THE MOST TOUCHING AND ASTONISHING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE

I am working as a volunteer at Gede health center. We work on Prevention to mother and child transmission, HIV/AIDS positive people and in dispensing the drugs. Everyday is a new learning, new experience and new ideas new issues and their solutions. But the one experience was very unique that was when I was assisting in the labor room. There was a mother who was about to deliver. She was in labor pain from 7pm of last evening and now it was 9 am in the morning. She was lying on the bed, resting on one side hitting the opposite wall with her on palm. She was unable to speak... shivering. When I hold her head in my arms… her hairs were totally wet with sweat… sweat was dropping from it… she was not suffering from fever but it was the intensity of pain that made her severe sweating. she was pleading but in silent way because she was told not to make the other expecting mothers scared….it was a tough case even the expert nurse was unable to handle the case…. She was worried of delivery…she was in severe pain…we were massaging her feet, her palms and her hairs to divert hr attention from pain…but she was in severe pain even I cant express that in words.. … From last 14 hours… her eyes were widely opened. She was hitting the wall with her palm her other palm was in my hand and she was pressing it very hard. But she was worried to deliver. The nurse used all the injections and techniques but she was unable. At last she called for another doctor, half of the head of the baby was out but the rest of the body was stuck in the womb. I can’t explain her facial expressions which could explain the intensity of the pain. She was unable to push because she was worried and the baby’s head was half outside the body. Then everything went hush, she was told ‘you want to be transferred to another hospital? Will you be able to pay the expenses? Do you want your baby to be born dead? Do you want to press his head between your legs? She suddenly replied No, and then she seemed to forget about the pain and about being alive. The nurse was on her chest, I was pulling her legs and then the doctor succeeded in pulling out the baby. It was such a hard moment; I was feeling pain in my whole body. I really wanted to vomit in this intense situation. My mind was blank and that woman was suffering from extreme pain, she was at the extreme height of pain. The baby was the most beautiful; I haven’t seen such tiny creature before. The baby was so cute it really made me cry. I don’t know these tears were for joy, wonder, pain or gratitude. The baby was saved now but mother to remove placenta, stitches feeding milk and she moved to another bed. It was extreme phases from which she passed. It was about 4pm she was lying on the bed she had not eaten from previous evening, I asked her does the baby’s father knows and where is he? She said he lives in the city, I told him he’ll come after a week. This experience really made me thankful to my mother, to value the creativity of the Almighty and made me realize of the strength of a woman. And I will give the whole credit to Global Exchange programmed that provided me opportunity for all this experience and learning

RAHEEL AND ZAAKE IN "TIMBONI"

Me and Zaake are living in a village called "TIMBONI" near Malindi Town. It's a Beautiful village which is surrounded by a Beautiful beaches from different sides and by Coconut trees. It is very Green. It's a center of attraction for many tourists. Walad Ahmad is our host who works in First Community Bank. His Father Ahmad Walad (Baba) is the Elder of that village and has worked a lot for this beautiful village. They are 14 family members in all (including us 16). At first i was little worried to live with such a big family as i haven,t ever been before and also it is little far from malindi town (from our workplacements too) but now i consider myself Lucky as they are very very hospitable and lively and im enjoying the life of a Village too. I love Nights of the village with a lovely sky. We have a developed a very good rapport with all of them. They are very friendly and welcoming. They all likes music a lot especially Pakistani and Indian even though they dont understand the lyrics of indian and Pakistani songs. The food they cook is very tasty and i usually end up with over eating.We are enjoying Fish and coconuts on daily basis. We are also looking forward to go for Fishing with Baba who is expert Fisherman. Walad Ahmad and Baba are the source of hope for many people belong to that village. They are socially very active and community minded. Every one in the village shares their problems and issues with them, values their suggestion and trust them a lot. They are altruistic which is really a source of Inspiration for us. We all have celebrated Zaake's Birthday last tuesday. We all together danced and had a lots of fun.Zaake is also doing physical exercise regularly(which i always miss the opportunity) with one of our host who is a Acrobat with a very flexible Body. I like my hosts and the fantastic village"Timboni" a lot.

Glasgow in 2 months !

I was tensed, the thoughts of being stigmatized, calling us terrorists and extremist were haunting me like anything while I was in aircraft. My tension was getting worst as my craft was approaching airport.

Our craft landed. I with my team and supervisor headed towards passport desk. I was waiting in the cue. To my astonishment the guy at counter smiled at me and asked for my passport. I was shocked, I thought to myself how come he smiled at me “I am Pakistani” does not he know that. After checking my passport he said thank you with a smile. It was unbelievable for me.

My myth about Scottish people was destroyed. I realized it is just a media that propagate negative image which is far away from reality. The Scottish people are really friendly.

Claire and Simon my host home members greeted me with a broad and warm smile. I remember I was cold first night they provided me the electric blanket which seems to be a blessing. They really made me feel at home. They cared me like my parents would do.

I worked at “FUSE”, it is a youth cafe. I was tensed if the children at “FUSE” would cooperate with me to understand their accent. Speaking and understanding English is not an issue for me but the Scottish accent is very broad to understand .I remember the first day at the cafe I was excited to meet children but was a bit anxious to communicate with them. One of the child came up to me and asked for McCoy crisps, and at first I did not understand what he said. I told him if he could say that again, he said again but still I did not understand I asked him politely if he could say it slowly and clearly to my surprise he did and finally I managed to give him McCoy. I was relieved. The children here have been really helpful making me understand what they say, actually it will be justified to say that they have been patient to tell me same thing again and again .I enjoyed teaching friendship bracelets and glass paintings to the children to raise money for “FUSE”. During my stay at FUSE I got the opportunity to destroy myths of children related to Pakistan and terrorism.I enjoyed my time here with every one, the staff members were friendly.

I could not find any similarity between Pakistan and Scottish culture. Everything is different. The community issues are different from the society from where I come from. I thought Scotland being a developed country will have no problems and issues, I thought the people here will be free from any problems but I was wrong. Alcoholism and drug addiction is ruining the lives of many people where unemployment is increasing day by day .I wish I could stay here for long time to do something profitable to sabotage these issues.

I learnt to value time. I can travel alone in buses in back home it would have never possible ,I learnt to be independent .I learnt how to find ways when lost, I use to spend big amount of money back home but now i realised how much money I was wasting .Because of Global xchange programme I learnt fund raising techniques. It was a great experience to work with the team, to involve and respect every one’s ideas while making decisions.

Global xchange has provided me the opportunity to think at a broader horizon, beyond the limited skies, accepting cultural differences. I am now friends with all my team members .I share my good and bad times with them

I was wrong in many ways that’s what I realised when I came here .I am very grateful to British Council and Volunteer services overseas for providing me the opportunity to experience cultural diversity and giving me the avenue / plat form to make new friends.

Kiran.s.Anwar (Kiki)
GX volunteer Team 85

My host home experience in kenya

I'm living in a house nearby to the beach in Malindi town. My host mother is Maryam Mohammad Jeniby working as a 'conservation education officer' in WILDLIFE CLUBS OF KENYA. My host father is Hussain Ali working as a fisherman. They are both very kind, caring and loving of both of us. Not only this we have two younger children at home, one is Yusra, 14years old and studying in class 8 , and the second is Jaffar, 9 years old studying in class 5. They both are lovely children and our relationship is like that of a brother and sister. We love to help and facilitate them in day to day life and it's unforgettable time when we all play together. I LOVE IT!! Our small host home is not less than a paradise. It's full of peace and family's attitude make us really feel like our own home. Our host mother is very caring, responsible, sensible, realistic and sensitive towards us. I see my Pakistani mum's face in my kenyan mum's face. It's amazing to live in such hospitable, caring, loving and lively family. In evening's when we all are together we spend fantastic time unforgettable time. I shall all the life remember our gossips and lovely laugh which really help our teeth muscles to exercise.

I wish my host family all the best of health, prosperity and success throughout the life and even for the life here after.

God Bless you my lovely and lively host family. You are genuinely nice people. I LOVE YOU! Nakupenda!

posted on behalf of Maria

Jambo! From Malindi

Jambo everyone!

Just checking in from MALINDI BABY! The team is now officially in Kenya, rocking the boat in Malindi. The town definitely felt our arrival - whispers have been spreading around the town like wildfire about the 'mzungu's (foreigners) and it is virtually impossible to leave the house without what seems like several hundred people staring and shouting, 'Jambo!' 'Habari!' 'Mambo, Poa!' etc...it's funny but a little disconcerting. Particularly when someone comes up to you and knows your name and all about GX, but you can't remember when and where you've met them before?! It's mental but awesome at the same time.

We arrived in Mombasa on the 5th July, pretty late at night but still with gorgeously warm weather! We spent 4 days training in Mombasa with the other GX team - it was good to see them again and hear about their time in Manchester while we were busy bunnies up in Glasgow. We did several workshops in Mombasa, going over our time in the UK and then looking forward to time in Kenya...finding out what's acceptable, doing some language lessons, health and safety...the usual when you're experienced jet-setters like ourselves! Haha.

We then moved on to Malindi on Thursday 9th July, and life just has not been the same since =] we're all shacked up with our host families and everybody is loving it - personally Najeeba and I are living with a lovely lady called Ramla (or Mama, as we call her!), her daughters Soraila and Zanib, and another one of Ramla's daughters, Mariam, comes over everyday with her sons, Izaat, who's 3, and Abdallah, who's 7. I swear I'm going to bring them home with me, they're absolutely adorable! And so cheeky - in a cute way! Our new family are absoluely lovely, and we're being so well looked after - I was planning on losing weight in Kenya but I don't think it's going to happen, the food here is so amazing and my family keep trying to feed me up - I'm going to come home about 3 stone heavier than I was, I reckon. Oh, and eating on the floor rather than sitting at a table and using fingers rather than cutlery is WAY better!

We had our community welcome on Saturday morning in a local hall, and it was an event to remember! I'm sure there will be an official post on it at some point (if the computers are ever fast enough to put it on!) but I'll just say a couple of things quickly about it. It started with a lot of introductions and speeches, and explanations of what GX is and what we'll be doing etc. Then there was a traditional dance by an amazing dance group called Tosha, and some pretty spectacular acrobatics, too! It ended up with a big lunch, which was tasty but just far too big - I was so stuffed. After the community welcome we went on a group jaunt to the beach, where some of the Pakistani's attempted to learn to swim - there's still a long way to go but people are definitely getting there! It was a really fun activity, and hopefully one that can happen frequently, seeing as most of us live only about 10 minutes walk from the nearest, beautiful beach!

Just so everybody knows who's doing what, I'm going to list the host homes and work placements =]

Host homes;

Ramla - Sabina and Najeeba
Saumu - Deborah and Rabail
Priscilla - Suzanne and Kiran
Nassir - Alex and Sarmad
Mariam - Salma and Maria
?? - Zaake and Raheel

Work Placements;

MEDA (Malindi Education and Development association) - Deborah and Najeeba
The Omari Project - Alex and Rabail
The Gede Health centre - Suze and Salma
Vision Magnet Theatre - Sabina and Raheel
Malindi District Hospital - Zaake and Maria
NUSRA - Kiran and Sarmad

Fingers crossed and wish us luck for the next few weeks!

x

Goodbye Glasgow, Hello Malindi! : )

Today the team are all headed for London, to begin the next stage of our journey!

We've all had an amazing time in Glasgow, which was evident from the atmosphere of our farewell on Tuesday! We had a great night, in a room full of all the people we've become so close to, and learned so much from over the last two months. I know the only way I'm coping with leaving is to not say goodbye, but to say thank you for the wonderful frienships and memories that I know will last a lifetime : )

Take care everyone, and keep in touch - hope to be back telling you all about Kenya very soon! xx

We loved working at PEEK!

Raheel and I had a brilliant time at our volunteer placement, working with children was a first for both of us and we were continuosly amazed and delighted by how friendly, fun, creative and inspiring the children were to be with. PEEK does a great job of using arts activities to build the skills and confidence of young people in the East End of Glasgow, and all the staff have been a great example to us of people who are commited and caring about the people in their community. They were all so generous in giving their time and support while working with them, and we'd both like to say a big thank you, and please keep in touch!

Have a look at the PEEk website: www.peekproject.org.uk