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Mary writes...

...about her experience while volunteering in the Orphanage program.

Diary Entries

· Orphanage (20th August 2006)
· Friday (21st August 2006)
· Friday (27th August 2006)
· Upcoming safari :'D (8th September 2006)
· Safari 1 (11th September 2006)
· Safari 2 (12th September 2006)
· Teaching (17th September 2006)
· Wallet (24th September 2006)
· Winding Down (29th September 2006)

Orphanage (20th August 2006)

Dear everyone,

HaHa! I found an open cyber cafe on a SUNDAY! Beat that.

The orphanage, New Hope, is a bit of a distance off the main road, which means dirt & lots of bumps. It's a fenced-in compound, and it's much bigger than I thought it'd be. There's a main section of room, where two buildings join together. The main sitting room, or Mama's room, has a staff room and a bathroom and toilet coming from it. (The bathroom has the first mirror I've seen since I left Nairobi.) Out the main door of Mama's room, you have 3 choices: straight to the girls' dorms down a hallway; right to the open grass & a cement patio (of sorts) where people, usually adults, hang out, sort rice from chaff, do each others' hair, or feed the chickens (who have the run of the place); or left, to a space between the two buildings, leading to the shed and the dish-washing section on your left, or to the new kitchen on your right. As you enter the compound, there's a lot of open space, and a makeshift soccer field has been set up, with goals made of posts and trees with sticks held between them. Kids are usually out here, either playing footy, sitting & talking, or lying on the grass. By about 5 pm, I'm usually lying there too. :)

As you keep entering, a wall divides you from the boys' dorms, outdoor bathrooms & toilets for both sexes, and a large enclosed space where all the laundry is washed and hung to dry. The kids do all the laundry, as well as the washing of the dishes, and they're very quick & effective at it.

In the back of the compound is the garden, where they grow carrots, cabbage, kale, rosemary, & maize for the cows (who graze to the left & back of the soccer field, and who occasionally get loose. There's also goats, but I don't think they're penned anywhere, really- they seem to have the run of the place as much as the chickens, especially the babies. ^_^)

So we drive up, and as soon as I'm out of the car, a little girl in a dirty lavender party dress & a tan winter parka with leopard fur on the inside has grabbed my hand & is walking with me. (She's Ruth- demanding, yet cute.) I had another one on my other hand very fast, and they both came with all of us to Mama's room. We were introduced to Ann, who runs the orphanage, and 2 of the 4 volunteers already stationed at New Hope: Ruth (different Ruth) and Carl, both from Caimbridge in England. Things are pretty quiet in the morning, so I found an older girl to give me a tour- the little ones came along & kept shoving herbs in my nose for me to smell.

Communication with the kids isn't perfect. The older ones speak English well (go, public education), but the younger ones usually only have a command on a few phrases. All speak either Kiswahili or Kikuyu, the language of the locals. (Kikuyu is the largest tribe in Africa, btw. The Mwangis are Kikuyu.) My modus operandi is to keep talking to them in English, no matter what- my smattering of Swahili comes in handy, especially when first meeting someone. I've had several one-way conversations with Ken, the oldest boy in the place who speaks Kikuyu exclusively. I think the most successful one was where he was examining marks and bumps on his fingers, and I showed him the warts on my fingers. He smiled. (Points for the muzungu ^_^.)

After that initial introduction, we were left to our own devices. Gerardo had his (very short) hair braided by some of the girls, which was amusing for everyone. I had brought 3 books with me: The Fortunetellers, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and Horton Hatches The Egg- so I just sat in the main room and started reading to one girl. That soon gathered a crowd, and as soon as I was done with one book, I'd be passed another one to read. They especially seemed to like the voices of the characters. A little girl told an older one, who then told me, that if she could read like I could, she would be proud.

The volunteers eat lunch in the main room, while the kids eat in the new kitchen- a big tiled room with lots of plastic chairs and two different-sized tables that are always being rearranged. The first day, lunch for them was white rice and potatoes, while lunch for us was chapatti (fried pancake made with maize flour- tasty!), white rice, and potatoes with shredded cabbage and carrots. And tea. There's always tea. :)

There were some visitors coming to see the orphanage from Nairobi, so after they came (around 1) and were given a short tour of the orphanage, everyone gathered into the new kitchen with all the kids facing the back wall and windows, and the visitors (and us volunteers) facing them and the door. Thus commenced a presentation: the whole group sang several songs, most about welcoming and God and Jesus (He's Got The Whole World In His Hands is a popular one with the kids); three kids came forward and gave a speech in unison about loving them and taking care of them; a girl recited a poem personifying Africa as a broken, tired woman, complete with hand movements; and the Scouts presented themselves (very well organized! Lots of timed movements & marching) and gave the Nairobi visitors small plastic flower bouquets. The head visitor gave a speech about how great it was to see the kids and how they were God's gifts to us (the visitors were 6 middle-aged women, very well-dressed). We prayed twice. Ann announced to the kids that the women had brought blankets (cheers), clothing (cheers), and bread (pandemonium). Ruth explained to me that bread is their favourite thing, closely followed by milk and fruit. She's never seen them eat cheese. They get meat (gristle, really) once a month, and very small fish when it's available- mostly it's just starch & vegetables. Yes, the cogs are turning in my tiny brain. :)

After the women left, no one really wanted to leave, so Gerardo and Sarah started salsa dancing together (quite well, I might add), to the joy of the kids. This morphed into a round of musical chairs, with music provided by Gladys, a very tall thin older girl, with a paint stick, the heel of her hand, and a wooden cabinet. This then turned into a dance party, with the 3 of us as featured performers. I danced several times, to very loud cheers (great for one's self esteem, seriously), as did Gerardo, and then Gerardo and Sarah together. The kids danced as well :'P. It was great- I'd do some move and the entire room would jump up and start copying me. I ended up on the ground twice, I think, with these 6 year olds chanting something along the lines of "Get lower, get lower now." Someone tried to bring in a radio, but our beats were so much cooler, so that idea was scratched after a bit. We got another girl with a spoon and the cabinet, which added to things.

When my head really started swimming, I went outside and hung out on the soccer field for a bit, mostly being quiet and trying not to be hit by flyaway balls. We decided to head home, so a few girls walked us to the main road and showed us how to hail a matatu (same as hailing a cab in NYC, just stick your arm out.) From Garariga to Gatarama costs between 10 & 20 bob- any more, and you're being ripped off. Sarah and I were put in the back, with Gerardo in front of us, talking to the money taken who spoke pretty good English. It was nerve-wracking, but not terrible.

We got off, walked the distance home (it's not far, but it's noticeable), and almost got lost but found our way thanks to the trees in Mama's yard. In essence, they're truffala (sp?) trees, a la The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Seriously, they are.

I don't remember what we had for dinner, but generally, dinners have been white rice, cabbage and other vegetables minced together, potatoes with maize and beans- that sort of thing. I'm really hoping for ugali or sukumu wiki or something- meat would be a godsend. The bananas in the morning have been good though. :)

The boys usually eat in the unidentified bedroom at the end of the hall, watching some movie. I don't agree with David's taste in movies (Be Cool, John Q, Maid In Manhattan which we may be watching tonight), but that's ok. Mama still gets on my case every night for not eating enough (they eat SO MUCH here, more on that later.)

Friday (21th August 2006)

We had to get up early Friday, since Gerardo and Sarah were going on safari, so John would get me to the orphanage in time for them to be in Nairobi at 8:30. Unfortunately, I slept like a rock and my door was locked, so I didn't wake up until past 10. Woops. I dressed very fast, and luckily, Phyllis was still home. She walked me to the matatu stop (where Garariga meets the road) and took me to Nyambala, a small strip mall stop, so she could buy minutes on her phone, and from there we walked to Gatarama. We talked a lot on the way- she taught me some more Kiswahili phrases, and we talked about school and boys (she has a boyfriend, but she'll finish school before thoughts of marriage.)

The kids were happy to see me, since I was the only volunteer around for the afternoon. It was Clare's birthday (volunteer), so there'd been cake and all the English volunteers had headed out to Nairobi for the weekend- they went to Carnivore, a well-known eatery in Nairobi. I'm very jealous. I brought out my 3 new books- Only One Cowry, The Talking Eggs, and The Magic Gourd- and people pounced on them. I found the keys to the volunteer's room (Ruth and Carl stay at New Hope, while Clare and Rich are at John's house) and snagged the markers, pencils, and paper. I planned on taking them outside where all the kids seemed to be hanging out, doing laundry, but I was waylaid & taken to the new kitchen, which turned out to be a better place for drawing anyway. Several kids followed me in, and I started drawing a picture of New Hope, complete with a sheep, chickens, a sun, and a soccer field with kids playing. They all drew the exact same thing! From there, I tried to mix things up- under the sea, outer space, two elephants, a lion & a snake in a flower field- but they were very intent on the house. I have several copies of pages from Horton (which was left there from the night before)- one girl really liked tracing, which was fine by me. Ken (the Kikuyu one?) drew me fish- I think. Grace (older girl) was creative & drew pointy flowers. The kids loved giving me their drawings & hearing me say how good they all were. I required names on ones that I received. :) So now I have a stack of drawing on my bed at home!

The days are going to start to run together, I can tell right now. Other things I've done with kids... I tossed around a nerf football with a boy, and we kept hitting chickens and people. I've learned two hand clapping games from girls. I've learned to identify gender, you look not at the hairstyle, but at the legs and then the hands- if it's a girl, there's a good chance she's wearing a skirt, and if she's not, she'll have on nail polish. Anyway, at New Hope the odds are with you if you guess female. They only started taking boys last year, and there aren't that many. (New Hope was founded in 2000.)

There are a lot of name repetition- loads of Anns, Esters, Mercys, Marys, some Cecilias, several Terezias. I swear, every single boy is named John. There are two *new* kids who were brought in the day before I came- the girl is 3 & the boy is 1 1/2, but they're so malnourished that a) they look like twins, and b) they look like newborns. They weren't named when they were brought to us, but on Friday, they were given Antony and Ann. Antony cries a lot, and looks vaguely reminiscent of a Troll Doll. They're both very popular with the older girls, especially with my friend Ester who wears a purple hat and a foam cat mask on her forehead. I held Antony for a while on Thursday and sang to him.

Oh! On Friday, my friend Mary (quite like me- wants to be a surgeon, does well in school, Scout leader, sings in a lot of groups) and several other girls wanted me to sing for them. I started out with Goodnight My Someone, and they started asking if I knew songs. Get this- they know the entire scores of Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, and about half of The Lion King. They even know the obscure songs- I Love To Laugh, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria- it was great! So we were all singing together, and then they sang a few songs for me, mostly church-based stuff. They knew When You Believe from Prince of Egypt too. Mary's seen Harry Potter (I assume the first one, but I don't know), but she's never been to a movie theatre. Ruth is looking into taking the older girls to a movie on Tuesday.

I rode the matatu home by myself quite successfully, paying only 10 bob (yay!) and not getting lost. I was yelled at by a lot of kids while walking home ("Muzungu! Muzungu!", jumping & waving & sometimes following me.) It's not a derogatory term at all- from everyone I've talked to, Africans love seeing white people. I'm going to go with that one.

I sat outside the house, reading over some of my kids' books, and I had 2 sets of 3 kids come into the yard to greet me. They were all very skiddish and giggly. The first 3, two girls and a baby strapped to one girl's back, came to where I was sitting. I read them a story about Asante, and they listened very attentively, considering they don't speak English at all. :) Mama came out and talked to them for me. They left, and a second group of 3 came, I think 2 boys and a girl, and they just laughed a lot. Joseph talked to them for me.

Ok, flashing back a bit to answer some questions that you guys have asked me in emails: I've only been to Limuru proper once, on Thursday I think, when I went into town to get access to a computer. David took me on the matatu. It's not very far from Garariga- I don't remember how long it took. For reference, Nairobi is a little under an hour's ride for 50 Ksh. My impression of Limuru was confusing- the streets weren't in a very set pattern, and we seemed to go into alleyways and end up in completely different areas of town.

When I was in Nairobi, all the homes were within gated communities, or had individual metal doors or gates outside the buildings. A lot of shops are multi-purpose- clothing shops are usually located in one building with several levels. All the shops are very small. There aren't any clothing trends on the streets or in the windows- people wear what they have. During the day, all the business types wear suits and ties, and the women wear pant suits, all very dressy. In general, there's a lot of black, brown, beige, tan- darker colours. On the other side, there's men wearing neon print Hawaiian shirts, so it really is a mish-mosh of everything. Most people wear flat shoes. If the women wear heels, they're low and chunky- think Payless Shoe Source circa 1993. There are internet cafes available- you just have to be willing to walk a block or two to find them. Basically, they're a large room with lots of computers. You click on Internet, Games, or Word Processing to begin, and the timer starts. Most places charge 1 Ksh/min, but I was in one that charged 2 Ksh/min the other day. Either way, it's dirt cheap & very accessible. The connection speed isn't perfect, but it's quite good.

Neither Mama nor Bwana Mwangi hold jobs. Mama is a housewife, and Bwana is doing a lot of community service right now. Mama belongs to several women's groups that meet to talk about AIDS, poverty, women's issues, etc. Ann works for voter registration in an office somewhere. She's gone all day, so I don't see her until late at night. It's unfortunate, because I'd love to talk to her more. She and David have the best English, so it's not a struggle to make myself understood, and conversation can go past pleasantries. There is a general election for president, town council, and Parliament members next year. Everyone I've talked to says that the current president won't be re-elected- he's old and hasn't done the things he promised to do.

Friday night, I couldn't sleep AT ALL. I went to bed around 9:30 or 10, and by 12:30, I got fed up and went outside to walk around the house. The stars here are *incredible*-- like absolutely nothing you'd get at home. :)

Shopping for the kids (August 27th 2006)

WE HAVE PHOTOS. Oh yes oh yes we do.

I didn't know if my cameras had made it through the airport X-rays with film intact, and I shot a random roll and had them developed, AND THEY'RE TOTALLY FINE. Which is amazing. There's a great shop for developing in a 4-story mall (of sorts) right next to the matatu stop in Limuru- 1 hour photo development, 300 bob. *Awesome.* I spent the hour shopping in Cleanshelf- a bit of a third-world Walmart- though I could've done internet too, since there's a cafe in the mall as well. Bit of a slow connection, though.

Hmmm. I've just discovered small fluid-filled bubbles on the heel of my left hand. That can't be good. Oh wait! They peel off. I'm going to chalk that up to my sunburn. :) My tan line is so ridiculous- from about an inch above my wrists up is always covered by clothing, so only my hands are achieving any kind of colour. Looks like I'm wearing gloves.

ANYWAY. News. (There isn't much of it.) Thursday & Friday were both quiet at the orphanage. I've resigned myself to the fact that things will just be quiet for the remainder of the kids' vacation. I keep asking where people are, and everyone says tutorials- morning classes for extra money- which is possible, but really unlikely, seeing as how a lot of little ones are missing as well.

I've been fighting the doldrums of quiet mornings by learning how to take a knife to various unsundry vegetables. I'm getting better at peeling potatoes, though I still prefer to use my knife (remember how much I love the thing?) instead of the knives that are provided. I haven't seen anything shorter than a butcher knife used anywhere. The kids wield them quite well, but I'm still worried I'll cut off something important if I try to use them. So I can do potatoes, and I peeled about 2 carrots at home for dinner one night, and I'm capable of chopping cabbage, but that's a refined art. The basic goal of cabbage-cutting is to make the slices as small as humanly possible, which is harder than it looks. I'd be better off with a grater, but whatever. I'm proud to say, though, that I am an *expert* at shelling peas and getting maize off the cob. I can do that in my sleep, man. :) I've also done the 2 really boring jobs: sorting broken lentils and lentil fragments from whole lentils, and (worse) sorting rice from chaff and tiny tiny pebbles that get mixed up in the bag. That gets to hurting your eyes after a while. :-[

Nothing really memorable happened on Thursday. Friday, I had Terezia (age between 5 and 7) fall asleep on me for the better part of an hour while I was singing songs with the other girls. Which reminds me, I really have to look up the words to "Sixteen Going On Seventeen", because it's one of their favourites, and I actually don't know the words. I held Terezia, 3 years old, for a while, passing her back and forth with Sarah the volunteer. That was fun til I got peed on, but I dried out quickly. :)

Later, I handed out big smiley face stickers to everyone. Each and every child immediately put their sticker in the centre of their forehead- it was quite amusing. Of course, after the novelty of "Oh, I have a sticker!" wore off, they all turned into little hyenas, bent on getting as many stickers as possible. That wasn't fun. They started hitting. Mom explained the inner workings of little kids to me on the phone later that night- thank goodness for parents who know what they're talking about.

The sticker craziness was getting to be a bit much for me, so I screwed up my courage and picked up Bernard, the 1 1/2 year old who cries constantly, which makes him look like a Troll doll. Amazingly, after being bounced a bit and "Shhhh"ed a lot, he calmed down & listened to me sing. I did a lot of Ben Folds, and Muppet Christmas with John Denver. We ended up at the end of the dormitory hallway, since everywhere else was way too noisy and the older girls would hit his face if he started biting his lip or throwing up (both of which he did quite a bit, but I had a cloth. Go me.)

We've been spoiled in terms of food, I'm afraid. Sarah and I had chapatti and the standard potatoes-and-cabbage mixture, which was very nice of the staff to make for us. I stuck to the chapatti, since we didn't have to share- the rest of the volunteers were gone to Nairobi before lunchtime. I ate 3, down from the 5 that I inhaled when we made them at Mama's house. I experimented with salt and sugar on chapatti, and discovered that while both improve the taste, salt is by far tastier. :) And for dinner that night, Phylis made a stew of sorts from French beans, carrots, lentils, and random bits of meat. That, with white rice, was one of the best meals I've had here. :'P And this morning, we had pineapple with our bread & jam.

Today, stuff worth writing about actually happened. I am now single-handedly fueling the Kenyan economy.

Gerardo, Sarah, and I went to Limuru, since getting a matatu to Nairobi from Ngarariga (I learned how to spell it correctly! The "n" is silent- just say Garariga. The same principle holds for Ngong) was proving entirely unfruitful. They continued on to Nairobi, while I dropped off my film and went shopping in Cleanshelf. It's one of the better supermarkets in Kenya, and they had quite a good selection! I was standing in the toothpaste aisle, cursing that the excessive selection is exactly like at home. :) I bought underwear and Always for the older girls, 8 loaves of bread that I'll bring in sometime this week, 2 bags of sweets which *should* now give me enough to bring in sweets for everybody (yay!), 4 nails and a hammer (there's a table I want to fix- now I just need a block of wood), 2 shoulder towels for the babies, and a box of assorted chocolate products for Mama and the family at home. I picked up my photos & high-tailed it home, since the bag was quite large & heavy, & I didn't fancy walking around Nairobi already carrying something heavy. In addition, you have to take matatu space into consideration. You're almost always smushed when riding on those things.

I dropped things off and got to Nairobi. I walked around *without* getting lost this time! I bought green plastic flip flops for me (one of my olds ones decided to die the other day, and I've been wearing David's), got money from Barclay's (the best bank in town), AND THEN I found Nakumatt. It's *the best* supermarket in Nairobi and probably all of Kenya- comparable to Wegmans in everything but the produce dept., which was surprisingly small. Then again, here they have daily markets, which could easily render a grocery store moot. In all other senses, though, it's a good approximation of Wegmans, with a bit of Kaufmanns thrown in upstairs. I bought markers (red, yellow, blue, green, brown, and black- the best I could find), coloured pencils, modelling clay which I'm *quite* impressed with!, 10 books (including the first two Harry Potters and several Bible-related things for kids), jumping ropes, mini magnetic board games a la Lorna at the orphanage, and a juice-box of milk for myself. I haven't had milk since the plane ride into Kenya 2 weeks ago, and I miss the stuff! Somehow, vitamins aren't quite as satisfying.

I stopped by the VICDA office to change my safari date and get the address of the baby orphanage. And now I'm here! :) Tomorrow, we're all going to a Kikuyu mass, and there may be a Sister Margaret who's coming over to meet us. If David's done as I asked, he'll have looked into getting me eggs for the orphanage. I need at least 104, and he was really overestimating. I don't care, as long as I can get them to the house intact, hard-boil them, and take them to the orphanage sometime this week. Actually, it wouldn't even have to be this week, since all the kids not in boarding school come back to the orphanage for food when school is in session- but I'd like to get something going for them nutrition-wise. There's a market every Monday and Thursday, apparently, and I'm going to ask the Aunties if I can go with one of them tomorrow. I've got over 8,000 bob on me right now (it's the most you can withdraw at one time from the ATMs), so payment shouldn't be a problem.

As a parting thought: I really love the sign on the bridge that says "Welcome to Nairobi- Home of the Farmer's Choice Hot Dog." :)

Upcoming safari :'D (September 8th 2006)

I *just* ran into Heidi, one of the volunteers from my original group! Good to see her.

So guess who just volunteered to teach for the next three weeks. Eep.

Wednesday & Thursday were overall unproductive days at the LCC. Wednesday, I went with Jane the social worker (Kenyan, born & bred, not a volunteer) to take two little boys to a nursing home that doubles as a free health clinic in Limuru. I finger wove with my neon yellow thread in the waiting room, which made several kids happy when I gave them away. (Look kids, something completely useless! ^_^) Thursday, Jane & I walked to a little girl's grandmother's home to try to find said little girl, who's been sick since Sunday. They weren't home. We then walked to another woman's home, a mother of a girl at the orphanage (both are HIV+, but the younger son who still lives with the mother is negative. Jane suspects abuse of the daughter and prostitution of the mother.) Other than that... I folded clothes a bit, helped to set out a few meals, rinsed porridge cups, sharpened a lot of pencils (I'm getting quite good at it), and Thursday I helped Susan, the teacher of the oldest class, to grade her kids in learning the "ck" sound. They copied a list of about 18 words (lick, suck, clock, sack) off the blackboard into their scribble books, and then came up to us one by one and read them off. This proved more difficult in some cases than others, but I gave them all smiley faces or stars no matter what, since I didn't entirely understand the grading system.

This week has seen marked improvement in my potato-peeling skills, I'm proud to say. On Wednesday, I peeled every single potato for dinner (except one that Phyllis did, but I'm pretending that didn't happen, because it doesn't sound nearly as cool.)

This morning, I got mail from my mama! Theif of Time, by Terry Prachett (yessssssss), and the latest issue of Renaissance magazine, which is always fun. John drove me and David into town (I don't know what David's doing here- he's in the throes of the American dream. Since I've been here, he's renewed his passport with a new one, and yesterday he got his 6-month visa to the States. I still contend that he'll die with no one to cook for him, but we'll see ^_^), and I'm just hanging around the office until the others for the safari show up. This could take a while.

I went to a diner-type spot down the street for some extended breakfast (I didn't eat much at home), and I had two sausages (yum yum yum carnivorous substances yum) and this turnover with a little red jelly and a lot of (what appeared to be) cake frosting in it. It was vaguely reminiscent of something you'd get at Wegmans or a gas station, only slightly stiffer. It *is* the closest I've come to any kind of pastry here, though (except for the cake at Ann's party- did I write about that? It was small and the icing was solidified sugar, but as a whole, it was surprisingly westernized.)

Yeah, so about my job- John says that Zimmerman/Happy Life (apparently they're the same place) has two girls working there now, and if they didn't need anyone else, he didn't know what he'd do with me. I suggested working at hospitals, but he didn't seem to take to that. He really pushed the idea of teaching, so I finally gave in. On Tuesday, I'll apparently be meeting with the headmaster of a primary school about 10-15 minutes away from Ngarariga- John said I could probably teach either English or math to grades 5 through 8. I'll opt for English, thank you.

GAH.

Well, I'm off to wait some more, & then I'll be in the Maasai Mara for four days. I've got my cameras!

Title: Safari 1 (September 11th 2006)

I have seen cute and muddy animals, and I have been rejuvenated by them. And it is good.

So *right* after I finished posting my last blog, Edward (aka Mr. Safari) stuck his head in the door & told me that they'd been looking for me & they were ready to go! So I hauled my stuff down to the van & got in & met everyone. Quick run-down: There were 8 of us volunteers on safari, plus one driver, George, and one cook, also George but preferred to be called Ringo. (Insert clever British Invasion joke here.)

Driver: George. Our definition of him was "crusty". He never seemed too happy, and if he was, it was at our expense in a macabre sort of way. However, we can't hold this against him, as the man's been doing the same thing every weekend for 10 years, and he showed us a *lot* of wildlife.

Cook: Ringo, also known as Little George. We didn't see too much of him, but he started cooking dinner at 2 pm and breakfast at 2 am. And the man made some killer breakfasts. We really liked Ringo.

And the 8 of us (7, really, since I'm not describing me for you):

Chris: lawyer-type, works for a judge in Tampa. Has a brother who's a doctor. Has travelled extensively in South America & quite a bit of lower Europe. Teacher in Maasailand.

Dawn: PR and HR for a pharmaceutical [sic] company in Dublin. Generously gave us all sweets every time the driving got really awful (and oh, but it did.) Has a phobia of cats, but behaved herself quite well at dinner in the hotel, if I do say so myself. Bought a *gorgeous* (one of her adjectives) Maasai bowl from a pit stop store, Ksh1500 down from Ksh4000. Go Dawn.

Kim: Administrator at a dance school, though she only dances modern. Originally from Westchester in NY. Works and lives at an orphanage outside Nakuru. She imparted a lot of good stuff about teaching these kids to me, as well as bargaining tips. (Bargaining still makes me very nervous.)

Natalie: A part-time student still earning her BA in Seattle, but she hails from NJ. Has a full-time job at B&N. She's doing the HIV/AIDS program with one Sister Veronica- apparently it involves a lot of home visits and emotional support, more so than straight-up teaching people. Looks like a dark Chelsea Mixon and acts like a cross between Emlyn Clark and Rhonda Deischer. Likes Bob Dylan, always wears a blue bandana.

Tanya: The loudest of the group :). Works at a group home in Ottowa. Speaks her mind unabashedly. There's not too much to say about Tanya. She's just Tanya. :'D

Linda: The total opposite end of the spectrum from Tanya. Extremely quiet IT worker from Australia. Looks like a cross between Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman. (I asked the rest of the group, and they saw Charlize, but not Nicole. I see Nicole in there too.) Let me borrow her shampoo in Nakuru. A very very sweet girl.

Anna: A psychology student from California. Used to dance and cheerlead in college. She has *eagle eyes*, so she was the one spotting everything off in the distance on safari. She has me interested in a West Coast restaurant- BJ's Brewery? Anyone know of it? Apparently, there's a desert that basically consists of a slightly underdone cookie in a pan with two scoops of ice cream, and it's heavenly. I'm feeling a driving desire to visit Mike Knue.

So that was all of us! The whole group got along very well, if I do say so myself.

We left Nairobi around 10 and drove out to the Maasai Mara. We all got out at a roadside stop along the mountainside and looked over the Mara- it was still quite cloudy/foggy, so the visibility wasn't primo. (Thankfully, these were the *only* iffy conditions we had for the rest of the trip. Gorgeous weather otherwise. ^_^) We drove with a lot of 18-wheelers carrying various things, and the roads gradually went from tarmac to gravel to sand to dusty tarmac to potholes. Seriously. Way out in Maasailand, I don't blame the locals for walking everywhere- the roads were TERRIBLE. And my convenient little bottle of Advil was sitting politely on my bed in Ngarariga.

We stopped about 3 hours in for lunch. The food was good but unremarkable- I think I had rice & this carrot/beef mixture that was better that what you can normally find but still not great.

We drove another 3-4 hours, with the towns becoming less & less frequent & the locals' clothing becoming less & less Westernized. We were supposed to go on a short game drive that first evening (no one told me, so I wasn't complaining), but instead, we went to a Maasai village for a tour. We may be exploiting the Maasai's culture, but man, they exploit us right back- we each had to pay Ksh1000 just to get into the village (which we *weren't* informed about beforehand). Our guide, Jackson, in full Maasai kit and headdress and jewelry, spoke English well. We were greeted by about 10 men, dressed the same way, who danced for us, and the same number of women who did the same. We were led inside the village, which was enclosed by a circular brush barrier, and we were allowed into one of the homes, 4 at a time since no more would fit inside :). It was just like the first Maasai home I went into outside Simba Village- dark & small. We all took group photos with the Maasai, and Chris gave out sweets he was carrying to all the Maasai kids, who came running to him.

Our tour concluded, of course, in the gift shop- an adjoining circle of stands coming from the back of the Maasai village, each stand displaying pretty much the same beadwork over & over. We were each pretty much tailed by 2 Maasai men, which was more than a little unsettling. Chris bought two "kissing masks", apparently used at weddings, and I watched him & tried to copy his bargaining techniques for strands of beads (necklace?) that the Maasai men tend to wear slung across their chests. I ended up getting the beads for 1000 bob, down from the initial 1500 offered me, and up from the 500 that I offered. It wasn't the greatest bargain, but the thing's pretty big, and it was my first try. :-[So now I have beads. Yay!

After that, we finally made it to our campsite. I took photos- it's much nicer than I expected, with beds inside the tents (3, to be exact), and an adjoining shower, sink, and sit-down toilet, all of which were purported to have hot water capabilities, but which were fickle about who got to use it. :) I wasn't prepared for such luxury, with my two shirts and one pair of pants and no hairbrush, so I just brushed my teeth in the mirror and was glad of it.

I took the centre tent with Dawn and Anna; Chris and Natalie took the left-hand tent; and Tanya, Kim, and Linda were in the right-hand one. (The camp had a lot more tents, but it was vacant of tenants when we arrived, so we got the 3 tents at the front of the field where all the tents were pitched. There's 2-person camping tents available too, but when we were offered beds, we jumped at the opportunity. :'P)

Dinner was spaghetti bolognaise, with various other Kenyan things that I didn't partake of (bread & jam, cabbage & carrots- the omnipresent vegetable dish, & there may have been rice or mashed potatoes with beans or something.) It was *good*. Thank you, Ringo. We all bargained George into letting us leave the following morning at 7.30 instead of 8, as he'd wanted, so we could get to the park as early as possible.

Safari 2 (September 12th 2006)

Oo! Oo! I forgot! As we were leaving the Maasai village, Jackson brought up the possibility of my staying with the Maasai, as in for marriage to one of the many eligible bachelors whom I'm sure would treat me as an equal, with love and respect. His opening offer to Chris (of course in charge, since he was one man with 7 women- we joked we were his 7 wives) was 10 cows, 5 goats, 5 sheep, 5 chickens, some Maasai blankets, and there was the sound of possibly some trinkets thrown in there as well. The girls, all in the van at this point, were muttering "Get in the van... get in the van...", so Chris was pulled away just as he was beginning to demand 15 cows. I think I'm worth at *least* 15 cows. Maybe 20.

So Saturday morning, we all got up early for breakfast at 6.30, wonderfully provided by Ringo. I had a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, really good scrambled eggs, beans, and a LOT of sausage and a sort of ham/bacon hybrid. We were in the van by 7.30 and at the park by 7.45.

This first day was the best day of the 3 we spent on game ranges. In no particular order, we saw impala (larger deer-looking things, mostly brown with black stripes on their hind quarters), a lot of zebra and zebra babies, gnu (aka wildebeest), water buffalo, eagles, vultures, warthogs- both large and small, but all very cute when they trotted, ostrich, topi (smaller deer-looking things with thin-looking skin that goes from brown to light brown to tan), both types of gazelle (Thompson's and the rarer Grant's- apparently distinguishable by the horns. *Awesome* when they leap), hartebeest, and a neon pink and purple lizard that I didn't catch the name of. And giraffes, and elephants, and quite a few lions- the first few eating lunch, which was awesome- and a black rhino, which Ringo has apparently seen only 3 times in his 18-year career on safari- RARE as heck- and a cheetah, which George took us off-road to see. (Off-roading is very illegal & there's a major fine if you get caught. On the other hand, there's a better tip for you from your party if you get away with it. :-[) Pretty much the only thing we *didn't* see that day was a leopard, and no one was too upset about that. They're solitary, nocturnal, and they hide in trees very well, so George says he usually doesn't see them. The black rhino was cool enough. :)

We crossed into Tanzania at one point, and we took photos at the rock with a T on one side and a K on the other- touristy, I know, but people were into it. We stopped at a river where hippo were both in & out of the water (out is rarer, so Tanya was excited), and some of the group saw a giant crocodile. I was watching a scuffle between two bull hippos, so I missed the croc. Ah well.

We ate lunch under a tree in the park, after George drove around the area and made sure there weren't any lions about. I stuck with the bananas and the hard-boiled eggs, but there was salad and fried potatoes and lunch meat and chips and Kenyan soda as well.

We headed back to camp around 3.30, with everyone utterly exhausted from riding around all day. Seriously, those roads can take it out of you- and a lot of the time, we were standing (the roof of the van lifts up so you can take photos.) Quick words to the wise, if you ever go on safari: Bring binoculars. They're handy as heck. More importantly, if you're going to stand (which I highly recommend- the view is great), try to centre yourself in the middle of the vehicle, instead of leaning against one side of the car. If you lean, you'll end up with bruises all along that side of your body, as I quickly found out when I got home that night and felt pain behind my left armpit. (Yeah. I know.) Most important of all, when you're standing, do not lock your knees under *any* circumstances. Always keep them bent, and they'll act as sort of shock breakers for when the car goes over huge bumps. You have been warned.

Dinner that night was a fried vegetable mixture in a tomato sauce, which was really good when eaten with rice (which oddly tasted like jasmine rice?) It was good. I had seconds.

Sunday morning, we had to make a mile during the day, so we got up for safari at 6.30 and hit the park at 6.45 without eating beforehand. We didn't have that much time- only about 2 hours- so we couldn't go very far into the park, and thusly we didn't see too much: a lot of impala & the like, and then we hit gold with a family of about 10 lions, preparing for morning naps around 8.30. We headed back to camp for breakfast. Yours truly ate 2 veggie omelettes, 2 breakfast chapatti (which tasted of lemon and weren't really to my liking) with jam, a hard-boiled egg, and a LOT of sausage and ham/bacon. And Mama tells me I don't eat enough at home.

The rest of the day was spent on the road. Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru are two very odd trips to squeeze together into one safari: the Mara is to the southwest of Nairobi, and Nakuru is to the northeast. We drove about 7 or 8 hours, stopping for lunch at the same hotel as before (again, not very memorable), and at a Maasai curio shop for souvenirs (a few people bought things, but I just looked around & avoided the salesman tailing me as much as possible), and then one final time outside of Nairobi to drop off Natalie and Chris, who were only doing the 3-day trip. The whole trip had awful roads, and Thief of Time was really my saving grace. I finished it on the ride home today, if that gives you any sense of how much down time I had to read. :) Good book, by the way. Read it.

We stayed at the Waterbuck Hotel in Nakuru, apparently the swanky place in town. It was quite nice. Dawn, Linda, and I roomed together, and we all took showers first thing to get the ridiculous dust from the road out of our hair and skin. This was my first running shower, never mind running shower with hot water, in a month. It was amazing. I washed my hair three times. :'D

Dinner downstairs was from a menu- I had fried fish and chapatti, along with the carrots and green beans, and mushroom soup that came with the meal. (Everywhere we've gone, the food's been paid for, but we've had to buy our own drinks, even water. It's odd.) The other girls either had fish or chicken, and Anna went out on a limb and got the beef goulash. We all checked our email after that (fastest connection I've had, but 5 shillings a minute! Insane!! I stayed on for a total of 6 minutes.)

This morning, breakfast was at 7, and it was wonderful. Pineapple, watermelon, a third fruit that I totally can't think of right now..., hard-boiled eggs, *really good* french toast (almost fried), mandaazi (not fried, therefore also good), pancakes which the other girls raved about, sausages, and orange juice. I've been craving juice, so that was very nice. I think we all went back for seconds of something or other- for me, it was the juice (thirds, actually), and the french toast and (of course) the sausage.

We hit the park/lake around 8.30, and we spent about 3 hours driving around there. It's very different from the Mara. The Mara was all open, grassy, dry plain, and the Lake and its surrounding areas were very forest/jungle. I felt a little Jungle Book, a little Gran'ma and Gran'pa's old farm, and a lot of Nantucket, especially the smell. The lake itself had *thousands* of flamingos, and George said this is the off-season since they've all migrated for the winter. In summer, there can be *millions* of them. My photos won't do it any justice at all. There were also Maribou storks (vicious-looking things), ibises (so pretty!), and pelicans, which are hilarious when they fly into the water. We also saw waterbuck (a large gazelle-type), more water buffalo, *lots* of baboons at one point, a lot of impala everywhere, gazelles, a fish eagle, vervet monkeys (which are basically Kenyan squirrels- we had them trying to get into our tent at the campsite :'D!), larger, less tufty warthogs than at the Mara, zebras, and a family of 3 white rhinos that were really close to us. It was cool. The baby was about 2, George said- they live to be 45.

We headed back to the hotel for lunch- same menu as last night. I stuck with the fish (hey, it was good, and it was seafood to boot), but I had french fries for a feeling of home. It's hard to recall the last time I ate french fries voluntarily, but *man* were they good.

And we all packed into the van and trundled back to our respective homes. I haven't been home yet, and my cameras are developed downstairs (can't wait!), so I should head out before it gets too dark. Walking alone at night = bad.

So that's my safari! It was really good to get away from responsibility for a bit, especially at the mid-point of my stay- things were a bit iffy there for a few days. :-/ I'll see what John's plan for me tomorrow is going to be, and I'll go from there.

I'll say one thing for the Maasai women, and anyone selling things by the roadside here- they sure are persistent. Our van was beset by hawkers *everywhere* we went, especially outside the Maasai Mara gates. That's nice to get away from. :)

Teaching (September 17th 2006)

My first day at Murengeti didn't give me much confidence in the school, or my teaching abilities, or whether I'd even be useful there. Wednesday turned out a lot better. I taught 4 classes: 7G (G is green, B is blue, & that's the way it'll be from now on), 5G, and both 6's. I also helped grade exams a bit, and I spent a lot of time going over the textbooks deciding on what I should focus in my lessons. In my omnipresent Bag O' Wonder, I'm now carrying around textbooks for the 5's and 7's, and some extra English books for the 4's as well.

The 7's had just read a passage on drugs and drug use, so I skipped the comprehension questions and held a bit of a class discussion on different types of drugs and what they do and why they're bad. The kids (surprisingly) didn't know about any of the harder drugs- most of what they knew was alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, plus some Kenyan drugs that I'm not too familiar with. I touched on AIDS and drugs a bit (of course I did, what did you expect? :'D), and I gave them most of the lesson to write a composition on What I Would Do If My Friend Started Taking Drugs. I collected those and graded them that night. Again, the writing level is way below what I would expect for 7th graders. Even Ann, who saw me grading, said that the essays would be fine for 5's, but not 7's. Erg. The kids have a big problem with gender continuity (his and hers are basically interchangeable, even in daily speech) and tense, as well as basic things (spelling, grammar, etc.)

I stuck with the book more with the 5's. We read a passage about The Drought and talked a bit about it. I was proud of myself- I had an interdisciplinary moment and asked if the kids knew of any stories in the Bible about the drought, so we were regaled with the Good Samaritan and Jesus and the fishes and loaves, and one kid said Genesis- is there a drought in Genesis? I was only going for the loaves and fishes, but they answered the question well. I handed out paper for a composition on The Camel in the Desert, but we ran out of time and I assigned it for homework.

I had C/A with 6G and 6B, and for both lessons, I asked the kids if they knew any songs. Both classes sang lot of reggae songs in unison, with accompaniment (of course), and then some kids sang solos and I sang at their request a bit, and in 6G we ended up singing a version of Siya Hamba (oh, SCC) and marching and jumping and walking around the room, as the song dictated ("We are ____ing in the light of God, we are ____ing in the light of God".)

Thursday was a bit of a day off. Murengeti hosted a district-wide HIV/AIDS extravaganza with 6 other schools. There's a Peer Counselor training program in place at Murengeti, where kids are trained about HIV and no adultery and no sex before marriage and no drugs (but nothing about condoms, grrrr), and this event was focused around them. All the peer counsellors from Murengeti (including Kevin, John & Mama Duta's son!! He's in 5G, & he's *very* vocal in class- born leader type) had made signs, and they (with me in tow) marched to Ngarariga, singing and dancing and flashing peace signs, which apparently means that they'll wait till marriage for sex? :) I dunno. I felt left out, so I took out my notebook and wrote AIDS KILLS in block letters on the back and carried it for the parade. The kids liked it. When we got to Ngarariga, there were 3 other schools there, all with paper visors or signs. We waited for about an hour while the rest of the schools showed up, and I got to know some more of our kids: Dennis, with a cut on his lip, who told me he has a CD out and he's going to come to the US ^_^; David with the grey sports coat, who's very serious; Margaret with fuzzy braided hair; Grace with curving braids; Lillian, who's vocal and paler than the rest; and Susan, who wears prescription sunglasses- it seems to be the thing to do here, I've seen it a lot.

We all trouped back to Murengeti, singing and waving the signs to passers-by. When we showed up, the whole school was in the back field, where desks had been set up, along with tables and chairs for the teachers and a table for the judges. (People failed to tell me that this was the first round of a competition, and the best school will go on to the Divisionals this coming Friday in Limuru. I actually don't know who finally won! :'P) The MC-of-sorts greeted everyone and a woman led us in prayer and the presentations began. There were solo and choral verses, followed by songs and dances, and finally skits and dramas, all telling us how awful AIDS is and how important it is to protect ourselves by not having sex til after marriage. All these were introduced by a solo child coming forward and telling the judges, teachers, and students what they were about to see. One solo verse had a boy addressing AIDS, personified by a boy in a sheet and a tall mask, slightly reminiscent of t he Knights of Ni, with porcupine quills and feathers on it, dancing around. My favourite verse was one called Kissing Is A Habit, since it incorporated something along the lines of "the girl gets the blame" and "10 minutes of pleasure, 9 months of pain, 2 days in the hospital." The dramas were quite good, all following basically the same storyline- girl disobeys parents, goes out with boy, ends up pregnant and HIV+. One of them was the closest thing to musical theatre that I've seen here, with a boy and girl singing to each other to symbolize that they were lovers. (The girl was hopping from guy to guy to guy at the time.) They all had costume changes and a table and chairs for sets, and one scene at the disco was complete with dancing extras, a radio with dance music, an bottles of "beer". :'D It was very good.

One inexplicable part of a drama was when the pregnant, HIV+, destitute girl started singing Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" to her stomach (complete with pillow), which kicked in response. ?_?

The program went longer than was originally planned, since we started late, and I ended up out in the sun for much longer than I'd planned, sans sunscreen. As a result, that night I found that my lips, nose, and the general lower half of my face were *really* burned, to the point of being blistered. >_< I took a needle to the blisters on my lips, and the rest of them were small enough to be scratched off. My face is really dry today.

Friday was back to the regular teaching circuit. I taught 4B about nouns and verbs, which they were very good at, and I tried to do adjectives, but that's a bit too abstract, so I gave up & went back to verbs. We discussed past, present, and future tense for a while, since I've heard from many people that that's hard for Kenyans to understand. I gave them 5 verbs to write in all 3 tenses (one of which was accidentally "sit"- past tense was a problem, but I told kids the issue and sometimes let them get away with "sitted" instead of "sat"), and they got star stickers for doing it correctly. They quickly figured out that they could show me their book twice and I wouldn't know the difference and they'd get two stars, and then I figured out what they were doing and the lesson was over anyway so I left. I tried to do the same thing with 5G, and we read two stories in their book. I really stressed reading comprehension when I found out that none of the kids were able to tell me in their own words what the story was about. :-[ I then read them Horton, which they *loved*- they applauded after I finished reading a page. I'd gotten coloured paper from Gladys earlier, so I had them draw their favourite part of the book, hoping for something along the lines of comprehension. I got a lot of elephants, but some were in a tree, and some were with a bird in a nest, and I got one giraffe, and Kevin drew a huge egg, so there's hope.

That afternoon, I helped to grade and copy over more exams, and I taught C/A to 6B. I duplicated my Horton-and-drawing thing, but I told them they could draw whatever they wanted. They immediately went to their books and traced as many drawings as they could from the pictures in the text. Frustrating, but it's a start. Gladys failed to inform me that C/A was, in fact, a double lesson for 6B, so we ended up with time to spare. I sat with some of the older girls, and they wanted me to sing, so I did, and they wanted me to say a poem, so I recited the lyrics to Carrickfergus, since it was in my head & it's pretty. They sang a bit, too- one girl sang A Long Time Ago In Bethlehem, which I know from John Denver, so I got excited. :)

It's a bit thrilling when you're referred to as Teacher Mary, or when you get to tell someone you're a teacher. I don't feel like I'm apologizing, as I do whenever I tell someone I'm an actor.

Today, I got up pretty early (since my body never lets me sleep in) and came to Nairobi. I got breakfast at Kenchic, where they're kuku about chicken (apparently), and I ate a sausage and meat in this fried dough triangle and more meat in this long crispy tube. I *finally* got into Bookpoint, the only book shop I've been able to find outside Nakumatt, which is woefully wanting books that interest me, and I struck GOLD. I bought A Doll's House, A Tale of Two Cities, and... *Monstrous Regiment*. It's another Terry Prachett and I'm SO PUMPED to read it!! I got another notebook for me and lined paper for the kids to write compositions, and I got Aloe Vera lotion at Nakumatt for my poor blistered face, and milk, since I always get milk when I go to Nakumatt. I ran into Sarah & Gerardo on the street (!!!!!!!!), and we caught up. Maasai Mara was a major culture shock for them, and they're preparing to go to Tanzania for a week. I'm comforted by the fact that Sarah has the same rash of bites on her stomach and limbs that I do- they aren't mosquitoes, and they don't bleed, but they itch like *crazy* and I think they're spreading. David said they could be anything, flies or fleas or ticks, etc.

I'm going to look for the Maasai market and Ushanga (Usheng's?), a store that reputedly carries beads for necklaces, and then I feel like heading home. I don't know if I'll be back to Nairobi next weekend- I'd like to tour Kibera, but I hope I won't have to buy any more supplies. At this point, I'm trying to get rid off all the stuff I brought with me, books and stickers and that stupid bag of puff balls that I don't know *what* to do with. :)

I finished Clive Leatherdale's Dracula: The Novel and the Legend. It was good in the beginning, but it turned into a bit of a slog near the end, when ol' Clive got into talking about Marxist and tarot-based reading of Dracula... It's worth reading, but only if you've read Dracula itself, and only if you really liked it. I'm now reading A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey, on recommendation from Joanna- it's *really good*. It's intense, but *really good*.

Mom & Dad come home from Europe on Monday. Mom said she wants a giraffe from Kenya, and Dad said he just wants my smile. :'DDD If anyone specifically wants anything from Kenya, I suggest you tell me now, and I'll see what I can do. Reasonable requests, please- Seth and Bobby, I know what you're going to ask for.

Wish me luck finding this market! :) Peace.

Wallet (September 24th 2006)

My dad is one of the greatest men that I know.

This is almost unfortunate in this situation, because, because of my dad's awesomeness, all you faithful readers have been robbed of the chance to listen to me rant, rage, and generally tear my hair in an unpleasant way.

Yesterday night, my wallet was stolen. From my pocket. By a primary school child. It contained a little over 1,500 bob, my sheriff's ID, my blood donor card, my mom's ATM card, and a playing card (Jack of either hearts or diamonds) that I found at Limuru Children's Center. I seriously, seriously doubt that I'll see it again.

So let's lead up to this unfortunate event! Friday was the Divisionals of the HIV/AIDS extravaganza that Murengeti held last week- sort of a second and final round of presentations and speeches and dances, etc. The day dawned *wet*. It was foggy and drizzling on and off and it was *freezing* and just generally disgusting. Nevertheless, I set off with my three layers of clothing and Mama's umbrella, and all our peer counsellors met at Murengeti and boarded a bus to take us to Limuru. (I thought we were going to walk to Limuru. The bus was sooooo much nicer.)

We arrived at another primary school, whose name I didn't write down, but whose school motto, painted on the front gates, amused me to no end: on the left, "Quality Education for the future," and on the right, "Moulding the child to be an all round person." I myself would like to be known as an all round person someday. :) Not really. :)

The schools trickled in, with the fog still so dense that we couldn't see the tents at the other end of the playing field. I read my book and shook hands with all the incoming teachers. The kids all got paper visors that said something anti-HIV in Kiswahili (or Kikuyu, I can't tell them apart), and the teachers got bright green T-shirts that said similar things on them. I asked Massey if I could have one, and she said there were only two for each school, but I could wear one and give it back at the end of the day. As it turns out, I ended up wearing it home, but in the hopes of appeasing some kind of twisted karma, I'm going to return it to Massey on Tuesday and hope that she gives it to another teacher who needs the clothing more than me. (Look, she grew a conscience. Wheeee.)

All the kids headed down to Limuru, a bit of a walk away, and I stayed with Massey to lock everything up. We followed a while after, and everyone was gathered on a field next to the matatu stop. From there, we took the streets of Limuru, singing and shouting "Tumechill!", translation: Do you chill?, translation: Are you waiting until marriage to have sex? I was able to get some photos of the buildings that I wouldn't have been able to get just walking around by myself, which was cool. I also started handing out my useless puffballs, which (I soon discovered) are actually *great* for cleaning mist and dew off glasses. The kids didn't know what to do with them (some put them in their mouths, but most rubbed them on their faces or put them in their purses and then demanded another one), but they all liked them.

The men we passed, mostly in the field where the matatus are constantly being fixed (the place is *charged* with testosterone- I walked through there once early on and I haven't done it since), all asked me "Tumechill!", which got annoying after a while. Seriously, guys. Get a life or a date or both.

The procession wove its way back to the school, where hawkers had set up their stands to sell candy and cookies and sausages to the kids. I bought two sausages and two boxes of ginger nuts for my lunch, and *wow* were they tasty. It felt a bit like the State Fair.

I decided I had to get rid of my puff balls before the presentations started, so I staked out a place in the field, gave away two balls to unsuspecting girls, and was immediately *swamped* with hands, the owners of which didn't understand the sentence "Back up, guys, I'll get to all of you." I gave up after about 5 seconds and just started throwing handfuls of the balls in various directions. Kids went scrambling, and it was an easy and efficient way of getting rid of the darn things.

On the bright side, I now know how to start a riot if ever called for. :)

The presentations were a lot of the same stuff from last week, only more polished, and performed by kids wearing different uniforms. The skits reminded me a lot of summer camp. In the 'Cause, you get the same skits at summer camp, no matter the camp: Firing Squad, The Queen's Special Papers, the restaurant and the water glasses, Bologna-- it's the same thing here, only it's AIDS, Do You Really Have Mercy? and "Mother, mother, oh mother, I have a stomach-ache." Regardless of repetition, they were all good. :)

My favourite drama was a play called The Solution. Basically, Wendy is doing badly in school and her mother, separated from her father for two years, is badgering her about it too much. She turns to heroin, and tries to commit suicide with a knife, but is stopped by her mother and falls off a balcony by accident. 3 months later, Mom and Dad have made up, and Wendy is all better. It had creative staging- I got good photos.

At one point, the guests of honour made speeches, which were LONG. I focused on my boondoggle, but I wrote down some of the more interesting things that were said. The following:

In Kenya, rape is considered sex with anyone under 18, the idea being that you can't consent to anything when you're under 18. It also now includes sodomy and incest (which itself includes sex with half-siblings and stepchildren), and knowingly infecting someone else with HIV. Rape *can* happen within a marriage.

There are bills in motion to define the prison sentences of rapists by the age of their victim. If the victim is 11 or younger, the sentence is life; 11-15 is a minimum of 20 years; 15-18 is a minimum of 15 years; and 18 and up is a minimum of 10 years. In 2003, the number of reported rape cases in Kenya was over 2,000; in 2004, there were over 1,000; and in 2005, there were over 6,000.

One of the speakers shared stories from patients at the Nairobi Women's Hospital, in their own words. A 10-year-old told of thugs that had broken into her home and demanded money of her father. When Dad said that Mom, split for two years, had the money, the men broke his leg and raped the girl and her sister.

A 5-year-old was offered soda by a man, accepted, and was carried around on his shoulders before he raped her and left her naked and unconscious in the street. She, as well as a third 5-year-old who was raped, dropped out of school because of subsequent incontinence, and needed reconstructive surgery.

The youngest recorded rape victim is 5 months old. The oldest is 86 years old. In India, a woman needs four witnesses to report that she was raped; otherwise, she will be accused of adultery.

Sobering facts passed, the presentations were very good. Lunch was provided for the teachers in one of the buildings- rice and carrots with beef stew, and *good* beef stew. I skipped the free soda and bought milk instead. I met two very cool people: one was a native Kenyan who was either albino or had a skin condition that was a close approximation of albinoism. His skin was almost the colour of mine, his eyes were blue-green, and his hair was bright orange. Still, he wasn't Caucasian- his features somehow didn't look Caucasian, and his skin was very creased. We talked for a minute, and he told me about a friend of his who toured Denmark with him and who now lives in Jupiter, Florida. He offered soda and I declined. Really nice guy. Spoke very good English too, which was so nice.

The other person was Joyce, a woman who complimented my boondoggling skills earlier. She's part of the LISP (Life Skills Promoters) committee, who run the whole HIV program in schools all over Kenya- over 300 schools, I'm told. She also spoke excellent English, so we chatted for a while- *man* it was nice- and I got her contact info.

I was ushered out with Massey and some other Murengeti teachers, and I talked/played with some kids from another school for a while, before making my way down to the road. There weren't enough buses to take all the kids home in one go, so they took the first batch and the rest of us waited waited waited for them to come back. In the meantime, I gathered a crowd with my hair, which I'd taken down from a ponytail. Kids, even older kids, wanted to feel my hands and arms and hair. I kept my legs covered for that round. :)

It was really cool to talk to those kids, especially the older ones. They're the first kids that have asked me questions about the US and myself, and those were really cool to answer. They wanted to know my name and my age (the latter being the one piece of information which I withheld at all costs ^_^), and if I was married and if I had kids and if I chilled (which I said yes to, because hey, if it's anti-HIV, I'll do it), and who the US president and vice president were and what our capital is, and if I beat kids (they were shocked when I told them it's illegal to beat children *or* your wife in the US), and if I knew certain celebrities (Martin Sheen, Jackie Chan, mr. Bean, Arnold- who they thought was the governor of the entire country), and if I liked Kenya and if I liked the people and how long I was staying and what I was doing here and if I would visit their school. We were on a tangent of "Do you eat ____?" for a while, which was amusing: I don't eat snails (that's t he French, I told them) or snakes, but I do eat kitheri and ugali and sweets. One boy kept blatantly flirting with me, but I blew him off and the kids laughed at that.

I took a few photos of them, but it was really hard, because every time I tried to back away to take the shot, the crowd would all follow me. :-/

At one point, I got the idea for someone else to take a photo of me with the kids, since Dad said to try to get some of those for a Christmas card and there are very few shots of me on my camera. I called everyone around me and gave the camera to a teacher- the kids didn't get the concept of group shot and all crowded around the teacher, so I don't think anything will turn out. Anyhow, even if something does, I don't know how ok I am with sending out that photo. When I got my camera back, my wallet, which I'd felt against my leg in my lower right cargo pocket, *buttoned in*, was gone. I started screaming at the kids, and they gradually got the idea and one or two older boy started emptying purses and pockets of the younger ones. I told the teacher who took the photo, and she told the headmaster and someone else important, who got all the kids in a group and told them what had happened. They thought my passport was in with my wallet, which (thank god thank god thank god) it wasn't, but I told everyone that it was still very important. I was on and off crying at that point.

Long story short, nothing came up. The saving grace of the evening was Joyce, who came to me and asked me what happened. I told her, in plain English, and of course she understood every word because she *speaks* plain English and I love her for it, and she gave me a huge hug and she didn't let me go. It was so comforting. She told me to email her tomorrow and let her know how everything goes, and I gave her one of the boondoggles I made and she gave me another huge hug. Great, great lady.

A bus *finally* came, and all the kids re-enacted Titanic backwards and all tried to shove themselves through the door at once. I got on a bus, I was moved to another bus, I was moved back to the first bus, and when I was told to move back to the second bus, I snapped at people talking to me and refused to move. When we *finally* got home, it was pitch black. I walked home by myself with umbrella in hand, sticking out ahead of me. Yeah, that was one of the less pleasant walks home. The stars were gorgeous, but if I looked up, I'd lose sight of the road and anyone walking towards me on it. I actually only passed one person, which was nice. When I got home, I had to tell Mama and Phyllis what happened, which felt cruddy because they were so happy when I finally came home. (The family worries when I'm not home by dark, and rightly so. Great family.)

I shut myself up in my room and called Mom, who called Dad, and they both cut off the ATM card. Mom wired me money through Western Union, with the intention that I'd get it this morning.

I need to run in a minute, so I can get to Limuru by 6 and pick up my cameras, but today's long and really painful and annoying story short: I got up, I went to Limuru, I tried to get money from Western Union at KCB, the man said I needed the confirmation number and question and answer, I went home, I called Mom, I went back to Limuru, the KCB man said the Western Union lines were down, Mom said to try Postbank, Postbank's lines were working and they gave me money. I now have roughly $100, and it should be more than enough to get me through the week. I dropped off my cameras and I got to Nairobi and now I'm here!

I'm going to New Hope tomorrow to drop off all my books with the girls. Monday, I'm visiting Phyllis's sewing school. Tuesday, I'll either go to Murengeti or tour Kibera. I really want to see Kibera before I leave. Either way, my last day of work will be Thursday. My flight out of here is 10 pm Friday, but I want to leave the house at 3- that's an hour for the taxi to be late, an hour to get to Nairobi, an hour to get to the airport, an hour for traffic, and the requisite 3 hours that you need to be at the airport ahead of your flight.

I'm not feeling spectacular, but I'm better than I was. Like I said, Dad's amazing and he's really been supporting me emotionally, through emails and cards, and Mom's been playing phone tag with me all day to figure out my money situation. I know I can't be mad at all the kids just because of what one kid did (but it's so easy!!!). I'll try making eye contact with children again once I leave here.

Yeah.

Winding Down (September 29th 2006)

OK! I have almost a week to cover and less than two hours to do it in. GO!

First things first, GUESS WHOSE WALLET WAS FOUND. Phyllis got a call Saturday evening from Nancy (not Massey, *Nancy*), the teacher with the glasses who is married to the headmaster of Mugare Primary, where Friday's fiesta was held. She said that said husband had found the wallet, sans money but pro documents, in the road where it was taken, that morning. I asked her to hold it for me til Monday.

FAITH IN HUMANITY HAS BEEN RESTORED.
I won't go into anything philosophical, but... yeah. People are good. Just here, they don't have *anything*. Anyhow, I'm so so grateful that some little kid had the sense to return my stuff, and I hope he's eating well because of the money. Life goes on. (For all those who don't know, 1,500 bob means about US$19.)

Sunday, I woke up early- again- seems like that's all I've been doing lately- and packed up ALL my books and supplies and headed over to New Hope for the afternoon- it was around 11 when I finally got out. It was a lot of stuff to pack up. :'D

I was bowled over by several running hugs when I got through the front gates, which was really nice, and a bunch of kids who remembered me immediately grabbed onto my hands and pulled me into the new kitchen, where white people were hanging out with the kids. I assumed volunteers, but no! They were *tourists*! Aunt Celia's jewellery & trinkets were out on one of the cupboard tops for purchasing, and the tourists were making half-hearted attempts at communicating with the kids. They hadn't learned yet that you have to stick to very straight-forward topics to communicate with these kids. :)

I spent the whole afternoon trying to get rid of all my stuff. I passed out books in the sitting room, but I ended up flinging most of them onto individual random beds in the dorms. I also got rid of necklaces, boondoggle, flash cards, and these large buttons on strings that you spin back and forth, in the same way. I had several girls pouting because I didn't give anything to their dorm, so I got rid of some of the larger stickers in there, since I couldn't very well give them out at Murengeti. I locked myself into the room (as I'd done with another of the dorms before), and when I unlocked it again, the human mass rushing into the room almost rendered me thumbless. It was intense. >_<

I had the kids write down their full names in my book, so I can write letters to them back in the States. Most of the kids were at church, and even when they did show up, there wasn't nearly the number I know live there... ah well. I got as many names as possible, and I took photos too. The construction men have done a LOT since I left- almost a month ago now. They finished a hallway and painted it white, and a 3-stall hallway for latrines is now well under way and painted and halfway tiled, and the second story of the new dorm building is going swimmingly. It's really encouraging progress.

There's also a new baby cow and about half a million new baby chicks. *Cute*.

It actually felt pretty crummy giving away all my stuff. I wish I had enough of everything for everyone to have exactly the same, or I wish there was a way of handing things out that would be more effective... Just in general, I much prefer reading stories and singing to handing out useless things like stickers and buttons. Next time I do something like this, I'll bring supplies that are *useful*, and not just colourful & frivolous. :-/ So the day ended on a bit of a weird note, but I got through it and the kids seemed happy. Mom got Mary's letter the day before, so she's going to reply soon, which is cool.

Monday, I'd planned on going to school with Phyllis, but the sudden presence of my wallet demanded *my* sudden presence at Murengeti again, so I taught that day instead. I had 7G for a double and 5G for a double. In 7G, I assigned two essays: one was pick a colour and describe it to a blind person, until I realized that *I* couldn't write that essay, so I changed it to pick your favourite colour and tell me everything about it- what things are that colour, what it looks like, etc. The overwhelming favourites were black, because their skin is that colour and it's on the flag; green, because it's the colour of growing things and it's on the flag; and red, because it's the colour of blood and suffering and it's on the flag. Notice a pattern? I had a few pinks and oranges, a purple or two, and a white and a yellow and a blue. The other essay was "If I Was A Millionaire," which kids got into. Almost all of them would buy a few things for themselves, usually nice houses, and then do the same for their parents and then help the orphans, poor, cripples, deaf, dumb, blind, etc. I gave the same essay to the 5's, and I didn't mention helping the poor to them, so they wrote more about the nice things they'd buy themselves. Still, quite a few of them talked in a sentence or two about helping the poor, just in less detail than the 7s. I've found that if you give the kids an idea, they'll take it that *that's* what they should be writing about, hence my omission of telling the 5s about the poor. I wanted to see what they'd do. :) I'm tricky.

Monday was also a momentous occasion, as it was the first time I asked Jane the cook for water (boiled is the only option), and I *didn't* spit it out because it was so hot. Nasty metallic stuff, but sometimes, tea just won't cut it. :)

On Tuesday, I went with Phyllis to her school, St. Anthony Women Centre. It's connected to a church and a children's centre for girls (about 40 of them.) It's a very nice facility, and even though it's located in Limuru, it's far enough away from the centre of town that it's *really* peaceful. They have chickens, chicks, dogs (which I almost let out of their fenced-in area when I mistook it for the bathrooms), 3 donkeys, and a pretty large garden with maize and kale and the like.

The girls, about 30 of them, all late teens or early 20s, work in a large room that could easily be a church rectory (is that the right word? The main hall) if there were pews. Instead, it contained tables with old-fashioned Singer sewing machines, the kind you pedal manually with your feet, one for each girl. There's also a knitting room with these big knitting machines that sit on tables. They looked a lot like Bowflexes to me, but they did a good job knitting. Sister Sandra, who hails from Malta (which is located where?), speaks Swahili very naturally, and reminded me a lot of Mole from The Wind In The Willows, runs the place- she welcomed me and told the girls to make sure I wasn't lonely. Very sweet lady.

I spent a lot of the day lying in the sun on the playground, reading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Its ending was frustratingly lacking in explanation, and I thought it dragged a bit towards the end, but that might've been the sun making me drowsy. Either way, I finished it that day, and I finished A Doll's House the next day. It's a play, so it's a quick read, but I enjoyed it. Women's liberation and all that good stuff. Scott teaches it every year, so I wanted to see what the big deal was. It's surprisingly similar to Lady Windermere's Fan, only less frivolous. I'm now reading A Tale of Two Cities, which is SO much better than I expected it to be- I'm really enjoying it! I haven't really read Dickens before- just A Christmas Carol, which is easy, but I love his writing style just the same. :) This current book of mine will definitely keep me occupied through the plane ride home- plus, there's always in-flight movies and sleeping to look forward to. I've become a big fan of early bedtimes and mis-afternoon naps while I've been here, both of which make me feel like I'm not doing enough... but they're so relaxing! :)

Phyllis was nice and took me into Limuru for lunch. We ate at a hotel, which is Kenyan for restaurant. (Now all those signs for hotels next to shanty-town shacks make so much more sense!) It was dimly-lit, the tables and the plates were small, and the utensils were all sitting in 3 separate glasses of water on the counter, to cleanse them, *obviously*, but it was good food- nyama choma, where I avoided most of the meat for the fat, and chupati, which is always welcome- and it was relatively cheap- 60/= a plate and 10/= for the chupati. I was carrying 100 bob, and Phyllis had 50, so we managed. (I brought the money in case we were taking matatus, but we walked both ways. It's not a bad walk, but it's not one that I'd want to do every time I wanted to go into Limuru.)

On the way home, Phyllis's boyfriend, Fred, called her and said he was at the stage (read: matatu stop) in Limuru, but by that time, we were too far away, so she said we couldn't meet him. I've been trying to figure out exactly what their relationship is for a while, which hasn't been easy- it's a bit of a hush-hush topic, and I only just found out his name that day. He's older than her by a few years, I'm pretty sure. She goes to school with his sister. He calls her every once in a while, to talk during the evenings, etc. They'll see each other every month or two or three. They've never gone anywhere together- Phyllis seemed shocked when I asked her that. She said most of the girls at her school have boyfriends, and they're told to wait to have sex, but nothing about condoms. She said they do know what condoms are, though. I asked if any of the girls did in fact wait to have sex, and she said not really- one of the unwed girls at the school has a child, but beyond the obvious presence of kids, sex isn't a topic that's brought up among the girls, which surprised me- do African girls just not gossip? Huh.

So, yeah. There goes the theory of abstinence working. :( I told Phyllis that, if she ever gets to that point with Fred (since I didn't think she'd want to answer me if I asked her if they'd had sex), she should make sure to use a condom. She seemed to affirm that. She's 18.

(The girls were *floored* when I told them I was 18. It was almost a shock to me to say my age as well, since I haven't told anyone for a while, and since I certainly don't feel 18 walking around every day. ^_^)

I asked Phyllis to take me to the church to get a photo before I left, so we did that on our way home.

Wednesday was my last day teaching at Murengeti. I had Rose make an announcement to the kids, and I gave my camera to one of the male teachers, who took a shot of me surrounded by all the children at assembly. I had it developed, and my cameras are annoyingly wide-angle, so everything looks smaller than it really is, but you can make out faces, and you can make out my disembodied head above all these kids raising their arms really high. :) Christmas card, anyone?

I taught as much as I could that day- 7B, 6G, and 5B. I assigned them all the same thing- draw anything you want: yourself, your friends, your house, your country, the planet, me- but it *can't* be traced out of the book. They fell to that with gusto. I wanted to have some drawings to take home with me. :)

The highlight of the day was 5G, my favourite class, whom I actually didn't teach that day. Kevin approached me with about 45 papers, all letters and drawing from the class- basically love letters for me. Lots of hearts with "I love you Miss Mary" and the like written inside, a lot of people telling me to have a safe journey and to greet everyone at home and telling me that I'm a good teacher and they'll miss me, and a few telling me that they love me with all their "hurt", which I thought a quietly sad yet appropriate misspelling. Four other girls brought me similar letters later on, in enveloped made of lined paper and sealed with tape, and enclosing little purple flowers. It was really really sweet.

In the afternoon, I didn't have any classes to teach, so I went around to individual classrooms being taught by other teachers, and I handed out the last of my stickers and sharpened every single pencil in the place. My left fingers have lost feeling in several places because of it :), but it was worth it.