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Wednesday 25 May 2022

Well if yesterday was hot, hot, hot, then today was wet, wet, wet! In the afternoon it seemed that we had brought the English weather with us. Torrential rain for over an hour put a dampener (sorry) to our day.

Myself and Dad, with the help of a little boy Moses, re-measured the kitchen to work out how much wood we would need in total and Valentine, the headmistress of West End Academy took us to a timber yard to collect. We ordered 10 pieces, measuring 15 feet each, costing us £27 in total! We probably wouldn’t even get one for that price at home. It was even delivered to the school by a man pulling a cart.

It’s fascinating to see workmanship in Kenya and how they adapt to doing a job. During the walk to the timber yard, we saw a worker spray painting a shop door with the help of an old compressor. On the flip side, I witnessed a chicken being killed, by the breaking of its neck, for meat, which really wasn’t pleasant to watch. But that’s how it is in the slums, doing things differently from what we are used to at home, to be able to put food on the tables for their families.

I love being able to watch the children play in the playground. It’s very similar to home, girls playing with swinging ropes, boys playing football and others playing tag. It shows the innocence of the children and no matter where you are in the world, children will play the same games. 

We have volunteers who are doing a beautiful job painting inside a classroom. A stunning rainbow has been started with more to follow tomorrow. 

After finishing half of the wooden structure of the kitchen, including cutting to size and cementing them in place, the rain came crashing down and cut short our working day. That was until we continued our giving of fruit to the children at the end of school day, this time it was oranges.

Let’s hope the weather is better tomorrow.