First all can I just apologise for the lack of blogs recently, it has been a manic week! And secondly, apologies for the lack of photos too. It takes so long to upload anything here that any attempt has left me wanting to bash my head off the floor.

Anyway, as I was saying, it has been such a manic week and, the longer I am here, the more I begin to realise I have entered a real love/hate relationship with Mombasa.

On the one hand it is full of sights and sounds and experiences I could really do without. Last week I was thrown off a bus because I am a ‘muzongu’ and I refused to pay the quadruple price they try to charge unsuspecting tourists. It’s happened a few times now; I’ve relented to getting a different bus instead.

We also had another mugging incident. This time it was significantly worse however; three of us were waiting for the matatu and out of nowhere a man grabbed at one of the girls and pulled her phone from her pocket. There was a bit of a struggle, I tried to jump in to help as did the third girl and he did run off but two seconds later a second man rushed in and snatched the phone from the floor where the girl had managed to secure it with her foot.

It all happened very quickly and it was to be honest quite traumatic as it was much more violent than previous times. The volunteer whose phone it was had bashed her lip so there was a little blood too and she was by all accounts practically hysterical from the shock. It was not a nice afternoon and perhaps the worse thing of all was that no one had tried to help. They just stood and watched.

The whole event left me absolutely fuming to be honest – I come here to help but get treated like this. That said, once I had calmed down I had to acknowledge that people desperate enough to do that must be living in shocking conditions and in tight knit villages is it really any wonder no one helped when it means there could be food on the table that night? Needless to say I am now even more careful and the teachers at school have taken to escorting us when possible.

So, that’s explains one part of my love/hate relationship and for people at home it must seem odd as to why I would want to be here. Well, here’s a small example – today I decided to sponsor one of the children in my school. He’s 9, while the rest of my kids are about 6, but has only just come to school because his mother is too poor to send him.

Today during class my lad managed for the first time to shout out the right words when I asked the class what words begin with ‘B’, and then, afterwards he had finally begun to be able to read the four and five letter words – when I arrived he was struggling with words of two letters. I felt like a mother hen and it was all I could do not to give him a huge hug! I settled for a high five instead :0)

I’ve just ordered his school uniform – until now he’s the only one not wearing it because his mother couldn’t afford it. I can’t wait to see him in it tomorrow; not even being thrown off the bus again will outweigh that one!

When I came here last month I originally wanted to get involved with the street kids like I did before but my time has been taken up at Twaayf and so now, half way through, it seems unlikely I’ll be able to give that a real shot. Having found a boy in the school that really needs my help though has shown me that sometime you don’t have to go out looking for someone to help; they are right there in front of you to start off with. A valuable lesson I think and another reason why I can’t help but love this place; valuable lessons seems to hit me in the face practically everyday.

If anyone reading this is interested in sponsoring one of the kids by the way; it would cost you about 50 pounds a year to guarantee a year’s education… I used to spend that in a night out. Oh – and while I’m on the subject ; we really need new mattresses in the orphanage – if you fancy doing a good deed plleeaasseeee don’t hesitate to get in touch!!

Until next blog – Kwe Heri!