Which hat are you wearing today?

As Jennie's previous entry indicated, we have already been involved in working with a number of organisations since our arrival in Kisumu. I think describing one particular day - Monday 25 July - may serve as a good example.

Jennie and I spent the morning at the KAG (Kenya Assemblies of God) Junior Academy working with the teachers and students. The school has 28 children, aged from 3 to 6, who are needy children, many being fostered by their extended family. We began with some drama work - involving the children in telling the story of Sleeping Beauty (Kenyanised somewhat!) by choosing children to play the characters and incorporating their songs and dances into the narrative. We followed this with games using skipping ropes, footballs and balloons brought with us.

At first the children were incredibly shy of us but after some warm up games they really opened up and enjoyed the experience. Sharing ideas with the teachers was lovely too.

After dropping in on the Port Florence Youth Initiative for a courtesy call to find out about their work in peer mentoring youths and developing entrepreneurial skills, we took a boda-boda (bycycle taxi) over to the other side of town.

In the afternoon we changed from teachers to marketing consultants when we met with the Kondele Poultry Women Group. This co-operative of women supply high quality chickens raised themselves to local people and have a shop in the local area. They use their profits to assist the needy within their community and have won annual awards for their outstanding chickens. With the help of Volker, from CADIF, we were able to discuss ideas for developing their business further and marketing themselves. Alan Sugar eat your heart out! After buying some necklaces made from recyled paper to sell in the Global Footsteps shop and arranging a time to return and share a craft workshop on necklace making, we left for our host family, in a different part of town.

The evening was spent learning how to make a Kenyan supper: matoki (a stew made from green bananas) and ugali (maize) and watching a Kenyan favourite TV soap, dubbed from Mexican which was so overly melodramatic and hysterical that Jennie and I couldn't stop laughing.

One day of many hats for two tired muzungus!

Rosalind Camp