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was daydreaming, which I think is mostly what I did when I was in high school ;) Most of the Kenyan curriculum seems so outdated.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)