day nine

Our second day with Compassion showed a strong contrast from the day before, whereas yesterday we'd met two boys, who, in keeping with Kenyan culture, were careful not to show any emotion and were very reserved, today we met two girls, and the last boy that we sponsor - Tabitha, Wangari and Wilfred.

Although shy and a little overwhelmed, the girls were so much warmer than the boys had been towards us, and as a result of the girls influence, Wilfred was too. They sang freely in front of us, played with Nate, and even held my hand. It was very sweet and very touching.

a picture says a thousand words

I bought these boots five or six years ago on my first trip overseas. Ugly as they are they have kept my feet warm whilst trudging through snow, dry in the wet, and now they have managed to keep me upstanding whilst painstakingly stepping through the muddy roads in Kenya, at times, holding Nate who was very wriggly and determined to get back down to the mud.

It was astounding to think that the children we sponsor live in this mud. Not only do they not have hiking boots designed for such terrain but some of them do not even have the luxury of shoes.

babysitters aplenty

From the moment we stepped out of the car Nate was a little celebrity and absolutely everyone was keen to hold him and play with him. For the most part he obliged quite happily, particuarly if those wanting to hold him were children. The staff at Compassion were brilliant with him and allowed us to spend time with our sponsor children without worrying where Nate was or if he was okay.

patrick's home

The building made from tarps and hessian sacks to the left of this photo, is the communal kitchen which all the rented rooms share. There was another building with a toilet in it (a hole in the dirt).

patrick's family and home

patrick

After lunch back at the Compassion office we drove to Patrick's house. Patrick's mother was not in as good a position as Samuel's family and was a single mother who rented one room which she divided into two spaces for living and sleeping. It was in this village that we saw real poverty as we were met by small children in bare feet with their clothes hanging off them. The children all stood in the mud which surrounded Patrick's tiny home. We were welcomed into the living and cooking area of Patrick's home, where we were once again thanked whole heartily for our involvement in Patrick's life. His mother brought out the letters we had written and cards we'd sent. Although we've sponsored Patrick for about five years and he held letters from that long ago, the letters looked hundreds of years old. Dirt stained, well handled and waterlogged, it was surreal to see our handwriting and to see the letters in the place they were intended, in Patrick's hands, in his tiny village, and tiny home in Kenya.

driving to patrick's house

samuel & patrick's school

The children all walk to school, carrying their exercise books and a pencil, where they sit three to a desk. Due to the Kenyan Government making education free to all children three years ago, every child is able to go to school, however there have been little increase in school buildings being built or teachers being recruited and as a result there are up to sixty students in one class. As sponsors we were shown the school reports of all the children we sponsor and in some of them we were able to see a real link and a decline in their results coinciding with this.

samuel's home

samuel

After tea and bread we visited Samuel's home. We didn't know it at the time but it was to be the most comfortable house we'd see. Samuel's father was lucky enough to own his own home on his father's land. His father, mother, and Samuel's aunts and uncles all lived on a small plot where they had a two roomed house made from corrugated iron, and a small garden in which to grow their own vegetables.

Compassion allow their sponsors to send a monetary gift in which is passed onto the parent of the child to spend appropriately. Samuel had happened to have his birthday just a few days before we arrived, so with the birthday money we sent he saved a portion to buy a large birthday cake to celebrate his birthday with us, the staff and the rest of his family. It was a very happy occasion, and although most of it was in Swahili and most in song, the staff were kind enough to translate the festivities for us. The cake was cut and divided into tiny pieces so that everyone was able to have some. We felt so guilty in taking any ourselves but of course to refuse would have offended them.

We sang 'Happy Birthday' to Samuel, which was followed by a song sung in Swahili, which served as a soundtrack for Samuel feeding each guest a piece of cake. There was much laughter and joking going on in the song although we had no idea what it was about except that it directed him who to serve next. They also directed us to serve each other a piece of cake.

For a 12 year old birthday party there was a noteable lack of soft drinks, sweets, crisps, presents and expensive entertainment. What we did see was a family united in celebrating their son over something as simple and indulgent as a birthday cake.

day eight

After arriving late the evening before, our first full day in Kenya started off at 9am when our driver picked us up from the flat we were staying in to take us to a rural village 25 km out of the centre of Nairobi, to visit the children we sponsor through Compassion.

Our driver Jim, was so welcoming and the perfect host for our visit. He was incredibly professional, starting the day by going through some basic Swahili with us and taking us through what the day would hold for us. The drive, he told us, was just 25km, not far at all. What he didn't tell us though, was what the state of the roads would be like, thus making the journey very slow and very very bumpy.

We arrived a little under two hours later where we met two very shy boys, Samuel & Patrick, both of their mothers and the staff from Compassion. It was all very formal as we shook hands with everyone and they formally welcomed us and thanked us again and again. For us it was just a great opportunity to meet the children and spend a bit of time understanding their world and who they were but for them it was a once in a lifetime opportunity of which they were overwhelmingly grateful. There were times that we got a little teary, especially when we heard from the parents who were better able to express themselves in English. Samuel's father particularly emphasised our "total commitment" in coming to visit his son. We certainly felt undeserving of his praise.

driving to the land of nod

london waits for no man

day six

Woz had visited Franschhoek before, almost ten years ago on his last trip to Africa. He and his friends had eaten lunch at a winery nearby where he said he had eaten 'the best meal' he'd ever had. We found the restaurant which had been built into a hill, with the cellar in the basement and the restaurant above, it was the perfect place to store the wine to avoid the heat from the sun above.

The lunch had to be fairly well planned in that we needed to get Nate off to sleep before we sat down. Too hot to walk around in his buggy until he fell asleep we got back into the car and drove through more national parkland until he finally nodded off.

Back at the restaurant, with babe snoozing, we sipped champagne and cooled down underground. With all the build up I was a little apprehensive that the meal would not live up to Woz's expectation, but thankfully it did and he was not disappointed.

franschhoek architecture

cemetery

franschhoek

After lunch Woz and I left Lindsay and Delilah to drive back to Cape Town while we drove further inland to Franschhoek. We drove through beautiful scenery to get there and once there we were not disappointed, least not with the beautiful cottage we stayed in. The town was very small, and nestled amoungst the mountains and surrounding wineries. The architecture was stunning, the setting picturesque and there was no shortage of restaurants, cafes and little boutiques to wander in and out of. Had we had a house in Africa somewhere we could easily have bought loads of beautiful furniture and other handcrafted accessories to furnish a house, but we didn't think it would quite work in our flat in London so we declined.


The cottage we stayed in was so lovely and inspired us to build something like it one day, where and when we don't know, but it's something to dream about. It was so simple, just the basic necessities yet beautifully done and decorated with individual crockery made by the owner of the property.

day five

Today Lindsay, Delilah, Woz and I drove out to the wine farms (wineries) in Stellenbosch just an hour out of Capetown. The landscape was beautiful, and the further we drove away the more mountain ranges were revealed. I don't remember a time when there was ever a view free from a mountain whether nearby or in the distance.

We visited four wineries and bought a bottle at three of those. The wine was all very good quality and dirt cheap when you converted it to pounds. We bought bottles of wine that would retail in the UK for about £15.00 for around £1.50.

Our favourite winery was JC Le Roux which is dedicated to sparkling wine. It was a beautiful property and we sat outside and had a gourmet lunch in the warm air. It was such a relaxing day.