Latest News from Ngumo Primary on our Community Teaching and Building Project!

Our first community teaching and building project is nearly coming to an end in the Rift Valley in Kenya and what a fantastic project it has been so far! All the volunteers Leon Rodway, Edward Shaw, Tim Cowles, Andrew Young, Leopold Tefal and not to mention our hard-working MAD Crew Bene and Nick all deserve a huge thanks for all their hard work over the last six weeks! So just a little bit of info to let you all know what has been going on:

The group of  MAD volunteers all headed out to the Rift Valley in Kenya at the beginning of March 2011 on a mission to Make A Difference…this would mean building a block of toilets for the boys at Ngumo Primary where currently there are no sanitation facilities. This is something that is sustainable and invaluable.

The first job was to dig a 20 foot pit for the toilet cubicles.This was extremely hard work and took a number of workers to complete the job. As the weeks have gone past the volunteers have been constructing walls, plastering one cubicle at a time, putting the roofing on, making the door frames and by the end of the project should have it all nicely painted with a Madventurer Mural!

The volunteers have also been enjoying teaching the kids in the schools! The school holidays started not too long ago so all the volunteers enjoyed a celebratory meal with the teachers and local workmen. School holidays means kids everywhere wanting to play! Free time has been enjoyed at Lake Naivasha where volunteers can spend the night on the shores of the lake in lively backpackers under leafy trees in beautiful grounds. Falling asleep to the sound of hippos on the banks is not uncommon! They've also been heading to the town of Nakuru and also venturing on safaris in the nearby Game Park! The group seem a particulary innovative bunch and even managed to construct a home-made shower out of a huge water bottle in their village house! Afternoons off are often spent playing football against the local teams in the area!

One of our volunteers, Leon Rodway, has been very busy having a fantastic time. When he's not busy cementing and plastering he has been teaching classes of up to 65 kids! A teacher back in the UK, we're sure he feels in his element. Leon has really gone to town with fundraising for Ngumo Primary he is trying to reach a target in order to get a new teacher from Nairobi hired for 3 years. With classes of such big numbers a new teacher would really be a huge help. His aim is to also donate funds for building a kitchen at the school where often kids arrive at 7.30am in the morning, leave at 4pm having eaten nothing all day. The whole group of volunteers has really been making an impact on the school, getting to know all the kids and helping out the teachers. As well as this; Constructing something such as a toilet block is a necessity and should be a long-lasting example of how Madventurer projects really do make a difference to people's lives.

The end of the project went very well. Andy continued his involvement in teaching English to the older pupils (stages 6- 8) and was complimented highly by the senior teacher on his thorough marking. We were running out of time when we begun painting so volunteers, fundi's (local builders) and crew had to work longer hours than usual to ensure it was finished. Leopold (or Chui as he is now more commonly known as in Ngumo - Swahili for Leopard) was an especially talented (or rather speedy) painter and so we just managed to get painting and mural completed in time.  Mr Muchiri, one of the teachers, did the design and outline for the murals. Before leaving, Leon had held a design competition with the Standard eights. The winning design was for the toilets to be painted in the colours of the Kenyan flag (see pictures), which we have done.

Independent travel - Volunteers went to Nyaharuhu to visit Thomson falls over one weekend and Nairobi to drop off Tim who was heading onto do an overland adventure for the other weekend. We spent a day at a Waterpark in Nairobi - which, may I say, was amazing! We were also invited to the head fundi's house for local Kikuyu beer. It is made from a mixture of water, honey, sugar and a special kind of tree bark. It’s not very strong and not very tasty but it was great for us all to sample and very nice to have food and chats with the Fundi's.

 

We were all very sad to be leaving Ngumo where we had built great relationships with teachers, pupils and fellow workers.  Check out the photos of how our project developed on our Mad Tribe Blog.  If you fancy helping out on our July and August community project then just get in touch with Mad HQ on 01434 633137, 0845 121 1996 or email team@madventurer.com

If anyone is interested in fundraising for any MAD project going on please have a look at http://www.madventurer.com/making-a-difference/the-mad-foundation.html , there are many ways anyone can get involved and the more funds raised for these worthy projects the more schools such as Ngumo can be improved.