Cabbage and Manchester City

A BBC researcher, Nejra Cehic recently visited Kisii (as reported on previous blogs) and visited our children at the Twiga children's Centre.
She interviewed some of the kids who had helped to prepare our new vegetable plot.
The conversation went something like this:
NC: Aloys, did you help to plant these vegetables?
Aloys: Yes. I like carrots.
NC: And Dennis, which vegetable do you like?
Dennis: Cabbage.
NC: And what do you like Esther?
Esther: Cabbage
And it struck me, how many children in the UK would prefer cabbage with a selection of 10 different vegetables to choose from?
To be fair, some of the Twiga children had never heard of, or had only seen but not tasted, many of the vegetables we had sown, but cabbage?
And I wonder what UK children would make of sukuma and ugali, especially if it was the only food on offer?
Later, Nejra asked some of the boys which football team they supported:

Edwin: Manchester United
Aloys: Arsenal
Dennis: Manchester City
No Chelsea or Liverpool supporters then. But again, these children don't have television, so they cannot watch their favourite teams. But Man U has supporters the world over, don't they? I was a little surprised by Dennis's answer though!
The two broadcasts can be heard here. If you have never seen the living conditions of orphaned children in Kenya, it is worth a listen. There is also an audio slideshow

BBC features KCIS & Twiga Part 2

Last Sunday saw the second and last feature by BBC Radio Berkshire on KCIS and theTwiga Children's Centre in Kisii on the Clare Catford show. It can be heard on iPlayer here, rolling it forward to about 2:37:00

It featured the voices of some of the children, Aloys, Dennis, Edwin and Esther, as well as a group of the children singing.

The BBC Radio Berkshire website also features an audio slideshow and a short writeup about KCIS.

BBC features KCIS & Twiga Part 1

The first part of the feature on KCIS went out on BBC Radio Berkshire's Clare Catford Show at about 8:44, last Sunday.

The spot included recordings made in Kisii, with children reciting poetry and singing, as well as their reporter visiting the home of two of the chldren in our care.

The feature can be heard by clicking here and winding forward to 2:44:00

A second part will be broadcast this Sunday (16th August) at about the same time, with more reports from Kisii and a studio inteerview with yours truly.

If you are in the Berkshire area, listen in and hear some of our children in Kenya, or you can pick it up later in the day on the BBC iPlayer.

KCIS on the radio

There is excitement in the KCIS camp as the broadcast date approaches for a feature to be run over two weeks on our local BBC radio station.

It was pure luck that we got the slot. A researcher for the station was going to Kenya with a charity that she volunteers for and as luck would have it, she was being sent to Kisii, where we are based.

On of her colleagues had been following our blog and pointed it out to the researcher, and we were contacted.

We had a meeting and off she went, with contact details and a broad outline of the activities of KCIS.

She has now returned with loads of sounds effects, interviews with the Twiga children, poems, songs, etc., and she is now compiling the feature, the first being a short slot this Sunday, comprising all pre-recorded material, followed the following week by a live interview with yours truly.

This is not the first time I have featured on local radio for KCIS, but this time, it is far more structured and much better prepared. I just hope that I hold my own in the live segment - I am not a natural public speaker.

Time will tell.