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Krister

EVS, June-September 2014.

Krister

  1. Age
    22
  2. Profession
    Unemployed
  3. For how long did you volunteer in Shianda?
    3 months
  4. Why did you decide to go to Kenya?
    I was unemployed and young and I was interested in finding out more about the world and gaining new experiences, therefore the decision was quite easy.
  5. Why did you decide to volunteer with WEFOCO?
    Mondo assigned this organisation for us so thats how we ended up working with WEFOCO.
  6. What do you think about the work that is being done by WEFOCO?
    WEFOCO is a very good organisation – it gathers information about families who live in Shianda area and therefore it knows to target the people who need the help the most. Secondly, i feel like WEFOCO was really assisting me with adapting to Kenyan culture and people so this organization is very good.
  7. What kind of tasks did you have?
    I was spreading information about lives of disabled people and explained the reasons behind the disabilities to raise more awareness, I was teaching sign language in the Rise and Shine special school and did many other activities, I was also teaching International sign language for the 7th Grade in Deaf School in Mumias, i was also focusing in filming and photography to capture our experience to share it after the project.
  8. What did you like most about volunteering?
    I liked the most to share all of the information i know about life in Europe and in the world as I am very much interested in this topic and the pupils were always very interested to listen.
  9. What was surprising?
    Kenyan culture in general – the poor positioning of children in the society, eager people specially the ones who work in matatus, overfilled matatus (never happens in Europe with buses). There was also an incident when our sign language teacher started to laugh while she was announcing the death of the father of one child in deaf school – that was really surprising!
  10. What kind of additional information would you have liked to know before going to Kenya?
    I was satisfied with what I was provided so no need for extra.
  11. For what kind of difficulties the new volunteers should prepare themselves?
    Maybe adapting to the lifestyle – for instance the way how people are always very interested in you and look at you all the time, everywhere.
  12. Tell about your favourite experience from Kenya.
    I think one of my favourite experiences was when people went totally crazy when you wanted to buy their product – wether it was in a market or when you were trying to take a matatu. So much touching and pulling and screaming. It was fun to observe.
  13. Do you miss something from Kenya/Shianda?
    I miss Kenyan sign language and speaking in that language and my home in Shianda.
  14. Any other comments:)
    I just feel like three months wasn’t a long time enough yet the experiences we got during these months were immense – it can be comparable of 30 years in Estonia.