Kisumu 2008 Blogs
Blog 1
The (Kisumu Project) Blog – Week 1
It’s the end of the first week, we’re sitting on the roof of the Sooper Guest House
discussing the Tenteleni Fun Day – which is seven weeks away, at this juncture – fully
used to our breakfasting-on-the-terrace way of life! We’re a small group, with only five
English volunteers (including P.C. Helen, who isn’t as much ‘P.C. Helen’ as ‘Helen
(…P.C.)’) and two Kenyan ones, but luckily we all get on (so far, anyway!) well enough
to withstand hours of training in the hot sun…
All right, that was a complete exaggeration. Hours of training, perhaps, but punctuated
by tea breaks with cake and hot chocolate, and the occasional (or, frequent) interruption
with “IN MY PANTS! … the best a man can get!” (and so on, and so forth). And, okay,
Kakamega, where we were training, can’t really be called hot by anyone’s standards,
being up in the mountains – and let’s not forget Anthony, our guide at the University;
even Jake couldn’t dispute his status as a ‘supuu’ (“hottie”)… but still. It hasn’t all
worked like a well-oiled machine… One of the Kenyan volunteers involved with the
Shiriki exchange programme had to leave the day we got to Kakamega with what turned
out to be typhoid(!), although the most recent reports say that she’s doing well and might
be back with us tomorrow.
All in all, though, the group seems to agree, “the training week’s been pretty good.”
Highlights include what has been affectionately termed “Jake’s pantyhose moment”
during a game of taboo (I will leave this to your imagination), impossible charades
(Casablanca, anyone? …No, really, anyone?!), a long-running game of ‘In My Pants…’
(the goal being to finish it off with some advertising slogan) with the epic – and
unsavoury – “In My Pants … let the juice loose!”, and Robert’s brilliant acting (or
“acting”, perhaps…) as a pervert (picture on its way! Once I figure out how to get it off
my camera…).
We did actually do some work (don’t worry, Ruth!); the favourite sessions were, almost
unanimously, the lecture (and debate with the head of the research liaison team!) on the
causes and prevalence of HIV and AIDs in Kenya, delivered by Margaret Imonge, a
teacher at the University. Most people also liked the session on primary teaching
methods, possibly because the man who delivered it was the single happiest-looking
individual on the planet… And it was good to know, too. Useful. Although, hopefully
less usefully, we were warned not to follow the example of a Biology teacher in England
who apparently got up in front of the class and stripped naked to teach a lesson on the
human body … According to Fiona, this is the second year running Tenteleni has been
given this advice!
Personally, I really enjoyed learning Swahili (and a little bit of the local dialect, Luo),
partially but not entirely because our teacher was Robert, who is hilariously pretty near
constantly. It might have helped, though, to have shorter language sessions more often,
maybe with the “cross-cultural exchange” sessions in the middle, because whilst I know
how interesting it was, I’m not sure how much I took in. (But I’m sure I’ll find out!)
At the end of the training week, Fiona thinks it was “bloody brilliant!”, Robert can see
the future of the Shiriki programme as its becoming “world renowned (as long as we
work as a team!)”, and the rest of us are (nervous and) excited for Monday, when we
start our placements. But first, and most importantly (priorities!), I think we might be
going for chips…
- Nehaal Bajwa