The Battle of the Termites!
One afternoon last week it had been raining and raining, real Kenyan style. But we were fine as were indoors and planning some of our lessons for this week. Later on in the evening the rain had stopped, so we went for supper. On our return we decided to watch a film on the laptop before heading off to bed. I was just shutting down the laptop as I noticed a termite flying by, flapping around and making lots of noise. I didn’t think much of it. The next minute there was two of them, then three, then four. I quickly retreated to my room for insect repellent – spraying them over and over didn’t seem to do much, if anything it just made some of them stick to the floor. They continued to multiply by the second, ten, fifteen, twenty! I shouted to Paul who was in bed by this time, he was not impressed and thought I was exaggerating. I wasn’t. There was that many of them by now that we couldn’t go out our rooms without getting attacked by them. There must have been a minimum of 50 of them flapping around. Paul finally got out of bed to see what was going on, upon opening his door he was also attacked by them. “Ahhh! Josh what have you done!?” Still Paul did nothing to help, he just closed his door and returned to bed. After a good hour of spraying what must have been the whole bottle of insect repellent, I decided to arm myself with a flip flop. It was good baseball practise! I stood in the doorway swinging at any termite that came near. VICTORY! At last!
Although when I finally got in to bed I realised that the best option would have been to just turn all the lights off and go to bed in the first place. Aww well, my way is much more fun!
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Saturday, 25 June 2011
A quick update..
So yet another blog post about our adventure in Kenya.We have been very very busy and havent had much time, so appolgise on not getting more posted on the blog.
So firstly we are still alive and well - always a good start. Still only lacking some sleep from being so busy, and blood from the mozzies. The weather has been very mixed, lots of sun but lots of Kenyan rain too, it makes rain in the UK look pathetic in comparison. We have been eating very well too, lots of stews and Kenyan dishes. We have really taken to their Chai tea and have learnt how to make it ourselves.
Now then, an interesting story about our journey from Eldoret to Cheptebo. We were driving along with Joseph and Sally, coming down the hills from Iten when we saw a large group of people in the middle of the road. Joseph pulled over and asked them what was going on, they replied and said that there had been an accident. When pulling off to continue our journey we notice a strange object on the ground near the group of people. Joseph informed us that it was infact someone’s arm. After another few hundred metres down the road we came across another crowd of people and a pickup. We stopped again and asked what happened. They explained that the driver of the pickup was drunk and was driving down the hill with his arm out the window. He then had a side on collision with a large truck going up the hill, damaging the whole side of this pickup, as a result had also taken off his arm. He was that drunk that he didn’t notice until a few hundred metres down the road. We could see where the blood had showered over the side of the vehicle from where his arm was taken off from the Elbow down. What a lovely Welcome to Kenya it was.
On another note, our first church service here at the project was eventful. I don’t think I have ever met so many people in one go, nor have I shaken so many hands. Although the church is stunning, a really nice clean and fresh look about it, and has a really good turnout. Praise God, Amen! We were invited up to give the congregation a few words of encouragement and to tell them a bit about ourselves and what we are here to do. You can really get the sense that everyone has a really passion for Christ and that it means a lot to them, they love to worship by dancing and singing but also by prayer, Arab boss, a local man, takes prayer every week and he just keeps going on and on. Although its in Swahili, you can tell he has a real relationship with God and loves to chat and do business. Joseph was telling us how he once spent a night in the church praying, 12 hours straight! How did he not run out of things to say? Hehe.
God has been doing even more amazing things, Paul received his exam results for his first year Medicine at Liverpool. I am happy to inform that he passed and is now officially a second year! As a result, Paul can now join us for the last few weeks of our trip when we travel to Mombassa and get to relax and see more of the country. Congratulations Paul!
Even more to come very very soon!
So firstly we are still alive and well - always a good start. Still only lacking some sleep from being so busy, and blood from the mozzies. The weather has been very mixed, lots of sun but lots of Kenyan rain too, it makes rain in the UK look pathetic in comparison. We have been eating very well too, lots of stews and Kenyan dishes. We have really taken to their Chai tea and have learnt how to make it ourselves.
Now then, an interesting story about our journey from Eldoret to Cheptebo. We were driving along with Joseph and Sally, coming down the hills from Iten when we saw a large group of people in the middle of the road. Joseph pulled over and asked them what was going on, they replied and said that there had been an accident. When pulling off to continue our journey we notice a strange object on the ground near the group of people. Joseph informed us that it was infact someone’s arm. After another few hundred metres down the road we came across another crowd of people and a pickup. We stopped again and asked what happened. They explained that the driver of the pickup was drunk and was driving down the hill with his arm out the window. He then had a side on collision with a large truck going up the hill, damaging the whole side of this pickup, as a result had also taken off his arm. He was that drunk that he didn’t notice until a few hundred metres down the road. We could see where the blood had showered over the side of the vehicle from where his arm was taken off from the Elbow down. What a lovely Welcome to Kenya it was.
On another note, our first church service here at the project was eventful. I don’t think I have ever met so many people in one go, nor have I shaken so many hands. Although the church is stunning, a really nice clean and fresh look about it, and has a really good turnout. Praise God, Amen! We were invited up to give the congregation a few words of encouragement and to tell them a bit about ourselves and what we are here to do. You can really get the sense that everyone has a really passion for Christ and that it means a lot to them, they love to worship by dancing and singing but also by prayer, Arab boss, a local man, takes prayer every week and he just keeps going on and on. Although its in Swahili, you can tell he has a real relationship with God and loves to chat and do business. Joseph was telling us how he once spent a night in the church praying, 12 hours straight! How did he not run out of things to say? Hehe.
God has been doing even more amazing things, Paul received his exam results for his first year Medicine at Liverpool. I am happy to inform that he passed and is now officially a second year! As a result, Paul can now join us for the last few weeks of our trip when we travel to Mombassa and get to relax and see more of the country. Congratulations Paul!
Even more to come very very soon!
Monday, 20 June 2011
First blog!
“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn darkness into light before them; and make the rough places smooth” Isaiah 42v16
So here we are in Kenya. After leaving Nottingham at 15.02 on Wednesday it took just over 24 hours of travelling on trains, planes and by car before finally arriving in Nairobi.
Coming through arrivals at Nairobi airport was a nervous experience, partly because I had no real idea of what time or day it was due to so much jet lag, but also because of the reality check of where we actually were and not knowing what to expect. We must have stuck out like sore thumbs, carrying our massive rucksacks, looking lost, and not to mention our massive matching broke back hats. Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee. No wonder Wesley, our contact, spotted us straight away.
Nairobi was an interesting place to be. Their roads are more like bumper cars at a fare, and a constant fear of being mugged as we were the only masungu’s around. However Wesley was great, he welcomed us with open arms into his home and even gave us his bed. I have never been so genuinely well looked after, Wesley and his family made us feel so welcome and couldn’t do enough for us.
After catching up on some sleep we adventured into Nairobi city centre on a tour by Wesley’s wife Fancy and her friend Charity. They got us a good deal on our Masai Mara trip, sim cards, easycoach to Eldoret and also treated us to lunch at an Organic restaurant.
We were up early the next morning to continue our travels to Cheptebo, we had a 6 hour coach journey to Eldoret before getting picked up by Sally and Joseph for an hour and a half drive to Cheptebo project! The coach journey to Eldoret was more of a mix between bumper cars and a roller coaster ride! Lots of terrible bumps, overtaking on hills etc. Upon arrival in Eldoret our bags were stolen! We opened the hold under the coach to find that our bags were no where to be seen. Paul’s fears, which he had kept to himself during our travels, had come true! It felt like a life time before we found them, somehow magically on the opposite side to the coach. What actually happened we don’t know, but there was no physical way they could of moved themselves.
Eldoret seemed a nicer place than Nairobi, not quite so busy. We grabbed some lunch in one of Paul’s childhood favourite places Sizzlers before heading off to our main destination, the Cheptebo Project. Hmmmm Fried Chicken :)
Some pictures of the journey…
At the project we are slowing becoming more and more busy. Everyone was very welcoming and excited to see us. We gave a small talk in church Sunday morning. We visited the local school on Monday to find out what we are going to be doing. Paul gave an amazing talk to the Christian Union at the school.
We are experiencing issues with setting up the network, the antenna which was set up by SafariCom is purely for their own benefit to increase the 3G network coverage in the area. We will be investigating into it more tomorrow, trying to find a way of getting around the issue and allowing me to setup the WiFi successfully. Most likely we will be ordering hardware from the UK as the price of equipment here is expensive.
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