The December 12th marks of Kenya’s independence from the United Kingdom. However, in 2023 it is the 60th anniversary to celebrate.
On this occasion there was a Chapati festival for children at the Remand Home. Chapati is a common dish (a flat dough) originating in Asia and India. It has found its way to East Africa and is now also a main/side dish in Kenya and neighbouring countries. As a side dish along with salad, greens, beans, meat, etc.
As explained earlier, the Children’s Remand Home is a special place:
Vision: A society where children become responsible citizen through fulfilment of their prescribed rights and welfare.
Mission: To safeguard the rights and welfare of all children in Kenya through implementation of relevant policies, co-ordination, supervision, and delivery of service.
These children should be given a chance and shall experience beautiful days despite of their hard life and that is why the festival took place there. “My” NGO (Better Me) has organised this festival in cooperation with other local NGOs, hence a lot of volunteers were around. A great opportunity to get in touch with likeminded people.
We all cooked together and of course some of the children were involved too, from kneading the dough to cutting the vegetables and chicken.
At the same time the children and youths did have the chance to improve their cooking skills.
Everyone did have his or her task. It was also a great lesson to learn how Chapati will be prepared. Since it can be exhausting to prepare Chapati in masses we kept shifting. 😅
While cooking, some workshops were held. This is not only to talk to them. But to give them hope, to open eyes for thinking forward, to plan a future and to not be overwhelmed only by their current situation. During these workshops other volunteers have brought up ideas, engaged the children to start anything positive in their life once they can leave this place.
Community is a huge factor. To be there for those who need support the most is one of our aims and a day like this motivates us to continue. As part of this we had a local dance group performing for the children at the Remand Home.
Each of the children got a little present, the holy bible. Another donation. There are many Christians among the Kenyans. Prior to lunch we gathered for praying, for being grateful for the meal and the good time we could have.
Finally it is lunch time 😋😋
Later, after lunch, there was a smaller football tournament to round up the day. Yet again, among the audience, there were a few very curious children who belonged to other guests or supporters. Curiously as they are, they just came over to me and kept me busy. They don’t often meet white people and we all know how relaxed children can be – free from concerns. They were so curious about white skin and the hair of a white person. For obvious reasons they could not resist to touch both. 😁 And they were allowed to do so. I did not feel bad about it and nobody was afraid that anything could happen. The only thing that happened was some joy and spending time. It is much more relaxed and free of bad thoughts or fears.
Apart of some small talk and taking pictures with them they were also interested to browse my phone and it’s photo library. Not sure for how long but we spent quite some time on it as I had to explain a lot of pictures. For instance, it was the first time they saw snow.
Other than that, I have met a lot of nice people such as other social workers, other volunteers or friends and relatives of those people I worked with. Some of them I met again and again, even privately.
The downside is: so much delicious food also requires physical activities. 😅 Since cycling is nearly not possible (not to mention the left hand traffic) I was happy to discover a few nice paths for hiking and running. The other day one of the hikes led me to the Equator. You may read about other sport activities in Korando in another article to be published very soon.
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