But He lets us put our hands in

June 30, 2007

“Today was amazing!”

We visited the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, where they take care of baby elephants and eventually release them into the wild. The elephants were right there, with only a small rope dividing them from the crowd of trourists. The elephants were so cute and funny, and I even got to touch one of them! After that we went to the giraffe center, where we got to touch, feed, and kiss giraffes! They are so beautiful and gentle. I could have stayed there all day.

“Seeing the elephants and giraffes was like a dream come true…” 

 I kissed a giraffe! And I liked it!

 Elephants love soccer too

June 30, 2009

James took my Dad and I to visit the school where I volunteered at last time. Eugene, my host Dad, was there, it was great to see him again and for my Dad to meet him. At the school, they had an assembly and then I visited all of the classrooms. A lot of the kids were the same ones I had taught, and most of them remembered me :) A lot of the same teachers were there, too. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly. That school (Riri Junior Academy) is doing a lot of great things- they had added a playground and dining hall since I had been there last, and have a boy/girl scout program now as well. All of their students go on to secondary (high) school. 

 "Good morning Teacher Rachel!"

 it's okay to have 2 Dads

He doesn't need us

June 29, 2007

The three youngest classes I normally taught gathered together for a chapel type of service. They same some songs and had a Bible story. I taught them the song “Our God is an Awesome God” with motions. Later while I was teaching, I had them draw self-portraits. In the afternoon, the entire school gathered for a game of soccer. Kenyans love soccer and will play with balls of trash in the streets! Most of the kids watched while the older ones played, and most of them crowded around me :) “These past few days these kids have gone straight to my heart”

When we came home, there was a lizard in our room! Ashley and I were screaming and asking them to get it out, but the grandmother just calmly told us that is was good because it would eat the mosquitoes! Well, thankfully it did get out of our room and the next time we saw it in the house it was less upsetting!

June 29, 2009

It was my Dad’s last day at the orphanage (and though I didn’t know it yet, it ended up being my last day there too!) My Dad came to school with me and when we got there they were having an assembly. The head mistress put us on the spot and asked us to make a speech. In the afternoon it rained so the roads were muddy but we made it back into town that night. 

But Jesus keeps them standing

June 28, 2007

When I came in to teach, the kids were chanting “Teacher Rachel ni mzuri!” which means “Teacher Rachel is good!” :) All of them are so fascinated by my skin and hair, and constantly wanting to touch me and shake my hand. At first, this made me feel a little uncomfortable, but then I learned to embrace it.

I set up centers for the kids today. I was worried this would be a complete disaster, but it worked really well. I made 5 stations where they could copy numbers and count, copy words and letters, use crayons and pencils to draw/write, look at/read books, and use clay. They rotated around the room so everyone got to do each thing. And for one hour, they got to be a bit creative in their learning without getting hit or yelled at. The other teachers liked my ideas and I felt very successful.

June 28, 2009

I took a hot splash bath and then piled in a matatu with 30 kids to go to church. My Dad and I each had 3 kids in our laps. They sang on the bumpy, hilly ride. We went to Pastor John’s church which was at the bottom of this beautiful hill. The worship was in Swahili. The kids from our orphanage sang one of my favorite Kenyan songs:

Cast your burdens unto Jesus

For He cares for you

Higher, higher, higher Jesus higher

My Dad shared the story of the man who was paralyzed and his friends lowered him through the roof so Jesus could heal him. Then he illustrated by having the kids pick each other up and him up on a blanket. 

Some kids from the orphanage:

 Simon & Jack, twins

Lydia

When we first arrived, she would never talk or smile. I have never seen such a serious baby. She would cry if a white person came near her. But even in the short time we were there, we saw her begin to smile, laugh, and talk. 

Jane, who was 10 and a foot shorter than me, giving me a piggy back ride

kids from the church lookin like homies

after you learn you shapes, colors, letters and numbers in Kenyan school, you learn the birth of Jesus and the parts of a cow. Both very important!

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

Life

June 26, 2007

I taught the 3 youngest classes at school about shapes and chatted a bit with the older students about America.

Because of the lack of resources and educational system, everything they learned at school was done through rote memorization, drilling, and copying things off of the board. If they misbehaved or got an answer wrong, the teachers hit them with a stick. Having been taught to have a creative and nurturing classroom envioronment, this was frustrating and upsetting to me.

On a different note, the grandmother of my host family would make the most amazing juice (pronounced joo-ees). She would take fresh, ripe pineapple, watermelon, mango (sometimes other fruits too) and kind of squish it all together and strain the pulp. Then she added a little bit of water/sugar. It was the best! I helped make some.

Here is Dylan drinking some:

 By the way, I was living with a host family that consisted of a grandmother, her son (eugene) and his wife (Gina), and their two kids Cody, and Dylan. There was a house helper there named Wanja. I stayed on one half of the house with the grandma and Wanja and my roomate, and Eugene's family was on the other side. Dyaln and Cody would come over after school to play with me and ask me questions and eat dinner with us. It was a fairly nice house, with a kitchen and bathroom. There was no shower but we would boil water and take splash baths every morning.


June 26, 2009

My Kenyan cold had gotten worse and I spent the whole day laying around feeling miserable.

My Dad and I were staying at an orphanage and I was sharing a room with several other girls. The orphanage had no electricity and it was their winter so it would get dark around 7:30, usually before we had even eaten dinner. We would eat by a lantern light and read by flashlight and once it was dark there was not much to do but go to sleep. There was a tank of water outside and they had to bring any in that they needed for cooking/washing. In order to flush the toilet, we had to pour water into the tank and it did not get flushed a lot and smelled. Cold splash baths were rare, and hot ones even rarer.

These blessings in disguise

June 25, 2007

At the school I volunteered at, I spent most of my time with the 3 youngest classes- ages 3-6. 

I taught them about colors and brought them some crayons.

"If I can teach here, I can teach anywhere"

"This place feels like home and they treat us like family. I miss real home though." 

June 25, 2009

My Dad and I, along with some other volunteers, visited the secondary school (high school) where the older kids from our orphanage attended. We spent the morning sitting through classes and mostly I was daydreaming, which I think is mostly what I did when I was in high school ;) Most of the Kenyan curriculum seems so outdated. They had a class on "business," and the teacher was lecturing from a textbook about machines like typewriters and Dictaphones. Most of the students, who were 15-18, had never used a computer ever in their lives. Oh, and they called a paper cutter a guillotine! In the afternoon they had a "talent show" which consisted of a bunch of goofy teenagers rapping and booty dancing. It rained again, on the tin roof of the building and was very loud. Back at home, the girls of the orphanage were being punished (beaten) for being bad. This was not a new occurrence, but still was upsetting. Also, we had been eating githeri (maize and beans) for at least 1 meal a day regularly. I was feeling frustrated because I had wanted so badly to go back to Kenya but  now felt homesick. 

"My heart is here but too much...is out of my control. I just want to open my own orphanage..."

Both of these days I had a Kenyan cold. Going back to my previous note about assuming Africa was hot, July is the coldest month in Kenya. In the morning/evening it gets down to the low 50’s, and during the day it is usually in the 60’s to low 70’s. This is the coldest it ever gets, and for them this is really cold! They all wear winter coats and complain about it being cold and all the kids get sick. Consequently we caught colds too while we were there.

Not to be overly negative, here are some funny stories of the day:

The Pastor of a nearby church (Pastor John) often came by to visit. While he was there, we were taking pictures. He told us he thought you were supposed to say “Chicken!” when someone took your picture, instead of “Cheese!”

The kids were playing “bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish” except they were saying “how many chapatis do you wish?” (A chapati is a delicious fried flatbread)

I felt the rains down in Africa

June 24, 2007

I rode a matatu for the first time! It was (and always is) quite the experience!
For those who don't know, a matatu is a van that drives along a certain route and picks people up. Kind of like a cross between a taxi and a city bus. They are only supposed to hold 14 passengers and drive about 50 miles per hour due to new laws (before, they used to be much worse). But, they cram as many people into them as possible, smashed together and not wearing deodorant and many times they will pickpocket people (especially white people). They drive crazy and fast, barely stopping long enough to let people on/off, with the "conductor" hanging outside the door. They often play loud, obnoxious music and decorate the inside/outside of the matatu with neon lights and stickers of Obama, Osama, Jay-Z, Bob Marley, Usher, Michael Jackson, etc.

Here is a view of the slum (Kawangware) where I was staying. This is outside the gate of my host family's house.

June 24, 2009

I read the books "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and "Goodnight, Gorilla" to some of the kids at school. These are some of mine and my Kindergarten students' favorite books. I think the kids in Kenya enjoyed them. It was hard to tell how much they understood. No one really reads to them, which is sad, so they don't really understand the concept of listening to a story.

There was a rainstorm.

Mzungu

June 23, 2007

I stood on the equator!

I crossed a scary bridge!

June 23, 2009

The kids braided my hair 

The aftermath of the storm

Sepia

Vote on which you like the best

dome 1

dome 2

dome 3

 fountain 1

fountain 2

fountain 3

Festival Park at dusk

Parallel lines

June 22, 2007

I visited the school where my roommate Ashley was teaching. I had thought the kids at my school were in poverty; I was blown away by the conditions at this other school. The entire building consisted of a tin shack which had been divided into a few rooms by curtains and makeshift walls. There were hardly any windows and no electricity so it was very dim. They did not have money to pay their teachers properly so often the teachers simply did not show up. I taught first grade for most of the day, flying by the seat of my pants. It was overwhelming, exhausting, and heartbreaking but great just to love on them as much as I could.

“Words can’t describe this place, I will have to take a lot of pictures.”


June 22, 2009

A different Ashley who I was staying with came to the school I was teaching at with me. It is interesting to see other people’s perceptions on Kenya, on the world in general. Why is it that when we see someone doing something differently than the way we do, we assume our way is superior and theirs is “wrong”? Even something as simple as referring to the non-American world as driving on “the wrong side of the road.”

“One minute I feel like I can’t stay here for 1 more day and the next I never want to leave”

PS I was a bit homesick on both of these days.

 The kids had a science lesson on "small animals" (aka bugs) then had to go outside and find some!

My Dad (Dennis) and Dennis Kareuke.

Keep on coming

June 21, 2009

I taught the 3 youngest classes at the school I was volunteering at some songs, which they learned pretty well and liked a lot.

“I wish I could give them more- pencils, crayons, paper, books…”

June 21, 2009

It was Father’s Day. We went to Cornerstone Church and 2 groups performed; 1 did a rap and one sang “Mighty to Save” by Chris Tomlin. James was there and I got to meet his beautiful little girl Kelly. I washed my clothes by hand.

“I feel called to Kenya”

My favorite things

June 20, 2007

“I love working one on one with them (the kids)- comforting the young ones who cry, helping them with their work, saying hi, giving love…I want to have fun and have a relationship with them…my teacher brain is in full gear…”

June 20, 2009

Jackson took us all around Nairobi on matatu rides, and we did a ton of walking! We went to the monkey park, the animal orphanage (where we got to pet a cheetah!), and the giraffe center! These are some of my favorite places! 

The Return

No, I have not forgotten my 365 photo project. :)

These were taken at Beverly Lake in Carpentersville

The land of contrasts

June 19, 2007

I spent the morning at school hanging out with and teaching the kids. I came home, and another volunteer came to share my room with me. I was a bit tired (still not used to the time change) and emotional. It's funny that I look back on Kenya as being such a happy time, when most of the time I wanted to cry. Being in Kenya is hard on an introvert because you are never really alone and constantly drawn attention to, so I held a lot of emotion in most of the time. But on this day, I lay on my bed and just cried. From being at school and seeing the lack of resources- "nubs of pencils and crayons, tattered notebooks, tiny balls of clay" to the kids with "cuts on their face/body, holes in their clothes, welts and scars." From finally being able to call home and feeling more homesick afterward to not being able to take a real shower. "It's not that I don’t like it here, I am just such a tangle of emotions...It was good to love on the kids today but they need so much..."

June 19, 2009

I also spent the morning at school hanging out with and teaching the kids. I taught them some songs and gave them some stickers. Then after school, I was able to visit my wonderful host family who I stayed with the first time I was in Kenya. It was wonderful to see them again and comforting that so much there was the same. They made my Dad and me a HUGE dinner! Then we watched TV, haha and I got to hang out with Cody and Dylan. I stayed with Grace that night for the first time.

“…In 2 years so much and so little has changed. I did not forget Kenya but slipped back into wastefulness and consumerism (it is so easy to in the US!). Here they literally do not waste a single drop of water or scrap of food. How do I go home and live a normal life? …Where do I go from here? …my heart is here. They are desperate for teachers. The needs are so great, I just can’t go home and wallow in my “stuff” and not return.”

PS Thank you James for getting me a cell phone in 2007 and taking me to Eugene’s in 2009.

School

June 18, 2007

I visited the school where I would be teaching every day for the next several weeks.

June 18, 2009

I went to the school where the kids from the orphanage I was working at attend. I ended up going there almost every day for the next few weeks as well.

 It's interesting...at both schools I was overwhelmed by the poverty- lack of resources, not enough teachers, classrooms with wooden desks a chalkboard and nothing else, outdated lessons being delivered through rote memorization. I was intimidated by the sea of Kenyan children staring at me, touching me, asking "how are you?", calling me mzungu (white person) or repeating my name over and over. I was feeling helpless, like there was more I should be doing in my short time besides sitting in the dirt surrounded by kids. Yet I was touched by them as well, their cuteness and innocence.

And here I am today, 2 weeks ago was my last official day of work and really I have just felt useless ever since. I thought I would be so happy to be done but I feel like there is something more I should be doing with my life than sitting in my room in my pajamas blogging when it's almost noon. I know every tired mom and tired teacher and tired everything else just wants a day of rest, but having purpose is important too.

TIA

June 17, 2007
I went to my first Kenyan church service. Anyone who thinks church is boring needs to go to church in Africa. They sing and dance, and the pastor loves to yell when he preaches!

I ate yomachoma for the first time, which is a grilled meat that Kenyans love. They eat it with their hands of course, with rice or ugali and sometimes this yummy mix of avocado and tomato.

I went to the Nairobi National Park and we did the safari walk, which is kind of like a zoo where they take in animals who would die in the wild. I loved it!

June 17, 2009
I slept in and spent the morning at the orphanage dong pretty much nothing because the kids were at school. I was frustrated and bored (kind of like today). Then we rook the kids their lunch. At the school, the kids who have parents bring their lunch to school But since our kids are orphans, every day someone from the orphanage beings them lunch. This involves carrying 1-2 heavy buckets of hot food and a backpack full of plates & silverware, then carrying back the empty buckets and dirty dishes. It is a 3 mile walk, downhill on the way there so you have to climb down these rocks and I thought I might fall and die, and uphill on the way back which kills your legs and I thought I might hyperventilate and die. Yet every day if there are no volunteers one of the workers of the orphanage who spend their day cooking and cleaning for the kids does this. The kids also walk to and from school every day, some as young as 5. When they come home, they wash their uniforms, take a bath, do their homework and sometimes other chores. They sleep in a room with about 10 other kids and usually share a bed. Yet you will never ever hear them complain. They are always smiling, dancing, singing, laughing, and playing.

So a girl got on a plane

Ok, so if you haven't picked up on the theme yet, last summer and the summer of 2007 I was in Kenya at this time. So I am going through the journals I kept while I was there (I am so glad I have these!) and posting thoughts and anecdotes on my time there. Anything in quotations is taken directly from my top-secret personal journal which I am now sharing with the world!!! And I am adding other thoughts looking back on my time, and photos from those days as I have them! Stay tuned, and enjoy!

~

When I look back on my time in Kenya, as I look back on most things, I tend to idealize and say it was the best time of my life. It was also one of the most challenging and frightening times.

In 2006, I heard that Intervarsity was going to Kenya, and I looked up their trip online. There was a picture of a beautiful smiling African child. And that is pretty much what did it for me. Kenya has been ingrained on my heart ever since. I look back on other things which led me to that point, from loving the movie Lion King to doing a country report on Kenya in 7th grade, and wonder if this was not the plan all along. Anyway, I was not able to go with IV, so I began researching mission trips. I found Fadhili online and decided to go with them because it was affordable, and it included a safari, and seemed doable (there was another trip that expressly said you would live without electricity or running water and I decided I could not do that. hahaha)

I did everything last minute, as is my style, from getting 7 shots over the course of 3 weeks to buying my plane ticket the week before I left! Of course, none of this phased Fadhili because although I didn't realize it then, Kenyans have a very different concept on time and deadlines! We had to wire them money, though, and this scared me a lot. My only communication with them had been via email, and I was afraid it might be a scam and didn't know if they were legit.

I packed my bags having no idea what to expect (Africa will be hot, right?) and prepared to leave. If you go by the book, this is not how to do missions by the way! I boarded a plane by myself to go overseas for the very first time! And from there it ceased being me and was all God (it probably was all along). From navigating my way through the London airport to running in to some missionaries also going to Kenya!

I arrived in Nairobi, through customs, to find a huge crowd of people waiting at the airport for passengers to arrive. And there was my name, on a sign being held by some strange African men. It was 11 pm at night there. I got in a car with them and we drove through the slums. I was sure I was going to die and no one would know until 4 weeks later when I had not come home. They took me a to a guest house which was surrounded with barbed wire and essentially left me there. I am not sure how, but I slept. The next morning, birds were chirping and the lady at the guest house made me breakfast and James came and took me to the Fadhili office where I met Shana and some other volunteers who seemed to love Kenya. This helped a lot, though I continued to feel scared for a good week until I began to adjust. I was not tired and hungry at the right times and my host mom fussed over me and told me I would die if I did not eat.

June 16, 2007
I took  my first splash bath. I tasted sugar cane for the first time I met some lady who was 109 years old supposedly. We walked through the muddy slums and heard kids chanting "how are you?"

"I don't know what to make of all this. It is sad, yes (referring to the poverty all round). But the people have so much hope and love. I feel like a sponge trying to absorb too much water."

The second time I went to Kenya, I felt much more prepared and confident. I had expectations now of what the trip would be like, whereas the first time I had no idea what to anticipate. I would stay with the same host family, which would be comfortable (I wanted to be comfortable in Kenya, hahaha). I would look around to see if there were long-term opportunities for me there. This time, when I boarded the plane I was not alone and there was a lot of security in that. My Dad was able to come with me, which was amazing. All of our flights went smoothly and we even had window seats! We met a missionary to Africa on the plane.

Withing hours of us landing, we were in a car again, driving through the darkened streets outside Nairobi.  Before my Dad had been in Kenya for more than a few hours, we got into a car accident! Thankfully it was very minor and settled with a lot of yelling and the exchange of money (who needs law enforcement?) but still, it was a taste of things to come!

It turned out that we were not able to stay with my host family. James had emailed me a few days before I was supposed to leave indicated this might be the case, but I was praying hard and trusting it would work out. I was frustrated and disappointed to hear this, but it was at this point I let go. I let go of my expectations and of trying to control everything and being in a constant state of worry (for the most part). There were several options of places we could serve, and we chose to stay at an orphanage recently opened by Fadhil. We would stay with the kids, and my Dad could help them do some painting. Oh, and guess what else James told us about the place we were to stay for 2 weeks? It had no electricity or running water!!! God has a sense of humor I am convinced and loves to prove me wrong when I say I can't do something!

June 16, 2009
I took an ice cold shower.

"I feel like I can't even begin to describe the things I've seen today"