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.