Habari!

My name is Evelien Zielschot, I am 22 years old and I am from Holland. After finishing my studies I went to the Child Rescueing Centre Kenya in October and November 2007. I had two wonderful months!

On Friday the 27th of September I flew to Nairobi. Nelson, the manager of CRC was there to pick me up. This was nice, because otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue about how things work in Kenya! Already during my trip to Thika I was really amazed about the crowdedness on the road and about the reckless driving of the Kenyans! The first month I kept on surprising myself about how things are in Kenya! But since my second month I was more known with all the habits and customs and since then I really had the feeling that I was at home in Thika.

My daily duties were in the morning helping with preparing breakfast for the children, helping them with showering and dressing and bringing them to school. While the oldest children were at school, the youngest children were still at home, so then you had time to play with them. At 3 o’clock we went to pick up the kids from school and then we helped them with their daily routine: showering, putting on the pyjamas, washing the school uniforms and cleaning the school shoes. Of course the children also had to do homework so we helped them with that or we played and made fun with them! After dinner we did put the kids into bed and we read them a story. It was great to just live with this daily routine, because already in these daily things you could see a lot of the Kenyan way of living.

The contact I had with the children was really great and ever since I am back, I think about them a lot! The children have been through a lot of pain, but still they are all very energetic, happy and easygoing! It is really incredible how disciplined the children are. The older children do help the younger ones, everybody is listening very well and all the kids become happy with very small things! In two months you can get a really good relationship with most of the kids. And you can get really attached to them. It felt great to make the kids smile and to have fun with them.

Volunteering in CRC meant that we were very free in the things we did on a day. Very often I went out to go to town, to just do some shopping, to go to the internet café, etc. Also we went several times to slums to share food packages and we took the children out to have fun in a playground!

Next to all the serious, but very special things, I went several times to Nairobi to see the city and also I went two times on safari and I climbed Mount Kenya! All were very special trips! Kenya is beautiful!

Altogether I can say that I had two perfect months in Kenya. I loved my life there and the only thing I can do right now is to say to you that it is a great experience to stay in CRC and to try to make a difference!

Kwaheri!