08 August 2008

6th IDP and LCC

Headed out this morning to help at an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) refugee camp called 'Word of Faith', opened to give a home to those displaced during the post election unrest and violence earlier in the year. The camp wasn't heavily populated, as many of the refugees have been able to return home; only the very unfortunate, who had their homes burned to the ground remain.

Jenny, the youngest volunteer at eighteen, very quiet and wants to be a doctor like myself, taking a gap year now she's finished college; Christine, a twenty year old Newzealand Malwi events organiser, wants to start a career organising charitable events and is the most confident person I have ever met; and I dished out porridge for lunch, Christine burned herself in the process, then we graffitied on the children with felt pens until we left at around mid-day.

We really felt redundant while we were there, and Jenny felt guilty when two kids started a punch up over the right to mess with the dial on her watch. One of those kids were pretty spiteful and made two other children cry during our time there after the original incident.

Next, me and Jenny ended up in the Limru Children's Center orphanage and helped with some chores while the girls I have come to know as 'the three Irish girls' (They don't talk to many people outside their little clique, though I'm told they are nice) who we picked up on the way there, painted a mural out the front.

We finished the ironing and played with the children for about an hour while Katherine, a first year med student at Leeds, and another girl called Sarah; who had both just arrived from a morning at Kikuyu hospital, prepared the children's dinner.

The day wasn't all that exciting, but I'll see if I can get some pictures up for you all.


...Nope, I can't. Gotta love those third world countries. What can you do?

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