Excitement, apprehension, a delayed flight and zebras

 

One day to go.

 

It’s four in the morning, the day before I’m due to set off on my volunteer assignment. I can’t sleep due to a mixture of excitement and apprehension. Mainly apprehension. Still, at least this is good practice for tomorrow, when I will have to be up at this time to get ready for my 6am flight from Aberdeen to Paris. Then on to Nairobi. It’s currently minus 2 degrees C in Aberdeen, so Nairobi should present a pleasant change. This is my first visit to Kenya, and my first volunteer assignment. In fact, this is my first attempt at a blog as well. So lots of new experiences for me, hence the lack of sleep. 

 

I am heading for Nairobi to hopefully provide some accounting assistance to the people at the Little Rock Early Child Development Centre, and maybe to an organisation called Action Network for Disabled (ANDY). Both groups work with children from the Kibera slum in Nairobi, which I am informed is the largest urban slum in Africa. Little Rock provide education and a square meal for over 400 pre-school age kids, whilst ANDY supports young people with disabilities. Both very worthwhile endeavours and I hope that I will be able to help them. Doing something useful during the long Aberdeen winters was the main objective when I applied to AfID (www.afid.org.uk) for a volunteer accounting assignment. 

 

I am a 62 year old accountant who retired a couple of years ago. I spent nearly all my career working in the oil and gas business. So I am used to big numbers and enterprise wide financial management systems. The annual budget for Little Rock would be lost in the rounding for the accounts of an oil company. So it will make a refreshing change to work with people who actually count the pennies. So that’s it for tonight. Next step is to make it to Nairobi. Bon Voyage to me!

 

 

The flight from Paris was cancelled because of a puncture, so I will now be arriving late Sunday night. Hope someone will be there to meet me!

 

 

Well, both Lilly, the founder of Little Rock, and Joy, the headmistress, with their husbands Richard and Jerry, were there at midnight to meet me after I had finally got through the visa queue and located my luggage. That was a relief. There’s something unnerving about arriving in a new country with no clear idea of where you are staying. We drove to Joy’s house and saw zebras grazing on the side of the road! A very early morning safari. It was one in the morning before we got to Joy’s house so I didn’t have time to take in my surroundings before it was straight to bed. 

 

Joy had mentioned that their apartment was right next door to the Kibera slum but it wasn’t until the next day that I walked outside and saw what she meant. It is literally just over the wall of the apartment complex. A sea of rusty corrugated iron roofs on a reddish brown mud slope. There were not that many people to be seen wandering about in there, except for one little square about half a mile away where there were lots of children in bright red uniforms playing. I am guessing that that is Little Rock. I took today off to get unpacked and organised, so Joy and Lilly are over there now. Apart from unpacking and getting a little extra sleep, I have been playing with Justin Chege, Joy’s two year old son. Great fun and very bright. It’s a long time since I played with kids that age, I’m exhausted. I have been very well looked after by Salome, who keeps house for Joy and Jerry.