Endless cups of coffee and a baking bonanza! - Africa and Asia Venture

Endless cups of coffee and a baking bonanza! - Africa and Asia Venture

Mr and Mrs Hobin, parents of Helen who is currently volunteering with AV in Kenya, have been baking up a storm, selling endless cups of coffee and raffle tickets, and have even named a cuddly dog in aid of supporting Helen and the children at Tilwet Primary School in Kericho, Western Kenya. For the last two months Helen has been spending her days teaching at Tilwet and evenings settling into the African way of life. From her aptly named blog entry ‘This is Africa', Helen sends messages back home to all her loved ones, keeping them posted on day to day life in the local community - "Some parts of life here are beautifully simple - I love it all - sweeping the floor with a broom made of twigs, having fresh eggs every day, milk delivered by a lovely man who owns one cow, using one gas stove for all our cooking, being startled if we notice a mirror in a shop, and especially running around all day barefoot."

Helen has been enjoying teaching English, Creative Arts and PE "It is so much to fun to run around barefoot on the playing field, leaping mud and dodging cattle as we chase the ball with the children". But that's not all - after school she has been running a creative writing and reading club, as well as a Medieval Re-enactment - the children have all made wooden swords and have been learning the points of contact, defences and how to re-act dramatically if you get hit (nicely of course)!

Despite all the fun Helen and the children are having, she has noticed the limited supplies the children have. To help the children with reading, Helen has been able to buy lots of new books and supplies with the support from family and friends back home. Her parents were keen to help Tilwet and decided to organise a coffee morning at their home. They baked cakes, scones and biscuits; held a raffle with prizes donated from local pubs and restaurants, and a hamper made by Mrs Hobin; set up a bring and buy stall; held competitions for ‘guess how many sweets in a jar' and ‘name the cuddly dog'! They displayed photos of Helen with her pupils at Tilwet and identified what £5 would get for the children in Kenya. Family, friends and neighbours were all invited and on the day they had 50 people all sipping coffee and supporting Helen! They raised a whopping £600!  What a fantastic effort by all involved!

Helen has been able to buy a computer, sports kit for the football team which will also be used for volleyball and netball, over 100 storybooks, lots of text books, badges, a trophy for the inter-school sports tournament, board rubbers, posters, glue, pencils, paint, and she is even thinking about repairing the netball court!

She is now working towards a link between Tilwet and Harwell primary school in Oxfordshire, where Helen attended. She will set up a pen pal scheme, and Harwell school will hold an assembly to introduce Tilwet to their
pupils.  Great work Helen!

There is one month left of term at Tilwet for Helen and then she will move onto the next stage in her exciting African adventure - four weeks of independent travel.

Learn more about our community projects in Kenya here.

Why not enter our competition to win a place on AV and you would be a Kenya AV volunteer like Helen!

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