Jan 31 2018

My first post – Thoughts about everyone posts

This is my first time contributing to this website. I feel sad that I couldn’t go to Kenya in the end. After reading my course mates posts here, I could tell that everyone is enjoying themselves and gaining plenty of experiences. I also could tell how everyone is working hard towards everything and trying their best to produce the best outcomes!

While reading people’s posts, I gained a better knowledge on our project and Cham gi Wadu as a community. First, I read Luca’s post about communication. Communication is the most important part for every plan to run smoothly and I understand how hard it is to actually maintain a proper communication between each other. But it is good how everything worked out in the end for them! The second one is post made by Community Media 4 Kenya (which I believe it’s Peter). On one of his posts on day 3 where the community arrive, I could tell how supportive the community are regarding building a community radio station. One of the beneficial for a community radio station is to improving a community by sharing knowledge and information both on what they already know and don’t know before.

Furthermore, the idea of assets mapping is really good! With this community will gain better knowledge on their own community. Also, by teaching them it will be beneficial as they could continue what Brighton students left and creates a better and more thorough assets map.

I am excited to see the results of the videos and interviews! Hope all of this make sense. This post is just what I though of everyone works 🙂

Jan 31 2018

My Last Blog in Kenya – Luca

Hey everyone, it’s just a short one today – and unlike where I usually say it’ll be short and it isn’t, today I promise it will be. This is mainly because it’s a bitter sweet day, everyone is coming together for our final day, and I want to savour my last few moments here at the University surrounded by all the wonderful people we’ve met.

As I didn’t update yesterday due to poor connection, I shall quickly do that now! We had another edit day, so we spent it in the classroom. I quite a bit of spare time as I do not have as much to edit as the other groups (which I do feel quite guilty about). I ended up working on my assignment for this module and just catching up on work, so all in all it was still quite productive. 🙂

It’s now Wednesday, and as I said our final full day at the University. I am unsure when we will be able to get online again – if at all for the rest of the trip. We have the community coming in today, and we’re going to show them the map and all the content we’ve created for it. I really hope they’re happy with what we’ve done! I feel all in all it could be quite an emotional experience!

After lunch, we’re then off to The Treat House to have some goodbye drinks, I’m really quite sad to say goodbye, especially to my little puppy friend Nancy, my heart is breaking! I’d take her home in a heartbeat if I could, she’d be so loved by everyone I just know it. At least I still have my fond memories, I just hope she will be okay, and that people will be kind to her. We’re up bright and early tomorrow too where we’ll be heading off on our safari after a bright and early breakfast, and then it’ll be back to England on Saturday. I am sure that when I get back and when I’ve caught up on life I’ll do a reflection on my whole trip here, I must remind myself to save some for my assignment though. 😛

But once again, thank you for your time. I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our experiences here as much as we’ve adored being a part of it all. It’s been phenomenal, and I only hope that one day I’ll be able to visit again. But for now, goodbye, it’s been amazing, life-changing, and I’ve met some friends hopefully for life. I’ll update when I arrive back in chilly old Brighton! Be safe everyone, and take care.

Luca. 🙂

Jan 31 2018

Day 14 Final editing day

Well here we are, the last day of editing! It is just amazing how this trip has flown by this year. A great group of students from Brighton, interesting and full of dynamic differences but really hard working and here truly to try and make a difference and not just for an adventure. They have been really great, as have the Kenyan students from Rongo – hard working, friendly, funny and again committed to CM4K’s objectives. I am really happy with them all and proud of each and every one.

Ok enough of the soppy stuff……there is no way we will get everything done today. We have achieved a lot but set ourselves, or rather were set by the community, enormous tasks in the time available. That said it has been great fun, hard work and exhausting for everyone, but great fun. We have one radio show very nearly complete as I type, with another in production. We have a digital story of the fieldwork processes well under. We have process pictures for the first time. We have nearly every location descriptor written up and the translation into Luo is now underway. We have location and profile pictures. We have various video clips for the map; vignettes and a documentary – all in various stages of production despite laptop problems. All in all we have a mountain of data captured using a range of media tools and techniques.

The day‘s editing started with a real big effort by everyone but as Raila Odinga declared himself Kenya’s people’s president in Nairobi our hosts’ attention turned to what might be a momentous day for their nation…..or might just be a damp squib that might be forgotten as a publicity stunt if there is no strategic campaign to follow it up. This remains to be seen – it might be a new start for ‘Baba’ or the beginning of the end. One thing for sure is that Uhuru Kenyatta has damaged himself as a democrat. As events were unfolding in Uhuru Park, Nairobi he ordered a mass communications blackout and TV stations were closed down so coverage could not be seen. Of course there’s the Internet but slowly but surely our access to the Internet was pulled. It started with no access to news channels at Uni. This was then followed by no access to Google to find other news outlets as the University’s connection was pulled. I remained online for a while longer as I had a personal modem and was working on the map. I tried to stay under the radar by staying on My Maps but eventually I was found and that connection was pulled also.

Make no mistake, whilst I am not quite sure of what Odinga hoped to achieve with his declaration, this was censorship by a government with something to hide. It flew in the face of democracy and freedom of speech and assembly as allowed by the Kenyan constitution. I sincerely hope Kenya is not on the slope to dictatorship! I care for this nation and its peoples. I have dear friends on both sides of the political divide and to me the things that bind them are so much more than the differences that are used by some to create fracture and division. If only they could learn to celebrate these differences and embrace them as cultural strengths that make them a richer nation.

Oh well…..time will tell I guess. That’s it for today.

Jan 30 2018

Day 13 Final day in the field

I am pleased to report that during the course of this day, after much stressful ‘tooing and froing’ between myself and Finance and myself and my safari operator Rufus; Rufus and his bank and no doubt the Finance office and the trail of banks and financial institutions along the way…..a document appeared to say the money had been at the end bank since the 23^rd. Rufus (safari operator) was able to take this to the bank – who miraculously ‘found’ the money. I was really happy but was left wondering why this document couldn’t have been produced last week? Still……time to forget this now. The matter is finally solved, I am grateful to the staff member in Finance for his prompt replies to my many emails and for his efforts. The students will have their richly deserved R&R on the Massai Mara.

After a more relaxed weekend it was time to get back to work with our last trip to the community. Today the plan was for us to visit Kanyimach Primary and Secondary Schools; the local 7^th Day Adventist Church and the shopping centre at Kogenya. The first 3 were all in fairly close proximity and as the routine had by now been honed (with everyone knowing their jobs) everything ran smoothly.

The schools and church are linked by more than proximity. The primary school opened for business in 1926 as a project of the church (founded in 1922) and includes national radio broadcasters and politicians among its former pupils. The thought of a community owned community radio station in the locality was very much an attractive proposition for them and both the Head and Deputy Head spoke enthusiastically about building a relationship between the radio station and the curriculum/school activities.

The secondary school, another church project, is a recent addition and as can be seen from the photos is still under construction. Until its doors opened in 2016 the nearest school was 1.5Km away over very hilly terrain. The locals wanted to build their own school and turned to the church for help. Playing a central role in the community the church is used by secondary school pupils whilst the slow pace of construction takes place. It’s really fascinating to see the central role faith organisations, especially the 7^th Day Adventists, play in local life in this area in what is a deeply religious country. Local people giving what little they have by some form of tithe system as an act of their faith. Cleary faith based organisations will play a big part in the activities of this community radio station.

We arrived back on campus around 3 for a late lunch. This was followed by an editing session in which a very tired community media crew continued to work on reviewing and editing the content. I can see that it is all coming together but we are highly unlikely to get it all done before we leave. However, the important processes of sensitisation, awareness and community engagement have been facilitated in no uncertain terms. The word is most definitely out and we are increasingly and waved at and greeted cheerily now by local adults (as well as the kids) when they see the old blue Rongo bus bouncing down the roads. Whilst the students worked on their content I located the final few locations through the process I described a few posts ago and felt some satisfaction that every location now had an accurate waypoint.

A late dinner followed and to be perfectly frank I was relieved to get back to my room and fell into bed by 8.30. Of course, I was awake by 12.30 (this seems to be my sleeping pattern here – 4 hours sleep followed by 4 hours dozing on and off). By 2.00 I was up and working until 4am when I went back to bed for a couple of hours light sleep. It had been an exhausting day but I was satisfied with it and mightily relieved that the payment transaction saga was finally over.

Jan 30 2018

Day 15

Breakfast was toast and scrambled egg! The cooks have started putting the Weetabix directly in front of my place as im the only one who eats it everyday. I will really miss the breakfasts here.

Not much for me to do today as I’m up to date on all my blogs and work. I created a PowerPoint resource (available on student central) for Ayu, Nat and Peter mainly to look at. As it summarises all of our fieldwork trips so far accompanied with pictures that I’ve taken.

Something that I have noticed by working by myself during the editing process is how much everything is slowed down by waiting for people. The work we are doing works like a chain and often one group can’t complete their work until they have collected something from another group. Or someone can’t move on until they’ve spoken to Peter but his too busy to see them straight away. Accompanied with the fact that the internet seems to break every 15 mins it makes things take ridiculously long. If we were here longer I would suggest revaluating how we go about editing and also prioritising work but seeing as the presentation to the community is tomorrow this seems a bit irrelevant now.

I suggested doing the raffle today as we have had them ready since yesterday but again I was told that we needed to wait for Jerry to do this. I hope we have time tomorrow as I think it will be a busy day but I have learnt that things being organised last minute seems to be the Kenyan way. Classroom work is so draining I’m glad its our last day doing it! At least with fieldwork you have stimulation from other people and your walking round keeping active with fresh air.

For now, I’m just hoping its an early dinner so I can head back to the pastoral centre early and wash some of my clothes ready to pack in my bag tomorrow evening as we leave for the Masai Mara early Thursday Morning.

Jan 30 2018

Day 14

I really didn’t want to get out of bed today. I really contemplated telling the others that I couldn’t go in today but after some sleepy reflection I decided I would be really disappointed in myself if I didn’t at least try to go in and do some work. This is such a unique experience, I may never do something like this in my life again so I really should put my most into the opportunity given to me.

Breakfast was omelette but bread too. So, I abandoned my Weetabix and had an omelette sandwich. Probably not very good for me at all but damn it was good. After breakfast we went in search of Mama to give her some scraps, but alas, she was nowhere to be found. We have decided that most of the dogs look quite Shiba Innu like. They’re all obviously cross breeds but they have the distinctive curled tails pointed nose and smile with lots of them being a sand like colouring.

After meeting in the classroom to collect equipment we set off on our journey to the first destination. I Have used Lucas notes to write this, so thanks Luca! As I was busy taking photos all of today and didn’t have enough hands or time to log my own notes too.

Kanyimach Primary School

Long – E034, 3.497
Lat – S00,55.272

P.0.Box 46 Sare. Found in Rongo County, South West Cham gi Wadu. There are 17 primary schools in the region. It was founded in 1926 and is one of the oldest schools in the region possibly the district. The teaching age is preschool to class 8. The school’s principle is Magero Maurice and the deputy is Kennedy Ouko. Just at the bottom of the fields for this school is the second school on our visit.

Kanyimach Secondary School

Long – E034, 36.469
Lat – S00, 55.245

The principle is the same for the primary as it is for the secondary. This school was only founded in 2016 when a man called Ben donated 1.2 million shillings for the structure to be built. It first started under the church with the Pastor acting as principle but then the responsibility was passed on to Magero Maurice who will hand over the position as soon as the government sends another principle. It has 106 students and 8 teachers all paid by the community. Again, just across from this school is a field containing a church. Everything here has been within close walking distance which is nice as I wore flipflops today.

Kanyimach Seventh Day Adventists Church

Long – E034, 36.446
Lat – S00, 55.156

The pastors name is Zachary Opiyo Songora. The church opened in 1922 and runs a successful Saturday service, like most of the SDA Churches we have visited. We then hopped back on the bus to visit another shopping centre. So as not to confuse anyone I must highlight the fact that the Kenyan Shopping Centres are absolutely nothing like British Shopping Centres. They resemble more of a quiet Sunday market in England.

Kogenya Shopping Centre

Long – E034, 36.443
Lat – S00, 55.982

It is named after prominent village elder who donated land for construction of the flea market. Its run by the Luo Community. One of the community members introduced us to Rebecca Achieng Odtiamho who was happy to be interviewed. I spoke to Mac and asked if would be able to translate for Luca and myself as this woman only spoke Swahili and Luo. I then left them to talk whilst I went and took more photos. When I returned Luca seemed really pleased with how it all went and told me that she would love a community radio station so that she could have a slot for widows. They can have a space to have a voice and reach out to other women for support and guidance. This is a wonderful idea and hopefully something that can be set up once the station is up and running.

I spoke to more of the children whilst I waited for people to come back to the bus. I’m finding it less alarming being pointed at and swarmed upon. I don’t know if its because I’ve grown used to it or if it was because the children were in much smaller numbers today. I was trying to talk to them in Luo and Swahili as I’m determined to learn a few phrases.

Fiona and Halima had a heated discussion on the bus about politics. They clearly have opposing views and although I thought It might be awkward to see them arguing it was actually very interesting to see their passion in healthy debate. It wasn’t so different from conversations I’ve had with friends about politics in the UK, showing that there are similarities between our cultures. All of this is in the wake of tomorrow and the leader of NASA getting signed in against the current president and governments wishes. It will be interesting to see what happens!

We then went back to the University to edit what we had produced. Halima wrote some of the spellings for Luo and Swahili words I have learnt so that I can start using them in my blogs.

We had dinner and returned to the centre and did our usual stop off to buy a kinder joy on the way home. They only have two left now so I hope they stock up on them before we leave.

Asante Sana for reading!

Jan 30 2018

Days 12 & 13

Saturday

I really don’t have much to write about for today so I will start off by talking about last night. I did another pub quiz for everyone when we got back to the Pastoral Centre just a little one with 20 general knowledge questions and 15 music round ones. As usual for a weekend we had a few drinks too. Were all bonding as a group so well, getting along with everyone so well has made this trip so much easier and enjoyable. We’ve had some right laughs not all that I can write about on here but whilst on a frog hunt last night I made Sam jump and fart at the same time which was pretty hilarious. They didn’t have any Tusker Cider last night so I had the Larger instead. I might recommend it to the pub I work at back home, see if they might trial it for a few weeks.

Today we went to Lake Simbi. It took about an hour and a half to get there and really there wasn’t much to do. We listened to the old folk tales that a local Luo man told us about how the lake came to be, listened patiently as he told us of all its healing powers (I put that down to the high salt content in the water). It was interesting to hear to the tale and its somewhere I can say I’ve been now but I would have preferred to go back to Rusinga Island or something similar as that was really good fun. On the way back, we stopped off at a hotel to use the toilets, it was so quiet and everything was closed up, you can really see how they rely on in season tourist trade as it’s a ghost town out of season.

We also drove past a political rally on the way there and back. The crowd had grown in numbers on the way back past. The Kenyans described it to us as a little bit like Labour vs Conservative. However, a lot more violent. It is between the two main parties NASA and Jubilee Party. People fight on the streets and are sometimes killed, there is a lot of political unrest at the moment. Halima explained the country’s situation to me so I could better understand what was going on. She explained that what we saw was a NASA rally.

NASA:

Nasa, comprises of different tribes (Luo, Kamba, Luhya and Costal region). The coalition leader Raila Amollo Odinga is challenging the current president.

Jubilee Party:

Jubilee party, comprises of different tribes (Kikuyu, Kalenjin and partly NorthEastern region). The current president Uhuru Kenyatta is leader of the Jubilee Party. This is his second term in power. His legitimacy is under question however, after his initial victory was quashed by the Supreme Court and the opposition boycotted the re-run. He won again much to the disappointment of NASA supporters (which Halima and a number if the students are). The president has been criticised for trying to control the media and enforce censorship and take the county into a dictatorship.

The Rally:

Raila Amollo Odinga challenging the president is seen as treason to the government. However, he has a lot of support from the tribes I mentioned earlier and as we saw for the huge crowds that gathered. He calls himself the peoples president. The plan is for him to be sworn in on the 30^th January so a few days’ time. As I mentioned earlier though this will be considered treason and there’s high anticipation and tension in the country, the government has refused to send police to help.

Dinner was the standard; a choice of rice or pasta, a selection of meat dishes and then cabbage and vegetables. The food is tasty I’m just starting to grow really tired of eating the same food every day. Especially as I’m vegetarian so I mainly rotate between rice or pasta everyday with veg and cabbage. We have been very spoilt though and I’m extremely grateful for all the hard work that goes into the preparing food for us every day. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day because there’s more meat free options and variety, I will miss my Kenyan breakfasts dearly when I get home.

Sunday

We didn’t leave until 9am today so I got a whole 15mins extra in bed! WooHoo! Breakfast at uni was delicious as always, today I had toast with butter and marmite, so so yummy.

Isobel took us to get our hair braided it was 400 shillings for the hair extensions which me and Hafsa shared so just 200 shillings each which is about £1.40. You’d never get hair extensions that cheap in England. The labour cost was only 500 shillings each too so about £3.50. all in all, my hair that took over half an hour to do cost just over £5 (excluding the tip we gave her for doing such a good job).

I only had 2000 shillings left for the rest of the trip so I decided to go to the bank to get more money out as I still want to get people back home gifts. I took out another 3000 shillings totalling my spend for this three week trip at 13000 shillings, I checked my online banking and it translated into £90!!! I’d spend £90 a week easily in Brighton. I can’t get over how cheap everything is here, I’m coming back to Africa for sure.

We then went to treat house, I felt no guilt in splashing out on a few drinks and lunch. Lunch was amazing chips! Proper salty French fries! I practically inhaled them. We were joined by Fiona Lydia and Halima today. They’re all such lovely girls we’ve started chatting about having a WhatsApp group with them to keep in contact when we are back in England. We were also joined by Zarah and Amaya who are Isobel’s daughters. Zarah is 12 and Amaya is 6. They are beautiful little girls im trying to persuade Zarah to come to England to be a model she’s so beautiful they would adore her back in the UK. Amaya is so cheeky she’s so strong willed and independent I’m really going to miss them and Isobel too, she’s been like a second mother to us here.

I read a load of The White Masai (Corrine Hoffman) over 100 pages in 2 hours and totally missed all the drama that unfolded when a man bought his girlfriend to treat house where he was confronted by his wife. Drama! She was still throwing stuff at him when we left t go back to the Uni for dinner. I couldn’t eat anything as I was still full from lunch but the girls wrapped my hair for me in traditional African style to protect my braids. This was very funny and we took some great pictures of me resembling EastEnders Dot Cotton. We said goodnight to each other early and I hopped into bed to continue watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002) the extended edition of course. I hoping to finish all three by the time I get back to the UK if I watch about 45mins a night.

Jan 30 2018

MEETING THE COMMUNITY LEADERS!!

IT’S FRIDAY!!!!!YAAS

Friday is my best day of the week, just wanted to put it out there. Since now you know lemmi get back to business. Well I started my day at around 7.00am as usual prepared myself and came for breakfast. Which was delicious as always. After breakfast we went to the media resource where we normally assemble. At around 9.30am the members of the community arrived not all but only the committee leaders. The lecture by Peter kicked off at around 10.00am. Peter started the lecture by giving madam Jane who is the overall leader to give brief information on what is on the ground and what the community has been doing since the last time we were in the community. Madam Jane explained a lot of stuff that they have been doing but mainly she passed a complaint from the community members of chamgiwadu who were always asking when is the radio station going to be set up.

Peter explained to them that they are still gathering the money and students from Brighton are really working hard to raise funds which are not easy as they think but plans are underway. From there Peter continued with the lecture and in the middle of the lecture Peter asked us to form groups with the community members in order to tackle some questions which we did.

This gave us an opportunity to interact more with the community members and get to hear their issues. After discussing the question we presented it and moved on with the lecture. At around 2.00pm we went for lunch had a nice meal together with the members of the community.

After lunch the community members left since there was a technical error with the Wi-Fi and so we decided to meet on Monday in the field. After few moments later we went for dinner and later on everyone left to their hostels.

Thanks for passing by as always see you on the next blog!!!!!

Jan 30 2018

Days 11 & 12 a weekend break

This trip is moving so quickly. Perhaps it’s the non-stop nature of the work we scheduled or rather the community scheduled that is keeping us occupied but it is sad to think that in a few days we’ll be leaving Rongo and the Cham gi Wadu community. So that makes this our last weekend here so we thought we’d make the most of it.

Day 11 Saturday 27^th January

I’d asked Jerry and Isabel if we might travel to Lake Simbi this weekend. It’s a lovely salt water lake in a volcanic crater on the other side of Homa Bay, near Kindu Bay, about an hour and a half away in the Rongo Bus. We visited there 2 years ago when, there wasn’t nearly as much water as this year and we were able to walk around the lake close to the shore. That wasn’t the case this year, the shore line was much higher and although we could get down to the shore line, and did, we couldn’t walk around it as close to the water as previously. The surrounding grass and vegetation was also much dryer this year. Then it was verdant green and lush, now it was scrubby brown and very dry. Nonetheless, it was still beautiful in its own way. These weren’t the only changes though, the story of the myth surrounding the lake and its mysteries told by a number of local men to earn a few shillings from visitors was elaborated upon by James our story teller this year. He seemed to get carried away as Mac translated from Luo to English for us – although I am not sure why, as James spoke perfectly good English as I discovered when I chatted to him afterwards. Jerry got a little embarrassed by the elaborations in the story, the narrative of which had a tendency to jump around a bit, although the old story was still discernible. This video by Aron Kipkoech tells the story further https://youtu.be/jXqGYxbzuRo

After the story s few of us went to the lake shore to find an old Mumma scrapping the soil by the lakes water to extract the Bicarbonate of Soda or soda ash as they call it. They use it to settle the stomachs of their cattle and fight worms; in cooking vegetables; to clear spots, pimples and other skin conditions and various other uses. Similar to ways in which it is, or was, used by previous generations in Britain. For me this was a lovely way to spend an hour or so but it was soon time to head back to campus.

On the way through Homa Bay, we heard that Raila Odinga – leader of the NASA opposition to Uhuru’s Jubilee Alliance government, former president, freedom fighter and hero of the Luo people was speaking at the local football stadium with other NASA leaders. There was bound to be a huge turnout, and there was, and I feared we might get stuck but we didn’t. Lucky in a way because he is about to have himself sworn in as President – the people from the Nyanza region are convinced the results of the first election was rigged. This is complex affair that I don’t know enough about but I was hear just after the results of the first presidential election were declared null and void. From everything I read and saw on TV it was clear that something didn’t add up but I have no idea what that was. It is a sad fact that in this lovely land, with its lovely peoples (regardless of tribe), corruption is rife. Anyway, we got through easily enough, had dinner and returned to the Pastoral Centre for a chat and a couple of beers.

Day 12 Sunday 28^th January 2018

Not too much to tell here from my point of view. The morning was passed with the girls going with Isabel to a salon to have braids put in their hair. They did look great, especially Halima who had her braids removed, her hair treated and put in a sort of loose bouncy curl effect. I know Katie was a little apprehensive about having braids but they look good. Meanwhile Sam, Luca and I did a little shopping and chilled back at the Pastoral centre.

On the pleading of the students I asked for us to be able to skip lunch at Uni so they could eat chips, and who knows what else, at the Treat House. It made them very contented so it was worth it! Meanwhile Mac and I chatted about research and the possibility of him doing a PhD as part of the CM4K partnership. I have already supervised one PhD here to completion (the mediation of intra-tribal conflict and peace building) and have just agreed to take on another (communications for development and gender imbalances). Mac is a great supporter and I think will make a great CM4K researcher so I am happy to encourage him. Whilst chatting we watched his, and that of many Luo’s, team Gor Mahia beat the Leopards in the Kenyan Super-Cup Final. To be honest it was a dull game but Mac’s team deserved its victory. We then watched Chelsea (my team and his UK team) beat Newcastle in the 4^th round of the FA Cup. All in all a pleasant afternoon with not much more to say about our quiet Sunday.

Jan 29 2018

29.01.2018 – Luca

Hello everyone!

Ah, Monday – but let’s start on Sunday night. 😊

To continue from the weekend blog, like expected we went to The Treat House Hotel – and we got our chips, yes! Well, to precise I had a Spanish omelette, 2 sausages and a massive plate of chips, one very happy boy here! We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine and catching up with one another, it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday. I’m really going to miss all of the friends we’ve made here, it’s a very bittersweet experience. I’m confident that I know I’m going to stay in contact with a few people though, I just wish we weren’t going to be worlds apart from one another. In the evening, I was quite tired so just snuggled up and watched a film, well, some of which I am excited to finish this evening, it’s called – The Passengers.

Today, Monday we had our final day of fieldwork. Below I’ve listed the placed we visited as I usually do on my fieldwork blogs:

Kanyimach Primary School –Kanyimach Primary School was founded in 1926, and is believed to be the oldest Primary School in the Cham gi Wadu region. The school offers academic services from pre-school, to year 8 students and currently has 435 students enrolled (as of January 29^th, 2018).

Kanyimach Mixed Secondary School –Kanyimach Mixed Secondary School was first founded under the Kanyimach S.D.A Church in 2016 with 40 pupils. The school is funded by the community, who pay wages to the 8 teachers at the establishment. The school now has 106 students, and hope to be granted government funding.

Kanyimach S.D.A Church – The Kanyimach Seventh Day Adventist Church was founded in 1922, and holds a service every Saturday.

Kogenya Shopping Centre – Kongenya Shopping Centre was named after a prominent village elder who donated the land for construction of the market, it sells various amenities for members of the Lua community.

Speaking of the Kogenya Shopping Centre, I had a really experience with a woman named Rebbeca who I interviewed there. She was curious to know about the Radio Station, so I had Mac translate a conversation between us. She was extremely excited about the Station, and very eager about having a slot, or at least a meeting advertised where she could share her knowledge, wisdom and advise about being a widow to help other women in the same position as her. I was excited about the prospect, as you could really feel her enthusiasm about empowering other women and that’s at the heart of what we’re trying to do here – empower communities and all those within it. It’s definitely something I will be talking to Peter about, in fact, I might do that right now!

Update: Peter was very enthusiastic too, so great news all around! I think that I will do a more in-depth post about my interview with Rebbeca, but for now we are off to have some dinner so I am afraid it will have to wait! I hope everyone has the most wonderful evening, talk soon!

P.S. Thank you Katie for all the brilliant photos today! All credit goes to you. 😛

Luca. 😊