The rainy season has came early / Day of gowj by Danielle, Iona , Megan
Day 8Once again the rain has put a damper on our activities, we had to leave late for the high school due to the fact it rained last night which lead to us being unable to access the road leading to the small village. However once we did arrive there was not much to do apart from give over money for the new class rooms windows and doors and eat lunch. After lunch at pastor Toms we headed back to the school to be received by huge rain clouds to which we were suggested to head home due to the fact the roads would be uncross able when wet as they turn in to a thick clay which tents to skit to everything and turns in to a impassable  river . I suppose the rain was a god send due to the fact that we were all tired, this meant that we were able to have some relaxing/ extra sleeping time which was much needed for some members of the group. Yolo swag . Another day in paradise

Living for the Yolo at Kandaria Secondary SchoolBy Callum & JonDuring the early hours of the morning there was an extreme downpour of rain along with thunder and lightning. The thunder strikes lasted for 3-7 seconds and the lightning strikes illuminated the rooms. Once we woke we discovered there was no electricity, and had yet another cold shower, which is fine as it is quite hot. We sorted which boxes we were going to take to the Primary school. This included clothes and toys for the children along with school supplies for the school to use. We left for the secondary school later than usual, allowing the roads time to dry. However we still did not make it far as the road had become like a bog and so we had to walk over 3km through the African bush to get there. We attracted many of the people who came and waved at us as we walked by and the children were very excited and amazed to see 15 white people wandering through their fields. Once at the Secondary school, the bus appeared about 15 minutes later. Then the head teacher was presented with 50,000 shillings which would go towards the completion of the classroom roof and fittings. He expressed how grateful he was for this and thanked us very much. We then left for lunch at Pastor Tom’s house. We had potatoes, rice and some sort of meat which was decent.  We then returned to the school and met the chairman of the primary school who took us there.We met head teacher who introduced his staff to us and told us that two of the teachers were employed by the parents because of staff shortages. We introduced ourselves and then presented them with the supplies. They thanked us greatly and we took some photos of the handing over. The head teacher told us that the children were very eager to meet us and so we toured each classroom of the school and met all of the pupils. The school had a total of 452 pupils on its register and the classes held between 40 and 60 pupils per class which is a substantially more than what we are used to. Upon leaving the school, every classroom emptied and the children followed us down to the Secondary school gates. Then it was teaching and building time. The majority of us helped with the bricks and Mr Macdonald and Jon taught a history lesson. The pupils were at first apprehensive but quickly became involved in the lesson, covering Scottish tartan and clans. Mr Macdonald dressed up in a tartan towel and was dancing around the room, which amused many of the pupils to the point where we heard them laughing all the way at the building site.We stopped at Pastor Tom’s house on the way back and handed Lollipops to some of the local children and had some minor refreshments. We then headed back to where we are staying and had tea which was chicken and chips along with small African cakes. All in all it was great day and a valuable experience. We have just been told that there is another storm on the way tonight. 

Today was Sunday and like most Kenyans, we went to church. Everyone wore nice presentable clothes and the boys wore suits with ties. We woke up to loud church music at 5am and then after breakfast we went out to Nyamkebe church which was an hour from our hostel. The church was built with branches and tarpaulin but the church members made us feel very welcome. It was interesting to see a different side of religion. We brought sweets for the children and donations of clothes which were difficult to hand out because all the children from the village were there. Afterwards, we went inside a house made of mud. It was very small, dark but homely, whilst in the house; we gave a blessing to the home which means that we were welcome in the house.After the church, we were taken to a big supermarket in Kisumu where we bought some food to take back home and for midnight snacks. All in all it was a good and interesting day. - Clarissa Boath and Eve Cuthbert

Today has been a very long and eventful day. We returned to the Kandaria high school for our second day where some of us were building the classroom whilst others were teaching. Building the classroom involved getting our hands dirty by laying the cement and piling bricks. Others stacked bricks up to help the Kenyan workers who are helping us build. After we went to Pastor Toms house for lunch and sat in the hut that was built for us. His wife once again had cooked plenty for us all which was very nice. Everyone is very welcoming. After lunch we went to the local farm where we helped the farmers plant seeds most of which were tomatoes. We also were happy to be told that the money we raised from the cyclathon was used to buy 24 single pipes, 2 hoses and a water pump to help irrigate the fields which were very dry. Whilst planting we all got stuck in. Jon stepped in a big puddle that went over his ankle, Callum lost his shoe in the mud and Miss Scott slipped and fell in the mud, all in all messy work…We are all currently sitting in the dining room after our tea and we are planning on having a girly night, plus Callum(Jon loves a girly night!)Dilara

Friday 26^th July

Yesterday was spent mostly in travelling. We left Nairobi and headed for Narok and our route took us through the Great Rift Valley. The road hugs the edge of the top for quite some time so we had spectacular views across the valley. We stopped at one of the view points for a photo opportunity and had the chance to see some of the local crafts as well.

Around 60km from Narok, the bus made some very strange screeches and started giving out lots of smoke!! It turned out really to be steam as the engine had overheated. We alighted and a passing truck pulled us into a farm drive while we waited to see if it was a permanent break down or not. Luckily there was a nice breeze and intermittent cloud cover, so we were able to stretch our legs and speak to a couple of local children for a wee while and then after refilling the radiator we were off again! Narok, where we stopped for lunch, is where Pastor Tom works. It is on the edge of the Maasai Mara and we saw several warriors in traditional garb. We’ll be staying in Narok later on so we didn’t take time to look round after lunch. We knew the drive from Narok to Kisumu would be a long one, and so it proved; because the bus has to travel much slower after dark we were travelling for over four hours, though it must be confessed that most people slept at least part of the way. We were very glad to reach our destination in Ahero at 9.00 p.m. and after choosing rooms we just ate and went to bed.

Today was much more exciting as we finally went to work on our project in Kandaria. The first job of the morning was to sort out all our boxes of donations and organise them so that we could take a couple of boxes to Kandaria with us. When we travelled there,we saw why we had to stay in Ahero even though it is 20 km away and takes an hour on our bus: it is very, very rural with only small scattered hamlets of huts, although it looks very fertile and we saw fields of all kinds of crops including rice, sweet corn and tomatoes. It’s also a tea growing area. Kandaria Mixed Secondary School, where we are working is very small and only two years old. There has been a primary school there for some time but the community only managed to raise enough money to start building a secondary school two years ago. They are delighted we are helping them to grow.

Today, Mr MacDonald and Dilara and Jon were teaching a combined S1& S2. They did an interactive lesson on the history of medicine; I believe Dilara having her leg amputated was a memorable moment. While they were teaching, the rest of us were working on building the classroom. Everyone helped to organise and lay out bricks ready for adding to the walls and some of the group tried their hand at bricklaying. More of the group will have the chance to try that tomorrow. They only have one trowel and one spade so not many people can build at the same time. We also played football with the pupils and tried to teach them rounders; we hope by next week they will be star players.

We had lunch today at Pastor Tom’s house and met his wife. Lunch was served in a reed shelter which had been especially built for us.

Everyone was hot, dust and tired by the end of the day, but we are all feeling a real sense of achievement.

Miss Scott and Mrs Duncan

We will try to add photos to the blog when we can, but pictures can also be seen on the Mission International facebook page www.facebook.com/missionmatters

Blog Day 1

WE ARE ALIVE!
The flight was long but was not too bad due to the movies and good food. It was also good due to being able to phone seats, you were able to use your remote to call other passengers sitting in seats far away from you! When we arrived at 3am we were greeted by Hugh and Pastor Tom and headed straight to our accommodation for the night. Unfortunately due to the group size we were unable to stay in one accommodation so the group was split in two but were only a 5min drive apart and met up the next day after breakfast.
We were all very tired after travelling so spent most of the day just relaxing. We went into Nairobi at 4pm for a look around and to exchange money and due to the large volume of traffic we were out until 8pm.
Written by Caitlin, Rebekah and Alex.

Last night we held our final fundraising event, a Quiz Night at the Fort Bar, Broughty Ferry, which raised £272.

Today we will be packing boxes with all the clothes, computers, educational materials and first aid equipment which we are taking with us.

And next Tuesday, we leave for Kenya!

We will post updates on the blog as often as we can but this will depend on availability of internet access. You can follow the blog to see what we have been doing and how we are getting on.

You know how all these copper coins weight you down? How those little 5p pieces are just a fiddly nuisance? Well, now they can do some good!

The Go Africa team is collecting your small change to make a great big change to a poor community in Kenya.

Why not collect all your small change and donate it to a good cause? You can download our poster here Change for Change poster to remind yourself and to encourage others to take part as well.

Last time we raised nearly £250 for a Ugandan water project; lets see how much more we can raise this time.

A team of pupils and staff from Menzieshill High School are going out to work in Kenya for three weeks in August 2013.
This blog will give you information about where we are going and what we will be doing as well as chronicle our fund-raising efforts.