THE BEGINNING

Hi there.

My name is Caterina and I would like to share my story as an ICS volunteer.

ICS, International Citizen Service,  is a governmental funded programme that aims to send overseas thousands of young volunteers aged between 18 and 25 , each year. The purpose of the programme is to help disadvantaged communities by working with local organisations in addition to offer a cultural exchange between the hosting country and the volunteers being hosted. Last December I was selected to live in Kenya for three months with other UK volunteers and Kenyan ones in order to secure livelihoods in a small village of Southern Kenya called Oloitokitok. Each of us English volunteers will have to be paired up with a Kenyan volunteer to work with and we will also have to be paired up with a different local volunteer to live with in a host family. My programme started last February and I returned in the UK on May 2015; when I left I had no idea those three months were going to be the most challenging and exciting months of my life and that they would have changed me so much. But let’s start with order: pre departure training and departure.

                                                     
Before leaving the UK, I had the opportunity to meet my future mates during our pre departure training which was held at the University of Lancaster in early January. We spent three days together trying to prepare ourselves for the upcoming adventure as well to get to know each other. We did group activities to learn how to work together as a team, regarding cultural differences and on what to expect when facing problems within the team. We also had sessions on the Kenyan culture and we received small tips on do’s and dont's once in Kenya. My first impressions were really positive and, as it has been confirmed later, all the people in that room in Lancaster were simply amazing. In my team we were six girls and two guys who slowly became like a second family to me. The ICS experience started to teach me something since this training. During those days I have learnt that other people may live the same experience of mine differently: because I had previously volunteered in Africa I somehow thought I knew what to expect however, I have forgotten that for some of them this will be the first time volunteering overseas. More we were talking about the programme, more I realised how different from previous experiences this one it was going to be for me too: living in a local host family with a local volunteer only is a challenge I had never done before and I had no idea what to expect anymore. The pre departure training left me with an amazing feeling that I had something to give and to offer as well as others have so much to teach me and I was looking forward to start learning.  I came back in London with only one though: I wanted to leave as soon as possible. A month later, on the 11th of February 2015 our plane took off. Finally.

UK volunteers on the day of departure

First 'matatu' ride for us

We arrived in Nairobi completely exhausted on the 12th of February during a very hot afternoon: the project coordinators of the three ICS placements in Kenya (Oloitokitok, Machakos and Nanyuki) came to pick us up at the airport. They drove us to a near hotel where we would have to stay for three days for our in country training. This was the original plan. However, once arrived, we were told we will have to leave immediately for our separate locations. At the hotel there were many young local guys here and there chatting and staring at us probably because of our skin. Already knackered from the one day of travelling, the eight of us assigned to the Oloitokitok community slowly jumped in the van which was going to bring us to destination. It was only when we sat down in the van that we realised that the locals around the hotel were actually our other half of the team! After five more hours of travelling we managed to arrive to our new 'home': we arrived to one of the local guest houses where we will soon feel like at home. That guest house will soon become the place of numerous days and nights of fun for us.

The cycle two Loitokitok team socialising together for the first time