a very big retard

Posted 13 years ago

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Thursday May 17th, 1:19pm GMT
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forgot my attachments. I am a computer retard

Posted 13 years ago

As someone recently told me.....I know about as much about computers as a small cabbage :P
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Thursday May 17th, 1:17pm GMT
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the kellie giraffe and health checks

Posted 13 years ago

Grrrr…………I have just written this post, it started chucking it down and the internet went crazy so I lost it.  This will therefore be only a shadow of what was previously written!!!!

 

We have had a very busy week.  One thing that was fun was going to the giraffe centre on Sunday afternoon (I would say.. “and yes I did go to church, but I didn’t because I slept in!!).  It was very exciting as I met my namesake….a giraffe called Kellie!!! I will include a picture so you can spot the difference between the two of us!!

 

At school we’ve been very busy this week doing health checks on all 11 classes!! We managed to persuade a nurse and a doctor from the local health clinic to come and help which was fantastic (the clinic is now practically home after numerous visits this week with a child with malaria and a child with typhoid!!). We’ve found infections of various kinds, ringworm and other fungal things, septic wounds, vision problems, hearing problems, umbilical hernias and dental problems among others!!  Finished today and now have the job of dishing all the medications out which is interesting.  Trying to find the child you want and explain to them what to do with the medicines is quite a feat when you only speak a couple of words of Swahili!!

 

Had my first cry today after having a chat with the girl my parents sponsor, Emmaculate.  Her mother has HIV and none of her friends know coz she is scared of the discrimination associated with it.  Sometimes her only meal is the one school provide and life is very hard for her.  Her father now lives with another woman and doesn’t speak to Emmaculate and her brothers as he says he doesn’t love them.  She still finds something, anything, to be thankful for and is an amazingly beautiful girl. 

 

This is the story of 450 other children that I see everyday.

 

I cried.

Thursday May 17th, 1:08pm GMT
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I'm soooooo English!!

Posted 13 years ago

Well, I've survived a week.. YEY!!  I survived but also have realised that I am very very English.  I already knew I liked my brews probably a bit more than the average non-English person but I thought that was the extent of my Englishness.......

3 things I really need to get used to (and I'm sure the list will grow!!)

1.  Queuing.  No one knows how to do it here, or if they do they just can't be bothered!!  I like the order and fairness of a system.  This week I have got very cross when I've been pushed in front of, been in a queue for a long time then get to the front and they ask me to wait until they've dealt with the person behind me....Grrrrrrr.

2. Public transport.  Matatus are mini buses owned by random people that follow the bus routes,  except sometimes they just go where they feel like.   When it rains you get chucked off so it can fill up with people going the other way.

3. Crossing the road.  Basically you have to be assertive (I can already here some of you groan about me being assertive crossing a road).  No one indicates and it's busy so you just have to walk and hope the cars slow down!!

Right now I should probably be preparing for next week.  Planning to do a health audit of all the children in 2 days so we need to be prepared!!  From that information I can then do some health education based on what we find.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Hopefully it will be organised chaos rather than total chaos!!

Saturday May 12th, 9:11am GMT
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I'm here

Posted 13 years ago

So, just in case you were wondering.....yes I did arrive safely!!

Iw was the first day in school with the kids today.  Marie found me 2 children who need operations!! I went on a nice walk to the local clinic with one of them today.  I'm going with the social worker and the children to the local hospital on thursday to take them to see the surgeons and hopefully get an appointment.  They've not had the treatment they need because their families can't afford it so the money we all raised will be helping to pay for the treatment of these 2 girls so hopefully they will be in a lot less pain in future! Watch this space!! (And thanks to the people who gave me money!!)

I was jumped on at break time today by a group of kids from baby class and nursery wanting cuddles and picking up.  I think I now have a little fan club being the new muzungu (white person) who has very strokeable hair (they wouldn't leave it alone!!).

For those of you who know me this very well and know how clumsy I can be this next bit will either make you laugh or groan!  Today I used my first aid kit for the first time.......on myself!! I slipped in my flip flops at school and stripped all the skin off my knee (which is now filled with dirt! Yummy!).  When I got home I decided my it needed an extra clean (coz it was still minging).  I thought the toilet lid was a good place to sit as I could get comfy whilst scrubbing my very painful knee and have access to water.   Can you guess what happened?????? Lets just say the pieces of the toilet seat are now one the floor after being fished out of the toilet bowl.  Apparently Marie, the lovely person I am living with, now wants to take extra life insurance out as she now realises what a disaster area I am!!!!!!

Gotta go to bed now. Up early tomorrow.  I'll leave you with a picture of me and one of my new friends.

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Tuesday May 8th, 7:08pm GMT
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