Kenya 2001: A Prologue

As a long awaited return to Kenya is nearly apon us, I thought I'd revisit the journal I kept while I was out there and post some extracts here.

I did serialise it - virtually unedited - on another blog, but I've since taken it down as it was somewhat incriminating!

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It was 2001. I was just 19 and having elected to take a 'gap year' between secondary school and university I'd decided to spend 6 months of it teaching in Kenya.

I'd looked at a couple of established companies who sent a large number of 'gappies' each year to various developing countires to teach and travel. In the end, through a friend of a family friend, I ended up finding a one man operation that did much the same thing but on a considerably smaller scale, operating out of some of the Rift Valley's poorest primary schools.

There were 10 of us thet went out. We were paired up and split amongst 5 schools. From the money that we paid for the 6 months, we were given a monthly sallary of about £50, which was little more than the Kenyan teachers were paid. We lived within the community and during the week, lived as authentic a rural Kenyan life as would realistically have been possible: we did without, electircity, hot water and proper toilets and lived in houses/huts comparable to most Kenyans' homes.

Whilst our Monday to Friday routine was very basic, at the weekend we would get together and enjoy a few more luxuries and visit local attractions. We also had a month off during the schools' Easter break to get some more further afield travelling under our belts.

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The first day:

Wow. This place is amazing.

We got into Nairobi just after 9pm last night. Harris met us with some of his people and we drove to The Green House in two Landrovers (smokers and non-smokers). The roads gradually got worse and worse - the ones from Gilgil to The Green House take the piss.



Last night was spent getting suitably bladdered on Kenyan lager.

Today began with football and the realisation of how high up we are! We had lunch followed by Swahili lessons. Lucus, the teacher, was a good laugh, but I couldn't help wondering whether he'd nick our stuff after.

First trip into Gilgil, the small nearby town:

It felt so weird going into Gilgil. Everyone just stopped and stared - I felt really vunerable. We soon picked up a gaggle of street kids. These guys are awesome, but I'm really glad we were with one of Harris' guys.



The market was incredible, just shit loads of shoes and clothes, people playing cards, and then a whole area crammed with fruit, veg and dried beans.

I'm gaining a bit more confidence with greeting people in Swahili and it's really great fun. They're so appreciative that you're making an effort in their language.

The first night in our new home, having been let loose on our own:

We've now been split into pairs and are in our new homes now. I'm with Doug, which is cool and we get on well. We're at the school with the hot-springs, which is good news. Right now I can't remember the name of the place we are at but Doug is asking Ester, our house-girl, and it is called "Kikopey".

PK and Harris brought us up here. I used my first "long-drop" shortly after they left. It's a bit of an arse having to squat to take a shit and I managed to let the cows out into the crop-field. By the time I'd finished shitting, thought, Ester had shooed them back!

We went for a bit of a walk, just now, to try and find the hot-springs. Needless to say we didn't find the springs but we did find lots of children screaming "'Ow are you"!! And we also met the drunk school-watchman.

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I'll dig out a few more of my favoute entries over the next couple of weeks, so check back soon!