Kenya Project – answers to exercise 2

1 26
2 All of them except for one student from her school, (all but one), so 24 were fresh acquaintances.
3 Very important – Laura says it pulled them through the trip – they told jokes and stories when times were hard, to keep people amused or cheer them up.
4 She says she was described as ‘posh’ and ‘aloof’.
5 1) Laura jokes about not having wept into her pillow ‘every night’ (ie cried herself to sleep), and also states 2) that there were ‘an awful lot of tears’ on the trip.
6 That 1) some had never been away from home, even to London, and had never been away from their parents for more than a day and that 2) the trip was a huge experience, and a bit of a culture shock.
7 That some felt as if they were hiding their feelings and themselves, because they had ‘no-one to cry to’ so they kept themselves to themselves – ie withdrew, and kept their feelings private.
8 In general the boys were stronger and fitter than the girls – and Laura mentions that some of the girls had been smokers before going on the trip, and had given up smoking; they struggled the most with the physical demands of the work.
10 The ex-smokers’ commitment – that they were determined to contribute as much as they could to the project, and work as much as they could. They resisted the temptation to stop when the work became demanding.
11 They had 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off, (so they worked for 30 minutes out of every hour).
12 As slow-going.
13 They spent the first 2 days getting from the airport in Nairobi to the site, travelling through the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
14 4 days
15 To avoid walking in the mid-day heat.
16 Because as they descended into Rift Valley it got hotter and hotter – unbelievably hot.
17 That they met people ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and had no idea where they had come from or where they were going, and why they were there.
18 That they 1) didn’t like people just walking into their villages 2) were curious about foreigners and 3) were a bit scared of them 4) were friendly
19 That they were 1) very forward, that 2) it was difficult to know whether that was all they could say, so it was part of a language problem, or whether 3) they’ve learnt that people are generally more willing to give children things than adults (implying that they might have been taught to ask for things from passers-by.)
20 They ran alongside asking for sweets and money.
21 ‘tugging at your heart-strings’
22 No, not at all – she says it was really hard work. It was definitely not a holiday.
23 1) not to drop out 2) to expect really hard work 3) to make sure you are extremely fit.
24 No, not really – she agrees it is probably just a one-off – she doesn’t see where she could fit in another such project once she is involved with university and paying for her studies.
25 She will remember what we should be striving for and should be sorting out, that there’s something wrong with the world – ("something can’t be right") that there are such extremes, and such a level of inequality between people’s circumstances.