The Power To Fly

Something wonderful is taking shape – colourful plans to bring groups of visitors from the UK, Europe, Australia, the US and other developed countries on life-changing trips to Kenya for a combination of volunteering and exciting travel.

I first came across the term “voluntourism” in 2012 when I met an extraordinary man, John Lawler who founded Madventurer– a scheme for students on their gap year - between graduating high school and starting university - to volunteer in challenging projects in developing countries with the opportunity to Make A Difference while having a grand adventure.

John Lawler, a pioneer of voluntourism

I interviewed this modest achiever one sunny day near the Tower of London and was inspired by John's story of starting out with a tiny seed of an idea that grew into the mighty tree of a flourishing worldwide charity.

That summer I did an exciting trip with Madventurer to Ghana as possibly the oldest “gap year” volunteer ever and discovered the joy of making heartwarming connections with people living in another culture!

Coming Alive in Ghana 

Meeting the beautiful children and talented musicians in Ghana on my Madventurer trip in 2012

Voluntourism takes hold 

And here I am five years later in rural Kenya returning to the theme of ‘voluntourism’, excited about the possibility of empowerment and transformation for both visitors and local people.

Millicent and I imagine that international visitors can come and volunteer in the Faraja Community Centre and help with the kids’ activities, the ladies’ sewing project, nutritious cooking classes and planting the community vegetable garden.

Volunteering is certainly NOT about White People flying in as superior, condescending Saviours to tell poor Black People what to do! Oh no, no, no! Volunteering is about an equal, respectful cultural exchange – a sharing of knowledge, creativity and traditions that becomes enriching and expansive for everyone. For example visitors can share their favourite recipes with local women who will share their traditional dishes.

Sweet Bananas

Here’s how respectful, equal friendship works. On Sunday I gave Anne some chocolate to say ‘Asante’ for her delicious meals – a real treat for Anne, who, unlike me, doesn’t get to have much chocolate! Today Anne gave me a perfect bunch of yellow, dainty Lady Finger bananas from her garden – a real treat for me, who relishes good quality, sweet bananas!

I believe people from different cultures can learn much from each other. The cultural exchange adds spice and novelty to bland, jaded lives. And we can make interesting new friends across countries, despite how politicians would divide us and build borders and walls to keep people apart, cultivating ignorance, fear and hostility. The truth is we are all human beings, connected as one big global family – mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.

Adventure for All Ages

And what about adventure? Together with Millicent and Garama and their sons, Peter and Eliud, we are devising a range of exhilarating trips to integrate into a three-week stay in rural Kenya.

On arriving in Nairobi, groups will visit the heart-warming Giraffe Centre and Elephant Orphanage before heading upcountry where trips will include game drives to see African wildlife in spectacular Meru National Park staying in the beautiful eco lodge; camping in Mount Kenya National Park , field trips to the remote villages with Millicent, day trips to the nearby tranquil waterfall lagoon, visits to lush hillside coffee and tea plantations and optional extras such as visiting the exotic tribal people, the Maasai Mara  and finally the ultimate add-on for those who are up for experiencing a tropical paradise?

Tongue kissing a giraffe at the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi 

Keepers feeding the babies at the Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi

Brothers, Eliud and Peter at Mount Kenya national Park

A Colobus monkey we spotted on the road to Mount Kenya 

Eco lodge at Meru National Park

Chogoria waterfall

Maasai women on my safari in 2016

George, my new Maasai friend

Peter, a Maasai chief on his smart phone near the Mara River,
teeming with crocodiles

A sleepy lioness spotted by the road on my first game drive on the Maasai Mara

A family of cheetah relax in the shade on the Maasai plains

     

Magnetic Mombasa

When I first saw the word ‘Mombasa’ on the map of Kenya and neighbouring Diani Beach (with my name on it!), I was enchanted by the musical sound of the word as it rolled around my tongue. I quietly vowed to visit. However I never made it to the legendary coastal town on my last trip in 2016.

Mombasa is apparently a laid-back hippy haven of non-stop reggae parties and hot and steamy, glorious beaches, full of beautiful bodies basking in endless sunshine.

Over and over the hypnotic word “Mombasa” keeps cropping up. People whisper about romantic adventures camping under the stars with a view of Mount Kilimanjaro on the way to Mombasa!

And now the long-awaited new train from Nairobi to Mombasa is finally running, taking travellers right through spectacular Tsavo National Park with wild animals roaming free – you can spot buffalo, zebra, giraffes, lions, elephants from the window of the train!

The word ‘Mombasa’ evokes rapturous reactions even in reserved people.

While having lunch - a mountain of masala chips and spanish omelette -  on the balcony overlooking the rainforest at the Snow Peak Hotel, Pastor Garama’s face lights up at the mention of Mombasa! Suddenly he is lost in the revelry of fond memories of the magical town where he grew up with three brothers and three sisters, running free!  

Young Mark, the surgeon I met at the guesthouse, raves about Mombasa as some kind of paradise and warns that once you succumb to Mombasa’s idyllic charms, the danger is you never want to leave!  

Idyllic Mombasa beach that captures the heart and soul of visitors

For the Wild At Heart Only 

For the wild at heart and the eternally youthful, I’m imagining running three trips a year – in the dry months of January/February (a great escape from the bleak English winter); May/June (slightly cooler in Kenya) and the springtime of August/September for groups of nine to 12 people, in age groups of energetic young people aged 20 to 35, mid-lifers, aged 35 – 50 and the adventurous Over 50s. The question is, can you see yourself joining in the life-changing voluntourism movement?

The Power to Fly

The metamorphosis of the lowly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly is an inspiring symbol of transformation. But have you imagined what it actually FEELS like to be that mundane grub, wriggling along munching through leaves mindlessly, running on instinct, never looking beyond the next leaf, until one day you decide to spin yourself a reclusive cocoon where you retreat to contemplate your life’s higher purpose. While in this dark slumber something miraculous is taking place. You are being transformed! Suddenly you emerge with shock and exhilaration – you are reborn in a different form – with a set of beautiful wings with the power to fly! 

Dreaming the Same Dream

Squashed in with 12 other passengers, with one whole seat dedicated to my pile of luggage, I am travelling by mini-van from Nairobi on a four hour drive upcountry through lush green tropical vegetation and rusty-red soil fields, gazing out the window at bustling roadside stalls, soaking up the sun and breeze, munching fistfuls of potato crisps and crunchy peanuts, next to pretty Evelyn, a teenager clutching her backpack. Then after two hours of companionable silence, she whispers: “I have only one parent now”. She is returning to her village for her father’s funeral. A knot of sorrow tightens in my chest: “I am sorry,” I say softly with total inadequacy.  

Happy Arrival

Millicent, beaming and beautiful, and her strong and kind husband, Pastor Garama welcome me with an afternoon meal in the Faraja community centre, a sturdy building of painted brickwork that Millicent funded herself in 2003. In these past 14 years she has been feeding and caring for orphans and vulnerable children and supporting girls and women with vital health education.

After Millicent, a dedicated nurse and midwife and later hospital administrator, was sponsored to study and work in Scotland she felt so blessed she wanted to give back to her community. So she poured all her savings into the building and called the centre ‘Faraja', which means ‘comfort’ in Swahili, an apt name for this soothing refuge that gives comfort and hope, joy and love to so many.

The colourful room with animal murals where the boisterous children play and laugh and dance and sing is a vast uncluttered space. However the empty room has no basic amenities - no plumbing, no electricity, no kitchen to cook the children food! The ladies make dishes of rice and beans at home and transport the food to the centre.

The corner of the spacious community centre with the potential for a kitchen

I meet Fridah, who is employed in the sewing room making impressive African fabric bags, and Faith and Robert, who Millicent is mentoring and training as facilitators to take health and human rights education into the remote villages.

Millicent and Garama with a selection of the African fabric bags that Freida is making 

Millicent and Garama outside the centre where the community could create a vegetable garden

I am happy to be here in this blessed place that I’ve been visualising day and night – while drifting off to sleep, waking up, under the shower, driving along country lanes and on the slow train to London - since my last visit to Meru exactly one year ago.

Settling into the Guesthouse

I’m staying in a ramshackle guesthouse built of faded grey tin sheets and timber by a British doctor in the 1920s in the tranquil compound attached to the busy hospital. 

The house has dormitory-style bedrooms and three other guests have left to hike Mount Kenya. I have the spacious house all to myself. My small room has a single bed, cheerful blue floral duvet and rock hard pillow. I find an old soft pillow stashed in a cupboard and save my neck from cramps!

Mastering the squat toilet is an interesting exercise so I opt for the flushing toilet. My shower is scorching hot. The other shower is freezing cold…nothing in between! I discover how to adjust the temperature after a few days, just in time to wash my hair!

The guesthouse where I'm staying 

My single bed in my little room

New Friends

Millicent introduces me to her American friends, Beth and Larry and Martha and Jim, doctors and community workers who live in the hospital houses nearby. They are sharing their expertise with the medical staff, supporting local projects and soaking up the fascinating culture. 

I take my breakfast and dinner, lovingly prepared by smiling Douglas and Anne, in the comfortable guesthouse where I stayed last visit, just a short walk across the garden. Jane, the gardener, has the entrepreneurial finesse to multi-skill and put down her rake and sell me a bag of scones! 

Douglas and Anne at the main guesthouse where I have meals

Cooks, Douglas and Anne in the kitchen

I dine with Josh, an enthusiastic young American doctor volunteering at the hospital, Mark, a Kenyan surgeon who can work up to 16 hours straight to finish a complicated operation, and Kerre, a visiting dentist, doing his monthly clinic at the hospital, when patients from all over the district come for urgent dental treatment.

Our Shared Vision

Millicent and I sit together and share our vision for the Faraja community centre. Mystically, I have been dreaming of installing a much-needed kitchen and so has she!

In some inexplicable cosmic intersection of dreams, we have been dreaming the same dream - me in secret journals in my secluded home in rural England, and Millicent in prayers in her church in rural Kenya!

As we sip coffee, we dream together of cooking classes for young and old, making nutritious food for all, planting a community vegetable garden and keeping hens to provide fresh eggs.

We imagine expanding the sewing project into making reusable shopping bags and mending donated clothes for ladies to sell in the markets.

We dream up the possibility of bringing volunteers to the centre from the UK, Europe, US, Australia and other countries to share our cultures in a multitude of enriching ways in a grand ‘voluntourism’ venture, combining community work with exhilarating safaris!    

We laugh and cry and smile until our cheeks ache! Now the dream is spoken out loud we both know we have made a commitment and a promise to the children, the community, in fact, the whole of Kenya and those people who want an exciting opportunity to Make A Difference.

Grey Clouds of Doubt

Later in the afternoon I am alone and overwhelmed with anxiety. Suddenly imaginary cynical voices are taunting me: ‘Just how are you going to make it all happen?’ I’m tormented by details, doubts and questions and oppressed by grey clouds of pessimism.  

My mind is spinning when I join Mark and Kerre for dinner. We share our philosophies about the crushing unfairness of poverty. We lighten the mood with entertaining stories, laugh and joke and connect across cultures through our shared concern for suffering humanity.

When I return to my little room, my confidence has returned because our warm conversation has reminded me why I am here and why I am doing this: for the love of these people.

The heavy rain pounds the tin roof all night but I feel safe and snug and wake up with the realisation that this ambitious project is like having a baby.

Surgeon Mark and Dentist Kerre

Giving Birth 

After gestation, a mother gives birth and the overwhelmed new parents do not have a clue how they are going to raise this baby over the coming years. They don’t know exactly how they will solve the countless problems and challenges ahead. 

The nervous yet determined parents only know they must take care of their precious child day by day.

And so they step bravely into the unknown journey!

Years ago, when I gave birth to my beautiful daughter, I also launched my newspaper column, Family Matters, writing that ‘giving birth is the ultimate act of faith’.

The time to ‘give birth’ has come again at a more mature stage of life. My Kenyan soul sister, Millicent and I are committed to raising Baby Faraja into an inspirational, dynamic force for good. And together, without knowing exactly how, we are embracing an ultimate act of faith.