Volunteer Linnet Griffith-Jones writes about her first week in Kenya

So I seem to be settling in to life here quite quickly, well compared to Uganda, where I remember feeling culture shock for ages. Don’t get me wrong, I still spend a lot of time confused, especially by the money – I am still not entirely sure when things are expensive or when they are cheap but there is something weirdly comforting about hearing prices given in “bob”!

The main reason I’m feeling so at home is because of Evanson, the wonder boss! He’s been massively understanding the couple of times I have had to call in sick because of eating something a bit off the night before or gone home a bit earlier than the other teachers because the heat has gotten to me.

Teaching English

I’ve even got a bit more used to teaching but it is definitely not for me! I have convinced Class 5 that I am lovable and should be listened to (one student even gave me plums the other day!) but I had to resort to being the evil teacher that you are scared of before Class 4 would even bother to pretend listening to me! My talents are obviously not with teaching the next generation but I do have a healthier respect for the teachers who put up with me when I was in school.

Luckily for me, and the students, we have a new volunteer teacher at the school so I am limited to just teaching English in the mornings. This frees me up for all the meetings I’ve been having with local groups. Because Safeworld and the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University are awesome, Compassion has a brilliant training manual to teach the local community about starting and expanding businesses, therefore, being able to provide themselves with sustainable income and not having to rely on hand outs. So I am being introduced to the groups that I am going to be helping to train. It’s been amazing to meet all these people who just want to help themselves and each other.

Women’s Groups

I’ve met women’s groups, flower growers and a disabled group so far and each time I am slightly astounded by how much they do for each other with so little. I mean Evanson does what he can, providing with administrative help, getting trainers or finding them a bit of land to farm together and they are grateful for all the help they can get but they aren’t waiting for funders to invest in them, they scrap together what little they have as individuals put it together and work as hard as they can to make things better for the whole group. It’s incredibly inspiring to see how far so little can do.

Currently the meetings are about scheduling training sessions, I think we have at least a dozen, maybe more, groups that we are going to train for a week each so we are going round, introducing me and explaining what we will be covering and trying to create a schedule that works for everyone so that we can get started with the serious stuff next month.