So much has happened in the past week or so its almost hard for me to recap.  I will give you all some insight into what my days have been like here. Excuse the bad spelling or grammar that may occur below, i am tired today.

Home: Wallace’s House

I am living in Naivasha, Kenya, about 1.5 hours driving from Nairobi. Its a small town. The downtown is a few main dirt roads (its pretty much a grid), where you will find the grocery store, shops selling all kinds of things, restaurants etc.  My favorite restaurant is “Smiles” where you can get a chai tea (these are big here) or some good food. I got some fried tilapia, chapati (like naan) and kale all for about 2.5 dollars. I also go downtown to go to the Navis, the grocery store for snacks or to use the internet. Yet sometimes while there the lights will go out (thats not rare).

Walking down the street in the downtown area you will see rather shanty one story buildings, a lot of dogs around, vendors selling fruit and vegetables, much trash, kids playing or adults walking. Safari com and Zain are the big cell phone companies and EVERYBODY has a cell phone. There are many advertisements painted on buildings or billboards and signs for establishments where you can “top up.” The cell phone network consists of track phones so you just add minutes. There is very little infrastructure for sewage, landlines or wireless. You can however go to a “cyber cafe” and get on the internet for about 1 shilling a minute. One US dollar is worth about 80 shillings. I often walk the 25 minutes up Kenyatta Avenue to get home or call Elliot, who takes me home on a motorbike (this is very common) for about 50 shillings. Motorbikes (aka bota bota) are like taxis and you will see them congregated downtown waiting to transport people home/work. Besides the Matatu’s and motorbikes, there are men providing transportation on the backs of bicycles as well.

On our way home we see chickens, cows, donkeys carrying water, stray dogs and  children playing. English speakers or white people are called Mzungu’s, so while me and other volunteers are walking, kids may shout “Mzungu” or “Hello, How are you?” If I am alone  I suppose people regard me as just another Kenyan. This is one place it is definitely an advantage having black skin. Locals see whites and think either donation/tourist, dollar signs, immediately try to sell them something or rip them off. I can always get a cheaper price or a lot less hassle then my white counterparts. One day this guy charged us 20 shillings to literally drive us one block  because we did not know where we were going and instead of pointing down the road, he decided to make a buck. I just had to laugh at that one. I gave him ten for being clever.

People on the street will try to sell yogurt, bracelets, sausages, candy and everything but the kitchen sink. If you are in a Matatu (van) you might have to wait a while to get to leave for your destination (up to 45 minutes) and maybe 20 people come to the windows to try to sell things. I think one of the guys was also trying to wink at me, but instead of winking, he just kept blinking. Which made me bust out laughing.

I live with the family of Wallace which includes his wife Lois and three daughters Vicky (19), Ester(15) and Bonice (13). Ester is away at boarding school, Vicky is going to college for business administration (and walks us around and makes our breakfast) and Bonice is in secondary school. Lois works at the nearby school and Wallace does private transportation and thus spends most weekdays in Nairobi. I am volunteering and sharing living space with Rebekah, who is an Aussie from New Castle, Australia. We  both have our own room and we share a bathroom in a two room addition to the main house.

Everybody, except Vicky is gone by the time we eat breakfast. Its usually chai, bread, butter and fruit. Lunch we could eat at school which would be Kale and Ugali or we grab a snack downtown. When we get home, Rebekah and I may chat, read, listen to music, wash clothes or do our short exercise routine of jumping jacks, crunches, push ups and squats with our 10 litter bottle of water. We are always starving but dinner is not until after 9 pm. We have tea at about 7:30 and chat with the family about our days. We may watch tv before or after Dinner. Kenyan TV is the worst, the TV shows are either Philipino or Mexican soap opera’s or kenyan tv shows which all consist of bad acting and look like they have been shot with a home video camera. The news is in English for the me most part and is good to watch. Its kind of strange for me to see black people dominate in ever aspect of life here, that total opposite of the US. Yesterday Lois, taught us how to make Chapati bread and instructed us on how they make kale and this mashed peas dish that I love. Expect some when i get home.

The only drawbacks of living here is they have dogs that howl all night outside our window and rosters that crow from the crack of dawn on. I haven’t really gotten a decent nights sleep. They also have flushing toilets which is a real plus.

Work: Monica Memorial

I volunteer at Monica Memorial a day orphanage for low income children from 4-12 years of age.  Its about a 30 minute walk from Wallace’s. There are about 60 children separated into 4 classrooms. Its started 7 years ago as a feeding program for street children or children whose family could not feed them. Seeing another need, they started to provide the children with basic education in hopes of preparing them for government school. Many parents can not pay for uniforms, books and supplies so the children are not able to attend public school.

At Monica, I teach math, science, social studies, christian education and I have been able to do some poetry. These are the most well behaved children ever. With a shortage or teachers, they sit quietly doing workbook work or teaching each other while they wait. When it is time to eat they wait for everyone to get served before they dig in. This is impressive since many of them have not eaten since lunch yesterday. One of my saddest teaching moments was when I was teaching social studies and their next lesson was on child rights – and these rights are  food, clothing, proper shelter, love, medical care and school. It was hard trying to teach them that they had rights when many of these rights had been violated.

My two favorite classes are level 2 and 3. These kids are a bit older and their English is decent. In class three there is Samson (my favorite), Peter, Simon, Emma, Tabitha, Sarah and Evelyn. In the second class there is Brian, David, Maturi, Helen, Mwani, Julius, Maureen and Gladys. This class is funny because they know less English, so when I speak they look at me bewildered for a minute, talk amongst themselves in Swahili and then answer.

Besides teaching, I help the Carolyn, Samuel, Lucy and Monica make porridge for breakfast and kale and ugali for lunch.     This is always fun, we sit around and discuss our cultures and they teach us some Swahili. In between classes we play games like duck, duck goose, hop scotch and yesterday we had relay racing. I was training the next generation of Kenyan runners. Rebekah taught the children the song old McDonald and they sing it perfectly now.

Today was my last day at school. It was sad…even more sad than leaving Guatemala. These kids captured my heart. They sang for me and Rebekah for about 2 hours straight. What a gift. I have come to serve and they have given me a much greater gift.  I was almost in tears thinking about their life conditions. Many of them sleep 10 people in one room. It seem like we are leaving them to destitute lives….yet they have more joy than i have, wear a bigger smiles than my best one and are so eager to learn. We bought them books….and when they saw them all of them jumped out of their seats and immediately wanted to start reading. I could even hear the children from the class next to me reading and re-reading one of the books out load to each other.  I can say hands down that the best part of my trip thus far has been interacting with children from all over the world. It puts the best sight to shame.  Unfortunately most of us would rather see sights than feed children.

Play: Safari

Last weekend, I went on Safari and it was amazing. We went to Masai Mara near the border of Tanzania and saw so many animals its hard to remember. Its a national park and mainly a vast grassland sprinkled with trees and far I the distance are hills and a river. The BIG FIVE are the most important to see – Lions, Elephants, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino – These have been the most hunted in the past.

We drove for 1.5 days through the game park looking for animals and observing them up close in their natural habitat. My favorite were the pride of lions, there was a young male and female and they had 6 cute little cubs. Sometimes we were less than 2-3 feet from them. We stayed in our van of course, but the lions paid us little attention anyway. We also saw two kings and another lion eating a wildebeest. This time of year is the end of the wildebeest migration, so the landscape was painted with thousands of these.

Other animals we saw: Giraffes, all types of antelope and gazelles, hyenas, warthogs, all types of birds, cheetahs, hippos, crocodiles and more. Our tour guide Joseph knew so much about each animal and he gave us detailed information like lifespan, eating habits, gestation periods and many many stories.

In my van were two other volunteers, a girl from the states studying in Nairobi – Gavriella, two Japanese guys (Cushi and Collie) and a Korean couple (Sori and Tucker). The Japanese guys would instinctively yell ”whoooooaaaaaaaaaaaaa” anytime we saw another animal, and we obviously saw a lot. It was too funny.

We slept in a Masai camp in these nice huts that surprisingly had flushing toilets, how showers and running water, not what you would expect in the middle of no where. I wouldn’t sleep though because of all of the animal sounds and the Masai men traversed the camp all in for security. I heard their footsteps all evening.

The third day we went to a Masai village and I was led around by the son of the Chef Samuel. Their village is surrounded by thorn branches to keep out the animals and their houses are in a large circle with a common area in the middle. They have an area surrounded by thorns to protect sheep and cattle from other animals. Because of all the animals within the village there is dung everywhere.

The homes are made out of cow dung and trees. I went inside one and it was very dark and hot. They were making tea with goats milk when I arrived. The Masai people have a small diet of milk, which is sometimes mixed with cows blood and sparingly they eat meat.

The Masai men all wear red wraps over their shoulders and walk around with a staff. The women have very short hair and colorful clothing and jewelry. Both groups performed a traditional song and dance for us. Many of the villages sell wood carvings and jewelry so we went to the market to buy some of these hand made goods.

Next, we went to Lake Naivasha for a boat safari and also got out onto an island and walked with the giraffes, wildebeest and zebras. On the last day we visited Lake Nakuru, which is a lush national park known for its rhinos and birds. We saw many monkeys, flamingos, pelicans and rhinos.

Kenya winds the award for best wildlife on my trip thus far, hands down.

Randomness

Since squat or whole toilets are rather common, I have become better at using them and my aim is great if I do say so myself.

One of the Kenyan guys I met on safari (Jackson) had lots of questions for me about America and black Americans. It was quite amusing and interesting cross cultural exchange. Questions such as: How do black Americans feel about Africans, are you all angry we helped sell you into slavery? Later he remarked that black Americans, though they has suffered slavery, were now much better off than your average African so perhaps we had paid our dues and it was all worth it. –Interesting commentary—

He mocked our so called “ghettos” because they have running water and flushing toilets and they are basically like middle class here. He also noted that I only the 15^th black person out of hundreds to come and volunteer with their organization and proceeded to name them off. He was saddened and troubled by this statistic. I ventured to say that volunteer tourism is largely a white middle class industry/luxury.

We talked about music, food, crime, social issues and the differences in culture. One of my most interesting conversations in Kenya.

When I tell any Kenyan I am from the US, they smile wide and usually say “Obamaland,” they are really proud of Obama and his Kenyan heritage.

Last week, I also went to visit an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp in Gilgil. These are people that have been displaced because of violence that occurred after the national election 3 years ago. There were killings and civil unrest for a short period. Three hundred plus people live in this camp of basically tents. They are afraid to return home and are waiting for the government to help them. Volunteers there built a school for the children there which we visited. Many of which have no shoes, are covered with dirt and lack proper medical care….yet beautiful as ever. We also helped with the HIV/AIDS testing that occurred there that day. Unfortunately one third of the persons tested that day were positive. These are the harsh realities here.

There seems to be so much suffering in Africa that it makes you feel powerless.  Sometimes the burdens are so heavy you can only shrug and walk away….but we cant, we just can’t do nothings