I’ve been here for 4 weeks already! Seriously, it has been 4 weeks and I only have 3 weeks left. How did that happen; I’m only just getting settled in! School has finished for the year so I’m off to another placement, which means I’m leaving Mlolongo and my new Kenyan family, Joseph, Geraldine and Ann :-( I’m going to Gathiga Children’s Hope Home, which is closer to the city. I’m going to be staying with a woman named Lucy and her family (husband, daughter, son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren). She runs two orphanages; Gathiga is the bigger of the two I think. I will be able to update you properly once I’m there. I leave here on Saturday and will be taken to orientation where I will meet the new volunteers who will be coming to Lucy’s too (3 of them apparently). I’m excited but nervous too. I really love it at this home stay so it’s going to have to be pretty good to be worthy! No pressure ;-)
Caitlyn and I went to the Massai Market on Saturday. We went to the arcade at the Hilton first – there are two souvenir shops with a good range of nik naks for reasonable prices. It saves you having to barter and basically having to negotiate your way around the market and its ‘enthusiastic’ sellers. We went there to get an idea of what things should cost then went to the market. Caitlyn had been there before so had an idea where to go for certain things. I was really expecting to be accosted by every market seller and was trying desperately to remember any self-defense moves I had been taught lest I had to use them to save myself. Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. Sure most of the sellers called to you (“Sister, come and see what I have for you”) but a quick “no thank you” usually did the trick. To those who got in our way I looked at them apologetically and said “Lo siento, no hablo Inglis” – Spanish for “I’m sorry, I don’t speak English”. If anything, it left some of them a bit perplexed and we could get past. Heh. I ended up with a few nice things for me and for family and friends (no, I’m not telling, Christmas presents should be surprises) and was quite happy with my small haul. I will attempt another trip closer to when I go home. I went back to the Arcade for a few little things and Caitlyn headed off to a BBQ in Karen with the boys. I called our loyal, not-going-to-rip-me-off taxi driver, Jacob and headed back to Mlolongo. Shicko (Joseph and Geraldine’s daughter) and Mercy (her cousin) were at home so we chatted for a bit and watched a couple of movies, well, as best we could anyway. Now the there is a TV at home but the satellite is not working so they can only watch DVDs. Problem with that is the DVD player doesn’t like to behave properly very often and will usually get stuck several times along the way or just decide to stop altogether in which case one ends up going back to the beginning. Most frustrating when you’re near the end of the movie! Anyway, it was a nice quiet evening and the first night that I’ve been here that I’ve had a room to myself so I read for a bit then drifted off to the land of nod.
Lala Salama
Sunday
Most of the family was gone by the time I got up but Mercy was still here as she was going to be picked up by her father early afternoon. Ann headed off to church so Mercy and I hung out for a while. We were watching something on DVD when the power went out. It has done that before for only for a couple of hours so I was expecting it to come back on fairly soon. Hmm, no. We played Go Fish and I tried to teach Mercy to play Last Card (see previous blog for more details on how that went!). 1 o’clock, the time for her to be picked up came and went. I went to have a shower, read a bit and still no father to pick her up. Ah, ok, want to watch a movie on my computer? Yes, please. The Princess Bride it is, you can’t go wrong with that. About 3:00 I was a bit concerned that something may have happened so she phoned him to see where he was. On his way, he would be here in about half an hour. Cool, good, thanks. The battery was running out on the laptop and the power still wasn’t back. Grrrr. An hour later she phoned him again on my phone that had about 10% left. Yep, on his way. I guess this what happens in Africa, ‘ish’ time. Caitlyn came home about 5 and Mercy was still here waiting for her dad. The battery had finally run out so she missed the end of the movie. She fell asleep on the couch while I read. Finally her dad arrived. 5:30pm. Only 4.5 hours late, no worries. And still no power. Might as well go to Connections then :-) Two of the Boys, Caitlyn and I went to have some dinner and drinks as it was Bryce’s last day in Kenya. It was really busy as Sunday is Family Day there. While sitting at a table by the pool a crowd of people accumulated on the other side. One seemed to writing the conversation down and another had a gun on him. Police. A local guy told us that an 11-year old boy had drowned in the pool earlier in the day :-( and the police were taking statements. So sad. We had to vacate the area so went inside and played some pool. Sometimes I’m really excellent at it, that night I wasn’t.
The time came to go home as Bryce had to pack and head off to the airport, bye Bryce :-( We caught motorbikes (quite like those now) home and had a quiet evening. The power had come back on by the time we got home. Phew, quick, charge EVERYTHING!
Lala Salama
Monday/Tuesday
Monday Caitlyn spent the day with Jordan doing various clinic things and stayed at Mary’s (the Boys’ home stay) that night so I had a very quiet day, which I don’t mind at all. I remembered I had brought my hard drive along so watched a few movies into the night. Lala Salama
The next morning I was up early so I could go to the school in the Mukuru kwa Njenga slum that Joseph and Geraldine are involved with. The slum is about 20 minutes drive from our place in Valley View. It is one of the largest slums in Kenya with over 100 000 residents. A railway line runs through it. Ann came with us so she and I could go into the city afterwards. We drove part of the way but the ‘road’ into the slum is not great and we ended up with a puncture. Lovely day for a walk I think. We got to the school, which is in a tin shed room and doubles as a church. The kiddies were just adorable! There were about 25 of them, all around 3-5 years old and they were so excited to have visitors. Everyone but Ann and I left to preach in another church nearby so I read some books I had brought along. After about 4 books, we sat back while they sang songs. So cute!! The classroom had some benches for the children to sit at, a small blackboard hung up, a couple of posters and all the kids had exercise books and pencils so they could do some work. It’s so little but they seemed happy. There was a possibility that I was going to go there for the rest of my time in Kenya but I’m moving to the orphanage. It was lunchtime then so the kiddies headed out or grabbed the food they had brought with them. There were a few little ones who wanted to stay in and hang out with us. As usual, they were intrigued with my white skin and different hair. One little girl in particular stood close by me and we tried to talk. She had some of her lunch and decided I should have some too so she fed me. Beans and rice; it was good actually. Lunchtime is 2 hours and then the kids have a half hour sleep so Ann and I said our goodbyes and were taken to the matatu stop to catch a bus into town. As usual it was a crazy drive. Wildly entertaining.
We got to our stop, wandered through a big market (I was most tempted to do a little shopping but resisted. There were some really nice shirts and…no, must not shop) and got into the city. I recognized the Nakumatt I had been to before so we went there. I said to Ann I was looking for DVD players but she didn’t click. We went upstairs, found the DVD players and I told her I was buying them a new one. She was very shocked and so excited! We found one on special that was sure to work far better than the temperamental one they had at home. The look on her face was so wonderful. She gave me a huge hug as we left with the new purchase.
I shouted her lunch then we went to a supermarket to buy a few things – rice, bread, eggs, chocolate, chips; you know, the essentials. She was just so grateful. We headed home with heavy bags and happy hearts.
We plugged everything in and marveled at how it all worked. No skipping, no stopping, no spitting the dummy of any sort. Excellent. She tried all the DVDs that hadn’t worked before. It was a wonderful thing to see her so happy. Joseph and Geraldine were really grateful too. I felt so good. Santa must totally love his job!!
Lala Salama
