ETHIOPIA - 1

RETRAK is a small, hands-on charity which started in Kampala, Uganda (where we lived for 6 years) initially as a football club for street kids but, over a period of time, they built a clubhouse where the kids could get food and medical attention. Now the main aim of RETRAK is to get the children back with their families, if not parents. Or at least to get them back to school. They have recently expanded their work to Nairobi and Addis Ababa.

Web: RETRAK

ETHIOPIA - 2

NOVEMBER 2007: street children sleeping in Addis Ababa. Oliver Twist would be what we now call a “street kid”. Watching on TV, from the comfort of our centrally heated lounge, it is difficult to imagine just what it must have been like at that time for Oliver and other orphans. Hungry, no home, despised, persecuted. Yet that is what it is still like for the street children in Addis Ababa and in many other cities around the world. So, to help where I could ....

ETHIOPIA - 3

I set out, with 16 others, to climb Ras Dashen in the Simien Mountains. It took 6 days, walking across undulating terrain and climbing steep, rocky paths as we acclimatized to the altitude. It was a real “challenge”. Very difficult and not something I would do for fun. Awful pit-latrines. Sub-zero temperatures at night. But, standing at the edge of 1000 metre high cliffs, we were rewarded with spectacular views.

ETHIOPIA - 4

And I did it!! Here I am at the summit with 3 young shepherds in the background. They live in caves in the mountain---the one on the left is carrying a lamb. I did this to raise funds to enable RETRAK to continue the work they have started with street children in East Africa.

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On our return to Addis we visited RETRAK where we met the amazingly dedicated staff. Maggi, who runs the centre, is an Australian. She has given up the type of life that most of us enjoy to live and work among the disadvantaged. She is assisted by a team of Ethiopians who have a concern for the disadvantaged in their country. They work in conditions and in an area of the city that most of us would avoid at all costs. But they are doing vital and compassionate work. This is one of the young boys I met at the RETRAK “club”.

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On behalf of RETRAK I would like to thank everyone who so generously contributed to my fund raising. I exceeded the £3000 target and everything I raised went to RETRAK.
P.S. if you want a different experience, visit Ethiopia. Lalibela, Axum and Gonder are cities steeped in history - stelae, rock-hewn churches. Maybe even the Ark of the Covenant.

Email: thehighstreet@talktalk.net

Bill Middleton

Kenya Story 1

After a year and a half of intense fundraising, many vaccinations and stocked up on malaria tablets, July 21st had finally arrived and Bartholomew Kenya team left for Africa. We had an idea what we were getting ourselves into, but nothing could have prepared us for the month we were about to endure.

Kenya Story 2

We began at Sagala lodge where our wildlife project work took place, it was the most physically demanding part of our expedition, we were charged with starting to dig an elephant watering hole. This consisted to digging up dried dirt and rocks in the scourging African sun for days. The result of this work was discovering muscles in our bodies we didn't know existed, as well as developing large blisters across the palm of our hands. We also worked on the garden nursery at the lodge which involved planting seedlings and replanting plants, which we all found rather therapeutic and slightly annoying as baboons would just come and dig them up, at their earliest convenience. During our time away we also had a day on safari which involved an extremely early morning wake up, but it was worth it to see all the elephants, zebras, buffalos, giraffes and the two lions we saw feeding from a dead elephant. The following day a member of the camps international staff arranged a day visit to his village where we experienced how to make Ugali (maize) which was then cooked in a traditional way for us. The day ended with the boys having a game of football with the local school, which to everybody's amazement we drew! Our last few days involved camping for one night at Lake Jipe, where we had crocodiles and hippos only a few feet from our tents, some were slightly more comfortable with this then others. It was here we did a game drive and saw our first and only leopard, after realising it was only a few hundred meters from where we were sleeping in our little thin tents! Our last night in Sagala was one of the most special nights of our trip, the Maasai performed a traditional dance for us. We felt that it was only fair to reciprocate, and as such the girls, gave a rendition of I can see clearly now, and the boys performed their own version of the 'Hakka'.

After a rather emotional night, we had another early start to leave for Mwanganje elephant sanctuary. We arrived to such an extreme change in scenery, Sagala was flat, dry red soil compared to the luscious hilly green vegetation and the first proper rain we had seen! This is where the more creative in the group really found their niche, we painted, built and made elephant dung paper. These are all made into notebooks and photo albums which are then sold and the money returned to the industry. Again we spent a few hours on a game drive and saw many elephants extremely close up. Despite this, one of the highlights to this part of the trip was being given chips and ketchup which was an absolute luxury after the rice extravaganza of the previous 2 weeks. We again left in the rain and headed to the location of our community project work.
On arrival to Makogeni, a surprise was waiting for us, spending the afternoon in the neighbouring village of Muhaka where a pop concert was taking place featuring Kim4love (Kenyan version of Robbie Williams apparently) this afternoon ended up as one of the most memorable moments for most of us. We'd never seen such heavy rain, but that didn't stop us from dancing in the middle of all the school children, it was just out of this world.

Kenya Story 3

Our community project work involved digging the foundations for four new classrooms at Muhaka primary school, which we successfully completed and began laying the concrete base, bearing in mind we had to mix the concrete by hand! We spent three exhausting days completing this work but we all left feeling extremely satisfied. We had one afternoon in Muhaka on a cultural visit where we visited the local witch doctor and were involved in one of his treatments. During this time we also visited the local wine maker, and even got to try some of his own coconut wine which had a very unique sharp taste. For those who wanted, we had the chance to teach a lesson of our choice. And many of us planned a full hour in either; drama, history, geography or art, managing to get by with the limited resources that they had. All the children, both English and Kenyan, seemed to have gained something very precious out of it. During our stay at Makogeni we were given a tour of the village and the mangroves, where we were accompanied by the children from the village, who were very keen to find out all about us. It really gave us a chance to talk to the local people.

Kenya Story 4

Our last week was spent on the stunning Diani Beach and at Charly Sea Villas, this was a relaxing week which was well overdue and much needed after the last jam packed, hard working 3 weeks. Most of us spent four challenging days completing our PADI open water scuba diving course which took us back to sitting in a classroom, where others spent hours snorkelling along the coral reef. This week wasn't all relaxation, we completed some marine conservation work involving a beach clean up where we teamed up with a local school and did a litter pick along the beach. We spent an afternoon planning a lesson to teach to the students about the importance of the local coral reef and marine conservation. Having receiving some positive feedback we felt we'd done ourselves proud. The year 12 and 13's received their A level results during this week, so we all dressed up with whatever clean clothing we had (if any!) and headed down to the Forty Thieves restaurant for a meal and dancing away into the night- was definitely an excellent celebration. By this time, the end of the trip was in sight and we began to realise the immense amount of work we'd done over the last four weeks and how many lives we had contributed to changing.

Kenya Story 5

On the last day we had yet another very early on August 18th we left Diani Beach and headed for Mombasa airport with a very silent bus of 28 students reflecting on some of the moments from the month. I can't stress enough that there are not any words that can do this expedition justice, it was out of this world and an experience of a lifetime. Even something as basic as seeing the smile on these people's faces just touched us so much. It hit many of us, just how privileged we are with how many things we take for granted in England. We made some very special friendships within our group as well as with the staff out in Kenya who are all truly missed already. Despite the endless amount of rice we ate, the freezing showers, the illnesses and the never ending dirty clothes, so many extraordinary memories were made during this month, that will definitely stay with us forever.

Reporter Katherine Suggitt (ex Student of Bartholomew)
Web: Bartholomew School

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