Visiting the school in Londiani was a pretty amazing experience. After arriving to some welcome songs we had a delicious lentil lunch cooked for us by the headmaster’s wife. During the tour of the school that followed the issues they face in running this private school to such a high standard became clear. Despite being 5^th out of 65 schools in recent results. The headmaster explained that the well they have is not sufficient and sometimes the children miss out on valuable education because they have to walk miles to the next well.

Having accessed the need we set about filming the footage we needed to put the film together. I managed to get a lot of B-roll of the children in their classes, whilst Maddy and Rod conducted the interview. Although before we knew it things got a bit hectic and Sarah and I were leading a class. This class posed for our cameras and giggled when we played the footage back to them. They asked us hundreds of questions and all at the same time, wanting to know everything about our lives back in the UK. It was the most welcoming and friendly environment.

Hopefully our visit will help their plans towards development, a stepping stone in the direction of providing them with electricity. This is very important due to the government demands that every school must have computer facilities.

Even our last day was still a busy one. In the first half of the afternoon we attended the stories of our cities exhibition, I was surprised that when we got there, providing it was the opening day, not much was set up, so we got stuck in and helped. The photos on display were all really good, the ones from Nairobi were pretty cool. It was nice to see the contrast and similarities between Brighton and Nairobi through photography. 

In the second half of the day it was a task of hunting down Masi Markets for last minute gifts to ourselves or others, it didn’t go too well. Luckily for us the airport had a couple of gift shops so it wasn’t too bad. 

Being in Kenya was a great experience, its a shame it had to end! 

After the events of the safari we made an early start and headed back to Nairobi. The road back was a lot bumpier than I remember, it was made worse by sitting at the back of the van…feeling a little car sick was an understatement! 

On the journey back we stopped over at Rift Valley again, the views were still amazing. We were supposed to visit the stories for our cities exhibition a day early for a community turnout, apparently it was a good afternoon but after the journey it just seemed too much to attend. Instead we returned to Hartebeast camp, and celebrated our last night in Nairobi in style. 

The bumpy ride to the Massi was well worth it, the safari was awesome! Seeing 4 out of the big 5 animals was amazing, not only did we see them we managed to get so close to them. Giraffes are actually massive, the elephants were just amazing, the male lions were crazy close to the van, i was surprised how un-flustered they were by anything. 

All was well until the dear mini- van broke down, not even the bar of soap could stop the oil leak 😉 being towed was pretty funny although at times there were near- whiplash situations, the posh safari van that came to the rescue first looked comfy, but you can’t beat a bit of towing across a safari. Good things come out of a bad situation though, we got to stay on the Masi Mara for the night, glamping in some luxary tents. If we hadn’t of broken down we would never have seen the sun set over the game reserve and the sun rise on the masi, breaking down isn’t all that bad. 

On the 17th we took the long road to Lake Victoria. When we reached the lake the views were pretty amazing, it was nice to get the chance to see it. 

The village of Ndhiwa was small and along with the community that goes with it. Therefore the amount of people that stepped of off the Rongo bus when we arrived seemed like what can only be described as an invasion. As the point of being there was a community meeting the number of us that was there completely outnumbered the members of the community that turned out. Throughout the community project effective communication with a community was a key point, here was an example of how a lack of or a breakdown of communication between Rongo and the community may lead to ineffective meetings that may be intimidating for the community. 

I’m not sure of the ideas or solutions that came out of this visit because of the different voices that were being heard, other than that it was nice to see other parts of Kenya. 

Today we traveled to Migori in hope of meeting the Governor of the ward… it turned out he was in Nairobi. 

Instead the deputy Governor took the meeting, he seemed a little overwhelmed with our presence. The meeting was a way of Rongo University showcasing the developing partnership between Brighton University (CM4K) and Youth Development Voice. Rongo University were offering a similar collaboration between the youth community in Rongo and the community members in Migori. 

Later we headed back to Rongo to finish editing the content from the interviews and putting all together on Audacity. After the podcast was uploaded to soundcloud the group were unhappy with the descion made earlier to overlap the Swahili speakers with an English translation, it seemed the audio was to distorted and hard to listen intently to. Unfortunately it was too late in the day to edit this further, therefore the decision was made that I would make the tweaks and re- upload the podcast to soundcloud. It was a shame that we could produce the final edit on the final day of the workshop but we worked hard to try to! The group I worked with were great, they were always enthusiastic which made the workshop easier to do, it also made the problems we encountered manageable. 

We visited a local village near Rongo to witness the gold mining process along with the lifestyles lived by those who both work and live there. It was an eyeopener. 

Before the interviews were conducted we were reminded that it was important to create a friendly rapport with the community members and the interviewers in order to build up a brief and trusting relationship. At first it was a struggle to capture interviews as some locals did not want to be recorded in fear that the government my get wind of the material. The audio group did a good job of working through this problem by discussing what and the information would be used for. 

After the visit had happened the editing was suppose to begin…. this was until we encountered editing and technical problems… however this were solved by Peter. During these workshops I have learnt to make use of the resources that you have available and make do with them. For example, we had to listen to the audio on one computer and edit the audio using another, the group communicated brilliantly with each other to overcome the difficulty of the situation. 

On the 14th of January the workshops began at Rongo University. I was looking forward to working in partnership with the students to create a collaborative audio project. In the morning we lots of meetings and greetings of staff members from the principle to the deans of the schools. After the formalities had finished Angela and myself met the audio group we would be working alongside. All the participants seemed enthusiastic about the collaboration and interesting in learning the process of pod casting.

Mind- mapping was our first point of call, again this was a successful process of developing ideas that the local community may be facing. The main idea that came from this process was poverty, with the main focus on food insecurity. The participants believed food insecurity is both a national and localised problem that needs addressing in Kenya.

The lectures at Rongo uni were at hand to help facilitate the workshops, for example, Dr. Fred advised the group to look at this issue using a critical discourse when creating the podcast in order for it to be well- rounded an more importantly of interest.

In planning the group have decided to go out into the local community and ask women and the youth how food insecurity effects them. The women they found women of interest is because of the traditional link the women have to the home, they are the foundation and providers for the family therefore they are more likely to be affected. I am looking forward to delving into this subject tomorrow even though I am aware it will be hard- hitting.

Finally, Rongo’s hospitality is great. It is ironic to think (considering the issue used in the podcast and the poverty surrounding us) or say that I don’t think I’ve had as many courses of food as I have here. However, I did enjoy the chorus of chicken killings that happened during dinner and part- way through Gerry’s speech, what a way to finish the day.

Today we went to the Massai Mara which we have all been so excited about 🙂 it was a very bumpy ride in our little van but it was ammmaazzzziiinnnnggg once we got there. Seeing all the animals in real life was so good… it was like being in a film. Giraffes are massive and elegant and we saw loads of elephants including baby ones which was the best. They were by far my favourite. 

On our journey back we had a bit of a hoohar and the van broke down. Luckily a few of us got to go in a plush safari jeep to take us to the gates and we saw two male lions right by the van. It was a bit sad as they were really thin and the guide said they only had a week to live but that is nature hey! I wish that they we could have stroked them without us getting eaten.

The van took a while to get fixed and we ended up staying at a campsite just outside safari land as it wasn’t safe to drive all that way in the dark. The tents were really cool BUT me and maddy didn’t do good with the falling and crawling bugs around us… a night of being scared was all forgotten when we woke up and saw the most beautiful sunset ever 🙂 definitely the highlight of the trip!

Today we went to visit potential partners at a school by Lake Victor with the University College Rongo. It took a while to get there but the there were some good views to see a long the way. Lake Victoria was really beautiful and the countryside was quite similar to England except a bit more barren.

When we arrived it was a bit of a palarva as not that many people from the community turned. I felt the same as I did the other day when we went to the gold mining village as there were so many us in comparison to the locals, we outnumbered them and I think it was a bit intimidating/off putting for them. We decided to sit out and the Rongo students held discussions with them. The trip didn’t seem that beneficial but it did highlight an important aspect of community work… not to invade a community! This can be avoided with good communication/research before the visit. Seeing Lake Victoria and the little villages on the way was nice though 🙂