These questions were originally answered for Miss Simpson and the 3H Class from Goondiwindi State Primary School. If you have any more questions we’d be more than happy to answer them for you.

Q1) How many children can live in the orphanage?
At the moment there is about 140 children at the orphanage. The children range from only a couple of months old up to even 22 years. The majority of children are between 7 – 12 years old. The orphanage is only about 5 acres so Ian can’t support too many more children (there are also financial constraints as Ian is finding it hard to support this many children as it is). Ian knows every one of the children by name and likes to think of the orphanage as one big family.

Q2) Do the children have access to books, paper, pencils and school?
When we saw the schools for the first time we were quite surprised. The buildings are basically typical little Kenyan shacks. They are made of stone blocks, really dark inside (no windows) and are really quite old. Ian is about halfway in the construction of a new school building, but this has been postponed due to a lack of funding. The kids have just a couple exercise books and pencils.

Q3) What types of games do the children play?
The children don’t really play many organised games. They enjoy kicking the ball around, skipping and just general playing with toys.

Q4) Is the orphanage close to a town?
The orphanage is about 15 minutes drive (through mud and rocky terrain) to a small town called Njoro. We don’t normally travel here much as it doesn’t really have any of the things we require. So about once a week we drive about 40 minutes (on a bitumen road) to a much larger town called Nakuru. The towns are quite different to what we are used to in Australia. Many of the drivers are extremely crazy on the road and the town itself is quite dirty. The streets are lined with many little “stores” that sell things such as radios, belts, power adaptors e.t.c

Q5) What types of food do you have?
At the orphanage we eat a mixture of typical food we would eat in Australia (we buy food from the supermarkets in Nakuru and cook it on the gas stove in our little kitchen) and the Kenyan food that the orphans eat. While we (the guys) are working we eat with the orphans, but usually have dinner with Branka. One of the main meals is Ugali which is basically like bread made from maize flour and water. It is very dry and not very tasty, but provides a good filler for the kids. This is usually accompanied with Sukuma Wiki mixed with cooked onions and actually tastes quite good. Another meal is rice mixed with a range of beans and maize (which also tastes quite good).

In the morning the children will eat fruit such as bananas & mangoes with some bread which is made in the kitchen.

Q6) Are you enjoying your time at the orphanage?
We are all really enjoying it here in Kenya. Sometimes it can be a bit challenging as some of the children have some bad habits like stealing for example. You can’t really blame them though… It’s the way of life for many Kenyans. A lot of people are just trying to survive.

Other than this the children are really nice and fun to hang out with. It’s a great feeling to be helping out these people

Q7) Is it hot?
The temperature is quite similar to Australia, however it surprisingly isn’t as humid as Australia. Working in the sun during the middle of the day gets reeeaally hot, but because it isn’t as humid the shade is really cool and refreshing.