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.