Nairobi

I finally made it to Africa. My first port of call was Nairobi where I was to attend ‘security training’ together with three colleagues. This all seemed somewhat unwise and morbidly ironic given the current situation in Kenya. Following a disputed election result, once dormant tribal rivalries had simmered to boiling point. Kenya, a country that has enjoyed years of peace and stability, was awash with reports of villages being torched, protesters being beaten and at least two opposition politicians being assassinated. Clashes all over the country and the ensuing clamp down by the authorities had claimed the lives of hundreds of people (the figure is now thought to be over a thousand) and tens of thousands of people had been displaced from their homes. By the time we arrived for our training however, the violence was concentrated in the Rift Valley. Nairobi, never the safest of cities, was unexpectedly calm. The only sign of anything out of the ordinary was the odd military aircraft flying overhead, some troops dozing in Uhuru Park and a couple of trucks laden with furniture as people fled into the city.

The security training surpassed my expectations even if it did make me think about a couple of things I would probably rather forget! Our trainers Michelle (formerly responsible for the British Government’s security in Iraq) and Rob (ex-army, almost certainly SAS but reluctant to reveal too many details) covered more or less everything that could possibly happen to us with limitless zeal and an unstoppable tirade of eccentric, and at times rather black, humour. Hopefully we’ll never have to use anything we learned (normally that would be a bad thing) but suffice to say that if I was lost in a jungle occupied by rebel guerrillas, Rob and Michelle are probably the two people who I would want to have with me! The most memorable part was the first-aid. I particularly enjoyed hooking up an IV-drip on a rubber arm complete with plastic veins and fake blood. It was probably just the relief of not having to perform the operation on each other, as Rob had initially led us to believe we would be doing!

After the training my colleagues (Sarah, Fiona and Matt) and I began to go our separate ways. We have all been assigned to different ActionAid country programmes and will be stationed on different corners of the continent. Our mission is to build each of the countries’ capacity to fundraise by applying for grants from institutions that disburse development aid money. Sarah has the unenviable task of fundraising for Somaliland, a country that doesn’t even officially exist! She will however be based in Nairobi and had already begun to install herself in her new apartment. Fiona (aka ‘Braveheart’ on account of her being Scottish but also on account of taking said film along with her on DVD) set off for Zimbabwe and 50,000% inflation leaving Matt (who will be working in Cameroon) and myself to spend the day looking at Kenya’s number one tourist attraction: big animals. Our first stop was the elephant orphanage inside Nairobi’s national park. Not wanting to miss out on the spirit of the ongoing African Nations Cup the young elephants were keen to display their football skills. After this we called in at the giraffe sanctuary. Keen not to be outdone by the football-playing elephants we were treated to the giraffes’ own party trick, namely kissing unsuspecting tourists (well, it was more like licking of the face – I was assured that giraffe saliva is antiseptic though!).