul (a very small and cute boy from Kindergarten) gave us a bit of grief, one moment he wants you to pick him up, the next he's determined to slap you if you even get near him, then he hugs you and wont let go.

Two boys from standard 1, both named Gift, spent a lot of prep-time dancing with me i spun them around, they pulled me to the floor, i said i had to go, they wouldn't let me. It's fun but a bit tiring.

we blew up a lot of baloons for the kids, the saw us putting them in a big pile between our chairs and they came a-runnin'. Have you ever seen a zombie movie? you know that part, in every zombie movie ever made, where the undead are clawing at a fence in a huge flood of rotting meat and blood, trying to get inside and snack on some tastey living people? Yeah? well it was just like that.

spent a little while in the pool, then read a bookn and went to dinner and now i'm going to go a practise our performance for tomorrow.

evening,

after an early enough start we had breakfast and left for the school. i sat in a few lessons and taught PE and Maths to standard 6 and 7. today was also quite a relaxed day apart from when i almost got pooed on by a bird.... fortunately it went all over miss page's arm instead :D at lunchtime we blew up at least 100 baloons and handed them out to all the kids - who loved them, however it wasnt long before they managed to pop them all. the school cooked us a very special lunch today instead of the usual beans and rice and beans which was lovely. we got chiappatis, lentles, rice and fried potatoes. we left the school at about 3 and came back to the hotel for a nice relaxing evening.

night.

Jambo... back safe and sound from my safari.. all the boys wanting to know what animals I saw!!  Well lots!  some I cannot remember the name! My favourites were the elephants, lions, cheetah, giraffes and the list goes on...

The camp was beautiful in a great location. My 'tent' was the most luxurious tent I have ever seen! Five star luxury inlcuding running water and electricity, but no mobile signal!

My 'tent' was directly in front of the waterhole which was lit a little at night ... and watch the lions arrive .... very close to my verandah as I sat enjoying the view!  Late I was able to lay in bed looking out at the elephants drinking and washing in the darkness!    My guide to the restaurant for dinner said he watched them close to me and said I was very brave not to run screaming!!  Or maybe just stupid!!!  I think I was hoping someone was out in the dark keeping an eye on things!

The elephants arrived through the night and I was woken a couple of times to their trumpeting and the quiet rumble of the lion's roar in the distance!

Some very unique scenes were caught on film by my jeep party including lions mating, elephants nursing their young and a seeing a very rare antelope, only 1000 in Africa!

It was great to be back with the boys and staff and hear all their news about their day yesterday at Haller Park with the school children and the photos are great - as you will have seen on the website!

Last day for me tomorrow as I fly home early saturday morning (not friday Rui!) and it will be a sad day but I will be back, I know that for sure.

Night all

M x

today i didn'y feel at all well so i spent most of my time printing pictures for Mr staw which took a lot of time! At luc\nchwe were then given a massive amount of food which was very nice. altghough i had lost my apatite (think thats spelt wrong) i still had a plate of rice. after luch i then went to see kindergarten sing and dancing this was really amusing. we then came back slightly earlier as most of us were feeling slightly ill. i then went to sleep until 7:30 and i am now off to bed. :)

today was fantastic. i taught 2 lessons both of them being arts and crafts, the first lesson i taught was to the kindergarden (with mrs farmer) the aim of the lesson was for them to make cards to make someone happy they really engoyed sticking and drawing all sorts of things on there cards. the second lesson i taught was to set 7 (2nd to oldest)and that whent really well as we taught part drama and part oragami to them (me mrs farmer and kyle) . we made them think about expressionism in both art and drama and like i said it was just a great sucess. but the highlight for today was when i saw this boy called raffel on his own (this boy has a number of learning difficulties) so i went other to him and asked him if he has any freinds and he replied yes and i then said can you introduce me to them and he said yes. so when he introduced me to his freinds they were in the middle of a fooball game so i asked raffel whether he liked playing football and he replied yes so i insisted that we played so we did and it was great to see him mixing with other people and it just gave me such a boost knowing that i have helped him. but i am missing my family loads and cant wait to get home but at the same time a can wait because it is so happy here.

heyy everyone!!!

Today was another hard day at Victory school, we had so much to do as their were lots of lessons going on.

We left at quater to eight and were at the school by ten past eight. I took Kindertgarden and read them a story by a boy who goes to our school it was called the " Heaven Flower." They loved it and they were talking about it all day!!!

I then took PE with Mr Chessmur and we did sprinting. So we showed them how to do a sprint start and seperated them into four countries where they would compete against each other. :)

So that is it from today so sleep tight and peace out! :)

Jambo rafikis

Here is todays top news :

1. 140 staff and students of Victory School ascend on Haller Park

2. Mischevious monkies cause all manner of problems...just ask Alex

3. 128 Victory students and the Kenya 15 feed giraffes.

4. No small children eaten by Giraffes, Riggs big fear is averted!

5. Alfie almost eaten by mongoose, mongoose decides that Alfie is not worth the bother.

6. Rhys Tupper 0 - Maasai Warriors 1 in the bartering game!

7. Kenya student decides Puffer Fish does not make a good football when barefoot!

Well good evening people, I hope you are fine? We are all fine here

Wow! Where to begin? Malarone, check, breakfast, check, Matatu wait, check, matatu drive, check, more waiting, check, get a little hot, check, get a little hotter, check, pretty rank sweatmarks on everyone, check, get a little bored, check, decide that we could practice face painting.......

So Louie, Kyle, Riggs and Sam are awesome with a paintbrush, no joke! Riggs flutterbies - amazing, Sam's dinosaurs -wicked, Louie's ladybirds - fantastic and Kyle's unicorns - cool! The rest of us tried and din't get close, though I am sure that I will offend someone here by not mentioning how good they were, but for me these guys could paint faces on some of the furthest orks in the Lord of the Rings battles, you know the CGI ones right at the back....thats how good they were! Ok maybe I am selling them a little short. been a long while since I saw our kids so excited over a few pots of paint, but it was like Christmas morning stood outside Haller park wheith everyone laughing and running round painting each other. I recieved a spider with a web (and a bite) adn also a snake. the snake was a red and green mamba....very poisonous...yes.....very poisonous.....15 minutes!

After 30 minutes 2 matatus came rolling over the hill each one packed with 21 or 22 Victory students, lets just say that this would never happen in England! Out they all popped and we had KG1,2 and 3 as well as Standard 2. All lined up and had parts of their arms tattoed with various deisgns...and they loved it. It was so exciting, they were so excited that it was completely infectious and the Kenya 15 were almost tripping over themselves to be involved. The kids got their paint and then went and sat with their staff and waited. Afetyr about 30 minutes the next 3 matatus arrived with standards 1, 3 and 4 and as a group we were complete. they also went to have their tattoos done whilst everyone sat around. Then it happen.....they caem striding from the distance and my goodness did their kids hyperventilate! I have never seen so many kids so genuinely happy and excited, it was like a wave of adrenaline and exhilaration hitting all 160 of us! Unbelievable for all of us, their kids offer so much and take so little, I really can't say any more than that!

Before they got to meet the giraffes (many for the first time) we had to queue for a headcount. At this point Alex came running over. Moment of the day number one coming up, he was very animated and shouting something at me. I looked and he was covered in brown goo! He stood there like he was drowned in water with his hands outsterched shouting "it just poo'd on me, it just poo'd on me"! (insert many sick sounds as he was wretching at the time). As I type this I am the only one in the room and I am laughing loudly! He ran of towards the toilet repeating the same sentence interspersed with vomit noises. I couldn't see for laughing at his misfortune and do feel a little guilty at that (lie!).

Anyway, the kids and staff counted we made our way to the giraffes! I can hardly describe the excitement, it was like people were throwing out 100 pound notes. The children were feeding the giraffes with little food pellets. Maybe 6 giraffe and 160 of us lined up behind a fence, the chikldren running abckwards and forwards getting more pellets and holding them up timidly for massive giraffe (with tongues 30cm long) to eat from them. Each student not up to the knee of a giraffe and they were just looking at them starstruck! It was awesome. We also had a ball, probably my best visit ever! Our boys were amazing as they were helping the younger ones who were too scared on their own, but do not forget that for them it was also a new experience of which they chose to spend their time helping the Victory kids instead of feeding the giraffes themselves, how proud you must be of your sons! As a member of staff I made sure i took the time to stand back and survey what we achieved at this point today and all I could see was our boys giving themselves completely to the Victory students...even after a week they amaze me. Soppy stuff over!

It was all to short as after 15 minutes or so the giraffe had had enough and moved on. We then went into the Park itself and had a look around. We were split into two and half went with teh KG's and half with standards 1-4. I was placed with the KG's and we immediately made our way to see some crocodiles. The kids were so well behaved and our kids were holding ahnds, lifting kids on shoulders etc. The crocs were cool and the kids loved it. We moved on to see fishes and then came upon a big tortoise! They were all afraid, but intrigued! They gathered round and listened intently to the guide. We also then saw Pumba the parks warthog, he was ugly! The reptile house followed and then some more tortoise. After maybe one and a half hours the tour was over and we moved for lunch. THe kids had bread and jam and a 500ml soda. We have some amazing memories of 140 kids sitting in the shade eating jam sandwiches and drinking brightly coloured soda, chasing monkies and have an amazing time. Which brings us to moment of the day number 2 today. Alfie made a new enemy today. A mongoose came to play and Alfie thought he looked like a good mate and so went to say hi. The mongoose, not liking the look of Alfie, charged at Alfie! His face (Alfie's - not the mongoose's) was a picture and I have to say I have never seen a child run so fast with his arms pumping like an old steam trains. the mongoose, let's call him Charlie, gave up chasing Alfie long before Alfie stopped running. I would also point out that the boy ran and hid behind me up the bank, though I wouldn't of defended him as I thought that Charlie (the mongoose) had a point!

After lunch we got everything set up for a group picture and it looks pretty awesome! The kids of Victory had an unbelievable day and it is all thanks to the staff, students and parents of St Andrew's. I am not sure that as trustee's we  can ever thank you enough for your support, but you will see what it means to both the Victory students and your sons in every single photo that they bring home with them. Once the pitcure was taken we had a short wait for the matatus and at around 3pm we were whisked away back to the hotel, before the Victory students were driven back to school.

To coin a phrase.... cost of driving Victory students to and from Haller Park - 20000KES, cost of entry, 30000KES, cost of feeding all 160 participants 12000KES, seeing the looks on all their faces when they saw and fed the giraffes....well you know the last word  Thanks to you all 

And so to the competition winner from yesterday. Discounting Alex's poo incident we reckoned that 3 students recieved a tinkle or a sprinkle and so the small kenya related prize will be winging its way to Mrs Chipperfield. Well done

So on to today's competition :

Each day we play a game of MINE. Those at school will know exactly what I mean. The object is not to say MINE when asked a question or else you have to do 10 pressups in forfiet! So the question is - What will be the total number of pressups completed by the Kenya 20 (staff included) tomorrow between 7:30am and 7:30pm! 12 Hours and countless opportunities! Good luck!

Kwaheri rafikis

By the way, in case I didn't say it already, thanks for everything

The animals of Kenya vs the Kenya 15

Point 1: The mozzies ruthless attack on Rhys, Rhys ends up at the doctors = Point to the animals

Point 2: Alfie goes to investigate a mongoose that is strolling past, Alfie ends up running away cartoon style screaming as it chases him = Point to the animals

Point 3: High up spiders webs at Haller park attempt to freak Riggs and Cheesmur out, they don't crack and continue their day as normal = Point to the Kenya 15

Point 4: Ben tries to bond with every animal he comes across, the centipede, the gecko, the giant tortoise. All either bite him or attempt to bite him = Point to the animals

Point 5: Mike innocently strolls down the beach in the evening and kicks a dead puffer fish. His foot gets a sting on it. Riggs and Straw try to recall if puffer fish are poisonous and end up asking three members of staff before making plans to take Mike to the hospital. Riggs grabs the medical forms and a pair of shoes ready to go, they phone the doctor for advice who says all is well and there are not normally problems from the dead puffer fish and just to clean it. Mike remains unbothered about the whole thing = Point to the Kenya 15

Point 6: Alex returns to Haller park after last years monkey wee incident. The monkey poos on him = Point to the animals

Point 7: Riggs and Straw get mozzie bites for the first time ever, Straw blames the Marmite sent out by Sharpie. Riggs is enjoying the marmite and will not let this stop her enjoyment of the breakfast treat = Point to the animals

Point 8: All of your hard work fundraising and attending our events has raised enough money to take 150 Kenya students, their teachers and our boys to Haller park. They were driven over, facepainted, photographed (ready to print off as a gift to them), taken to feed the giraffes, taken for a tour around the park with excited St Andrew's boys, given jam sandwiches and a very large soda each for lunch and driven back to school again. Pictures to follow soon but it was amazing to be able to treat these kids to this day out. Showing them how to feed the giraffes was beautiful and their audiable gasps when they saw a hippo or a huge tank of fish on the walk around were heart warming. Most walked around all day holding one of our hands or the boys hands and a great day out was had by one and all. Straw and Riggs discover that 150 Kenya pupils plud 15 pupils makes for a lot of head counting and were glad that the amazing teachers of the school were there to help :-) =  Draw

Total points

Animals: 6 (home win)

Kenya 15: 2 (with Safari still to play)

JToday I had a really good day as we went to Haller perk with all the younger kids. This was really interesting and I saw a lot of different animals. The worst part of today was the monkeys trying to steal ourgood and me feeling really ill when we got back. sorry mum I can't get phoneconnection so I haven't been texting off to bed nowhope my cold will begone in the morning! 

Day Nine -  Well I keep saying today was the best day and then the next day beats it.  So I'll just put it like this - Today was amazing !!!

We went to Haller Park a nature reserve.  Not like the traditional one back home, this was a serious Africian nature reserve.  Antelope, Giant Tortoise, Giraffe, Storks, Monkeys and a mongoose.

A quality experience for all of us and some quality pictures taken !!!  Added to this was that we were able to invite the whole of Kindergarden classes 1,2 and 3 and standards 1,2,3 and 4. Around 150 children in all.  Face Painting, lunch and games. They loved it and were soo happy all day.  It was great to be a part of something that obviously made a difference to the students and the teachers from the school.

Comedy moments were :  A monkey getting the better of Alex W for the second year running, maybe it was the same one.  Alfie getting chased by the Mongoose, the Giraffe's - they were causing all sorts for issue for most who were trying to feed them.

Back to school tomorrow.  Think there is some talk of Frere Victory v St. Andrew's.  I'll let you know what happens.

jambo rafikis,

today was a rather entertaining day with alex having a monkey poo in his hair and a mongoose chasing me (and btw they can kill snakes)i was quite scared. The experiance today was one of a kind and to think that only 4 days of light work bag packing could pay for 145 kids go to haller park(google it if you dont know what it is) and get soda ( a soft drink)andjam sandwiches which a nice as there were most kids threw them at the monkeys. we also got the privalige of feeding the giraffes the faces of children was piceless. It was also a big day for the teachers to they enjoyed it as much as the kids but they were all so lovely the put they're best clothes on and made and extra effort with there hair the kids loved the paint and well done to louies artistic skills for the exellent paintings the kids got. it really made this day extra special the fact that the kids enjoyed themselves.

p.s mum please can i sponser a child <3

jambo,

day 9 already the days are just eaten up at the moment, but im missing everyone at home and i hope their missing me too. ;)

- the day was a new and againd different day bring great experiences. we went to visit haller park, which is basically a park (big one) full of rescued or bread animals. When we first arrived in the morning we painted on each other with face paint and then painted on every student from kindergaten 1-3 and standards 1-4. I ended up drawing a lot of flowers and dinosaurs just because i had a lot of girls and it reminded me of jurassic park. we then moved onto feeding giraffes and seeing other animals such as; hippos, crocodiles, antelope and tortoise.

- The highlight of my day though would be lunch, the way 150 children sat at the perimiter of a semi-circle with jam sandwiches and a coke was a sight to remember. Tomorrow is a day at school i look forward to teaching and seeing the children....

night.

i managed to wake up today without to much stress. started with a nice eay breakfast followed by a metatu's travel to Haller park where we waited for kinder garden 1, 2, 3 and standard 4 = 150 kids :)

we painted aniumals in all of their arms ranging from seagulls to dolphins and crocodiles.they loved it and very quickly started comparing animals of which ones where the strongest!

entering the park we were met by a monkey which thought it would be funny to poo on alex - turns out it was right it was funny! the park was filed with monkeys, crocs, gigantic torteses, huge birds, warthogs , antilops and hipo's.  for many of the childrten it was their first and to see tbeir faces when thhey get up close to the animal;s was amazing . filled with exitement. the best thing for them was feeding the giraffes :)

for , i got to kneel down and come face to face with a tortus the size of me - no joke. `stroking its head and become at one with the creature was an experience never to forget.

at lunch the teachers from their school teamed up and made jam sandwhiched for the kids walst we distributed them, also suppling 1 soda for them all. the sight was priceless. 150 children chomping at a jam sandwhich and gulping down coke's - you can imagen.

once again the massie warriors where back and trying to sell us apsalutly everything for what they called it ' the best price my friend ' . i ended up buying a hand made leather bracelet for 50 shilings which translates to about 30p.

tomoro is another day - good night :) xxx

Today has been yet another good day (as I seem to start every blog with). Today we went to haller park (a nature reserve) with  some of the younger kids in the school. We started off by arriving at the park and painting ourselves with diferent animals,which we seemed to get into more than the kids did. Once the kids arrived we painted their arms and hands with different animals which went suprisingly quickly considering we had 150 kids to paint! We split up into two groups to go through the park and I was with the older kids (standard 1 2 and 3). We saw many intersting animals such as giant tortoises, antelopes, giraffes and my favourite, the monkeys! I found it amazing to see monkeys all over the park, causing havoc by stealing some of the kids' sandwhiches, discreting on a kids head (I tried to say that as politely as possible) and scaring Mike which was one of the highlights of the day. It was good to be in a place where animals that some of us may of bever seen up close in our lives were roaming around freely. After spending the day at the park and having our luch of jam sandwhices (which was a real treat for the kids), we went to the local supermarjt and then had a walk on the beach after coming back to the hotle. So again it was another good day and I am looking forward to getting back to the school to teach some more lessons.

hey guys

today we went to halla park which is a nature reserve where all the animals free roam - apart form the snakes and things. the money we raised when we did bag packing the second time we used to bring 145 children from the school with us. as they arrive we painted animals on them using face paints which was awesome :) i had a really fun day taking the kids round to see all the animals - hand feedng the giraffes was probably my favourite - that and when a monkey pooed on alex's face :D all the children loved it and it was nice to do something for them we also bought them all fizzy drinks, and i had the task of opening 145 bottles with the bottle opener - which i have to say was quite fun :) later on i went down to the beach to buy some more little gifts form the stalls spread all the seafront and finished the afternoon off with a swim in the pool.

mambo!!!

So today we took the kids to a nature reserve called Haller Park, it was really good as all the kids loved walking round and seeing all of the animals and riding on huge tortoises.

We later fed the girrafes and they were absolutely awsome!!!! There was like eight or nine trying to get one handfull of food. The monkeys were really really cool but really really really annoying!!!! THey deicided it was to be halarious to have a poo on Alex Watkins... IT WAS HALARIOUS!!!!

I then later sat down and this viscious little mongoose as in ferrit type thing was attacking all the kids untill some guy came along called it pippy and it ranover laid down and he stroked it. THen it came to me and i wasn't allowed to stroke it but it went in my bag :/

Anyway today was really good and i will speak to you all tomorrow... Peace out

PS- is it a definite that were sponsering victor?????

So yesterday I found myself standing in the middle of a dusty space, sweating, the sun was making my skin feel like it was on fire and the small KG pupils who weren't clinging to my legs or hands were standing around me in a circle. Across from me were four of my GCSE students, my years of study and hard work came down to this moment, along with 8 months of preparation for this trip........ I demonstrated Saturday Night, the Macarena to the whole of KG and their teachers along with Miss Page and then finished off in a long conga line around the school. One look around at our students and my fellow staff members told me that they were as happy as I was. This was one of those moments that you can't describe when you get back home and people ask you what it was like. You can never do it justice. I was on top of the world to be dancing with these beautiful children and my friends.

Today we experienced the other side of this. At lunchtime we split into groups and I walked three students (Ed, Patrick and Aflie) to a girl's home, along with a teacher from the school. The walk took us through the slums, stepping over rubbish piles, walking the long way aroung flooded roads, dodging rocks and ducking under wires to get to a brick building. As we walked in this Standard 7 girl (13 years old) showed us into the first door which was covered with a curtain. Inside we found a room that was smaller than my kitchen where 5 of her family lived. As they were invited in all the boys asked if they should take their shoes off despite there being no noticable difference between the outside and inside floors (this made me very proud). We were then invited to pray with the girls mother and we gave her gifts of maize, washing powder and sugar.

In the room was a double bed where the sister and her two young children slept, a sofa and enough space on the floor for one person to lay down on a matress at night. A net curtain divided the bed from the sofa area. The boys asked questions through the teacher who interpreted for them. They found that the girl got up very early for school and when she got home cooked, cleaned and went to get water. At the weekend she played basketball with her friends but they lived a long way away. They swapped questions for a bit before the 25 minute walk back to school and I will leave it to them to describe their impressions to you. To see where the kids go when they leave school really hit all of our pupils, they have an oasis of happyness at the school, food, people to look after them and space to play, and to see the other side of their life and to walk into that girls house and to ask the mature questions that they did made me incredibly proud of them. As an adult who had been to this area before I thought I had some idea of what to expect, but to enter someones house I was as new to this as the kids and I found it a difficult experience, there was a lot to take in.

I knew what this trip was about when we started out, so did the kids when they applied, we all knew what our aims were at the school but today it became very real. For the way they approached the visit and the way they have thrown themselves into every lesson and breaktime activity they have done so far I am very proud (I will keep saying this over and over again to give you some idea!). They have been wonderful embassodors for their families and their school.

We then returned to the school for a bit and then to the hotel for the usual swimming, dinner and blogs, all with the days experiences on our minds.

Tomorrow we are taking 145 pupils to the local nature reserve, giving them lunch and letting them feed the Giraffes (some face painting going on too) all thanks to the fundraising that so many people helped with before we left. Am very much looking forward to it :-)

Jambo

Today we went to school for the usual lessons and planning (and hiding from the sun for me and Straw with our sunburn). Again Kindergatren - can you see a recurring theme yet? I am loving the little ones. We played snakes and ladders, they went mad for the dice and stickers we used as counters, but most of them ended up stuck to their foreheads and the game was abandoned, so we did counting on the board instead. One of the things I absolutely love about Victory and the kids there is their willingness to congratulate each other with applause and/or singing. It always makes me smile.

Helped Kyle teach a lesson on MLK to Standard 6 today (13 year olds). They were a little quiet but they really loved the lesson and many came up to him afterwards and told him how inspired they were by what he told them about Black Civil Rights in the USA. Part 2 of the lesson is to follow sometime this week.

I missed 'sleepy time' with Kindergarten this afternoon for a very good reason. We split into 5 groups and all went to visit a student's house with them and a teacher. Walking through Bombolulu slum still is an eye opening experience, the smells and sights are so unfamiliar and really moving. The family were very welcoming and had clearly made the effort to clear up for our arrival. It was so interesting to be able to look inside one of the Victory students houses but also incredibly sad at the same time. It was only made up of a few rooms for 15 people to share, none having their own bed or enough space. It was kind of thatched and the walls made of stone and mud. The whole family, including great granny all lived there so the community and family feel was lovely but the conditions that these beautiful children endure in day-to-day life I really felt today. I felt very emotional that some have so much more (including myself) than others.

Tomorrow we are taking Kindergarten and Standard 1,2,3,4 to Halla Park to feed the animals and we will hopefully face paint them first. How exciting! :-)

Hope all is well back home

K x

hello everybody,

erm well today was a normal day really. Very similar to many of the days last week, we sat and planned why some tought in classes. that afternoon i had to teach a creative art lesson with alex so planning was very needed. we decided a subject would be optical illusions/photography. The lesson in the end went quite well and it looked like many enjoyed it, seeing as every child wanted to be involved somehow.

i aslo went to watch kyle teach kindergarten; maths and snakes & ladders. i halped him with some of the tables and i found it very enjoyable. even though i had my face covered in stickers and then all the stickers stolen.

the highlight of the day was lunch today. today we went off with a student to visit their house and where they live. we went with a girl to visit her family who was very welcoming and was very understand/easy to talk to. It helped us get a real grasp of the school life and kenya life in general. tomorrow we are taking the kids out and painting their faces so should be really enjoyable :) ....

night all,

evening.

today we taught as usual in the morning, but in the afternoon we went in small groups to see the houses that the children from the school live in. i was in a group with pat and alfie and we went to see beatrice's house. she lives with 4 other family members in one room. the landlord guy doesnt allow them to keep animals so the very little income they get goes towards the rent they have to pay. every morning beatrice gets up at 5 to walk to school, its a 25 minute walk through mud and sand ducking and diving through all the slum houses. unlike some of the others she does have a meal when she gets back home in the evening. she doesnt get alot of spare time but when she does she like to walk to the beach to practise her basketball. hearing and seeing all this kinda put things into perspective for me. it's so cliche when people say "oh yeah we take so much for granted" but to be honest it's actually true and i didnt really fully realise it until i saw what she has to come home to everyday for myself. also today i spent a long time with juma and he was telling me how much he wanted to come and live in england. he said to me that i need to finish my education, get a job and a wife and then come over here and take him home with me. the hardest part is having to tell him that i cant take him home with me. i think today i got to know alot of the children alot more - like to do with their backgrounds and where they live and things. i cant really imagine what it would be like to like with my sisters in a 2 room mud hut with no electricity or parents. today has been a very sad day, but what really surpirsed my the most was that the children are so happy and bouncy all the time - even though they have nothing to eat and no one to look after them. the school for them is like a safe haven and i think if given the choice alot of them would chose to never go home.

Today has been yet another great day and as I seem to always say, it was one of my favourites. For me it was a pretty busy day as I taught three lessons today. I started off by teaching  kindergarten a lesson bout numbers. This overall went pretty well as I started off by doing some adding activities with them,then attempting to show them how to play snakes and ladders with themm, whcih wasn't as succesful, so I went back to doind adding and subtracting. I really enjoyed the experience of teaching the younger kids. Another lesson I did was maths with standard 4 (11 year olds) whhich was focused on measuring. This was a successful lesson as the kids seemed to grasp what was being taught and got on with the activities well. The last lesson I taught which was my favourite so far is an RE lesson woth standard six, focusing on Martin Luther King and the segregation of black people in America at that time. I enjoyed being able to introduce this to them as it is something they have never covered before. I questioned how much the class were taking in the lesson, but it seemed to be effective as the teacher questioned the class on what tehy had learned at the end, whcih got many of the students answering. The thing that truly touched me was that at the end, many of the students came up to me and told me how touched and inspired they were by the story. And the fact that I was their age when I learnt about it and had the same reaction as them was that bit more touching. I enjoyed the genuine interst that the kids showed and was happy talking in more depth about it to them in their own time. Plus, the teacher observing the lesson has requested for another Martin King lesson and wants both stanard six and seven to be part of it. Another thing that got me emtionally was the visit to one of the school childrens houses. The little girls who's house we visited had already been through a lot in her short life and the fact that she lived in a small cramped house and lived with her auntie and uncle who struggle to pay eight shillings to get a canester of water a week (thats around 2p!), dosent help matters. Her house was apparantely a short treck from the school but it certainly didnt feel like that to us. The house that she lived in would be considered a room to us, becasue it is literally one room separated by a wall and clothes hanging. It was a very humbling exdperience to witnbess what kind of living conditions a fmily of four were living in and finding out the hardships of their lives and that she is lucky to have a meal at home. This ezxerience is something I will remember fior thge rest of my life. It is something that I will lok back on when I or anybody else back home selfishly says that their life is rubbish or complain in any way, because seeing how the family cope day by day in he conditions they have make us look like celebrities. I am very grateful for the experience that I had today and wil always remember it.

Jambo.

 today was pritty much a normal day apart from lunchtime, at lunchtime we viseted some of the students houses. It only took my group 5 minets to get to the houes but i heared that it some groups 30 minets to get there. when we got to the students house we were welcomed in and sat down. we got to ask all diffrents questions like how long have you lived here and stuff like that. This was rely intresting because we got to see how they live , we also gave them some gifts like sugar, maze flour and washing ditergents, they may seem like normal thing but they cant afford it. when we got back to the school i was asked to teach a maths lesson with Will we ended up teaching an hour lesson insted of a half an hour lesson.

still not feeling grate but i am managing to suvive ok, for now :)  

after a good nights sleep i was ready for my 8th day :) as usual the first thing we did was go to the school. And guess what i got as soon as i got there........ a throbing headache and a monsterous stomach ache :( unfortunatly this meant i couldent do any teaching and could hardly interact with the kids as it made me very very dizzy :( but im soo glad i managed to recover a bit just to see the house of one of the students. Sirus took us to his home in the nearby slums. His house was no bigger than an averaged sized bathroom. Living there was about six people: Sirus, his uncle (who kindly took sirus in after both of Sirus's parents had died when he was only at the age of four) and 4 other siblings. It was the best experiance of the trip by far, It left me shakey and soo guilty of the way i dont apprecaite the space and facsilities of my house or even neighbourhood. However Sirus explained how his neighbourhood were soo close as friends and it made me realise how they may not have as much money, fascilities and health as us back in England but there freindship and co-operation is outstanding. Nothing more to say about the day as im still heart broken by the sights of today... but i would not miss it for the world xx

Right - it's just happened again.   Just wrote loads of information down and then lost it again as the computer timed out.  So now going to do a really quick blog.

Morning, lovely breakie late matarto's(mini bus that takes us to the school).  Excellent PE lessons, dodgeball, benchball and volleyball.  Benchball game was excellent. Student in bibs, cones set out worked really well and the students loved it.  Our boys were great  !!!  Good work to Will, Patrick, Eddie, Ben and Alfie !!!

Lunch was one of, if not the best experience since i've been out here.  We visited the students houses with a teacher from the school.  Three St. A's students and myself walking through the slums of Kenya.  We arrrived at the students house which can only be described as a mud hut.  No electicity or running water.  Lots of people living in one small room with no roof.  We asked lots of questions and met some amazing people.

It really brought home the reason of why we were out here.  It was an amazing feeling that I will never forget although it is very difficult to explain and describe with anything that will do the experience justice.

In the afternoon, we had football practice with the school team.  Louis, Mike and myselkf really enjoyed this and the School team were obviously thankful.  I don't think they normally get that sort of training.  There is some talk of a match so we will see.

Water Polo in pool on our return.  I think I scored 30 goals past the boys much to their disgust. Dinner finshed now bed !!!!  Much deserved !!!!  What a totally unforgetable day.

today was areally good dasy as i taught 3 lessons! my first lesson was with Mr Cheesmur which went really well we did and a warm up which they didn't understand much but when got them into groups and did  benchball and volleyball which we agreed was the best PE lesson we had taught so far. after this we did another PE lesson which wasn't as good but was still a success. at luch we then went to a students home in bombolulu her name was Khadija which was a really life changing experience to see what she comes home to compared to us :/ it was really good to see this and experience their lifestyle outside school. when we got back i taught a maths for 1 HOUR because i thought that their prep time was actually their next period and had to carry on the lesson for another half an hour but it was still really good and the loved BINGO as i got them to shout it at the top of their voices. overall a really good day and looking forward to haller park tomorrow!

night x

Jambo !!!!,

So today was another day at the school but a long one. I woke up at 6:30 and headed up to reception for 7:30 we then had a nice breakfast and heade to get the mutatus. When we arrived, I headed straight intomy first lesson of English which i did with Billy. I twent really well and all the kids enjoyed it.

I did lesson planning for the rest of the day and realxed.

We later headed out at 1 to go to the kids houses, it was really strange because i didn't know what to expect but when i arrived it struck me hard. There house was one room 5 metres br 3 metres and the kid's house we went to had to sleep with the neighbours....

All I know is that when i get home i'm really going to value what i have after seeing what i saw today it is really astounding....

Anyway i came back to the hotel had a short swim and have been on the computer speaking to friends!!!

love you mum, freya, jay, dad paul, dad kevin, Liz, sammy and tom

P.S mum please can we sponser a child iknow his name is victor spade he's living in a shack and he is the nicest kid I know please please please i beg you... peace out    

Jambo rafikis

Here is the last two days worth of top news:

Staff and students enjoy lie in on Sunday.

Too much swimming results in sunburned backs!

Barbeque goes down a treat.

Josh Collet tries lots of fish food....not a fan, but funny to watch!

Alfie joins travelling gymnastics troup!

Boys lose at football on the beach.

Power cut results in millions and millions of disappointed blog readers and leads to major rioting in Worthing and some parts of Scunthorpe!

Kenya 15 run school for Monday... No one dies, one person cries (four times)......(and it wasn't me)

So everyone I hope you are fine, we are all fine (in case you are wondering why I start with this every evening, this is how Kenyans' respond when you ask how they are....fine...never good or great or amazing, always fine. I can imagine if they won the lottery and someone said how does it feel to win all that money....."fine").

As you are no doubt aware we had a lie in yesterday and did not meet for breakfast until 9am. Some boys got up early and went for an early morning swim. I can hear you all asking how many, how many, as you are desperate to know if you won the last competition. Well the answer is 4, so none of you won. Pity, as the prize was significant! oh well, maybe you will win tonight's instead.

After breakfast lots of students planned lessons and lots went to the pool to truly take advantage of the day off. I would love to say that I went and planned lessons, but the sunburn on my back would prove me to be a liar! So armed with plenty of sunscreen loads of us entered the pool. About 3 hours later an equal amount of lobsters left the pool to go and get ready for lunch. We were bieng picked up at 2pm at the front of the hotel to make our way to Mtwapa. Chris and Karyn had arrived early as they had gone to church this morning. as an extra little bit of information I can say that Joash called at 10am to pick up some washing from the boys and staff so they will have freshly washed clothes from Wednesday, i am pretty sure some of them have run out! Anyway, back to the blog,  at 2pm we dived into the Mtatatus and headed for Mtwapa. On the drive we pass a National Game Reserve and a major prison. Though ulimately most gossip was about the state of the roads and the slum that we drove through in Mtwapa, there is so much poverty here.

On arrival at Mtwapa the mtatus came to an abrubt halt and we all got out to be taken round a small National Museum Forest. This contained an old Chrurch that the boys were led round with interest. We saw a few different bits of wildlife including millipedes and lizards, but no monkeys. We also got to taste a BaoBab Nut (not sure of spelling there) which was quite sour and pretty bizzare. Most of the boys loved it though, but the ladies were not allowed to much as it makes the lazy apparently! I am pretty sure that the hotel must serve it in the morning, but thats another story for another time, coz if they read this then I am dead!

We arrived at the beach and had lots to eat and drink including Lobster, Fish (not pirahna!), prawns, squid, octopus toast, vegetables and fruit. Moment of the day went to Josh Collet for trying everything even though it was obvious I was making him eat the stuff for the humour factor. Very very funny It was lovely to be joined by Mary and Joash for the afternoon. Mary is the Headteacher and she got to talk to many of our boys and staff in a relaxed atmosphere so that was nice. Joash is our man who sorts out all our problems so the boys absolutely love him anyway. After dinner there was a gymnastics show and Alfie got to join in, something to do with weight!

We arrived back at the hotel after 7 to find that there was no internet and so most people took the chance for an early night, myself included so that will end my blog for day 6, apart from the competition, I suppose you deserve one after the disappointment of not communicating with your babies last night, so here goes:

If I say to a student in the morning "Jambo, Habari gani?" what am I asking? Good luck all

Also in case you are wondering, the olympics question from the other night will be answered when it is all totalled up, I have not forgotten.

So day 7, we were up early this morning and down for breakfast at 7:30. James and Alex were feeling a bit under the weather, but bieng that nasty Mr Straw I made them eat or else the pill that shall not be named (did you see, did you see) is not as effective.

Matatus were with us by 8:50 and we arrived at school by 9:10, just in time for those who were due to teach at 9:20. Everyone taught lessons today apart from James and Alex who were still quite ill. Everywhere you looked there were proud little moments going on, not enough camera capacity to ever record it all and somehow the camera does not do any of it justice. The minute you take a photo you lose the smells, the dust, the noise and the feeling that the Victory Students give you as well as the proud feeling you get from bieng associated with our students. Moment of the day today goes to Louie who taught a dance lesson to students of all ages, they had such fun and so did he. Another highlight was Ed, Mike and Sam alongside Miss Riggs, Miss Page, Mrs Stewart and myself teaching the kindergarten students how to do the macarena to Beat it and also teaching them the moves to Saturday night! Genius

After all that hilarity the worlds premier science team (consisting of Riggs, Harrison and Straw) taught Standards 5 and 7 about space. Riggs and Harrison were amazing whilst Straw basked in the credit afterwards!

There was a Summit meeting after school so thats about all I can report on apart from to say we left at 4:20 and went to the Nakumatt to stock up on goodies and ice cream. Further shenanigens in the pool followed that little excursion and then all meeting for dinner at 7:30.

I think I have covered everything apart from to say a big thank you to Dan for telling you all about our little internet problem yesterday. Lots of people have asked about pictures, but the computers here do not allow us to upload pictures. I am going to try something different tomorrow so hopefully you may be in for a treat tomorrow evening, but no promises!

Anyway the competition for day 7 is :

Tomorrow I have arranged for our party of 20 to be split into 5 groups. Each group will go to a different Victory students house to see how they live and meet their family. The students range in age from standard 5 to standard 8. We will be taking gifts to give to the students parents/carers which will include sugar, flour and detergent. To the nearest 100 how many KES to you think it will cost to provide these gifts to the household.  A reminder that at last check 100KES was around 68p. Good luck rafikis

Kwaheri X

Todaty was yet another great day in paradise. It was a normal school day today and a day where I got the opportunity to teach my first classroom lesson. I taught maths with standard five (11 year olds), in a lesson that I had prepared for thoroughly before I came out and had help from Mrs Stewart to plan and Mrs Sharpe who very kindly provided me with worksheets :). I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and was happy to see that the students not only grasped the concept of it but the said they preffered he method I taught them to their own. After doing that lesson, Ihad free periods for the rest of the day which I used partly to watch the kindergarden kids relaxing in the afternon, which was very sweet.I also got the chance to show the kids my I pod at break and lunch,which I used to shosw them Michael jackson music videos (which to my delight they requested for and enjoyed a lot)n and wrestling games and songs which they were also very enthusiastic about. I really enjoyed being able to share the things I enjoy with the kids and see the look on their faces when they played games on the I pod. So, today was another great day that ocverall alowed me to bond more with some of the kids.

Jambo ... great day sunday by the pool then bbq on the beach the boys and staff deserved this day and enjoyed every moment!  A few pink noses and fun times on the beach!  The food was great!

In school today ... my first full day with all the children in school.  I watched Kyle teach the maths lesson we had prepared back in St Andrew's and it was surreal to be in the classroom with Standard 5 class.  The enthusiasm of the pupils to try the new multiplication method was impressive ... and Kyle was a natural in his teaching role.  This first experience in the classroom took my breath away .... then a dance lesson with Kindergarden - teachers, staff, boys and children dancing together to Michael Jackson and Saturday Night in the Kenyan sunshine.  I have video of Mr Straw doing the twist and the finale was the congo around the school!!

We made friendship bracelets at lunchtime and 'Miss Maria' had her hair braided!!

Every boy and member of staff here worked hard all day with a passion and a desire to make a difference.  I have to make a special mention here of Mrs Farmer, who made me smile immensely.  To see her sitting with the children on their own, reading in pairs to support them, spending time talking things through, her caring and considerate way was evident in everything I was fortunate to see her do.  And that goes too for all the staff and boys, I must say too.

This is so difficult to write... and Mr Straw I still do not have the words to describe my experiences today .... they have so little and yet are so happy... but I will always remember your words .... "Enjoy the happiness and do everything you can to help when you get back..."  Thank you, Sir, for making sense of it all.

A long and emotional day

Goodnight for now

Maria x

I still cannot find the words

Today was a really good day and one of my favourites.Today we got the chance to relax for the first half of the day which was nice, then at about two o'clock we got to go to the beach. To get there once we were dropped of by the matatatu's 9buses) we had to walk through an area of forest that contained quite a bit of history. The main attraction here (not tourist attraction as it's a fairly hidden placde that not many would find), was the ruins of an old mosque that were there. It was fairly interesting to see and hear about the history of it and was weird to think that hundreds of years ago many people worshipped there. Once the tour was finished with our very chirpy tourguide that could probably put a smile on any one's face, we headed to the beach where we had an  AMAZING BBQ!We had the chance to have a variety of seafood which included calamari, octupus, lobster, local fish and some prawns. For someone like me who loves seafood but doesn't get it often, this was a massive treat and as silly as it may sound, was one of the highlights of my trip.(don't judge me because one of my highlights involved food). We then had the rest of the day to relax at the beach which was nice. Today was an opportunity to induldge in our surroundings even more and to bask in the fast that we are in Kenya, so we should make the most of the opportunities we have (like good weather!)

So yeah, sunday was nice, i spent a great deal of time in the pool in the morning. I got sun burn on my shoulders. water proof factor 50 is not as effective as one might hope. When finally we left the hotel we drove down to a beach, or rather to a jungle near a beach. we walked through the forest for a little while, we saw an old ruined Mosque left there by the Oman Arabs hundreds of years ago. When we finally got to the beach we ate some seafood. Parrot fish have blue bones  .

Mike, kyle, Dighe and myself spent a little while paddling through the rock pools and hunting little fidler crabs. Mike must really hate wild life he punched a lot of the creatures we found. poor crab.

I think i'm putting on weight and that makes me ashamed , some of the students only eat one meal a day at the school.

today (monday) we were at the school all day, i helped set up a rugby lesson and took part in a dance session with kindergarten. Miss page and Miss Riggs do a really good saturday night dance as it turns out, i on the other hand kept slapping the people around me when we switched direction.

I also did a spot of marking with Alex, some of the Standard 8 students had done a science test and we ticked and crossed our way across a few dozen answer sheets.

I've got a few lessons planned out that i'll be glad to try out over the coming week.

The water here tastes funny, still.

Right three days blogging in one.  First of all let me tell ypu whats been happening.  No - I haven't been watching the football and not bothering to write a blog.  I have been waiting til last so the St. Andrew's boys can blog first and by the time I have written mine time runs out.

Anyway hold onto your hats here goes three days of blogging in one foul swoop.  However, before I start let me tell you how difficult it is to remember whats been happening at day 5 when now you are at day 7 and you have done so much.

Day 5 - Picked up Ms Stewart from the airport, we met the others at the school.  Walk to Workshops for disbaled local people . Walked through the slums around the school.  Again an experience that bring whats going on in the local area to life.  The school being a safe haven for these children to have some sort of a childhood. Was great to see disabled people being given an opportunity to suceed in an area in which would normally be pretty difficult.   From here we went to the croc farm, long story short.  Quality experience, 20,000 crocs watching them eat but the best thing for me was overcoming fear of snakes and holding a very big one.

Day 6 - Up early for a swim.  Only up four students and Ms Stewart.  Good work to those people.  Breakfast lovely as normal.  Back to the pool and some sun bathing.  Great game of volleyball in the pool.  We went onto the beach for a BBQ.  lobster, large fish, prawns.  Beach footie couldn't get better.  Back for some dinner and bed early as had big day on Monday.

Day 7 - Back in school.  Funny how much you miss the children.  Lots of bubbles and balloons.  Lots of smiling faces.

We did a few PE lessons, Rugby and Cricket today.  Worked really well, very proud of our students involved as they ran the sessions well.  Major highlight was Louie and Josh arranging a football training session for the school team.  They designed a really good sessions for the children and have even arranged a fixture against a local school.

Bed early tonight. Catching up on me !!!   Will start a fresh tomorrow.   YES - I 've finished a blog !!!  At last !!!

Wondering how the St. Andrew's Yr 9 Rugby team got on last week and still haven't heard any news about the Yr 8 Football Semi Final.  Must be bad news !!!  Can anyone shed some light on these results. 

on day six we had the chillest day i have ever had in my life..woke up for breakfast and then slept till 2. traveling by metatu to a beach that looked like paradise, the restourant was outside and we all had bbq which included in lobster, calamary's and fresh fish..

gave the locals a footie game on the beach where it wasnt to ourbest ability however we gave it ago.!! coming back and sleeping again was also very nice :)

the next day was an early start where we started our full day at school once again. the first period i tought maths with standard 4 which wentsurprisingly well considering i had no idea what i was doing..followed by a pe theory lesson to standard 7. after break i then proceeded to give standard 4 a lesson in creativity wholst showing them how to express their feeligns and hobbies onto paper. next was a surprise dance lesson with whoever turned up..luckily it went brilliantly with around 8 students turning up who were mini chis browns!!!

my favourite part was the last lesson where myself and joshua collet took the school football team to the local pitch and coached them..by the end of the session there we more spectators than you would get at a local sunday league game!!!

finishing of with a swim and a biscuite...tomorow is another day..

today has been really fun it was my first day of teaching a whole lesson and it went really well they all seemed to understand the lesson and all enjoyed it because they useally get given a ball and are told to run around where as we had a structured lesson for them.

i also sat in on one of billys lesson about expressionism i think i achually learnt alot from his lesson

day 6:

today we went to the beach and for a walk through woods whichhad a huge thing of mosques and we were lucky to not meet the black mamba snake and tried some skanky fruit. i also woke up nice and early, scoghed my breakfast and blanked everyone for about 3 and a half hours to watch the dissapointing result of the rugby though new zeland deserved to win: :)

ive come down with a serious cold and am feeling very under the weather. in was meant to teach two lessons but was feeling to ill to do so however i didnt manage to do some dancing with some very cute children from KG. from what i could see and hear the school children had a lovely, and very active day today, i just wish i was well enough to join in. night night xx

JAMBO RIAFIQUES!!!!

first of all hey freya nice to here from you i hope you have had a good time save me a cup cake ;) thanks for all the comments last night by the way.

anyway haven't got long yesterday was really good as got free day and them went for barbeque on the beach and had crayfish and pirhanna.

today we were at the school and had one lesson then had to lesson planning thats all bye . peace out

today was fantastic as we spent the day at the school and i taught 2 lessons which were.................

i taught maths to kindergarden by using a ruler and measuring random stuff outside which they found very fun as they were all collecting things for me to measure. but the highlight for today was teaching creative arts to set 5/7-8 yr olds, i taught them about expressionism and i done this by explaining how art can express emotion with diffrent coulers and a little bit about how expressionism can be shown in other ways like music noise facial expressions exetra........

and that lesson made me want to be a teacher so much as the lesson went really well and i felt amazing afterwards so over all today has been my favourite day so far, but im missing my family even more now and although im having the time of my life and im very greatfull, i cant wait to get home and have some proper heinz beans because the ones here are just not the same. and i want to see my family but not as much as i want to see the beans no offence guys. see u soon xxx

Jambo rafikis

Here is todays top news :

Ipad blamed for poor spelling and grammar with English students and staff!

Mrs Stewart arrives in Mombasa.

No students were late today

Student promptness made futile by tardy matatu drivers!

Kenya 15 meet Big Daddy.......Alfie survives!

Kenya 15 begin planning for final assembly.

Mr Cheesmur fails to finish blog before time runs out for another day!

So everyone I hope you are fine, we are all fine here (including Rhys who is looking and feeling worlds better, though personally I am getting very bored of all of the looking after that is required with all the ointments and pills and chatter whilst said ointments are applied!).

Today was another good day for the Kenya 15 and staff. I realise I have not mentioned the staff so far really, I assure you they are all here and fine, sometimes I forget as I assume you only want to hear about your babies! I am truly lucky to be joined by such wonderful staff who devote almost all of themselves every day to ensuring that the boys are happy and feel safe. All of you that have commented on my blog to say thanks we really appreciate you thinking about us all, everyone of them brings something unique to our little Kenya trip family (take me for example I would be the moaning old grandad).

This morning after the mandatory pill check (regular readers will see what I did there, just thought you might like me to mix it up a little...though wouldn't mix the pills, that's not what I am saying...that is a peculiar moth crawling down the screen right now, thought you should know) we made our way to the school. It was good to see for the first time that no one was late, not even Mike! Then out to the matatus, which were late! Seems we can't win. Straight to the school and our arrival was greeted by Elvis and co who had come into school to do private study. Teachers are there early in the morning, but the students are alone from around 10am to continue with their own work. It was really bizzare to see the school still working for standard 8 even though no adults were around. A boy still rang the class bell, for example, at the end of each lesson. We bought our water and the boys got to planning their final assembly piece. At about 11:45 Mrs Stewart arrived, much to the delight of both staff and boys.

At around 12:30 we went for a walk to the Bombolulu workshop. In order to get there we had to walk through the slums and the boys got the chance to see some of the homes that our students live in. They are simple wood structures filled in with mud. It is strange because on one side of the road are pretty (for the area) nice looking houses, especially the local politicians. On the other are the mud huts. It is hard to imagine living there in the immense heat, no running water, electricity or toilet facilities. the boys were pretty quiet and thoughtful at this point. It was also I imagine quite hard for Mrs Stewart as she had only been with us for less than an hour.

Eventually we made it through to the workshops themselves. We met Ali, a partially blind man who acted as a guide (I can just imagine the puns and thoughts you are thinking right now). All of the workers here are disabled and was set up in the 1960s by an English lady. We saw the wood workshops, the jewellery workshops, the gardens, the houses that the disabled people lived in and the mobility workshop. All the kids were fascinated. They all then had the chance to buy goods in the shop. We then had sausage and chips (no comment there Victoria!) and some sodas. We payed our bill and then made our way to the crocodile farm.

At the Mamba Village Crocodile Farm we were shown round the multiple enclosures containing a grand total of 20,000 crocodilians of varying ages. The boys had the opportunity to hold a baby crocodile (they even asked if they could buy one and were told yes for 5000KES - have fun with that one Mrs Harrison) and also eggs. I got plenty of pictures of each one of them at this stage. Then we went for dinner. And so to the competition from last night. You will be pleased to know that all 15 students ordered the crocodile steaks. Therefore the small Kenya related prize will be coming to Mrs Harrison - Congratulations (I am told that this particular small prize will eat any meat and can live to over 100 years of age and can weigh more than 800Kg, which I am realiably told by your son is 20 times his weight). The boys on the most part enjoyed the crocodile (again maybe in 5 or 6 years you could try your own Mrs Harrison) and chips, it is quite a strong falvour with the consistency of pork. Following the tasting we then went round the botanical gardens and all of the boys got to see many fish, spiders and snakes. They all got the chance to hold a Python and no-one was injured. Again, I took plenty of photos.

We had booked the matatu drivers for 6:30 and were particularly pleased when they turned up only 1 hour late! Though I would say that their excuses were much better than Mike, Josh Collet and Louie's usualy are! 

Anyway, time on the computer is fast running out so just time for tonight's competition:

How many of our Kenya Kids will be up early for a swim in the morning which has been arranged for 7:30? To give you some perspective we are having a lie-in and do not need to be up until 9am. Good luck - we are going to the beach tomorrow so you never know the small Kenya related prize might be some of the crustaceans we usually see there!

Take care all.

Kwaheri rafikis

Today started by reading the blog comments at breakfast, really loving the comments so keep them coming. We then set off for the school where we hung out with standard 8 for a bit before being joined by Mrs Stewart and walking through the slums to the workshop. New experience number 1: walking 15 students through the slums, never counted to 15 so many times in my life. We met a guy who worked at our hotel who recognised us and came over for a chat, personally the thing that struck me the most was the grave in the middle of mounds of rubbish. 

We got to the workshops and saw how the products were made fair trade (hi sustain members) and how the workers had UNICEF posters on the walls (hello Hague). After lunch and the gift shop we headed to the crocodile farm where there nota far less spiders than last year. Grand total of 6 large ones and the tarantulas in the little zoo type bit. Last year they were everywhere though so I was very happy. Even managed to go right up to the tank with the tarantula in after Cheesmur faced his own fear by holding a snake. New experience number 2: not freaking out from the spidery ones!

This evening was spent writing blogs and talking about the last few days, looking forward to a small lay in tomorrow :)

 IPad spelling still annoying but not as annoyed as Cheesmur who has just spent a long time typing his two day blog and the computer timed out. Hopefully you will hear from him tomorrow if he doesn't take the computer down first. 

P.S. happy anniversary Roberts :) 

Jambo... I'm here finally!!  After a good journey from Heathrow to Nairobi ... then chaos!!! Grabbing TWO (very heavy!) suitcases and running across the road to the domestic flight terminal!! I arrived in Mombassa to be greeted by Mr Cheesmur and Miss Page with big hugs!!  Quick stop at the hotel and to the school where all the boys and pupils greeted me with smiles!

Long day... visit to the Village of Bombalulu and crocodile farm.  Held a baby crocodile, snake and ate croc!!

First impressions... our boys and staff are amazing... keen and enthusiastic about everything they have done and going to do, a real credit to all!!  As for Kenya and the locals.... we are a million miles away... and a world apart.  The sights are humbling... and I feel very fortunate for everything .... it makes you realise how far apart needs and wants really are...

Thank you to all the Kenya staff and boys for their fantastic welcome and for sharing their time in Kenya with me.  I can't wait for tomorrow!!!!

M x

Day five has been one of the best days so far in  my opinion.Today,we got to go to the school in the morning for a couple of hours, hoewer there were only mainly upper school students there today as it's a saturday. This gave me the chance to get to know some of the upper school students a bit more. After this. we walked through the slums to get to a small community workshop called Bombululu. This was a good experience as we got to see how some of the products that we buy are made, what they are made of etc. It was also interesting to learn about how the workers were disabled and that the workshop lifestyle was supporting them and their families. We got lunch there and then proceeded to go to the crocodile farm ,which again was a very interesting experience. Here, we saw many thousands of crocodiles and other things such as monkeys, plants, fishes and spiders. Here we had dinner and I got the chance to try crocodile, which was something I have been anticipating for a while. And as much of a cliche as it is, it did taste like chicken!I being able to try it. Then, after waiting for a while for the matatus (buses) to come, we went back to the hotel and got the chance to relax for a while. So overall it's been another good day and I am  forward to finally getting a good lie-in and going to the beach for a BBQ!I'm loving it!!!!

For a little while today we went to the school and tried to make a start on a performance.For the kids, we didn't get very far. After that we walked out to the slums of Bombalulu, I imagine that during the 10 days of rain, before our visit, the houses there would have flooded as they aLl have mud foundations or none at all. But in the dry heat things weren't too bad there, horrible but not sludgy, I triped a little, so did most people on the loose gravel.  

We walked into and then toured the Bombalulu workshop a place designed to offer disabled people in and around Mombasa jobs. There they make jewellery and novelty gifts as well as clothes and those hand driven tricycles I've seen people using. I was greaTly impressed but a little bored after the first quarter of an hour. I considered passing out to  spice things up a little. That makes me a bad person doesn't it? 

When we left the work shop we journeyed to a crocodile farm, the guide said that they had more than 20,000 crocs there. I was more worried with the MASSIVE SPIDERS! 

The water here tastes funny.

Today we bagan with the usual routine. Next we went to the school which despite the facft that in was a saturday wasbt that bad, although we did only spend a couple of hours there. during our time in the school we attempted our remix of a song which the kids performed in assembly. Lets just say they can do it better.

We the set out for the Bombullulo workshop. I had huge admiration for this place, not only did they produce beautiful creations, but they workers were all disabled and they money made went towards them and other disabled people. Next we went to the crocodile farm, the place was awesome! also we met big daddy who was 105 years old and as the name suggests, very, very big. It also turns out i have a new faviroute meat. crocadile :D.

thats all for now folks!

speak soon :) xx   

Day 5 ... And more off the same! 

Waking up early and heading straight to the school. I attempted to run theregroup choir with people not really showing to much passion for it if I'm honest! However we did decide what songs we were wantiIng to perform . At 12 we then was ked through Bombolulu slums which were just if not worse than the Mombasa slums we saw yesterday ! Once again providing an eye opener for everyone. 

Then walking throughBomboloulu disabled park. The facilities provided are excellent and are a reall help to the community , also holding a restaurant , shop and merchandise production to make profit, which is then recycled back into the charity. 

Thirdly , climbing into the matatu's who drove to the cRocadile farm where we saw the crocodile being fed Ate crocodile 

 .. Waiting....waiting ...and ..waiting for the matatu's whicH   Seemed to take forever . eventually arriving at the hotel were I had thebest shower in the world!!!!! :)   Xxx

hello guys !!!!

so today was a busy day. We started off at the school but only for half an hour. We then walked to the slummy area of bonbulooloo and had a good walk but it was so so so hot :)

we then went to the bonbulolo work shop where disabled people work for a fair deal.

We then went to the crocodile farm where I tryed CROCODILE!!! which tasted absolutely lush.

anyway i will speak to you guys tomorrow. Peace out 

Jambo,

Today was another amazing day it started at 7:30 because we went in the pool for an early morning dip, then later we were off to the school to see what happens on a saturday. Only the standard 8's had to go to school but some of the younger students decided to turn up for fun. We also got told when we were there that we will be peforming something on the last day there.

Next we went for a walk through Bombaloulou which is mombasa's slum, it was so densly populated and there were house that were made of nothing much, however the people were so glad to see us and they would even come up to us and say hello and shake our hands. At the end of it we arrived at the workshop, which was created in the 1950's for the disabled people that live in Bomboloulou to work. The centre is even today only worked and catered by disabled people and they also provide housing for the families. It was amzing to how someone with a disability can work and cope with life.

After all that we went straight to the crocodile farm, where at first we walked around and saw all the crocodile and there was one that was 100 years old who is called Big Daddy. Then we saw them being fed and the way they jump out the water to go and grab their food. We then had crocodile for dinner it was really tasty suprisingly and i would love to try it again.

Hope everyone is fine. 

today was a really good day as we had half the day off, as well as going into the school. we woke up sligthtly later today which was amazing as i really needed the extra hour, after this we headed off to the school for 2 hours where i spent most of that time with my friend Juma which was really good i also managed tyo get some pictures with students as well. after this we walked through the bombolulu slum which gave us a really big reality check and made us realise what we take for granted back in england such as just turning on a tap. once we got to bombolulu workshop we looked around the wotrkshop seeing what happens it is a place for handicapped people to work and earn some income. we then had luch and went to the gift shop which was good. then we went to the crocodile farm and saw crocodiles and held snakes it was hilarious watching mr chesmer put a snake round his neck as he has a big fear of snakes! we then had dinner at the crocodile farm and watched a crocodile feeding which was all very interesting. we then waited for our transport for almost and hour in the dark before getting back to the hotel. overall it was a great day :)

Hi guys, as you can imagine its been yet another amazing day here in Kenya. Today we got the chance to teach lessons in a more flexible way, instead of the way in which the teachers over here do it. And to my delight, I got asked to do a drama lesson today, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Even though I only had about half an hour to come up with a lesson plan, with Josh and Mike, we thought of a few simple activities which were well recieved by the rowdy kids!We also got the chance to do a mini olympics which was a unique event for the kids and for us. This again was a good experience that wil be a highlight of my trip for certain. The weather over here has yet again been scorching hot, which I hear is completely the oposite pof the weather in England at the moment! So I will definately be thankful for everyt sunny warm day we get over here.

hey guys. today has been a very fun day we were at school for most of the day where i tought alot of pe and then we organised a mini olypics thing for the kids to all do in the afternoon. i thought it all went very well baring in mind all the issues we faced. another school then arrived to bring vitory frere school lots of cakes and brownies. after that we got on skype and talked to the st andrews student back in the uk during their assembley. the longer you are here the more you get to know the children at the school and more friends you make. one of my favourite things is playing with the kids during their breaks and lunches - they love the bubbles, baloons and piggy back rides so much :)

hi all! so time has gone by extremly quickly and it is the 4th day :) today was a very heart warming interactive day for me. It was nice to have a relaxing cool morning swim where most of you were at school or work ;) we started the day at the school where we were welcomed by loud beautiful singing by the whole school. It was great to see the enthusiam in their voices and has really got me motivated for setting up a quoir. After, me and the boys got straight on to preparing the mini olympics for the kids in the afternoon. It was a great sucess as the kids seemed to be completly engaged and excited throughout. Missing you all but im having a great time :) bye bye xx

feeling very tired and ill as a came down with a migrane this morning and havnt had a very enjoyable day. the day started with me getting up way to early, and hauling my sleep deprived body towards breakfast, and then to school. weather was soooo hot but i still managed to play with my diablo. kids loved the diablo and a couple of crowds formed, as well as this i taught some children how to use it (most werent getting the hang of it however a girl called michelle was amazing). they especially loved it when i threw it up really high in the air. didnt teach any lessons today as i was wasnt feeling very well, although managed to reserve 7 lessons for next week of which im looking forward to :). after playing at lunch we all gatherd our things, slapped on our sun cream and walked onto the near by football pitch. sam wildman and mr cheesmur arranged an olympic related activity for all the children where they were put into teams and went around to differnat stations gaining points, the scores are being added now and i look forward to seeing the expressions on the winning teams faces when they find out.  back at the hotel we did the usual, a swim, changed then back to reception at 7:30. really really tired and ill so im getting an early night and shal speak to you tomorrow. x

Kindergarteners are really hard to teach sports to but everyone else is very responsive to what you say to them.

 A mini olymipcs was organised today, we took the vast majority of the students to a big (dust bowl) field a little walk away, we set up several events: jumps and sprints and stupid things like "chicken run". all the students were given a sticker to show which country they were representing and were organised into groups of around a dozen. I was leading the run of the chickens and time flew right by me, before i knew it we were packing up and i was trying to deal with my dehydration and mild sun burn (doesn't hurt it's just red) prior to the arrival of the students i tested the event on some local kids in the field who were very keen to talk and play. So tucking a volley ball be-twix their knees they ran up and down, skipping and leaping, laughing and smiling, the event was equally succesful with the actual students.

In our mini-oplympics the USA proved very weak. England didn't do great but it could have been worse, they could have been the ivory coast.

The water is certainly drinking water.

The water here tastes funny,still.

On this day we 'St Andrews Kenya boys' instroduced the olympics to our the Frere Town school! It was brilliant, the kids loved it. We even had the locals watching with most of them wanting to participate. There is a football pitch down the road which we used - however shade was minimal so sun was maximised , meaning i drunk over 20 gallons of water and seemed to sweat it back out again! Our stations consisted of chalenges such as water carry, football dribble and beach ball shuttle.

however befor this I had a chance to teach a Drama lesson with my colleague Josh Collet. Went down a storm with the children aged between 13 - 14 , it gave them something different to learn, think about and most importantly enjoy. Just to see them smile it makes you believe inside...there were few difficulties however communication could become a hinder sometimes as well as their confidence to come out of their shells. Although this comes with waht happens behind the scenes.. :/ 

The attitude of the group is great and I hope the rest of our trip will live up to what it is at the momment..

lots of love mum, dad and dolz.. :)

good eveningg people. today was again a great day, very long though, got to school for around 8 and left at five. we had an olyimpics/sportsday for the kids today all organised by sam (he did an amazing job) all the kids really loved it and all had smiles when we left, was great to see our work does make a difference. and to leave today feeling great was amazing aswell, alothough everyone is so tired we are all battling through that and having great days at the school. me personly and as a team everyone is great, was very hot today so got myself a nice tan aswell :D dinner now though so im off. latersss

today went really well even though we had to wake up at 6.00 we saw a monkey and ate a filling breakfast. we then traveled to the school and i heard the most amazing thing ever, the children sang loads of songs in such a small room it actually seriously effected my hearing but at the same time made my hearing so lucky. i then taught kindercardens some maths/crafts/coulers. with pipe cleaners, it worked by me shouting out what number  or letter to make.i then held up the pipe cleaners and asked them what coulers they were. we then helped out in the mini olympics which involved teaching the little/big affricans how to do the over and under exersise with a soft ball. we done this for about an hour in the boiling sun. but we then cooled in about 45 minuites of swimming. but missing everyone at home greatley xxx

Jambo rafikis

I hope you are fine, we are all fine here. 

Here is today's top news:

Spiders, spiders everywhere, but don't mention that near Riggs!

St Andrew's student uses Portuguese toilet! That was Ben and there was no toilet paper!

Filling Rhys with 2 litres of water and then walking round Mombasa Old Town is a VERY BAD idea!

Cheesmur also can't hold his water!

So had a lie in this morning, whilst 12 of the Kenya 15 got up early and went for a swim, I did think about going for at least a second before deciding that our Head of PE could handle it on his own.  Then it was up for breakfast and the morning Malarone check (all this mention of Malarone makes me think we should be Getting some advertising revenue). Some were sent back to get theirs, but Rhys lost all of his! Luckily Mrs Farmer was on hand to lend him one of hers. I sent him back to his room to get his Anti-inflammatory and that is when he remembered that it was all packed together, soall is well.

At 10am 3 very nice safari buses arrived totake us on our tour. We firstwent to a wood carving factory to see how the locals make most of the tourist merchandise.I have been to Mombasa a few times, but even I was amazed at the poor condition of the main roads with huge pot holes and scores we seemed to be forever banging up and down. We arrived through big metal gates on to a dusty track and there before us lay hundreds of wooden shacks with half completed lions, elephants and giraffes( yes mum I will remember the giraffe!) amongst other things. All was progressing well until one of the kids spotted them. Now first of, I am not afraid of spiders ( you can ask Mrs Straw for proof) but these babies arcan steroids! Their webs are gargantuan and spread through 2 or 3 trees and have maybe 30 spiders on, I cannot imagine what it's like there during baby season! So that was the start of all the running and the screaming and the touching of legs saying look out etc. It might be worth mentioning that Riggs and Watkins are afraid of spiders, so Watkins was especially jumpy....and loud! Josh Smith and I met an old man, but he wasn't very chatty and a bit wooden, but we had nice photos with him. Everyone then had a look round the shop. Straight back into the safari buses and then off to Fort Jesus.

Lots of the blogs tell you about Fort Jesus, so I will only say that it was hot,really really hot. The kids were fascinated at the history, mainly as it involves a lot of fighting, big cannons (made in Scotland) and awful lot of cannibalism! Apparently 1600 Portuguese lived there and we're under siege for 33 months, in the second year they ran out of food, I think you can work out the rest. Only 15 were left in the end, but they were quite full! Sorry, bad taste! Pardon the pun. Lots of lovely photos. We left Fort Jesus and walked through for lunch. Rhys was feeling quite unwell so we stopped for lunch. We bought everyone pizza and soda ( fizzy drinks) or water. So here comes my moment of the day and this one goes to Rhys, but please don't tell him. He was feeling quite down as he has been bitten 13 times (though what makes him so tasty to the mozzies is beyond me) so we filled him full of burger and chips and almost 2 litres of water. He was really quite down, but still hardly moaned, was keeping everyone else's spirits up and was a pleasure to have around. We made lots of jokes about the water consumption, but we kept force feeding him more. He did feel better after though. 

After lunch we all went for a guided tour of Old Mombasa and saw many sights. The poverty really hit some of our students hard, we do see it on TV, but actually seeing it for yourself is always very different and it was a very sobering time for them. Lots of grime and dirt everywhere, rubbish lined the streets as well as dirty water. What struck me though was the overwhelming feeling of community, everyone was out chatting and cooking and getting on with it. Puts me to shame really. I explained to the kids that our kids actuallylive iworse conditions as most of the houses and buildings there are permanent. Where the Victory School is most of the buildings are temporary. Though you would never tell on the faces of the Victory students as at home they endure such hardship, but at school all you see is smiling and laughter, it really is an oasis of loveliness!

Back to the buses for a quick trip to see the Mombasa ferry, which reminded me of a scene from war of the worlds with Tom Cruise. That bit where they are escaping over the river and the ferry is overloaded with people. Well that is exactly what it was like today there. Crazy!

Lotes of swimming and lovely food back at the hotel and now it is bed time.

It just remains to be said that Mrs Straw won the blog competition last night and so a small Kenyaprize is on its way. Tonight's competition is :

Which continent will win the house sports day tomorrow, Asia, Europe, Africa or The Americas?

Answer revealed tomorrow, best of luck all.

Kwaheri rrafikisI

My 3rd day was the most eye opening out of the three. The first activity was a tour round Fort Jesus  which was very fascinating to finally see some culture of Kenya. The next experiance was the most horrible, and most benifitional at the same time, the Town Of Mombassa. We walked throughI huge amounts of povertysand the smell was literally disgusting. It made me ashamed of what I waste and don'ta value at home and has inspired me to respect the luck I have in life. After that long day sleep was needed desperately to reflect and rest! Night night xx

Today we visited old town Mombasa, where the streets are tiny and the sewers are open! We walked for a while through the streets passing shops and giant mountains of burning litter. Our tour guide was very friendly and I was glad to have him around because everyone else did not seem very glad to have tourists in the  neighbourhood. I was continuously worried about getting lost or worse. I would like to say something nice about old town, after all I mean No disrespects to its residents, but I can't think of a single thing. I don't want to go back. Ever. The water here still tastes funny.

jambo people to day was really fun we started off with a 30 minuet swimin the morning and then we set off to the wood work place which was pretty cool but to be honest people were more intrested with the wacky and dangerous wild life around the area (we saw spider that can kill you and dont worry only 3 people got bitten ;) )afterwards we set off for fort jesus and some safari person took us there and showed us round it was pretty cool because it it was made of about 56 ft of coral reefs stacked on top of each other over millions of years. then we went to the old town of mombassa and it stank people were still nice but they were really hungry! they barley even had a weatherproof house ! missing people !! x

Hey everyone, today we walked round Fort Jesus and the Old Town. It was amazing to see how everyone here actually live and the conditions such as the amount of rubbish that they are around. Fort Jesus was built in the 15 hundreds and was very impressive. So overal it has been great! ( except for my rash) 

jambo everyone, today was very fun as it started off with a half hour swim and i saw 3 monkeys which was quite an expirience for me. we then had a lovely breakfast which was basicley a massive buffai!. we then met in reception waiting for 3 cabs to take us to the wood carving place thing ? . it was very  amazing to see the amount of skill some people have and one man explained the place like a comunity of people who want to do good.after that we got in the same 3 cabs and traveld to fort jesus. when i heard fort jesus i thought it would be a big church with a wall all around it, but when we got there it all was so big and old. and then the tour guide told us the story of which was set in the 15th centry. and it was quite disturbing as it was all about the portuguise trying to invade the fort but then they failed and blocked iun the fort with no food so they ended up turning into cannibals and eating them selves. but i am not going to go into too much detail with that. we then visited the old town  of mombasa which contained buildens that have stood for many years ,it was very smelly though! we then went back to the hotel and had an hours swim which was lovely. but i am looking foward to toomorrow as i will be teaching some of the cute kindercardens some simple maths and get them used to coulers using only baloons and pipe-cleaners. but i am missing my family loads xxxxxxxxx

goodnight all

well, the third day came with the most shock, horror and reality check. It finally hit me, although i have been seing a completely different way of life, attitude and perspective - today brought me back down to earth, as I saw what we see on tv in charity adverts with my own eyes...

We woke up early and pretty much got the 'miuni cab' to fort 'jesus'..where it is considered as one of the best and holy placves throughout Kenya. We had a tour guide who showed us the way around filling us with all these (interseting) facts that if im honest i got lost within the third bit of information..however i still learnt alot. After lunch we all walked through Mombasa old town. This is where the interesting bit comes in..standards of living throughout the streets was apaling. there were woman washing there clothes on from the water on the street. kids playing n bare feet through mud and sewere. men sleeping on boxes in the middle of the street..why? is what i asked myslef.

so however much of a eye opener it was, it tought me a valuble lesson - always make the most of what you have, as we have what most others dont.

hi guys, today was a bunch of mixed reactions and feelings: today we took a "safariiiiiiii" bus to old town where we visited a place called fort jesus. the fort was built in the mid 15 hundreds and was built on a huge coral reef revealing the fact that millions of years ago the earths sea level was atleast 50 feet above see level. after our lovely tour guide took us ino the town and we had pizz in some restaurant. at this point the whole experience was fantastic and i was having a ball, however just after the heat got to much and i wasnt having a ball ;). after we had walked through the slum we went off home and had a lovely dip in the pool :)))))))) x

today was heroes day a national holiday in kenya so the schjool was not open :( so instead we managed to go to fort jesus and look around it was really interesting to see how prisons were in kenya, we walked through the old town of mombassa this gave us all an insight into what really happens down in the slum, again was great to have first hand experience, took a drive along the seafront as it was so hot and got to see all the nice views and what not, has been another long but amazing day today got back around five and got a quick swim in the pool, nice to chill out for an hour or two and get out of the heat! day three has been great. cant wait to gety back to school tomorrow!!

Day Two. Hotel first thing in the morning quite and tranquiI. st. Andrews boys look ready to go. Majoritof full of motivation to get involved in teaching the Africian students a lesson.  Breakfast was of excellent quality - ful bellies !!! Good idea. 

The day at the school was tough but rewarding. I observed lots of the boys teaching either full or part lessons.I felt very proud of our boys teaching a wide range of different lessons. Science, English, PE and music.  It is great to see the St.Andrews boys and staff forming friendships here. You feel like you know the Africian children and staff very well and it's only been two days. 

Had a meeting with the head teacher about running a mini Olympics on Friday for the whole school. Victory Frere Town School Sports Day !!!  Boys and myself are in planning mode to get it all sorted.  Will report back and let you know how it goes.

Well deserved sleep coming up.

Jambo from Kenya,

What an amazing experience already. Firstly i am so proud of our boys who seem to have turned into young men over night. We were all so excited to meet the children at school and we are not disappointed. We had a wonderful welcome although we were hot and tired. It has to be one of the most memorable experiences you could ever wish for. All of the Victory children are so happy and welcoming and the teachers too. I would like to thank all those that have helped in giving me this opportunity (including Mrs Stringer who gave me the push!) I am trying very hard to make sure I make the most of every opportunity to share my experience of bieng a St Andrew's Learning Support Assistant with them. Missing you all loads. x

Today has been yet another amazing day here in Kenya,as I'm sure most people would've said by now.Wegrot the opportunity to go to the school again today but this time for the whole day which was amazing,as we got to spend more time with the kids.I am absolutely loving the experience of being able to interact with thekinds for the past two days as they are all so lovely and interesting to bearound and talk to.After only a couple ofdays here,I feel really 'at home'and relaxed here.I got the opportunity towrite onwrite blackboards alot today which although seems like a small thing,is something that teachers take veryseriously.I enjoyed being able to do somethithat's e contribute towards the lessons and now have a greaterappreciation ofinteractive whiteboards after realising how long and tiring it is writing onchalkboards!we also got the chance tO go to the beach which was good as we spent time loowing at the different stools and me being called 'Rasta' by eveman person thatEwan'sswelling things,even being offered a rasta hat at onepoint.WE also got to see the Masai tribe which was amazing as I have seen them many times on Tv

Overall it was anoth great day and I look forward to may more!

I taught for the first time here today: biology. Nerves were a-gittering, legs were a-quivering, mouth was a-blabbering but it went pretty well. I bought a club and dagger from a tribal bloke, he ripped me off but i don't care because i now own a decorative CLUB and DAGGER! Also a mask and stone rhino and some jewlery... it's not gone well.

Teaching's hard, really hard and Miss Riggs is right about silence in the classroom being scary, i hate it.

Miss Page say good grammar costs nothing, but it does: time.

Mr Chez ( i can't spell his name) thinks i'm an alcoholic, thanks dighe.

Last time i said the school grounds were the size of our BB court, i was wrong, more like most of the astro-turf. Which, i agree, would be nice to lend to the school here.

Hi mum, graham, jake and louis (they asked for a mentinon) hi Rowan and the girls too xx.

The beach here is scary, i don't think i'll go back anytime soon. dinner was nice. the pool is great. the band plays on too late. the water still tastes funny.

day two....and waking up 15 minutes late with an angry mr Straw knocking on our window just about got me up!!!

We had breakfast at the hotel (which was rather nice if i do say) and got the' mini bus ' straight to the school where we set up oyr base and planned for the day. the kids there were just as happy as ever, with huge grins on their face! It puts a warmth in your heart to know that despite the troubles and conditions these mpeople got through, keeping your head up and making the most of whats there is whats important - and they showed us that.

My first lesson went interesting with me teaching pe and trying to communicate with 20 8 year olds who dont speak english and do not want to stop talking or moving!! after lunch i then decided to make a choir with josh collet. showing them the modern songs and beat boxing! they loved it and are acctually very good. I have planned to take theitr football team to training at the near by pitchj on monday tueasday and wednesday with a match coming up within a week. there is so much more i want to say but unfortunatly time is not on my side, lots of love, best wishes.

ps: had a fantastic birthday... ;)

firstly i am sorry about last night the computer didn't save the blog, mum i am still alive LOL.

Had a lot of fun today, we got to school about 9 this morning. i set in a few lesson helping and just looking at how they teach out here. i also took a lot of pictures, i took about 1300 just today. when we got back to the hotal we bent for a walk on the beach and a look at the stuff for sale then we went swiming for 30 minets. after super i bought some stuff from the masai, who were seling things at the hotal. know i am writing my blog. i have had a lot of fun today. oh i also did mine and josh's washing, very dirty

hi everyone i have just had to type this up all up again. but any way im having a great time, and today i had the chance to teach the kindercarden which was very fun as i taught some simple addition which went down a treat (in my eyes) but im missing my family so much but i am ditracted by all the good food that the hotel provides (no offence girls)

today was our first full day at the school! although we didn't do much teaching we sat in lessons so we could get an idea of what we were going to teach over the next 2 weeks. I taught 1 lesson it was science with standard 1 which was good, i then sat in social studies with josh and did some marking. i played a lot of football and got really sweaty which wasn't a good thing because cooling down is difficult in this heat! when we got back to the hotel we walked along the beach and then had a quick swim. After dinner we went around the masai marriors (local tribe) and bought a couple of bracelets, i am now really tired and looking forward to a small lie tomorrow as it is heroes day (bank holiday)

good night :)

The start of day two was an early start, waking up at half 6 to make sure i was ready. to start the day we got to run at the all you can eat breakfast. after breakfast we left straight away to go to school. being at school for the second day was an experience, teahing 2 lessons of pe to stat then also teaching maths and creative arts. After school we came straight back to the hotel and and had chance to relax and plan for the next day. After dinner we got to buy stuff from a local tribe...

tomorrow where going a visit to fort jesus ...

good night,

What a first day !!!  Everything at Gatwick and Mombasa airports went really smoothly.  Hotel beautiful !!!!  Drive from Hotel to the school a real eye opener, lots going on you couldn't stop looking out the window.  Arriving at the school a real experience never to be forgotten.  Africian students so happy to see us !!!  Playing Rugby and Football a real highlight.  Dinner done !!!  Now time for serious sleep ready for day two.  Bring it on !!!

they say the first thing you notice about kenya is the sudden heat, but looking out of the planes window at the flooded fields and rain, i was pretty dubious. However Kenya lived up to its reputation and ended its 10 day non stop rain just as we were leaving the airport. now you wopuld have thought that after a 9 hour flight without getting a wink of sleep you would be rather cranky to say the least, but the excitment of finally ariving had taken over all sense of wieriness. now ive seen the kind of conditions that people in africa were living in through things like red nose day, but you can never actually apreciate it untill your riding through the town in battered matatu's as the people point at you and smile. The hotel itself is amazing, evan as im typing this im gaving at my suroundings in wonder. also meeting the school children for the first time was great and their enthusiasm really rubbed of on us as we were all eager to start teaching. Anyways its been great being able to share this with you, speak to you again tommorow! :)

p.s lots of love to all my family reading this :)    

The journey was exhausting, at time of writing I haven't slept since Monday. The school was faw smaller than I had expected, I'd imagined that it would have large open grounds surrounding it, instead it's total size was only a little more than the area of St Andrews Basketball courts. The children were also a surprise: shy, at first, though they took a shine to little Alfie who quickly merged into a group of boys and didn't emerge for a while. The water here tastes funny.

the first day has probably been the longest day. having not managed to sleep during the flight the two days have kind of merged together. kenya is a stunning place and the hotel that we're staying in is pretty damn snazy. however i think what really hit me was when we arrived at the victory frere town school this afternoon. the kids there are so excited and happy to be at school - not something i could really say for myself. to be honest i am looking forward to a nice long sleep so that tomorrow i'll be ready to teach lots of lessons and things.

Today was our first day in kenya, it started off very slow with a nine hour flight and then onto custums. We then went straight to the hotel where we could drop our suitcases off and at around 12 we had left for the Frere Town Academy, when we arived we were greated with great smiles and laughter from the younger children. Today has been an amazing experience because we got to meet the kids and see how and where they go to school, it was even worth the nine hour flight.

-so today was our first day in kenya! we arrived early this morning dropped our bags of at the hotel and were at the school by 12. as this is my second trip it was really nice to go back and have some kids and staff rememember me! all the kids seemed really happy to see us, but as it has been a long couple of days for all 20 of us no one got any teaching done, i dont think any of us have had much sleep in the last 36 hours. me personally have had about 45 mins so very tired now and off to bed for an early start and our first full day at the school! todays been amazing, more to come!

today was good meeting all of the young children at Frere Town Academy they were all really happy and pleased to see us. Every one in Keyna is really happy and so far havent stoped smiling since we got here. all the people that work at the hotel are really good to us and cant help us enough.