First Impressions

Having signed up to take part in the GVI Mombasa project a few months previously, I had finally arrived in Kenya! As a Brit used to temperatures closer to 0 than 50C, the first thing that hit me was the heat. The ability to walk around in shorts was a nice feeling, for January!

During our arrival weekend we were given a tour of the area, where we would be working, plus some of the more historical sights in the centre of Mombasa. Then come Monday morning we were given some teaching tips by the project Educational Officer, Nikki and told who our class would be. In the afternoon we set off to visit the kids!

My first impressions of Precious Vision Care Centre were superb. Definitely not at the level of UK schools, but the majority of the kids had a uniform and there were desks and books. This is thanks to the donations gathered over the past two years, through GVI.

After a nervous night spent planning lessons with my fellow volunteer, we arrived at Precious fully prepared for our class. Unfortunately the expected 45 minute period of introductions in fact took only 10 minutes. But due to some quick thinking we were able to avoid this potential disaster by giving them a spelling test and then playing a ‘game’ with these words.

The lessons have so far been going from strength to strength, as we get to know the kids a little better and they in turn learn more about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour for ‘Mr Dave’ and ‘Madam Manveer’. Here’s to a successful remaining 10 weeks at Precious!

By ‘Mr Dave’ aka volunteer, David Wright

First Impressions