School Holidays

The schools in Kenya closed - 1st term was finished, time for holidays. Hamza was supposed to go to Mombasa to stay with his relatives but he liked Lamu so much during the few days we were waiting for Juliet to arrive that I decided to keep him here - much to his delight :) I will most probably not be in Kenya in August when the next school holiday is so I thought it would be better to have him stay with me and Juliet this time and send him to Mombasa next time when I am not around to look after him. I also wanted some more time to bond with him - it is always much harder with a boy... With Juliet it was an instant connection, with Evelyne took a bit longer because she is very quiet but Hamza is much younger and he is a boy...

Hamza with his friend preparing the firewood

Hamza and friends playing Bao game

On 13th April it was the day of Juliet's case. I was supposed to travel to Nairobi and then come back to Lamu with her but I was not well again and not up for the long journey... I spoke to her on the phone and explained the situation - this was also the time when I had the infection on the back of my foot... She understood and we agreed that the day after the case she would travel to Mombasa and I would meet her there and we would travel to Lamu together...


with Juliet on Easter Sunday

When Juliet went to court it was only to find out that the case would not take place on that day as the court was not sitting... The case was moved to end of June!!! that's already a 3rd time now... it's been more than a year since it all started and we are no nearer to getting the justice...  Juliet was very upset - it is a lot of stress for her every time but at least this time she was excited about the forthcoming trip.

Hamza enjoying sailing for the first time - he was a very serious captain ;)

Evelyne went to visit her grandmother whom she hasn't seen for about 1 year and Juliet travelled to the coast.
To collect Juliet from Mombasa I travelled during the day (over 7hrs journey), waited for her for 1 hr and then 3 hrs later we were already on the night bus heading back to Lamu... The journey was terrible - I was already very tired from travelling to Mombasa, we were travelling at night and it was very humid and the road from Mombasa to Lamu is really bad so no chance for getting any sleep. We arrived in Lamu after 5am...

Brother & sister finally spending time together :)

Hamza & his friends

We were supposed to travel to another island for a wedding with some of my friends but I was just exhausted from all the travelling... Juliet wanted to go though and since this is part of her culture (she was born and brought up at the coast), I decided to let her go with my friends - they were gone for 2 nights and she came back very happy. After that wedding everyone kept telling me how good Juliet is at dancing and since then everyone always wants to take her to weddings with them - within 2 weeks while she's been here she already attended 3 weddings :)

Spending so much time with Hamza really helped us bond :)

Hamza's top wish was to go swimming and sailing - all of which we already accomplished :) I took them both swimming and then on Tuesday after Easter we went on an all day trip - first we visited ruins of an Arab town from 17th century and then we went to the beach. It was a really great day - kids swam all day long, we cooked lunch on the beach, tried a bit of fishing but unfortunately didn't manage to catch any this time ;)


Kids having fun with the waves :)



even Juliet decided to join in :)

The Easter was rather quiet - it is predominantly Muslim community here and it is also Hamza's religion but I treated them to nice food, drinks and cake... They were very happy with that. On Easter Monday I was very sick so we didn't do much which is why I wanted to make up for it by taking them on a trip. Hamza really liked sailing and was very interested in how to operate the boat.

Just "hanging around" ;)

Both Hamza and Juliet have many friends here and they are never bored. As Hamza's school results were so good I did get him a football which he was over the moon with.

The only thing spoiling the great time we are having was Juliet's accident - when we came back from the trip and she got out of the boat she slipped on the steps and cut her toe really badly - lots and lots of blood and loose skin - luckily we were literally outside the hospital so we took her there straight away where she was treated but it involved a lot of crying and screaming. Normally when I see blood I want to faint and run away but this time I had to be strong and try to calm her down - she was so distressed (she has very low pain threshold) that the nurse refused to treat her and we had to wait for someone else to attend to her. Finally a male doctor arrived and he finished the treatment well. As I am while I expected to get a high bill for that but he was very nice about it and it all cost next to nothing. I will have to take her to change the dressing probably tomorrow as on Sunday she needs to travel to Nairobi so I want to make sure that it is all healing well before she goes back to school.

At Takwa Ruins



love spending time with my kids :)

I am sad I didn't get to spend any time with Evelyne this time but I know it was important to her to visit her grandmother who was the one taking care of her since she was born. I also know that Evelyne would not like it here too much - she comes from much cooler part of Kenya and over here right now is unbelievably hot. The rains were supposed to start a couple of weeks ago but so far it only rained twice for less than half an hour at the time...



Hamza enjoying sailing :)

On the way back from the beach - playing improvised drums and singing :)



Hamza's results after 1st term - from his report book

More about Hamza's school

2 days after I brought Hamza to his new school I had to go back there - there were 2 reasons for that: Firstly I forgot to buy the matress for him (!), felt really terrible about this but the head teacher was very helpful and they got a spare one for him to use until I bring a new one... I simply forgot about it as for the girls' matresses we just paid at the school... I also had to go back there because it was the time for the AGM meeting which was normally attended by pupils parents.

The meeting was on Saturday and was supposed to go on from 9 am till 12pm. I knew that since this is Kenya it would never start on time. I did however arrive on time just in case... And I really wished I had taken my book with me as the meeting was much more delayed than I anticipated - it did not start until 11.15! While I was waiting for the meeting I was talking to Hamza who seemed to be quite happy with the school but I could tell he was missing his friends from Nairobi. Somebody also stole a couple of items from his storage box so I had to speak to the teacher in charge of the boarding students as well as the head boy and they promised me to investigate the matter. The only items stolen were soap for washing clothes and vaseline (kids here use it to moisturise their skin).

While I was waiting I also realised that most probably I was just wasting my time as the language spoken during the meeting was more than likely to be kiswahili (many of the coastal people can't actually speak english or at least not well enough to have a serious conversation). I mentioned it to one of the teachers and he promised to get me someone to translate which I thought was really nice.

Obviously I was the only white person at the meeting so I got quite few stares and funny looks, especially when my interpreter was sitting next to me explaining what was happening. I found the meeting very interesting - there are many issues there, mainly financial as the governmet funding is not enough to cover all necessary costs. Een though the US marines have been helping out a lot recently (painting the buildings, sponsoring the solar system etc) there is still a lot that needs to be done there.

During the short breaks kids were singing, dancing, reciting poems... It was very nice to see.

I went to visit Hamza one more time when my friend Kate was here visiting for a couple of weeks. Again, we spoke to the headmaster about the issues that the school is facing. I was also told that the top scorer in KCPE exams (end of primary education exam) for whole Lamu district came from this school which is very encouraging. I hope it will motivate Hamza even more to work hard and get great results.

We were supposed to go back again for the football tournament for the local school but unfortunately I did not feel well on that day. Hamza's telling me that his school won though so it must have been a great day :)

The school term was supposed to finish on Friday, 8th of May. Kate left on Wednesday which meant I would have 1 day to prepare for Hamza's return home. I got up pretty early on Thursday and decided to do most of the laundry on that day and prepare a room for Hamza. While I was busy washing I did not hear my phone and when I finally checked it, there were many missed calls, quite a few of them from Hamza's school. Immendiately I started to worry that sthg bad had happened and I rang the headmaster straight away only to find out that I must go to school asap to collect Hamza as they decided to close the school 2 days earlier (on Wednesday instead of Friday) and they forgot to notify my which meant that Hamza was the only child still remaining there.

I think it must have been the faster shower I had in my time in Kenya - where I stay means that I have to walk for over 20 min to the pier and then get a boat to the mainland, and then a motorbike taxi to get to the school... so quite complicated... I did get there pretty quickly though and got the apology from the headmaster. I then was told that Hamza is a very good student, polite and disciplined and he scored really well in the end of term tests which put him in number 3 position in class (out of 36 children) - I was really happy to hear that, it is a really great performance on Hamza's part especially that he missed couple of weeks of school at the beginning of the term and had to change schools in the middle of the term. Now I am expecting even better result next term :)

I am supposed to take Hamza to stay with his relatives in Mombasa but at the moment he likes it here and I am still considering my options - I will not be here in August when next school break is so maybe this time I will keep him with me and send him to Mombasa next time. He has made many friends here already and every time I ask him he says he'd prefer to stay here for a while longer... But next week Juliet is coming and at the moment there isn't enough room here for the 2 of them unless I come up with some solution to that.

Hamza's New School

After the hectic time we had with the girls getting them ready for return of school (there were still some things that they needed which we hadn't bought for the start of the term because there was no money for it, i.e. biology sets -each cost about £8 - some more books requested by teachers, etc...), it was time to do the same for Hamza.

As I didn't want him to miss out on too many days away from school - the term restarted on the same day the girls were due back at their school... Then we needed 2 days for travelling (well, whole night and most of the following day...). I originally planned to travel on a night bus the same day I needed to take the girls to school but luckily in the end I decided to give myself a bit more time to avoid necessary nerves in case there was a problem getting back to Nairobi from Kiambu (where the Hillside Girls is located)... And thank God I changed my mind as we got back so late I would definitely miss the bus...

I took girls back to school on Monday and it was a very hectic day, returned to Nairobi around 10pm - I was very happy that I was staying at Jane's house that night, it would be quite dangerous to go to stay with the children at the orphanage at that time... On Monday morning I already brought my bag for Jane to take home with her after work so it was all set. All I needed to do on Tuesday was to get the necessities for Hamza and pack.

Hamza and I set off for town around 10am and went looking for a shop with school uniforms. Luckily Jane proved to be a savior once again - she drew me a map of where we needed to go (although I know Nairobi quite well now, I don't know the names of the streets, for some reason I just can never remember which one is which...) and we found the place without any problems. We bought the shirts, trousers, ties and a t-shirt (all for about £25). We then met with John and Nicolas to discuss what else we could be doing, which other children we could be helping and generally how to grow this project... Nicolas also promised to help me with the work permit when I return to Kenya later this year (no point getting one now as I need to change my passport - it is expiring in Sept...), he also offered to help with the land registration once I have more details of it - another thing that is taking a very long time to arrange... but this is Kenya so I just must be patient, no point getting too worked up about it, it will not help or make things faster or easier...

We then completed the shopping - bought the shoes & school bag, torch, padlock for the metal box where all his belongings would be kept, some snacks for him to take to school - the food there is very basic and it is up to the parents to provide the snacks for their children. At least for Hamza I did not need to buy any sugar as at the coast everything is very sweet and they would never give a child tea without it (unlike in other parts of the country - I had to buy it for Juliet and Evelyne, as well as salt and other bits and pieces to make their meals a bit nicer).

Hamza in his school uniform

I decided not to buy the metal box in town to save carrying it on the matatu back home and instead wanted to buy it in the local supermarket.

As my Kenyan sister Easterlina is in the country for only few weeks (she works in Mongolia - out of all places a Kenyan could go... ;), we met for a coffee before Hamza and I returned to Jane's place. We just managed to beat the traffic which was great as it saved us a lot of time... I managed to get most things packed before Jane got home and we went together to get the box. I was not lucky though, as the only one they had was far too big and double the usual price... I had no choice but to hope that I could get one in Lamu...

Our bus was leaving at 10.30pm and we were supposed to get to Mombasa before 7am... Then we needed to take another bus for a 7hr journey to Mokowe... I wanted to book the 9.30 bus from Mombasa but was told they no longer operated that and had to reserve the 11am instead - that meant waiting in Mombasa for at least 4hrs and then travelling during the hottest time of the day (obviously no air con - lots and lots of dust instead... :(

I was a bit worried travelling by night (only did it once before - on my first trip to the coast when I went to Malindi with Maria in 2009 to visit the other branch of Imani where I was volunteering), especially that it was just me and Hamza but the journey went with no problems and we got to Mombasa very early. It was 6 am and I hoped that we could swap our 11am reservation for our next bus and travel on the one at 7am instead to save us all that waiting time... We got a tuk-tuk and rushed to the other bus company hoping there were still tickets left for the earlier bus. When I got there our luck was even better as the 6.15am bus was still there and they rushed us onto it... We didn't even wait 5 min for a connection which was absolutely brilliant :) Actually we had so little time to get on the bus that by the time I bought the tickets our bags were already on it and the bus was leaving without us, the conductor shouting at me to hurry up - while I was handing the money over for the tickets! But again - this is Kenya, you must expect anything to happen at all times ;)

The journey to Mokowe (the last stop on the mainland before we need the boat to cross to the island - it is a very small town/village where Hamza's new school is located) went without any problems and again we arrived at our destination much sooner than I expected, normally the journey takes 7hrs but we got there in 6 so by 12.15 we were already there (if we had to wait for the 11am bus we wouldn't even got to Malindi yet...).

We then took a boat to cross the channel to get to Lamu town, Hamza was very excited as he had never been on a boat before :) We were both very tired after such long journey so after a quick bite we went to rest for a bit... Then I went to find the metal box needed for school while Hamza washed some of his clothes. By the evening he already made friends with some of the local kids - even now they still are asking me how he is and when he is coming to visit again... :)

Following morning was time to go to school - before that a trip to barbers to shave and tailor to saw the school badges onto the shirts for the uniforms. By lunchtime we were good to go but we had to wait for the boat - it is much cheaper to wait for the boat to fill up with passengers than to pay for a private trip, the problem is you never know how long you will end up waiting...



Arid Zone Primary School in Mokowe

 Once we arrived at the mainland I had to confront one of my fears which is to take the motorbike taxi - there isn't really any other way to get to school from the pier... I am absolutely terrified to go on one of those, they drive at crazy speeds, drivers normally don't have proper licences, they can buy a bike in the morning and by the afternoon already transport people... No qualifications needed - just a learner's licence is enough... So when I choose a driver he is always under strict conditions to drive very slowly ;)

We got to the school and Hamza was getting a little bit more excited although also a little worried... He has been through quite few changes in last 12 months (which is why we decided on boarding school for him - it will offer much more stability)... The head-teacher is a very nice man and I also recently find out that he is a good friend of a friend of mine, which always helps.

After taking some information for the register it was time for us to leave Hamza - it was then when I realised that I forgot to buy him the mattress! I was so fixed on getting the box which I didn't buy in Nairobi that I forgot about the mattress... I felt very bad but the teacher in charge of the boarders reassured me that they will give Hamza a temporary one for a couple of nights to give me time to buy one... I was very grateful and relieved.

As Hamza is a boy saying god-bye wasn't as emotional as it was with the girls. He likes to behave like he is a big boy and act all "manly" ;) I really hope he settles in well and makes good friends there, as well as getting good results. I am sure he will make me proud :)


Last photo before leaving Hamza at his new school



Mid-term break

Because I was not well I was not able to go and collect my girls from school - I arrived in Nairobi on Thursday evening and spent the night with Jane and her husband (as usual Jane came to the rescue when I needed somewhere to spend the night...). I spoke to Juliet that evening and we agreed to meet in town the following morning. As we were coming from opposite sides of Nairobi and Juliet didn't have a phone, it was quite a challenge to meet up but my girl is getting more and more responsible and when she was stuck in traffic, she borrowed someone's phone to call me and let me know :)

When we finally met on Friday it was already midday. I needed to extend my visa so we headed to immigration office first. When we got there we were told that the office is shut for 2 hrs for lunch and we must come back at 2pm... We decided to do some of the shopping for school in the meantime and drop it at Jane's office so we wouldn't have to carry it around town with us.
This time there was no problems with my visa and after almost 2 hrs of queuing at various counters, having my fingerprints taken, etc... I had my passport stamped for another 3 months :)

I wanted to pay girls school fees that day but by the time we got to the bank it was already shut...

We headed back to Jane's office to pick up our shopping and also my bag which her husband was bringing for me in the car when he was to collect Jane from work... We were unlucky again as there was a lot of traffic and we waited for a very long time for him to arrive... By time it was already getting dark and I was quite worried about getting the bus... At least this time we were in luck and another friend offered to take us in his car as it was on his way back home.

We arrived at the children's home very late - it was after 8pm, but the kids were very happy to see us and I brought them some sweets. It was good to see Evelyne too. You must wonder why I only take Juliet to town and not both of my girls but Evelyne doesn't like to go all that way and she prefers to stay at home... We didn't really talk much that evening as we were all really tired... The next day I had to go to town again to pay the fees, meet with someone and do some shopping - for me this time :)

We set off quite early with Juliet - again Evelyne wanted to stay home. I went to the bank and paid the fees which made me feel much better (even though the queue was really long), I was really worried about the money before and having to make excuses at the school again if we couldn't pay the fees before girls went back to school... I don't even know what it was that made us so tired but when we got home we just bought some things to cook the supper with and some eggs for children and straight after that we were in bed already. Juliet and I share the bed and we were bickering about who should turn off the lights ;) it is never an issue but this time we were so tired we couldn't keep our eyes open...

With Easterlina, June, Zack and Zanaya :)

On Sunday the girls had a lazy day as I was going to visit my host family - I was staying with them when I came to Kenya the first time. It has been absolute ages since I went to their house and spent some time with them - this time everyone was at home, even Easterlina was home for few weeks from Mongolia so it was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone. On the way back to the children's home I got some cake and juice for the kids - it was Sunday after all and I wanted to treat them at least a little bit :)

Juice and cake - sthg so little to get such big smiles :)

Finally in the evening I got a chance to speak to the girls properly and ask a lot of questions about their school. It seems like they are really liking it there, they told me it is very quiet there and good environment for studying. Juliet has joined various clubs for after-school activities, i.e. book club, wildlife club, drama, net ball, etc... Evelyne was only involved in wildlife club but she promised me she would also join the book club and basketball team. The school timetable seems to be pretty busy and they study a lot but at the same time at weekends they get some time for themselves also and they get to watch TV for 2 hrs on Saturday ;) They are quite popular at school as everyone knows they were brought there by a white person ;) As I expected, Juliet is already complaining how hard maths is for her... I knew it would be the case as it was her weakest subject in primary school. I saw their papers for the midterm exams and although there is still plenty they can improve on, I think the results are quite good after all they have been through in recent months... I think once they have settled in properly, the results for end of the term will be much better - and this is what I asked them to work towards. Their best results were in history - they both got 29 points out of 30.

Before travelling to school

Monday came too soon for me and it was already time to take girls back to school. I had to attend a mtg first and then we had to go and collect Hamza so he could travel with me the following day. In the meantime we also needed to buy some snacks for the girls to last them till the end of the term. The journey to school was an experience of its own... the first matatu we took from Nairobi kept breaking down, then we needed to take another one to collect Hamza, then we needed to get back to where the 1st matatu dropped us as it was impossible to get space on a vehicle where we collected Hamza from, and then we were on another one squeezed like chickens...



Girls with their friends from school

 We were really late getting to school - instead of arriving by 4pm we got there at 6.30pm...Which also meant it was already getting dark when we were waiting for transport back home. We waited for over an hour and still didn't manage to get a matatu. Luckily, someone else came to drop off their daughter and they offered to take us back to Kiambu where we could get another matatu to Nairobi. They came with the lorry so all of us had to fit somehow - the driver, his wife, me, Hamza and John... It was a terrible ride - the road was very bumpy, we were very squashed, Hamza was sitting on my lap... When we got a matatu in Kiambu it was just as bad - already very late, matatu full of people - I counted 22 in a vehicle designed to carry 14... I finally got back to Jane's house after 10pm... It was an absolutely exhausting day, I didn't even have time to eat anything until now... All I wanted to do was to shower and go to bed.

Time to say bye to my girls... until beginning of April...

Medical care in Kenya

So I managed to get ill again... I thought I would wait it out but after 2 days of temperature, sore throat, feeling really dizzy and sweating a lot I thought I'd better read a bit more about malaria on the net... Until then I was under the impression that if you had a sore throat then I could not have been malaria... I was wrong though, apparently you can have sore throat also... Malaria has many flu-like symptoms and after reading about it all I have scared myself enough to decide to go to see a doctor.

There is a hospital nearby so I decided to go there. I was wondering about the cost involved and decided that I should check that first (so at least I had a chance to negotiate the price - yes, this is also possible here...). When I arrived at the hospital I headed straight to the cashier (all medical treatments are paid for by the patients, there is no such thing as free medical care in Kenya)... I was very surprised to hear that the malaria test was free - I definitely did not expect that and was a little suspicious... I also asked about the fee to see the doctor, expecting sthg like £5 or thereabouts... I was told it is 60Ksh (less than 60 pence...)...

I soon found out that the services which they offer pretty much match the price you are required to paid for it... I went upstairs to see the doctor and I told him I suspected I had malaria and wanted to do the test... I was also trying to explain him all the symptoms I was having but he was not really listening and told me to just go and do the test first... I was feeling absolutely terrible - my whole body aching and really dizzy... On top of that I couldn't face eating anything as just a thought of food was making me wanna throw up... So all this made waiting for the test results (they only prick your finger to get few drops of blood for testing), which took over 1 hr, even worse...

I was quite relieved though after finding out that I did not have malaria after all... It took me ages to get over it last time and I did not want to go through it again... By the time I went back to see the doctor, he was no longer there - must have gone for lunch and that takes around 2 hrs over here... Luckily there was another doctor available so I just went to see her... She just looked at me and said that I did not have malaria... I had to explain once more how I was feeling and she eventually took one look at my throat and said I had tonsillitis and I should take antibiotics... She didn't check my temperature, didn't ask any questions at all really...

I went downstairs to the chemist and waited in the queue for a while only to be told I need to pay for it first at the cashier's desk. When I went to pay, he was nowhere to be found - most probably also having lunch... After waiting for over half hour while someone looked for him finally I could pay for my prescription. He then tried to charge me more for the doctor's consultation (only 40p more but these days I don't like when people play with me), he was trying to tell me that the 60ksh charge was for residents and I wasn't one... But he could have clearly seen that when I asked the question originally - after all everyone can see I am not from here... He made few excuses but in the end charged me the original price. When I went to pick up the medicine the chemist was closed - another persona decided to take lunch... It was really frustrating... I did manage to get it after a while though...

Even though the medicine did make me feel better, I have read on the net that tonsillitis should not be treated with antibiotics... This now makes me wonder how knowledgeable that doctor actually was, what was the quality of their malaria testing and it is that is making me feel so unwell...

In conclusion, I think it is pretty accurate to say that you get what you pay for... ;)

Quiet times...

Things have slowed down significantly since the girls went to school... After all this running around in the couple of weeks preceding the start of their 1st term it was a welcome change.

I had a little more time to plan the new project. I have started the research for the location and have been offered a place for (almost) free... I just need to arrange for the deeds which will cost me around £300 which is around 10 times cheaper than buying the land already owned by someone... I just have to keep things on the quiet side as I don't want someone to suddenly start creating problems for me - since I'm white people might think that they could get some money by threatening to create problems with the land... Things are moving really slowly (as most of the time they are in Kenya...) and my patience is being really tested at the moment but since I do not have lots of money to spend I have to just put up with it...

In the meantime I still have my 3 kids to look after :) And also - as soon as the girls' fees are settled - there is another girl in a great need of help, she is 11 years old I think, quite sick and not attending school for quite a long time... She is being looked after by her relatives (the grandfather and the rest of his family) and they have been asking us for help for quite some time now but I do not want to take on yet another child until the 3 kids in our care are all settled with what they need.

I went to visit the school for Hamza and got the list of things he will need whilst there - I will be bringing him over after the midterm - he should arrive at the new school in w/c 6th of March. I am going to Nairobi next week to collect him. I believe going to a school at the coast will be much better for him as he comes from Mombasa and is finding it quite hard around Nairobi as the culture there is very different from what he knows... It will also be easier for us to ensure that he keeps in touch with his relatives (which all leave in the Coast province) and he will be able to visit his mother during school holidays. It is very important to ensure that the child keeps the bond with the parents (especially in Hamza's case, having already lost his father when he was very young) and the rest of his family. After all, my main aim is to ensure that he is looked after well and attends school, which was not happening while he was staying with relatives. He is very bright and I am sure he will do very well once there is more stability in his life. When we moved him to Nairobi, after only one term he was already number 4 in his class... Hamza missed out on a few years of schooling and this is also an issue when looking for a school for him as not everyone would accept a child that is older than the rest of the students in the class... Luckily for us, The Arid Zone Primary School did not cause us any problems because of his age.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alison for sponsoring Hamza's school fees for this year and Stephen & Janet for donating money to ensure I can purchase the uniform and other necessities Hamza will need for school. The response & support I have been receiving recently has been absolutely amazing and motivates me to work even harder to help more children.

This is where the new project will become very useful as, apart from providing help to the local community, I will be able to have a small rescue centre where the children we rescued from difficult situation will be able to stay while we are arranging schools for them - at the moment this is quite a challenge as the children's homes are not as helpful with this as they could be... Also, the children that we deal with are not necessarily orphans so putting them in children's homes is not really benefiting them. This is why we chose to send the 3 children to boarding schools - while they have a place to stay, they are also in an environment which is encouraging them to study and also teaches them how to be independent at the same time.

A couple of weeks ago I finally spoke to Juliet - I was very excited about the phone call and even though we only had 15 minutes to talk, it was really great to hear how the girls were doing (Evelyne was not able to come to talk as she was in the middle of washing her clothes but Juliet passed on the msg from her).
Juliet told me that they were both doing well and they liked the school, even Evelyne - normally very quiet - was being much livlier lately. They joined some clubs within the school, one of them being a reading club, which makes me very happy as I was really trying to encourage them to read more, now they are asking if I can get them more books :) Juliet was telling me that the maths in Form 1 is very difficult and she is really struggling with it - which did not surprise me at all, actually I knew she was going to say that as maths was her weakest subject in primary school... There are 20 students in their class which is pretty good as normally there are many more students per class in Kenyan schools... One thing I was not aware of when I took them to school 3 weeks ago was that they were supposed to be given pocket money to purchase some snacks every morning to have with their tea... For some reason nobody told me that and the matron did not call me either when she realised that the girls had no money with them... Now I know about it I sent them some money to last them until Thursday (around £1 a week each is enough for them to buy sthg small every day) when the mid term begins. I am very excited about seeing them - I am going to Nairobi on Wednesday so I can go and collect them from school on Thursday :)

The main issue that I am still left with is the school fees for the girls - they still remain unpaid and until this is settled I cannot help any more children... We have applied for help from government for Juliet (we were only allowed to put through just 1 application...) but haven't had the decision on that yet... I am worried that when I go to collect the girls next week, I will have some problems with the school management... I should be able to give them around 5000ksh but that's not even a quarter of what needs to be paid... the total fees for both girls are Ksh33,000 in total which adds to around £300 for the first term... for term 2 & 3 the fees are £250 per term (for both girls - £125 each per term)... If anyone reading this is able to help me in my struggle to educate the 2 girls, please do get in touch - anything you can afford helps as it all adds up eventually to the amount that we need.

I will try to post some photos of the girls in their uniforms next week when I see them.