Sylvia dabbles in some gardening on the Odula family farm of Rusinga Island in Kenya. The farm's main crop is maize, which features prominently in the local cooking.

Fed up with the endless grey and drizzle of a London winter and the monotony of my office job, I decided it was time to finally make my African dream a reality. For some time, I had been entertaining thoughts of roaming the Kenyan savannah on a big-game safari, but I was also keen to get to know the country and its people on a more intimate level, not merely scrape the surface as a package tourist.

Having done some volunteer work in Papua New Guinea a few years previously, I knew I wanted to do something similar, so I set about finding a place to work. After checking out the WWOOF website and writing to various organic farms in Kenya, I learned about a small island named Rusinga on Lake Victoria, where the Odula family run a small organic farm and orphanage. It sounded perfect, so I quit my job and went over to help for a few months.

Quickly into the Local Swing
I was picked up at the Nairobi airport by Mr. Odula’s brother, Evance, who insisted on carrying my backpack on his head as we weaved our way through the city to the local bus station. The bus was packed, but I squeezed into the back next to an old lady and her chickens and watched the preachers who hopped on to praise the Lord, and herbalists trying to sell their natural cures.

After nine hours, after nightfall, I arrived in Homa Bay, where I was picked up by the town minister and taken to the Odula family’s town house. Mr. Odula had been rushed to hospital a few days earlier as his diabetes had been causing him trouble and the family agreed that we would travel together to Rusinga Island in a week, after the hospital checkups. We stayed in a compound, where the pump was switched on every other day, so we often ran out of water. We cooked on a wood fire and washed in the yard using water from small bowls. I played with the children, went to town to buy groceries and bedded down with the grandchildren each night. The electricity would cut out at 9pm, so in the evenings we relied on candles for light.

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