A day in Mwadime´s family

Jonna, Saana and I visited Mwadime´s family in Maktau which is about one hour driving from the research station. On our way we saw different types of wild animals and because wild animals, especially elephants are common in the area, Mwadime has electric fences around his yard so that they don´t get to damage the fields.

Mwadime has a big family: a lovely wife and 7 children. The two oldest girls were in the boarding school so we didn´t get to meet them but the other 5 were at home. They also have animals like cows, goats, chickens and a friendly dog called Taiga. We also met Mwadime´s other relatives because many of them live nearby in the same neighborhood.

Our fist job was to clean animals´corral and then take the poop to the fields were Mwadime grows for example corn and beans. After cleaning we prepared lunch with Mwadime´s wife what wasn´t that easy. For lunch we had rice, meat, salad, bean sauce and bananas. Our last job was to paint the living/dining room. We got to be our own handymen and the end result was pretty good if I may say so :D

The day ended with cups of tea and we also gave water and some medicine for the animals when they arrived home. Just before we left, we visited Mwadime´s brother and saw Kilimanjaro for the first time from his yard.

We had really good time with the family so big thanks to Mwadime and his whole family! :)

Monday 16.10.2017

Jambo! 

Today was our first day in Kenia, Nairobi. We woke up at 8 o’clock because of one noisy bird who decided to sing a little bit. After packing our bags and getting our stuff together, we ate breakfast and hopped to our buss. The buss ride was quite an experience because the traffic in Nairobi is opposite to Porvoo’s traffic. Todays first destination was University Of Nairobi College Of Sciences where we got to know a lot of interesting things about the university, thanks to Masika and other guides. We saw for example cell banks, different kind of human organs, how HIV is researched and animals that are raised for vaccination tests. After our tour we got a delicious African meal.

After the university visit we hopped to our buss again and drove to National Museum of Nairobi. There we got a guides tour too and after National Museum we went to a place where was animals like snakes, turtles and crocodiles. We got to hold f.ex. a baby turtle and a gecko in our hands. After seeing all the animals we bought homecoming gifts from the shops that were in the same area. For the third time we hopped to our bus and decided to take a risk and go to a market where we could buy our snacks. Then we came to our hotel and had a dinner.

It has been a long but an interesting day. Let’s see what happens tomorrow :-)

Fanny & Sara

Family day (Darius)

Today we visited a local family. We learned so much about Kenya and its culture and ofc our main subjects. Netta learn how they use water on farm. Amanda learn about their health. And me ( Cata ) I learned how they use raw materials on the farm and in general about their food. We asked questions about Kenya and people who live here. We also asked questions about our main subject. 
Darius has 3 child. Two little girls and one boy, who is very good at school. Darius has a wife, who is so kind and funny. The whole family was kind to us. 

First when we got to the house we introduced ourself. Then we walked on the farm and Darius showed us the farm and we talked about it. After that they showed the kitchen, cows, chicken and everything else. Then we sat down and drank tea and talked with Darius's wife. We also did some house work. We washed their clothes with our hands and we smashed beans.

When they made food we talked and hang out with the kids. It was awesome to get to know them. 

We ate ourself full and happy. The food was great. We ate beans, bananas and rice. 

We get to do some farm work also. We planted corn seeds.

When we were ready we drank tea and then we took some photos and selfies. 

After that our buss came to pick us up. The family was so nice and we will miss them!

Sunday funday

After having the breakfast we headed to the church. The mess was interesting but when the priest started talking everybody fell in sleep. Maybe because of he was speaking in swahili so we didn’t understand it. After the church we shared some clothes, football shoes and socks to the youngsters. It was nice to see how excited they were about having new things for themselves. Then we went to see the rainwater collection pools and the new future church.

After that we went to Mwadimes house to eat some lunch. It was very tasty. After lunch we hung out and sang and dance with Mwadimes family. Mwadime also introduced us his electricity system and his farm.

Then we headed to the research station and ate some dinner and played cards.  

Eva&Jonna&Amanda

Visit to school

Nooa and Cata

By 7:15 am we were gone from the research station. The day had started  with few pieces of bread and a coffee with warm milk as usual. We were heading towards seacal farm. 

About 8 am we reached a massive farm that was covered in seacal. It was private place so Photographing was strictly forbidden, one photo could have lead to 30 000 hours of harvesting seacal. Our director of operation didn’t care about it and took about hundred photos which would have lead to 3 billion hours time to spend with the spiky leafs of seacal.

10.04 

we left the seacal farm.. we were late.. 

Luckily our crazy buss driver was fast and we arrived to school about at 10.30.

Everyone was staring at us it almost felt like being a celebrity! Surprising and scary at the same time. have they ever met white people before? 

first students of our group and their group introduce our self. then we talked a little with them. After that the teachers of the school came to introduce themselves and told something about their teaching methods.

We devided on 5 sections for every subject. About 6 students from the school came to discuss with us. Our main subject was food but we talked about Finland and Kenya overall. We had great time talking to them. We didn’t know so much about their culture and food but now we are like Kenya experts! 

our group was fun and very kind. it was not a problem if you didn’t know how to say something. We always found our way to explain something. 

About 45 minutes after we talked we had to go to eat.

12.30 

We ate some traditional African food which was beans, meat and rice.

After that we had a little break so we talked with students of the school 

we had so much fun with them and they are so kind! they wanted to carry our backbags with was weird but it was just a mark of honour towards us. 

13.30 

we told the principal and other teachers what we had discussed and learned with the other students. 

Then was our Finland presentations, everyone was stressed out how it will go. 

We had to show it from paper because the powerpont didn’t work... Jaana was our paper holder she was helpful and at the same time got a little shoulder exercise.

Luckily our Finland- presentations went well! 

After our presentations they told us few intresting facts about the history of their school.

15.00 about 

We changed our normal clothes to sport clothes. we played volleyball against Kenyan students. we lost... but we had fun. Jaana was shouting to us and everyone else were laughing to us. 

Our lovely boys had some girl fans cheering to them ;) 

we played one hour then we headed back to our buss. Everyone were tired and dirty after the match but everyone had a great day!

it was interesting day and we had fun! it is good to get to know different kind of people. I think everyone liked the day and we got some new friends! 

So this day started on an airplane from Tanzania to Switzerland. I think we were all sleeping and strugling with the little leg space we had but can’t complain. First we arrived to Zurich and there we waited for 4 hours with only 2 hour free wifi. We ate and rested until the boarding started to Frankfurt. The flight to Frankfurt was super short compared to the first one. In Germany we had to wait only 45 minutes and during that time we were all just using the free wifi :D Last flight to Helsinki felt forever! We got some grappy vegan toast on board. In Helsinki we picked up our luggage and headed for the bus in cold and snowy Finland. Few of us just had shorts and hoodies and even the bus was late! When the bus finaly came we cursed the weather and got in. In porvoo we just went home.

It was a great trip indeed!

Visiting Eli's family (Miina and Nooa)

Today's program was to visit a local family. Me (Miina) and Nooa were at Eli's place. Eli works here in the station and is really friendly. With him lived Eli's wife, their youngest son, son's wife and their 2 year old dother. When we arrived their house the view from their yard was amazing. They grew their own food and also had chickens and cows. First we helped to make lunch. Well we boiled the rice. Eli's son's wife killed a chicken for  the dinner and other ingredients were from their garden. It was the freshest food I have ever eaten. It tasted really good. After the dinner (which took 2hours of making) we helped Eli in the house works. For example we went to get water from the river. It was for them really just every day life. And it was for us the first time, almost in every task. One of the best things was to play with the toddler, who was so cute! She imitaded us and was always hugging us. After the day we learned a lot. It was really nice to see how everyday life looks like across the world.

P.S We had only one almost accident when Nooa saw a huge bug with a spike while he was on the toilet (aka hole in the floor). Nooa luckily survived the attack by blowing the bug away.

Family day at Julius' family

We went to Julius' family where we spent the whole day and learned lot of about their life and culture. Julius' and his relatives' homes located just opposite of our Research station, so the way to his home was just a hill down and up. Altogether there lived 10 families.  First task what Julius showed for us was feeding the goats. He also showed his cows and chickens. After feeding the goats we met one of his sons and he taught us to cut wood. It looked easier than it really was. We tried it but decided to let them him finish it, because we didn't have the whole day for that.
      Next we started to prepare our lunch which was traditional Kenyan food bean-yam stew. It took few hours to poach , so we had time to do other tasks. Meanwhile the food was poaching we washed clothes by our hands and Julius explained about his farming business. He also let us to plant some new plants to his field. When the food was ready we headed back to his house and had a lunch. And the lunch was quite strange experience, because we only had a huge amount of bean-yam stew and it was more dry than the food, what we usually eat in Finland.
    But after we had finished our food we went to see Julius' bee nests and we also met one of his brothers, who was a priest. The last hour was the most memorable, because during that hour we spent time with children and they wanted to braid girls' hair. After that hour we were just smiling and in a good mood. Unfortunately at five a clock we had to finish our day at Julius' home and we went back to Station.

20.10 mission

Today's mission was to conquer the mountain: Kasigau. After early breakfast we left by buss to the root of the mountain. The first few kilometres were really rocky and hot. After we got into the woods it was a little bit easier to climb because the temperature wansn't so high. We saw a few wild animals and the flowers smelled like a perfume. Soon the woods changed into a rain forest and it was something we had never seen before. A lot of huge trees and epiflyts. The guide told as about the history of that place. It was actually been used by the British soldiers to fight against Germany in world war 1. The bath we were walking had really hard parts and steep risings. Finally we were on the top after 4hours of hiking. We were about 2kilometres from the ground. The view was amazing and we were glad that we made it. The steep risings were a problem when we head back. Few students fell and hurt themselves. Luckily the way back didn't last as long as the way up. We made it in about 2hours. Village's women had came to our buss bringing their hand made baskets. We bought them and the village's children sang to us. Then we left back to the Taita reasearch station. The night had already come and it was conpeltely dark when we drove the narrow streats to our station

18.10.2017

Ups and downs 

After our breakfast we started our day with a visit to ministry of education and kenyas forest service. We continued our day with a trip to a local market. We went there to buy some fruits for our climb. After our market trip we drove back to the station to change on our hiking clothes. When we were ready to go we started our journey to the Ngangoa forest. The forest was really beautiful and even though the walk was kind of exhausting all of us had a very nice day. We ate on top of the hill and the view was just fantastic. When we were ready with the eating we started our walk back to the buss. The hill was 1860 meters long but our walk was only 3km because we drove most of the way. After our hike we went to visit two local farms. There we got very much interesting and useful  information about Kenyas farming, foods and climate change.  We had a very long day behind us but we still had one more place to visit. To see it we had to do a little bit more of hiking but after that we saw one very sacred skull cave. It was really interesting place! But after that everyone was really tired because the day was long so we hopped to our buss and drove to the station to have dinner and after that some sleep.

Day 3

We started our day of by eating breakfast in our hotel. After breakfast we started our journey to Taita hills which was quite long and exhausting. It lasted almost 10 hours but it was worth it.During the journey we saw zebras, giraffes, elephants and monkies. We stopped few times for shopping and eating in a sindhi temple. There we had to wear scarfs and it was not allowed to leave food on a plate. Then we continued our trip and stopped in a city named Voi where we bought our last things for Taita research station. In the evening we ate good dinner made by the research stations cooks. Now we are just writing this blog and soon we will be taking a shower and going to bed. 

Travelling to Kenya

So our trip started 03:15 from our school. Even thought we were really tired we were excited and more than ready to go! First flight went without problems and it took just 2 hours to arrive to Franktfurt.
Next flight was... well... more problematic. It was an 8-hour flight to Nairobi but it was delayed do to the fog. After nearly two hours of waiting we finally continued our trip. The flight itself was very pleasent but the real problems started at Nairobi Airport. First we had to wait for visas for a really long time. After that we had to pay extra to get passed through the airport.

But we are now in Nairobi, finally after 22 hours of traveling! Our friendly buss driver is driving us to our guest house for the night. It's 0:30 so we are going to go straight to bed as soon we get there!

Views from airplane window

Tarkoitus oli pakata rinkka. Se on kuitenkin hitaampi pakata. Matkalaukku vei kiireessä voiton. 

tässä viime tipassa koululla vielä printtailemassa materiaaleja
ja testaamassa bloggeria

Packing and panicking

So I have just started packing... And as you can see from the picture I'm very at the beginning of packing. I have all the stuff on the floor and none in the suitcase.
But you have to start somewhere right?
Tommorrow's flight has got me really nervous. I can't keep a thought in my mind for a few minutes! I hope I still remember everything important...

Viime hetken hermoiluja

Viimeiset pakkailut...

...ja nokka kohti Keniaa ja uusia seikkailuja!

Eva&Jonna

Vielä kolme päivää aikaa kokeilla ihan vapaasti tätä blogiympäristöä. Sen jälkeen on tarkoitus ottaa blogi varsinaisesti käyttöön. 

Nyt siis kaikenlaista kokeilua että julkaiseminen onnistuu kaikilta

Program plan

Su 15th
flight to Nairobi

Mo 16th
Nairobi University
Lunch at National Museum
National Museum
Supermarket, buying snacks for the week


Tu 17th
Travelling to Taita Hills by bus (approx. 6 hours)


Wed 18th
Visiting the Education Office
Hiking on the mountains (Ngangao forest hike, 1600-2200m)
Skull Cave



Thu 19th
Visiting the school Mwambonu High School in Dembwa (introduction of the local school system, presentations of the Finnish students, working together with the Kenyan students on the project issues)


Fri 20th
Hiking on the Kasigau mountain (1600m)



Sat 21st
A Day in the Local Family


Sun 22nd
Church Service in Maktau
Visiting Mwadime


Mon 23rd
Safari in Lumo Community Sanctuary
http://www.lumoconservancy.com/



Tue 24th
Visiting Darius
Departure from Taita to Machakos
Overnight in Hotel Gelian, Machakos

Wed 25th
visiting basket makers
flight to Helsinki

Thu 26th
arrival in Helsinki

Su 15th

Flight to Nairobi

Mo 16th

Nairobi University

Lunch at National Museum

National Museum

Supermarket, buying snacks for the week

 

Tu 17th

Travelling to Taita Hills by bus (approx. 6 hours)

There is an interesting and safe place to stop for lunch in Makindu (about 170 kms from Nairobi on your way to Voi), namely a Sikh Temple of Makindu. It provides "free" vegetarian lunch for any visitor, has a nice architecture (built in 1926) and clean toilets. The visitors may donate a small sum of Ksh to the temple to thank for the lunch service. Ken knows this place well!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh_Temple_Makindu,_Makindu

 

Wed 18th

Visiting the Education Office

Hiking on the mountain forest or "cloud forest" (Ngangao about 10 km from Wundanyi, altitude1600-1800m)

Skull Cave

On the way to or back from Ngangao, we could stop at two demonstration sites of the AFERIA project (e.g. drip irrigation and parasitoid release?)

 

 

Thu 19th

Visiting the school Mwambonu High School in Dembwa (introduction of the local school system, presentations of the Finnish students, working together with the Kenyan students on the project issues)

 

Fri 20th

Hiking on the Kasigau mountain (1600m)

 

 

Sat 21st

A Day in the Local Family

 

Sun 22nd

Church Service in Maktau

Visiting Mwadime's farm (e.g. research equipment of the University of Helsinki, such as flux tower and dew collectors for climate studies)Mount Kasigau

 

Mon 23rd

Safari in Lumo Community Sanctuary 

http://www.lumoconservancy.com/

Would be nice to book a buffet lunch at the Lion's Bluff Lodge in LUMO. They have beautiful views over the plains. Maybe Mwadime may request?

 

 

Tue 24th

Visiting Darius

Departure from Taita to Machakos

Overnight in Hotel Gelian, Machakos

 

Wed 25th

Visiting Kikima village and the basket makers

Flight from Nairobi

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