Kenya - street boys & dodgy driving / An introduction to our next big adventure...!

After an eventful and not particularly enjoyable 48 hour trio of coach journeys, peppered with delays and miscommunication we left Kampala, Uganda and arrived in Kisii, South West Kenya. Kisii is considered a town to the locals, but as we have come to expect in any rural area the town spreads across the valleys, hill tops and the main arteries of the place are dotted with markets all bursting with fresh fruit, vegetables and in this case handmade furniture on sale.

Breathtaking Kenya!

We are situated in an area called Nyakoe and staying with 'Harambee For Kenya', a small charity offering a home, food, family and schooling to local street boys. First established by UK residents Lesley & Roger Dann the home currently has 18 boys staying on site and a handful more away at senior school. This opportunity only arose due to a kind point in the right direction from Helen Barham, one of Ben's ex work colleagues, who is a friend of Lesley, so thank you very much Helen for starting us on this journey.

Harambee for Kenya - the boys house

It's been delightful to get to know this bunch of lads who range in age from 10 to 18. Their week is run by clockwork, bathing, breakfast, school, dinner, duties, homework, bed. Not only does this offer a structure and routine to boys who have lacked that on the street but it also means every boy knows where he should be, how he is needed and that if they all pull together their family home will run smoothly. All of this is overseen by a caring house mother, Lydia. My prior experience in the Kent College Pembury girls boarding house has allowed me a deeper respect for the work she does at caring for these boys as they are her own.

The Harambee plot - we stayed behind the banana trees on the right

Our first couple of days in Nyakoe were whilst the boys were at school which enabled Ben and I to catch up on much needed rest and figure out how to post the last blog about our time in Uganda. With the help of Andrew, the local overseer of Harambee For Kenya, Ben and I journey in and around the area to familiarise ourselves and collect food supplies.

'Rafiki House' - our Kenyan home

Walking from our safehouse we wander down the red dust roads past a local primary school, a Seventh Day Adventist Church (who enjoy choir practice over their megaphone most mornings...!), on our left, behind sheets of corregated iron , is the abattoir and often just outside the threshold is a queue of tied up goats and cows unaware of their impending situation. On our right we pass the local police station and wave at the welcoming sergeant. Weaving our way through the makeshift market stalls lining the road, and the rubbish discarded along the street we pass salons, phone network stalls, vegetable venders, open air butchers where carcasses of meat are strung up and decorated with flies, and of course we can't escape the boda boda (motorbike taxis).

Because you obviously think of motorbike when you need to transport a bench home...

Although Ben and I have seen them in their thousands dotted along our African journey we had only once before used the busy, overcrowded and stupidly illegal driving of the 'combi' (a small 15 seater van/people carrier that often doesn't leave a stop until at least 20 people are crammed in to every spare space). How that has changed now! Every journey we take between our small village of Nyakoe and the bustling town of Kisii Ben and I, with the aid and watchful eye of Andrew, have braved this local means of transport. In short it's cheap, it's overcrowded, it's often hot and sweaty and in order to run the way they do the 'conductors' of these taxis often have a spare note or two for any watching policeman.

Post swim with the local children (in the river behind)

During our stay Ben and I mostly just wanted to get to know the boys that the charity have 'saved' for want of a better word, but we also wanted to help in a small way. On arrival we toured the house and the surrounding grounds and identified a handful of things we would like to gift to the boys. First, highlighted by Andrew, was the need for a new washing line as the clothes the boys were washing were drying haphazardly on bushes and fences. Second was the chicken project that the charity has initiated. Each boy has a chick, it's his responsibility, along with his own banana tree, to care for it and tend to its needs. However, the fence around the coup is fairly disheveled so we decided to help re-secure it. Third, paint. Now unlike what we saw in Rwentobo the rooms here are nicely painted and the whole place looks fairly smart, however Ben and I noticed a couple of things we would like to add a splash of colour to. The boys lockers used to be plain wooden boxes in the corner of their dining area, now after a little M&B DIY they are a brighter and a colourful addition to the room, so too are the door frames.

The boys lockers before M&B DIY commenced

Midway through the transformation...

Completed lockers!

Ben and I also wanted to add names to the rooms, before titled cubicle 1 etc so with the help of the boys we renamed them after 6 UK football stadiums (and yes, to anyone wondering, one of them is the Amex Stadium!!). We have also gifted a name sign each, made from the local soft stone, which will hang outside his dorm. Overall it's only a couple of touches here and there but we hope they make a small difference to the way these boys perceive their home.

The boys with their personalised name signs

A close up of the soft stone, hand cut / carved / painted signs

The before named 'Cubicle 3' now Stamford Bridge,
 with it's list of occupants

It's not all decorating and fixing though, Ben and I have journeyed to visit other initiatives and some of the local schools. One day saw us travel up into the rural tea growing hills to see 'Amazing Grace' the special education school and home that Andrews brother has established. I can't really do it justice how amazing the few volunteers are at caring for these 15 unwanted children who suffer from a range of disabilities. The most heartbreaking scene when visiting this home was not to see how little they manage to cope on, but instead to witness that these children, who mostly have physical disabilities, are sleeping on beds with no mattress. We just can't imagine.

Some of the children at Amazing Grace in front of their school (the hut)

Of course being surrounded by fellow football mad boys Ben was always going to get an opportunity to play his beloved game. As luck would have it Sunday afternoon had been set aside for the boys to don their respective primary school kits, blue vs green (Ben joining the blue team in his Brighton shirt) and play against each other. To say the pitch was like a carpet would be stretching the truth somewhat, with Ben's first involvement of the game being a step in cowpat! Nevertheless the game was good fun and playing in typical Africa style, with countless feet and legs flying towards every tackle and nobody seeming to be affected by the very bumpy and sloped terrain. The match even drew some spectators including many local children, a few older folk, plus the odd cow who once or twice found themselves on the wrong side of the white line!

Dodging the cowpat

Although it feels as if our ten days at Harambee for Kenya have flown by, I'm sure Ben would agree that we've really got under the skin of the place and feel like a welcome addition to this community. Throw back to our first day in Africa, walking uneasily down the westernised streets of Cape Town with hands in pockets on valuables, I really couldn't have predicted that 5 months later I wold be so relaxed amongst the unkown. Thank you Lesley, Roger, Andrew, Lydia and Kennedy for the opportunity to come and meet your boys and the pleasure of staying at Nyokoe safe house. Thank you boys for accommodating two strange mzungus!

The whole gang at Nyakoe Safe House

NEXT...well we are both so excited I can barely type but next we start our overland trip! Let me take us back a moment to when Ben and I flew out of Heathrow back in September. We knew we wanted to explore Southern Africa. We knew we wanted to see as many countries as we could. We wanted to compare and contrast the differences between neighbouring cultures. How we would do that? Well that's something we hadn't figured out yet. It soon became apparent that driving ourself, either by private or hired car would be unwise and tricky. So too was the possibility of public transport due to its unreliability, Flying from country to country would prove far too expensive. We thought we were out of options. That is until we had a suggestion from Nigel, our host in Cape Town, to use an overland trip to get from A to B.

Now some of you may be familiar with overland trips but we weren't before we started googling. In short, companies often own a fleet of action man like vehicles that are able to take on any terrain, be it jungle, desert, tarmac or just African roads! These vehicles then take a prebooked group from A to B or they take them on a journey through a variety of countries. Some companies offer the chance to drive / explore all day then check in to a hotel or hostel for the night, others (like ours) camp, either in campsites or the African wilderness and as a result spend a little longer in places. As time was no issue for us we researched companies that weren't just doing whistle-stop tours of a few countries before people jetted home. Instead we have opted for a 75 day 'grand adventure' that journeys from Nairobi, Kenya to Cape Town, South Africa.

Our great adventure route!

Let me dissect a little more about what we have signed up to:

The trip is run by a UK organisation called Oasis Overland, who for 20 years have taken people on adventures all over the world. Their vehicles are kitted out for every eventuality and their drivers all have years of experience under their belt (often ex Australian truckers & we know how tough they have to be!).

Find out more about Oasis Overland

We will be part of a team of 16 plus the 2 Oasis staff members. We have never met the other 14 people, they may also be UK couples in their twenties on gap years but I highly doubt it. I'm excited to hear where people are from, their background & why now, why Africa!

We will be camping most nights, apart from the odd night in a backpackers hostel where it is likely we will all share a dorm room. The tents and all camping gear / cooking equipment is provided by Oasis and Ben and I will have access to our very own 3 man tent with mozzie screens.

A 'typical' oasis camp - photo credit Oasis Overland

Our team will be divided into small cooking groups of 3/4 and we will take it in turns to cook meals for the whole group. Food will be bought out of a group kitty from local markets / shops that we pass that day and all food will be prepared and cooked in the great outdoors. (Ben is hoping for a pastry chef to join the team who knows how to cook all things bakery on an open fire...!)

Right, now for what we will be doing & where we are going. Oasis have warned us that no trip is the same, no route can be guaranteed and to be disappointed if we wanted a package holiday. Instead we will follow a rough route and have the opportunity to join in with as little or as many of the additional activities as we desire.

So deep breath in...

Days 1-4 : Kenya

• Start in Nairobi, Kenya where we meet the team
• Depart, cross the Equator and drive down into the Great Rift Valley
• Lake Naivasha & Elsamere, the home of the 'Born Free' film
• Crater Lake Game Park or Hells Gate National Park
• Game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park

Days 5-10 : Uganda

• Jinja, the source of the Nile
• Kampala, Uganda's capital, take a city tour or visit a chimpanzee sanctuary on Lake Victoria

Days 11-13 : Rwanda

• Virunga Mountains
• Kigali Genocide Memorial

Days 14-20 : Tanzania / back to Kenya

• See the western edge of the Serengeti
• Visit a giraffe centre in Nairobi
• Depart Nairobi & cross the Athi Plains

Days 21-27 : Tanzania

• We will be based in Arusha for a couple of days
• Visit the Lake Manyara National Park
• Jeep safari into the Ngorongoro Crater Reserve
• Serengeti National Park
• Optional Maasai Village Walk
• Optional hike up to base camp of Mount Kilimanjaro
• Visit Dar Es Salaam

Days 28-34 : Zanzibar Island / travel to Malawi

• Stay on the island for a couple of days
• Tour of old spice town
• Option to swim with dolphins
• Mikumi National Park

Days 35-41 : Malawi / Mozambique / Zimbabwe

• Camp by Lake Malawi for a couple of nights
• Visit Lilongwe, the capital
• Travel along the infamous Tete Corridor in Mozambique
• Drive to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe

Days 42-53 : Zimbabwe

• Eastern Highlands, visit Chimanimani National Park
• Antelope Park
• Great Zimbabwe Ruins
• Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zim
• Matobo National Park
• Cecil Rhodes' Grave & Ancient Rock Paintings
• Overnight train from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls
• Victoria Falls

Days 54-65 : Botswana / Namibia

• Chobe National Park river game cruise
• Okavango Delta canoe trip
• Etosha National Park
• Cheetah Park
• Brandberg Mountains in Demaraland

Days 66-73 :Namibia 

• Cape Cross seal colony or Spitzkoppe rock formations
• Swakopmund 
• Namib-Naukluft Park
• Sossuesvlei - the world's highest dunes
• Fish River Canyon

Days 74-75 : South Africa

• Travel down to Cape Town

All in all we don't quite know what to expect apart from a lot of travelling, a lot of game viewing and hopefully a load of fun!!!

I'm going to attempt to do an Instagram post for every day using the hashtag #75daysofOasisOverland which we will compress in to a blog post once we arrive in Cape Town for all those of you who don't use Instagram. For those who do, be patient with me! I'm under no illusion that we will be without wifi for the majority of this trip, instead I will upload the daily photos when I can.

Magnetic Migration Instagram

Thank you for reading!! Hopefully speak soon :)

Love,

Melissa 

Prayer requests:

- We pray for all those at Harambee for Kenya. We thank God that he gave Lesley and Roger the heart to reach out and save these street boys. We ask for a blessing of protection and we pray that God can soften the hearts of these tough boys over time. 
- We again thank God for the welcome we continue to receive and for the new relationships we continue to make. We thank God for all the boys at this home and their love shown to us.

- We pray for our families and friends at home that have been without regular contact with us for almost a month now. We thank God for their love and constant support.

- We ask for protection when embarking on this big adventure, particularly for safety on the roads and camping at night.

- We hope that the people on this trip are like minded. We pray for friendships, trust and a sense of community to develop. Do pray for safety for the 16 unknown travelers as they journey to Nairobi. May our group be blessed as we explore such a wonderful continent together.