10th June Need to catch up

[photo to be added here]

Need to catch up, left tonnes of stuff out...
Okay so I haven't been blogging to much so I will fill you in on what's happening.

Workshops have been going really well and we are preparing for this saturdays which will be on math for early childhood development.

In the youth centre in Nyalenda we have started selling sodas and popcorn and I'm planning to work a little on sales technique and spreading the word that the centre is a place to come for drinks and chillout space for young people.

I had a nice time at the Nakuru national park on the weekend although it was a very expensive day! I must say though it was not seeing the animals that I enjoyed most it was the views from the top of hills and cliffs down onto the grasslands and the lake. I saw buffalo and millions (literally) of flamingos, there was so many making noise that the ground shook, I also saw giraffes, rhinos, wart hogs millions of monkeys and baboons (one of which i got in a fight with) and a load of other animals...it was nice but a bit too touristy. Although I thought we did it in a much more kenyan way as we drove through the safari in an old toyota corrola instead of a 4x4 with an open top and silly safari hats.

I've been spending lots of time doing business type things here which is great, the farm project (which is its own company rather than a part of the NGO) is loosing money so I'm doing my best to try and help turn it round. Its pretty cool, I feel like one of the dragons from dragons den trying to turn a failing business into a profitable one. In a few weeks I will be moving to the farm for some time so I can understand every inch of the process from planting seeds, shovelling shit and selling veg at the market. More recently Nick, the farm manager, has got an order for 500 tree saplings from one of the Kenyans banks so we are working towards getting that done which will hopefully bring a hansom profit. I promised to take him out for Chicken, Oogali and sukumawiki if he manages to pull it off. Also due to a lack of chicken feed in the area I had the idea to start transporting it in from where it is more available and charging a good price for it. Nicks done a good job of selling it and I think we have a big order for 20 sacks which would be awesome.

Drama as usual has huge ups and huge downs. Today I finally gave in and snapped a little at the director. I probably was completely enforcing western convention of theatre and drama practice but I don’t care. The director always shows people "how it should be done" which is sooo bad as the actor just copies the director the next time rather than the director explaining what he wants so the actor can make his own decisions and be true to his character. Okay I am not saying I want the actors to all be pretentiously be asking "But director, what's my motivation in the scene" BUT I think that the actors should not be impersonating the director especially as his physicality, proxemics and vocal qualities are the same in most scenes or scenarios.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, possibly going to Nairobi on Sunday to sort out some stuff for registering the school. Also I shall be going to volunteer in an orphanage near Homa bay which will be a nice change for 5 days or so.