After our conversation about the organisation of the project last night, I woke up ready and raring to go, motivated to make the changes that we spoke about and really kick off CM4K 2018. I rose earlier than usual, around 7:15, to finish writing up yesterday’s blog. We left the pastoral centre at our usual time of 8:45 and had breakfast, there were omelettes so Luca had a feeling it was going to be a good day.

After breakfast, we congregated in the lecture room and Peter spoke about all of the issues around individual roles and organisation that we brought up last night. At first, I was nervous that our friends from Rongo would feel that we were directly criticising them, which of course we weren’t. However, we all split off into our groups and everyone was extremely understanding and shared my motivations to make today more successful. We sat outside and discussed who should be performing what roles, and settled on Angel and May joining Kassim to film the small vignettes, while Eve operated the main documentary camera, Aaron operating the boom microphone and Mercie monitoring the audio. Overall, this made things run a lot more smoothly, the details of this I will highlight later in the blog.

Once we had finished discussing in our groups, we hopped on the bus and headed off to our first location – the shopping centre at Cham Gi Wadu. This was originally the area that we were supposed to visit yesterday but, because of the disorganisation, we ran out of time. As this was not an intentionally planned visit, and we did not want to make the same mistake around organisation and timekeeping as yesterday, only the photography group were to get off the bus to quickly get pictures of the buildings. Therefore, I stayed on the bus with Halima and Angel and we discussed how each of our projects were going. Halima said that her audio project is going really well as she has done audio work for the past 3 years, and so is used to doing it (and very good at it I must say). The plan of only getting photos of the shopping centre worked, as we were back on the road again after only 15 minutes – compared to the 3 or 4 hours spent in Cham Gi Wadu yesterday!

The first “proper” stop for us today was the Ongo Medial Centre. Our whole video group met by the side of the bus once we had all gotten off to finalise roles and make sure everybody knew what they were filming. Once again, I told Angel, May and Kassim that they were to focus on just getting establishing shots for the vignettes. We were then told that there was nobody to interview at this location so I advised Aron, Eve and Mercie to just focus on getting footage of the interaction between the CM4K participants and the community. I was worried that this would mean that Mercie, who was monitoring the sound, would not have anything to do. I spoke to her about it, and she said something to me that I felt really epitomises community based participation and community learning. It was along the lines of – “I know that it’s frustrating for me to not really be doing anything at the moment, but I know that it’s not about me, it’s about the community.” It’s made me really think about what our purpose is, and how I need to involve the community more in what we are doing so they can pass everything over when we leave. After my conversation with Mercie, I was informed that there was in fact an interview taking place and we needed to quickly go and set everything up. No matter how hard we work on organisation, these little changes seem to be token for this project. Anyway, we set up and recorded the interview – Eve operated the camera, Mercie monitored the sound, I held the boom mic and Aron acted as the interviewer and asked the questions. The whole operation was successful and ran smoothly.

The next location was Ongo Primary School, a short walk around the corner. As we were approaching the school, we saw a flood of children sprinting form their classrooms and down the hill toward us. Soon I was met with a barrage of “Mzungu, how are you?” to which I replied, “Fine, how are you?” It does seem quite intimidating at first, especially as they all giggle and whisper in their native language as I walk past, but soon I realised they are just fascinated to see a white person, as I expect that it’s quite rare in this area. Anyway, we arrived at the school and an interview was immediately set up, so we recorded that. It was difficult as it took place outside so the sun backlit most of the shot. We still however, managed to work around it and still record a good quality interview. Peter then went and signed the visitors book, I thought that this would make some good B-Roll as it shows his commitment to the local communities. After recording all of that, I headed back outside to find Angel and May, who we apparently left behind at the Ongo Medical Centre – oops! Lucky it was only next door and not a half an hour bus journey away! Sorry girls! After hearing their story, we took some establishing shots for the vignettes and headed back to the bus.

Our final destination of the day was Kitere Primary School. As we arrived, we saw that the Chief was having a meeting with members of the community in the school grounds. He invited us to introduce ourselves and what CM4K was about – Peter took the liberty of this as he feels that he is the “token mzungu” (his words, not mine haha). We then let the chief and the community members get back to their meeting as we had to interview the head teacher of the school. After our discussion around job roles and organisation earlier in the day, these interviews now run like clockwork, which is great as it means that we can get in and out of the places in record time! Afterwards I helped Angel, May and Kassim with the rest of the establishing shots. It was then time to return home, I was shattered, still not fully recovered from yesterday. I pulled out my phone, expecting it to be around 5pm but alas no, it was only 2:30pm. I made my way back to the bus, put on my headphones and tried to relax before attempting some editing back at the University.

It turns out that I’m actually far too tired to be doing any editing this afternoon, so instead I’ve written this blog. Today has been a much better day in terms of organisation and planning and I think it has shown through the footage that we have captured. Tomorrow we have a whole day dedicated to editing, so I can’t wait to start compiling all of these clips together and get some final products to express the hard work we have done so far. We might even get a few cheeky Tuskers tonight to celebrate!

Sam 🙂

Fieldwork Day One:

I am basing some of my dissertation around asset mapping and community based participatory research so understanding and fully involving myself in the fieldwork is extremely important. I discussed with Peter the evening before about what my role would be when we were out in the field and we decided that what would be most beneficial to myself and the project would be if I was in charge or recording everything.

We woke up at the usual time and had breakfast, I decided to go all out and have three Weetabix today, I thought I might need the extra fuel and my banana and hot chocolate (as always). We then met in the classroom to confirm that we all knew what our roles were, collect our equipment and have a briefing.

My role was to take pictures of what each of the individual groups were doing to highlight the CBPR part of the CM4K project. Whilst doing this I needed to know what it was that was going on in each of the pictures. I found that this helped me to help to groups to as because I was between the groups I could let them know what the other groups had done which meant everyone knew what everyone was up to. It also helped me to identify what could be done differently and what worked well. Split into three groups Audio, Video and Photography:

• Audio – Charlotte, Wendy, Fiona, Oliver, Halima, Lydia
• Video – (group one) Eve, May, Sam, Aaron, Mercie (group two) Kassim, Angel
• Photography – Japheth, Hafsah, Luca, Geoffrey

I was documenting the group working. Recording the asset mapping and CBPR with Andres. Part of this included recording each locations Longitude and Latitude.

Cham gi Wadu divisional office and future office building:

• Long – 34, 36, 21
• Lat – 0, -53, -41

This was our starting point. It was very busy as many community members came out to see what we were doing. The chief was there to be interviewed and we had a welcome speech. We were informed that this would happen at all the places we went to.

Kakwara Primary school:

• Long –
• Lat –

This school was different from the others because it had a special needs department which was lovely to see. I did enjoy going there but I felt like we spent too long there and would have used our time better at the secondary school we went to next.

School Entrance:

• Long – 34, 35, 49
• Lat – 0, -51, -29

O’Mara Secondary School:

• Long – 34, 35, 50
• Lat – 0, -51, -23

This was my favourite part of the day. Although I was very tired by this point. The entire school came to join us for a welcome meeting. They were so pleased to see us and eager to learn. Students learnt how to use the equipment, one very talented girl Siprase Aluoch (17) was very good at learning how to use the camera and teach others. I chatted with the headmaster about the project and my involvement which he seems genuinely interested in. We also talked about organising a trip between Rongo university and O’Mara school to teach them more about Media Studies and Community Media.

O’Mara Primary School:

• Long – 34, 35, 47
• Lat – 0, -51, -23

I think we may has unintentionally visited this school but it was great all the same. We kept it short and sweet, collecting the pictures and video very quickly.

We returned to the university and uploaded all of the footage, images and audio from the SD cards onto our computers. I started editing and deleting my pictures but was so tired I have decided to finish them tomorrow. Wishful thinking probably if tomorrows anything like today.

After dinner we went back to the Pastoral centre and reflected on the day. We sat for an hour discussing the day when we were joined by Peter. We chose this opportunity to give him the feedback we have discussed which turned into another hour of critical reflection. We agreed that we had worked hard but there were many things that didn’t go to plan that we needed to improve on.

Critical Reflections:

1. Timekeeping – we were meant to go back to the university at 2pm this turned into 5:45pm. Everything took a lot longer than what was intended.
2. Knowing what we are doing – delegation and defining roles within each group means that things are being done efficiently rather than people doing there own thing and getting repetition of work or doing things that are great but aren’t relevant to asset mapping.
3. Community – I don’t know if they understand they need to be active in making this project work. It takes time. I have the feeling that they want to see results now without understanding the work that goes into it. I do worry for the longevity of this project without the likes of Peter, Jerry and Isobel to guide it. As it stands from what I have seen so far without both universities participation continuing for at least another 5 years the community would not understand how to keep the station running. Saying that they are all very passionate about the station and keen to have one. I just don’t know if that’s enough.
4. Teaching – Understanding how to operate the equipment is so important. If you can’t understand how to work the equipment to a high standard how can you be expected to teach others.
5. Partnership between UOB and UOR – it seems we have conflicting ideas of what needs to be prioritised in the fieldwork with UOR focusing more on CBPR and UOB doing the work required for asset mapping. This will need to be spoken about tomorrow if we are to achieve complete understanding and unity between the two Universities.

In conclusion today was a great learning curb. Extremely exciting and challenging. Hopefully the next few days will go more smoothly, I’m sure it will once people have a clearer idea of what is expected of them and the best way to go about it. Its all very positive.

Saturday:

Woke up went for breakfast at the usual time. They had the omelettes again today which are so yummy. They must be really healthy too as they have finely chopped carrot pepper tomato and onion in them. I had my usual Milo hot chocolate, Weetabix and banana from Angels special plate too.

We were joined after breakfast by the Kenyan students to get the big university bus to Rusinga island. Wendy brought along her 4-month-old son Jordi much to our delight. We spent the entire day cooing over him and his chubby cheeks. The journey took about two hours but it was lovely to watch the world go by and seeing people go about their daily lives. Similarly, to when I’ve visited Africa before the animals have free roam of the roads, So weve seen lots of cows, donkeys, goats, dogs and chickens. Rusinga Island resort was beautiful I took hundreds of pictures.

First thing we did was go on the pier. The Kenyan students wanted to take loads of photos so I became a photographer for the first half an hour. I took the opportunity to try the tusker cider in the sun, as was my day off. It was lovely to roam the water’s edge collecting shells and hanging out with a refreshing cold apple cider. Next, we decided to take a short boat ride, the boat took 7 so myself, Angel, Hafsah, Luca, Sam, Andres and Zerah (Isobel’s daughter) hopped on board. Angel and I put life jackets on, I wasn’t taking any chances knowing what their driving is like out there. It was really good fun and for 3000 shillings which is about £25 (so £5 each) it was well worth the money! We got to see the little fishing boats and the locals bathing and washing their clothes on the river’s edge.

When we returned; and I was assured that all the crocodiles and hippopotamus were in the centre of the lake, I went for a swim in the lake with Luca. Much to the disgust of the Kenyan and other Brighton students who thought we were mad! I just couldn’t turn down the chance to say ive swam in Lake Victoria. Sam bought me a beer in return for the one I got him earlier as we sat on the grass and enjoyed the view whilst myself and Luca dried off in the natural heat waiting for the Kenyan student to return from their boat ride.

We then drove back to the university and had dinner. To celebrate a busy and successful few days working on the CM4K project we went to Treat house hotel and bought some beers, ciders and Kenyan Cane. Kenyan Cane is a clear white rum what comes plain or coconut flavoured. Andreas came too which was nice because his been a real welcoming face since we’ve arrived and does a lot for the project. I made him a cider shandy as he doesn’t drink usually, I didn’t want him to wake up with a hangover, and we stayed outside late into the evening playing games and chatting.

Sunday:

Sunday is very much a day of rest in here as it is to some extent in England. We woke up and went for breakfast at the usual time again though and hung out at the university. Everything was a much slower pace today. I appreciated the rest as my body is starting to feel tired and although not sunburn… yet… my skin is tender today. Around 12 we all went shopping in a local supermarket, I didn’t buy anything this time as I’ve been so well fed I still have all my snacks I packed and brought over from England. On returning to the Pastoral centre where we are staying I had an hour’s nap. Everyone then went to university for lunch but I stayed behind. I’ve been eating three big meals a day and it all caught up with me. I’m just so full! So, in the 2 hours they were gone I watched Ratatouille and did my washing. Water, soap and bucket style!

The others returned at 4 to pick myself and Luca up (he stayed behind too). I went with Isabel, Halima and the girls to try and get our hair done but no one had the extensions that we wanted so we went and had a look at the shoe shops instead. Isabel took us to visit her house which was very kind of her. It was great to see someone’s home and get more of an idea of how they live. It wasn’t that different from the flats you get in England. Isabel drove us in her car to treat house to join the boys for a beer and that’s where I’m writing from now.

Today was our first day out doing fieldwork in the community of Cham Gi Wadu. After breakfast, we rendezvoused in the lecture rooms and split off in to groups based on what media we preferred to work in. I decided to do video as that is what I feel most comfortable with, but there was also the option of working with photography or audio.

I felt a lot of responsibility within the video group because of my background and the fact that I came on this trip last year with the purpose of making the CM4K documentary. The video group was also the largest of the three groups, so I decided to split us into three groups based on the three topics that Peter mentioned that he wanted us to cover:

• Aaron, Eve and Mercie worked on the documentation of the project. They focused telling the story of CM4K and the asset mapping that was taking place.
• Angel and May worked on getting vox-pops with the community members as well as footage for an appeal video.
• Kassim worked on small vignettes of roughly 30 seconds that show the location of each building. He was later joined by Angel and May after they finished their vox-pops.

I, to the best of my ability, tried to oversee each project so that I was readily available to use my experience whenever it was needed.

The first location that we visited was the district chief’s office in Cham Gi Wadu. It was here that I decided to split the video team into three sub groups. We started by filming the introduction between Peter and the District Chief – I supported Aaron and Eve by monitoring the audio through the zoom audio recorder. We then interviewed the chief using the same set up – Aaron focusing on the camerawork, Eve holding the boom and myself monitoring the audio. In hindsight, I feel that these clearly defined roles are a necessity to successfully completing this fieldwork as the structure will help us focus on what we need to do.

The rest of my time at Cham Gi Wadu was spent between the three sub-groups within our video team. My main focuses were making sure everyone was using the equipment properly and were concentrated on shooting the right footage based on what sub-group they were part of. At one point, I saw Angel and May attempting a vox-pop without a proper microphone, so I provided them with one and helped them set it up. During this time, I realised that there was not clarity within each group when it came to what they specifically had to do, so I made quite a few notes on what was being done so that I could later on write up a clear order of business. I completed my time at the district chief’s office by helping organise a part of the charity appeal video where each community member said a word from the phrase “please help us build a community radio station at Cham Gi Wadu” before as a group saying, “thank you for your support”.

The second location that we went to was the Kakwara Primary School. On the bus journey there I had written up what sub-group should focus on so that there was no overlap in filmic materials. When I got off the bus I explained these roles to everyone. We did not get everything filmed here as we were extremely pressed for time and the introductions continued for longer than we hoped. It was still interesting to listen to the head teacher talk about his school, and I could see that Aaron and Eve had recorded the whole thing so we can still use part of it for context of the story. All of the kids came out whilst I was in the introductory meeting, so it was great to be greeted by all of them – they all seemed so fascinated by me!

We then left to go to a second school – Omara Mixed Secondary School. When we arrived, I was asked by Isabelle to interview the head teacher, which I found fascinating. He was an extremely intelligent man with a strong interest in mass media communications and one of the first people in the community that really understood the influence that the community radio station could have on this area. He then told us about the journalism club that the school runs and asked if we can give the students a few lessons on how to work a camera. Of course we said yes, and I was soon surrounded by 20 or so teenagers that were eager to learn about my camera. At first I found it quite intimidating as I am not used to speaking in front of a large group of people. However, I could see that they were all keen for me to share my knowledge so that made me feel a lot more comfortable. I spoke about how to operate the camera for both photography and video and answered the questions that they had. I then set up a scenario where some of the students were in front of the camera speaking about themselves and their aspirations and others recorded them. It was a great experience as it makes me happy that I have shared my experience with people that are willing to learn.

Our final destination was the Omara Mixed Primary School, just up the road from the secondary school. Unfortunately, we were extremely short for time and therefore had to rush through. There was enough time for an introduction by the head teacher and a beautiful song from the children. We also managed to grab a quick group photo with them before heading off to the bus. They were all so fascinated by my skin – they kept poking the back of my neck which wasn’t pleasant as it is sun burnt!

When we returned to the pastoral centre we spent some time reflecting on our day – what went well and what we thought needed to improve. We came to an agreement that the main problems were that there was a lack of organisation and understanding when it came to everyone’s individual roles. We discussed that we needed to meet in our groups in the morning to assign roles so there is clarity of what needed to be done. We knew that we over ran on time because of the number of formal greetings that we had to do, so we decided that tomorrow we will have to spend more time focusing on the shots that we are doing and less time communication with the different communities.

It will be interesting to see how these changes turn out tomorrow.

Sam 🙂

Andres joined us for a drink at the pastoral centre last night. We stopped off at the Treat House first to grab some beer/cider and a bottle of Kenya Cane – I told everyone to try it as I think it’s delicious. When we got back, I showered (the water was on this time), sat outside and cracked open a Tusker whilst waiting for the others to finish showering. Once everyone was out we played a few games with Andres and then everyone tried their Kenya Cane – thankfully they all loved it!

Today has been a proper rest day. I still woke up at 8am, but after breakfast we came back to the pastoral centre and chilled. I continued reading my book, but was distracted when Isabelle brought her children round! Afterwards we went to the local supermarket so people could pick up a few supplies. We then walked down to the local bar so that Luca, Hafsah and Katie could buy some cigarettes, it was very interesting seeing how it differed from the bars that I am used to in Brighton.

We then drove back to the pastoral centre, Luca and I washed a few of our clothes whilst others slept and relaxed. I then went to get some lunch from the university, before the girls went to get their hair done. Luca, Peter and I came to the Treat House to grab a beer and write our blog.

Unfortunately, this blog is rather short, but it has been very soothing to sit back and relax today.

Sam 🙂

After a productive Saturday it was good knowing on Sunday it was going to be a chill day for us all after a busy week. We all decided to take the day slow and spend as much of it together as a group and in the sun. We began the day by rising at our usual time of 8am, for me getting up was a slow process as my body was aching and my eyes sore from tiredness. We all met outside in the courtyard and we had all agreed to go to breakfast as normal, which did not disappoint as usual.

The sun was beating down on me hard today and I felt awfully groggy and had a beating headache. Going back to the pastoral we decided to relax for a while and Luca and Sam decided to do their clothes from that week. I decided to go to my room and try and have a nap but my body wouldn’t allow it and instead I was buzzing for the day ahead and I chose to get up and go lounge in the sun and watch the others hilariously washing their clothes by hand and in the process get themselves soaked (Luca) and hang them to dry in the sun on the plastic chairs.

Sitting under the veranda with Sam and Halima having a chat we watched Sam attempt to read his boring book and then run off to his room for ages to wash his clothes. Once all clothes were washed and hanging to dry we all piled back into the van and we headed to the supermarket down the road. The aim of going to the shop was the usual for most of us which was to buy as many snacks as we could and stock up on Fanta pineapple which we don’t get back in England and we discovered we all have an addiction to it. Walking through the shop we picked up the essentials too of soaps and deodorants. We were disappointed to see the ice creams were all tubs of ice cream and nothing in a cone like some Cadbury buttons and we were desperate for something to ease off the heat.

Returning to the van to discard my shopping I noticed Hafsah, Luca and Katie were walking away from the supermarket with Baituk our driver. I jumped on the band wagon to follow them with Halima and Sam as we were told they were going to buy cigarettes and I was just wanting to have a walk and see the rest of the town and the people in the area. We went into a bar and I took a seat as I watched Baituk sway to the rhythm of the song playing and watched the others hasty discuss the cigarette’s and he drinks the bar was containing. Once finished we walked back to the  van and got in and made our way back to the pastoral to relax before dinner.

Back at the pastoral I stayed in my room with Halima and we had a good chat before heading out for lunch. To my pleasant surprise whilst outside in the courtyard Zerah was back and this time Isabelle had brought her other two children, Aamaya and her 8 month old son, Isaac. I was quick to claim them as my new siblings and was quick to throw hugs onto all 3 of them.

Before lunch Luca and Katie chose to stay behind as they were still full from breakfast and couldn’t fit lunch in. Lunch was as weird experience without them both as we had all gotten into our routine of seating and the usual chatter we have at each meal. Before there seats were taken by my new siblings as they wanted to sit with us and it was lovely seeing their eager to be around us more and more. Once lunch was finished we headed back to the pastoral and picked up Katie as us girls were going with Isabelle to buy hair for Hafsah and katie. Whilst the boys or shall I say the ‘lads’ went to the Treat House for drinks.

Being driven by Isabelle in her car was a fun ride as she was being screwed for how beat down her car was by Halima and driving around with her in town with her children in tow, and watching her interact with the locals was comforting like being back home in England, as drove around for her hair salons and places to buy the coloured hair Katie and Hafsah wanted. It was nice to get away from the van and the usual journeys we make as groups, and be with the girls and just have a laugh and do girly things like looking for hair and later shoe shopping with Isabelle. One of the fun part of our journey was going to Isabelle’s house and seeing where she lived and meeting her neighbours and kids in the area. Unfortunately the search for hair wasn’t successful as the colours the girls wanted could not be found anywhere.

Our journey in town came to an end and we returned to the Treat House to the boys and have a few drinks and write our blogs on the day. It was a nice way to finish the day off and photograph the sunset before heading to the university for dinner.

On the weekends we have those days to ourselves and to do whatever activity we would like. On Saturday along with the students from the University of Rongo decided to visit Rusinga Island, to see Lake Victoria. The drive was roughly 3 hours and during that ride it was the first time for all of us students to be in the same vehicle and we got to know each other more. The ride was exciting for all of us as we filled the bus with chatter and singing, many of us read books and listened to music and several took naps.

When we arrived to Rusinga Island we had to drive down a very bumpy road which was full of uneven level of roads and surrounded by stones. This road brought a lot of humour to us as the bus would throw us into the air and the bus would be filled with screams and we’d claim we were on a rollercoaster. The people in this area were very welcoming and as we drove past many of the children would stop and wave at us with so much excitement from seeing new visitors.

When we reached Rusinga Island Lodge was very shocked by how much the area stuck out like sore thumb compared to all the areas we had just driven by which was poor with many mud houses and fields and surrounded by animals such as cows, goats, chickens and donkeys. The Island looked like something out of a movie with beautiful architecture looking like I was taken away from Kenya and to Thailand. All the buildings were made of wood and they all had these big amazing thatched roofs, with amazing decor. Walking through the reception to the other side your eyes were met with the most beautiful view of Lake Victoria, and a wooden pier stretching across the lake and at the end of that pier were my fellow peers. On the edge of the seafront were several palm trees which I believe were coconut trees.

Walking along the shaky planks of the pier to reach my peers was nerve racking, as I’m terrified of piers especially the ones with shaky planks. Everyone on the other end I realised half way was watching me, as I was walking alone and funny trying to avoid as many unsafe planks, but when I reached the end of the pier I explained I was scared and I do this on Brighton pier also. It was an amusement to them all but me. Whilst there we were all excited to take group pictures, and pictures of each other, even our security guard was more than happy to have photos taken of him and with him. Once this excitement was over we walked off the pier and some of us lounged in the shade and others in the sun. I was seated on a big rock which had several big pillows in top and whilst sat there me and some of the other students played with Wendy’s baby; Jordy and talked the difference between London and Africa, the medical health we went through to be able to travel safely to Kenya. This conversation was hilarious to the Kenyan’s regarding the injections we had to go get and they were slightly offended Westerners believed Africa is a bad infested place.

It was nice sitting in the sun and taking in the breeze and getting to know each other more and what we do in our free times away from university. Moments later we were arranging for ourselves, including Andres and Isabelle’s first born daughter, Zerah, who i claimed that day as my sister and I spent the rest of the day calling her sister. She became the best sister for me that day as she was able to order me chips, I really needed a sister who understands my love for food.

Preparing to go on the boat ride was scary for me because I have a big fear of boats, and the driver of the boat and Sam held my hand as I screamed and staggered onto the boat, which even though it was beside the pier and tied up, it moved an awful lot and it had my knees shaking. Once on the boat we were properly introduced to our driver and life jackets were put on. We were all quick to get Zerah in one as we feared for her as she was so brave to sit right at the front of the boat. Of course, a life jacket was given to me which I hasty put on as I saw how far away we had already drifted from the pier and land. I spent the boat ride seated and praying to make it back to land, but besides that the boat ride was fun. At one point the driver asked me and Katie if he could speed up the boat more and were like of course but braced ourselves. Lol. All was good until the driver began to chill during the ride and let go of the steering wheel and turned to smile at me and Katie and ask if we were doing okay, we were to reply yes but shouted “KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE WHEEL!”. He laughed his head off at us.

During the boat we drove by many people on the other side of the island, many Kenyans swimming with their families and some bathing which was funny as they were fully naked and was a shock for us. We saw some boats floating in the see which I got amazing pictures of. The whole boat ride was amazing and many of the brave ones like Sam, Hafsah and Luca were stood at the front of the boat like a bunch of macho men braving the waves and the splash back of the water.

We spent a few more hours out at Rusinga Island drinking fanta and eating chips, before heading back on the coach back onto the bumpy roads and many of us, like myself falling asleep on the journey back to the university for dinner.

Last night may possibly have been the worst shower that I have ever had. As per usual, I used Hafsah’s shower as my water doesn’t work and hers has very good pressure. However, yesterday the pressure seemed a bit weak, that should have been my first clue! I began showering anyway and the water carried on flowing. I turned the tap off whilst I shampooed, but when I turned it back on, no water came out – just my luck! I grabbed my towel and asked everyone outside if their water was working – it wasn’t. 10 minutes of panic went by and finally, Angel came out saying her water worked, so I jumped into her shower and water the shampoo out.

Today was our first ‘rest’ day, being Saturday and all. The alarm was still set at 8am though, as we had to get up, have breakfast and head off to Rusinga Island. The bus journey lasted around 2 hours, but it seemed to take an age. However, it was all worth it to return to the beauty of Lake Victoria. After taking photos with the Rongo students at the end of the pier a boat ride was organised for us. Whilst we were waiting for the boat to arrive, we stood around on the beach looking for shells and skimming stones. The boat journey was amazing! As it could hold 7 and there were only 5 of us, we asked Andres and Zerah if they would like to join, they were delighted! The trip was short, but it was such an incredible experience. Last year I spent the whole ride filming the others, so it was great to focus on experiencing Lake Victoria’s amazing coastline.

After our boat ride, Luca and Katie decided to go for a swim in the lake, I thought twice about it before deciding to stay on the side and take a few pictures for them. In hindsight, whilst sitting in the heat writing my blog, I wish I had joined them. I also saw a little Ingrid in the trees and got a great photo of it. We then bought a Tusker and waited for the Rongo students to finish their boat ride before jumping back on the bus and heading off home. Once again, the bus journey seemed to take forever. Thankfully I managed to fall asleep for a while, however, this was much to the amusement to the others as the bumpy road made me ‘ragdoll’ around.

It was great to finally get back to the university and be greeted by a fantastic dinner of meatballs!

Sam 🙂