Today's People 14th February 2010 Hi everyone I have now been in Kikuyu, Kenya for a little over 6 weeks and am settling well into life here. I came over with two other girls, all through the charity World Exchange. The three of us are working in Presbyterian Church of East Africa School's (PCEA) and in return have been provided accommodation within the Mission land owned by the PCEA. I am teaching at a Secondary called Kikuyu Day. It has 500 pupils, of whom only 16 are female and by the end of the year it will be an all boys school. I am teaching Biology, Chemistry and Geography to Form Two classes – they are all male classes with pupils aged around 15/16 although some are older than I am. I am also helping in pronunciation lessons and have become involved in the Biology club in which we are currently working on projects to enter into a national competition. I am enjoying teaching, learning quickly the power of red pen, getting used to turning around the marking of over 100 books each week, setting homework and punishments and also writing examination papers. The students have all taken well to my lessons despite some initial problems with my accent! Out of school we are attending our local PCEA church called 'The Church of the Torch' on Sundays and have also joined the youth Prayer group which meets each Tuesday. As the school day runs from 8am – 4/5pm we spend most of our weekday evenings cooking before turning in early. We are staying in a small house together – we each have our own room and share the living facilities. We have a temperamental oven, fridge/freezer (which we have to be careful with as there are frequent power cuts) and one electric ring on the hob. the other three are gas which we don't have! Cooking is an interesting task as it takes so long to cook anything – I made our first omelette's last week and the whole process took an hour and 3/4. Yesterday I attempted making a vegetable quiche – Elspeth's mum sent us an easy recipe and I just had to approximate measurements as we have no scales or measuring equipment – it worked well but the meal including maize on the cob (which I harvested in the afternoon) took 3 hours to prepare! At weekends we are trying to explore more of Kenya – for my birthday we went to the Rift valley view point which was spectacular and this last week I joined a school trip from Elspeth's school – we went to a Lake Magadi Soda Ash factory found in the bottom of the Rift valley. It was so so hot but but the three hour coach journey was worth it – we passed Masai villages and people, and also wildebeest and baboons. As we were leaving we watched the sunset over the valley which was beautiful. After 13 years of vegetarianism my efforts at remaining as such lasted under a week in Kenya and so when I come home mum and dad will definitely enjoy easier family teatimes! I hope all is well with you all at St Andrews and I send you all my love from Kikuyu. Rachel. Rachel Murray Rachel explained, "The award is the highest in Guiding and with exam breaks took four years to achieve. I had to give service in Guiding, do an outdoor challenge, develop my personal skills, attend a residential event and carry out community action. For example, I organised catering for a Brownie pack holiday. I went on a four day exploration of Hadrian's Wall. I took a leading female singing part in a recent St. Andrew's musical Ikon, and I led a campfire singing session for three hundred young people. I did research on Fairtrade goods being sold in local supermarkets and went to India for community work, which was an amazing experience. The award was an incredible journey, and I hope my success will encourage others." Rachel is now studying English Literature and Art History at the University of Central Lancashire at Preston and leads at a Guide unit in Preston during term time. Proud dad Lewis Murray said, "We're over the moon for Rachel." Mum Jane, who is the Guides Division Commissioner for Leeds North East added, "She has worked so hard to achieve the Queen's Guide Award and is a wonderful inspiration for all the Guides, Brownies and Rainbows at St. Andrew's. Cleveland Henry
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