Day 8 - Wednesday

 We have been here a week!

The journey from school to Kitale now seems like a dim and distant memory. So I wanted to spend today sharing our daily commute and give you a sense of what the roads along our journey's each morning look like. 

As we travel out of the main city of Kitale the countryside is an ever-repeating view of maize fields, colourful little towns and then an abundance of schools and houses. The maize fields are everywhere. Kenya and in particular the county here grows so much maize that it rightly deserves the name, The breadbasket of Africa. It is a crop very similar to corn in the rest of the world and is a staple diet of Kenyans.

Towns

The little towns that we drive through are always incredibly colourful. The buildings are painted in all colours, with lots in the colours of brands such as Safaricom, one of the main Kenyan mobile providers, MPesa, the standard payment system here, Crown or Royal Paint. These buildings are usually accompanied by market stalls which are made from any odd bits of wood that people find to put them together. The stalls usually sell produce and arrange their stock in various stacks and piles to attract passing trade.

Usually in the centre of each town, you find large groups of motorbike riders. The riders are essentially the local taxi or delivery service. They take anything up to 6 passengers, yes I did type 6  and no it wasn't a slip of the finger, where they want to go. They are also used for delivering all manner of goods. This year, we have seen everything from a complete sofa, yes a 2 seater sofa, no not flat packed, complete, bunk beds, large building materials that have no place on the back of a bike, sticking out at all angles and being dragged behind the bikes!

No one batters an eyelid at this at all. I can't imagine what the UK authorities would say if you have any of these things on the back of a bike but I'm fairly sure the journey would come to an abrupt end.

Building

Today's building has had a real change of pace. Finished is the brickwork and now the creation of the steel formers for the columns and lintels is in full swing. This is fiddly work but with lots of people working on it, these are created in next to no time. The really frustrating part of it is the lack of tools available to use. We waited nearly an hour for a couple of hacksaw blades, which fit into saws made from bent pieces of metal rather than the actual hacksaws we'd use in the UK. This is also true of other tools too where they seem to be in rather short supply which just keeps the pace of the build really slow.

Football & Sports

The afternoon saw my school's neighbouring secondary school wanting to play a game of football. Football is really popular here with most people knowing about a few of the main teams in our Premier League. We agreed to play 20 minutes each way game as there was no way that we would manage much longer in the heat. We were playing a mixture of students and teachers and we were given a number of students to add to our team. 

The pitch itself was, well let's just say not flat, sloping and with more bumps and lumps than the surface of the moon, it was hardly the ideal playing surface. One whole side of the pitch had no grass and was like playing on ice with no grip at all underfoot so it was going to make for an interesting game.

It wouldn't be a game of football without mentioning the ref. We couldn't work out which rule book he was playing to but 2 penalties, countless freekicks and their goalkeeper being sent off made for an interesting 'friendly' game that finished 1-1. Oh did I mention that whilst the first half was 20 minutes the second was closer to 60! Whilst the game saw some passionate moments with the ref being surrounded, we definitely made some friends on that pitch!

The drive back to the Karibuni was quiet. Most of us dozed as we made our way back. I for one was incredibly exhausted.

Murals

The after-dinner activity saw our students planning what they were going to paint in the schools as a lasting reminder of our being there. Whilst, the students and staff will always remember the Muzungus that came and built their classrooms the paintings last long after the current students leave.

Our students have been incredibly creative and now it is time to convert these drawings and ideas onto the wall.