This evening, all of the team are watching France-Péru. Everyone song the Marseillaise anthem. We founded a Carrefour supermarket to get chips and prosciutto to enjoy the match. Everyone is happy.
Before that, we had a very busy day…we started at 8.30 at red rose school by preparing the library for an entire renovation by our famous teenagers. They emptied the shelves, cleaned them and then started painting the walls with a neon green. The objective is to transform the library in a joyful place where kids can relax and read book. When painting is done, we will get carpets and cushions to make the place comfortable. We brought decorative stickers from the US for this purpose.
Then we got the visit of our peers from Lycée Francais of Nairobi who came to watch our work and interview us. It was nice to share our experience of expatriation. The six high schoolers from Nairobi are from Burundi, Congo, Somalia, Canada and Barbados. They also speak French fluently and just finished 9th grade. We took them for a tour of the school and classrooms where they could spend some time with the kids from Red Rose but also with our teenagers. Together they learnt how to make the kenyan bracelets with the mini-pearls. Even the boys got into it. Then we took them inside Kibera to show them around but as it rained last nighy, we all slipped in the mud and came back very filthy but happy. The high schoolers from Nairobi had never seen the slum before. It was funny that WE, from the us, were their guides.
We said goodbye and left for Karen, 30mn away from Kibera, one of the wealthiest part of Nairobi.We stopped for lunch at a very good Indian restaurant on the way. We then took the directions to Nyumbani Orphanage. This institute is a special home for 124 HIV+ orphans. They provide a bed, medical care, psychological support and education.
We visited the place, then we played with the young kids 3 to 10 years old in the playground.
More than 20% of the population in Kenya is HIV+ and lots of parents die leaving their kids orphans. Most of them are infected through breastfeeding. All of the kids at Nyumbani receive their daily treatment which allow them to be able to live a normal life as they are no more contagious. What a trauma for these kids to not only have to go through a lot of treatment and blood tests but also to lose their parents! Some very cute moments when a little girl ran to Paul, so he could hug her.
Project Kenya Trip Diary 