We left late again today… sensing a pattern here. We went to go have a lecture but the students weren’t there so we had to wait until after lunch. We sat around and read and talked in the sun and shade.

We met the Vice Chancellor before lunch. He and Peter spoke about the benefits of the community and university partnerships, and how it impacts the students to be able to work together. The chancellor, Samuel Gudu, spoke about how it helps the University of Rongo to have these external partnerships because it helps legitimize them to others, which in turn gets them more funding. Partnerships have so much emotional and educational benefits, and because those are the benefits I glean from the partnership, I forget about the monetary benefits that come with them as well. We brought the suitcase of equipment to open and show the chancellor, but it was locked and we didn’t have the key. Very fitting for the tone of this trip.

The lecture was good, and then we went out and worked with the equipment. We split into groups of audio, video, and photography. I volunteered to do photography because a lot of people choose to do video. It was good, and I worked with Ellie and a student named Hillary. We all swapped information and it felt good. It felt gratifying to collaborate with the students finally because that was something that I was really looking forward to doing. It started raining so we went back inside after about an hour. 

Today we met the VC and students of Machakos Uni. We were given a tour of the campus and told about the green initiative they have to combat global warming.

The students were so friendly and kind. They were eager to know more about our lives in England and tell us about student life outside of university in Kenya! It was really interesting comparing how we live.

We then went to a local community where they told us about their culture and issues they faced. We were greeted with a traditional Kenyan welcome of singing and dancing, it was truly amazing.

Seeing how many people had come for this was insane, they shared with us traditional cooking appliances and told us more about their lives.

When speaking of issues, I think we all struggled. Again it’s so hard hearing how these people live. In this community, they were particularly struggling with crops due to drought and water due to sewage being dumped in their closest water source.

In some ways, we felt like they were asking us specifically to help. But I thought about it and I think that these people are more open to speak about issues they face (unlike in the UK) and want to share with us their experiences of life. In addition, translation will always pay a part – I don’t think they wanted our help specifically but they want to raise awareness of the challenges they face day to day.

Throughout the talks, a little girl was playing with me. She was so cute! Fascinated by my nails, hair and tattoos, she kept coming back and forth for hours upon hours. I loved being able to connect without even having to speak – moments like this really make me so grateful to be alive.

They finished with a dance and song. This was honestly so amazing to watch, I left beaming after being able to experience this!

Finally, we met with the local government and shared our thoughts on why community radio could benefit the area. We were very clear in that we do not know enough to tell them what will benefit the area as we have only experienced a few hours there – the only people who could give the true answer to this are those who live it every day.

This was the most amazing way to finish the trip, it brought all the knowledge we had learnt in the classroom and throughout the trip together in such a meaningful way. We all left feeling ecstatic, I feel like we really made a difference. I think out of everything, I’ve learnt so much about myself and I’ve got a new found thankfulness for what is my normal.

I could not have done this without such an amazing group of friends. This truly will change me not only academically but personally.

We had a relaxing morning at the hotel today. We adventured out to lake Victoria in the afternoon – I am still so shocked by the site of the Marabou Stalks, I don’t think I’ll ever get over them!

Everyone else went on a boat trip, I stood with Jerry. He told me about his life and the places he’s studied and his pigs he had at home! We admired the scenery as he laughed at me for being scared of the boat…

We then headed back for our last dinner at Rongo uni…

Kenyan time seems to run very behind the time I’m used to… it’s been the norm that we are late to EVERYTHING. But today… we are on time!!!

We visited three schools to see what they had prepared for the event on Friday, displaying the findings of research into modern day slavery. Again, we are filming this process in groups.

At school one, I felt a bit off with the group work. It’s been quite hard to engage the Kenyan students in the setting up process. Once this is done, everyone is happy to help though.

This was a secondary school. Their journalism club had prepared a poem. They read this in front of the school, about children running from FGM. The children were picked to come and preform, they didn’t come across like they wanted to do so though. Many girls were involved at this school in comparison to the boys!

Another student says she wants to make people laugh. She did her performance in Swahili, which I really enjoyed listening to. Seeing people speak in other languages and young students as they were at this school translating into another language really makes me feel sad that I never learnt languages.

Despite the performances not being what I expected, I enjoyed speaking to the students and seeing how they interact.

To finish, one of the Rongo students (Anjeri) reads a poem about the fate of life. The passion in her voice was so touching, you can really see how passionate she is about life.

At the next school, they performed a short skit about child pregnancy and abortion. It is still illegal in Kenya, so the general message was to avoid men who coerce you into these situations. I thought it was actually really engaging and loved watching how excited the children who weren’t involved were watching their classmates.

Watching the reactions made me so happy, I loved watching how affectionate these children are. Constant arms round each other or holding hands (even the boys) which is something you would never see in England. I love how open Kenyans are with each other.

At the final school, we waited for a long time. Although irritating, I was grateful for the view. It was honestly amazing! The rolling lush hills behind the school contrasted to the orange colour of the ground was beautiful. I never expected the landscape to be so lush and green.

They had another speech from the journalism club and another skit. The skit was about a child servant who was missing school, I was a bit confused as there was a lot going on but you could really see the thought that went into it.

Again, watching the children react was beautiful. Seeing them laugh together and connect through these issues is amazing.

On the walk back to the bus, we were approached by a group of primary school children. They were so cute!

It was quite difficult speaking to them – they kept repeating that we are beautiful. When we returned the compliment, they wouldn’t accept it and said you can only be beautiful if you are white. It’s really harrowing seeing how much media and society can influence a child at such a young age into these views.

Later that night, myself and the other Brighton students spoke about this together. We tried to understand each others experience of this and support each other with the emotions we felt. I couldn’t be more grateful for the group we had, I feel I have made lifelong friends and being able to connect the way we did really sold that for me.

This morning was frustrating. We were behind schedule and waited around at the university for so long! We wanted to get down to the community to continue the work as soon as possible.

Once at the community, we were in much higher spirits. We took our packed lunch to share in true Cham Gi Wadu style – share with your neighbour!

We continued the radio meeting from the day before, except with members of the community there. They asked to start with a word of prayer, as they say that this opens ways.

It is a shared opinion between the community that the time it’s taking to create this station is very frustrating.

One by one, the community explained the benefits of community radio to the area. These were: allowing them to reach media for issues they face, jobs for the youth, helping all of sub county Rongo, enabling mass communication to people, allows condemning of bad behaviour, children can access more information, idea sharing and finally, to allow them to live “free of fear”.

Hearing their reasoning really sat with me. Understanding and seeing the day to day life these people live through really puts into perspective as to how lucky I am. Seeing how strong these people are makes me so excited for the things they will achieve through working together.

The chief joined us later in the day; he told us to feel at home in his community even though we are far from our own. I just love how eager these people are to share everything!

He explained how the people are so excited and ready for the station. He wants to raise issues such as child labour, early marriage and pregnancies and school drop outs.

During this process, we worked in our teams from the first day to record this process. Some students wanted to learn new skills and switched groups, I found it truly amazing to see our classroom knowledge play out in real life through this project. The students were teaching each other how to use the Zoom audio recorders through their own interests. I feel the process of learning these things together has really brought us together as a group and kept the laughter rolling from the first day.

On the way back, we stopped at a school and spoke to both parents and children. I loved seeing the snippet of their culture. The children were so smiley and happy, it was amazing to speak to them!

When we turned the corner round the back of the school, we were greeted by the community cheering. I was mesmerised by the sound they made, it was a high pitched sound that they made by moving their tongues. I just wish we had longer to speak to them. I would’ve loved to hear more about their personal lives!

Today was the day of the exhibition. Though the start time was delayed, once it began, it was a great success in terms of the performances and the children enjoying themselves. The only thing I must question is the views on abortion. It appears the angle is very much: girls must avoid male temptation, and if they fall pregnant, they must not seek abortion as this can be fatal for the woman. Addressing the latter, it is to me unethical for children (or women of any age for that matter) to not have a choice over this; something that effects their body and life so greatly. Safe practice of abortion offers an alternative. In terms of women ‘resisting’ men, I feel this is hugely misleading; the failure of addressing the cause leading to the continuation of such attitudes. My thoughts today can be summarised as : education towards all ages is crucial to unlearning sexist and unbalanced ideas and beliefs within a community.
This aside, we filmed everything necessary and are in our way back on the bus now. It was a tiring day, given the heat. I must have some time to unwind now.

Update: immediately after writing this, I fell asleep 😂😴

We travelled to Cham Gi Wadu on the university bus, on the way picking up the Rongo students. The views down the road were so beautiful, of all the mountains and greenery along the winding road.

Once at the community, we began to set up our equipment. I found getting everyone involved with this quite hard.

We were introduced to the panel of the community members, three women who were social workers in the area.

To open, Jerry gave a speech about CM4K as a project and explained how the universities work “hand in hand” with the community.

The women, Jane, Jayne and Pamela, then introduced themselves and explained that they aim to organise the community to attend workshops. They aim to have an impact by reducing the challenges their community face; in particular young marriage, gender violence, FGM and corruption. Each gave a speech about how the radio station would enable easier access to information for the community and ultimately be the voice of the poor.

I later spoke to Jane, Jayne and Pamela about why they’re involved. What I found interesting is that she asked if we face these issues in England – referring to child marriage, gender violence, FGM and child pregnancy. I was so astonished by this that I had no clue how to respond.

This conversation was so eye opening into what life must be like for these people. I really haven’t ever met anyone who is as passionate and selfless as these women were, I am in absolute awe of the work they do day in and day out.

An early set off this morning. We drove to Cham Gi Wadu and waited a little while for the three social workers – the most wonderful and powerful women. We visited three schools today and each gave performances on, mainly, early pregnancy, abortion, and home life. It was a very long day, and as we had hoped to be back for lunch/dinner for 2pm, we no doubt began flagging. We recorded everything we needed and kept morale up through the day! We ate around 5pm, filling our stomachs with chipati, rice and soup! Then ended the day with games in the pool, and watched red tinted lightning in the near distance.

The weekend was glorious. Both morning Emily and I woke up really early and went to lay by the pool to swim and read. Seriously my idea of a perfect morning.

On Saturday, we went to a museum. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive, and we were supposed to leave at 11 but left at 12:30. The drive was more eventful than what I thought it was going to be. After we turned off the main road, it was just sharp rocks paving our way. At least that’s what it felt like, especially for the people in the back on the van. We held our breath a couple of times as we all thought we were going to get stuck, but thankfully we didn’t. I feel sorry for Emily and Libby who I was sitting in between ; because the van had to drive so slowly there was no breeze, so I was so sweaty. I felt like I was some awful pin ball of stickiness ricocheting off between the two of them.

Again, the grueling travel proved to be worth it in end. The picnic we had was sensationally idyllic. We ate samosas and donuts in the shade under a tree and reveled the cool breeze.

It was really interesting to hear about another culture and way of life from someone in that community. We were learning about the Lou tribe and how they lived back in the 14th century. We were thrilled about a huge bird nest, which I don’t think our guide really understood. Also, Anya and and Ellie were enthralled with the bats that were in one of the replica houses. Maybe I’m paranoid but being that enclosed with a bat freaked me out.

The ride back was long but we took a different way back so it wasn’t as rocky (haha). We played a serious game of Irish snap that gathered several onlookers, probably because we were all shouting and smacking our foreheads. Finally, we went to sleep, exhausted.

On Sunday we went to see Lake Simbi and see flamingos. It was overcast and cool and it was so beautiful. Seeing flamingos, real life wild flamingos, was so incredible. We sat and gazed at the flamingos as one of the locals told us the mythology about how the lake was formed. Getting to share the space with the locals and the flamingos was so special. It was a chill day but one of my favorites so far.

We ran pretty on time that day (shocking) other than leaving late. It was such a good day.

I’m writing this blog pos as I go along today because unexpectedly, we’ve had a good chunk of free time today which was not the plan. We were to promptly leave at 9am this morning but it turns out the sugar cane from the weekend is sneaking back up on a few of us and most have been hit with a dodgy tummy. Luckily I only had one piece and I’m not feeling any aftermath. Supposedly it’s well known that sugar cane can carry a few nasties inside it, but sure this is all part of the experience lol (I think I’m only in a position to say that because I don’t feel unwell).

The second hurdle was that of the bus. We were to meet the Chief and the community at 10am but this didn’t happen because the driver went off the fill the bus up with fuel, and disappeared for 2 hours whilst being completely uncontactable. Some of the villagers had started to leave the centre where we would be meeting them and I don’t blame them. It’s 12:10pm and we’ve only just set off. They’ve given up their time, some have left their work to come and meet us. I’m quite disappointed as is everyone else from our team and the University of Rongo team but we got there in the end.

We started to set up and we shared our lunch with some local villagers.

It was great to hear from them and why they want the community radio station and how it will help the sustainability of their businesses, farms and political issues. Everything we learned through our lectures as to why community Radio is important was raised by the people of Cham gi Wadu. I even noticed one person who seemed to be interested in journalism and I would hope they would get involved in some presenting, producing or research at some point.

The chief arrived some time after this and spoke to us and told us how he was happy to give the village a space for the studio. It was brief but an honour that he came to speak with everyone. As the day progressed, poor Katy got sicker and sicker and so we needed to cut some things short so we could get her home to rest in bed. There’s absolutely nothing worse than feeling ill and being far from your bed. We had a quick stop off to a school and a spring where we got such a warm welcome. I’m told they love to have visitors and they were so gracious. It was a lovely stop off. They kids were excited to shake our hands and the village people greeted us, shook our hands and gave us hugs. It was really lovely to feel so welcome into their small community. I was asked to stand and speak a little about the fundraising we did before our trip. It was such a lovely stop of, it’s a shame we couldn’t stay longer and visit their fresh water spring, but again, these things happen.

Today seemed a bit chaotic to me, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I’m learning to really go with the flow and release and form of control on this trip. It’s been testing for me as I’m usually someone who likes to know what I’m doing and when but it’s made me realise that we can only do our best, there will be a solution and to really slow down. There’s no need to rush through life. Although I do wish today was a little better organised, even though I know it was out of our ands and the hands of our professors.