Woke from my room at the Wildebeest Lodge in Nairobi to a bird making the call immortalised by Paul Simon's riff that he used in the song "Joseph he was as black as the night". Ah yes, I'm back in Africa!
Wildebeest Lodge has moved venues since I was here last, but it is still the same kind of experience. Some rooms, but mainly deluxe tents, often with their own en-suite, set in large gardens. Lovely breakfast on the huge balcony at a table that sat 22, so it was a good place to get to know others. Gulped down my porridge before the taxi arrived.
I had emphasized to taxi driver that it was important I was at Dagoretti Church on time, (goodness knows why - this is Africa) so he arrived punctually and set off at break-neck speed through the chaotic traffic. At one point he was doing 100 down a narrow 2 way road full of holes. I thought of suggesting that I'd rather arrive late than not at all, but just kept quiet. Although he had trouble finding the church, we eventually got to the front gate only to find it locked and no-one about. Thankfully he didn't abandon me and waited until Daniel, the high school principal, arrived on his motor bike, followed about 15 minutes later by Pastor William and his wife Grace.
Although the training was listed to start at 8:30, there was no one there at 8:45 so I went for a tour of the close-by Elyon High School with William and Daniel, which I had seen on my last visit, before returning at 9:15. Saw the library, science lab, and computer/music room, and heard about all of the laptops that John and the last team to visit had brought over. They all seemed to be working well. By this time there were about 10 people, so at 9:30 there was a short time of worship - a song and a prayer - and I started. We began with activities about 'Engagement', which went well, and by the first break at 10:30 for biscuits which I had bought, 30 people had turned up. For the second session on 'Literacy', we turned every second bench seat around so everyone had a 'table' on which to play. Using the letter cards to do lots of different activities and games went really well. They were so 'engaged' it was hard to stop to move onto the next game each time.
By this time there were 53 people plus lots of babies. Daniel asked me to stretch out the session until 2, as there had been a bit of a hiccup with the lunch arriving, so we played lots of variations of the activities to pad it out. In western fashion, I finished right on 2 (goodness knows why - this is Africa), then Pastor William decided to speak until 2:30, probably trying to cover for the delay. Finally, when nothing else could be thought of to do, we had a song and a prayer for lunch, and stopped.
We all wandered into the courtyard, and sat around talking about families and Australia for a while, but by 3pm when lunch had still not arrived, Daniel came over and asked me to start the afternoon session, as people were feeling that they were wasting their time. So I went back in, and launched into the third session on 'nutrition'. It worked out ok, as I had the lecture part of the session done when lunch finally arrived at 3:30.
Although late, the lunch of rice, potatoes, cabbage and some type of meat provided by SSPS staff was very well received, as it was the only meal that many of them would have for the whole day. After a short break, we started on the exercises. It had been the hardest session for me to prepare, but I think it was worthwhile. I got them to work in groups to discuss what they had learned, and in the subsequent discussion time I was asked a wide range of questions including "What is the right weight for a man?" "What food should we first feed a baby?" "What happens if you eat too much meat?" "Why is soda bad for you, is it the gas?"
I finished at 5, and then William wanted to have his say until 5:30 when Daniel pointed out the time. William had arranged for me to to be taken back to the camp in a very old, clapped out car, which is saying something for Nairobi. It had only half the doors and half the dashboard, and the guard at the Lodge didn't seem to want to let me back in until I identified myself. The driver didn't seem to know where he was going, so William had to send one of his helpers to 'assist'.
I eventually got back to the Wildebeest Lodge about 6:30, tired but happy, and had a rest before tea. Over tea I chatted with a young German couple, then tried to Skype Greg in Ethiopia, which was an exercise in frustration for both of us. Spent some time packing and organising for the following day.
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