Hi All - just copied in the email I sent round 4th Jan for those who didn't get the email..... I will attach photos somewhere asap. Not worked out if I can share on blog. But will scatter across facebook, email etc I'm sure.
****Observations from ‘Kenya Children Centres’ (Thika)***
There are 30 girls ranging from 3 to 19years….. despite it’s name, it is a relatively small children’s home set up by Alice (who is currently a social worker in the UK but comes from Thika).
Back to schoolFor most of the girls it is the first day back to school. On a school day they get up at 4am to catch the bus…. And return by 6pm (although some earlier).
So - last night was the usual ‘back to school’ activity; plating each other’s hair (which is a school requirement and all the girls are expert at doing for each other), mending shoes and sorting school
books etc.
I was really taken by how sensible they are - the girls had each been saving money over some time, and were asked to decide how to spend it in a way that would benefit everyone. Rather than choose to go out for
the day, swimming etc, they spent the bulk of the money on an iron. The girls don't have an iron and wanted to be smart for school. The remainder was split between vegetable seedlings for their garden (to save on market expenses) and a lollipop and a small bottle of ‘soda’ each.
There is a huge amount of respect for each other and for oneself here. It feels like a very happy, optimistic place to be. The girls all work so hard at school, there is a lot of emphasis placed on school achievement, with several aiming for university. [Addition from email: last night they were working on their homework until I went to bed at 10.30pm and they get up at 4am... nuts]
Cooking and busy dayOn a typical holiday day (which I’m glad I’ve been here for, for the most part) the girls will get up at 6.30 – 7am, and wash, do cleaning duties and have breakfast before 9am. I’ve been struck by how hard working all the girls are. As well as their holiday cleaning tasks and hand washing their clothes, they also take it in turns to cook the meals (which is an enormous undertaking for 30 plus people), serve the food and clean up afterwards. They also clean their room everyday, and I’ve learnt to make my bed everyday (let’s see how long that lasts in England)….
I get up at 6.30 – and butter the bread for breakfast (with a spoon – which is the preferred approach here). I’ve also tried to help cook most of the meals - which I’m loving. Most of the cooking is done on a gas ‘camping’ stove, but to save on gas some things are cooked outside on a fire (which the girls think makes the food taste ‘sweeter’). I’ve been taught to cook chapatti; last night was my third time. Some ladies from the nearby church cooked for us on Saturday and showed me a quicker way of doing it which I tried last night, but even so it still took us 3 hours from making the dough to the finished product. I couldn’t eat all mine last night, so saved one for breakfast – delicious…. My favourite meal is green gram (small green beans in a
stew – yum).
Typically the girls have a really healthy, low fat, vegetarian diet (although do eat meat once a week or so). I can’t say I’m missing meat at all. Again, I wonder if I’ll carry this on. And they put PPU to shame with the no snacking. Similarly, I haven’t even noticed not drinking alcohol – except for last night when I wondered what it would be like to have a cold glass of white wine with my chapatti.
Love for one anotherThe most striking thing for me is the tremendous love the girls have for one another, and the levels of support and help they offer. Each older girl is responsible for one of the younger one’s (and they often share a room with them). This involves washing and dressing them, washing their clothes and generally looking out for them. This is all done in abundance and more. The older girls give out lots and lots of cuddles to all of the younger girls, watch out for their safety, plan games to involve and entertain them etc. These girls mother each other in a way I’ve never seen amongst other children. There have recently been a number of new, younger girls (pre school age). I was interested in how the established girls felt about new ones joining them – and spoke to a number of them about this. They all said the same that they loved having the little girls because they brought joy (and they really do – they laugh so much). Not one mentioned the additional work it required. The girls are also hoping to receive more new girls when rooms and beds are ready.
New Years EveThis year was apparently the ‘best ever’, I’m not sure it had so much to do with me being there as it did the amount of sugary things we consumed….
We played balloon games, blew party horns/ blowers, sang, danced, painted our nails (great idea Ma/Kat to take nail stuff – although they want more pinks and purples and glitter is the key). The little girls had half their celebration before they went to bed, and half in the morning. After midnight the bigger girls poured out the ‘soda’ and said a prayer for the new year (and for Alice – the founder). A new year is a deeply religious event here – many of the churches stayed open all night, and on NY’s day the girls went to a church
service (and again on Sunday which I joined them for).
Fun things we’ve doneAside from NYE we have been playing lots of Rounders in the afternoon (they love the game itself). For a very harmonious group, this game brings out a fantastic level of competition– which is great but… my
whistle has been really invaluable. The girls are much better at Rounders than I am at Referreeing it – I’m sure I’ve accidentally made a few new rules up. At the end of the game I’ve taught them to shake
the hands of the opposition, and say “good game” which they think is brilliant.
We’ve done loads of craft; sewed fabric dolls (with dungarees and jackets), made felt flowers, and loo-roll flower wall hangings (which look much nicer than they sound), made puppets and done general
colouring in. We have also had a few nail painting sessions – although it’s all had to come off for school. There is a need for more craft bits and pieces, scissors, pencil sharpeners, paper, needles, cotton,
buttons etc….
I’ve taught them ‘Bear Hunt’ – with the actions etc. They sing it quite a lot. They also prefer to do it without the supporting DVD so they can sing it really fast – which is fantastic. I have had to explain what snow is a number of times (it features in the song)…. They want to know how we don’t 'perish' [a word they use a lot] when it’s that cold. In turn they’re trying to teach me their favourite song ‘Oh Lord I want to be like you’ (which I can hear playing in the background as I type). So far I haven’t managed to learn much more than the chorus (which is just the title of the song x4). There’s some Kikuyu in it, which has slowed me down a bit. They are trying to teach me to speak some of this – and bizarrely you can follow some of their conversations because there are often English words naturally dropped in – and it’s usual to swing between English and Kikuyu in one sentence.
We’ve also been to church, gone for walks and done a huge amount of talking and singing (they know all the Christmas songs, so I’ve been signing them with the really little ones)….
More help is always neededAll in all – I’m loving my time here – I do really want to come back – and I’d encourage anyone to come and visit this amazingly unique group of girls and young women.
Most of the girls have sponsors but the costs are high; with many going to private schools (which for a good education over here is the norm with over 80% of children paying fees), and some hoping to go to
university. There are also lots of things that could benefit the girls, more craft and sport equipment (they haven’t much of either), books (the girls don’t get novels/ reading books), enough chairs for them all to sit on, more knives to speed up cooking, fruit seedlings etc.
I have an interesting idea of how to raise some money which I hope you’ll all like, and will be organising when I’m back. If you’d like to send the girls anything (parcels etc) or to give a donation in the mean time then you can visit the website for more details – http://www.kenyachildrencentres.com/ – you can also subscribe to their newsletter.
Loads of love xxx
Ps – sorry it’s been so long, next updates won’t be.
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