Stories and experiences of an intern

homework (2)

I was doing so well regarding local food and stomach problems, I had not had basically any problems during my almost five months here. Until last Thursday… I had my first ever food poisoning from chapati and beans (not going to eat those for a while that’s for sure) that I had for dinner on Wednesday evening. That put me in bed for three days and that is also the reason for not writing my blog last week. Fortunately, with the help of rest and antibiotics I came alive again!

This week on Monday we received our new intern, Cecilia, who will also be staying in Nairobi for a whole five months. It was interesting to see how she was now in the exact same place where I was five months ago, and it really made me think about last September when I came here and reflect on my time here. Also, writing an internship report for my university has made me reflect on the internship from the beginning until the end. When I came here, I did not have a clear idea of the personal project I would like to do with the youth. Because I am a dancer, I though that I would probably concentrate a lot on dancing and maybe find something with that. However, I ended up not doing almost anything related to dance and instead doing way more art than I had expected. Even though I did not have any clear ideas when I came, somehow everything worked out and my art project was a success both in my and the youth’s opinion!

As I was teaching the kids, I also got to challenge my own creative abilities. Especially with the big wall painting we did with the kids! I don’t have much experience in anything else than drawing with pencils and markers. Painting a complete wall was a completely new challenge! Another thing I did not expect to be doing so much for work was photography. I think I did more photography for Wale than during my free time and travels. But I am happy I got to improve my skills in both taking photos and editing them.

As my time here is running out, I am really trying to think what things I want to do before I go and what do I want to take home from Kenya. In February I am travelling to Rwanda for 12 days but there are still things I’d like to do in Kenya. For example, visit Ol Pajeta where they have the last two northern white rhinos in the whole world! There is also a possibility to do a game drive, which I am also considering since I have never seen hippos, rhinos and barely a lion. We were not too lucky on our visit to Nairobi National Park on December… I never got to arrange a visit to Maasai Mara, even though a friend of mine was working in Narok, which I am a bit bummed about. But maybe that is a good reason to visit Kenya again!

What it comes to work, my days start being quite relaxed since there’s only a few left. The evaluation report for 2018 is basically done, missing just a few additions from Venna. Next week I will probably try to figure out a task I can finish in four days. I have made a plan for the art programme for this year and next week I will probably also use time to find ideas for different art projects that can be done during this year. Julius has been slowly taking over football and last week he wrote the blog post on Thursday with my help. He has been coming to some of the trainings with me and taking photos. Him and Claire are doing a mentorship programme at Wale, since they both finished high school. Taking over social media for the football project will be a good task for Julius!

This week the artists from Streetart Sans Frontieres came to do a project with us again! This time they painted a huge mural at Isaac’s pitch where our football academy is training every day. We were happy that they had the time to come again, since we were talking about painting something for the pitch when they came to Wale on December. Now the pitch in Kibera has a splash of colour too! The mural looks very nice and I think it is an important proof of how easily one can change their environment for better. Adding a little colour around you maked a huge difference, especially in a community like Kibera. The best part was that the local kids and adults got to be a part of the painting.