June 27, 2007

I don’t really feel like I’ve talked that much about the orphanage and the kids. I thought I’d take some time and do that so you can know what its all about.
Our orphanage is in a rural slum in the city of Rongai, southwest of Nairobi. It’s not a very busy place at all. We live very close to the Maasai land, so we’re actually in the area between the city and the historic land. We’ve got a little less than 50 kids at the orphanage, and I think the majority of them are less than 10. Margaret told us that the oldest boy there was 14, but I’ve also heard that Joseph, one of the young boys, is 18. We’ve got a few babies, Esther, new baby Sarah, Moses and Charlotte, and they’re always there in the mornings when we get there. We’ve also got a trio of siblings, Eric, Rose and Njeri, who don’t go to school yet because they’re not officially orphans. Their mother is in jail for robbery and they’re awaiting trial or some sort of conclusion to see whether or not she’s coming back for them. If she won’t be able to care for them, I’m assuming they’ll eventually go to school with the rest of the elementary age kids. There’s Tabitha who is 9 years old but looks like she’s four. Before coming to the orphanage, her mother left her locked in a room all by herself for four years, so she has no communicative or social skills and never speaks. She makes noises and moves her feet and hands a lot, but she has no real way to communicate with anyone. Hers is a very sad story and because of her disability, she’ll never be able to go to school with the kids now.

Many of our kids go to school until 1 PM every day. These are our younger elementary kids (5-9 yrs, I think) and we spend the most time with them in the afternoons because they’re always ready to play and be outside doing things. The older kids, what would be our junior high students, come home in the evenings. We don’t get to spend much time with them which is unfortunate, because I think they’d need a mentor more than the younger kids. Most of the older kids can speak English pretty well, so it’s also unfortunate that they don’t get to practice on us. Many of them have chores when they get home because I always see them washing their clothes while we’re outside with the little ones.

I don’t want to pick favorites, but there are those that you love to see every day. There’s Lucy, a cute little girl who loves to play games just like one of the little boys. She’s very active and just as good as them (most of the time), but she’s extra cute since she’s a little girl. She’s missing her two front teeth like many of the kids are and she has no hair, like all of the kids. Sometimes its hard to determine who’s a boy and who’s a girl. But then there’s that one day where the little boy you were playing with the previous day is wearing a dress, and you realize you’ve made a mistake. So Lucy is one of my favorites and she’s probably 6 or 7 years old. I also really like a little boy named Peter (missing his front teeth, also) who’s probably 8 years old. He’s not very bossy or pushy and just likes to play, and that’s nice. He’s not over competitive or anything, but still very good at sports and always active. We found broken plates one day and they turned into fantastic Frisbees. Peter, John (a boy I like very much with crazy teeth, very similar to Peter) and I played Frisbee for two hours and couldn’t get enough of it. I thought they were pretty sweet too, so that was a good afternoon of play time. Then there are the babies. Esther is about 7 months old and has the biggest eyes. She’s got a regular baby body, but these big, beautiful eyes that just suck you in. I love looking at her and when she smiles its so fantastic because her eyes light up a little bit and it’s like the room illuminates. You don’t need a flashlight when you’ve got her around. She doesn’t cry often either which is very nice. Moses is our little old man. He’s about 2 ½ years old and I think a little behind his time. He’s always got great t-shirts on (“Millennium Kid,” “It’s all about Me”) and has been spotted wearing pink stretchy pants and pink warm up pants. And he’s always got a pee stain running down his leg. He usually always walks with his hands behind his back like an old, English man would do, and sometimes he’ll move one in front and stretch out as if he wants to shake your hand, but then he’ll utter something like “Duey” which we think means “Mizuri” or “good” in Swahili. He’s so funny and very fun to watch. Sometimes I think he’s bi-polar because he’ll be smiling and happy one second, but if you make a wrong move around him he’ll start screaming and crying and there’s no way to stop it. It’s very violent sounding and I think would scare away any burglar.

June 26, 2007

A lot has happened since my last blog. David, our volunteer from New Zealand, left last weekend and Ryan, our roommate with so many stories, just left this evening. His father and step-mom came into Nairobi and they’re leaving for a week-long safari tomorrow. I like both of the boys a lot, so it’s gonna be hard without them. Ryan has had the most random life with so many good stories so that’s something I’ll be missing a lot. Apparently he’s suing the government because he went to Iraq pre-war (it was illegal to do that) and now they’re trying to convict him of something and he’s retaliating. He’s also been on the Daily Show with John Stewart, worked as a card dealer in Vegas with a stripper, and has had loads of crazy girlfriends. He’s actually going to Indonesia in the fall for work, and he’ll be there for two years. He’s working in Roanoke, VA this summer though (again, so random), so Will and I are hoping to meet up with him before he takes off.

This past weekend Will and I and 8 other volunteers from GVN went on a hike up Mt. Kenya, the second tallest peak in Africa. When we first got to Kenya we heard a few of the other volunteers talking about it and figured it would be a good time. I also figured it would be a nice, semi-difficult walk around the countryside with great views and good exercise. Turns out that Africa gets cold and very wet during June, and in the mountains its even worse. We traveled around 50 kilometers total in the 3 ½ days and my body was in so much pain when we got home. Our first day, Will and I left home around 6 AM to catch the Mutatu from Rongai into Nairobi. We woke up around 5:30 so we could make sure all of our stuff was together, and because we were the first ones up that morning, we had to unlock the house so we could actually get out. I’ve mentioned before that we have seven kittens and their mother on the farm with us, but the morning we were leaving, we turned on the flashlight on our way out the porch and there on the ground with a big pool of blood right next to him was one of the kittens. This was one of the first things I saw that morning, so it took me a second to realize that the kitten had been attacked and that the red pool by him was in fact, his blood. There was nothing we could do and we knew that Esther and Manasseh would be up soon, so we just had to leave him there. On the couch on the porch was another one of the kittens, and he too was dead. Not bleeding, but not breathing. I immediately looked for the other kittens, and the five of them were hiding behind the couch obviously scared of whatever was out there. It was a very sad situation, especially since we couldn’t do anything to help him. When we got back, we found out that there is another stray cat that comes over and apparently he attacked the kittens. We got there around 7:50 and waited for the other volunteers to show up, and finally got out of there around 10:30-11. We had a 2-2 ½ hour trip to the National Park and in the late afternoon, we started our hike. We had about 9 km to go on our first day, and already it wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped. If you want to get to the top of the mountain, you’ve gotta go up, so that’s what we did. Finally we got to our first camp site (think small compound with 3 buildings, bunk beds, and a long room with picnic benches for meals), set up our bunks and grabbed some food. It wasn’t too cold yet, so we were all pretty comfortable and prepared for the night.

The next morning we woke up around 7 AM and headed to our next destination. Today was a longer day. We had to go about 12-14 km, but it was a much more scenic hike. Let’s make a note that I had no idea that I’d be hiking once I got to Kenya, or that I would need clothes for cool weather. My first couple days I just hiked in sweatpants and sweatshirts that I happened to bring, and my new balance sneakers that are now brown and muddy. I have great hiking shoes at home that I got for my semester abroad, so I was quite disappointed that I didn’t get to use though for my first, real mountain hike. Anyways, we hiked through muggy weather and muddy grass in the morning, but the afternoon got much nicer. We stopped for lunch at a great little resting spot with a wonderful view of the peaks we would conquer, and then continued. After lunch, the sun came out and we were able to enjoy the hike a little more. We didn’t have as drastic of an incline to deal with, so it was nice to just enjoy the walk and the valley we were walking through. We got to our next camp around 3 PM and had the whole afternoon to just relax, play cards, drink tea and sit around. I’ve been playing a lot of cards while in Kenya. I think I’m getting pretty good and hope that I’ll be able to play more when I get home. It’s a better social activity than watching TV. We had to get up early the next morning for our hike to the top, so we went to sleep right after dinner, around 7 PM.

None of us slept very well since we went to bed so early, even though we hiked around 7 miles the day before. We had to wake up at 3 AM for our climb to the peak. I had seen the mountain the day before and thought it looked pretty impossible to conquer, but our guide, Steve, was confident in our abilities. We got rolling around 3:30 and wow, was it difficult. I can honestly say that I’ve never had to push my physical abilities so hard. We were at a very high altitude (almost 16,000 ft) so our oxygen availability was lower than usual, and we were climbing up soft dirt at a 60o angle. Luckily, we couldn’t see the bottom or else I think many of us wouldn’t have made it or even attempted the climb. It was completely dark, but thanks to Mom I had a very good flashlight to light my way. We hiked and hiked and had to stop very often because we were so exhausted. My legs were in so much pain and I was furious with dirt and rocks, things that usually don’t upset me. They just weren’t supporting my body the way I wanted them to, so there was a lot of slipping and nervous climbing. Note: Steve, our guide, and the porters, carried all of our stuff while hiking. They put all of our bags together and carried them on their backs while we traveled with our water bottles and small necessities. These men were horses and could carry anything for any distance. They got everywhere we were going first, and faster. We also learned that Steve could go four or five days without food and water, but without a cigarette, it would be impossible. He pulled out a cigarette when we got to the peak of the mountain, and anytime we finished hiking for the day. Apparently he’s a machine and the smoke doesn’t affect his lungs and physical capabilities. We were hoping he’d come to America and run the Boston Marathon, all the while holding his cigarette in his right hand as if it was his adrenaline. So funny. OK, back to climbing. We finally made it to the top around 6:10 or so, and the sun came up a little while after. We didn’t get a perfect sunrise, but once the sun did get up, the whole region was lit up and absolutely gorgeous. I’ll never climb a mountain like that again, so it was great to complete that journey once and to have such a fantastic view. We stayed up there for almost an hour, and then started our descent. That was sooo much easier than going up. We basically just slid down the mountain. Like I said, the soft dirt was very difficult to climb up with, but climbing down was so fun. For a lot of the trip down, I just crouched on my feet and used my hands to push myself down. I used the dirt as a slide, and just flew down the mountain. You can also run down the dirt and because its so soft, you never really have to worry about your landing. You just have to take a few big jumps and the dirt catches you, but if you continue to jump and run, then you just fly down the mountain. It’s hard to explain, but it was so much fun. I think it was similar to snowboarding, the way you’re in the air and just landing in soft earth. I think they should put a lift on the mountain just so people and come down that way.

Because we didn’t have to do much hiking, it only took us about an hour (maybe) to get down the mountain. With all of our bounding, we had to take a few time outs, but the view was so gorgeous that we didn’t want to rush down. We got to the bottom of the mountain and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. We got ourselves some breakfast (French toast!) and then I took an hour nap before we left around 10:30. Yes, we had more hiking to do that day. On top of our extreme morning adventure, we had to hike the same trail that we had the day before. We did the 12 km in about 3 hours, but this time it was pouring rain and very, very cold. Luckily, I had my ‘Bike Vermont’ rain jacket, so my top stayed dry, but unfortunately I was wearing jeans and they just got completely ruined. I don’t think I’ve ever had an article of clothing get dirtier than that. We moved very, very quickly and took only one major break. I think that one lasted about 2 minutes, too. We pushed ourselves through the rain and got back to camp early. All of us were soaking wet, so we got out of our clothes and found what dry shirts and pants we could. Many of us just grabbed our sleeping bags and sat in them all afternoon. We spent the afternoon playing cards, drinking tea, and just staying warm. I slept very well that night and didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. I met three very kind people from the UK that told me about the train to Mombasa, and apparently I can get there, first class, for $50. It’s an overnight trip, but includes dinner, a place to sleep, and then breakfast the next morning. Will and I are thinking about doing that this next month because we’d really like to see the coast of Kenya.

We woke the next morning around 8 and our bodies were hurting. All of our clothes were still wet, but we put on what we had and started our descent down to where we started. It only took us an hour and a half to get down to the mountain, then we got all our stuff together, took one last group photo, and got into our Mutatus so we could get back to Nairobi.

We stopped for lunch at a bar along the road, and many of us just wanted some breakfast food. We saw the Mixed Grill Continental on the menu and asked the waiter what it was, and he replied with ‘eggs, bacon, sausage…’ I got very excited and a lot of us thought that sounded great. A big breakfast after a morning of hiking? Wonderful. We finally got our food about an hour later, and we realized why it took so long. Along with the sausage, egg and bacon, there was cow tongue, chicken, and random pieces of beef on the plate. Needless to say, we didn’t eat much of it. It was quite a surprise and definitely not what we were hoping for. We hopped back into the Mutatu and made our way into Nairobi. We had a long drive ahead of us, so we did what we could to entertain ourselves. After about an hour of having nothing to do, Mike, one of the boys on the trip, invented a card game that involved flipping a card on your forehead and having to guess whether or not it was the lowest, in the middle, or the highest. The game requires 3 people, so Will, Mike and I did that for a while. We had to make rules as we went along, because things started getting complicated and we needed to establish some boundaries. The boys lasted longer than I did because I eventually lost interest, but it helped in passing the time. We got back to Nairobi, thanked Steve, and headed to the junction where we’d catch the Mutatu home. We got home and had lots and lots of laundry to do. We had a lot of smelly, wet clothes to take care of so instead of coming home and just relaxing, we had to grab our wash buckets and take care of our clothes. I also jumped into the “shower” because it had been a few days, but it almost seems useless now because once we get to the orphanage, we just dirty ourselves up again so quickly.

Once we got back that night, we asked Esther about the kitten situation. She told us the little ones had been attacked, and now that their mother was watching over them, I figured they’d be safe. Last night, we heard another cat fight around 3 AM and I guess the neighbor cat was back. The fight didn’t last very long, but I woke up to count only four kittens. My favorite, the runt-calico with big eyebrows, was missing and still is. I’m hoping that he’s just hiding somewhere, but he’s so small that I think he may have gotten attacked or, eaten.

Ryan left us today. We thought he was leaving us on Monday, but apparently he got his dates mixed up and traveled into Nairobi to check into his hotel a day early. He popped into the Boma yesterday afternoon to let us know he had one more day until his Pops arrived. Because he was staying in a hotel for the night, we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of his hotel room. We all traveled into the city with him, took showers, got some lunch, and just hung out until his father arrived. We hadn’t been to the orphanage that morning, so we grabbed Mr. Clancy, stuffed ourselves into a taxi and headed to St. Paul’s. I mentioned before that Ryan’s dad was providing the funds to finish a building at the orphanage, so he wanted to stop by and see the place he’d be providing for. We hung out with the kids for a while and then headed back home. The weather has been very chilly lately, and it’s kind of inconvenient because I brought a whole lot of shorts and t-shirts and not much warm clothing. I’m hoping that it warms up soon because I think I’m losing any sort of pigment or color that I had in my skin before. And because I wasn’t prepared to be cold in Africa.

I think that’s all for now. I’m getting a little tired of the lunch food at the orphanage and wish they’d just let us go home to get food, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m beginning to lose my appetite and the idea of eating ngali makes me uncomfortable. It’s not something I look forward to. I can’t wait to go home and eat my favorite foods. Esther is still cooking good foods for us, so dinner is always nice. I never have to worry about that.

June 17, 2007

Ok, this is a long one.

The last thing I wrote about was our Tuesday afternoon adventure in Nairobi; I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. I was really good at blogging while on Semester at Sea, but because I have such limited time on my computer I don’t feel like I’m putting as much time in as I should be. So here it goes.

Our second week at work was easier than our first. We had Tuesday off and then only had 3 more days of work until the weekend. Wendy and Dave were leaving for safari Friday morning, so that was something they were looking forward to and we could count down to as well. We’ve been spending a lot of time doing laundry (the kids get sooo dirty) and we’ve also been watering the garden because we planted carrot seeds our first week. Other than that, we really don’t have many duties but we try to find things to do around the place. They have little arts and crafts things that we work on occasionally, but eventually your fingers get a little tired of that. Friday we arrived at work and Margaret, who is usually there every day, still wasn’t there. She’d been gone for most of the week and usually she finds random things for us to do, but there was no laundry or labor needed from us on Friday so we were at a loss. The orphanage gets all of its money from donations and is currently working on a new building with a new kitchen, storage area, and guest rooms. It’s basically just a concrete structure right now and nothing in it is put together, so its going to need a lot of work. The children that are at the orphanage are all very close and familiar with one another, and Ryan thought it would be a good idea to buy some white paint so the kids could add some flavor to the building. We didn’t have enough time on Friday, but I’m hoping that we can paint the building soon so the kids can add their own personal touch to the place. Ryan’s father is also donating funds to the orphanage to help them finish the construction of the building, so that’ll be great to see if anything comes of that in the next six weeks.

We went to the Boma for about an hour on Friday, and on our way to water our crops, I saw a couple of the boys holding a young goat (or kid) and moving him. Usually this goat is always hopping around and making noise, so I was confused as to why he was letting the boys get near him. Then I walked over and noticed that the goat was very sick and apparently, dying. They laid him on some rocks and basically just sat there staring at him because they didn’t know what was wrong with him. I found this very difficult because you could tell the animal was frightened just by the look in his eyes, so I sat down and just gently rubbed his tummy for a while, hoping to make him feel a little more calm. We tried to get him to stand up on his own, but it was as if he was paralyzed and his entire body was useless. He couldn’t hold up his neck or stand on his little legs. The boys thought he had an African goat disease and suggested I hurry up and go wash my hands before I got sick, but I really didn’t think it was that big of an emergency. There was nothing I could do for the goat, so after 10 minutes or so I went and washed myself off and tried to find something else to do, but I was eventually lead back to the goat during its final minute or living, and sadly he died. I don’t know how African orphanages handle baby goat deaths, so I just left and went to play games with a few of the girls. Next thing I knew, Moses Walker, one of the young boys, walked by me with a big knife and I had a bad feeling. Then I see Boss pulling Ryan away because he really wanted to show him something. And shortly after that, Boss is running around with a kidney or liver in his hand, and I knew crazy stuff was happening. I never went over to see, but the boys told me that they had dissected the kid in order to see what killed it. I guess they found like ¾ of a bar of soap and that could’ve made him sick, but we’re still not sure if that’s what made him meet his end. So that was my first baby goat dissection and I’m not sure I’ll ever really need to witness one first hand.

Because Wendy and Dave were leaving for the weekend, Will and I thought it would be a nice time to take Mr. Phillips offer of a weekend at a hotel in Nairobi. We headed out Saturday morning (Ryan dropped us off at the Mutatu) and took our trip into the city. We called the Sarova Stanley hotel Friday and made a reservation so we were all set when we got in on Saturday. We went and stopped by VICDA (Volunteer Interns Community Development- Africa, GVNs partner company) and I picked up a couple packages that my Mama sent me (thanks Ma). We had this big plan of going to a Japanese restaurant very close by because we love our Asian food and really wanted some Teriyaki chicken with white sauce. Lonely Planet told us it was right around the corner, and we spent 10 minutes looking for it, but it was nowhere in site. We stopped by close hotel and the concierge told us that it had shut down. Then I looked at when the Lonely Planet was written, and the most recent guide book was April 2006. Needless to say we were pretty disappointed, but we stopped by a Chinese Restaurant and had some food there. We got to our hotel after than and wow, nice surprise. We had heard really good things about it, but it was a beautiful hotel and definitely for American and European tourists. The exchange rate here in Kenya is 1:64, so our money goes a long way. A night in a 5-star Kenyan hotel is probably a third of the amount that it would be in the states. We had a great room, great service and SHOWERS. It was so wonderful. I would have liked to stay for a couple nights, just so we could see what the hotel had to offer, but one night was great. We went to Carnivore that night, which has apparently made the world’s top 50 restaurant list a couple times, and it wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. We both admitted that we weren’t hungry enough or awake enough for the experience, but we just didn’t find the food to be that good. It’s the same style as a Brazilian steakhouse, where men with pieces of meat continuously come by your table offering you different types of meat, but the thing with this restaurant is that it’s supposed to be exotic. Because of gaming issues and endangering species, the only exotic food we were able to try was ostrich meatballs and crocodile. I tried both and really enjoyed the ostrich, but wasn’t as into the crocodile. Our hotel arranged for us to be driven there by a cabby who would wait until our meal was finished, and then to drive us home as well. His name was Charles and he was a very friendly guy, so that was very nice of him and the hotel to do that for us.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. We woke up a little too late for the included breakfast, so we ordered some room service and I had an awesome Turkey Club. Emphasis on the awesome. We were thinking about going to a movie, so we went to go check out times and what was playing, but there really weren’t any options that interested us, and we figured we’d be better at spending our day just exploring some of the city. We stopped at an African Art shop and got a couple tapestries for 50% off, so that was pretty exciting. I had left my USB at the internet café the day before, so we went to go look for that too, but unfortunately everything is closed on Sunday, so I think that may be lost forever. We stopped by the Hilton Hotel just to see what that was like, and it looked like a very impressive place. We just wanted to go check out the pool area, but then we decided to stop and have a drink at the bar, and then that turned into a late lunch. So we had a pretty relaxing afternoon, and after lunch we just headed back to the hotel, gathered our stuff, jumped in a Mutatu, and headed home. We got back to Esther’s and Manasseh’s place around 5 and walked into our room and found it very, very clean with new sheets and a non-ant infested floor. That was exciting. I also found my bottom retainer, alone. My immediate thought was that Naomi a.k.a. Baby, went shopping in our room again. So I asked Esther and she was like, “Oh is that the little thing in the purple case? She took that, I don’t know where it is now! Tehehe!” So I’m a little nervous about that and hoping that it shows up soon and that the chickens aren’t chewing it up.

June 13, 2007

We’ve been in Kenya for just about two weeks now. Our first week of work was a little hard to get use to, but now we’re in the swing of things and understand how the people work over here. We went to work Monday and Margaret was actually in Rongai for the day, so we didn’t have too many duties to tend to. There also weren’t as many children that morning as they’re usually are, so it was an easier day. We stopped at the Boma on our way home as we usually do, and James, the young man who works in the orphanage office, was there. He was very kind and at first I didn’t recognize him, but finally Will told me who he was. We were just heading out the door when he tried to stop us (we told him we had a curfew) because apparently he’d ordered a t-bone steak from the mystery kitchen in the bar and wanted us all to try it. We had no time to chow down on the beef, but the boys tried it and then kindly told James that we’d have to do that for real sometime.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays in Nairobi there is a large Market. From traveling abroad with Semester at Sea, I got use to the whole ‘market’ extravaganza and figured there wouldn’t be anything that interesting there. So we went to Nairobi on Tuesday, got some more Shillings, paid for our Mt. Kenya trip (hiking adventure in 9 days!) and had a delicious meal at Trattoria, the nicest looking restaurant in the city. We’ve been eating African food for a while, so we treated ourselves to some spaghetti, delicious pizzas and tasty bruschetta. Then we headed to the Market and it was pretty much what I expected. Lots of stuff that people really don’t need, and a lot of vendors pretending to be your best friend and offering you ‘good price’ because you’re a student or because you’re a special person. I bought three bracelets for 200 shillings (he wanted 500) and Will bought a Djembe for…too much. I got upset with him because he’s not good at bargaining and just too nice of a guy to haggle with the vendors. He needs some lessons I think.

Although Nairobi is only about 30 minutes away, we were coming home during ‘rush hour’ and I was a bit nervous about getting home on time. I didn’t want to upset Esther again, so I was a little tense on our way back. We didn’t leave Nairobi until about 5 PM, and we had to catch a Mutatu to get home. Mutatu’s are vans that run back and forth from the cities and they’re basically like a very fast and crazy carpool adventure. You just pick random people up at different stops, and each van only holds 14 passengers. Will, Wendy and I had to catch one just as it started to rain and as everyone was rushing home. It’s a tough process, but kind of fun because you gotta be aggressive so people know not to push you out of the way. It took a few minutes, but we finally found a van and were able to get on. Fortunately, we got to Rongai around 6 PM and walked back home from there, beating sunset by almost an hour.

Week Two Complete

June 10, 2007

We finally hit the weekend yesterday. Our first week was tiring, but we got through it and we learned a lot about how people work here. We’re spending a lot of time at the orphanage and I think it’s taking up a lot of our energy.

Friday was exciting because we knew the weekend was so close. We just had a little bit of laundry to do in the morning, but while we were working on that a few white people came to visit. Muzungos (White people)! It was very odd to see Americans after only interacting with Africans the past 10 days and the four of us were taken by surprise. Note: Dave, our New Zealand volunteer, is homesick and went to Nairobi for the weekend. Today is his birthday, but we’ll be interested to see if he actually comes back or stays his whole 3 weeks. But we were just sitting and washing when we see an older man walk into our orphanage with his video camera and big photo camera, and immediately we didn’t like what he was doing. A younger man also came by with his camera just to take pictures of the place, and the four of us just kind of felt like they weren’t doing anything beneficial to the orphanage. They didn’t stay long and we were happy about that. A young American girl who goes to school at a local University came by and introduced herself because she apparently comes by once or twice a week. She didn’t have a big camera, so we were OK with her. After they left and we finished laundry, we started a little arts and crafts project which was nice because we’d just been doing a lot of manual labor à Thursday we spent a lot of time planting carrot seeds (just one seed per hole!) and we’ve been taking care of them and watering them since then. Gardening is hard work, especially in a very disorganized orphanage that has a garden full of weeds. Will and I will be here two months, so hopefully something will have grown by then and we can see the results of our hard work.

We left Friday and headed to the Boma, the little bar right at the end of our street. We get sodas there during our break every day, but we figured our first Friday deserved some Tusker beers. Margaret, the woman in charge of our orphanage, has three daughters (19, 23, 24) and we just hung out with them for a while and they told us some things about the orphanage and Africa that we didn’t know. We’ve been told a couple times that it’s not safe to stay out past dark, but we just weren’t ready to go home as the sun was setting. We stayed at the bar until about 7:40 and got home at 8, and that was just too late. Esther, our mom, was worried and we all felt really bad about it because she’s the nicest lady and only has our best intentions in her heart. So we figured out quickly that we won’t be having any late nights anywhere, and that we’ve gotta be home by sundown so we don’t worry Esther and Manasseh.

Saturday came and we’re not required to work 6 days a week, but Margaret thought we were coming and I guess she was planning on it, so we figured we’d stop by the orphanage for a couple hours. Well, two hours turned into 4 ½ and I figured out we’ve gotta be a little more upfront about our decisions and how we feel about our Saturdays. After we left the orphanage (she made us eat lunch because there was plenty for everyone) we headed to Rongai, where we stopped by the internet café and the grocery store. We got back an hour or so before sundown, and just hung out and watched the huge rainstorm that we had last night. It was awesome- the lightning was so bright and the rain was so hard. It lasted throughout the night, and its always wonderful to sleep while its raining. I told everyone that I was going to run to the nearest field and just sit under a big tree during a thunderstorm sometime because I think it would be so peaceful and just awesome. It’s my African dream, and I have to fulfill it sometime. How often we get to shower also depends on how often it rains, so we usually bath the day after because we know there’s enough water for everyone and what needs to be done around the farm.

Now it’s Sunday and we’re all just being lazy and its wonderful. We woke up for breakfast, Wendy and I did all the dishes in the kitchen, we all took showers, and now we’re just enjoying the day. Will’s allergies are bothering him a lot and I feel very bad because there’s really nothing he can do. I’m just hoping he can adjust soon or else it’s going to be very difficult for him.

I also forgot to mention that Toto’s “Africa” was playing as we walked into our host family’s house on our first day. It was a remix of it, but still very funny because any song could have been played at that moment, but it was the one about ‘blessing the rains down in Africa’ that made the cut.

First Week in Rongai

June 4, 2007

Today is day three with our host family. I know I jumped ahead quickly, so let me recap what has happened since Saturday.

We had to pack up all of our stuff that morning because we were moving to our host families that afternoon. We spent the afternoon in Nairobi taking care of business such as buying cell phones, SIM cards, using internet café’s and whatever else we needed. We had lunch in the city at a place called Gawa Restaurant or just Gawa something and it was interesting. They had chicken, beef and fish on the menu, but they were all out of chicken and only had one kind of fish…and it was still on the bone. About 64 of their shillings equals one of our dollars, so with a drink, lunch would only cost about 100 shillings- very cheap.

Before we departed, we all just lounged around a parking lot with all of our bags and awaited departure. After an hour or so, we all piled in our designated vans and began dropping people off, one by one, two by two, to their host families. The day before, Will and I found out we were going to work in a rural slum area, so we knew we wouldn’t be very close to the city. It took a couple hours, but we eventually made it to Rongai, the town where our host family and St. Paul’s Orphanage are located. As we’re driving up the road, the mountains of the country came into view and they were gorgeous. It was so exciting to know we wouldn’t be in the city and that we’d have a great view for two months. Eventually we found the house, pulled up to the gate right off the dirt road, and immediately you see a long driveway and lots of pink and purple flowers. We got inside and saw the dogs, cows, crops and large area of land and immediately knew we’d be spending our time on a Kenyan farm. The place we’re staying at is run by a family. An older man named Samuel lives in the main house, and we’re staying with his son, Manasseh, and his wife Esther, their daughter, Naomi (who’s either 1 ½ or 3, apparently her parents don’t agree on the age), and Esther’s sister, Therea, in the house that Manasseh made on his father’s land. They are very kind people and very welcoming. Their house consists of a large living room with many couches that form a square, perfect for company and conversation, a kitchen and two bedrooms. When we first arrived they referred to Will and I as “the couple” which was kind of silly, then they gave us our own room, but with two twin beds of course. Later, Esther was asking me how long I’ve been married and I was just like “uhhh…I’m not married.” “engaged?” “no, he’s my boyfriend.” She didn’t mind that we weren’t married, but when I told her that I was only 21 she was like “oh that’s the right age to get married,” and I did my best to explain that in the United States, we get married much later.

We had a great dinner our first night (Esther is a professional chef). I’m assuming they took one of their chickens and created our feast. They always serve us rice with lunch and dinner because it goes so far. We just hung out our first night- there wasn’t anything for us to do so we just lounged and eventually went to bed around 10:30. There is no electricity in the house, except what is provided by the generator that runs when the sun goes down. But they do have TV and a DVD player for evening time. And our bathroom facilities consist of an outhouse and another outhouse attached, but without the hole in the ground for showering. I just took my first shower this evening and it was wonderful. I got to wash my hair and I think it was much appreciated by my follicles.

Sunday Will, Ryan and I went to church, but we woke up to a fantastic breakfast first…fresh eggs! We hit the 10:30 service (note, nothing in Africa starts on time so never arrive early or, on time) but it didn’t start until probably 11. It consisted of a lot of dancing and singing, but they did their best to include us so we wouldn’t feel so awkward. They introduced us as one point (Samuel is the preacher) and welcomed us all. I think they’re very happy to have visitors and I know their children are because they never stop looking at us. Service ended around 1 PM and we just went back, had some lunch and hung out until Manasseh took us into town (over the river and through the woods, literally) and we got some snacks and jugs of water so we’d have that when we needed it. It took probably 2 hours to walk into town and get our things and come back. We were all pretty tired, but dinner wasn’t for a couple more hours, so we headed down the dirt road into an area where there are stores on the side of the road (3-5 maybe) and walked into a bar. It was one of those experiences that you’ll never forget. You pull back the sheet that represents the front door, and you’re in a very small room with lots of young African men, a bright glaring sun, and a woman behind a caged area no larger than a Port-O-Potty who is serving the (warm) beers. They were excited to see us and I think we spiced up their evening a bit. We got a couple beers and just hung out, watched them dance and tried our best to talk to them. David, or Davi, the young man I was sitting next to, was 22 and was asking me if I knew how he could sell a golden egg he had. I wasn’t sure if it was actually golden, or if he had a very golden colored egg that he was nervous to eat. We finished our beers and wanted to get home before the sun set, but it got dark on our way home. Oh, I forgot to say that we got another girl in our group, Wendy, who apparently got left behind while we were getting our bags together and departing. So the five of us walked back, had dinner, and just about passed out after that because we were so exhausted. I was so, so tired and it was wonderful. We had a busy day and it was great.

Monday was our first day of work. We had spoken to Margaret, the woman who runs the orphanage, on Sunday and she told us that we should just come when we finished breakfast. So we headed over around 9 AM (Manasseh gave us a ride on his way to town) and soon arrived to the orphanage. The town we are staying in is very poor, but I wasn’t expecting what I saw. The orphanage is hardly a building. It’s a large shack that consists of a few rooms—a TV/Eating room, boys sleeping room, girls sleeping room and a storage area. There’s also an office, a kitchen that is under construction, another kitchen (basically a wooden shack that has a place to boil water) and an office, which is the cleanest place on the property. We spent the morning trying to find our place and did what we could to let the children become more comfortable around us. The boys helped with a lot of manual labor, while Wendy and I tried to get to know the children. They were a little hard to break in at first, but eventually you start doing puzzles with them and asking them questions and they become more comfortable, or at least I hope they did. We also sifted a lot of corn and deciphered between good and bad beans (hand-picking from a bag of thousands) that they would later use as food. So we did some labor for a while, but then we found some jump ropes, had lunch and then the five of us went up the street for an hour or so to get some Coke’s and just hang out for a while. After our break, the afternoon was much easier. We came back and many of the children, who were at school in the morning, were now at the orphanage. So we had a lot of playing to do (Will got to play soccer with his African boys, very excited about that). Wendy and I did a lot of jump-roping—the kids are actually very impressive, they were doing some tricky moves, and we just played other games that we could think of. I played catch with a girl named Lucy, five years old, and she could throw better than anyone at that orphanage I think. It was great because she was wearing a very foofy dress, but could throw and catch like a champ. We stayed there until about 5:30 and then it was time to go home. Margaret wants us gone by 5 every day (or so, I guess) because the sun sets and it’s not very safe for us to be wandering around in the dark. When we’re all together though, we’re fine. So we got back and I took my first shower/wash down since arriving. It was a little difficult, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I got to wash my hair and that was exciting. After that, Ryan, David and I washed some of our clothes (by hand, of course) and I learned to appreciate the washing machine so much. I offered to wash some of Will’s things, but after doing my own I figured he’d appreciate it much more if he had to do it himself. So now I’m here, after having finished dinner, and we’re just sitting in the living room watching a little TV… “The Unit” specifically, which I don’t think is even on in the states anymore, and I’m sure we’ll go to bed early tonight because we had such a long day.

Kenya Summer 2007!

June 1, 2007

It’s Friday now and I started my journey to East Africa on Tuesday the 29^th. My parents packed Will and I into the Land Cruiser and brought us to Dulles Airport. We didn’t have any problems getting our tickets or getting through security (took less than 5 minutes) so that was wonderful. There’s always a risk of long lines and possibilities when traveling through Dulles. We got to our terminal and had about an hour and 20 minutes to spare, so we parked ourselves in a bar (Moe’s) very close to our gate and had a couple beers and a snack. We ended up talking to a very nice man from Vermont who was once a chef but had to turn to designing kitchens because of an unfortunate elbow accident. We got to talking about our plans for the summer and he was very excited for us. Usually when we talk to older men and women about our Africa plans, they emphasize how they wish they did something like that when they were younger and had the time. It makes me feel pretty good about taking advantage of the opportunity. So we chatted with him (never actually exchanged names) but as he was leaving he was very sneaky and paid for our bill as well as his own. A very nice move. He said that it was the least he could do for the things we were about to do.

Our place took off on time (6:55) or close enough and we headed to London. Will and I were sitting in between two very nice older women, one from Gainesville, VA headed to Athens and the other from London, heading back home. They were very entertaining and interesting. The one from Gainesville had an Italian lover she was telling me all about and the British woman loved her wine and suggested we accept as much as we liked because it was all free (thank you British Air). The flight was roughly 6 hours, but it wasn’t bad at all. We slept for a while and arrived in London around 7:15 AM. Our next flight was to Nairobi. We took off around 10:45 (a little later than planned) and made it to Kenya in 8 hours. We managed to get seats next to each other so that was nice, and we sat next to an older woman who reminded us of our grandmothers (Harry Potter is witchcraft and ungodly). My friend from Semester at Sea, Perry, was also on our flight. The three of us got picked up from the airport by a VICDA representative (an African man named Joseph, and a man of little words) and from there he took us to our home stays. We dropped Perry off and then Will and I were dropped off in an area called “Garra,” in the city. Currently, we’re staying with two sisters, Judy and Deborah, and their brother George, who actually lived in New Jersey for three years. They live in a small apartment with two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, kitchen, and area to hang dry clothes. They have running water and hot showers which is wonderful, but Will and I are staying in a bunk-bed room right now with some dusty beds and no pillows, so I’m hoping our permanent home will have something soft for me to lay my head on. Our first night there, Judy made us some supper which consisted of rice and cooked vegetables and then we headed to sleep. She told us that orientation would start tomorrow and that we’d be picked up by 8:30, so we got to bed around 12:30 our first night.

We woke up the next morning and got some breakfast (hot cocoa, two small pieces of watermelon and two slices of bread…I miss bacon and eggs already) and we got ourselves dressed and ready for the day. 8:30 came and no pick-up had come yet. Then 9:30…10:30…and soon enough it was the afternoon and Deborah came home and told us today was a free day and that orientation didn’t start until tomorrow. Whoops! So Will and I spent a lot of the day inside, making lists of our Top 10 favorite songs, reading some Harry Potter, playing a little Game Boy and just hanging out. We got outside for about 30 minutes and grabbed a coke, but we were told we shouldn’t be wandering around by ourselves because we obviously stand out very much and we were in an unfamiliar area. If I was alone it would have been a very, very boring day, so it’s great that Will and I are together. So the afternoon came and went. I had a nap which was wonderful and then we just had some supper and went to bed around midnight. Pick up would be by 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Orientation Day:

We went to bed excited that we weren’t going to the spend next day inside and all alone. Because we went to bed earlier than usual and didn’t do anything the day before, we both woke up really early (roughly 5:30) and did our best to fall back asleep, but it took a little while. I figured we’d just wake up with the sun in a few hours, ready to take on the day, but at 10:40, when I finally woke up, I shot out of bed, woke Will up and we both were very confused. Someone was supposed to have come and gotten us 2 hours ago…

We got up and asked Judy what was going on and she said that today was a working holiday, so not many people were working so we just had another day off. I knew that couldn’t be right, so we borrowed Judy’s ‘pay-as-you-go’ cell phone and made a call…they had forgotten us! There are roughly 40 volunteers starting on June 1 (twice as many as usual) and they had just forgotten to pick us up. Within 10 minutes, our driver was here and Will and I were off to orientation. Luckily, we didn’t miss much. Anything that was mentioned could be covered in a few questions. So it was actually nice- we got to sleep in and didn’t have to worry about missing information. As for the people volunteering, we have a lot of Americans, Canadians, UKians, a couple Aussies and Kiwis and I believe one Japanese girl. We all had a late lunch that afternoon and it was great to meet a lot of the people, but it’s sad because we only get to spend one more day together before we all get split up into our assigned areas. I only just met these people, but I liked a lot of them very much and would like to get to know them better. Everyone had some interesting and funny stories to tell.

As for placement, Will and I, a Canadian girl named Wendy and a young man from New Zealand named David are working together at St. John’s orphanage in a ‘rural slum’ area. We’re all living together too (we’ll move in tomorrow afternoon/night) so it’ll be interesting to see what our accommodations are like. Tomorrow will be a busy day; I’m excited to go out and see more of the city and spend some more time with the people I met today.