We put the walls up

June 27, 2007

I did an alphabet activity with the 3 youngest classes.

Teaching in Kenya is always an interesting experience. By my second time around, I was used to being handed an instruction book and being left with a class of 30 Kenyan kids to teach for the next several hours. Working with the youngest students was great because I love that age and they are so cute. But it was also challenging because they knew the least English.  When I asked them a question, they would just stare at me (they stared at me a lot, and would giggle when I talked, and giggle even more if I tried to speak Swahili). The answer “yes” to everything because they think that is the only acceptable response, or they just repeat what was just said to them.

June 27, 2009

I took some medicine, slept like a rock and woke up feeling much better! It was my Dad’s birthday and I gave him a present. Then we took 2 matatus into town. I set foot for the first time in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. At least 2 million people live here. Someone once said if a mzungu (white person) goes into Kibera alone, they will not come out. Thankfully, Jackson found a friend of his to take us through. We bought 300 bananas and carried them into Kibera to hand out to the kids there. One of the other volunteers first got the idea of doing this as a simple, cheap (bananas  cost like 5 cents there) way of helping out. It was crazy, with sewage and garbage and narrow passageways between row after row of tiny tin shacks that barely look inhabitable. And this was the “nice part” of Kibera. As soon as they realized what we were doing, kids began swarming us! After we were done, we shopped at the Maasai market. I have gotten used to the sellers harassing me while I shopped, but I still hate haggling!

 My Dad helped paint this room (which was really like the garage of the house) where the older boys of the orphanage slept and helped build these shelves so they'd have a place to keep their clothes, shoes, and school bags.

A kiosk near Grace's house that was painted to look like a 7-11