Kribi and Kenya!

I'm home again! After two weeks away from Ngaoundéré..It feels good being back, though we had a really great time away also. From the 27th of December to the 2nd of January I was together with the other Norwegians at Kribi, south in Cameroon. There we spent most of the time on the beach and in the water! I also finished a really good book: "Demring i nord".

The path from our hostel down to the beach

Think I don't have to tell where this is... :)

Drinking and eating cocos-nut!

The restaurant on the beach. Here we used to eat often, relax in the shadow and play cards ;)

Delicious breakfast in the other restaurant with view over the beach

Here is the view, and the first restaurant :)

We walked along the beach to a waterfall. It's very beautiful, and we had a bath in the river in front of the waterfall. For once it was cooling having a bath, that was good for a change!

There are many fishermen fishing from small boats in the sea in Kribi

Local boys fishing

After one week on the beach, Johanne and me went by airplane to Nairobi, Kenya. There we stayed from the 3rd to the 10th of January. We met all the other Norwegian Hald-students staying in Africa, and some of our teachers, coming all the way from Norway. Then we were about 30 persons there. We got some teaching and shared a lot of experiences from our stay in Africa so far. I think that was very good. Time has past so quickly, and we are already halfway in our stay here. Therefore I think it was on time reflecting on what we have learnt so far, and what we want to do with the rest of our stay.

It was luxerious being in Nairobi. Here we could order everything from all differnt kinds of milkshake, smoothies and other hot and cold drinks!! So when we had this possibility, we had to use it ;) Nam, nam!

Except from getting teaching and sharing experiences, we also had one day in the Mathare-slum. That really made an impression on me. We were there together with an organisation that wants to make the Mathare-slum a better place to live. This organisation is run by people who come from and live in this slum themselves. The organisation gives help to young people in the slum, for example they pay their school taxis. In this way they give them a chance to a better life.

The Mathare-slum is one of the most known slums in the world, with about 500 000 inhabitants. Many of those living here are ashamed of coming from this place. Therefore they don't want to say were they are from. If they make going to school and getting an education they often want to leave the slum and start a better life another place.

Primary school

That's why at the same time that this organisation pay young people's school taxis, they also encourage them not to leave the slum, but stay there also after having fulfilled their education. This is so that they can help making the Mathare-slum better, by having educated people like teachers, doctors, journalists etc. there also.

The people working in this organisation told that they see a future in this place, and that if they do something, they can change the slum. But first they have to change the way it's inhabitants look at their home place. I really admire the people that work there. They are young people, but they really know what they want in life, and they work hard to make other people having an easier and better life.

Safari was also part of our stay in Kenya:

Monkeys

Buffaloes

Giraffe

The Connect-students in Africa :D