6th August

Our first full day was an exhausting one. 

Alex and Patricia, our hosts, welcomed us to Nairobi with as much enthusiasm as one would expect at 4 o'clock in the morning, but seemed very friendly. The grueling 2 hour drive from the airport to their house made our total journey time 24 hours. Our emotions were intensified with the exhaustion and the reality of our trip finally hit (especially after realising how close we are situated to the slums). 

However after a brief nap to regain some sort of energy we were walked to the school by Fred, our in-country coordinator. He explained that technically school was over for the holidays but The Walk Centre stays open for the children from the Hilton slums. The children greeted us with beaming smiles which made our previous anxiety vanish immediately. We were first put to work in the kitchen cutting cabbage (which is more difficult than it sounds when the meal is to feed just over 300 pupils). We then each joined a class and helped them learn to say and write numbers in English. The language barrier made this seemingly simple lesson rather difficult. 
We spent the afternoon with Fred, being shown the surrounding area - starting with the slums. From crawling spaces in caves to women making jewellery from materials found in the rubbish that surrounds their homes, Fred was filled with stories about the people that live there. As you can see from the picture living in the slums isn't comfortable as the fragile homes are built upon Nakuru's rubbish dumping site. 

It was saddening to see a few young children not yet in school (like the little girl in the second picture) but it struck us how resilient the inhabitants of Hilton were and the never ending greeting of "How are you mzungu?" (white person) made us chuckle.

The prospect of our beds tonight is an appealing one, not that we know how that's going to go because Grace already broke hers... (I only sat on it!)