Hey guys, so I’m ten weeks in the country and my how fast
time has flown! We had a bit of a large hic-up to begin with – you know, the
university not knowing we were coming and having no work for us to do – no
biggie! We were rather stressed for the first few weeks, pushing to have
meetings to find out what the story was! The official breakdown of the problem
was “We were unaware of your trip here and no longer require your assistance on
this project”, needless to say some choice words were spoken when we left the
meeting. In saying that we have had the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic
Affairs begin very kind to us meeting us whenever we want and also even
offering to drive us places :P . I found out a week later my mom had rang Nick
and had a “firm chat” with him – the contents of which are unknown to myself or
Maria, but judging from the “follow up e-mail” I may not want to know, so my
head is going to be kept quite low on my return in Sept! Anyway between the
jigs and the reels, we decided to carry out a small research project furthering
the one carried out by the girls last year along with volunteering with a Helen
Keller International project here in the region.
We got to start work in our 7th week here – you’d
think 7 weeks of doing nothing would be bliss but was extremely frustrating!
One good thing – we found our way around the city very quick. The research has
been great, getting out of the city and meeting really lovely people. However,
in true African style we are constantly unsure of our next venture out. We
started at a bad time as our translators have exams to invigilate and mark, so
last week was spent doing research for our lit review and we will head out
again on Wednesday of this week. We met with the program director of the
regional office of Helen Keller International who was lovely, we hope to start
there in a few weeks once we get this project finished.
We have made friends with a German girl who is staying in our building also, unfortunately she is leaving the same week I go to Kenya, but some students from her university may be coming out during the summer. There is another intern going to work in Helen Keller International from the states so we hope to meet her this week as she will be here until August. A few of us have been looking at accommodation and dates for Zanzibar so that is also something to look forward to – seeing people again. Maria has made good friends with some students here in the university, she's been brave enough to venture out to one of the main night clubs. I can't bare the hangover so have yet to make it that far! :P
I have flights booked to Nairobi and Mombasa with my
boyfriend in three weeks so I am sooooo looking forward to that. I have been
surprisingly home sick here which is not like me at all! Although in saying
that it is great to have family friends living here – every now and again I
have been spending the weekend there, not doing a whole lot but watch TV,
chatting but it’s so nice to have them here :)
It's great to be able to read how everyone is getting on! Hope the experience keeps getting better for everyone!
Gxx
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