The painting project - Kenya 2020

In February of 2020 a group of five headed off to Kenya to paint some educational murals on the walls of the Nzavoni Primary School that Rainbow of Hope for Children had built the year before. Donna designed around 20 possible murals using information from their curriculum. Her daughter Erin, two cousins of mine, Esther and Chloe, and I were the crew. As is common in these situations, we had a plan but had to make lots of changes when we got into the reality. But I'm ahead of myself.

The first Safari
Before we got to Kinyambu area to do our project we went on a safari. We decided to do this first because Erin had to go home early. So off we went north to an area that Donna and I had been to years before. As we drove along with our favourite driver, Simon Mburu from A and B Tours, Donna and I kept remembering things, Mount Kenya of course, the second highest mountain in Africa. Not quite as dramatic as Kilimanjaro, but still impressive. The altitude required some getting used to, Nairobi at 1700 meters (almost 6000 feet), then north and up over the equator, also around 2000 meters (over 6000 feet), and the swell of the mountain and down on the other side.

We visited the Ol Pejeta Conservancy and saw the last two Northern White Rhinos in existence (the last male, Sudan, died a couple of years ago) and got to touch Baraka, a mostly blind and very tame black rhino who lives there also. Pretty amazing.

Umoja village
We also visited the Samburu Conservancy near Archer's Post where we had a very memorable experience. The small lodge we stayed at there turned out to be owned by a group of amazing Samburu women who some years before had  broken with their strict tribal protocols, left their abusive husbands and set up a village of their own where they can feel safe. Rebecca Lolosoli, the main force behind this whole process, told us some of her story and related the tale of how this group of women, not allowed to own property, managed to get title to the land we were on and built their community. We were mesmerized by the story and hope to contribute to their project soon.

Rebecca Lolosoli

We had a very emotional and memorable visit to their village with their small, two room kindergarten and their well-kept manyattas. They are still being harassed and sometimes even attacked by local men who resent their success. For more of their fascinating story, you can go to the following links:

• The village where men are banned
• Umoja: A look inside the Kenyan village where men are banned

Nzavoni school
Our first few days in the Kinyambu area where Nzavoni school is located were a flurry of meeting a greeting everyone, getting organized, figuring out how and what and where we were going to do things. The countryside was quite lush for that time of year, normally a very dry period. The November/December rains had been extensive and had carried on into January and even February. Flooding happened all over and affected us too. We had to take a very roundabout route to get to Nzavoni School every day which took a lot of time each day. We were out of the hotel by around 7 am and got to the school at close to 8 am.

The first week the students were all there and excited to see what we were up to. No TV, no travel, and not much excitement in their lives, so a visit from foreigners is really interesting. They helped us and sometimes got in the way in their excitement.

The second week was a break for them so things were quiet. Only Beth Muendo or another teacher was there to lock and unlock and for a couple of days young Ryan, Beth's grandson, 6 years old and also home from school, came to help and mostly play.

Here is the result of our labors. The school was very excited to have these murals and we felt quite proud of our handiwork.

Ryan helps Donna

Because we had two nurses with us, Erin and Esther, we organized some health related activities. Erin brought some gel that showed under an UV light and indicated where you had missed with the soap and water while washing your hands. This turned out to be quite prescient as within a few weeks the pandemic had been declared and hand washing was one of the most important things to do.
One of our relatives donated a lot of toothbrushes and little toothpaste tubes, almost 400 we think, and Esther hauled it all to the school for an activity around that. Chloe, a kindergarten teacher in Canada, had recently done a tooth brushing session with her students and so she managed to get several hundred very excited, chattering Kenyan school kids to learn about tooth brushing and sent them all home with supplies.

This is only the second time I've taken a volunteer group to Kenya to do a project and it has been very rewarding each time. We try to organize activities around the skills of the people who are coming along as well as have a core project that we are there to work on. The first time it was murals in the library we built at Kinyambu Primary and fence building around that school. This time it was educational murals.

A second Safari
We finished off with a short safari to make sure Chloe, who came for the final two weeks of the project, would experience the wonders of Kenya: the amazing animals of course, but also Mount Kilimanjaro and rivers of lava and Mzimu Springs and so on. She saw many leopards, which is a rarity. Each safari is different.

Our trip ended just in time for us to get home and get over our jet lag and then begin to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic which has changed all our lives. We are sending some of our funds to KRECD, our partner in the Kinyambu area to help out with their needs for basic food and sanitary supplies over this time. We all hope life goes back to some sort of normal soon.