Finally here at Mavuno!

We are finally here! We did get to travel to Mavuno last Thursday. We had an early start to that day, leaving Nairobi at 6:15am. The journey took a long time – almost 11 hours and we arrived at Mavuno at around 5pm. We did travel by road on a 4x4 and the journey was good and thankfully event free. On the way we went through the Rift Valley where we saw a whole herd of Zebra’s pretty close to the road which was very cool. We also saw some baboons including a mum with baby. The journey itself also clipped the edge of the Serengeti where we saw more zebra and some buffalo.

When we arrived at Mavuno we were greeted by Becky, Amy and 10 kids. Esther was beside herself with excitement and couldn’t stop laughing at everyone. Becky and Dave are the family we are currently living with, together with their 6 children. They’re a fantastic family and we’re really loving being here! They have a lovely house and we’re feeling thoroughly spoiled. In a couple of weeks time we move into more basic accommodation but for now it’s lovely living here.

We’ve had a tour of the village and are beginning to get a feel for the place. Hitesh spent most of Saturday fixing solar panels to the roof of the house we’re living in – was pretty hot work! Lucy went to visit the local village and met the first set of ‘parents’ from the village currently looking after 3 children. She also met one of out neighbours-to-be who was lovely!

Temperature here is currently around 30°C. Everyday we go to sleep to the sound of crickets and awake to bright blue skies and the sun beating down. So far we’ve encountered lizards, siafu (vicious ants - see Indiana Jones’ latest film!), spiders, tree snakes, praying mantis and big flying beetles. All the bugs here are SOO much bigger and nastier!

We will be putting up photos and footage shortly. Internet access is limited at the moment, but we will be getting a mobile data dongle thing for the computer in the next few days.

Hitesh – We have been made extremely welcome and feel at home here. The Helsbys are a lovely family and have really helped us to settle in. I really do like it here. Mavuno is in a lovely setting and the area is very peaceful and beautiful. I’ve been working with Dave Helsby the past couple of days. Friday we were sorting out some leaks to the hot water pipework to one of the houses. And Saturday, we spent most of the day on the roof to the house we’re staying at, putting up four new solar panels and wiring them up. We actually got a lot done yesterday, which was good as Friday really didn’t seem very productive at all. On Friday I got my first experience of working in Africa and how slowly things happen. It was pretty frustrating. I was warned about it before we came out, but you do wonder how anything actually gets done here! The pace is very, very slow.

Lucy – It is so good to wake up each morning here. Really feel so blessed just to be here. The place is so amazingly beautiful. I am also so pleased to have this time to spend with Dave and Becky. I’ve so far spent a fair amount of time chatting to Becky and feel like I’ve already learnt lots – about the locals, about the project, about mission and about God!

We spent yesterday getting stopped by Immigration control and then having to wait outside a police station whilst Becky drove part the way home to meet Dave who had had to get our passports from the house and bring them out to us. And all this was just to visit the local town! We then visited a baby orphanage in Mwanza – which was a lovely place, but with some really sad stories. Finally we visited the market which was great fun – Esther was very handy for breaking down language barriers!

Esther – I is having lots and lots of fun and is liking Frica very much! There are lots of children to play with, and lots of space to play and explore. I like being outside and seeing the dogs run around and chase each other. I also like to meet and play with the village kids too.