Just as a bit of background I'm sure having read every other blog published so far that you have discovered that we have not done as much 'work' as expected. This not through a lack of trying! Nicolas, our guide and local pastor, thought that the trip was more of a holiday than some of the reprobates of the group carrying out their community service and so did not plan much in the way of physical labour.
Anyway, everyone awoke with a hope that friday (our last chance of work due to other planned activities and trips) would be different. The plan was to dig out a series of drainage gutters surrounding the African Inland Church (AIC) compound where we have been staying to help the flow of crap and rain water away from housing and in to the sewage system. This was an engineering project to measure up to the excavation of the channel tunnel due to the amount of dirt and rubbish that had accumulated in the guttering! A local pointed out halfway through the day that the job had apparently not been done for 14 years, although none of us were sure whether to believe him or not. Throughout the day everyone (minus Kevin and Andan who decided to shirk their responsibilities and spend the whole day at the internet cafe sorting out uni places) did their bit digging in the gutters and sifting through piles of soil to extract the stinking rubbish. By 5pm and with some help from a couple of helpful locals we had managed to clear approx 100ft of drainage guttering aswell as picking up numerous blisters, cuts and scratches. It is safe to say that everyone who helped with the work found it one of the most rewarding days of the trip and hoped that the local community would be energised by the effort we had put in and would continue to clear up the local area.
The next part of the day promised to be very special and a well earned reward for the groups effort, a trip to 'Carnivores' one of the best restaurants in Nairobi! For some reason everyone dressed up for the event as if we were going to act at being a civilised group of young men and adults (obviously quite hard for certain people!)
We set off in matatu (You have been given the definition) watching Charlie Chaplin while listening to Reggae which was a bizarre experience but also strangely good entertainment.
On arriving at Carnivores we half expected to see Zebra, wilder beast, antelope amd other exotic animals on huge skewers but were slightly disappointed that they only had Ostrich meatballs. This blow was softened by news that the restaurant staff would continue to serve us until we surrendered! The general consensus was that we will never surrender!!! The first to give up was Julian after about 5 pieces of meat while at the other end myself (Ian), Paul and Dominic all ate about 29 pieces. A special mention must go out to Jamaal who according to r\those sitting either side of him consumed at least 35 pieces. I must also point out that we were forced to surrender as others wanted to get dessert before we left! However in retrospect this was a wise decision as we would surely have had problems at both ends on the bumpy 20min journey back to the hostel.
Fortunately for us a walk had been planned for the next day for us to burn off all the excess calories!
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