Start of a new challenge

Day 30 – 28th March 2009

Last night I had one of the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I’ve been here. The air con was lovely and it was nice to be on such a comfy bed (with no mosquito net to get tangled up in!)

Since I’m the guinea-pig of the Guest House I woke up at 9 and got breakfast (included), I had toast (marmite =]), cereal and a banana so all was good! I then left the Guest House just before 10 to walk down to Holpac (the school) since Karen Graham had invited me to a fun day they were having for the Quarry kids. Now these are the kids who live in the Quarry just behind the school and Karen and her husband Shaun run a kids club so once a week the children have an opportunity to just be kids! Today was a special day though and there was a football tournament organised, skipping ropes, hoops and lots of crafts so you could make bracelets out of the beads supplied. I helped out with the crafts making things which was really fun and I’m proud that I can at least communicate on a basic level with people in Swahili.

I spent until about three at the school (had a nice lunch of chicken and curried potatoes!) and then I headed back to the Guest House. Now it’s a good thing I was the guinea-pig! The handle on my door is faulty, so you can’t open it from the inside unless you have the key – which I didn’t! So I had to phone Jackie to come and let me out! But the afternoon was a good one, I spent some more time on the Jangwani profiles and I had a LOVELY dinner of steak and chips so I was happy.

Day 31 – 29th March 2009

I woke up at around nine today after another night’s great sleep. Today I was planning to do much, have a nice day off where I could do the profiles. The Restaurant in the compound also does a Sunday Lunch so I was going to go to that as well.

When it came round to about 2 I made my way down to the restaurant for lunch. It was quite busy with around ten people there and it was nice to talk to lots of people. I also met someone who does Safari’s so dad and I are going to keep him in mind for next week. The food was great (I really have missed roast dinners) and I had a chocolate brownie for pudding which was equally as good. After lunch everyone milled around the bar for a few hours then I headed back to the Guest House to do some work.

At lunch I’d made a promise to one of the guests to fix his iPod/iTunes so he came round at 5 and I sorted that out for him. I spent the evening watching some TV and then I had an early night seeing as I would be waking up before 6.30 tomorrow (Ah!)

Day 32 – 30th March 2009

I love how even at 6.30 it feels like the middle of the day here – hot and bright. I woke up nice and early, had my breakfast and made myself a pack lunch =]

The place I’m staying at is really near to HOPAC (spelling check there, not Holpac) which means ‘Haven of Peace’. It’s about ten minutes to walk there so that’s nice. I get there in time for school to start which is great. The school day is 7.15-2 with two breaks inbetween. The school only has one class per year so it’s quite small – it’s also quite a heavily Christian school (Something which a lot of you will find shocking for me =]). The kids are very sweet though, as always! The class is predominately boys though so it’s a bit wild – especially since it’s the last week of term! Karen also took me on a mini tour of the school, it’s a tight knit community so all the buildings are fairly close and the primary and secondary sections aren’t very far apart at all. Karen also showed me the Staff Room (What a view!! – You can see the ocean, pretty spectacular.)

The day was spent doing some maths, English and they also got given some colouring in. At 2 I went along with Karen and Shaun to watch the swimming Gala because Megan was swimming and I was going back to their house that night. It was quite sweet to watch some of the smaller ones swim and sometimes they surprised you with abnormal speed. Megan did really well but she was piped at the post for 3rd. During the gala Karen and I went across to the guest house to pick up my stuff and then go get some chips for tonight’s dinner of chip butty’s. Once the gala was over we all headed back to their house and spent the evening with dinner and top trumps.

Day 33 – 31st March 3009

I slept all lovely and great last night (Memory foam =D) but unfortunately I seem to have picked up a cold. A cold?! Surely it’s kind of impossible to get a cold in this heat?? So my throats a bit sore but that’s okay. Early rise at 6.30 again and we all bundle in the car at 7 to go to school.

The day had a similar theme to yesterday, however, it’s Easter week so a lot of time is spent remembering the Easter story and we also have an assembly where installations of the ‘Easter Puppet Show’ was performed because on Friday they’re going to run the whole thing for the big Easter end of term Assembly with the whole school and parents. Along with the usual maths and English work they do they also have Swahili classes, which are a lot of fun to sit in on. Again I’m finding myself remembering lots of names which is great, oh I forgot to mention Louis (Karen’s youngest daughter) is also in the class so that’s also quite nice.

Once school is finished we all go back to their house since I’m there for one more night. I’m shattered already by this point so the evening goes pretty quickly. We have homemade curry for dinner which was lovely and spend the afternoon with TV and the small Talent show Louis and Jacob put on for us. I think I’m asleep before nine tonight since I feel so grotty still and I’m so tired!

- Love, Emma xxx