Well I've finally arrived in Kenya. I'm here for 6 weeks to work as an Accountant for the charity Action for Children in Conflict in Thika, 1 hour north of Nairobi. AfCiC works with street children to try and get them into education and rehabilitate them with their families.
Eleanor, the Director, met me at the airport. She's English, about 30 and has been her for about 3 1/2 years. She has a curious mixture of a Yorkshire and African accent and is extremely chatty. It turns out that there are 4 other girls here volunteering at the charity at the moment and she took them all out for a night on the town in Nairobi last night. So my first meal in Kenya was breakfast at Eleanor's friends house: tea and marmite on toast. AfCiC has quite a few volunteers which it recruits through it's own website, but they have never attracted an accountant or worked with Afid, so hopefully my skills will come in handy. The other volunteers are a youth worker, a psychcologist, a fund raiser and an administrator.
We went to a market where I bought my first scarf of the trip (I think there will be many) and then for another western lunch - fajitas, burgers and chips. The others seem to crave westerm food - makes me wonder what the food in Thika is like.
Finally we got to the house. Its 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen and a living room with a yard about the front and back. We are locked in at all times by massive padlocks on the front and back door and gate and have a guard Joseph who sits outside through the night. Interesting... Luckily as I am cat lover there is also a house cat Purrsistence, so called because she begs for food a lot (maybe she has worms....I may have to find a vet). The only decoration on my walls are squashed mosquitos but it's actually quite nice and could be a lot worse! More soon....
Eleanor, the Director, met me at the airport. She's English, about 30 and has been her for about 3 1/2 years. She has a curious mixture of a Yorkshire and African accent and is extremely chatty. It turns out that there are 4 other girls here volunteering at the charity at the moment and she took them all out for a night on the town in Nairobi last night. So my first meal in Kenya was breakfast at Eleanor's friends house: tea and marmite on toast. AfCiC has quite a few volunteers which it recruits through it's own website, but they have never attracted an accountant or worked with Afid, so hopefully my skills will come in handy. The other volunteers are a youth worker, a psychcologist, a fund raiser and an administrator.
We went to a market where I bought my first scarf of the trip (I think there will be many) and then for another western lunch - fajitas, burgers and chips. The others seem to crave westerm food - makes me wonder what the food in Thika is like.
Finally we got to the house. Its 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen and a living room with a yard about the front and back. We are locked in at all times by massive padlocks on the front and back door and gate and have a guard Joseph who sits outside through the night. Interesting... Luckily as I am cat lover there is also a house cat Purrsistence, so called because she begs for food a lot (maybe she has worms....I may have to find a vet). The only decoration on my walls are squashed mosquitos but it's actually quite nice and could be a lot worse! More soon....
Nicola, good to hear you've arrived safely and are settling in well. Looking forward to reading more about your new home. :)
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