Kiwanja Ndege Community Project "One thing is for sure though – it has made me realize that the only way to make other people aware of the world outside their own front yard, is a device you carry on your shoulder with a big red button that says - RECORD!"

Day 2: We awoke to the sounds of a rooster, not quite the wake up call I expected in Africa. I opened my tent and was mesmerized be the vibrant colour palette that presented itself to me. In the distance I could see a couple of young kids, probably making their way to school in the sunny but chilli morning. I took out my camera to capture some of the amazing colour combinations that had formed on the horizon, announcing it would certainly become a typical African day. Sunny, hot and dry as a pancake baked on sand. I sat down at the camp table, trying to remember all the names that were thrown at me the night before and tried to put a face to them. I succeeded with most of them. Being served with eggs and bacon, muesli and the instant coffee, which was later simply referred to as diesel, was a great and fuelling start to the day. We walked up to the school. The hill, which had made just a small impression in the car the day prior, suddenly had become much larger than life when on foot and carrying camera gear. What did I have to complain about? Some of the children, I found out later, had a 6km walk to and from school each day. Now it made sense to me why Kenya is the leading nation when it comes to marathons and other endurance sports! We made our way through the school fence, which was basically made out of sticks, all scumbled together, to keep the school safe from...from what actually? I never bothered to ask, but really I didn’t want to find out anyway. I set my camera ready for capturing, when I came around the corner of one of the classroom buildings and saw about 300 little children all lined up in front of the headmaster. More and more big dark beautiful eyes started to stare our way while still pretending to face the headmaster. A slight giggle started to erupt throughout the children. One of the kids started clapping and suddenly all of them started to follow. A song. A song they would sing every morning to bless their luck of being able to have the possibility of being educated. The possibility of having the chance of spending time with each other and being able to share knowledge amongst themselves. Soon our guide pulled us aside to split the group into two teams, painters and carpenters. Was this to split the men from the boys? The carpenters group was to assemble new school desks, while the painters were to strip down the walls of the classrooms and to undercoat followed by a light blue colour of fresh paint. At first painting sounded like the easier option, that was until they discovered that the kids has used glue to stick their posters onto the walls. Scraping down the walls before painting was a job of devotion – not pleasure... The day progressed by everyone putting in as much as they could. Assembling school desks didn’t sound to hard at first, yet being a carpenter without access to electricity makes drilling holes quite a time- and endurance-consuming job. We ended the day by trotting down the hill back to our campsite, exhausted and in need of food we discovered that Jackson, our oh so talented cook, had delivered a feast. To this day we are still unsure how this little man, who’s body’s pivot point was more in his back, due to his proud beer belly, was able to come up with the most delicious recipes when limited to the bare minimum. Followed by a bottle of Tusker (beer) we all fell into our beds...sorry make that tents with hard floors and rolled up jumpers to lean our head on. Even though all our luxuries were far away from us, we all still had a good nights sleep...