#3 Kenya: JAMBO
Jambo - or in other words "Hello" in Swahili.
We arrived at Njaaga's Childrens Home on Tuesday and it will be the place that we will call home for the next 6 weeks for me and 4 weeks for Robin. The greeting was incredible. We had all the kids run up to our car as we arrived and even before we were able to reach the buidling had probably shaken 50 hands and greeted 50 faces.
All in all we have 74 kids at the orphanage ranging for 4 years old to 19 years old. We made a valiant effort on the first day to issue all the kids name tags so as to enable us to learn their names. However, within hours the name tags were gone and the faces just became a collage of unidentifiable smiles. We haven't given up though. Hopefully over the next month we'll be able to name each one of our kids. However, the same hope is not extended to the school kids. On Thursday we went and met with the head teacher at a local primary school and were informed that the school has over 1000 students from grade 1 to grade 8. We've been invited to be "drop-in" teachers at the school - so in other words come by a couple times a week and share or worldly experiences - talk to them about different cultures, different places etc. - a kind of ad hoc social studies course.
For now though, they've had vacation and school will start again come Monday. We're scheduled to drop by the school at 10am that day and aren't really sure what to expect - but either way it should be great.
Other than that - we're incredibly glad to be out of Nairobi. The countryside here is just amazing and all the people are incredibly friendly. The last thing we would want is to be stuck in a big city all the time - even if that means having access to things such as showers or a variety of food. Those are sacrifices that we were more then willing to make. We have no running water - just a bucket of water that we use to flush our toilet and to wash ourselves in (as well as do laundry). I still haven't washed my hair so we'll see how that goes when the time comes. There is electricity so that's no problem - but that's about it. Food is generally a couple pieces of bread in the morning, rice and greens for lunch and dinner or else ugali - this mixture of corn, beans and potatoes that are mashed into a really dense mass - with the same vegetables. An absolute lack of variety and although the stuff doesn't taste bad - 3 days here has us already wishing for something else. But can't complain. The portions are huge and we're not going hungry. And as I already said - I'll take the lack of food selection any day over staying in Nairobi and being spoiled to death.
Other than that - we've already gone on a number of walks around the countryside. The weather has been quite nice - sort of like summer in Vancouver. Warm enough for shorts and t-shirt during the day and cool enough in the evening to require pants and a sweater or fleece. Phillis, the resident teacher at our children's home, has taken us out through the local valley and villages visiting all her friends' houses as well as her own. We'd be welcomed everywhere, greeted with a cup of tea and an endless array of smiles and little faces running after us. Truly friendly people. Yesterday we went on a longer hike to the top of a big hill from where we had stunning views of the surrounding Rift Valley and a number of nearby soda lakes.
Today is our first weekend - we've taken a local matatu into Nakuru to take care of things on the internet and purchase a number of items. We handed out my suitcase of clothes yesterday to all the kids. Everyone got at least one item. Since we didn't have enough things for boys we promised to pick things up in town so today we were given a list of who needs what and hope to hit the markets here.
On a final note - as welcome as we feel, we're still a bit lost and confused as to what is expected of us. The kids are really self-sufficient and aside for helping out with some of the meals or hanging around with the kids we haven't really found anything that we're needed for. They do however have a room set aside as a library. It essentially was a bare room when we came that had a couple desks and a really old laptop that someone once donated (still works - sort of - and the kids use it to play games - we're hoping to get a typing program on it). So I think our major goal will be to buy some book shelves (or have some made) so that there is somewhere to place to books that we brough, paint the room a bit and clean it up. We're also hoping to post up some educational posters - especially stuff about aids/hiv awarness on the walls. I think if we succeed in making that room a welcoming and cozy place we will at least have accomplished something that they can be proud of for a long time.
Ok... enough for now. Tones of other things for me to take care of. Keep in touch everyone.
Kasia
We arrived at Njaaga's Childrens Home on Tuesday and it will be the place that we will call home for the next 6 weeks for me and 4 weeks for Robin. The greeting was incredible. We had all the kids run up to our car as we arrived and even before we were able to reach the buidling had probably shaken 50 hands and greeted 50 faces.
All in all we have 74 kids at the orphanage ranging for 4 years old to 19 years old. We made a valiant effort on the first day to issue all the kids name tags so as to enable us to learn their names. However, within hours the name tags were gone and the faces just became a collage of unidentifiable smiles. We haven't given up though. Hopefully over the next month we'll be able to name each one of our kids. However, the same hope is not extended to the school kids. On Thursday we went and met with the head teacher at a local primary school and were informed that the school has over 1000 students from grade 1 to grade 8. We've been invited to be "drop-in" teachers at the school - so in other words come by a couple times a week and share or worldly experiences - talk to them about different cultures, different places etc. - a kind of ad hoc social studies course.
For now though, they've had vacation and school will start again come Monday. We're scheduled to drop by the school at 10am that day and aren't really sure what to expect - but either way it should be great.
Other than that - we're incredibly glad to be out of Nairobi. The countryside here is just amazing and all the people are incredibly friendly. The last thing we would want is to be stuck in a big city all the time - even if that means having access to things such as showers or a variety of food. Those are sacrifices that we were more then willing to make. We have no running water - just a bucket of water that we use to flush our toilet and to wash ourselves in (as well as do laundry). I still haven't washed my hair so we'll see how that goes when the time comes. There is electricity so that's no problem - but that's about it. Food is generally a couple pieces of bread in the morning, rice and greens for lunch and dinner or else ugali - this mixture of corn, beans and potatoes that are mashed into a really dense mass - with the same vegetables. An absolute lack of variety and although the stuff doesn't taste bad - 3 days here has us already wishing for something else. But can't complain. The portions are huge and we're not going hungry. And as I already said - I'll take the lack of food selection any day over staying in Nairobi and being spoiled to death.
Other than that - we've already gone on a number of walks around the countryside. The weather has been quite nice - sort of like summer in Vancouver. Warm enough for shorts and t-shirt during the day and cool enough in the evening to require pants and a sweater or fleece. Phillis, the resident teacher at our children's home, has taken us out through the local valley and villages visiting all her friends' houses as well as her own. We'd be welcomed everywhere, greeted with a cup of tea and an endless array of smiles and little faces running after us. Truly friendly people. Yesterday we went on a longer hike to the top of a big hill from where we had stunning views of the surrounding Rift Valley and a number of nearby soda lakes.
Today is our first weekend - we've taken a local matatu into Nakuru to take care of things on the internet and purchase a number of items. We handed out my suitcase of clothes yesterday to all the kids. Everyone got at least one item. Since we didn't have enough things for boys we promised to pick things up in town so today we were given a list of who needs what and hope to hit the markets here.
On a final note - as welcome as we feel, we're still a bit lost and confused as to what is expected of us. The kids are really self-sufficient and aside for helping out with some of the meals or hanging around with the kids we haven't really found anything that we're needed for. They do however have a room set aside as a library. It essentially was a bare room when we came that had a couple desks and a really old laptop that someone once donated (still works - sort of - and the kids use it to play games - we're hoping to get a typing program on it). So I think our major goal will be to buy some book shelves (or have some made) so that there is somewhere to place to books that we brough, paint the room a bit and clean it up. We're also hoping to post up some educational posters - especially stuff about aids/hiv awarness on the walls. I think if we succeed in making that room a welcoming and cozy place we will at least have accomplished something that they can be proud of for a long time.
Ok... enough for now. Tones of other things for me to take care of. Keep in touch everyone.
Kasia
posted by Kasia Koltunska at 1:30 AM
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