Setting the scene. What I'm doing and where I'm living.

I've just moved into the home that is to be mine for 2 and a half months while I'm living in Kenya. It's totally purple! Someone has clearly got an excessive quantity of purple paint and painted every room, inside and out.


My Kenyan mum is wonderful and calls me "Crare". She doesn't speak great English and every word she knows came from past balloon volunteers (no pressure!). I'd like to say that I've been helping her with cooking, but I think it's probably more accurate to say 'I've been present in the kitchen'. I hope I'll be a fine Kenyan cook soon though. There is 1 UK volunteer that couldn't even cook in England before leaving, so at least I'm not starting from scratch! My Kenyan mum believes that white people can't eat liver, kidney, or similar. I tried not very hard to correct this...she still holds the belief. Some people have told their families that they're vegetarian, but mine love the fact that I have enjoyed everything they've given me (although I am soon going to have to flag that I can't sustain the quantity I've been putting away so far!!) I don't have a Kenyan dad here yet but I believe that he will turn up in the next few days. He's currently in Uganda and will be looking to leave before the election (which may take place today?) I don't fully understand the news here as the politicians speak in English but the news reporters speak in Swahili.


My Kenyan counterpart/sister is called Georgina. We're both volunteers living in the purple house together. She has beautiful eyes and is a really cool person (I haven't told her this yet, but I will!). Before balloon she worked for the red Cross and has a degree in community development. She'd like to do a masters before setting up a fast food restaurant (even graduates struggle to get employed in formal companies here, because its not what you know, it's who you know, corruption is rife, so ambitions to set up your own business are very important). She's teaching me Swahili and I'm going to teach her French. I've also taught her some unhelpful English slang, primarily that BBW stands for beautiful black woman. Unfortunately I've since learnt that there's a second meaning - big black willy!!!! Oh no!!!!!! If she starts to use the phrase I'll have to step in!


As for the work that I'm doing, I'm helping to build the businesses of 5 entrepreneurs: Joshua (general shop owner), James (wannabe general shop owner), Ronald (mobile salonist), Jacinta (junior salonist) and Paul (carpenter). Although it sounds like there are some common themes here, every personality is quite different, and their businesses are extremely different too. I'm not alone in taking on all these challenges, I've got 2 team mates: Paul (stoic, comedic, and Kenyan) and Matt (creative, considerate and British).
I've had some basic training in financial skills and entrepreneurship, but really what I think I'm bringing to the table is creativity and a fresh perspective. The other important thing is that by working on this program, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to pitch for a 0% interest loan if they want it. Banks here would tend to charge young businesses up to 25% so this fiance is a big deal.

I hope that's given you an overview of all the key players and the context of my day to day life. Now the scene has been set, I'll try and make my future blog posts less informative and more anecdotal.

Mosquito nets or me : One of us is ridiculous

It's the first night in Kenya and I'm tucked up in bed under 1 million blankets because as everyone repeatedly tells us, this is a very cold part of Kenya. It doesn't feel it to me. I also dutifully checked between every one of those blankets for extra terrestrial spiders.

I was quite excited about the prospect of sleeping under a mosquito net. I imagined it to be like a 4 poster bed with ornings. The trouble is that there are no posts on the bed and so it is very much like lying under a net. Simply like a caught fish. The novelty has worn off and I haven't even gone to sleep yet.

Note from the first morning: I fidgeted too much in the night and pulled the net off the ceiling. This was a vast improvement. When I woke up I found I wasn't under it any more which is probably how I managed to go to sleep. It's not relaxing to be smothered in netting.

Note from the 7th morning: I eventually learnt how to use a mosquito net. When I moved from hostel to host home the set up was quite different. The net comes down from the ceiling and tucked in around the mattress, to make a cosy den for the sleeper in the middle. It is very much like a 4 poster bed after all.