Safari Weekend!

Ashnil Samburu Camp 

The Camp sits in Buffalo Springs Game Reserve in Isiolo Kenya. (http://www.ashnilhotels.com/ashnil-samburu/) 
The weekend was the most amazing adventure of our lives, we saw beautiful scenery, breathtaking wildlife and mother natures bounty in its most natural form. 

June 18 and 19


Bees!!!! Today two beehives were placed at the Eco Lodge! It involved some tree climbing, rock climbing, melted wax burns and hard work. But by the next morning one of our hives had a huge swarm of bees!!!! There were different boxes used to insure a higher probability of success.  

The Bee Boxes being transported.

Digging Holes. The MichiKen Amani crew also dug 3 ft deep, 4 ft wide holes to plant 50 banana trees! It was a day of very hard work and dirt and sweat.

June 17th

Innovation Alley 
We began the morning attending meetings for innovative business proposals in Kithoka. The MichiKen group is investing 500,000 Kenyan Shillings or approximately $5,000 US Dollars into the area in hopes to increase jobs, innovation, and standard of living. The ideas ranged from; pie companies, chicken farming, milk production and much more. The committee will soon narrow the ideas down from the 97 applications to 10 best business ideas. Then decide who gets the grants after a second round of interviews.

Kithoka Primary School
In the afternoon the MichiKen crew traveled to the Kithoka Primary School with a big bag of toys, games, balls, and fun! While the Med Students taught 7th and 8th grades Sex Education, the rest of us got to play! The kids don't often get to have fun like this; recess normally is held in this bare field with a deflated ball at best, and class rooms cannot afford art supplies or even necessities such as books, paper and pencils. The government pays the school a stipend of $1.50 US every three months per child and their families cannot afford to pay much more. Children from this school are often from broken homes or squatters, most do not have enough food to eat, and without schooling have little hope for a better future.

June 16th Visit to The Bishop Lawi Imathiu Secondary School (BLISS) 

Our group visited the Secondary school, which homes grades 9-12 (also known as Form 1-4). The school is a beautiful structure built in 2004 and added to since then. Many of the students are the first in their families to advance past 8th grade due to the cost of attending Secondary schools. BLISS offers day classes to students of the Kithoka region and has increased the number of Secondary students in the region from 20 to over 400!

The class rooms are nearly bare, the books are tattered copies from many years ago, and the Form 3 building is only half built. But thanks to BLISS the Kithoka area has had recent success sending students to Colleges and Universities. This is because they rank third in Secondary schools for the entire North Imenti District, even with such low funding and students who begin Form 1 (9th Grade) with much lower scores than normal.

Students often wake before 5am to walk many miles or take an overcrowded Matatu (mini bus) to arrive before the bell rings at 7am and have some time to study. From 7am-4pm students attend classes, but many choose to stay until 9pm attending extra classes, education clubs or study sessions. This curriculum is so vigorous because Form 4 students (Seniors) across Kenya take the Kenya National Examination and out of roughly 300,000 students, less than 20,000 of the best scores will be awarded Public University Acceptance and Government Scholarships. Other students may be offered private university spaces or two year certificate spaces, but students in this region sadly cannot afford to pay for these opportunities.

We have arrived!

Yesterday we arrived in Kenya! After days on planes, lost luggage and a drive to the Methodist Guest House; we all fell into a deep sleep aided by at least 5 "plane food" meals and a healthy midnight dinner.

At 9am all of the MichiKen crew loaded into Genesis Expedition vans and headed to Meru. We stopped along the way at The Trout Tree for some much needed relaxation and grilled fresh trout. I highly recommend! (http://www.trout-tree.com/) Then continued on and arrived at 7pm to The Amani Home for Children; the orphanage that most of the students on the trip will be staying at. (http://www.ipeacei.org/children/amani-home.html)

We arrived to smiling faces and cheers from about 30 of the most adorable faces!

After spending the night playing football with the kids, we ate a wonderful meal and were treated to a special performance of song and dance by the older children. Of course in return we made fools of ourselves; singing campfire songs and marching to a drum to Michigan's "Hail to the Victors". Afterwards the children were tucked away in their beds. And we were fortunate enough to hear Doctor K's story of the Orphanage and its creation, the plight of Aid's and HIV causing so many children to become lost and alone, and how she stood up and changed something. She is inspiring and along with the sadness caused by her tale we were all left with a feeling; a feeling that we can change something, we can help, and that one person really can make a difference. 

Today is the day! Leaving the United States of America and stepping into an adventure! See you in two days Meru.

Only 9 days left!

Everyone is home packing; going to the store to pick up that thing they forgot, wondering how much can fit into a 50lb bag, and  Googling  "Africa Packing list" and "how to wash my clothes in the Jungle". We're all counting down the minutes to our flight. We'll see you soon Kenya.  

Summer 2014 Trip

The next MichiKen trip is upon us! 6/13/14 we will be embarking on a life changing trip to Meru, Kenya where Kenyans and Americans will be working together to better the Kithoka and Meru area. Keep your eyes on our blog to experience Kenya along side the MichiKen Summer 2014 crew.