KISII SAFE-HOUSE

Travelling to Kisii after our stays at The Ark and Treetops was estimated to take around 8 hours, little did we know it would actually take 12 hours. On arrival in the town of Kisii, we stopped off for dinner at a hotel restaurant. We were all tired and very hungry at this point, so any food we had was appreciated; after dinner and a quick use of their flush toilets, we got back onto the bus and headed for the safe house. When we got to the safe house it was pitch black and raining, so unloading the bus and climbing up the hill to the safe house was a struggle for some of us, with bags almost twice the size of us on our backs. Finally after what seemed an eternity, we got up to the first floor classroom of the safe house where we were to stay the night under tents pitched using chairs and tables. That night was a night that many of us will remember, with inflatable mattresses deflating like mad, Shane being pushed out of the tent, Alex being woken up by Brooke because of a spider above her head, and Joe telling us all to be quiet because Explorers at the best of times are noisy but, put them in a new place, after 12 hours cooped up on a bus, well you can only imagine the amount of chat that was going on. But after a long day we all finally got some sleep.

– Joe

It was an early start the next morning, as it was the first day at the Kisii safe house and there was lots for us to do. The first task of the morning was to set up camp outside on the safe house field. We had to carry our tents down the narrow staircase of the safe house building to then re-pitch them, it was starting out to be a nice day with a bit of sun. Once we had pitched the tents and had breakfast, one of the teams went out to the town​ to get dinner for that evening and breakfast and lunch for the following day. The rest of us were tasked with washing up breakfast and preparing lunch, washing clothes, tidying out the safe house classroom upstairs or starting on the maintenance and repair of the chicken coop. The morning was, however, quiet relaxed, compared to some of the others we’d had on the trip. After the typical lunch of sandwiches and salad, a group of Explorers headed out to the local market, accompanied by a few of the older street kids, in order to get the necessary materials for fixing the chicken coop, rebuilding the barbeque and repairing the cooking shelter.

– Matteo

As Matteo has already mentioned, during our stay at the Kisii safe house we were asked to repair the chickens’ accommodation the team from Lewisham had built in 2009 and to rebuild and repair the brick barbeque and cooking shelter. We mended the door to the chicken house, erected new fencing around the chicken run and made a new gate. Having done all that work and seeing the boys needed some new chickens, we quickly decided to buy them 20 young hens so that, in a month or so, they would be able to have fresh eggs. The boys were so grateful and many of them we found were paying regular visits to the chicken house to ensure the hens had settled in and were all OK. The rebuilding of the barbeque was a bit of a headache as Kenyan bricks are very irregular in shape and come in all different sizes. But, we finished the task and were very proud of the result. We were also pleased to be able to ensure that the shelter over the barbeque was safe by putting in concrete blocks and supports for the posts holding it up. It will now be able to stand proud for years to come.

– Daniel

Cooking at both the safe houses and at the camp at Pigeon Park was very interesting – to say the least. To start with, there were a lot of us. And, we had people who do not eat meat, who do not like vegetables, who won’t eat any form of salad, who hate spicy food – and even a couple of people who have an irrational fear of mushrooms. On top of that, we cooked on charcoal fuelled Jikos – small, round, metal stoves used throughout Kenya. We had to boil all our water on them and put everything in one large pot for dinner. As you can imagine, finding food on a budget that everybody would eat was a challenge, and then buying it in the street markets and supermarkets brought its own problems. On one occasion, we planned to include potatoes with dinner and a very large supermarket we were shopping in only had two small bags left to sell us. It was great going into the local markets and haggling over the price of food and materials. Market prices were already fairly cheap, and certainly compared well to the UK, so we did not ask for them to be lowered too much. But haggling is what everybody does and it was good fun as well.

– Alex

On two occasions we were all offered the opportunity to visit the streets of Kisii in a vehicle at night to see what life really is like for some of the kids of Kenya. This was a very emotional experience for all of us, as it made us realize what life is like for many people not only in Kenya, but in countries across the world. However, we were extremely lucky one night to be able to pick up two boys who were friends on the streets. The first child we picked up was sniffing glue, a common drug for many of the street kids. Andrew – one of the Harambee for Kenya Trustees – and Tom spoke to him and explained what the charity was about. As we continued driving the child on the bus with us saw his friend and called out to him, so we stopped and once again Andrew and Tom spoke to him. On​ the other night, we were also able to take one young boy back to the safe house with us, making three in total. Knowing that we have been able to affect these children’s lives in such a great way is, in my opinion, one of the best things that we have all taken away from this trip. Sadly, we have no photographs of the night visits to show you as we were asked not to take cameras with us for our own safety and security.

– Nathan

The boys that Nathan has mentioned were very malnourished and filthy when we picked them up. It was awful to see the conditions they lived in and how they’re truly were street children on every street corner of Kisii. The worst feeling was when we realised we could not take all those we saw back with us. The safe house does not tend to take older boys – those around 13 or over – because they have found older boys are often institutionalized to the streets and cannot settle in the house. Also, boys found in groups are not taken, as they may sometimes steal things and give them to their street gang to sell. It is unfortunate, but that is the way things have to be to keep the safe house safe and to ensure the boys there have the best chance of a normal life. However, when we got back after the night visit we were uplifted to see the very warm welcome the new boys were given – the boys from the safe house sung a welcome song and greeted the three new boys as brothers. They also have a special ritual of cleaning, where the resident boys help the new boys get clean and give them fresh clothes and show them to their new beds. It was a real delight the following day to see all three looking so different, and with big smiles on their faces. Let’s now have a look at the photos.

– Oriana