#15 Kenya: Addendum

This will be the last posting under this thread. It’s currently June 14th and I’m sitting in James’ living-room prepping this blog.
Yesterday was horrible. I truly hate goodbyes. I couldn’t sleep the whole night and then got up just past 6am to say goodbye to all the highschool kids who would not be coming back for lunch and whom I wouldn’t see again. I sat on their beds as they got ready for school, hugged them, took some last photos and shed some tears. I’m not the one to cry easily, but some of them were teary-eyed. I tried to go back to sleep after that but gave up on that idea very quickly. Instead I got up and headed into the library where I locked myself in and began writing notes to the kids.
Some of the had written me goodbye letters and I really wanted to leave something behind for them as well so I began with a few for the ones with whom I’ve become most attached. At 9am Steve finally came and we hammered the holes and nailed the shelf to the wall. I arranged all the books, cleaned everything up and returned to my letter writing. By then I had concluded that it would be unfair to leave letters behind for just a couple of the kids but not for the others so I continued my scribbling. By lunch time I had 35 letters done and 20 more to write.
The kids clustered around me as we were eating our last meal (ugali and kale). I also managed to get some last portrait shots of kids that I had realized I was missing and then it was time for the final goodbyes. I walked the kids up the road towards their school. Mary, Joyce and Caroline were sobbing; the others were bravely trying to keep it in. It truly sucks when there is nothing you can say to cheer them up. They probably realize that there is very little chance that we will meet again – or at least not for a long time. So my promises to come back sounded really hollow – but there was nothing else that I could say.
After that I had to get myself together and finish the last letters. By then, having been writing for probably close to 6 hours, my hand was sore, the letters were becoming shorter and shorter, and as the names were sounding more unfamiliar each letter slowly became less and less personal. By the end I knew I just had to get it done. It was nearly 3pm and I still hadn’t packed and my original plan was to be on the road by 3pm at the latest. Well, finally all of them were completed. I folded them up into little squares and pinned them to the cork-board in the library for them to discover at a later time.
Packing went quite quickly and then it was time for my last walk up to the road. With all the older kids still at school I was accompanied just by the tiny ones, each wrestling to be able to hold my hand. With me only having two hands and there being about 10 of them created a lot of havoc until Phyllis (the teacher) forbade any of them to hold my hand. From the matatu I waved goodbye to Phyllis, Peter and the little ones and left Kirengero behind me. By this time it was 4pm and since the matatu was nearly empty, we ended up waiting in every town on the way to Nakuru in an attempt to fill it up.
I got into Nakuru after 5pm, hunted around for a 10 person matatu (rather than the usual 14), but couldn’t find on so finally settled on one that seemed to be pretty much full. Nevertheless we didn’t leave Nakuru until close to 6pm and you should keep in mind that it gets dark around 6:30-7:00 pm and the general advise is not to travel after dark. Well... there was nothing that I could do about it. The ride, however, went smoothly and just past 8pm the matatu dropped me off on the side of the road across from the Total Petro station by James’s house. I was a bit nervous at first making my way alone in the dark with all my bags, but after crossing the highway and getting into the gated residential area I felt completely at ease.
One thing I haven’t mentioned before is the security in this city. It’s mind-boggling and exceeds any of my expectations. Residential areas tend to have security posts and gates at their entrances. Then each house has a massive wall around it with gigantic gates. As I approached James’ house I realized that there was no buzzer on his gate and grew concerned that no one would hear me to let me in. However, after a decent amount of banging someone finally showed up and let me. Then as you walk up the driveway to the front door there is another gate right on the veranda. This one too is locked with about three deadbolts and then there’s the door itself.
I was happy to have finally arrived, although sad to have left Kirengero. Julita was to arrive at 6:30am so after watching some football I headed to bed for yet another restless night.

Today I woke up early and patiently listened to hear whether Julita had arrived. At 7:30am I finally got up and waited in the living room, but by 9am I started getting concerned. Finally round 9:30am James came down to tell me that they’ve been paging Julita at the airport since her flight arrived, but that no one had shown. I brief panic attack sent me racing to a nearby internet café where the internet didn’t want to work. All I could do is open the main page of my hotmail account where I saw a message from Julita entitled “EMERGENCY” but couldn’t open it. Finally, after about half an hour of trying I got into it to find out that she had missed her flight and would be arriving in the evening instead.
So that’s where we are now. I’m waiting for James to get up to head into town with him. I’ll probably just stroll around, maybe go watch the Davinci Code and then in the evening, after Julita is picked up at the airport, head home to James’ with her.


Oh - and I had forgotten to include the website address for the new blog and pictures:

BLOG: http://postvolunteeradventures.blogspot.com/
PICTURES: http://photojourneyafrica.blogspot.com


Kasia

PS: Robin - all the kids pass on their love to you as does the entire James Njaaga household.
PS: I'm coming down with a cold! My head is killing me - as is my throat! sucks - right before my safari!

#14 Kenya: Kwaherini to All!

Tuesday, June 12, 2006

I really don’t want to leave. I must admit that leaving didn’t really sink in until about 10pm on my last night in Kirengero. But when I found myself saying goodnight to the kids for the very last time and then sitting in the library all by myself listening to some Tibetan mantras and typing up this blog, I felt like this really should not be it. It would be different if I knew that I could stay in touch with these kids or that I would see them again. But there is no guarantee of either one. I will definitively write letters to them, but not having access to computers and internet, it’s not going to be possible to communicate via email. As for regular mail, they don’t have money for stamps and I’m not guaranteed that any of them would write back, but I would like to hope that at least a few would. As for seeing them again, well, as much as I would love to come back, I have no idea when I’ll get the next opportunity – when I will have enough time or money. One day though. Yet goodbyes are so much harder when you know that they will most likely be long term or even permanent. In a way I’m glad that tomorrow the kids will be at school and will not be able to see me off.


It’s been a phenomenal 6 weeks here. I will cherish this experience for my whole life. The kids here are simply amazing and really do put things into perspective. We should truly appreciate everything that we have and complain a lot less. I don’t know any kids back home that get up at 5 in the morning to study for school, that go down to the river to fetch water before they leave in the morning, that will do all your dishes even with you attempting to refuse their help, and will continue smiling, dancing and singing around you. They never complain. They never whine. They do their chores. They help out whenever they can. They try. They work hard. They love life and all those around them – whether it would be the people in their life permanently – their brothers and sisters (from the home), their adopted ‘dad’ and ‘mom’ (James & Lucy) – or those who just appear in their lives for short periods of time and then return to their own distant lives – the volunteers. Add to this the picturesque setting and you truly have a small kind of paradise – much more so than anything found on Lamu.
In my last week here (without Robin :o( ), I finished off all the library jobs, finished the cataloguing, sorting, organizing and decorating. I got to share some of my photos with the kids – showing the slideshows from Nepal and Tibet as well as South-East Asia. They loved to see the pictures of the different parts of the world, plus learned a lot about geography, people, culture and just life. Many didn’t know what a mule was, or what other religions were like. They didn’t know where Malaysia was or that Thailand was not a flooded country, but rather had many beaches because it bordered the ocean. They’ve never heard of the Secret War on Laos which dropped a plane load of bombs every 8 minutes, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 9 years nor had they every heard of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. They got to learn the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra as well as Daff Punk’s Around the World. So all around I was really glad that I got to share my travel experiences with them. It was a very simplified version and I’m sure that many of the younger ones didn’t understand much of what I said, but nevertheless, the got to see some of it and maybe became aware of more things.
That was essentially the way we spent our last evening together. We opted against them performing their usual song and dance routine for me (something that I have seen probably about two dozen times since having come here). Instead, after the photos from my travels we began watching video clips from my stay here: of the kids dancing, of them singing, from visitors day, us doing hand prints on the door, and everyone’s all-time favourite – Robin singing Killing me Softly while sweeping the library (with me hiding outside the window). They would ask for that clip to be played over and over – as well as any other clip that Robin or I were in.

It’s sad to leave and I really wish I could say that I will be back. I’ll miss these kids dearly, but as I’m sitting in the library I’m glad that Robin and I were able to leave something behind for them that they will appreciate on a daily basis. I agree that there are many things that can be done and are being done for them. Adrienne and Malaike painted the name “Njaaga’s Child Hope Home” at the entrance. They also sowed up some of the kids’ clothing and backpacks. Aogu and Marie built a basketball hoop and did face paints with the kids. However, sitting at the desks in the library, looking at the world maps hanging on the walls and the cork board on the other wall with the long list of signed out books pinned to it, I feel like this is somehow different. By no means do I want to say that Robin and I were better or had a better project. Everything matters and everything is appreciated by the kids. They remember every volunteer that came through this home and miss them dearly. But signing out the first book of Anne of Green Gables to Consolata or Little Woman to Mary and seeing Joseph, Samwel and a number of other boys playing with the marble maze set all day long, assembling and disassembling it just somehow makes it dearer to my heart. One of my best moments was yesterday seeing first the kids play with a multiplication board (that has sliding parts to reveal the results of your whole 10x10 multiplication table) and then have it taken over by the two Massai security guards who quizzed themselves and fumed and fussed whenever they got something wrong.
The library we’re leaving behind with Robin will serve not only as a memory of us, but will serve as a learning tool for the kids. The books are a great start. It wouldn’t be the same if not for all the boxes donated by Linda (from Canada). The games too will play an educational as well as entertaining role. Hopefully with time we’ll be able to help expand on this library – an encyclopaedia set would be fantastic, but more than anything, Robin and I will do our best to organize a number of computers for them – whether through fundraising, donations or collection of peoples’ old computers. I think it is definitively something that would help these kids out greatly. It would at least give them more equal chances of success as compared to kids in cities which have access to internet and computers on a daily basis.

But enough of my ranting about what we did or hope to do. The library is done (well, nearly done – Steve is coming tomorrow morning to nail the last shelf into the wall - he came today but without any tools – as befitting an African ‘carpenter’.) My bags are almost packed and tomorrow after lunch I head off to take my last matatu ride from Kirengero into Nakuru and then to James’ house. On the 14th I pick up Julita at the airport, have one day to take care of all my business in Nairobi and then it’s off on a 40 day safari through six countries all the way to Johannesburg. The postings from that part of the trip won’t be included in this blog, but rather will be posted separately under .


A few other concluding comments and remarks with regards to things that are on my mind or things that I had forgotten to mention beforehand.

While in Nairobi we caught a ‘disco’ back to James’ house. The matatu that we were taking (it was nearly 7pm so getting dark) had black lights in it, bright stickers on it’s windows depicting dancers and various other disco like images, and blaring incredibly loud disco/techno music. Not a bad right for someone who had a whole day of work and just wants to get home. But it was definitively entertaining.

Being on a big tour bus/truck must really suck. I hated the fact that when trying to shop/bargain in Nakuru everyone assumed I was a mzungu from one of the big trucks and would jack up their prices by 750% (from 40 shillings to 300 shillings). But I did go up to say goodbye to Moses for Robin and ended up being taken out for lunch by Thomas (another one of the vendors) who professed his love for me, told me he would wait for me to make my money in Canada and that the boyfriend that I told him I had back home would not mind or did not have to know. He then proceeded on to despair about the fact that we only met right before the time that I intended to be leaving because more time spent together would have allowed our relationship to grow immensely. That’s Kenya for you. And no worries – this is all innocent enough and part of a normal day’s work – at least that’s the impression I get. Everyone is super friendly and super nice. Although they propose marriage on the first sight of a white girl they by no means present any danger. It’s just talk and they probably try it out on every single person. Other than that though they are great to talk to and nice company. And by the way Robin – Moses says he hopes you had a safe flight and that you will come back and visit him one day.
On a sort of related note – every blond girl is the same person. On Saturday I went to the nearby town of Kambazi to watch a football (soccer for all you North Americans) game. The week before another blond volunteer had been there and everyone kept on calling me by her name, asking me what it was that I bought in a particular store and so forth even after I tried to tell them that this was my first time in Kambazi and that the girl they were referring to was someone else. They did take me into a photo studio though and insisted on getting a picture with me professionally done. This consisted of a guy standing us in front of some drapes and proceeding to pull out this antique camera that still had a wind button and snapping one picture that might be developed in a months time. Another example of blond girls being the same person was when I was taking a matatu back from Nakuru. The ticket guy asked me whether I was Diana and when I said that no I wasn’t, that Diana was another volunteer from Kirengero, he told me that Diana was his friend. At that I wondered why he would think that I was his friend since we had never met before, and I would have assumed that he would recognize his friend.

On Sunday Phyllis insisted on taking us to her church. I had wanted to see what the services were like here all along so I didn’t mind. Although the kids do their own service at the home, it is not the same thing and I was happy to go to Phyllis church. The service started out real nice with a lot of singing. The Africans are amazing at that. All they need is a set of drums, a metal ring to serve as one of those triangle like musical instruments and their voices. Seeing all the grandmas shaking their bums, singing at the top of their lungs and dancing while praising the Lord, was amazing. However, after over one hour of Kikuyu singing and praying I had finished my share of silent prayers and recollections. Yet their sermon went on and on and on and on. The actual sermon (which was a lady preaching in Kikuyu with every 50th word being in English) lasted for nearly 75 minutes. The whole service from beginning to end went on for more than three hours and proved to be more than I could handle. I don’t know if this is representative of African services in general or whether this was so because it was a Presbyterian parish and because they were celebrating Woman’s Guild Week. Overall I was glad that I went and got to see and experience it, but simultaneously wished that it had been shorter.

Mzungus tend to be the biggest attraction anywhere in these little villages. When I went to watch that football game in Kambazi, I had a crowd of kids sitting in front of me staring at me for over two hours as the football game was taking place behind their backs. The same held true at the church service where the kids sat in the benches in front of me and kept on staring a me rather than looking to the front of the church. It’s a really odd feeling. I felt like an attraction at a zoo – something/someone that people come to see and look at, poke at, touch, feed or simply observe. All I needed was a cage to be put into. On the other hand, most of them had never seen a mzungu before and the pinching and rubbing of our skin and pulling of blond hair can to a certain extent be justified or at least explained.


For a finishing note, here’s a list of my favourite questions (most asked by adults):

1. If the Tibetans hang prayer flags so that the wind can carry the prayers throughout the world for all of us, does that mean that there are demons flying around the entire world?
2. From the many leafs of marijuana growing on the side of the trials in Nepal I was interrogated whether I “PICKED” the one particular one that was featured in one of my photos (I had picked it so that I could take a photo of an individual leaf, rather than the whole patch of plants). But I felt like I was being interrogated by a Spanish Inquisitor that wanted to know whether I had in fact PICKED this leaf.
3. Is Tibet in Canada?
4. Will you drown in the ocean if you sink?
5. Is Thailand flooded?
6. Did I really eat snake?
7. What are thumbtacks for?
8. What is Lego?
9. Will I assist them with a electro-plast? (Meaning: can I please give them a band-aid)
10. What continent is Canada on?
11. Whether Hindus and Buddhists are idol worshippers?
12. How tall my mother and my sister are?
13. What is Canada’s cash crop? (this was a great question by a grade 6 student)
14. Who is the vice-president of Canada?
15. Whether I’m a sign-painter? (Meaning: am I capable of writing nice even letters on a wall, door etc.)
16. What I would give them so that they could remember me and never forget me? (A polite way of begging, maybe?)
17. What a desk lamp is for?
18. Singing the national anthem in the movie theater before the movie starts. Everyone dutifully stood as the flag waved on the screen!

#13 Kenya: Random Comments and Facts

After a good night’s sleep I remembered a few more curious tidbits of information that I thought I might share with you guys.

1. Don’t assume anything is self evident. I recently had the teacher come up to me and ask me what thumbtacks are. She had never seen them nor did she know what they were for.

2. Adults that behave like children drive me nuts... but with them having little exposure to different and new things, they tend to approach something that is unfamiliar like a child that is just learning about it. Hence we have one gentlemen that always drops by the library whenever I just want some peace and quite. He’ll just stand there and ask a billion questions. What is this? What is that? Why do you have white spots on the walls (they’re clouds)? What is this stop sign for that’s lying here on the ground? And on and on and on. Then when we were doing handprints on the door and all the kids got to do it, he insisted on holding each child’s hand and placing it on the door where he wanted it to be placed. The kids had no freedom. However, after we allowed him to do his own handprint he was satisfied and left.

3. Robin had a dress tailor made. Firstly I need to describe the circumstances a little bit. She saw a picture of a nice summer dress in a magazine and bought some fabric for it. The dress is a typical summer dress for our western societies: low cut, short and with a bare back. Well, she didn’t get a chance to find a tailor in Nairobi so walked into this Muslim shop in Lamu and before we could weasel our way out of it, the people there said that they knew someone who could make it. So measurements were taken and Robin was told to come back on the next day. When she did, she picked up not a nice summer dress, but essentially what could equally well be a parachute. The dress went down nearly to her ankles (or at least halfway past her knees) and the top was so big that she could honestly fly away if she flapped it hard enough. Robin, you better try it on and take a picture in it before doing any alterations to it.

4. Eating breakfast while looking out over paradise is priceless. The view from our orphanage is just breathtaking and to sit on the front steps while sipping tea in the early morning hours is something that I will dearly miss when I leave this place.

5. Riding donkeys in first gear is quite pleasant. Jordan, I’m happy to inform you that our donkeys never left first hear. To clarify, Jordan and I got to ride donkeys when we were in Egypt in the Valley of the Kings. The ride was about 1 hour one way and 1 hour the other way. My analogy is that donkeys have three gears. The first is when they are just slowly trotting down the road and it’s a nice and smooth ride. The second gear is when they pick up pace and all their legs are moving separately. Second gear is incredibly shaky, bumpy and uncomfortable. My donkey in Egypt refused to get out of second gear. I had two hours of the most rattling ride in my life and thought my entire camera would fall apart and all the screws would come out of it not to mention the ‘shaken-baby syndrome’ that I must have suffered afterwards. Third gear is fine because that’s the gallop. They’re going fast, but at least their legs are moving simultaneously so it’s nice even bumps. So I’ve been reluctant to ever mount a beast like that again, but upon Robin’s insistence we gave them a go on Lamu and I was incredibly thankful that it was first gear all the way.

6. Some volunteer organizations are better than others. Do your research well. Find out exactly where your money is going. I’ll write up a spiel about my takes on my organization at some later point. Originally I was disappointed with it, but after having talked to James I’ve come to understand how it works and to appreciate the work it is doing. But not all organizations are equally deservant of such praise. KVDA (Kenya Volunteer Development Association) might be one such organization. I say might because I don’t have personal experience with them. However, almost all the volunteers that have come through this orphanage while I have been here have been through KVDA. An example of their operation is that for 11 volunteers staying three weeks at the orphanage they have a mere $100 for food to last them the entire stay. This supposedly got augmented later on by a further $100. However, even $200 is not much money to feed 11 people for three weeks. And one should take into consideration the fact that each of those volunteers paid at least $200US to KVDA directly and many of them much more money to their umbrella organization (with one girl paying nearly $3000US for two months). If you consider that out of that $3000 merely $10 or $20 made it to James who runs orphanage then there is something seriously wrong with these institutions.

7. Riding in a matatu is much safer than riding in a big bus. At least the center of gravity is closer to the ground.

8. Bargaining for suvenirs when there is a big truckload of tourists parked right next to it is useless. You keep on getting muzung prices even from people from whom you bought things two weeks earlier (such as negotiating for necklesses for which I paid 45 shillings before and them now quoting me 300 shillings because they're assuming that I'm from the same truck).

9. More info about the kids and the orphanage is available at www.njaagachildhope.or.ke


Ok... that’s all I can think of for now. Time to head off. Plenty more to do.

# 12 Kenya: Ume Choca Sana (please don’t quote me on spelling) --> I’m Very Tired

It’s nearly 10pm right now as I’m sitting down to write this blog and I truly am exhausted. I’ve been working in the library since 8am with only a short break for lunch and dinner. With it being my last few days here, there is no time for African time. There is no way that I will leave this library unfinished, even if that means putting in really long hours. But please don’t think that I am complaining. This is truly a labour of the heart.

However, before I go on ranting about the library, let me fill you in on some other things that have happened over the last few days.

Lamu was phenomenal. I’ve already written a bit and no longer know where I left off. But we spent four wonderful days there beachbumming, relaxing, strolling, and enjoying ourselves. As much as I would have loved to have stayed longer, by the end the island had gotten a bit small. It’s absolutely impossible to avoid anyone on that island. If, in trying to get someone to bugger off you tell him that you’ll come back later to look at his goods, you better be prepared to follow up on that promise. He will remind you every single time you walk by and keep in mind that you will probably have to walk by another twenty times. A perfect example was with a tailor that we visited to have some pants made. He took a liking to us so we tried to avoid his shop and every time we took a detour round it we would bump into him coming back from somewhere. Simply unavoidable. The island truly does get a bit too small, at least for my liking.
But please don’t take that to mean that we didn’t enjoy ourselves. Lamu has such a laid-back and worry-free atmosphere that you can’t have these things bother you for long. Instead you find yourself riding donkeys (I got to ride Malaike), taking free showers while on a dhow, eating barracuda and shark, or hiding your belongings in your hostel so that the monkey doesn’t steal them. In the midst of all of this you relax and do nothing. It was truly a vacation from a vacation, and like all vacations, it sadly has to come to an end and did so for us on Tuesday.
We flew back to Nairobi where we got a ride through James’ agency into town and left our bags at his office. Not having eaten since early in the morning we had a fantastic lunch at yet another amazing Nairobi restaurant and then caught a matatu back to James’ house. At that point we finally had to tackle the jigsaw puzzle of Robin’s bags. With all the souvenirs and presents that we bought we somehow had to reshuffle the 65 kg of baggage to make two bags of 25 or 26 kg each and the leftover in the carryon. Not having a scale to double-check our work we used the coffee and tea that we bought as a comparison. Depending on a given object’s weight, we would either put 1, 2 or 3 500g bags of coffee into a bag and then add 250g bags of tea to it in an attempt of attaining an equilibrium. By this method we finally had three bags hopefully all meeting airport regulations.
The next morning we headed into town with James, roamed around a bit, took care of a few last things and had a last bite to eat together. Finally it was time for me to say my goodbyes to Robin. After having spent basically two months together (since while studying for exams we saw each other nearly 24/7, and now having spent over a month living, breathing, eating and sleeping together), it is really weird being apart. I am all alone now since Robin has deserted me. Well, technically one could say that I deserted Robin since I was the one to leave for Nakuru first with Robin left behind in Nairobi awaiting her 10pm flight. Yet it’s still me here and her back in Canada, so I think I’m justified in saying that it was her who deserted me. It’s funny being back in Kirengero because all the kids keep on confusing my name. They have gotten used to calling us Robin and Kasia that now they find themselves quite often calling me Robin before realizing what they had just done.

So I’m back now in Kirengero. I got the warmest welcome ever from all the kids. They stormed my car as I drove up and I could barely get out if it. By the time I did I had about 5 of them hanging from my neck and another 10 or so from my arms. There were two new volunteers arriving with me (from KVDA) and they were basically ignored and sidelined until all the kids finished greeting me. It was truly amazing coming back. This place is just magical and the kids are phenomenal. I was so glad to be back and my only regret was that I knew I would be saying goodbye to all of them in a matter of days.
John, a VICDA representative, had driven me to Nakuru with the hopes of seeing the library. Unfortunately Phillis was away and she had the key to the room. When she came back, it turned out that one of our shelves had collapsed (so maybe it was a good thing that John didn’t get a chance to see it). It was the free-standing shelf that Steve (the ‘expert’ carpenter) was supposed to nail into the wall two weeks ago. Robin and I had gotten frustrated with waiting for him and had set up the shelves without nailing it in. It seemed quite stable at the time, but as it now became apparent, that was not the case. All the books were in a heap on the floor and the shelf was strewn on top of them. As if I didn’t have enough work as is...

I tackled the mess in the morning. The books are now sitting on the desks again awaiting the timely arrival of Steve (African time is really starting to irritate me). I finished cataloguing them all and decided that there is no way that I’m writing all the books out by hand in their ledger. Instead I decided to print out my excel spreadsheet in Nakuru and past that into the ledger. It would simply take too long to list off 750 books by hand. So with the books catalogued I proceeded to the supplies and toys. Together with Peter and the two new volunteers (Daniela – Denmark, and Nancy – Kenya), I headed up to Kirengero and picked up four big chests for the toys, games, notebooks and supplies. I thought that everything school related would fit into one big chest, but after counting and sorting through nearly 4000 pens, pencils, markers and crayons I realized that they would fill up one entire box. The other three boxes got dedicated to toys and games and thankfully Marie helped me out with sorting through those. So today, for over 12 hours, I’ve been sitting and counting all these things. There’s a few more things to finish, but the library is nearly done. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that Steve will finally show and I will be able to arrange the books back on the shelf.


Other than that, just a few more days left. Depending on whether James will be able to take me on a safari, I might be leaving Kirengero on Sunday (the 11th) or else on Wednesday (the 13th). From there it’s off on a different adventure through another 6 countries and that will be a whole new blog.


For now this is it. I’m exhausted and needing to head off to bed. Goodnight All!

#11: Kenya - The Island Paradise filled with Bob Marleys

Hey everyone

Lamu, the little paradise as the locals call it. We arrived here on Friday and although it's been raining quite a bit, we've been having an absolute blast. But before I get around to talking about that, there's a bit of catching up to do.

Thursday Robin got to say her goodbyes to the kids. Since it was Madaraka Day (Freedom Day), the kids had the day off school and walked us up to the road to see us off. The night before we were up till 3am packign and finishing things off in the library. So we were a bit beat and Robin wasn't feeling too well. But by 9am we were heaidng up to the road with a train of kids and Peter carrying the huge suitcase (weighing 42 kg) on his head.

Matatu ride into Nairobi went well and we got off early to head to Jame's house after being met. There I finally got to have a proper shower (although it fluctuated between scalding hot and freezing cold). It was high time for one because to tell you honestly, I have never seen so much brown water come out of my hair as that time round. Even the washing of hair in Kirengero doesn't really get it clean and it was sickening when I saw the dirt in the bathtub. At first I thought it must have been mud off of my feet... but when I realized it was my hair, then I knew no matter how cold the water would get, my hair had to be washed.

That night we went to Carnivor and pigged out on Ostrich, Camel and Crocodile as well as the regular beef, chicken and pork. The food was fantastic. We were slightly disappointed that they didn't serve zebra, but government regulations prohibit the sale of wild game - so we had to settle for what we got. They keep on bringing the meet to your table so long as the flag flies on top of it. After what seemed to be countless servings we finally surrendered and pigged out on dessert and coffee.

The next morning we headed for the airport and caught our flight to Lamu. Here we've been relaxing for the past couple of days. Lamu is a small island off the northern coast of Kenya. There are no cars here - just donkeys (and a donkey sanctuary). It's a very muslim town with women wearing the full black gowns and men the traditional white outfits. But it is also a very laid back town with most the youth having dreadlocks, wearing Bob Marley necklesses and enjoying the fishing life.

We met up with two other volunteers here and enjoyed our time. We've gone Dhow sailing with a crew comprised of Coffee, Coconut, Lemon, Spoon and Fish - everyone here uses nicknames rather than their Swahili names (unfortunately not into the open Indian Ocean because at this time of year it is much too rough), but in the channels between the islands. We went fishing and then cooked the fish for lunch (Robin even ate one - although she normally hates fish). Some swimming and tanning later it was time to head back to the island and unfortuantely we got caught in a massive downpour. It was nuts. we were completely soked and the streets were turned to rivers (especially the little winding alleys of Lamu Stone town. With it being the rainy season the weather isn't the greatest, but we have managed to get ourselves sunburned.

So loving it for now - one more day to go, then back to the mainland and Robin flies home on the 7th. I on the other hand head back to Nakuru and Kirengero for another few days with the kids. James has mentioned the possibility of taking me on a safari to the Masai Mara on the 11th so I'm keeping my figners that that will work out.

Oh... by the way... I never thought I would be saying this, but a couple nights ago I actually said: "It's a pleasure to meet you Satan". One of the guys here goes by Satan - truly don't know where they come up with these names.... It's odd calling out hey - Calamari, are you up for a dirnk? Or last night Dolphin spilled something on his pants and Coffee uses coconut milk to bleach his hair.


But yeah... till later.


Kasia

#10 Kenya: Goodbyes are Never Fun

Before we get to the goodbyes, there’s still some other things.

How about a rump roast matatu? Well, that’s what I ended up riding again on Monday. I think Robin and me had one like that before where my backside slowly got roasted away until it was well done. This time, on the other hand we would have had nice roasted drum sticks as my feet were sizzling away. The engine was overheating to such an extent that just past Kambazi (a town right before Kirengero) the matatu stopped. As it turned out, the Grade 7 kids had been in Kambazi that day for sports-day and were just returning home. I spotted Grace and Joyce in one of the crowds and decided to walk with them the rest of the way to Kirengero. I was just starting to regret my decision because of all the mocking “how are you’s?” of the other kids when my matatu drove past me, yelling out my name and then stopping to pick me up. So yeah... that was nice.

Other than that I also realized that this is probably the only country where you can buy ½ litre of good beer for a mere dollar and a Smirnoff Ice for just a couple cents more (65 shillings) whereas one litre of gas costs 75 shillings. Got to love what they value most. Oh... and a diet coke is twice as expensive as a regular coke – I guess that is so in order to promote the rotting of teeth that is so widespread here already. I wonder if the dentists pay some kind of subsidy to all the stores and restaurants to charge more for the diet drinks. Plus, while we’re on the topic of oddities, there’s no Pepsis in this country. Honestly, to this day I have seen only one lone can of Pepsi at a gas station convenience store and it looked like it had been sitting there for quite some time.

The Pokot trip that I think I may have mentioned in an earlier posting fell through. Robin was exhausted after her safari and was in no mood to spend yet another day driving. Plus the more we thought about the cost ($50 for the day per person), the less worth it all seemed especially when this was supposed to be Robin’s last two days with the kids. So we apologized to Tom (who had stayed in Kirengero just so that he could accompany us up to the tribe) and cancelled the trip.

As for Robin’s safari – she enjoyed most of it, with two exceptions: 1) having to tie her head and body to the seat of her matatu in order to prevent herself from having whiplash due to the incredibly bumpy roads, and 2) waking up at midnight to a girl’s cries for help after someone had knifed through her tent while she was sleeping in it and stolen all her possession. Now everyone please don’t freak out. Nothing happened and no one was hurt – just a huge freight and an upsetting experience. Essentially what happened is that they were camping near a Masai village and the two Masai security guards had decided to go to sleep rather than guard the camp. One of the villagers used the opportunity to make himself some extra cash by stealing from the tourists. As unfortunate as that is on its own, it was magnified by the fact that the girl was in the tent when it happened, it was in the middle of the night and no one was sure of their safety afterwards. Other than that sleeping in tents with hyenas hunting around the tent was supposedly quite cool. Hearing nocturnal animals on their hunt was in Robin’s words “Pretty Awesome!”

She got to see giraffes, rhinos, lions, elephants, gazelles, zebras, monkeys, alligators, hyenas, birds, cheetahs, flamingos, hyraxes etc. The list could go on, but I’m no veterinarian hence can’t name them all off. All I know is that Robin thought that the cheetah was a pet cheetah. It was one of the first animals she saw in the Masai Mara and it seemed to be so surreal that the first thought that crossed her mind was that someone brought it along with them in one of the matatus and just temporarily let it out. As for the zebras, we’ll probably be eating them tomorrow in Nairobi.

As for the orphanage, well... in the beginning the days seemed to drag on for all eternity. Now the days can’t be long enough. As I’m writing this, it’s currently 1am and we’re still in the library working away with probably a good few hours still ahead of us. Time just somehow disappeared. Maybe the finished product won’t look so time consuming, but we honestly put in a good number of really, really long hours into this library. With Robin leaving tomorrow morning we’re wanting to get a few things finished off and this means that we’ll be here for as long as it takes.

For the last few days I’ve been cataloguing the books that were brought by me or were sent by Linda. I’ve numbered and listed over 600 books by now and still have probably a bit over 100 to go. Unfortunately all the work so far has been done on my laptop but they want it in hard copy in a book so I will have to write out all the titles of the books by hand. However, there is no hurry for that part of the job since I will be here till June 15^th. Robin, on the other hand, had to finish of her footprints poem. We also did the kids handprints on the door. That was quite an experiment. The first hands were really drippy because we had the kids dunking their hands into the paint. Finally, after 3 disasters, Augo suggested that we use the paintbrushes to put the paint on the kids’ hands so that there wouldn’t be so much paint to drip. From that point onwards, things went much more smoothly. Now we’re just finishing some of the final decorations, hanging some more things on the walls and organizing the furniture.

And now to the goodbyes. With Robin leaving tomorrow morning for good we wanted to throw something special for the kids and came up with the idea of buying ice-cream for all of them. Since we were pressed for time we decided to take the matatu north (for the first time) to a town called Subukia. We were told that we could get everything we needed there. Well, after traveling from the southern hemisphere of the globe all the way to the northern to get there (since we crossed the equator), we found out that it was essentially a little village with a few stores in it, but no supermarkets, and definitively nowhere that would sell ice-cream. They did however have a hotel with facilities for conferences, but I will not vouch for it. So having discovered this we boarded a matatu again and headed for another trip back to the southern hemisphere all the way to Nakuru where we bought everything we needed (including three 4.5L buckets of ice-cream) and returned to Kirengero.

Then, in the evening, after dinner, we treated the kids to a feast of ice-cream, bananas and crackers. It was a huge uproar. With the exception of maybe one or two kids, none of them had ever had ice-cream before. They were surprised at how cold it was and we even turned it into an educational experience by explaining to them why at the bottom of their metal cups there would be water drops forming. They all had a blast – including all the staff! Thereafter it was time for the kids to perform their dances again as a farewell to Robin. Since I had now seen them about a dozen if not more times, I started our packing.

The packing is a whole other story. Normally if you have a few breakables to pack it’s not a problem because you wrap it up in your clothes. Well, considering that Robin only brought 5kg of clothes with her – comprising of 2 pairs of pants, and a few shirts, there is not much that can be used to stuff a suitcase. It’s not the weight that is the problem, since between the two pieces of luggage and her carry-on she can have 56kg. The problem is that we have a huge suitcase filled with heavy breakables and a lot of empty space between them because we have nothing to fill the gaps with. For now I think the suitcase weighs about 35kg and Robin’s other pack probably about 10kg. So it means there’s going to be some serious repacking when we get to Nairobi. For now it will have to make do.

So yeah... tomorrow morning we’re off to Nairobi. We’ll be staying at James’ place and hopefully heading to Carnivore for dinner. It was supposedly voted one of the best 50 restaurants in the world and serves everything from buffalo, zebra, ostrich to alligator and whatever else you might wish. Should be fun and I’m really looking forwards to some good meat (especially after the ligament that we’ve grown to enjoy here in Kirengero). After that, on Friday morning we fly to Lamu and are planning to bask in the sun for 4 days before returning back again to Nairobi.

We’ll try to keep you posted and in not will update the blog after our return from Lamu. So take care and till later!

Kasia