The green green grass of home

I slept for the first time in 3.5 days and it was amazing... so amazing that I slept in (it will be no suprise for many of you to learn) and was late to load my bags onto the jeep which was going to take them to our next destination. My lateness did not stop me from getting breakfast however as myself and my roommate Giles heroically got ready, packed and threw our bags on the vehicle in under 10 minutes. As an aside, Last nights dinner was a tremendous buffet of kenyan cuisine. The beef and bananas was a hot topic, as the bananas appeared to be bananas in all but taste. More like potatoes, quite odd.

The staple foodstuff of East Africa is something called 'Ugali' which is basically a stodgy lump of ground rice with absolutely no flavour whatsoever. I can't quite imagine why it's so popular but if i had to guess i'd go with cost over flavour. I have a feeling i will be eating a lot more of this in the coming month so i'd best get used to it. Our first trip into Machakos town was quite interesting. People looking on in complete bewildermentas 16 white folk (Muzungu's) troop into town in a row. Not a sight seen here often I feel. The local shool children were the most inquisitive and started following us down the road chanting 'How are you?' and then running away when we turned to respond.

Today we are to finish our introductionary training with the Quest Overseas leaders, Mike and Beth, and the Excellent development guys, Simon and Joshua (the main man round here). Learning the local lingo (Kikamba), and hearing the stories of how the community projects in this region came to be. It was all quite emotional at times and I left confident that my being here was not in vein. There seems to be genuine gratitude for the help we are offering. I see the main benefits of a project such as this to be twofold: Bringing money in to the region, straight to the people (bypassing the corrupt government) and more importantly creating a cultural exchange and breaking down barriers and misconception between two completely different lifestyles.

After lunch we set off to Kola Village, whih will be our new home for the next 4/5 weeks.

The journey to Kola was shared with Alexander who had earlier given us a lesson in Kikamba (in his own very amusing and peculiar style). The man is absolutely crazy. En-route we stopped off to pick up some supplies and were immediately inundated with loads of street kids who at first seem inquisitive but quickly become extremely demanding, begging for food and money. One kid was clearly sniffing glue from the inside of his sleeve too. Being responsible travelers we refuse to give in to their demands and offer a handshake and smile instead. then Alexander gets back in the car an starts handing out apples from his window immediately ruining everything as 20 more kids come running our way. Foot to the floor and we sped off as the frenzy unravels behind us. Cheers Alexander.

On the move again and Alexander very kidly points out to us what a cow is. And what a goat is. And what a sheep is.... 'In your country they all come wrapped in plastic' ..he tells us... 'so now you know what they really look like'. Thank you Alexander, very kind.

The scenery is great with rolling hills turning to flat, sandy plains in the same landscape. Lush greenery turns into harsh, parched land in the blink of an eye.Location is everything here.

Our arrival in Kola is wonderful. As our cars roll into the compound that will be our home for the next month we are greeted by around 70 important folk from the surrounding neighbourhoods and villages. They have all walked a long way just to be here to greet our arrival. Instantly the women burst into song and dance and our bums start wiggling as soon as we jump down from the vehicles. This is our first chance to try out our newly learnt Kikamba skills as we shake hands with everyone... "Wi museo mono". Everyone is so friendly and everyone is smiling huge grins.

We were then sat down in red plastic garden chairs, whilst the majority of the communities sat on hand crafted wooden benches, facing us. A slightly odd situation but it was calmed as Joshua stood up and asked us all, visitors and villagers alike, to pray for the success of our visit. Speachesfrom Joshua, Simon and theChairmen from each Community followed with words of support and welcome, spoken in Kikamba and translated into English by Kioko, a young local man who also works for the excellent development charity on the Kenyan side.

It was all very nice and they seemed genuinely happy to see us and make us welcome. Shortly after the speaches ended we were asked to stand up individually and introduce ourselves in the local lingo, and like the true Brits we all were, we managed to get the opening line wrong, using the singular not the plural. Ooooops! They didnt not interupt however and just corrected us at the end with a chuckle.

Our sleeping arrangements are not bad at all considering. The lads were put in a stable type building with metal framed sponge matress beds, whilst the Girls were given living quarters (because they are girls). Putting up our mosquito nets was a slight problem which was fixed with a little bit of MacGyver styled rigging with a couple of sticks and some string. The guys toilets however consits of a battered old shed 30 meteres away with a hole in the floor. Basic but essentially clean. For now! To keep it that way our western minds immediately began to invent various ways of making the experience a little less horrible. We decided to fashion some 'lids' to place over the holeswhen not in use, to keep out flies or anything else for that matter. With the lids in place we now faced a problem of how to pick up these lids without touchingsomething dirty. In answer to this we afixed a metal hook to each lid and then created a stick with another metal hook on the end. to lift the lid, all one has to do is to take ones 'Poo stick' and hook up the lid whilst in use. It became a right of passage for a man to create his own Poo Stick, and no Woman shall be allowed to know the mystery of the fantsatic devise... they shall be kept guessing.

Dinner this evening will be a home cooked affair, and it seems as though i'm to be one of the first cooks. We find a BBQ type thing and immediately deide that the sausages we have just bought shall be tongihts meal. As it turns out this BBQ is quite tricky to cook on, esspecially witout any BBQ tools. I ended up burning all 50 sausages (but they were lovely in the middle). Joshua and his wife Rodah came round for dinner and 'enjoyed' my lovely sausages, honestly.

It has been a great first day in Kola with lots learnt about camp hygein and the importance of rules... tomorrow is my first day of work I'm looking forward to it.