RACHEL CLARKE and VINCENT BROWN VISIT KENYA

Last summer both myself, Rachel Clarke, and my fiance Vincent Brown went to Kenya for one month, which was an amazing and very challenging experience. Our trip was organised by the Karibuni Trust, and we visited a few of the projects that they support.

We stayed in Nairobi for three days, when we first arrived in Kenya, where we visited the Kibera Project. We then travelled to Marimanti, a small town in the Tharaka District, which is a very dry and remote place. We found it to be extremely undeveloped and saw first hand some of the many problems that people there experience on a day to day basis.

We stayed in Tharaka for three weeks, with the local Bishop in the Methodist Rural Training Centre, where they provide training for local people to learn necessary agricultural skills in order to farm efficiently, equipping them to support themselves and their families.

Whilst in Tharaka, we found it very tough as the food was hard to eat, and we lived without electricity or clean running water. During our stay, we visited lots of different schools, introducing ourselves to the teachers and pupils, encouraging them to work hard during their studies. We were warmly greeted by everyone, although many of the children were amazed to see us as they had never seen white people before.

We also visited the families of some of the children currently sponsored by the Karibuni Trust, who are desperately poor and can't afford to pay for school fees, uniforms or even food. The families lived in tiny shacks, which were very cramped, and were made of dried mud and sticks, often looking run down. It was an extremely saddening experience and the level of poverty was like nothing we had ever seen before.

We spent the most time at Kamatungu Primary School, while we were in Tharaka, where a number of the sponsored children attend. The headmaster, all the staff and pupils were very welcoming, and performed some English songs in their assembly. We took 20 recorders with us, and gave a few lessons to some of the children. We also led their Christian Union, and spoke about the Armour of God. I joined in with the African dancing, which was really fun and Vincent laughed at me! We were extremely blessed to see them worshipping God wholeheartedly, despite their unfortunate backgrounds.

Our experiences in Tharaka, although challenging were extremely rewarding and overall enjoyable. The people are all really positive and friendly, although they have many problems to overcome. The main problem that we could identify, was lack of school fees. Many people couldn't afford an education beyond primary level, and therefore are unable to get jobs in order to support their families. The drought that they were experiencing also caused a massive problem as a lot of their crops were failing and people as well as cattle were dying of starvation. They all seemed really glad to have visitors from England, and always had lots of questions about our culture, and how it differed from theirs.

This trip was life-changing and put a lot in perspective, helping us not to take so much for granted including basic things like food, shelter, clean water and electricity.