Our time at the MCC began in March, and after a few days of settling in, we already had several good ideas to keep the children busy and offer them new experiences.
Our first activity started shortly before Easter. With the help of the children, we painted and cut out Easter decorations, which were hung throughout the home to ring in the Easter season. Many of the bunnies and eggs were hung by the children directly over their beds. A week later, we dyed eggs with the children; even transporting the eggs was a challenge, and the dyeing itself caused great excitement. We labeled some of them with the children’s names and hid them, along with sweets, throughout the MCC for the children to find. This project was a complete success; the children had just as much fun searching and finding—they ran straight through the gate after the Easter service to find everything—as they did later while eating, and every child was very happy.
At the beginning of April, we added the missing handprints to the wall on the second floor to complete the hand gallery.
Unexpectedly, the Kenyan school holidays began a week earlier than officially planned because food was running low for the final week at several state schools. To get the children used to normal daily life and out of the MCC, which they hardly left during the holidays, we planned trips to the supermarket for children from the fourth grade up. We divided these children into four groups, and during the trip, each of them received 100 Bob and was allowed to spend it however they liked.
On Saturdays and Wednesdays, we walked for about an hour to the nearest supermarket in Nguluni, accompanied by Jackson or Susan, and took a boda-boda on the way back. It was exciting to see how differently the individual groups and children searched the supermarket and what they spent their money on. At the same time, the children could apply the math they had learned in school. Almost every child ended up with three to six different items and came out at exactly 100 Bob (approx. 0.70 EUR), and the supermarket checked out each child individually. The first three groups were able to go as planned, but the last group literally fell through for the time being. Due to the heavy rain, which had already started at that time, it was not possible for the last seven children to visit the supermarket. Overall, the children were very enthusiastic about the supermarket visits and constantly asked when they could finally go. That’s why we will recommend these trips to the next volunteers here.
On April 18, Laura, who spent the first five weeks with us, left, and at her request, we organized three more events for the children before she flew back to Germany.
The first project was our attempt to cook spaghetti with tomato sauce with the children. Although we had some problems here, the children enjoyed it very much and everyone enjoyed their spaghetti at the end of the evening. The first thing that went wrong was that we underestimated how long that amount of water would take to boil, which dragged the evening out. Additionally, some of the older children had fun hiding spaghetti or eating it raw, and after the long wait for the water to boil and the spaghetti to be eaten, the spaghetti had turned into clumps that were quite far from the traditional Italian dish.
The second event was baking cinnamon rolls with a selected group of children, which was a lot of fun for everyone. To finish off, we organized a campfire for everyone, with smokeys (Kenyan sausages) and, of course, stick bread. The rainy season was just starting, so we had to postpone the event by an hour due to an unexpected shower. The campfire was still a complete success, also because Jackson and the children had the idea to start the fire on a piece of corrugated iron instead of on the wet grass.
After the first week of holidays, the children were divided into different groups by Joseph.
Since the cinnamon roll baking was so well received by the children, we decided to give all the children in these groups the opportunity to see the bakery and the production of the buns. Our baker Philipp had the patience of a saint and even let every child help with the entire production—kneading the dough, weighing the dough, and shaping the buns. Philipp immediately had a favorite group, the Ulinzis, whom he invited back again and again to help him with the baking.
Our next project was our biggest so far. When we noticed that the children didn’t even know the names of the animals that make Kenya so famous in Kiswahili, we had the idea to show them these very animals in real life. So, after long planning and a lot of support from management, we took a trip to the Animal Orphanage in Nairobi. A guide explained everything about the different animals seen here and their respective backstories in Kiswahili, while monkeys ate the buns we brought through the open bus windows. Luckily, we decided to do the whole thing on a Wednesday; a day later, the road to Nairobi was impassable due to the heavy rains.
Since we spent much more time with the children during the holidays, we also organized some useful workshops.
After we saw some children using drinking water to wash their cups, and also at the request of the German side, we gave presentations to the individual groups about how different types of water (drinking water, rainwater, borehole water, treated water) are used at the MCC and how important clean drinking water is for the country and worldwide.
Another workshop focused on teaching the children how to take better care of their own and shared items. We had noticed in the first few weeks how many toys and school supplies had been broken because the children either didn’t handle them well or even intentionally destroyed them. After the workshops and a long speech by Mercy, in which the destroyed items were also shown, the children’s behavior improved, especially during movie nights, but it is still far from perfect in this regard.
In sewing workshops, we showed the older children how to fix up their things and prepared everything for the start of school.
Another highlight was the picnic, where we set off with Nathan and 19 kids and walked in a loop via the primary school back to the MCC. The children were boisterous and totally enthusiastic; there were no complaints, and even the smallest ones walked for three and a half hours in the best of moods. At the end, we got caught in a monster downpour and everyone just found it funny—”we are sweating so much!”—and it ended in a water fight. Back at the MCC, everyone showered and the chapati ovens were fired up so that everyone could get warm again.
The other 19 children have been constantly asking when it’s their turn, but so far that has unfortunately fallen victim to the floods; we are all hoping for next weekend.
Since the children were not allowed to leave the MCC grounds during the holidays due to the high water—the septic tanks in the surrounding area had overflowed and posed a health risk—we concentrated on activities on-site. There was a race around the grounds, a scavenger hunt where they had to determine the next location using maps of the MCC and could only claim their reward after solving a riddle, and in the evenings, soccer was played in a large team—with Jackson, Boni, Nicholas, and Robin as reinforcements—as long as the field was dry enough. We also baked cakes twice, once marble cake on a tray and then a lemon-chocolate-raspberry layer cake—wonderfully three-colored!
Since the river on the way to the farm also carried far too much water, the children were not allowed to help on the farm in the mornings as originally planned and couldn’t tire themselves out there; instead, the big boys helped repair the access road that had been washed away.
The farm suffered greatly from the heavy rain, which hardly drained away, and the flooding; Sukuma Wiki and spinach seedlings rotted, the tomatoes didn’t like the excess water, only the bananas were happy. In the meantime, the farm manager Boni is busy replacing the lost plants with purchased seedlings so that the farm can sufficiently supply the MCC.
When the cabin fever among the children got too bad, we visited the secondary school—Jackson explained everything about water extraction and treatment to them and started up all the machines, Principal Nicholas led them through the boarding area and showed them everything, right down to the clothesline, and then the children wanted to see the computer lab, which he explained to them in detail, just like the science lab. An unexpectedly great success!
In the last month before the holidays, it was newly introduced that Teacher Beatrice came to the MCC in the evenings to support the children with their homework and provide targeted encouragement. This died down during the holidays at first, but was then resumed when the holidays were extended twice by a week, as many schools across the country suffered from the consequences of the floods or served as emergency shelters—and Teacher Beatrice came for two hours every day. At her suggestion, we wrote short words on slips of paper, the children colored the words with great enthusiasm, and now colorful words hang on all the walls to encourage the children to read.
We also got charts with the alphabet, multiplication tables, the animals of Kenya, the sights, and a map of Kenya. We did quizzes with the charts to teach the children more about Kenya. Now the charts hang in the dining room, clearly visible to everyone.
Another activity was presenting oneself in front of a large audience—meaning everyone else—and a camera. Who am I, what do I like, what is my favorite food—even the smallest ones were able to say a few words in English here.
The MCC has also changed a lot on the outside; a picture of the respective residents hangs on every bedroom door, and there are new benches in the kitchen so that everyone can now eat while sitting at the same time. There are also two new metal benches outside by the soccer field, which the children like to sit on. To provide shade here, we planted six new trees with the children. We got this idea from an initiative by President Ruto, who had called for trees to be planted in memory of the flood victims.
The library, which our predecessors had newly set up in the former kindergarten, was a popular spot for the children, and to provide new inspiration—and fulfill requests—we got 17 new books for all age groups.
So, after almost three months at the MCC, a lot has happened, and as a crowning finale, we are planning a swimming trip for Sunday, where the community-based children will also be there. The whole thing is already a big topic of conversation—when, who, how, where…
From the bus driver to the management, we felt welcome from the start and gained insights into the tasks of all employees, and we especially love how all the employees interact with the children.
After the time we have spent here, we can both say that staying here is a very good and enriching experience and that all the children have become very dear to us during this time.
We would like to sincerely thank all the donors whose generous gifts made our activities possible in the first place.
From Christine and Robin