Kenya IDP Camp - Pt 2

4. The Kids



What can you say about these kids except they are the most lovable, starved for affection kids you could ever encounter? They are also probably some of the roughest kids you could ever meet because they are completely left to their own devices as soon as an older sibling is able to carry them around on their backs.

It was not uncommon to see the kids hit, bite or outright belt each other for a soccer ball or even just to prevent another child from holding our hands! From the time we got to camp in the early morning to when we sent them back home from our front yard at night, there was never a parent wondering what their child was doing or where they were. The kids parented themselves and the toughest kids governed the roost.





Crying was a punishable offence – Every kids would stand around and mock the crying child until they either ran away or stopped crying. It was hard not to run around picking up all the crying children to comfort them in a “white way” but, in all honesty it would be an impossible task - It would be a full time job! The endless games we played with the kids will certainly be some of our fondest memories of the camp. I will never forget seeing John traversing between the falling down tents ‘b’gerking’ and flapping his arms like a chicken with 40 children mimicking in train. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard trying to orchestrate a game of limbo with all the kids trying to bend backwards under a broom stick, none of them even knowing why they are doing it but, all dutifully following the instructions! Without the 259 rascal children in the camp it would truly be the most miserable place on earth and they are undoubtedly the ones we will always think about and wonder what life has brought them.





Obviously, the kids were also the ones who were the hardest to say goodbye too - Even as we were driving down the street to leave they were running alongside the car and shouting their chorus line “How are you, how are you?” - We were still laughing at them long after we left the dust roads and were on the highway to Nairobi.




5. The Project




We decided to go forward with our proposed School Upgrade Project which would the best option to utilize our money and the time we had to volunteer.

The school or ECDC (Early Childhood Development Centre) had been built by an NGO for the 50 or so kids under 5 years who were too young for school. However, the ECDC had never been finished – The walls were un-rendered, the floor was left unsealed as a dust bowl, and the windows, ceiling and ventilations had all been left empty. Besides that the ECDC was just plain boring. It was not by any means a constructive learning environment and the kids ended up filthier going to class than playing outside!





We took the proposed works to the school committee (the camp had a committee for just about everything!) and got the green light to start. Finally we were making some progress! We suggested to the committee the we could put together a community type ‘working bee’ to utilize the communities unemployed IDP’s, build a bit of team moral AND lower the estimated labour costs, which the volunteers were funding. This idea was shot down in flames because the fact was that no IDP would work for free (despite the obvious benefits noted above and for their own kids!) and that there simply wasn’t much of a community spirit. Ha! In any case, the project did give us the opportunity to employ some of the local masons and labourers, who all turned out to be great workers. Of course though, there was animosity between the IDP’s about who was picked to work – We couldn’t win!





The first hurdle before any works started was the purchase of materials. Now, at home it’s a matter of heading down to the local Bunnings or BBC, putting in your order and hey presto, your materials are delivered! But in Kenya things work a bit differently – A: we didn’t have a car; B: there’s no Bunnings; and C: it’s was Kenya! Ren and I must have made at least 15 trips to our closest town Gil Gil, (describing it as ‘a COMPLETE shithole’ would be an understatement) to collect bits and pieces, exchange wrong orders and haggle over tap handles – Note, each journey took a 45 minute walk to the main road, then waiting for matatu (mini van), then a 10 minute drive, and that is just getting there! Things simply took time.





After much deliberation, consultation, and finally confirmation, we finally had all our materials to start work. Rendering was the order of the day and we had 5 IDP’s from the camp slogging away for a hard weeks work. Ren and I were the ‘bitches’ of the work crew and got our hands dirty mixing sand, getting water and shoveling sand. We even got some tennis practice throwing the mud onto the walls. Rendering is a truly laborious and time consuming activity considering most of the mud falls off the wall.


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Next we moved onto laying the new concrete floor. This was a breeze compared to the walls as there was no mud slinging, but not nearly as fun! In the end our expert masons finished the job with outstanding results – The school was already looking better and it was now our turn to lead the job through painting!





Before our artistic visions could be materialized, we had to give the newly rendered walls a few coats for our canvas. This turned out to be a little harder than we thought because the walls were still very rough and thirsty, but the new walls looked awesome – The ECDC was already looking so much brighter!

Channeling our inspirations of Van Gogh, Dali and Mr. Squiggle, we began the super-fun activity of murals! We covered the walls with shapes, rainbows, flowers, and a map of Africa. The ‘masterpiece’ was the feature wall with the school name ‘Ebenezer A ECDC’ and a massive rainbow with 4 kids (of different colour) holding hands underneath - How do you like that for peace, love and community! We even included a subversive salute to Aussie rock legends ACDC by inserting a ‘lightening bolt’ between the ‘EC DC’. It was tempting to also paint the devils horns on the ‘a’ in Ebenezer A, but I’m sure the super Christian IDP’s would have burned me alive on that one!





For the finishing touches we made a series of cardboard mobiles to hang from the roof trusses and put up the kids artwork and some posters. We also left our handprints on the wall dedicating the works from the ‘3 Mzungus’. After 2.5 weeks the ECDC was finally ready for class again!





The kid’s reaction was fantastic - Most of them had never even seen a painted wall before, let alone bright colours/mobiles so it was a real surprise! The adults too also loved the works (the lightening bolt was pondered unanimously!) and after 4 weeks they put together a community ‘thank you’, which was nice to finally hear.

Whilst we had diffulculties understanding the community, and visa versa, the end result was a fantastic experience and valuable life lesson for Ren and I - We wouldn't change a thing. I don't think Ren and I could appreciate home, family and opportunities a country like Australia can offer any more. We just hope that the people of Kenya, the IDP's and mostly the kids will one day have the same chance.




6. Weekend Expeditions

During our time at the camp we also had a few awesome weekends away exploring different part of Kenya. Because of the length of this blog I am just going to write that we did a lot of animal focused things like cycling through Hells Gate National Park, going on a mega safari to Masai Mara and finally hunting down a family of Rhinos in Nakuru National Park. We also did a bit of partying with other volunteers in cool little butcher/ bar haunts (very common here) and a bit of glittering nightlife in the capital (well other were glittering we were still in cargo pants). It is fair to say that the absolute worst influences on our sobriety were fellow Aussies Nicole and Paul who we are already missing on our adventures……Paul we hope you are perfecting that prawn dish for when we get home!

7. What’s next…

Since we have finished at the camp we have been exploring the gorgeous Kenyan coastline with pretty much all our time being spent in Mombassa and Lamu Island – both seriously awesome places! Our next move is Ethiopia which we have decided to throw into our itinerary simply because we found a ridiculously cheap red eye flight. If your still reading you are true friend!


Until next time,
Ren and Johnny xoxoxo