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!!!

Waking up today was a bit difficult as I was extra tired as we stayed up the night before chatting and having a few beers & ciders. Once we were all ready we headed to the university for another amazing fully packed with energy breakfast. We had some time to kill after breakfast so we tried to feed the dogs, Ludo and Mama before a few of us sat in the shade and the others sat in the sun for a quick tan before lecture. While outside we had a friendly visit from a butterfly (later named by Katie as Florence) which took a rest on Luca’s back and posed for our photos allowing us to get close enough to see its beautiful wings.

The Cham gi Wadu community arrived around quarter past eleven so we waited on the rest of the Kenyan students before getting up and greeting the community members. We then went around in a circle introducing ourselves. We started from the community and ended with Peter. Once greetings were out of the way we watched the video that Sam produced the year before as part of his placement module. This was the second time some of us watched it, including myself and I enjoyed it as equally as I did the first time. I find the video extremely informative, well filmed, and edited. The video showed the dedication and team work between the Cham gi Wadu community and the students of CM4K.

Once everyone got the chance to see the video Peter began the lecture by putting us in the same groups as the day before and adding 3-4 community members to each group. The group I was in consisted of 4 Cham gi Wadu community members, and 7 students. We were asked to discuss four questions: What does geography mean to the project? How can we use maps to plan and operate a community media station? What are the community assets? And last but not least, how will the radio station improve communication between the communities? As a group, we also discussed the relevance of the community radio station shows and what would have interest to the local communities. For example, we would have radio shows based around fishing and how to fish as well as how to keep your fish alive instead of a sports show as this would benefit the radio stations listeners more. Peter also went around visiting the groups. When he reached our group, he emphasized the relevance of community mapping as well as its important elements. These were: the local people and how they educated, lived and ensured survival. A new form of geography called – neo geography. After our group discussion, each group shared and reflected on what they discussed. This allowed us to hear the different perspectives and points from each group. After this we broke for lunch.

This time the Kenyan students where on time, some even early. This allowed us to start the next part of the lecture early, although that did not happen. We were meant to go out and practice mapping with the community as not everyone including the students knew how to do it. But we did not get the chance to do this as the smart phones that were available did not work. So, Peter then decided to explain it using his laptop that did work. He showed us examples that he had already done and what he expects it to look like after we have uploaded all the locations. Once this was over Peter decided to end the lecture for the day. We said our goodbyes and began our lengthy blogs as a group once again.

P(oo).S. My bowel movements are still regular and I have yet to accept any remedies.

We left for breakfast at the university a little after 9. After breakfast, we started our first lecture: Community Radios in an African context. During this lecture Peter split us up into groups of 3, dividing us 5 Brighton students into groups of 2 and 1 mixed with the Kenyan students. Peter then highlighted a very interesting point as we were dividing. He said; “There will no longer be any Brighton University students or Rongo University students, there will only be CM4K – a partnership”.

In our groups, we discussed the meaning of community media and why it was important. As a group, we pitched in our individual understanding of the project and what it meant to us. We then asked the Kenyan students who took part last year about what their experiences with the field work was like and what the community originally brought up that was an issue for them. We also spoke about the radio station radius/footprint, its investments and how to increase those investments. I mentioned to the group the idea of the 10% saving method that I learnt from a Rabbi that I once met.

After this we took a 10-minute break which was misunderstood by the Kenyan students as an hour break. This brought on a lot of banter about Kenyan timing as well as our experiences of friends from home who runs on their own time and the phrase black-man-timing (BMT). During this break, Luca also had a mini photoshoot with his two fan girls. I was very tempted to start talking marriage gifts with them, I thought 4 cows, 2 goats and 6 chickens was a good deal.

After the break, we continued our discussion of investments by talking about steak holders and partners. In our groups, we discussed who the right people would be to have invest on the project and how we can make sure their voices don’t over power the communities’ voices. We were then given an hour lunch break as the cooks had brought us another amazing meal. Let me not get into how good the food is.

Again, us Brighton students got back on time whereas our fellow partner students got back between 30 minutes to an hour later. Once we were all back and seated we moved on to the next lecture: Community based participatory research approach for community media. For this lecture, we looked at what a community based participatory research is by sharing our understanding of the difference between methodology and methods. We discussed this further by linking it to our individual dissertations. The lecture was then concluded by looking into the definition of community profile and linked a quote by Hawtin, Hughes & Percy-Smith, 1994 – to our definition of community project. After our lecture as a partnership group, we sat in the room and typed up our blog entries with a few distractions of course.

Kassim, one of the Kenyan students mentioned the fact that I was not feeling well throughout the day and offered me a herbal mix that you drink with hot water. At first it sounded like something I’d like…he sold the remedy so well until he ended it with “but you cannot eat the whole day” which at first, I was like “I could do with a food break” as I felt slightly over fed. Then he said, “and you must sit by a toilet as it will give you diarrhoea”. This instantly put me off! Faster than anything as me and the others were itching to see who the first victim of diarrhoea would be, and I did not want to be the first…

P.S. My bowel movements are still regular without the help of Kassim.

After a fun day yesterday with bulldog and What’s the time Mr Wolf? I woke up with an aching body from running too much. Starting the day as usual with meeting in the court yard for the others and heading to the minibus for Rongo University to have breakfast. Breakfast was nice as usual consisting of sausages because we can’t get enough of them.

At 10am we went to the lecture hall for a lecture held by Peter called Community Radios written by Abdou Sarr. The presentation gave a talk on community radio and the tools to promote peace, culture, democracy and development in Africa. Us Brighton students were split in twos and grouped up with the Kenyan students, as we began our group work. Getting into these groups I remembered what Peter had said to us at the beginning of the lecture, “there will be no more University of Brighton, and University of Kenya students, there will only be CM4K. A partnership”. With this in mind we began one of our many group discussions regarding community media, community radio importance and the 3 dimensions of participatory research model. These group discussions helped me understand the Kenyan’s intellectually and how we would work whilst out doing our community work.

At 2.30pm we had an hour break for lunch which was tasteful as usual, and having my playful of fruit as desert. After lunch we carried ourselves and our grown stomachs outside to sit in the sun. Using this break we enjoyed each others company taking photos of each other and having a laugh about our toilet issues. Our second part of the lecture was about research and who were the academic researchers of the community radio, during this lecture we were back into our groups making thorough discussions and sharing with the class.

This second part of the lecture was intriguing and a lot to take in however after a big lunch with a big stomach I was feeling sleepy, and the hot room didn’t help. The lecture breezed through and as we came to the end, we spent the rest of the time in the class room talking to each other and with the Kenyans.

Shoutout to Kassim Mohammed for trying to make me leave my phone with him in Kenya, whilst he gives him his brick phone (or as the Kenyans call it Mulika Mwizi), or as I call it a trap phone.

As we wait patiently for dinner with a big anticipation with what we are eating, we are looking forward to our drive home to buy our beers and to drink it in the cool air in our courtyard and recap on our day.

The bus collected us at 8:45 to take us to breakfast which was delicious as always. We’ve all taken to the food really well, and we have our favourite seats which it seems we won’t be changing for the entirety of the trip.

Lectures were due to start at 10am however in Kenyan time that end up being more like 10:30. Everything is a slower pace compared to the Hussle and bustle of Brighton that we are used to.

The first lecture was focused on a work called Community Radios written by Abdou Sarr. It looks at tools to promote peace, culture, democracy and development in Africa. Peter divided us (UOB students) up into two twos and Sam by himself to join the University of Rongo students. We split into three groups of 6 to participate in the lecture and discuss our views and opinions. This is so important for our understanding of community media and maximising our potential on the CM4K project. Engaging with one another will help us to learn to engage with the communities we will be visiting next week.

At 2:30 we took a break for lunch. We used this opportunity to head down out of the classroom and onto the field where were all sat together and hung out. I read a bit more of my book Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes). Hafsah and Sam got some photographs of the surrounding area. We are really bonding as a small group and really enjoying each other’s company. Mainly bonding over how our stomachs are coping and if anyone has been having toilet trouble. Which is a good ice breaker as we all seem pretty comfortable and confident with each other.

We started the second lecture a bit late again, it seems that time keeping really is not a priority here. This time the lecture was on Community Based Participatory Research, something UOB students had already covered before. This was our opportunity to help the students at Rongo to understand what we do as dissertations. Again, we split up into smaller groups to do this.

My brain was very tired after all the lectures that I was struggling to answer questions I knew the answers too. I think the heat here makes it difficult to totally concentrate. I’m thankful for the study rooms and lecture halls we have back in Brighton. I am going to post all my notes that I took from the lectures today on the discussion board as to summarise them on here would make this post more like an essay.

I think were going to get some beers to have tonight which will be lovely. I’m gasping for a nice cold beer or two. Its been a pretty overwhelming few days. I’m sure it will get easier as we become more accustomed to the heat and long days.

Katie x