Friday arrived really quickly but I forgot it took a day to get here lol, my first week in Kenya has flown by and just as I’m getting accustomed to everything we only have 2 weeks left and I could stay here longer. Waking up this morning was a struggle as I’m always hit with the fear of what insect I could find crawling in my bathroom wall or bedroom floor and will I survive the day with all the creepy insects around me. In addition I woke up with a banging headache from the night before, where I discovered I can’t handle Kenyan apple cider, with a 4.5% alcohol. Pathetic. Disgraceful.

Carrying my headache into the heat we were driven to breakfast one of our many routines, where I was delighted to see boiled eggs was on the menu. After breakfast me and the others sat on the grass as we soaked up the sun and nursed our full stomachs of sausage, eggs and plantain.

Today we met several of the Kenyan’s from Cham gi Wadu, the community we are researching about and planning to map a community radio station for. They’re a lovely bunch of people to meet who have a big care for their community and wish for it to thrive.

Along with the Kenyans and the community of Cham gi Wadu we listened to a talk given by Peter on community information, communication asset mapping for community radio and Cham gi Wadu. We started the class by watching the CM4K documentary of last years students, based on their visit to Cham gi Wadu and their visit to all the different communities which do many of the few things, such as brick making, fishing etc. Within this video, many of the students talked about their process of their study whilst in the communities and what they wish to do for the community.

As the class progressed we were split up to work with the group from Cham gi Wadu and with the Kenyan students whilst gathering research on all the communities and the best way to help them through the radio station. Example, the fishing community want to receive fresh water like the water community in order to allow their fishes to survive longer using the radio station they can communicate with the fresh water community on how they received fresh water and to use their knowledge to develop their own fresh water and allow their fishes to survive longer.

Working with the community opened my mind into what we are expected to do whilst in Kenya and seeing the passion and love they have for their community, makes me want to use all my research and mapping skills I have and will learn throughout this trip to give the community a radio station.

We were back in our groups and with the community we were given 4 questions to discuss with the community; What does geography mean for you in Kenya? What are maps and how can we use them to plan and operate a Community Radio Station? What are the community assets? How do communities communicate with each other? These questions were difficult to answer but with the community we were able to come to many conclusions for them all and open our mind on the mapping we were supposed to do of the area after lunch as a group, which were to then be placed on Google Maps.

At around  2pm we took a well deserved lunch break of chicken, fish, rice, cabbage and for desert fruit I can only wish I could afford back in England. I never turn down a plateful of fruit here as I’m getting my 5 a-day and the cooks take good care on me by always giving me fruit on a separate plate due to my allergy. As usual I ate more than my stomach could carry and I could only blame myself as I carried it across the field to sit in the sun and have a good laugh with the other students.

Due to a lack of mobile phones working, we were unable to go outside and begin our mapping for the community. Instead we finished our presentation and got to discuss our day with the other students.

I have a high anticipation for tomorrow as it being Saturday we are travelling to Rusinga Island to visit Lake Victoria and hopefully see some hippos. AYYY!!!