Last time I blogged I was seriously bored waiting in Duabi Airport!  Oh how things can change so quickly! 
Just as I was about to board my next plane to Nairobi my name was called and my prayers answered!!!!.... No it wasn't that they had lost my luggage, an awful thought which went through my mind, but they wanted to upgrade me to business class!!!  I am now more convinced then ever that praying does work - even if sometimes it is for seriously selfish reasons, perhaps God had pity on me on my long journey and wanted to bless me with a plane journey which consisted of flowing champagne for 7 hours, a 6 course meal with fresh fruit and cheeses and the most comfortable seat/bed ever!! - Ah bliss!
I was then greeted at the airport by a chauffeur sent from the hotel I stayed in whicle\st in Nairobi!  Again a completely luxurious experience.  And my driver kindly took me around Nairobi so I could sort various bits and bobs out - like getting a new phone!  Thank goodness he was with me as going through 'DownTown' Nairobi was certainly an experience not to be had alone!
After two very comfortable nights I caught the first bus to the West of Kenya.  This was were I was completely pushed from my comfort zone!  I felt like a bag of potatoes being tossed from side to side through little villages which looked like those you only ever see on news reports about the thirld world countries or Live Aid - A real wake up call!
I arrived in Kisii, a little town in the West, late Monday afternoon and was greeted by Pete, a guy who is visitng the Elimu centre this week as he sponsors a fre of the children and orphans there.  he then took me to the centre, welcomed and greeted and hand-shooked by about a thousand people along the way. 
The Elimu Centre is a school and orphanage in the West of Kenya, near a village called Tinga.  The school has 400 students, 110 of which are boarders either becuase they have no family or their family can not afford to keep them at home.  The centre is one of the best secondary schools in the area, however this really doesn't mean very much!  They don't have any electricity, gas, windows, running water.  I have a little room in the guest hut, and I share it with a few mice and bats which as i have been so tired haven't really bothered me, and at lest I can't feel like I'm on my own too much!
I was welcomed by the school on the first evening at their assmebly, and asked to sing to them!!! So sang, 'O mio babbino', think it was the first time any of them had ever heard opera!  It was a hysterical site seeing all their gawping faces!
Yesterday I went to the choir practice and tried to help them with some stuff - although they are so good anyway!  But it was raining so hard on the tin roofs you couldn't really hear anything!  Perhaps later tonight will be better.
I keep being invited to peoples homes, which is rally amazinbg and a very humbling experience.  I met this one in which the father died from aids a year ago, leaving the mother with 3 children below the age of 7.  In Kenya women don't have any rights to own property so she was left with nothing, and is living with her mother in law, who was such a dear lady.  The youngest child, who is two, is living with the mother's mother as she can not afford to look after them all.  It was just so heart breaking as they had nothing and the mother is also HIV positive is very aware of may happen if she dies.  They were so welcoming though and we all drank 'porridge'! This was not 'porridge' as we know it - more like a brown gloopy warm drink, quite hard to take it down, especially when they keep filling your cup! - Gulp!  But they were so amazing and had an incredible faith, so I prayed with and for them before leaving.
Whilst I am out here I have been asked to conduct some research of the schools in the area, about what music and drama activities they run, and how we can help them.  'We' being the organisation KEP (Kenayan Education Partnership) who have put me in contact with the orphanage and asked me to come out.  I will also be helping running 4 Sports Days of schools brought together in the area.  I have to run music and drama activities which will educate them about Aids!  Any ideas???
At the Elimu Centre on Sunday we have the 'open day' where all the children and adults in the area come and hear talks and see  school and what it provides!  It's suddenly been thrown on me that I'll have to talk!!! - Got no idea what I am going to say!
I have taken sopme brilliant photos - especially of Pete and I trying to teach the kids the 'Saturday Night' and 'Macarena' dances!  but the computers here in Kisii are seriously slow (the joys of broadband are seriously being missed) I think I will wait till I get to Max's in Uganda to download them - sorry, you'll have to wait a bit longer for them!