# 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!
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!
posted by Kasia Koltunska at 2:31 AM
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