hither/thither A journal of my travels in 2008 I will be traveling to: New Zealand Costa Rica India East Africa

Well, here I am again about to apologize for my tardiness in updating and trying to put into words my latest experiences. I promise you, this time my excuse is good! AND: OH THE DRAMA, OH THE SUSPENSE!
Read on...
Where do I begin?
How about here:
Watoto Wa Baraka

After Deb left from Nairobi National Park where we saw some great wildlife we headed into Nairobi to meet up with the orphanage founder and supervisor who was to take us to the village of Pundamillia in central Kenya. We met up with another volunteer Mimi who happened to be from New York as well and headed out to meet the other two volunteers who were enjoying there day off in a small town I would get to know as it was the only place to go on our day off, Thika (famous from the literary connection "The Flaming Trees of Thika")
All together there were five us. Mimi from New York; Amy from all over the world (AMAZING! This girl is first class with tons of amazing/crazy stories including kidnappings in Sudan and Hotel diving in Mauritius); Niesha from Singapore and then Paul and I.
The orphanage houses 9 orphans (more arrived as we were leaving); Four staff members, two pigs, a handful of really obnoxious chickens a cow and a mother/daughter cat combination that was the bane of our existence; well, really it was the ugali that got to us the most...
The experience was a mixed bag that was mostly good.
The kids were AMAZING. Priceless. I fell in love with them and wanted to put them in my bags and take them with me.
Of course there were the stereotypical moments that come with working in remote villages. Dusty red roads and misty mornings. Our days were filled with digging, the never ending task of getting water from the well to use all day, then more digging, and getting to know the volunteers.
In the morning we would get up and have a piece of bread and African tea- hot milk run through a small bit of tea, almost chai like. If I woke up early enough I would walk with the kids to school. A small building about half an hour away along a red dirt path that was littered with TINY kids. I swear all the kids in the village were midgets. I've never seen such small children. And they wore these ridiculous hoods that made them look even more ridiculously cute. They were these hoods that went over their necks and head so that their faces peeked out of a little circle of yarn and of course to top it off the hood made a little point at the top so they resembled little forest ferries or something.
Kids would come running from their houses to shake our hands and say "how are you" in really high pitched voices. Like mechanically high pitched voices, like The Chipmunks. Anyway, most days I would walk Baby Joyce to school which was near the others, but she went at a different time. Once when we showed up they were just finishing morning prayer and so all 900 or so kids came screaming around us. The word for white person/ foreigner is 'Muzengu' so they would all be screaming that. The village kids were everywhere, some of them nicer than others, almost all of them wanting money to buy cake. Again, we are seen as dollar signs. I've gotten used to that.
Most of the kids said I was 'Hairy like a monkey' and tried to convince me that it would be in my best interest if I would shave my arms and legs and possibly even my chest. They loved to pull my arm hair and try to plate it. Little brats!
Really though it was a pretty magical time.
A few random memories:
Mimi brought binoculars with her and one night while letting the kids look through them at the stars and the moon I realized they were would all wave their hands just in front of them trying to touch the moon.
The chickens would not stop laying eggs on the bed in my room
In order to take a shower we would have to get water from the well and then scrunch into a small room at the end of the outhouses and pour the water over us. The stench of the toilets was sick and the red from the dust of the town that settled all over me would pour off no mater how many times or how vigorously I would scrub, the water all ways came off red.
At the end of the day the kids had to sit for an hour and do homework we would help them out by candle light since there was no electricity at first.
When they finally got electricity the kids were SO excited. they would turn the lights on and off and on and off and they LOVED to watch things charge. Seriously. When you would plug something in they would just sit and stare at it.
The village we lived in was Pundamilia, the houses were small mud or brick structures and each had a small garden attached. The town is crisscrossed with small paths and dirt roads. Children are always wondering around, crouched over picking at things on the floor or eating at unripe fruit.
All the local 'stores' and restaurants (called Hotels) and churches were mostly made of tin roofing and chicken wire.
I went to a small one for a 'trim' I tried to explain I just wanted a little cut off, but I ended up leaving with a shaved head. I swear the whole town came around to watch, pressing their faces and hands and peering in through the criss crossed wire.
One day we decided to take the kids to see a movie, which was really just a small shed that had a tv and vcr and some benches set up. The only movie we had was 'The Man From Snowy River.' It was so cute to cram all of us in there and watch it on this tiny Black and White TV!
For fun I picked up Basketball. I actually LOVE it. I'm looking forward to playing more.
On Mondays our day off we would all get up early and primp up as best as we could (Amy somehow always looked HOT and since I only have one pair of pants and two shirts I mostly looked like a red clay hobo. We would take the paths until we reached the Matatu stand and go into Thika. Matatus are basically just vans that people CRAM themselves into at ridiculous amounts and then they speed around and you fear for you life for half an hour or an hour or however long you are taking them while they blast R&B music. Usually the windows are barred so it's really easy to imagine them flipping and bursting into flames and your eminent death while some R&B song called 'Breathless' mocks you from the melting dashboard....
Oh wait, that's just me...
Needless to say it was a few weeks of my life that I will never forget.
We played A LOT of 'Would You Rather' (would you rather die this second or live for five thousand years, would you rather never leave the united states again or never ever go back, etc.)
I loved the kids, well all of them except one, who drove me nuts!
I had a few problems with the orphanage itself and if anyone would like to talk further about that, just let me know. But for the most part it was an amazing few weeks and I can't wait for something like that in my life again.

The day we left Amy and Nisha came into Nairobi with us and we all went and saw Indiana Jones and the Crystal Mask and had coffee and ate a ridiculous amount of food (I've NEVER had ugali since the orphanage. I hope to NEVER have it again...)

Paul and I stayed in Nairobi for three days basically just roaming around and taking it in. And then came the last few days...