Ol Pejeta camp

I have to start by saying that this has been one of the most fantastic few days of my life.  This place is unreal and this experience has already been way more than I could have wished for.

The internet access at the Ol Pejeta camp where our group is staying is limited so I will blog about a few of the most important and memorable things from the past few days because it feels like there has been a lot that has happened .

The camp is beautiful – it is located in the middle of a conservancy where all types of wild African animals roam free throughout over 100,000 km of protected nature.  We sit at a bon fire and we can see warthogs, gazels, antelope, zebras, baboons and even elephants! It’s unbelievable.  Today I finally got to see an elephant in the daylight up close – before that we has only seen them at night which is pretty nerveracking but very cool and exciting!

We spent 2 days working at the local primary school (Irura) in the rural outskirts of Nanyuki.  We painted classrooms, helped build a toilet by digging a hole (they dig it up to 150 ft deep!) and we taught some school classes as well.  These children were so incredibly respectful and well-behaved, they welcomed us with a school-wide (about 200 children) song and dance – this brought me to tears.  They were so happy to have us visiting them and just so happy to play with us.  We played games and sang songs with the kids and having the opportunity to teach them was unbelievable.  They were so smart and all spoke English quite well.  Some of these children are afflicted by HIV/AIDS and all of them are incredibly knowledgeable about this disease and what it does to the human body.  It was eye opening to me to hear them talk about HIV/AIDS like the school aged children in Canada might talk about the flu.  They knew the symptoms and they even knew about the attack on the white blood cells.  It just really reminded me that this is a prevalent part of their lives.

Today we went to the CDEC orphanage in Nanyuki.  All of these children’s parents have either passed away from HIV/AIDS or they have parents who are currently suffering with the disease.  Many of them also have HIV/AIDS.

When we got to the orphanage one of the older boys introduced the school to us and he gave us a tour of the grounds.  I was so pleasantly surprised that the orphanage was not a complete dump. In the past year or so there have been many donations to this project which allowed building to be built and proper cement ground to be put in and the classrooms were in good shape.  These made me very happy that even though these children have such a difficult life at least they could take some sort of pride in this place they are forced to call home.

Within five minutes at the orphanage I met a girl named Faith!! We bonded instantly and she followed me around all day! I was so happy to hang out with her and all the others. They are such special children who are a walking reminder of the strength of the human spirit.  These children have been through way more than anyone should have to experience in their entire lives. \

Faith gave me a tour of the grounds of the school and she showed me all the vegetables they grow in their garden and she told me all about her family and how her mother had died when she was very young and her father was very sick and she doesn’t know where he lives anymore and so now she and her two brothers live in the orphanage.  It just breaks my heart to know that these amazing individuals are living such an unfair existence and all I want is to figure out how to move forward.  What more can we all do from here to make an impact.

One of the things the group decided to do was go to a local bookstore and purchase notebooks, chalk, pens, etc for the schools in the area and so while we are supporting the local economy we are also providing these children with supplies they desperately need.

As a group we went to the local food market and purchased fruits and made a fruit salad for the kids in the orphanage.  They all waited politely and each came up and took their turn and took the fruit.  They were so grateful and so excited for this fruit.  It was no big deal for us to make this happen and to them this was literally a luxury.

These children have all been impacting me a great deal.  They are smart and hopeful and they see big dreams for their future and I really feel like we in the western developed world have a responsibility to help provide them with the resources to make their dreams happen.  These people need to have the tools to succeed on their own. We need to find a way to stop HIV/AIDS from killing entire generations of individuals and this is a possible and reachable goal with the information and scientific developments happening in the western world.  Putting these faces on this problem has really made me feel like this is a goal that we need to reach because we do have the power to help.

I'm also really looking forward to talking with some women about the stigma of HIV/AIDS in this country and how that impacts women and women's rights. Will write again soon hopefully.