IDPs

so what has happened to the political situation here you might ask? as i have been typing more about personal issues of late rather than the situation in the country.
well they are still there. the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) is pulling out of the situation and the Government claims to be trying its best to move the IDPs home. the Red Cross is not helping with this other than to give them tarpaulins and basics to take with them as it is against Red Cross principals to facilitate in taking people back to places that they have fled from.
so we want to close the camps but the people are reluctant to go. not because there is violence but because they feel that they are entitled to some monetary compensation after the violences and they know that their chances of getting this are greatly reduced to nothing at all if they return. but as it stands i cant see the government giving anything anyway as they would have done it already if there was a plan to do so and besides the bill would be so high that the already damaged economy could not handle it.
so the camps are still full, my red cross branch (nakuru) also runs the camps in Molo and Naivasha, last week one of the camps in Molo was closed but lo and behold this week we have more IDPs turning up to the showground FROM MOLO because they don't want to stop receiving food and free clinic etc. so despite the fact that the camp is dirty, they are in falling apart tents that are cramped together, there is rape and SO MANY psychologically affected people running around, they still want to stay. there is definitely a dependency syndrome here.
we have stopped with issuing the tarpaulins due to this very fact, if they are to go home then they will receive another so it would be a waste of resources to issue two. but what to do till then? (not for me as obv i have many other activities to get involved in!) but when it rains? two thirds of the camp has, the other third does not.
even as i am going around the schools with the certificates for the walk there are so many of the principals saying how can we assist them, they want free food for the IPDs in their schools. i dont know whether i am right to be, but this angers me greatly that they think that it is their right to be assisted by us- have they seen all the work that we are doing and all the people at the camps? we are supporting so many, how can they expect us to start dishing out food to children who are actually in schools and in homes? especially when this comes from schools who have raised so little for our walk and have just finished demanding we give them a t-shirt for it.
what of the rest of the country? well, last night i was watching the news and was astonished to see that in Kisi there were 35'witches' burnt alive in their homes yesterday. but what astonished me more was the reaction from my friend Le and her sister Phyllis who said - oh yes there are a lot of witches there in Kisi, you know you can't travel by day there or you will be bewitched (!) they weren't joking. my oh my.
so politically we are calm, unlike SA as we are are all seeing on the TV

post walk

have looked on my list of posts and this is my 70th! wow that show i've been here a while now!
now that the walk is over, sad to say that i did not actually take part due to the fact that i was taking over the duties of my friend who was sick in terms of hospitality AND that on the way to the walk i fell over a pile of rocks (it was dark at 5.30am so i didn't see them on the road) and really messed up my big toe. the walk went well but my head was not really there due to tiredness and worry about my friend who was in hospital. at 10 i skived out to go and see her for a while.
over 2000 people came, the mayor spoke, we had the national youth band lead the way. the problems came on the organizational side: catering for all those people with snacks and drinks, and getting certificates prepared. a mission.
now a week on i am still working at distributing the certificates - there are 96 schools remember, and getting up to date information and contact details to make next years job easier (pity i won't be here to enjoy the ease of task though!) so am collecting together all the messy scraps of paper we have and creating a very nice excel document. doesn't sound that fun but it will be useful for not only the walk but all the other work with schools that red cross normally does during peacetime (to be honest i'm unsure why it hasn't been done before) such as visits, setting up red cross clubs, first aid training...
then this weekend i'm going on a first aid training myself here at branch. it's for three days and i'll get a certificate at the end. seems somehow to put all my work in the hospital to shame, as i obviously know first aid pretty well by now after working in that terrible place, but it's good to have a certificate and the formal training.
have done other things this week such as helping Winnie to set up a bank account, looked into getting a counselor for my friend, get a new camera so i can take all the snaps i need before i go, sort out what i am going to give away, undergo proper dissemination on the red cross, but nothing life threatening enough to go into detail on.
thank you for all of your support, it means so much, especially when times are hard, to know that there are people behind me flowingly my progress back home,
so till i see you, do email if you have the time.

prayers this way please

one truly awful day. apart from being completely snowed under with work and there being no co-operation one of my best friends has been admitted... to PGH (remember the hell hole that i used to work in?)
this follow-ups job is a joke, the drivers of the motorbikes, the people that we are meant to get phone credit from, and the schools themselves have been so helpful that i almost blew it this morning 'here i am working my ass off for free and this is the thanks i get!!!' i exploded to the motorbike driver who arrived hours late to collect me to go around the schools. then there is no fuel. then the schools don't even remember about the walk. or they complain that we have not assisted them with food for the IDP kids who go there.
but then i got a call from Winnie my house buddy and work no longer seemed of any importance. one of our closest friends has been admitted against her will to the most terrible hospital ever. for malaria and also more serious problems that we're not sure how to help. she doesn't want to take drugs.
what i thank god for is the support from my friends here, and the knowledge that challenges are there to build us. at the moment i am praying for strength to keep me going and the wisdom to know how to handle these difficult situations i keep landing myself in (and more hours in a day to accomplish everything, but doesn't everyone want that!)

so, the walk...

as prompted by my lil bro (though not so lil i hear these days!) i am henceforth to give some more details on Saturday's upcoming walk...
so it's 18 km, (yes i agree not really all that far!), so i would not so much be asking for sponsors for my walking efforts but more for my organisational skills (though i will also be participating) on the day i'm gonna be registering participants with my two friends who are BOTH incidentally called Charles, i'm also organising getting the forms to the schools (there are 100 schools, we went to 5 today...), getting the donation forms, making sponsor forms, getting the forms to the branch so that certificates can be made, organising for refreshments, helping plan the programme, overseeing that the tents and chairs for the celebration are set up correctly, organising enough water and glucose, checking on the ushers and of course going to all the committee meetings. WHILE also over seeing the good old tents.
should be a good event, 100 schools, 20 - 50 per school, guest speakers, entertainment... just hope we can pull it all off!
the money is going to help with the branch's activities, supporting the youth activities, replenishing the supplies in the stores... much money has come in to help with the disaster but the funds for the branch's normal activities are long since over. getting dissemination materials for example. very important but not related directly enough to the disaster. so any sponsors that i ca rally round for would be highly appreciated, especially this year when everyone here has less in their pocket due to the events over the last few months and increased prices. my bro has already pledged his 10 pounds earnt looking after the Joneses dog.
wish me luck in smooth running of the event!

Red Cross

at the moment we are preparing for the annual humanitary walk. this is a Red Cross fundraiser that takes place every year around nakuru. i am on the committee (strongly beacuse i was promised a Tshirt if if i was on the committee - something highly sought after around the branch what with so many of us volunteers) but also because i rather do love organising things.
so the role i was given was doing follow ups - sounds pretty straight forward and easy yes? well no. not really when there are over 200 schools participating, the numbers range from landline to celtel to safaricom so i have to use a combination of three phones. then there is the fact that half the numbers seem to either be 'metega' (out of reach) or not to exist at all! then when/if i do get through they often have no idea about the walk despite the fact that they have been issued with sponsor forms last month. some don't get my accent (even though my mother did comment that i was sounding especially 'african' on the phone these days) and usually the line is terrible.
i am also featuring in the hospitality comitee chaire by my close friend Harriet - my role here, apart from founding up budding volunteers for jobs like ushering and tent pitching, is to find enough snacks and drinks (donated not bought) for a couple of thousand participants and guests. so on Monday off i will set on a motorbike to undertake this task, wish me luck, i think im gonna need it!
anyone who does fancy donating money towards this sponsored walk (which i will be walking as well as organising) just get in touch with me by email and forward very much appreciated donations to my mother who im sure will be able to get them to me so that i can take them to the branch

other than these activities i am still hard at work with the tarpaulin action. when i arrived back last week they were plodding along doing 10 tarpaulins a day regardless of the fact that it rains pretty hard every day so consequently the large majority of the camp is getting wet as the tents all leak. now we have bumped up the number to 60 a day. im pretty proud of my impact here!