Mount Kenya

This weekend I spent 4 days climbing the 4,985m trekking peak of Mount Kenya. It’s the second highest mountain in Africa but it’s supposed to be a harder climb than Kili because you have to scramble at the top. Plus far fewer people climb it so you are mostly on your own which is really nice.

 

I had been recommended a guide and was supposed to be joining a group, but the others didn’t turn up for some reason so it was just me, Ibrahim the guide, the cook and a porter. We started at the gate at 2,200m and took 3 days to reach the top. We stayed in mountain huts which were basically wooden sheds with dorm rooms. They had no heating and were freezing! Luckily I had a good sleeping bag unlike a lot of people who seemed to be shivering in all their clothes in some thin sack.

Peak Lenane, the peak I climbed

Although I wasn’t in a group I met some interesting people. Nick, an Australian who was climbing the technical peak (i.e. requires proper climbing with ropes), seemed to have climbed everywhere and gave me Diamox (a drug which helps acclimatisation) which I’m sure is the reason I felt fine ascending 3000m in 3 days. Kyle, an American who had been working in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps for 2 years, was cycling from Lake Assal in Djibouti the lowest point on the African continent to Kili in Tanzania, the highest point. There was also a group from the British army there for training who were camping. They told me it had got down to –20 at night in their tents.

We went up to the peak at 3am to be there for sunrise. It was freezing (the water in my bottle froze) and exhausting but worth it.

 

At the summit with Ibrahim

Tiwi Beach

Last weekend Sarah, Eleanor and I went to Tiwi beach, south of Mombasa. It was a 12 hour overnight bus journey to get there on a very dilapidated bus but it was worth it for the beautiful empty beach we found when we arrived.

We camped on the beach which was great, except it was very windy and I thought the tent might blow away at one point. At least it was cool at night though. The sea was really warm and we ate fresh coconuts and mangos.

On Saturday night we went out to a few bars at the next beach along which was much more of a resort. We went to a beach bar for gin and tonics, white wine and bacon and camembert salad - felt like we were on a proper holiday! The next bar was more interesting though. It was a club full of middle aged western men sitting on their own and young Kenyan girls dressed up to the nines, looking stunning who were attempting to pick them up. More interesting were the middle aged western couples who were each looking for a young Kenyan. I wish I could have taken photos for my blog because I couldn't stop staring!

Sunday night was more relaxed - a fish bbq on the beach and a camp fire.

Finally the power cut is over...

My blog posting has been thwarted today by a power cut which means I cannot connect to the internet or get on with work. These happen everyday here, though often only for a few minutes. Hopefully this one won’t last long and I’ll be able to upload this……

This week I’ve been having meetings every afternoon with each department to set the budgets for next financial year. It’s been contracted process as the charity is being restructured next year and some departments have been merged or split. Each meeting takes hours here as there is always lots of discussion in any case.

I also spent a morning with Anne, one of the social workers, visiting her outreach cases in a nearby town called Ruiru. We first met a single mother who has 3 daughters and who has been kicked out of her in-laws home after her husband died. This is quite common in Kenya. Anne is trying to get her two eldest daughters into school so we went to meet a local head teacher to arrange an interview for the girls. I was quite a celebrity in the playground. In one classroom all the children wanted to hug me.

We then went to visit a landlord of one of the boys that AfCiC help. He’s 16 and since his elder brother moved away hasn’t been able to pay the rent. The Landlord has been holding off but can no longer afford to, so Anne arranged for AfCiC to pay the rent so he can stay in school.

Our last visit of the day was to the Outreach clinic where homeless children can come and play one day a week and get lunch. It’s from these boys that AfCiC will get their bi-annual intakes for the residential programme at the ICC. A lot of them are under pressure to join gangs so it’s good to keep them occupied one day if possible. A mother and grandmother also brought their 2 daughters to meet Anne to see if she could help getting them into work. They want to train as hairdressers. Even though every women seems to get her hair restyled every second day here the set up costs are really high so Anne suggested they train as tailors instead. The family will need to find someone that can train them and ideally pay for the machine, but AfCiC will help with contacts and advice. It was an interesting morning.

The power is now back! I am going to the beach at Mombassa this weekend so will write more next week.

Masai Mara

At the weekend Ann-Katrina and I went to the Masai Mara. We saw lions, rhinos, a cheetah, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo, zebra, eland, wildebeest, gazelle, giraffe, zebra, warthogs and a tortoise.
Here are a few pictures taken with my small digital camera, so the ones from my SLR should be really good.

Glue

This is the glue that the boys sniff. They buy it from the shoe sellers in old plastic bottles. About half our intake of boys at the ICC are addicted and a few have run away because it is banned at the centre. It absolutely reeks.

Ann Katrina with the boys at the ICC

The boys at the ICC are very interested by our hair. Luckily they have pulled out all my white ones.
I think the most entertainment we gave them this week however was when Ann Katrina took out a contact lens to clean it - there was shock and horror all round!

My week at work

It’s been another productive week on the accounts front. Nancy and I have focused on the Income and how this is allocated across the projects. A proportion of income is received from the UK charity and one of our tasks next week is to produce a form that makes it easier for both the UK and Kenyan charity to allocate the income.

I also had a meeting with the two managers Florence & Evans to discuss the issues they have with the current system and how we can make it better. I need to come up with a timetable to try and get everyone to submit their finance forms on time, which the Managers need to submit their accounts to Nancy and give training to the staff on how to complete the forms.

On Tuesday night I also went to the Trustees meeting to ask what financial information they would like to see and how regularly. I’m going to build this into the budget templates I am putting together next week.
So there is still a lot to do but we are slowly getting there.

A good day

On Sunday Sarah & I went to 14 falls with Njenga, one of the Youth Workers from the ICC and 2 of his friends, an accountancy student and a footballer. We had a really fun day. The falls were beautiful and we had a picnic. Everyone tries to cross the river by jumping from stone to stone. Guides help you across because the current is fast but we still got soaking wet and Njenga fell in. It was very funny and we took the easy option of a boat back. We got a lift back to the main road on the back of a Del Monte pick up truck which was very dusty and also good fun. The boys then took us to a local open-air pool which was lovely as we have been dreaming about swimming because it is so hot. We never would have found it without them because it was in the middle of nowhere. All in all, a really good day.

　

First week with Nancy

It’s been a relatively productive week on the accounts front. Nancy, the Administrator, came back from leave on Monday. She is lovely and has been at AfCiC for 4 years.

We spent quite a bit of time with her showing me what she does and getting the accounting records up to date. Each of the project managers is given a float every 2 weeks (or whenever they need it) and they then complete a sheet by hand to track how it’s been spent. They return this to Nancy with all the receipts and Nancy enters this on a spreadsheet. There are 8 separate budgets for the projects and Nancy herself is also responsible for the Office Petty cash and the Office cashbook. Nancy is then supposed to transfer these numbers onto the Actuals v Budget spreadsheet which is effectively the General Ledger. Unfortunately there is normally quite a delay in this process (as in months) and as the numbers are typed into each spreadsheet and not linked there is lots of room for mistakes.

I showed Nancy how to do reconciliation between the 2 sheets to check that they agreed. This was a revelation to her. I don’t think anybody had explained how or why to do a rec to her before.
Next thing to work on is reconciling the cash each time the Project Managers return their receipts and get a new float. But we are making progress…
　
　

New Boys

This week we had a new intake of boys at the Interim Care Centre. 22 in total arrived on Monday & Tuesday from Thika and nearby towns.
The first few days are spent getting them clean, into new clothes and settled in. Next week they will start lessons and counselling sessions. A number will have been sexually abused on the streets as well as all the other issues they’ve had to deal with. I’ll be reading with them as all secondary exams are in English they need to be able to read and write. By the end of 9 – 12 weeks they’ll be ready to go to school.
They seem very small but most are older than they look because of years of malnourishment. Quite a few of this intake are addicted to glue which they get from the shoe repair men and by the end of the week we’d lost 3, probably because they’ve left to get their fix.

They seem very happy to be here though and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they change. They are very different to the boys I took to school last week who were the last of the previous intake. Now I just have to learn all their names!

Power strikes

Tuesday night at 8pm we had a power strike which lasted until I woke up this morning (Thursday). These are common in Kenya apparently, though normally there is notice given in the newspapers (not this time). It affected the whole of Thika to Nairobi and part of Nairobi too.

Yesterday was a bit frusutating in the office so I talked Nancy through the accounts in detail i.e. the meaning of 'true and fair', Directors responsibilities and the audit report. I'm sure it was fascinating! Then we did a LOT of filing.

Last night by head torch light we defrosted the freezer (which needed doing) and made an amazing thai chicken curry to use up our defrosting chicken. So it wasn't all bad :-)