We got some beers on the way home last night which we awesome. We picked them up from the treetop hotel I think its called. Tusker is the local beer, its about 4.2% and tastes similar to Budweiser beer back home. We hung out in the courtyard just chatting and smoking. Sam’s our official bottle opener as he has a neat trick with opening the bottles with a lighter. I went to bed at about 10:30, getting up at 8am and being out in the sun all day has got me into a really good sleeping pattern! Better than the 3am bedtimes I’m used to after work. Also, my shower finally works! Turns out I hadn’t flicked the switch that turns on the hot water lol although I don’t mind having a bucket and flannel shower. I remember them from when I was in Ghana and enjoyed showering like that but it’s useless when I need to wash my hair.

The bus came for us again at 8:45 and took us to have breakfast at the university. I have got into a routine of having a hot chocolate made from Milo (Nestle) and Weetabix with hot milk and a banana. I’m never too sure what has meat in it so its safer for me to stick to what I know. The food here is amazing though I’ve eaten so well the past few days.

After breakfast we had an hour to hang out so we went to feed the stray dogs. We have two favourites a female we’ve called Mama and a male we’ve named Ludo. We then went up to the classroom at 11:30 to start the work for today.

Today is all about meeting the community and starting our work on asset mapping. We started by doing introductions 11 Cham gi Wadu community members. Isobel, Irene, University of Rongo Students and University of Brighton Students and Peter. Peter explained that we are working towards the project and that we are not a charity and NGO so it will take its time. He has costed up everything and for the equipment and solar panels which is going to cost £20,000 and 3 million Kenyan shillings. Andreas has sent up crowdfunding page for the project, the concept of crowdfunding was explained to the community. Isobel is sourcing Luo artefacts to gift as thank you for big donations. Everything is underway the two things holding it back is money and the short time were here due to distance.

Peter then explained the layout of today which starts with watching the video produced by Sam last year, then a lecture by Peter then lunchtime then in the afternoon we will do mapping exercises. He then talked through the process of mapping, including what it is and how it works with the end of the day resulting in an understanding between how it is important to have CBPR and community radio. I made notes on today that I will upload to the discussion board as its all a bit heavy for the blog. I enjoyed the discussion that they had around these ideas. It was so lovely to see the community members with their notebooks making notes about what we were saying and asking us to explain things that they didn’t understand.

At 2pm we then went for lunch. When we came back we were expecting to have a practical of asset mapping however it didn’t go to plan. The mapping didn’t work on the Rongo student’s smart phones so it was called off. Internet isn’t the best here so often it is pretty hit and miss to if things will work but hopefully we won’t have this problem when we go to do our fieldwork.

Were going to stay at the university and wait for dinner. It gives us some time to work on our blogs but also for me to connect to the Wi-Fi and check my Facebook and Instagram, finally! And my emails too as I have over 40 waiting for me on my phone since Monday.

Finally, we have decided to keep everyone updated on our bowel movements because its about 90% of what we talk about at the moment haha so,

P(oo).S I’m still fine for now, touch wood, although the lentils are deffo starting to have effect