Africa Watoto Blogs

“You want to make them happy? Give them food!” That what I heard after asking the member of staff what we can do to make the boys happy. That is true. Eating rice and beans or ughali and beans most of the days is not a fun.

One day, 3 other volunteers and myself, we bought live chickens in the village and brought them to the Centre. The boys were so excited. They knew how to prepare and cook them. I was so impressed, I did not have a clue what to do with them. We are all used to ready cleaned or packed meat from Tesco or Sainsbury. I felt like typical ignorant and realised how modern western life is making us useless. We had so much fun that day! So….the following week we arranged to do the same thing but this time with a goat.

The next weekend was my last in Kenya. I did not manage to carry any live animals on my own so I decided to go to the butcher and buy ready to cook chickens, what I would normally do back home.

This gave me an idea. What about carry on cooking every weekend?

When I returned back to London, with the help of my friends we organised a fundraising blues & rock`n`roll gig in the Jazz Café in West London. The event was a major success. We managed to raise enough money to give the boys some healthy, nutritious food.

On my return back to Kenya the boys suggested what kind of food they enjoy.

So every Friday or Sunday I was buying them what they chose. Sometimes it could be fish, other times it could be chicken. For some of the little ones this was their first time they tried fish. We cooked the meat with a vegetable stew which contained plenty of tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, garlic, parsley and potatoes. After dinner they had a fruit juice. There was always plenty of food for everybody. Even more then enough as they always managed to save the half for lunch for the next day.

This was an unforgettable experience, everybody wanted to contribute to the cooking, from the little boys to the big boys. There was not enough knives to share for peeling the vegetables so the boys were swapping. Each week a different team was preparing the food and they were so proud of themselves. They were creating the meal by themselves and all worked together as a team. They were all so happy and exited, with the smile on their faces and shinning eyes as they were eagerly awaiting for their food to be ready.

When the food was cooked the boys were gathering around and praying, they were giving thanks for the food which they received, and hoping that these days will never end.

I could not believe how this little thing which was given to them made them so happy, for us it is just a chicken and vegetables stew. How many times are we not happy with our food because it is either undercooked, overcooked or something else. For them this was not an issue.

These days I am sure were one of the best days in their lives so far and being a part of it plus sharing it with them means a lot to me, and for them that was the greatest respect.

On behalf of all the boys I would like to thank Paul Laurie, Angus Havers and everyone who contributed to our food project. Your donations` were marked and appreciated there in the little village of Kikambala, north of Mombasa.

We will put all our efforts into continuing with weekly cooking and also we are currently working on setting up a Feeding Programme.

For more information please visit www.africawatoto.org.uk

If you wish to contribute please see the link below, Ref: Weekly Cooking
http://www.africawatoto.org.uk/donate/

Thank you

Ula