The electricity on our room had been off since Saturday morning but when we woke, the whole area was off as a main substation was out. There had been a storm overnight but it had cleared and become quite bright. The picture below is from the previous evening when we were planning.

Most of the Orphanage go to Church on Sunday morning for a 3 hour service. Jed and I didn’t go, but apparently it was quite a spectical as most Kenyan ceremonies seem to be! Plenty of community singing and dancing.

The afternoon was crafts and sport and we set up a pitch for them to play football and got a parachute out for games using that, which they loved (when the ball was put away, the older children put a baby on it and started bouncing him, not sure the risk assessment covered that!)

We played football for more than 2 hours, kids appeared at the gates from local houses to join in. All ages played together and they loved it. I got out the kit Dorkinians had donated and we got a team photo

The final score? About 12 all, but laughter and fun were definately the winners.

After breakfast we sat in the lounge area of our block and did a little planning for the activities for the children for the day.

We were doing a music session as well as colouring in some activity books with the children. We have a 2 hour session where we split the children into 2 groups and they have an hour with 2 families and then swap over and do the activity the other families have planned.

My wife, Sam, teaches music and we’d brought over some purcussion instruments. The children played hand drums, triangles, wood blocks and shakes shakers with unbounded enthusiasm!

Sam had written the names of the instruments on the blackboard at the beginning of the session but when we tidied up at the end, we’d been left a special message underneath the instrument names by one of the children……

We didn’t run afternoon sessions as the orphanage had a visit from a man who had grown up in the house and is now a doctor. He had brought his colleagues with him.

While they were here, we were shown the on site business. The orphanage rent out 2 buildings to a company who manufacture cleaning materials, hand sanitizers and animal deworm chemicals that they sell all over Kenya and into Sudan. They also have a deep bore hole here that they plan to use to filter, purify and bottle to sell on. The orphanage rent the buildings on the basis that the company only use local people as staff and also train orphanage children.

Finally, I saw this hall being cleaned this morning. The difference here was that it was cleaned by a young girl bending over wiping the floor with a tea towel.

The morning started with Sam and Erin running a crafts session with Anna and Catherine Ruddock while Jed. Jon Rudduck and I played more football games with the children. They are mainly quite young so it’s stretching my memory to go back to when I did U6 football. This one below is called the Chicken game which they really enjoyed!

In the afternoon we all went on a trip to the giraffe sanctuary and then onto the elephant orphanage. The trip there took us past the Nairobi national park and we saw a troop of baboons crossing the main road and warthogs on the verge

There were 12 giraffes in the giraffe sanctuary where we all got to feed the dominant male, Eddy

But the highlight of the day was the elephants, where we got to stand next to the stampeed as they came home for their tea. We then went and watched them being fed and got to touch them as they fed.

This one is Dolono, who we sponsor.

As well as the elephants, there was one rhino. Rhinos are apparently quite rare in the Massai Mara, so this may be the only one we see on this trip.

We’ve woken up every morning to the smell of wood smoke at 7am. This is the smell of the fires used to heat the breakfast for the children who sleep in dormitories above our room. The toilets we use leak water from the base and the handles on some are broken. But yet there is constant laughter around us.

Today we did a short frame piece for the children and gave them some colouring to do which they loved!

After lunch we walked to the Grandmother’s village. This is where some of the grandmothers of the children live, along with other relatives. We were accompanied by Anne, who started the orphanage and some children from here walked with us to. Erin had the company of Little Ruth the entire time and they chatted endlessly. We were showed the first building Anne started in on the way (seeing monkeys in the trees) and then into the village where we were greeted with an enthusiastic Kenyan dance.

They live in small huts with corrigated iron roofs. There is electricity and running water. Some have TVs but it really does open your eyes to how the other half live and not how you traditionally think of that phrase.

Here, we were giving the children items we’d brought over, like toothbrushes and toothpaste, pens and colouring pencils. Finally, the grandmother’s were given a packet of Corn Flour from each of us that they use to cook food with.

Another song and a further Kenyan dance and we departed back to the Orphanage.

Within 15 minutes of getting back, I was asked to get the footballs out for a game. Unfortunately, they were locked in a storeroom that we didn’t have a key for, so we settled on Rounders instead. It was an interesting experience getting the rules over, but John, a man studying to become a social worker and who lives in the village, translated and they loved it. More of the same tomorrow. And some football. And definately some laughter.

Today we met the children on their field outside their classrooms. Roaming around the field was a young cow and several sheep (or Kenya Lawn mowers!) and the kids waited excitedly outside.We did some crafts and songs with them in the classroom which they loved doing and there were lots of smiling faces and laughter.After lunch, we did music and sports with them, with lots of kit and equipment donated from local clubsDuring a break, we met some of the grandmother’s who came down from the local grandmother village which we get to see tomorrow.An action packed day left us all pretty exhausted but pleased that the children had enjoyed the day and we’d left them with smiles on their faces at the end of it!

Refreshed after a night in a Nairobi hotel, a good sleep and a breakfast watching Kenyan Red Kites fly around the 7th floor restaurant windows, we loaded up the same van with some cases inside this time. Jon and Catherine organised the cases on the roof and off we went through the Nairobi traffic to New Hope.

An hour later, bobbing and weaving through the traffic and endless road works, we arrived at the Orphanage. There are 105 children from newborn to 18 here and they quickly swarmed around us all.

We unloaded our cases and were welcomed into the building by Anne, given a tour and told the history of the orphanage from when they started in 2000. When we went to our rooms, we have individual letters to us from children in the Orphanage

We spent the afternoon playing games with the kids in the playing field and tomorrow we start running our craft, music and sports clubs. It should be an interesting day!

We survived the 9 hour flight and landed at Nairobi just after 9.30pm local time having had a great view of the Sahara as we flew over it.

The joy of getting off the airplane was followed up by our first experience of road travel, Kenyan style. We boarded our 18 seater bus after all our luggage was loaded onto the roof, piled one on top of each other and set off on the way to the hotel.

Day one completed. Pot noodles for a late night snack (not the KFC he was hoping for, obviously!!!)

We’ve made it onto the plane and ready to go. Erin even got a safari hat!

There’s much excitement amongst the 4 families were traveling with as lots of photos are being posted on the Kenya Team WhatsApp group.

Many thanks to all those volunteers who got us all to the airport on time this morning after a 6.30am start. Let the adventure begin…..

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

So last year my wife said the church she goes to was running a trip to an orphanage just outside of Nairobi and that she’d like us to go as a family. Having gone to Kenya 25 years ago on a beach trip and safari and loved it, I was keen to go back again and show my two children something outside of their comfort zone.

We’ll spend the first week at New Hope, Uplands before going to the Maasai Mara and then onto Diani. When I went previously, the internet was just a fledgling project, but now social media allows us to communicate instantly so let’s see how this goes!