This weekend we had a little expedition up Iliniza Norte, to recce it for groups.

Just south of Quito is “The Valley of the Volcanoes”, which is dotted with active, dormant and extinct volcanoes of varying heights.  The most famous, and the highest active volcano in the world, is Cotopaxi, but there are many others and most of them are climbable.  We have it in mind that there maybe great experiences out here that we can offer visitors to Ecuador.  So, I dusted down the boots and got myself out there.

OK, I live at 2,400 meters above sea level, but even with that, a one day ascent of a mountain over 5000 meters has got to be a little tiring.

The walk in was gentle enough, with the mountain sitting at the head of the valley looking increasingly ominous. 

I am not entirely sure why I look so pained – perhaps it was some sort of  premonition into the agony that was to be experienced struggling up the scree slope you can see behind me.

After the walk in, things started getting a little more serious rather abruptly.  The views, between gaps in the hail and fog, were fantastic, and it is from up at height that you really get a sense of truth of the name Valley of the Volcanoes.  However, we also saw a  lot of this:

After the scree slope, there is a fair amount of easy scrambling, first to reach the summit ridge, and then to move along it; with some interesting drop-offs on both sides – most of which we had to imagine rather than see fully.  At this point you get a strange sense of dislocation – you are scrambling along a ridge at 5000 meters above sea level, having woken up in your own bed.  It takes 5 or 6 days to get to these altitudes on Kili’.

Our little band of climbers reached the summit after around 4.5 hours.  We had in the group three Brits, an Argentine and an Ecuadorian guide.

(The man in the middle of this photo is Kevin Irvine, whom Stuey, Rory and I worked with something like 15 years ago.  He is out in Ecuador teaching at my childrens’ school: now that’s a coincidence.)

The result of all this?  Iliniza Norte is a fantastic mountain, the views are incredible, it is achievable in a day, and there is a real sense of being in a place that you can only be through your own efforts and that you are not going to be everyday, month or even year of your life.

I hope that we can get our Gappers up there, once they have had a little time at normal Ecuadorian altitude to prepare, and maybe for some of them that can lead on to Cotopaxi itself.  It is often used as a warm up /acclimatisation to that mountain and that is our plan: I’ll report later this month on the success or failure of that.

We have been leading school teams to Mt Kenya for adventure expeditions since we started Camps 10 years ago. This time round we had our very first school from West Africa and they had a great time during their short trip. Peter is our in country Expedition/Team leader who joined them. This is his story………

Emerald School from Nigeria started their journey from the International School of Kenya (ISK) at 7am. The team, comprising of 11 students and a female teacher, had just attended a three day Global Issues Service Summit which was based at the ISK. Upon arriving at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the group were tired but ready and excited for their adventure which started that very day by staying in Pelican House.

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We drove deep into the interior parts of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy searching for Pelican House which was located in the middle of the sanctuary. It was a great chance for the team to experience the beauty of nature and a nice view of Mt Kenya. We spotted Zebras, Giraffes, Gazelles and Buffaloes  roaming peacefully on the savannah plains. We arrived at Pelican House in time for tea and afterwards went out for a game drive within the conservancy.The drive was awesome, it gave us an opportunity to spot Lions “King of the Jungle” and other critically endangered species such us the Northern White Rhino.

My sleep was disturbed that night by some strange noises adjacent to our house.Very early in the morning I decided to investigate, I had a thought of a Lion in my mind but I was completely wrong. A HUGE Black Rhino was standing around a water hole just few meters from the Pelican House. It was making unnecessary horrific noises continuously. The team were so lucky to see a Rhino for the first time  in their life right there in the wilderness.

The next morning we drove safely to Nanyuki where we spent the next two days full on…

Late that morning we left for a Bicycle game ride.This is  an activity where a bicycle is ridden while viewing wildlife and it only happens in Ol Pejeta. Initially, comments like “what if a Lion jumps over and eats one of us, what will we do?” were exclaimed. I knew that they had never done this before and so I assured them that everything will be fine. The instructors are very experienced and are familiar with the environment. We all blasted with amazement as we rode along the marrum (dirt track) road to the inner part of the sanctuary whilst admiring all the amazing wildlife.

The day ended with a visit to a poor Blind Rhino who was named Baraka (blessing) after his tragedy which led to the loss of his eyes.We also visited Sweet Waters Chimpanzee Sanctuary that evening. It was fun to watch the Apes misbehaving with their own poo, one of the Old Chimpanzee became furious and started throwing its own droppings, unfortunately our guides’ face became the target! As we didn’t want to aggravate the chimpanzees, we left and drove back to camp.

Bush skills and team challenges were our last day’s activities, everyone among the team was excited to know what would happen in the field. Bernard, a bush survival skills instructor led the activities.

The first section was team challenges where the team split into two groups. Each group was to create problems by tying difficult knots with rope onto a post for the other team to solve. Then the groups swap to try to untie them. Group A’s knots were very technically and complex that group B couldn’t solve. Definitely they won against group B by tackling all their knots within the appropriate time given by the instructor.

The bush skills were fabulous,Participants had a chance to meet a real Maasai Moran (warrior) in the fire making and archery activity. He made the fire within three minutes by using two wooden sticks, unlike the team members who took ages, but in vain! It certainly is harder than he made it look!

The final task was rock climbing on a wall, a very interesting activity but tough, we had to wear special equipment for our safety before action, everyone tried up to their  maximum. Only 4 made their way to the top, as well as me, the rest were afraid of heights.Wow! That was a fantastic climax of our adventure at Ol Pejeta!

It was a blazing trip with lots of unique and unforgettable experiences  for the group…Many Thanks for choosing Camp International.

Blog compiled by Peter Kalenga Kai

I was the lucky one to escape from all the  hype of the Kenyan elections with a bunch of  Vonluteers just over the border to Tanga-Tanzani. See their story….

Jambo Jambo from Camp Tanga in Tanzania. What a crazy couple of weeks it’s been. We’ve invaded here to avoid the Kenyan  presidential elections, so Camp Tanga has gone from three to forty two people. It was quite a remarkable change for Joe, Maria and Alice but they welcomed us with open arms and we are like one big family.

The plastering in the Tanga trust house has temporarily been stopped and we have been involved in various projects.

On the first three days we helped the Mama’s in the village seaweed farm. We were unsure what to expect.However, I was pleasantly surprised. We had to walk out to sea in the morning and tie seaweed to string. Team A beat the record of completing 40 lines in total in two hours. In the afternoon we went to the Mama’s houses and bagged up the dried out seaweed and prepared the lines ready for the next day. When the seaweed is dried it weighed considerably less. The Mama’s only get paid approximately 7p per Kg.In England this is the equivalent to one text message! On average one lady can do 6 lines in a morning, with our help we managed 119 between 4 groups in one morning, this was a massive help to the community and as you can imagine over three days we accumulated  over a month’s income for the Mama’s.

The village livestock has a serious problem with worms which causes the animals to become malnourished and weak. They should be De-wormed quarterly but medicine is too expensive for this to happen. We pioneered a new initiative in Tanga where Camps De-worm the entire village’s livestock every 3 months. We started with cows, some of them didn’t want to co-operate and made it difficult for us to give them medicine! The men showed them who was boss and would not back down, we were victorious.

Next were goats! Unlike the cows the goats were roaming around the village. We had to run around the village catching them bringing them back to give them their medicine. David ‘the goat whisperer’ was on fire, carrying the goats back one by one.Then there was Luke, I’m sure I saw him on his back more than I saw him on his feet.

In the afternoon it was the chicken’s turn to be treated. They were pretty much the same as the goats, just flappier! There were a couple of casualties mainly caused by goats. David took a hoof to the shin and Will got bitten. Whereas Shauni was silly and got blistered from the sun but still managed to work as she has incredible self motivation!

We went back to the Trust house but this time we weren’t plastering but leveled and created a playground for the children. This involved the boys setting out on excavating an epic tree root which was great to release all your anger. Meanwhile, whilst the boys were dripping with sweat and working hard, the girls taught the locals, helping them with reading and writing English.

Once all the roots were dug up, the next step was starting to build a fence surrounding the Trust house in order to keep the animals out of the playground. We started to dig holes 6ft apart and 2ft deep, this was very muddy work. We spent 3 days building the fence, even though we had depleted numbers as some were having a great time in Zanzibar and 15 people had travelled back home. Not to worry too much, there are new recruits in camp, in the form of 7 new English gappers.

However it hasn’t been all work and no play! On the first weekend we arrived in Tanzania we went to the local night club. It’s safe to say a few too many tequilas were consumed! Ali P woke up on Sammy’s bus as she fell asleep on the way home and nobody thought to wake her up! We have visited the Tanga International Conference Center (TICC) and enjoyed a swim in the sea, We went to a local hotel for a cool down in the pool and jumped off the pontoon at The Yacht Club. This was all very lovely and then BAM the storm hit!! I got up at half 2 in the morning on Saturday night to check out what the commotion was outside, it turns out the small dome tents were flooding and people were rescuing their stuff. The Dutchees were sat in two inches of water with their little light not knowing what to do. We went around all of the tents and tried to put everyone’s stuff into a dry place. By three o’clock the rescue was finished and we were all laughing hysterically about the whole situation. Sunday was operation clean up we re-waterproofed the tents and dried out our stuff. Everyone pulled together to help each other and by Sunday evening everybody had somewhere dry to sleep.

We are heading back to Kenya tomorrow. We are going to miss the incredible view, the projects and all of the people we are leaving behind. However, we will be celebrating two birthdays, Shauni’s and Kate’s!

We hope you enjoyed reading what we’ve been up to.

Harlie, Will, Shauni  ,Abbie, Lauren, Holly, David and Annabella xoxoxo J

Tommie is just back in from Camp Tanzania which has been buzzing with students from Dubai…

I have been away in Tanzania for the past two weeks following up on a group of young enthusiastic students  from United Arab Emirates on their school trips. Gems World Academy came to Tanzania on a Week Without Walls program. 51 students aged between 11 and 14 with their 6 Teachers made the GWA team. I went and met them at the airport and immediately all the group members gathered around me, if only to say..here we are, bring it on!

The next two days the group was split into two, one group was engaged in repairing school furniture, desks, benches and Tables while the other group was painting and drawing murals on the walls of the kindergarten classroom.

On day Four the group left camp very early to go on a full day of game viewing at Tarangire National Park. They saw loads of Elephants as Tarangire is known to be the best habitat for the the world’s largest terrestrial mammal. They also saw lion, giraffe, and antelope only to mention a few.

On their fifth day the group was again split into two where group one went hiking at the Kidia falls. Kidia is on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro the inhabitants are the Chagga people who are small scale farmers. The hike takes you through, banana and coffee plantations, small maize fields and a few homesteads where you will meet with the villagers who are very friendly and welcoming. It’s a steep descent and very challenging, but once one gets down to the falls it’s just stunning! The water is from the thawed glacier on Mt. Kilimanjaro and it is crystal clear and very cold!  On a good day one could see Mt. Kilimanjaro and the scenery and landscape are breathtaking.

On their way back to camp from Kidia falls the students were taken to an orphanage where they donated lots of clothes and toys. Charlie Cracknell later wrote to us to share his experience…

My experience in Tanzania was so different from my normal everyday life. The first thing that struck me was the beauty of the country and people. Everyone seemed so happy despite having so little which made me appreciate how much I have. We spent the first few days at a local school helping to repair desks and benches and also painting the kindergarten. During these days I felt a sense of achievement and that I was really making a difference to the children’s’ lives. It wasn’t until a couple days later when we visited the local orphanage that I met a little boy named Junior. I remember walking through the gates and being hugged by these little kids. It was really heart-warming. When I sat down, Junior came up to me and said hello. He gave me a smile and I remember feeling quite sad at the time because it felt like he did not know he no parents or that he had so little and yet he was still smiling. I knew at that point that I would always remember him.

By Charlie Cracknell
GEMS World Academy, Dubai

Meanwhile, the other group went out to help a local lady with her daily chores. Some students were fetching water from the stream, others were cutting grass for the lady’s domesticated animals, and some learnt how to cook a typical Chagga meal which they later all had for lunch. A great day to spend out of camp and have a hands on experience in the village and be part of some activities that the locals get involved in their daily lives.

Day seven was pretty much wrapping up and putting in final touches on the activities that the groups got stuck in. Some of the students tried their hand at Teaching. We organized for at least two students to be in a classroom to try and teach English. They were given text books and had very little time to prepare for the lesson but our volunteers did very well and got the local pupils learning and the sessions went on well. Thereafter the volunteers distributed a few donations that they had brought with them including, pencils, erasers, rulers, books and sharpeners.

In the afternoon our friends from Dubai played some games with the school kids and it was great fun to watch both sets of players battling it out.

Later that evening we had a nice barbeque dinner for our volunteers to symbolize the end of their stay with us and to thank them for choosing Tanzania as their destination.

Hat tip to all the students and Teachers of Gems World Academy for a job well done!

Asante sana!

Peter Kalenga just led the Hillcrest Preparatory School for a 4 day outdoor adventure at Camp Tsavo and came back smiling ear to ear…and of course had to share his trip with us….

After driving for 6hrs along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, the Hillcrest Preparatory School bus emerged in the middle of the Tsavo wilderness and drove along the semi arid, thorn bush vegetation composed of acacias and camiphora trees. As usual red clouds were formed as the bus disappeared deeper into Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary. The team looked perpplexed but excited about not knowing what to expect at the next stop after saying goodbye to their usual modern environment. ”That red bumpy road was nice!” One of the kids commented.

The group of 18 students (Age 10&11) and 3 teachers were out for their 4 day school trip to Camp Tsavo. They have hardly had any adventurous trips before and you could tell from their first approach that they were all really excited jumping up and down, screaming and shouting with joy.

That evening the team set off for their bushcraft skills course and a game drive. On our way, I was pleasantly surprised to see how enthusiastic the students were and fascinated by stories about animal behaviour and how the African bush men survived in the bush. It was a real pleasure to watch them fully participate in the footprint and spoor identification with questions flowing like a stream.

We believe Service Learning is crucial for young people to shape principals and create a strong responsible and moral foundation. To the Hillcrest students, it was a really worthy and rewarding trip. The feeling of humanity got in to them after arriving at Sasenyi primary school. They were shocked by the huge number of pupils squeezed in one classroom and the scarcity of learning facilities. They even felt sorrier for the kids who lacked so much compared to themselves and yet they were still happy to be in school. The background of the Sasenyi kids criss-crossed their minds and they started to compare their life back at home which is full of privileges.

This really gave them the moral boost to work tirelessly at classroom plastering and moving rocks ready for a new classroom foundation. That evening they had a great reflection of what they have experienced during the day around the camp fire…

Mt Kasigau hike certainly got everyone’s attention the next day. No one believed these young students would manage to ascend 1640 meters on the daunting paths of Kasigau at that age of 10 and 11. And if you thought they won’t make it then you were wrong. The team left early Friday morning for the hike and by 4pm everyone was back playing football. It took them 3hours up and 2½hrs down!

Congratulations to Hillcrest Prep students for setting a new record of being the first youngest group ever to climb Mt Kasigau! During the hike the team showed determination and accepted the challenge. They held on to one another at their own pace as they slowly maneuvered up the last peak to enjoy great views and celebrate their victory. On their way down the steepest areas turned to a skiing zone “bottoms down”! They all sled using their “bottoms” happily singing songs of motivation. I could not help but feel proud of myself having taken such a young determined group up and down safely.

“The mountain was awesome!” Miss Kartins said.

“Peter, we have now become strong and responsible, we have confidence and proud of ourselves.“said several of the students as they departed across the red soils of Tsavo…

Peter Kalenga

Wow what a week! Most of the United Nations were represented last week in sleepy Muhaka as we welcomed 77 students and 8 teachers from the International School of Kenya for their final year school trip. They had travelled from the hectic city of Nairobi to the chilled out south coast of Kenya. The brief was for them to spend the week of their final school trip having lots of fun, experiencing traditional culture, participating in community project work and enjoying all that the coast has to offer. Vics recounts the week that just went by…

On day one they had a great taste of culture which was organised and facilitated by the drama group from the Amini Youth Club. They were taught all about the coconut tree, how each part of the nut can be used and utilised and even attempted to climb the tree itself. It swiftly became apparent that it is certainly harder than Jericho (the local coconut harvester) made it look. One overly self-assured student unfortunately scraped half his foot off from getting a bit too confident and trying the scale the 4 meter high tree, panic not though, he survived!

Makuti making was another activity whereby they learnt how to make roof tiles from the coconut tree leaves. The young people had also created handbags, stylish hats and even a helicopter from the makuti, all beautifully woven from a wonderful natural resource.

A village tour ensued thus making the group familiar with their surroundings and showing them the projects that Camp Kenya has carried out over the years and also the projects that they would be involved in. The local tailor was welcoming as usual and swiftly took an abundance of orders for shorts and maxi dresses, all made from colourful and beautifully patterned Kenyan kanga.

Both groups experienced the interesting local witch doctor and even got to see his ‘witch doctor license’ which many were surprised at. It was an insight into how local people treat ailments and illnesses but also if you are wanting to cure insomnia, the witch doctor is your guy.

Days two and three consisted of either a fantastically relaxing day learning to scuba dive or snorkel in the clear blue waters of Wasini Island, alongside a slap up fresh seafood lunch and chilling on a traditional dhow OR working ones butts off doing project work in the heat!

We are building an emergency ward at Muhaka dispensary and we are all so keen for this vital infrastructure to be built as soon as possible. Currently there is no such facility, therefore, if you are requiring emergency medical attention you are transported by a motorbike to the nearest hospital half an hour away with half the journey being on a dusty, bumpy road. Not so fun if you have a broken leg, are unconcious or are about to give birth unexpectedly.

The emergency ward will basically be an area suitably equipped for such incidents and patients will wait here until an ambulance arrives, which of course is a much safer way to travel to hospital. Tabitha, the nurse in charge, is so delighted with the prospect of having an emergency ward at her clinic and greeted all the students to say thank you.

The groups on both days worked tirelessly to achieve as much as possible within such a short time frame. The foundations are almost completed and when our next group of gap year students arrive they will be continuing where ISK finished. Its always a reminder of the importance of working together towards a common goal when we start new projects and we look forward to bringing updates of the progression.

They also worked hard to complete two tree nurseries on our shamba opposite Camp Muhaka. As the main source of fuel for cooking is charcoal or wood, many trees are cut down, and not many are replanted. Having a tree nursery where we can raise plenty of trees till they are strong enough to survive when replanted in the community, will give them a much better chance at survival so having the right kind of storage for trees is critical (and of course recycling plastic bottles into the nursery construction makes this little ecocycle perfect!)

Day four consisted of a jam packed beach day which incorporated a beach clean up followed by creating artwork from the washed up flip flops. Earings, bracelets, keyrings and juggling balls were created and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the ocean breeze whilst getting arty. Acrobats entertained then invited those daring enough to have a go. Those that did had a great time and were surprised at themselves as to what they achieved in such a short lesson.

Stretching and deep breaths ensued for the yogi’s with John from the Africa Yoga Project giving a fantastic yoga lesson as the tide slowly came in. Swimming in the glorious Indian Ocean, chilling on the bright, soft, white beach, beach volleyball, Frisbee, football and sipping cold sodas lasted all day. As if that wasn’t enough, a delicious beach bbq for everyone was prepared by our brilliant chefs.

All in all a great day was had by all and the final treat was a meal at the famous Nomads restaurant on the beach. This group certainly enjoyed their final meal and made the most of the ‘eat as much as you like’ buffet. We even managed time over the week to enjoy camp fires, watch a documentary about Mohammed Amin, the man who exposed the extent of the Ethiopian famine, who’s son is an ex ISK student, and participate in a whole group challenge organised by the student leaders. Making a guy a dress out of tissue paper, get the smallest person to eat 10 kit kat chunkies in one minute and racing in sleeping bags.. say no more!

Its safe to say that the ISK group had a fantastic time down on the coast and we look forward to their return!

There are times in the life of Camps that we are either starting or finishing something.  Sometimes that involves a bit of a party, and we have had a few of those lately.

Often at the end of project work the community like to say thank you with singing and dancing.  Of course, some projects last for years so occasionally they do this just because a group is leaving so they are saying good bye to those guys.

Late last year we had two of these events, one at Camp Amazon and one at Camp Costa; below are some photos from those two parties.

At the other end of the process is establishing relationships and projects with communities.  Last weekend I had a meeting with, I thought, a few people from a community with whom we are working this summer with the Teams.  I arrived with my family, telling my children we would be there for an hour.  I was wrong.  This was not a meeting with a few people, this was a meeting with the village, complete with local musicians and dancing.  The fact that my son accused me dancing like Mr Bean tells you all you need to know about what followed.  After the dancing we did have great conversations about the projects and the time the Teams will be with the community in the summer.  Among other things, we are hoping that we can arrange a few poncho making sessions, some Quichua lessons and a little more dancing.

On the 24th of January, the Aussie Gap team moved from Camp Muhaka to Tsavo. When we arrived we were warmly welcomed by the staff here and presented with lunch. We were then given a brief overview of the camp and its projects. These included making elephant dung paper, the tree nursery, sanctuary maintenance, Sasenyi School, wildlife monitoring, the bush adventure and lastly the safari. While listening to all of these I could tell that everyone was excited and looking forward to our time here.

On our first official day here at Camp Tsavo we made elephant dung paper. Although this may sound bizarre and even a bit gross, it was actually quite interesting and fun. We were showed how to make this by some staff members who also explained to us how important this paper was to the local community. We smashed the poo, mixed it with glue and panned it. We then left it to dry and some of us even added some flowers to it. Overall this was a different, yet interesting and worthwhile experience. We also got to spend the afternoon working in the tree nursery, where we filled some plastic bags with soil ready for planting, cementing the bottle well, removing aloe vera plants and chilli picking. Overall these projects were relaxing, yet eventful.

During our stay here we also had the opportunity of working at Sasenyi Primary School. During this time we did demolished an old school building, in preparation for the building of a new one, cementing the walls of a newly built room, and some of us even had the privilege of being inside the classrooms with the children supervising and teaching. Our time here was precious, as we all felt the work here was helpful and it was also amazing being able to talk to the headmaster about the school and also experience some time with the children.

We also got a chance to visit Imani Womens Group and were surprised to see how women have worked together to improve their living standards as well as tackle their daily challenges. We visited the local community and worked in their farms by helping them harvest green grams and cowpeas. In the afternoon we made bracelets and necklaces from locally purchased beads. It was amazing since everyone came back to the camp with a souvenir of a bracelets and necklaces.

One of the projects we also got to take part in was sanctuary maintenance, which involved filling in the pot holes and ditches in a road on this ranch. Although this work was found a bit hard, it was worthwhile. We also got to take part in wildlife monitoring, whereby we had the exciting task of spotting animals and listening to the staff tell us interesting facts about them.

We also got to experience a bush adventure during our last week here at Tsavo. We got to go on a game drive where we left the buses and looked at the many different footprints. We were also taught how to identify the footprints which was very fascinating. In the afternoon we were divided into three groups and had a competition in building huts. We then got to try and use a bow and arrow and shoot the target, which ended up being harder than it looked. Then we were shown how to light a fire without using a lighter or matches.

On our last full day here at Tsavo, we spent on safari. We got to explore Tsavo’s East National Park where we saw giraffes, baboons, different type of antelopes, zebras, buffalos and many elephants. From living in Australia where you can only see these animals on TV or in a zoo, to seeing these beautiful animals in their natural environment was fantastic and presented us with some amazing photo opportunities.

 Our time here at Camp Tsavo and been a brilliant one. We have been able to experience Africa in a way that normal tourists couldn’t. From being able to see beautiful creatures while just driving into Voi, to the amazing staff, our experience here is unforgettable and unlike any other.

We work with so amazing people across all the villages and places where our camps are based, from the rainforests of South America to our community forest conservation projects in Africa. Through our projects, we often meet and get to know outstanding talent and dedicated individuals who over time have become part of the Camps family. Many of you have met and worked with these people through your travels and I am sure you will agree with me that they are heroes in their own right. A few months ago, we featured Benson Gitari, the artist and now meet Mzee Sururu, the old man of Kaya Muhaka Sacred Forest…

I am Mzee Sururu Kasim Lagiza, Aged 60 years and a local Farmer. I was born in Muhaka village and attended my school in 1967 up to Class 7. Due to a lack of funds my parents could not take me further with my education although I was so bright. My aim was to become a Pilot and that was my dream, but then there was no one to help me achieve this. I had to work in Farms in order to support my family as I was the elder son. I worked for ten Years in different Farms as a “Shamba Boy” then I got an idea of starting my own Farm. Due to my effort, a cooperative was formed called Muhaka Diani Farmers Cooperative Society (MDCS) and I was appointed as a Secretary to record all the sales done in each day. This was a challenge to me since my Education level was not good. However, I did so well that the Cooperative sponsored me to attend various courses at District and National level.

I joined Cooperative College of Kenya where I learnt different courses at different times of the year I did ABM 1&2(Administration Book Keeping and Management (1975-1976) .The knowledge that I gained from these courses helped me to work and communicate effectively. I managed to organise and coordinate seminars with other Farmers within the community. The dream to become a Pilot was completely lost and my interest was now in plants. I loved nature more than anything.

In 1986 Conservation became my pinnacle carrier, and no person could change my mind. I started to fight against the Kaya Muhaka destruction from the Charcoal burners and Local house builders. The Kaya forest community Elders appointed me to lead them in keeping records. I was chosen as the Chief Elder to lead the Kaya Sacred forest early February 1999. On my work as an Elder I tried to involve many community members to understand the great impact of Kaya forest to the world. I am glad most of them understood how precious that forest is in terms of our tradition and this helped to with stand the pressure except a few. Due to poverty some people didn’t want to listen; they thought I wanted to ruin their life. Despite all challenges I stood firm; I knew that it would take time for people to understand the whole concept of sustainability, due to the diverse needs of the Kaya forest globally but I said to myself, ”it must start somewhere”.

In 2007 Camp Kenya came in to save the situation. Mr Simon the Director at Camp Kenya came and introduced himself to us. He wanted to work with my group to help in conserving the sacred Kaya Forest. Camps opened our hope by supporting in funding our various ongoing projects as well as volunteers coming to us and that’s where my English also improved!

When I met with Dipesh things became much better. He brought a new idea of eco-friendly briquettes, education about moringa Plant, chilli planting which I count it as a promising project and use of recycled bottles for construction. I‘m happy meeting new friends from different countries. I work with all volunteers hand in hand on our projects. These projects includes indigenous tree nursery rearing and planting, Casuarinas planting, jatropha cultivation and harvesting. Through Camp Kenya, a permanent Camp for the community has been constructed, a borehole was completed and three buffer zones for Moringa plant, Indigenous trees and casuarinas trees were expanded. I’m happy to work with Camps and my community has accepted this organisation.

A change is what I need in my community so that people may value the Kaya Muhaka forest not only for future generation but also for global climate change. My future plans is to plant more indigenous trees within Kaya forest especially the degraded areas, plant more casuarinas trees as a substitute for building materials.

I will also continue to encourage people to become Eco-friendly towards biodiversity. Conservation is crucial to our life, we need it.

Mzee Sururu (and thanks also to Peter Kalenga for compiling this)

And a big congratulations to our Camp Kenya gap year students at Camp Makongeni for completing a new house in less than two weeks!…

What a week!! Reunited together we finished Mama Maimuna’s house, well structure, and had an amazing opening ceremony with balloons and singing. Other smaller projects included making a bin for the community of Makongeni, we collected rubbish and did another day at the wicked.

So, Harlie and Rory on the ball for this week’s blog. Liking it so far? Well, we worked very hard on mama’s house. We did things from mudding walls, and we dug hole the height of Jackson (and that’s deep), completed the mangroves, all contributing to the income of the community.

However, it wasn’t all work and no play! Good old Gladys organized games night (even better than bingo) we had potato slinging, balloon popping, (some of the guys had to get extra close)and water weeing into a cup! Safe to say the boys lost! To finish our awesome week we had a ‘friendly’ match of netball with the local school kids, leaving the campers a tad bruised!

Rory was manager and wasn’t very good at it! Onto the latest goss… Solveig conquered her Essex accent! Nonie got the award for monster eater! And Stephen was crowned Prince of Holland.

Tune in next week! Laters babe!