Today we went to meet Kris in the town centre. We first went to an italien restaurant and reflected on the previous days meeting. Kris expressed his feeling’s of positivity from the meeting. I feel that if everyone is able to get and keep the ball rolling on all their ideas then the project will go far. I was impressed by Kris’s knowledge and vision for the community media projects.

After lunch we headed into the Masi Market with Kris as our shaperone. We were quickly and strategically spilt from each other and crowded by sellers. Peter made great friends right away with a player wanting to charge him for being his shaperone around the market “I’m gone” he shouted ” this man is english, they don’t feed us, I prefer Americans” they were born to disagree with eachother.

After a fun spot of hagaling with the sellers and getting lost in the noise and busel of preachers and beggers, we slugishly made our way out of the market stopped by each and everyone one of our new best friends on the way out. Once out of the market we said our goodbye’s to Kris and travelled back to the camp again for a hearty Ugalie a couple of tuskers and then bed. Tiring but fun day.

After a lazy morning we left for Ruiru around 10. When we got to the centre we met Kris, Roman, Mike and Vincent and sat down for a meeting about the way forward with their combined work towards the ICT skills development project. Me and Rosie mainly audited and took notes throughout the meeting be were asked our final thoughts towards the end. There was alot to talk about and follow, after a brief introduction from everyone Mike outlined the itinerary and what he believed to be the three main areas of discussion for the meeting.

The three main topics up for discussion were the remodelling of an annual conference bringing key figures in to share ideas and meet each other. How to organise the training workshops such as the ones we had par taken in from here on out and how to properly support the community media centres in a sustainable and manageable way.

Initially Peter opened up the meeting by discussing his idea’s for setting up a community media interest group back in the U.K that could channel investors and supporters through one organisation to make funding and contributions more manageable and accessable to potential investors. After suggesting how support for the CMC’s could be managed from the U.K Mike opened up the same questions for how support can be sustained in Kenya. It was agreed between Mike, Kris and Roman that long term sustainability would have to come from the ground up, people in the communities would need to see and understand the potential for CMC’s first to then be more willing to contribute, Peter emphasised the idea that it should be approached in a reciprocal manor, and discussed with Kris the potential with new partnerships established at the Hill Park workshops between the rongo university, the potential for Kenyan students to come to the U.K and teach workshops much in the same way.

Mike then emphasised the importance of proper co-ordination moving ahead with these ideas, bringing it back to the three topics Mike expressed that it was now the how? that should be asked. The resounding understanding then among the group was that they should set up one single organisation to co-ordinate all the activities under one roof, making communication easier to manage.

Other items for discussion included a discussion about partnerships, everyone came forward with the partnerships they had been overseeing and agreed to an open policy with sharing contact details and developments in these relationships.

After these Mike brought everyone back to discuss the way forward and conclude on proceeding’s. The four main things to move forward with that I identified from the meeting were, forming a community interest company, developing and writing a memorandum of understanding between all partners, Developing a network between the CMC’s and creating a model/strategic plan as a basis that all CMC contributors and developers can work from.

After the concluding thoughts from Mike he opened the forum for everyone to contribute their own concluding thoughts. For myself, feeling that the discussion had stretched far into the future for plans that would take some time to develop I thought I would bring it back to the basics and reitterate that it would be important as a basis to go forward with all these plans to have a well defined and coherent philosophical framework that was written and understood throughout the organization, this way new partners would have a full understanding of what to expect and how to interact with the organization especially as a community run organization in which every individual has a say, this way it will be easy to see if the direction and intentions of the project change as the project grows. I felt I had witnessed an important moment for the community media project and I look forward to seeing it grow and fulfil it’s potential.

After the meeting we then travelled a short distance to visit the Project Lucas orphanage, we brought lollipops for all the children and played with them all taking photos, playing football and catch and talking to them all. They were all so lovely and well behaved, I was taken of to a classroom to help teach the kids some english. They were learning about passive and active phrasing and past present and past participals (something I had long forgotten) I read from the handy teachers book that was sat infront of me, it was a breeze, I don’t know what Peter is complaining about teaching is easy. After moulding a few minds and playing with the kids outside again we left to travel back to the Hartebeest camp. Another great day in Kenya.

Today was the day I admittedly was most looking forward to, and the day most people back at home were jealous of- the trip to the Massai Mara. After a long bumpy drive on the dirt roads we finally arrived. The accommodation was beautiful, but I was not anticipating the bug filled tents! I think I was just being a girl about things and freaking myself out… Hey! Well for someone who hates moths and butterflies I wasn’t exactly able to prepare myself for the jumping spiders and beetle creatures roaming around my home for the night!

We quickly left again after dropping our bags off to go to the Maasai Village. This place was just truly amazing. The villagers build their houses from scratch themselves out of resources accessible to them- mud, manure, sticks and branches- and they’d last for around 9 years. We questioned what they would do once their houses deteriorated and the response was they moved location of their village. This intrigued me as to how easy they seemed to make it sound to up and move an entire village of many different families.  The team work and collaboration between the villagers was clearly visible. With the boys going out at 15 to live in the wild and fend for themselves, albeit in a group, for 3 years to then come back and become a true man. This ritual is not complete of course without the killing of their own lion. I know I wouldn’t be up for the challenge even though I do find them extremely cute- I wouldn’t want to risk it!

Learning about the villager’s culture was fascinating and I’d still like to find out some more about it! Shortly after seeing the inside of one of their houses we were ambushed by the selling techniques from the Maasi villagers who gave us a chance to try out our haggling techniques… to be completely honest I don’t think my techniques were up to scratch but it gave me some practice for what was to come later in the week at the Maasai Market!

Setting out on the actual safari was a little overwhelming. There was so much to see and we had to keep our eyes peeled. By far the greatest views we saw were the pack of lions and the little lion cubs! They all ventured out slowly and began to play which was delightful to see! The following day the animals seemed to be out in full force. We all were a little tired from getting up early and fending off the bugs all night (okay, maybe that was just me…) but when we started to spot the animals I seemed to wake up immediately! Spotting herds of elephants and plenty of giraffes, gazelles, zebras, warthogs and wildebeest- to name but a few the day was getting better and better. The most exciting part was the exiting of the park. I know this might sound a little crazy but this is when our driver spotted a cheetah casually taking a stroll down the dirt path. We managed to get right up close and get plenty of good pictures- although Peter missed his amazing shot… Whoops! I think the fact he’d seen the Cheetah in the first place had made his safari trip this year- as it did for all of us!

I’m just looking forward to getting home and making everyone jealous- especially my dad- with all the pictures and stories I’ve got to show and tell!

Our return to the Hartebeest Campsite signalled the time for Laura to leave us in order to return to the UK in order to meet her mother, who she had not seen for a year and who was returning to the UK from New Zealand for Laura’s graduation. I bet she’s a very proud mum as Laura gained a 1^st Class Honours degree! The drive to the airport was a rather subdued affair, we’d gone into this as a team of four and Laura had been a memorable member of that team. So it was with a heavy heart that we all wished her safe journey home and waved a fond farewell.

So it was that 3 of us set of for Ruiru and a meeting with the Focus Youth Initiative. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. We had originally planned a 3 day community capacity building workshop similar to the one we had run in Nairobi only using music as part of the outreach activities of FYI. This had been put on hold, and we changed our plans accordingly, due to our former UK based partner organisation’s best attempts at undermining the trip at the last minute – we recently dissolved our partnership (let’s just say due to a number of financial and ethical disagreements) – through the broadcast dispatch of a most vindictive and spurious email designed to cause maximum disruption and incite people’s most basic fears and prejudices. It was all very sad and the one cloud that hanging over what has been a very successful trip.

As it transpired we had a very interesting and productive meeting. We all made it clear that whatever came from the meeting it was not to be related to or taking the place of the previous relationship or the activities that that organisation may or may not be involved in. Any agreements between the attendees of this meeting and the other organisation would not be affected in any way by whatever was decided.

Callum, Kris, Peter, Mike, Roman & Rosie

It rapidly became clear that there is a need for the kind of training that the students have been facilitating in order to support the activities of the would-be partners. It was also evidenced that a lot of talent and knowledge already exists in Kenya and that part of the emerging partnership’s remit would be to find ways of encouraging it. The training the trainers approach was embraced as an appropriate ethos for the partnership and a plan of action for future developments was drawn up. I will report more on this as matters develop. For now it is enough to say that I am very excited by the potential of this partnership. What might have been an uncomfortable meeting proved to be anything but and I believe we have a basis for trust and mutual respect which will stand us all in good stead in the coming months and years. The students were fascinated by the meeting, telling me afterwards how interesting it had been. They played an active part throughout and participated with respect, dignity and professionalism.

After the meeting we headed over to the Lucas Project, which is an orphanage project run by Focus Youth Initiative. The meeting had been chaired by Mike Asudi from Faces of Peace and he chaired it, as usual, very effectively. It was great to see Mike again, we have worked with him before on a number of occasions and look forward to continuing working with him. Kris Mbogo (my Kenyan son) from FYI came with us to the orphanage and it was not long before he had his hands on our camera and was filming (some things never change eh Kris?). The visit was a real fillip and the students particularly enjoyed themselves & the kids enjoyed the lollipops we bought. Callum did some English teaching whilst Rosie and I played with the children. All in all another really interesting and worthwhile day – we had imagined that the next few days will be more relaxed but our trip to the Maasai market in the car park of Nairobi’s Supreme Court on Saturday was to dissuade us of that fairly sharply.

In this picture, I’d like you to guess the only person not to get a blue lollipop! 😉

Today we left early for the Masi Mara we travelled 5 hours out of Nairobi until ashvalt met dirt track, the first thing we did was to enter the Masi village on the outskirts of our camp. The Masi are an incredible tribe, the most awsome thing that we learnt was that at 15 a Masi boy is strewn to the wild along with other boys in the village his age. They live from 3-5 years in the wild and towards the end of their time they must hunt and kill a lion to prove their manhood.

After watching and dancing along with the Masi men as well as visiting their homes it was straight to bargaining for trinkets. I snagged myself a lions tooth and a necklace for 2,000 KSH and a rubber braclet with the colours of the Kenyan flag and the words ‘Learn, Empower, Grow’ on it. We had ordered them before coming.

After visiting the Masi village on the first day we went on an evening game drive. We saw Gazelles, Zebra’s, Elephants and Hyenna’s but the highlight was unquestionably watching a 16 strong pride of lions and lionesses wake up from a long day nap and play with their cubs. Their beauty was astounding. Then it was back to the camp for sleep.

We woke early the next morning ready for a second drive. On this drive we saw Topie, Ggazelles a plenty, Zebra’s a plenty and a huge heard of elephants as well as large grouping’s of wildebeast and various other animals preparing for migration. We visited the hippopotamus at a hotel lake and saw a crane as well as many other wonderful birds. Then as we were travelling back and Peter was just saying how much he would love to see a cheetah, one just strolled out of the thicket onto the path in front of us. We couldn’t believe our luck, the cheetah posed for a few pictures and then strolled back into the grass to find a nice spot of shade under a tree. Magnificent.

Heading back to Nairobi now where Laura will be getting ready to go back to the U.K. It will be sad to see her leave, it has been great working with such an enthusiastic person even with all her famous toilet breaks. I didn’t think Londiani could be topped but the Mara was another overwhelming and unforgettable experience. I’m extremely grateful for such an incredible opportunity, it will be hard to re-adjust to life back in the U.K.  

Wow! Feeling elated and overwhelmed by the children and staff at King’sWay preparatory school in Londiani. A four and a half hour journey by car brought us to Londiani and to the school. We were greeted at the gates by staff and a chorus of beautiful school children dancing, clapping and singing the words “Welcome, welcome we love our visitors.” From the moment we entered it was impossible to withold from smiling the whole time, we dropped off two boxes of books and sweets for the children.

Then it was a tour around the school grounds, we visited each classroom to the sound of children singing. In year one Peter was in despair at the sight of a young school girl wearing an arsenal beanie, so to even the balance whilst taking photos Peter got them to replace “cheese” with a “Chelsea!”

What struck me was how much had been done with so little and how much the smallest contribution could benefit the school out here. This has been the best day in Kenya thus far. Beautiful countryside, Beautiful culture, Beautiful people.

The trip to Londiani was incredible to say the least. The very long journey to get there was definitely worth the wait- although I was asleep most of the time anyway… We got to stop off at the Great Rift Valley for the first time and the view was insane! Seeing for miles the beautiful landscape was amazing- albeit a little scary at the great height of the fall from where we were standing! As always we were swarmed by the locals trying to sell us all their goods for a ‘good price’ with their opening line of ‘which country?!’ but we managed to successfully avoid them with a little help from Peter! On the road again to finish our ‘3 hour journey’ according to Rufus- which took more like nearly 5 hours in the end! He blamed it on the bumpy roads and if he was driving he could’ve done it in 3 hours- Kenyan time playing it’s part here again I think!

When we arrived the scenery was beautiful. The arrival was overwhelming once we’d climbed the massive hill that our driver JJ had kindly driven Peter up and left us behind through miscommunication! Arriving at the school to be greeted by all pupils and staff singing and dancing for us was incredibly overwhelming. The children were all so excited to see us- bar one kid who cried at the sight of a white person!

Going to the school and seeing how much they appreciate us just being there was remarkable. The smiles on their faces will stay with me forever. The passion displayed by Daniel, the founder of the school, was unbelievable. The school try to facilitate the children who cannot travel to and from school with the boys and girls dorms. With only 18 beds in each and 40 children sleeping in each dorm it was clear there was work needs to be done to help facilitate the children better. The same can be said about the well that is used for kitchen use. It was a small well which can only be filled when they receive rainfall- which is only 8/9 months of the year. Obviously these are obstacles that the school face but creating partnerships between Universities and others can help to aid and build on these to better facilitate the children.

Not only has the trip to Londiani been a real eye opener, but it has made me consider working in the charity sector. Seeing what a difference can be made through small improvements and development projects is aspirational. Seeing first-hand how much little things mean to others is incredible. By far one of the best bits of the visit was Peter getting the children to shout Chelsea as the pictures were being taken and making the children laugh hysterically when the teachers had to do it! I did feel a little bad when we were saying goodbye to everyone and all the children bundled in to high five us and got into trouble for getting too excited and running at us!

All in all this was the best day so far! I’ve found out so far that any expectations I’ve had for each day are always being topped and I hope the trip continues this way!

The next 2 days were to see us spending a lot of time in a 4X4 9 seater as we headed to the Maasai Mara for an evening and morning game drive safari. From Nairobi to the Mara is another 4-5 hour drive, which for those not familiar with Kenyan roads and driving culture was an adventure in itself. I suspect that majority of drivers in Kenya would accumulate 12 points and an automatic driving ban within a day or two of driving in the UK. It is very difficult to judge what the other drivers around you are going to do next and all I can say is that I am glad that it was not me driving on these trips. Our drivers were very skilled and I guess as with most things you get used to things but I’m not sure I’d want to…..hairy to say the least.

The mid-stop break was made at Narok, which is the administrative centre of Narok County. Always a bustling environment the tour operator has a couple stops that they probably have a deal with. Last year we chose not to go to these after a bad experience in the first year where they appeared to want to charge us twice as much as anyone else for pretty poor food. This year was a different location so we decided to give it a try. Not a good decision – there wasn’t much on offer and they were clearly trying to get rid of the remaining scraps before replenishing the buffet. We decided that we were not prepared to be fed scraps and left. Luckily we know of a tried and tested travellers restaurant located in the town’s valley next to the garage, which does good burgers, chicken and chips……if you can run the gauntlet of hawkers wanting to sell you their wares.

The road from Narok to the Maasi Mara soon changes from a tarmac surface to rough road to well….rutted mud tracks I guess. The ride becomes fun for everyone as we were being bumped and shaken for 2 hours along the road. Anticipation takes away the discomfort but I was sitting at the back to get space for my foot and at 6’ 3” the gap between the top of my head and the roof of the carrier is small…..you can guess the rest…..foot is getting better but head hurts ;-).

Upon arrival at the mara we decided to visit the Maasi cultural village……and were given a tour by a group of Morans – tribal warriors – who danced for us; made fire from drilling a hard wood stick against a soft wood block; showed us where they keep their live-stock and protect them from leopards; explained about the 3 hour tribal meetings in the village square (circle) – where tasks for the next day are allocated by the Chief and young warriors exercise and practice dancing; invited us into their homes (giving a whole new definition to the term bijou) and finally……the obligatory opportunity to purchase arts and crafts at a ‘very special price’ 😉

That said it was a very interesting visit which explained a lot about Maasai culture and custum. The visit was followed by the evening game drive and we were so lucky to witness, not only the biggest pride of lions I’ve seen in the flesh but so many lion cubs with the pride. It was the most amazing experience. We all got some great shots, which we will share later…..unfortunately I bought a new camera just before the trip and hadn’t quite worked out the manual settings on it so relied on auto……which captured some great shots but sometimes decided to focus on ears of grass instead of the lions …….ooooops 😉 After, this magnificent drive we witnessed a magical sunset before heading back into camp for dinner and a well-deserved sleep.

An absolute beauty!

After an early breakfast, and the collective decision not to enjoy the benefits a cold shower, we headed off for the morning game drive. Ifraim, our driver and guide, was extremely knowledgeable and clearly possessed a passion for and love of everything Mara, was a great guide. He had such keen eyesight and took us to so many excellent sightings……hyenas, jackals, caracals, wart hogs, ostriches, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest and just about all manor of antelope and gazelles imaginable, to say nothing of the diversity of birds……absolutely amazing…….and just as I had become resolved for the 3^rd year in a row not to see either a cheetah or a leopard……and only 10 minutes away from the park gates…..deep joy! A cheetah just sauntered onto the rough track in front of us……paused for several minutes as if to give us photo ops before pouncing over a small gulley….I had the shot in my view-finder and was just about to snap when Callum decided to stand up and jog me so I got a blurred shot of the sky…..luckily Laura got the shot on a smaller camera.

Seeing that cheetah made me so happy and the students were so excited……it was a perfect end to the best game drive of the 3 I’ve experienced……simply wonderful!

Today was a slightly more lax workshop day, having edited the short documentaries from yesturday’s workshop in the morning we all watched the two films on the the projector together. I was bowled over by both final products of each group. With basic equipment and under extreme time both groups had produced two pieces of work that had strong narratives, a good sense for structure and a sense for composition in shots that had clearly been well thought out. Ofcourse there were minor technical glitches and mistakes in the pieces however after a critical reflection session it was apparant that the students saw and understood how these imperfections could be resolved, the main factor being time in both cases.

After a teabreak we spoke about social networking and delivering materials online via various websites such as google docs, wordpress and Facebook. I think the most vital tool online will be the google docs share space. From here students can work together over a distance once they return to their individual homes. I hope that the importance of a network between all the websites through sharing is understood and sustained.

After these tutorial sessions we wrapped up for the day, Willice gave an excellent final speech which I was gutted to miss the beginning of, however I felt the most important sentiment was heard. Willice quoted bernard shaw along the lines of expressing that the youth not the older generation will be the pioneers of change.

Reflecting on the past three days I am confident that this sentiment will not be lost on the students we worked alongside. I look forward to being party to and seeing the ideas expressed in the workshops fulfilled and the project evolve outside of the hill park hotel. After lunch we had a final photo and exchanged details with all the students. I am proud of what we have achieved.

Today was another busy workshop day. Myself Laura and Rosie were left to conduct the workshops. We began with a short presentation briefly outlining the order of the day. We explained that today we would be combining the practises we learnt on the first day to produce a focussed piece of work, a documentary that persued the issues prevelant to to them as discussed in the morning sessions the day before.

To try and hone ideas in the morning we split the students into two groups assigning each individual a role within the group. The five roles were director, producer, camera operator, researcher/interviewer and editor. After assigning roles within the group we got them to mindmap their ideas for their documentaries.

Out of the mindmap the two focussed subjects emerged, ‘youth unemployment’ and ‘deploying CMC’s’. After a short break we got straight into production. It was impressive to see the level of proffessionalism from the students.

After tea came post-production editing. Eager engagement only escalated further as the day went on. I’m pleased with what we have all achieved today, I feel I learnt more from the students then I could teach them which made me eager to increase my efforts throughout the day.