Before the start
on Colm in Kenya (Kenya), 12/Mar/2009 20:02, 34 days ago
HaburiI arrived in Nairobi, Kenya for a weeks in country training on Friday. And while at first I was almost overwhelmed, I'm coming too now and really looking forward to the next two, you know, years. In total there are 46 volunteers in Kenya of which 18 volunteers are new and are attending ICT. They hail from a range of different countries; Canada, US, UK, Philippines, Ireland and Uganda.Four volunteers have been insitu in there placement for 3 months. The rest of us rabbits have only just been caught out by the headlamps and seek every opportunity to listen to their work place struggles and accommodation calamities. Ok it’s not that bad. In fact they’re stories are quite reassuring.I heard some great stories about Kilifi, my placement and how astoundingly beautiful it is. I’ve met volunteers from there and the Coast region and am gratefully reassured by the community they’ve established. I’m slowly learning Swahili (pole pole – slowly slowly) and learning about African and Kenya football, the latter beset by corruption.I got introduced to my employer on Wednesday and he seems a nice guy. He explained to me more about my role, my accommodation and some of the issues facing the community.Nairobi is a traffic laden pressure cooker of people with an incessant sound track provided mainly by the mattatu traffic.I get to Kilifi via mombasa on Saturday evening. My house is only being built but it is not ready so will stay with either my boss or another volunteer. Looking forward to getting there thou I’m told kilifi is a ‘furnace’Hope all is well at homeColm