Not a great nights sleep in unfamiliar surroundings.
Caroline who lives in the guest house as well has prepared me a Kenyan English breakfast of sausages and egg, very nice.
Caroline explained I was the omly volunteer staying at present ....note for Inspire Kenya whay happened to Laura, Leanne and Lauren !!!
Caroline told me more about Joy World and how it operates. She set it up some 6 years ago now and it consists of a home for about 20 orphans aged from around 5 to 16 who stay at the home for most of the time.. But it alos operates as a scholl for local children whose parents cannot afford to send them to other state schools. Considering the wages in Kenya the cost of education is very high and many parents cannot afford the school fees, uniform and books.
For the most deprived children in the area Caroline provides schooling at a much reduced cost. but she can only do this with some contribution from the parents and much fund raising. There is no state support for her.
After breakfast Caroline showed me around the school and orphanage. I was prepared for a third world experience but was genuinely shocked to see the condition of the accommodation and class rooms. They really have very very little.
As it was still the Christmas holidays there were no children at the school or orphanage. Caroline is able to send the children to either relatives or host families for a holiday over christmas. However some kids were expected to return today.
I was shown the class rooms they want me to paint whilst I am here. There are four in all about 12 foot square I would guess, and all in need of a lick of paint !!
The walls however were covered with pictures, drawinds, numbers vowels , phonic sounds etc which took me back to my own primary school days many years ago ....happy days :-)
Some of the newer class rooms ( there are 8 rooms in all 4 old and 4 newer )have classi school form benches in them familiar to the UK in bygone days.
The street in which the home is situated can only really be described as a shanty town with buildings made from all sorts of materials.
This is a very poor district of Mombasas and work is scarce. Many people are living hand to mouth and without a regular meal every day. European or western visitors are rare I think and I am the only white face I have seen.
In the afternoon Caroline and I took a bus to the ferry and crossed into the main town of Mombasa. There are many mini buses which run all of which are at least 20 years old and would have failed an MOT test years ago. The drive to the ferry is a white knuckle ride, the bus weaving in and out of traffic, bikes, hand carts and pedestrians !!! Somehow nothing hits anything !
Foot passengers can cross the ferry for free and there are hundreds of people waiting to climb aboard. The ferries run every 15 minutes through the day and all through the night.
When it is time to board a herd of humanity surges forward and up the ramp it reminds me of pictures of wildebeest I have seen crossing the river
Kenya is full of unfamiliar sounds and smells. The sour smell of humnaity is everywhere, but strangely you quickly become used to it.
We were hoping to find and use a internet cafe for me to use but all were closed on a sunday. We sat for an hour in the park lookong out over the see and i learned more about Joy World and how Caroline came to set the place up.
She is a lady with a deep and sincere passion to help the orphans and deprived children in the area of which there are too many.
We returned home for dinner and an early night as I am still shattered from from the journey.
