Day 2 of the Siaya Adventure

Wednesday 21th December 2011 - Day 2 of Siaya Camp

We were woken at around 7 this morning, and emergerged from our tents to start a fire for breakfast. We were planning to boil some (non existant) eggs, a fact we only realised an hour later, so it was back to jam and cornflake sandwiches but today we added the option of weetabix. We then had to get all our uniforms on to refresh our minds on the marches we had learnt at our training camps. After this was flag break, with the added Kenyan way of setting the flag, which looks lovely, but makes the task impossible to complete. During the flag break the Kenyans first sung their National Anthem swiftly followed by us singing our unprepared version. After this we had introductions of the Kenyan leaders and the UK leaders, followed by the itinerary for the days activities. We then left for Siaya to go to the markets to buy the lists set out for us.

In the local town, the patrols were each given items to source, in the style of The Apprentice, we rushed off to locate the best items at the best prices. We tried our best at haggling, knocking thousands off our purchases, which sounds like an achievement until you look at the shilling - pound exchange rate. We found nearly all our set items, and returned to the group with all we needed to set up camp. While we were there we all stooped for lunch to visit cafes around town, accompanied by our security guard and his all powerful stick. We lunched on tea and chiapattis, which were, in the words of Amass, 'Munch'.

After this we returned to the site with plenty of work to do, from building a camp kitchen under the trees, to digging wet pits, building showers and making the 'toilets' suitable for daily use. Some of us took time out to play football with the Kenyans, making new friends, and putting more than a few past them. Along with that a few of us interacted buy playing their games one of which was like our 'Duck, Duck, Goose'.

For dinner, cooked by Bravo and Charlie, we are having rice, cabbage and onion. It has been a long process as we had to dig a fire pit which had to fit two large pots and had to dig it 6 inches deep. It was a hard job in the heat but it looked good once we had built our fires and eventually got the food cooking. As we have been cooking it, it smells delicous and we shall be serving it and eating it once it has finished cooking. As it smells so good we are hoping it tastes the same.

At the campfire tonight we shall be building it and inviting the Kenyans over to join us so we are able to exchange skills in singing and dancing. We have all been asked to prepare a song or a skit in each of our patrols. From talking to our UK patrols a lot of us are doing songs with actions to get everyone moving and having fun. From listening to the Kenyans they will be sharing some songs with us in exchange. We hope it will be an enjoyable night for us all and everyone learns something from it.

By all our GLSE Kenya Expedition Patrols!