just a picture post.

Here are a couple of pictures of us and some of the kids from Gioto.

Balloons!

walking through the garbage to the classroom.

Ryan giving out food at the slum for Christmas - They got beans, flour, and lard.

Hanging on the classroom walls.

Kyle and Charles being silly.

Helen and I - every day, Helen will come shake my hand. She is a good person. 

Some of the kids lined up sitting on the fence.

Thats all for today - we are off to Nairobi to meet the new volunteers and talk about the projects we have going here at the garbage slum.

Hope everything is good back home. Love and Peace.
-Kyle and Kate.

how we spent the holidays.

On Christmas eve, we (the five volunteers staying with Pastor) went out for a fancy meal at one of the restaurants in Nakuru, called the Magic Carpet. It was mostly east Indian food, and I had some awesome palak paneer. Kyle had a chicken dish that was also quite good. It was nice to get away and have a meal together where we were washed and clean.  The boys even ironed their shirts! It was also our first time being out of the house after dark - and everything turned out okay! We have since been out at night twice - again, we are safe!

On Christmas, Pastor asked us if we wanted to go to the national park here - Lake Nakuru. It was beautiful! The lake is famous for having thousands of flamingo and also a few groups of both kinds of rhino. We saw one of each. We also saw zebras, giraffe, lots of different deer/antelope/gazelle, some water buffalo, monkeys, and even a LION! super cool.
Here are some pictures. None of the lion, sorry. We were actually out of the car for when we saw the lion. We were pushing our car which had broken down. Hahaha bad timing. The lion wasn't interested in us though, she was stalking an antelope.

looking over the lake

Giraffe in the wild!

Fixing the tire right after we saw the lion. Andrew and Jeremy are supervising.

Soooo many flamingos!

Their Christmas was a bit different from our traditions. We didnt have a big meal, and we were the only ones who gave gifts. Joy (Pastor's daughter) loved her little shoes that we gave, and Pastor Antony and his wife liked their coffee maker (from Emily) and coffee beans (from us). I was telling my mom about it on the phone and she couldn't believe that they didn't have one. Well, now they do! We will probably have coffee one of these mornings soon - but we usually leave for the slum before everyone in the house is up.

On boxing day, Kyle and myself and Jeremy (another volunteer) went to Menegai Crater. A dormant volcanic crater that was simply amazing. It was so high - we were one the ridge of the crater - and its expanse was huge! A guy who has a shop there told us that the crater has one of the largest calderas in the world. He showed us the volcanic rock, ash gravel, and obsidian that make up much of the crater. We could even see the black area that was the lava flow!  Its last eruption was in 6050 BC. (roughly estimated)

Jeremy pushing me into the crater. Haha

 It was a very cool way to spend the morning. Then we went back home and boxed things up - boxing day! Because the next day, we moved!

We used the skipping rope that we play with at the slum to lower things from our balcony to the moving truck. Haha. Here are some pictures of the moving truck - we were surprised that everything made it there in one piece.  The moving truck guys actually tied everything down with the skipping rope that we use at the slum with the kids.

Our moving system - Andrew and Kyle.

Ready to go!

The new house is quite a bit bigger, and it is in the same compound as a hotel, so we can use their restaurant  - a coke is only 50 shillings, and ice cold!- and their pool. We have yet to go swimming, but maybe today. At our new house we also have a hot shower. It had been exactly one month since our last hot shower, and it felt great! On the sad side of things - Kyle and I have both had upset tummies the last few days, and my sunburn ontop of sunburn is now peeling. ewwww.

January will be a busy month for us. We are going to Nairobi to meet the new batch of volunteers and talk about the projects we have going on at the garbage slum. We will be starting classes Monday - Saturday. A feeding program 3 days a week (to start, it might be five days a week in Feb.) And Kyle and I will be working on another project for the slum. We hope to get a clean water program in place that is more sustainable than paying for a water truck every other week. We want something more permanent - and we both wish we knew more about water filtration right now.


Hope everything is well with you back home, Thanks for keeping up with us while we are away.
Have a happy New Year.
- Kate and Kyle

merry Christmas.

Happy holidays everyone!

Today we gave out sweets at the slum, and it was awesome! The kids were very happy, and very hyper - lots of sugar! We also gave out some biscuits too. (cookies) Andrew, another of the volunteers thought it would be funny to give them candies that were hot chili candies. It was pretty funny to see them stuff them in their mouth and then start freaking out and spitting. One of the girls - Milka even started trying to scrape the spicy candy residue off her tongue. Hahaha They'll never trust us giving them candy again.


Okay, not much else to say, we want to get going so we can wash the smell of the slum off of ourselves.

Oh! there is some new news.... Pastor Antony is moving next week! So, were going from the 3 bedroom apartment that his family and the volunteers live in to... a HOUSE!

That's it for now. Happy holidays. Miss you and Love you all.

christmas week.

Welcome to Christmas week at Gioto Garbage Slum.

Today, we began our week by bringing a clean drinking water truck to the slum. Kyle and I bought it for the people with some of the extra money that we were able to fundraiser before we left. So to everyone who gave, Thank you. Please know that you made an entire community happy.  Here is some pictures:

Joseph guarding a hole in the hose for him and his brothers and sister.

Charles, Joseph's brother, had just gotten a shower from the hole in the hose. He was so happy.

Giving out the water. Everyone walks to the truck with barrels and jugs - anything that can hold water.

Some of the kids will see a small pinhole in the hose that pumps the water from the truck to the barrels and pounce on it. It makes them so happy. They suck on it for mouthfuls of water, and try to wash the garbage dirt from their hands and faces. We definitly take clean drinking water for granted in North America. I will never forget the kids sucking on a hose just to get a taste of something that I have every day.

We also have planned another water truck for the 24th, so they will have clean water right through Christmas. We will also be bringing some flour and oil for the families to make chapati, and also some candy for the kids, as a surprise, and a treat. I can't wait. They will be so happy. 

Sometimes the kids will take your camera and take approximately 2045 pictures! Here is one of the pictures the kids took: I love it. It shows a boy from behind, looking at his world, the Gioto Garbage slum.

Merry Christmas Everyone. We are thinking of you and sending our long distance love to family and friends.
Peace.


Also. Hello to Tom from Poland. It was great to meet you, and we are wishing you a Merry Christmas also.

our weekend in nairobi

Aside from some amazing food - a REAL salad, and some surprisingly tasty ostrich meatballs.. we also got to experience some wildlife last weekend. Though, they were pretty used to human presence, so I'm not sure how wild  it really was. We might have to wait until safari for that.

Firstly, we went to the Nairobi City Park. It was pretty nice, with flowering purple trees, a pond, and a garden with benches. The main reason we went there though.... MONKEYS!!!!

They were tiny, but very grabby! Kyle was opening a bag of peanuts that we bought to feed to them and they stole them right out of his hand! Once we got used to them it was a lot of fun, having them climb on us and feed them from out hands. We fed them so many peanuts. The guy selling the nuts was trying to convince us to buy a Coke to feed to them, but we decided that might be unhealthy for monkeys.

After that we ate downtown at a fish a chips place, that didn't serve any fish - and they also thought it was ridiculous that we would order fish....

Next we headed to the Giraffe sanctuary to feed and look at some Rothschild Giraffes - an endangered species! There are only about 300 of them left I think - but that is up from 120 or so thanks to the rehabilitation efforts of the sanctuary.

It was really cool - we got to see the giraffes in their habitat. Kyle and I even kissed some!! It was pretty cool. Kyle loved it.

On Sunday, we got to visit with Matt and he told us some awesome stories about his climb of Kilimanjaro.It sounded awesome! Some Thompson people should know Matt, but for those of you who don't, He was an exchange student in.. 2003? I think, and it just worked out that he was in Nairobi when we were!  He also got us breakfast, Thanks Matt! It was delicious.

Then, we hopped on a matatu and headed back to Nakuru. It was good to see the kids again.

I'm holding Paris - she is a total sweetheart!

just a quick hello.

Hello friends back home!

We have had some people asking us for more information about the garbage slum where we have been placed, and Pastor Antony has a website - www.garbageslum.org and there is a group on facebook - if you search garbage slum it should be your first link. There are some of the profiles of the children on there, as well as more information about the option to sponsor children for boarding school. Please take time to check it out and read the stories.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words of encouragement during our time away.

-Kyle and Kate

week so far

It has been a busy week.

On Monday, we began "classes" at our make-shift school. Each of the kids got their own notebook to put their name on. They seemed very happy to have something that was theirs.

The children also came up with a name for the school right away ; Gioto Sunrise Academy. I made them a sign the next day. We began with ABC's and some objects that began with each letter.

Tuesday, we did a shapes and colours lesson, but the kids were more interested in crawling all over us. Even so, we were able to see that a few of the kids were learning the lesson. Next, we brought some books out to read with the kids. Kyle read one about science, and I read a fairy tale. The small groups gather around us to listen to the story, but it is hard to pay attention in a classroom with no walls separating the groups, or even walls to isolate them from the distraction of the trucks at the garbage dump.

Our classroom.

Wednesday was Outreach. This is a program that Fadhili runs so that volunteers from some of the other projects in Kenya can see some of the rural area's projects. Most of the volunteers came in from Nairobi based projects. They went to an IDP camp, which is a camp of internally displaced persons. They live in a government camp because the violence that followed the 2007 elections forced them out of their homes. Many of them lost all of their possessions, and their houses were burned. Next, them came to Nakuru, where we are. They came to the garbage slum and we explained the situation here. We took them to see some of the houses that the people make out of garbage, and they had time to meet some of the kids and play. This was a good day for the families and kids because outreach brings flour, cornmeal, and biscuits for the kids.

Outreach

Thursday, was a tough day. Some of the children were fighting with each other. Sometimes we feel like we aren't doing much to help their situation here. The best way to help them is to get them out of the slum. Sending the children to boarding school gives them an education, and allows them to sleep in a bed every night and eat 3 meals a day. The guardians of the children need help too, they need to be able to make money and support themselves. There is a project underway that will hopefully achieve that. Many of the women in the slum make bags out of recycled plastics. Another volunteer is working with Pastor Antony and his wife, Ann to sell the bags in New York. During outreach they were able to sell about a dozen. We hope that this project is successful.


We are off to Nairobi this weekend, for some rest, relaxation, and hopefully to see an old friend. Not that you are old Matt. :) We also will be seeing some wildlife, so come back to check out pictures of that!

peace.

some pictures

The Garbage slum

 

Kyle playing with one of the children at the slum.

Some more of the children.

The water truck came today, so families from the slum brought containers to the pump and got clean drinking water.

The adults mostly took care of handing out the water, but any small hole in the hose was used as a water fountain for the children. They were very happy.

 

Later, In the afternoon, we gave out clothing with the help of Mama Mumbi, she is the leader within the slum. Most of the children in need got at least one item. 

Today was a good day. It was overwhelming, but good. The founder of IVHQ, Daniel Radcliffe came today with the water truck, as well as some of the administrators of Fadhili.. It was Dan's first time seeing the situation at the garbage slum, and he would like to come back in a couple months for a longer stay. Tomorrow we are going to church with Pastor Antony and Monday we will bring some writing lessons (ABC's) to the slum. We hope to be able to give them more scheduled school time to give them some sense of a normal childhood in their lives that are anything but.

-Kyle and Kate

our placement.

Hello everyone,

Since our last post, Kyle and I have moved from Nairobi to Nakuru. We met our host family, Ann and Pastor Antony, and their daughter Joy. There are three other volunteers placed here, and we getting along great. We also managed to get a cell phone (they are really inexpensive here) so we can call our parents every few weeks. Although, they are probably reading this thinking.. "you better call more often than that!" We love you.

Today Kyle and I went to our placement, the Gioto Garbage slum near Nakuru. It is like nothing we have ever seen before. We took a matatu (small 12 seat bus with 20 people crowded into it) to the slum and walked into the most extreme poverty that I have ever seen. As we arrived, a few of the children came out to greet us. They are amazing. Their spirits are high, and we were able to do some colouring and recite some of the names of colours in english. Most of the children only speak a small amount of english. They mostly speak swahili. There is a fenced in small area that we use as a classroom, and some of the boys went to a field to play with the soccer ball we brought.  That was in the morning.

At noon, a garbage truck comes and most of the children and some of the parents to go out to look through the new loads of garbage for food, clothing, and anything they can use. They leave the teaching area at this time, because the garbage trucks only come once a day, so this is their chance for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

As well as daily lessons, we are trying to establish a more scheduled kind of school, where the kids can learn writing and reading. It is hard because the land is government owned, so no school can be built there, and they cannot leave the garbage slum which they have made into their home. It is heart breaking.

The other volunteers here have started an initiative to bring the slum a water truck so everyone can have safe drinking water. We are having a truck come tomorrow. Also, the clothing that we brought (thanks Carman MCC!!) will be given out to the children tomorrow. We are doing a few projects to help their situation, but the volunteer's presence here is fairly new, so some of the families do not send their children to our makeshift school. Hopefully they will be able to see the work that we are doing, and start to trust.

Another initiative that the volunteers here have started, along with Pastor Antony, is to sponsor the kids to go to a boarding school. This is the absolute best option for them - and as of now there are about four children sponsored for the coming school-year. Their term starts in January, and Pastor Antony thinks that with more people hearing about the slum and the kids, we will be able to send two more before the school term begins. Sponsoring one of the kids from the garbage slum is about 720/yr.


Other than our totally eye-opening and overwhelming work day, there is not much else to say. The Rift Valley is very beautiful, and hopefully next time I post I will be able to share some photos.

Stay safe,
-Kate