Those lovely gappers who previously wrote about their Tsavo experience have blessed us with another great blog about their time in Makongeni. They call themselves the Chizi Fresh Team so lets hear from them…

Our 2 weeks in Makongeni village have flown by far too quickly! We were greeted by the staff with coconut milk on arrival (a local tradition given to visitors) which was definitely a great welcoming. Makongeni is a lovely close-knit community which has been extremely welcoming to us gappers at camp! We got stuck in to the community projects straight away which included; plastering, cementing floors and painting in the local primary school, planting seeds and learning how to make jewellery with the youth group as well as helping out at Rafiki Health Centre. In total, we spent 8 days at the primary school which allowed a strong sense of achievement as we saw our work develop.

Again, like our experience in Tsavo Camp the staff here in Makongeni have played a huge part in making this experience so incredible! Julius, our brilliant chef, has been feeding us up and giving us a taste of a few local meals such as Chapati and Ugali (sima) plus a few home comforts including burgers and chips – YUM! Whinnie gave us an excellent Swahili lesson going further in depth than what we had previously learnt. Dr. W always keeps us laughing, and Combo has been an excellent leader with regards to the plastering and flooring etc in the primary school classroom.

Gladys, the camp manager, has created an environment in which we feel totally at home. When we’ve asked her about something she’s jumped on the case without a moments delay, and as a result we’ve had a tailor made unique trousers exactly to our measurements, plus we’ve had our hair braided with the colours of the Kenyan flag and next week we are also getting Henna tattoos! Last night Gladys and Whinnie came up with an excellent game which had us all laughing hysterically. In addition to the wonderful staff here, the local guys who run the youth group have been so inspiring with regards to what they have instilled within the community. It’s been great getting to know them and being able to hang out with them in the afternoons, learning about each other’s cultures. We really don’t want to leave!

After a week of hard work, we were rewarded with amazing weekends! We were taken to the most breathtakingly beautiful beaches to relax and top up our suntans. On our first weekend, we had the opportunity to go scuba-diving or snorkeling which was slightly scary at first but a fantastic experience as we saw many tropical fish! On Saturday night, Gladys took us for a night out African style to a local nightclub called Shakatak, which was such fun to let our hair down! Sunday was a chill out day at the beach and in the evening we had a ‘family barbeque’ with all the staff at the beach and watched the sunset-perfection!

Overall, the last two weeks of our trip have been unforgettable and makes going home next week even harder for us. At least we have the pictures and memories to always remind us of our once in a lifetime experience. We love Makongeni!

They may be a small group but this certainly had no impact on the fantastic time that our 5 gappers had during their stay at Camp Tsavo. As they left to move onto Camp Makongeni they shared their adventure with us….

The 5 of us volunteers arrived at Camp Tsavo at lunch time after a gusty ride from the airport on our jeep! We were introduced and welcomed by Sammy K (‘The name’s on the belt’) and given a tour around our new home.

 Our first day was spent at Sasenyi School, a 40 minute drive from Tsavo Camp. As we pulled up to the school, we were greeted by waves and ‘Jambo’s’ from the students which made us feel warmly welcomed!  We began our work digging out the foundations of a recently knocked down classroom in order to re-build a new one. Steve, our group leader, managed to keep us motivated and entertained through the blazing heat by his constant funny outbursts … Sledgeeee HAMMER! These were consistent throughout the whole fortnight which always kept us going.

The hard work was followed by a more relaxing day making elephant dung paper. We were definitely hesitant to get stuck in originally but were equally intrigued as to how it was made and found ourselves eager to try it out. We were all astounded at how resourceful the local community are and how they have the ability to make things out of nothing!

For our R.R (rest and recuperation) days we would take the jeep to Voi which was roughly an hours drive from camp. We were able go to the local supermarkets, internet café, restaurants, souvenir shops and a swimming pool at Galaxy Hotel. On our first R.R, we visited a Massai village nearby to be shown around the tribes’ homes (bomas) and way of living. It was so surreal to see the difference between their culture and ours, especially when they began their tribal chants and dances in their brightly coloured garments and makeshift sandals. Furthermore, the extreme lengths the males go through to show their right of passage – burning circular marks onto their skin and removing their two bottom teeth at the age of five,not forgetting being circumcised without pain relief! OUCH!! They taught us how to make fire out of rubbing sticks together on top of elephant dung and grass, as well as teaching us about their Lion hunting tradition, whereby they show the slaughtered Lion’s tooth to the parents of the intended wife they want to marry in order to prove their worthiness.

Going to visit the Imani women’s group was definitely one of the most powerful and inspiring experiences of our lives. We were told by Mama Mercy how ‘Imani’ meant faith, which is most definitely an appropriate name to give to such a humble group of women. This group was started by Mama Mercy originally due to the growing rate of HIV/AIDS within the community. She began to provide these jobs which meant a sustainable income for women who otherwise would have fewer opportunities to be able to support themselves and their family. It empowers women to be self sufficient and has also stood up for girls with the controversial tradition of arranged marriage in young teen girls. We were all led by the women to plant seeds in their field which will allow them to sell the crops in three years time.

A 5.30 am start to the day awaited us in order to get to Tsavo East national park on time for our SAFARI! Thanks to Steve’s excellent observation skills, we were able to see; Twiga, Ndovu, Pundamilia, Mbuni, Duma – (Giraffes, Elephants, Zebras, Ostriches, Cheetahs and many more).

Highlight of our day = Monkey snatching one of the volunteers sandwiches at the picnic park!

The heaven’s opened as we sat in the open jeep on our long journey home. Despite it being fun at first it was a shock to be so drenched after such a hot day but luckily the staff at Tsavo took care of this and had teas and coffees laid out for our arrival back home. This became a common occurrence and they consisted to exceed our expectations of hospitality and made us feel more at home than ever.

Climbing Mt Kasigau was a challenge we weren’t expecting! A four and a half hour trek up the mountain was topped off by a 500 metre vertical stretch to the peak. An overwhelming amount of exercise sent us all to sleep at the top of the mountain when we were suddenly awoken by our guides warning us of the torrential rain to come! This led to a humorous slide down to the bottom and we were SO happy and proud of ourselves to finally reach the end of the challenge.

Throughout our stay, we spent a few more days at Sasenyi School plastering classroom walls and planting trees that will be used for health purposes for the students within the school. We became more and more familiar with their way of working and it was a breath of fresh air to see such happy students that were more than eager to help out … they showed us how it was done. We felt so privileged to be surrounded by such good natured people and loved the opportunity to talk to them (and practise our Swahili).

Above all of the amazing experiences we have had over the last two weeks, the best thing about camp Tsavo is the extremely friendly, accommodating, funny, welcoming, happy and supportive family of staff that work here alongside us. They have truly made our trip unforgettable and we couldn’t have asked for a better way to start our trip to Kenya! Although we are excited for the next adventures at our new camp, we will be so upset to leave our Tsavo family behind!

WE LOVE CAMP TSAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sports Coaching Volunteer Project

A group of 24 students from Bournemouth University are traveling with us to Kenya in August 2013 on our Sports Development Expedition (SDX) and yet their Expedition has already started. As part of all our sports coaching volunteer projects volunteers undergo several training sessions to enable them to deliver a higher standard of coaching.

Bournemouth University……on a weekend…..in the snow

Barry Squires is leading this expedition to Kenya and has led it for us in the past with great success. The volunteers on the SDX trip will be involved in improving the sporting facilities at the local schools as well as coaching sports in the afternoons to large groups of eager young people. This expedition is received with great anticipation at Camp Kenya, where students from the local schools have been benefiting from the coaching skills of the SDX groups for the past seven years.

Some of the girls during a problem solving challenge

The Bournemouth University students got their expedition underway this snowy weekend with two days of team building, coaching sessions, problem solving and socialising.  By doing this months in advance the group is better able to plan the coaching sessions for the expedition, knowing who can do what, and finding good working partnerships within the group.

The group does some netball coaching as the sport is becoming more and more popular with girls in Kenya.

We are lucky that this group boasts a range of skills and qualifications, including coaching experience in: football, rugby, tennis, hockey, badminton, swimming, rounders, netball, athletics and gymnastics. There are even some keen dancers! With this wealth of sporting talent, the volunteers in this team will be able to introduce new sports to the students in Kenya as well as reinforce skills and abilities in sports that the young people are already playing.

The group enjoyed a range of activities facilitated by Barry including a short lesson in Swahili

The group are already well prepared, having all booked their flights and assigning roles of responsibility within the team. They now have a Fundraising secretary, Kit secretary, PR person and (perhaps) the most important role, Social secretary. From here on the group will be working together to finalise the arrangements for their expedition. They will be getting together again in May for a second training weekend (where they are hoping the weather will be a little milder) before getting on their flight to Mombasa on August 11th for their four week trip to take part in our sports coaching volunteer projects in Camp Kenya.

Soon they will be in warmer climes

This expedition is running from August 12th -  September 9th 2013 and is open to all those over 18. No previous experience in coaching is necessary. If you would like to learn more contact us today.

The results of laborious conservation work never show immediately. So many volunteers have worked hours digging away at trenches on Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary and probably wondering what’s the point. If only you could see the waterholes filled, I am sure you will know just how much it was all worth. Steve Mwasi, our Wildlife Program [...]

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Another memorable week at Muhaka and lots to be proud of as our Kenya gap year team help complete all the projects that we set ourselves for this year…

At the start of the week half of the group went to complete work on a mud house built by previous volunteers that Mamas Fatama owns. We had to get at least 18 wheelbarrow of sand from the lovely deep sand pit, its some sweaty work, especially when you have to push them back through thick sand. Then had to mix sand and water to and inside the house we had to throw balls of mud onto the walls, patch up the holes then smoothy smoothy.  The week before we had finished plastering the outside, so a few started painting. The paint is water mixed with lime, then paint it Kenya style, dab dab then up and down. Mama Fatama is so happy that we are finishing her house and always has a smile on her face.

The other half was across the road constructing the new  ICT centre, filling up bottles with sand for the new vocational training centre, the Trust House, and also some were making cement and building the walls with bottles.

In the Trust House across the road four of us, Leeann, Kaisha, Steph and Rose were teaching students who would like to come along to learn about computers. The students can vary in ages like 18-22; some of them can’t afford their fees for their last year. We teach them how to use Microsoft Office for example, times table chart on Excel, practicing typing, writing letters, making power points and posters. It’s such an achievement when you can see the progress and how well they pick things up.

It has been an achievable and rewarding week, and looking forward to the nice break at the beach for the weekend.

If you want to find out more about our gap year programmes, check out other gap year diaries on the project blog.

Jambo! On Saturday Camp Tanzania traveled to Camp Muhaka in Kenya to start our two week Kenyan Wildlife adventure. We went out with some of the group on Saturday night to a local beach bar, it was fun and nice to get to know everyone and try and learn new names! On Monday we headed [...]

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One of the highlights of our gap year programs is the opportunity to take part in so many different projects and so many different communities. We believe that we have become part and parcel of the surroundings where our camps are and because we are there all year round, we can reach out in different areas as well as commit to the long term vision and have a lot of fun in getting there…let’s hear it from our gappers:

Jambo! Despite the unexpected poor weather we have had this week we have fully embraced the Makongeni experience. Our week here has been filled with many fun experiences both doing mangrove work and landscaping. We have been cleaning up the outside area that surrounds the newest classroom to prepare for a new verandah. This involved the removal of grasses, rocks and other debris in the heat of the day.

The mangrove work was our first marine based project work and was met with various drawn out mud-fights, swimming and so on. The main objective was the build-up the supporting walls of the fish pond. This is to prevent the rising tide destroying the walls and by extension the fish pond. Working together as a group we transported sand from around the area to place and support the existing wall.

Seedlings were also collected from the area by the boys to be replanted later on in the pre existing mangrove grounds. Torrential rain started on Wednesday and continued on through the week and provided the background to an epic mud-fight between the boys and girls.

Fingerlings were caught using a large net to be placed in the aforementioned pond. These will grow and later be profitable for the local community as the Mama’s sell them for profits once they reach adult size.

Friday was met with joy as we had Chappattis – the local African flat bread – for lunch in between two long sessions of mangrove work building upon what we had already done earlier in the week – picking, collecting and planting seeds and supporting the existing wall.

Overall a great week at Makongeni!

Never a dull day at Camp Kenya and always a precious sunset in Makongeni. The gap diaries continue…

Our group has loved our week at Camp Makongeni, we don’t want to leave! Unfortunately, the week started with our group splitting off from the gappers at Camp Muhaka who we have all bonded with over our time here. Luckily our spirits were lifted by Tegan’s parents who had sent a cake and a crate of Tusker beer for her birthday on Monday which went down a treat!

This week’s project work has been really enjoyable. We have been working barefoot on the sand in mangrove plantations and fish ponds. We have planted mangrove and fished for fingerlings to be transported to a main pond for the fish to turn into milk fish before being sold.  When strengthening the walls of the fish ponds we took a break to draw comical faces painted with mud!

Our week has been topped off with a few visits to the mangroves at sunset to see the beautiful view from the boardwalk. We now all have picturesque photos to add to some wonderful memories of the week

If you want to find out more about our gap year program in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ecuador, Borneo and Cambodia then give the office a call. +44 1425 485390.

Find Out More About Gap Year Expeditions to East Africa

This is my very first blog from working as a gap year expedition co-ordinator for Camps International and i have just been lucky enough to spend the past week in kenya visiting our camps and finding out more about the projects we do out there. Here is a condensed (i could talk forever about it) blog on my week…

I arrived very early Tuesday morning in Mombasa where my driver took me to the office in Diani to meet everyone. When at the office i was greeted by Dipesh, Yusra, Nancy and Tommie where we had a quick brief, i was given my itinerary and then was off to my first gap year expedition destination…Camp Muhaka.

I was introduced here to Gladys who was looking after the Camp and the gappers and was shown around, almost instantly i had forgotten where the toilets were! It was fairly quiet as the rest of the gap year group were out at project work so i took a few moments to take in my surroundings and waited for lunch time. When everyone was back i was introduced to the group and it was fantastic getting to meet the people i had spoken to on the phone so many times.

The next morning i had an orientation by Gladys which invovled seeing the trust house, the tree planting, and houses that had been built by previous gappers. Yusra came to meet me and off we went to Camp Makongeni. I was shown around the camp and went to the school buildings we had previously built and i could see all the hard work we had put in over the years! The chicken coop that the gappers had started and finished this year was brilliant! It wasn’t long before we were back at Muhaka for some lunch and i decided the afternoon i would go with some of the group to Camp Kaya to take part in the grey water project they had been working hard on. This was mainly mixing cement, gathering bottles and building a water well. We all got stuck in, and made good progress before the end of the day which seemed to come around so quick. They were all so proud to see their hard work coming together and i was informed in the next couple of days they did indeed finish the well. Good work guys! Then it was back to camp for dinner and a catch up round the camp fire.

The next 2 days were spent over in Camp Tanga, Tanzania (blog to follow) so when i arrived back it was time for a bite to eat and bed (and of course i did not go to Forty Thieves and enjoy a few tuskers and have a dance).

Camp Tsavo was next on our list and wow what a place! Again, an orientation of the camp took place and Peter knows his stuff for sure (even if i did then check my bed every 5 minutes for scorpions) and then it was time for the game drive and trip to sunset rock. Hands down, this was the best experience of my life. The wildlife was amazing and i was lucky enough to see Elephants, Giraffe, Ostrich, Buffalo, Zebra’s… lot of Zebra’s etc! We then watched the sunset over the national park.

Tsavo

The next morning, after a night thinking there were Lion’s and Hyena’s sleeping next to my bed, (thanks Eustace) we went off to see the project work. The teachers were on strike at the time i was there which was a shame as i was so impressed with the classrooms built at Sasenyi school and would have loved to have seen the kids enjoying them. Next we spent some time with the famous Mama Mercy where we had some lunch before heading off to Imani camp where she showed me round and explained how we had helped her develop the woman’s group. It was a proud moment to hear how Camps International had helped so many people in so many different ways!

After another night at camp we were up early and heading back down to Diani to the office to have a round up meeting of my trip. It was really good to sit down with Dipesh, Nancy, Yusra and Tommie out there and have a chat about work to understand gap year expeditions in kenya and Tanzania and i have come away with more knowledge about the trips as a whole and what goes on in the background so thanks for that guys!

After my goodbyes it was nearly the end of the day so i headed to Diani Beach for a while to reflect on my time in Africa and relax, well, it can’t all be work, work, work can it?!!

Thanks Africa for having me and hopefully I will be back in the near future!!

If you are interested in finding out more about our gap year expeditions please contact me Sarah on 00 44 (0) 1425 485 390

This week we have all been very busy with our project work! With some of the group continuing work on a grey water system in Muhaka meanwhile others have been working on a similar system at Camp Kaya. The work has been challenging in the heat, however we are all excited to finish off our respective projects.  The grey water systems at the community owned forest camp at Kaya will be used to naturally clean the shower water and reuse it in the toilets and excessive water can be stored in the water tank at the tree nursery.

At Camp Kaya we have now seen the project through from start to finish. This has defiantly been a rewarding experience and something we can all take pride in.

In Muhaka, we have continued digging a massive pond at the Trust House Farm which was started in July. This is eventually going to be the main storage for recylced water from the showers at the main camp which will become potable by going through a reed bed.

Both the systems were designed by a local company in Mombasa called Greenwater. Reed bed “systems utilise naturally occurring micro-organisms which break down waste. By providing an ideal environment for these micro-organisms to thrive, it is possible to achieve a significant improvement in water quality within a relatively small area. These systems require no artificial additives and providing a suitable slope is available, need no power source. Maintenance is minimal and breakdown unlikely as there are almost no moving parts. The systems are robust and can handle variable inputs, making them ideal for use at sites with seasonal fluctuations.”

Eventually the system will look something like this

Others have started to build three energy efficient stoves inside a newly finished kitchen for the local secondary school; this project is expected to be finished and ready for the school to use next week! These stoves have shown to reduce the amount of fuel wood required by 50%. The project has come together through the support of Camp Kenya volunteers, C02balance and Kingston University in London

A small group of people have also started to visit the Muhaka Dispensary each day; they have been assisting the four nurses who work there by recording the information of patients who visit the small hospital, as well as participating by taking the weight and measurements of the infant patients. Lastly Natalie and Charlie have started to teach lessons in both the local primary and secondary schools, something they will be continuing in the coming weeks.

In other news buckets showers have been enjoyed by a  few of the group this week, forcing all of us to realize how much we take having easy access to water in our own homes for granted.  We have also been forced to become accustom to a one eye browed Hamish, something that has given the four newcomers, Jordy, Prima, Chloe and Stephanie quite a shock, although they too have quickly become accustom to his new found drawing skills. This weekend half the group will be going into Mombasa for a city tour and some sightseeing, something we are all excited to have a turn at over the coming weekends.

A majority of the group have now been in Kenya for over a month this week – we all cannot believe how quickly time is going, and are looking forward to the weeks to come.