I had billed to the group that Friday was going to be a busy day and it certainly lived up to the billing!
So a quick start to the day off to schools for only a part day. I went back to Namanda primary school where we spent most of the morning continuing to make lintel frames and listen to the neverending sound of the chainsaw going. This ended up feeling like someone actually drilling into the side of our heads!
We did have an exciting part of the morning when we watched the locals fell a tree for the timber. This started with a young man climbing the tree with a rope and tying it two-thirds of the way up. Clearly, the purpose of this was to direct the fall of the tree. I guess they missed this part on a previous tree as one of the existing classrooms sustained some damage to the veranda when a tree fell on it. So we watched from a safe distance as the tree was being cut and then the rope was being pulled. The tree started moving, fortunately where it should have been, and most of the builders were sensible and ran sideways out of the way. One not-so-sensible chap decided to run directly away from the tree, in a scene from a slapstick comedy routine the tree fell and this guy was running straight at us away from it. Luckily this didn't end in disaster but could have so easily gone wrong.
Once fallen the trees were being sliced up into timber planks with a fairly oversized chainsaw and the skill shown with this to create some really straight planks was incredible. In the UK these would have obviously gone through a saw-mill having been dried and prepared.
Visiting a previous School
Laura, Harry and I dropped a group of students off at Esther home, see yesterday's blog about that whilst we went back to visit Naisambu Girls Secondary School. This was where we learnt about Esther home and built a double classroom back in 2018. It was amazing to see the transformation in the school and the size of the buildings we have constructed. It was clearly larger than the other classrooms at the school and is now home to a Science lab and classroom. There were some girls in the lab clearly working on some physics experiments just as they would be in any other lab around the world. Whilst there were no gas taps and sink that you'd find in most UK labs the equipment was all there for them to use and work with. This is a massive success story and a great opportunity for girls to thrive for their future.
Our mural that we painted was now unfortunately blocked from view from the main entrance but the school had not wished to cover it so have left a gap between their new administration building and the wall that we painted. It looked amazing to see and was in really good condition despite being there for 5 years.
It was really hard not to be too emotional at this point as this had been a place where we had got to know the community really well.
The Dorothy School International Scout camp
We arrived at the school/ church, they are on the same site, a little late, well it was a lot to cram in to 1 day, to enjoy some activities with the scouts from this school and another school. Scouting, unlike the UK, is predominately run through schools. Each school will have a scout group that will, take responsibility for the school flag each morning and afternoon, and have regular sessions within the school. They also have a different necker (or scarf, there are disagreements about what people want to call it, but I am happy with necker!) depending on which section they are in. These are the same neckers for the whole country. The young ones, what would be our beavers/cubs wear a yellow one, green for the scouts and a maroon colour for the explorers/rovers.
We arrived and then Laura and I were ushered into the boardroom to take tea and discuss the programme. This was clearly a protocol that we had to follow and allowed multiple people to say a few words to each other.
After we came outside we were all treated to some traditional kenyan tea which is essentially milk that is boiled and then a tea bag added to it. It takes a little getting used to and I think the bush behind the tent probably got more of it then the students drank.
We then sat and listened to some music while there was a bit of a lul, whilst we waited for the flag pole to be erected, and with a little bit of encouragement I got our team up dancing with Francis. I then encouraged the Kenyan scouts to join in and the impromptu dance session ensued with a real party atmosphere.
Once the flag was broken we then split into 2 teams to play some games including tug of war. We managed a single bought of tug of war before the rain came and we dived inside the church for some games and a talk about the history of scouting. The talk may have been a little long and not pitched at the right level for the audience but everyone was very respectful and listened. I of course was invited to add a few words so I kept it really short so that we could go for dinner! We were all starving by that point.
During dinner, I walked around our group to see who had had enough and didn't want to venture back out for the campfire and roasted goat, and to my surprise, only those that really felt unwell chose to stay back. So we packed out the bus and went back for the evening festivities.
Campfire
This absolutely deserves its own space here. I remembered the first fire I went to here and was surprised by the size and heat it produced so I knew we were in for a real treat. The campfire was lit with the customary instructions about how we were going to sing and dance around the fire and then the Kenyan scouts entertained us with some of their songs and our students just got stuck in and learnt the dance actions as we went.
We had a couple of quiet conversations about what we were going to do as our offering around the fire and we agreed to some repeat-after-me chants including, Cecil the caterpillar, there was a moose, Joe's button Factory a round of row row row your boat which of course got competitive! We sang Kum by yah all together and this felt like a really magical moment. We then had a prayer, recited the promise and then everyone joined in with the eating of the goat, roasted Mbuzi!
After this we carried on dancing and singing and making friends until we had to part company just after 10pm. You know when people are having a good time when you get to the end of the night and no one wants it to end!
Our singing carried on in the bus back to the Karibuni and I wouldn't have been surprised if the whole of Milimani or Kitale could have heard us!
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