Friday morning Gemma touched Kenyan ground and was picked up by us. After an 8 hours flight from Frankfurt to Mombasa and some trouble shooting beforehand with her flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, she finally arrived. Having a quick breakfast and a refreshing, we left by Matatu to Blue Bell Nursery School in Mtwapa for the Fire Protection Training with Mr Jackson from the Mombasa Fire Brigade. The kids were really exited about the training and were listening carefully to what Mr Jackson told them about fire prevention and how to react when a fire is breaking out. 3 hours later, some of us left Blue Bell and went further to Majengo to St. Joseph House of Hope to introduce Gemma to the students and show her the premises. For Friday evening Carol, the head of St. Joseph, invited us to her home for dinner, so at 6pm our group arrived in Majengo and were picked up by Carol's son. We enjoyed a wonderful evening full of typical Kenyan food (very delicious), nice music, campfire and a tour around her property. Furthermore, we had a delightful company by some of Carol's students to whom she is offering a place to live, as their parents cannot affort to take care of this. As the day passed by, Gemma received so many different impressions in one day and the group realised how normal the life here is for us already and that we feel a part of this city and not 'Muzungus' (foreigners) anymore.
The next day, the St. Joseph team had the normal business class from 10am to 4pm with a special guest from the Kenyan Agriculture Institution to discuss the possibilities for building up a chicken farm in combination with the St. Joseph House of Hope and the entrepreneurs. Besides this, our team also received some of the student's business plans and gave them back Monday that further changes can be made to hand in their final business plan by today. On Sunday, we went again to the feeding center in Mtwapa and helped handing out food and drinks for more than 1,500 children. It was heart-melting to see all these children waiting in front of the center to get a hot meal and some food to take home for the entire week. Later that day, some went to the Haller Park, where they watched animals such as hippos and crocodiles being fed.
To sum up a varity of first impressions for Gemma and for the team the last weekend here in Mombasa, it is hard to believe that the last week has already started and it is also the last week for us to work on these projects in person. While staying and working in Mombasa, the team received many other chances to be invloved in many different projects and this is a great idea for all curent and future honour students, who could not join the trip or were in their year abroad, to also take part in this great ConTribute Kenya project!
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