Fort Simpson (Dec 19/03) - There will be no pile of gifts under the Christmas tree for Jennifer McInnis-Wharton, but she's not complaining.

She's among people who have much, much less.

The 2003 Thomas Simpson school graduate is in Kenya with the Canada World Youth Exchange. She is living with a host family in Bungoma, a town in the western part of the country.

Working with the Hope Foundation, she is assisting in the effort to improve water quality, sanitation and educate the public about the dangers of pesticides. Many people in the area live in squalor. Like everyone else, McInnis-Wharton is washing from a bucket of water. Going to the washroom starts with making a hole in the ground, she wrote in an e-mail to the Drum.

Conditions are cramped as tiny makeshift shacks are only a few feet apart and many people "basically live in piles of their own garbage," according to McInnis-Wharton. Livestock are everywhere. There are also numerous children begging in the streets.

"It was a difficult sight to see," she said. "But apart from all the poverty, Kenya is a beautiful place, very colourful and full of cheerful people. I love it here ... yesterday I watched my host sister pluck my supper-chicken. It is different when you actually get to see where your food is coming from." Although they haven't been meals, she has seen a zebra and a family of baboons. She's also enduring the stifling heat. One day last week it was at least 36 C and she's already got a sunburn.

In two months she will move on to Tanzania for 60 days. There, she will be learning about forest conservation.

She became interested in the youth exchange program upon hearing about it from a friend.

Travel is not entirely new to her as she lived in the United Arab Emirates for three years and has also visited England and Peru.

But Africa has been a unique experience so far, she acknowledged.

"I'm having the time of my life and learning so many new things all at once!"