HIV Volunteering in Kenya

So far I'm having a great time! Things at the volunteer house is wonderful, I'm sleeping and eating well. It was great to be placed with anther volunteer Betty who I Facebooked before coming out here.

I'm certainly learning that volunteering is what you make it. I can see that for people who are used to travelling a lot tend to be more open with meeting people, speaking to people and in general using their initiative to make the most of the spare time.

Me and 3 other volunteers organised with our school and headteacher to do like a "fruit and fun" morning yesterday (a Saturday) from 9 til about 11:30. For just £2 something we got 100 bananas, enough for one for every student and about 30 other kids, some of them street kids. We also got some juice and the headteacher provided water so we had a massive pot of juice so every child could have a drink after hours of playing games. My experience teaching at summer camps definitely helped as I was confident enough to get all the children into a big circle and sing some songs I'd learnt at camp. We hope to do this kind of "fruit and fun" Saturday morning every Saturday which perhaps future volunteers could continue with.

I'm very interested in helping to fundraise for my school here. I didn't really bring much from home so I'm eager to see if friends and family could post things like old school uniforms and stationary which could really be so useful. A friend of mine works for Disney, and he says he will be able to send a whole load of Disney stationary, pencil cases, notebooks etc so I can't wait to receive his package, but I haven't yet got an address to send to him. I want the parcel to be addressed to me preferably so I can check the stuff first, for example if there's only enough for like half the kids I want to be able to distribute it fairly. I suppose I'll ask Isaac or Joe about it so we can get that cracking. I've heard something about high tax on receiving packages particularly with clothes. Isaac mentioned getting volunteers to bring things but I think it would be a lot of hassle sending everything to each volunteer.