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Kenya and Uganda 2019

October - November 2019
Wells family trip Read more
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  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    2
    Day 1

    Heathrow

    October 16, 2019 in England ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    At Heathrow - quite a lot of luggage...

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 2

    Day in Doha

    October 17, 2019 in Qatar ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    An early arrival for a stopover in Doha. 25 hours between connecting flights meant we had to collect and recheck-in luggage, A simple task except that Doha’s ‘policy’ meant that 6 hours was the maximum luggage could be checked-in before flying! Eleven bags in a hire car was not going to be possible, so after a little persuasion we were allowed to check in the bags with the risk that they might not arrive in Nairobi
    😯.

    A tired drive to the hotel, a shower, a French breakfast in a patisserie and then we headed to the beach - it is hot - over 40 degrees, although apparently it gets to 50 degrees so today was fine! Katara beach was good and the water very warm - the best place to be as sitting on the beach was not really an option in the heat.

    After some ice cream to cool down we drove to Souq Waqif, the old traditional souq in Doha. A hive of busyness and trading, but not at all threatening with respectful traders who did not persist - perhaps reflecting the fact that Qatar is the richest country by GDP per capita. Much to Emma’s excitement there was a ‘Local Dates Exhibition’ where date producers brought their dates to be sampled - a welcome appetiser before dinner of local grilled meats and salads.

    Back to the hotel for a roof top swim. Qatar is a real mix of traditional and modern, with warm and friendly people. A night’s sleep and then to the airport to go to Nairobi, hopefully with our luggage...    Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 3

    To Nairobi

    October 18, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    An early start in Qatar, leaving at 6 in the morning to the airport, but that didn’t mean it’s cold, 32 degrees as we left. We didn’t have loads of time to get to the gate, partly due to Nathaniel and Mum trying to find something to spend our last Qatari Riyal in WH Smith, but we did make it and had a 5 and a half hour flight to Nairobi. Landing in African sunshine and a much more bearable 20 degree heat was a lovely welcome back to Kenya.Obtaining visas wasn’t half as long as the last time but did still take time filling in all the forms for us all. Then going to collect our luggage, which was a great relief. Getting out of the airport and seeing Jose waiting for us made us feel right at home again here, we even got a welcome from some giraffes soon after exiting the airport. We then had the task of driving to Ken and Maz’s house in Nairobi rush hour, we stopped quickly to buy drinks for the journey tomorrow, but it still took almost 3 hours to get there. We were lovingly welcomed into their home and then went to a burger restaurant made out of shipping containers for dinner while it rained very very very heavily. We went back and played a couple of games, one with shoes and after went to bed after a long day travelling to get some rest for another long day of travelling to Mumias.Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 4

    Rain and Shine to Mumias

    October 19, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    An early start, Jose arrived at around seven but we didn't leave Ken and Maz's until quarter to eight. We drove for about two hours over the Great Rift Valley, roads which had steep edges with no railing. On those roads we saw some baboons and an unreal view. We arrived at Lake Naivasha, which we went to because Jose said we couldn't go to Africa without seeing many animals, so we stopped off for a short boat ride. There was waterbuck and lots of birds at the side of the lake, as well as locals standing in the lake fishing, a very dangerous form of fishing! We got into a small boat which the boat driver said a hippo could try and flip over if it had the chance, we saw lots of birds for the first five minutes before seeing the first pool of hippos with about 30 hippos, no more than 5 metres away, the scariest part was that you could only see some hippos at a time, so any could be lurking beneath the boat... We also saw some giraffes on a peninsula, where both films: Out of Africa and Born Free were filmed, as well as more hippos and lots more birds. Then the driver called a fish eagle in to a neighbouring tree to the lake. Then he chucked a dead fish into the lake and the eagle swooped down from the tree at a rapid pace and picked up the fish from the water. Then we had a relaxing boat ride in to shore. We continued our long trip to to Mumias with still 6 hours to go. The journey was smooth with better roads than 4 years ago. We also stopped briefly at the line of the equator, took a quick photo before getting on our way. The trickiest moment was when the beautiful sunset suddenly morphed into an electric storm with torrential rains, masking the road, meaning it was almost impossible to see the road ahead, fork lightning and booming thunder. We were very thankful for Jose getting us safely to Fred and Esther’s house where a lovely meal was awaiting us. We finally arrived at no. Seventy guest house in more pouring rain.Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 5

    Sunday at Gospel Springs

    October 20, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    A good night’s sleep was needed, and apart from interruptions from a Saturday night party, a call to prayer and hotel noise it was just about had by most.
    The day started with Breakfast outside and then a trip to the church - we arrived to be greeted by many children outside, the church is now in its new building and is quite unrecognisable from before. We were introduced when we got there - the church had probably started at 730 and we arrived at 10 - and then were asked to preach, with 10 minutes notice! The problem with speaking is that any examples are very far removed from the day to day life of the people at the church - their worries are for food, shelter and clothes, much different from the worries we have. ‘Walking by faith and not by sight’ was the passage used with examples of driving in the torrential rain from the night before not knowing where we were going, but having faith that by following the road ahead we would reach our destination despite the conditions around (not even sure that example worked as they are very used to electric storms and heavy rain!) It was great to see friends from before like Christine and Tom as well as the children like Sylvia and Jefftha.

    For lunch time we were invited to a family connected to the church - a lunch of chapati, chicken, rice, ugali after which we went back to the guest house for a rest, run and watch of the Liverpool - Man U game! Followed by dinner at Pastor Wycliff and Mary’s house with their family.    Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 6

    Off to Schools

    October 21, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    As yesterday ‘Heros’ Day’ in Kenya today was a bank holiday - however Light Spring Academy was open although slightly depleted in numbers. Our arrival was greeted with African tea and ground nuts after which we went to meet the children who were asked to introduce themselves. As they quietly spoke, some afraid of the strangers in front of them we knew that this shyness would not last. It was about 5 minutes after they had gone back into their class to practise for their end of term celebration. Their singing and dancing is really amazing!

    Their home lives however are often far from happy. Some have HIV, one of the brightest 10 year old’s father has died from it it, her mother is infected and she was born with it. Others have very chaotic lives. While the children were playing we went for a walk in the village to see some of the homes the children come from. We visited one home where only the ‘wife’ was at home, although she was very young and had only come yesterday. Polygamy is common and some ‘marriages’ the wife will only stay a few days. Poverty often forces young girls into these situations. Another family we visited make a living by cutting rocks into smaller pieces, it is hard work and if they manage to sell them, a whole pile is worth £3.

    After lunch we went to Booker Academy - a good boarding school where we played some ‘cricket’, however by this time it had started raining so it was indoors with around 100 children, not ideal!

    Dinner at Fred and Esther’s then bed zzzzz    Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 7

    School Day 2

    October 22, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    After a good nights rest we eventually got on our way to Light Spring Academy. When we arrived we went into their classes and taught them different things, Zach and Nathaniel taught them ‘Our God Is A Great Big God’ and the national anthem; Mum taught tenses in English, Zeph taught Maths and about clothes; Dad taught Maths and I taught some long division in maths to the older class. After that we played with the kids and then had a cup of tea with egg filled chipatis then we went into more classes and watched them do their graduation dances and songs, and even Nathaniel had a go at dancing, but lacked the African rhythm. We then played with them more and played some football. We met Sylvia’s grandmother and talked with her, after we had a very nice meal of chicken and ugali. We then went to Booker academy and taught cricket, outside unlike yesterday with only little rain, and did some games of cricket and catching practice. Then Zeph, Dad And I ran back to the guest house while Mum, Zach and Nathaniel took Jose’s van. When we were running back lots of children walking back from school joined in and started running with us.Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    1
    Day 8

    Teacher Teacher

    October 23, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The day started as usual, we went to Light Spring Academy and saw all the children. We again tried to teach them something but that was more successful for some more than others. Zeph was teaching the Grade 3s, who are older and understand English quite well. Whereas I (Zach) was teaching the PP2s, who are slightly younger and don’t understand us very well. This combination of the younger age and the lack of understanding meant they took full advantage of a Muzungu teaching them, stealing water and sunglasses from me and then snatching chalk off each other, and `I couldn’t do anything to stop it because they didn’t understand. Dad and Wycliffe went to the Mwale Medical and Technology City www.mwalemedicalandtechnologycity.com a supposedly $2 billion project nearby to the church. The bought some bricks from the church over 2 years ago and still haven’t paid - the amount outstanding is around $700. He went to the ‘mall’ where the office is located - this mall is a large business with large shelves mainly selling water as well as wellington boots and even hard hats, all very spread out on the vast shelves. After being told to wait for 30 minutes to see the manager, he then phoned to say he was very busy. Dad also spoke to him without too much success saying he’d pay by the end of November. The whole scheme seems a huge fraud with the mainly US investors unlikely to see any of their money, while the ‘chief investor’ and owner Julias Mwale seems to live in a luxury villa next to the complex (apparently in an office displaying photoshopped photos of himself with world leaders!)

    We then went to Booker and it didn’t rain that much! We had lots of children playing cricket on the field and (hopefully) they were all enjoying it. Some girls we had met earlier in the week tried to plait mum’s hair, using her brace elastic bands to tie the ends. We had to say goodbye to everyone at Booker as they were finishing school so we weren’t going back again. We had a photo and they all thought that Zeph’s hair was a wig so all started stroking our hair as ‘it’s so soft’! They then asked for our ‘autographs’ so we wrote a message on a paper and all signed it. We went back to the hotel and then went to Fred and Esther’s for a fish dinner.    Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    2
    1
    Day 9

    Graduation Day

    October 24, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today was the graduation of the children in PP2 at Light Springs Academy, so the 5/6 year olds were all wearing their graduation gowns and hats, which was very cute. We left earlier so we were there in time for the ceremony, which was starting around 10. We sat down in the church, with the parents and teachers, as the ‘distinguished guests’. It started with a song from the older children in which they gave ‘flowers’/tinsel to Mum and Dad, it then moved onto the scores that everyone had scored and put them in order of their scores at the front and the head teacher commented on the changes in position that each for each of the children, something that doesn’t happen in England! All the children had performed very well, with most getting over 50% in their exams. We moved onto speeches from Wycliffe, the head teacher and then parents were able to voice their opinion of the school, it was quite incredible what the school has provided these children with and the parents stories confirmed that, with one student not being able to speak before he went to the school. We handed out lunch to all the children and parents and then we ate lunch ourselves. There were then there was some more songs from the children, one which you have to give money to them as a reward for sing and dancing so well. Dad then presented the certificates to the PP2 students who were graduating, and every certificate that was given got a huge African cheer. We gave out balloons and biscuits to all the children at the end which they absolutely loved and we then went on a walk to Wycliffe’s mum’s house because Wycliffe said ‘if we stayed then the children would never leave!’ We walked down the road to where Wycliffe grew up which meant that he knew everyone! We met his mother and other members of his family, including his 102 year old relative!

    We walked back to the church and lots of the children were still there to welcome us back. We couldn’t stay there for long as we were going to visit Tom’s house and business, who is a member of the church we met last time. He lives in the most incredible place, with beautiful views of the hills, we went into his home and met his family- his wife, mother, 3 year old son and his 1 week old son- who were very welcoming and gave us tea. His older son, Hope, wasn’t too sure of the 6 muzungus! He runs a computer business in the town and we visited his business to see it. We went back to the hotel quickly before going to Wycliffe and Mary’s house to cut the cake for Jephtha’s graduation, who entertained us all by feeding us all cake off his fork and singing happy birthday! It was a very short drive to next door to Fred and Esther’s for dinner, which was lovely as always. Back to the hotel for a much needed sleep after a long and busy day!    Read more

  • Kenya and Uganda 2019
    Day 10

    Relaxing

    October 25, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    After a hectic few days and a proposed trip to Kakamega we decided to take it easier. After a leisurely breakfast we went down the road to a swimming pool. With only about 3 others in the pool we nearly had the pool to ourselves until 3 school bus loads of children turned up, about half of whom swam with the rest watching from the side! After a light lunch we went back to the hotel and took a walk through the back roads to Mumias to visit the market. A chilled day was finished with dinner at Wycliff and Mary’s with a pastor from Zambia.Read more

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