Jambo!

July 1: I was sure that the 6:30 am bright sun would wake me up and I was hoping to get my day started early to get on track with this Kenyan schedule! But man alive can I sleep! I kicked myself when I saw 10:00 am on my watch as I rolled over for the very first time! But I hopped out of bed/mosquito nets to find the commotion in the living area! Dolas (our wonderful chef) and Lillian (our sweet little cleaner) were active in the kitchen. Dolas taught me the tricks of the trade of mango consumption as she cut up my very first mango! It was delicious! Even though I have never tried them before, other people are saying they are the absolute best they've ever had! It's quite a treat!

Whitney, Halley and I took our breakfast outside to bask in the sun and chat. Through talking with Whitney I've been learning about all the differences between American culture and Canadian culture. Apparently I've been living under a rock, because they call the letter 'Z' as "zed." (A detail actually learned through a game of scrabble). We came back inside to find a group of people from Northern Ireland who had arrived. More extreme differences were found here! They go to medical school directly after high school and each year of medical school only costs them $5,000 equivalent US dollars! -for a WHOLE year! Most of the morning was spent chatting as a group! I had my nose in a swahili translator:

todays words:
wapi? = where?
samahani = sorry
tafadhali = please
kwaheri = goodbye
mzuri sana = very well
dio = yes
la = no

Another one of the grounds keepers, named Benson, chatted with us a bit as well. He is 32 years old and was married at 22 (to a 12 year old girl! ekk!). He explained how this is normal for Kenyans and we tried to hide our jaws dropping to the floor! He said "just you wait, when you see 8-10 year olds in the maternity ward" ...Yikes! He explained how in the last five years or so the gov't has tried to prevent the marriages of such young women (usually the women are really young and the men are a bit older when getting married) so that they can first receive a good education. I asked him if divorces were common in Kenya and he said yes yes yes. He talked about how Kenyans like Americans (which is good to know) whereas some of the Muslim population in the area are not as keen to us. I asked him to explain why people felt this way and he said that it is not the individual Americans that the Muslim's in the area dislike, but the fact that our government killed Saddam Hussein. The Kenyans are happy that Obama is our president, Benson said that Obama comes once in awhile to visit his fathers grave (somewhere in Kenya). Benson is a happy man, and loved to mock me for my Swahili pronunciation, but helped me learn words too! Whenever I see him about now, he gives me a quick quiz on my Swahili!

Around 2 in the afternoon we all gathered together in tuktuks (it took three of them to carry us all) with a big duffel bag full of toys, and headed to an orphanage/school! I was very much looking forward to seeing all of the cute smiley children! It turned out to be quite a sight!

We arrived to find children organized into different groups doing different things. One group was outside playing. As I lugged the big duffel bag out of the back of the tuktuk a little boy came, with a big smile, and offered to help me carry it! I was hesitant at first; my thoughts being 'I hope he shares!' but he ended up knowing the drill and leaded us back to the directors room where all the toys/books/supplies were located. Jane was the head honcho and she came back with us too and invited us all to sit! She explained the mission of the organization and had us sign in. Then she unloaded all the toys! Together, we brought a heaping pile of toys!

Then she told us she would give us a tour of the area of Mombasa from which the little pumpkins come from. Unbelievable. You know the commercials that say 'donate one dollar a month and you can buy so and so shoes'? I had always thought that those are a little fabricated, but this region was absolute, complete uncivilized poverty. As we walked around following Jane, all the people we passed were friendly. We exchanged "JAMBO!" (hi in swahili) hundreds of times as we passed small groups of people. There were little candy stores, a movie theater (crazy looking!), a barber shop, people out cooking food; there was plenty to see! Stray dogs here and there, chickens, roosters, goats etc! We walked past a couple of really deep holes in the ground. I decided at that moment that I wouldn't ask to use the ladies room! ;) They had a field for trash where all the animals were grazing. Little precious children were milling about too... with and without shoes. It was interesting to see: some of them wearing ratty old clothes, some wearing really nice looking garments like dresses and things (a product of donations I would assume). Regardless, they were covered head to toe in soot/dirt/flies and it was heart breaking. Some had teeth, some didn't. Most of their bellies stuck wayyy out from malnutrition. I just wanted to pick one up and RUN straight for the hills with him/her, wash them off, give them good food and hugs! That wasn't even the start of it...

The tour of the area took about 30 minutes. Jane explained to me that this region of Mombasa is called "Shauri yako" which means "you decide who you become'' or "it's up to you'' The people all seem happy and content, which is strange to accept. You can see the family dynamics just by casually observing and they are all very friendly! If only they had 1/2 the resources to allow them to "become who they want to be" because I feel as if they have the internal goods, the happy souls, to make a positive impact on the world.

Then we returned to the school, called the Precious Vision Care Center. Jane arranged all of us visitors on a ledge overlooking the playing grounds. All 250 children (lots!) were called out to the area (age 1.5 - 14 yrs old) and I was impressed by how good of listeners they were! It was absurd! They stood still in straight rows when asked to, they sung their little songs when prompted and most were so smiley and energetic about it! They sang and clapped to their songs in Swahili, and I heard Jesus' name throughout one of them! Jane was so precious, it was neat to see someone so on fire for what they do. She has quite a calling! There are several helpers from all over the country through a program called GVI -a bunch of wonderful wonderful people!

Then we brought out all the toys. There were a lot lot of toys, but not quite enough for all and they were the sweetest little sharers! The minute that Jane told them (in Swahili) to bring the toys back to the front, without hesitation, they all promptly listened!

We got to intermingle with the kids at the end (the best part of all!). I gravitated towards a little 1.5 year old. She was beautiful...but she showed absolutely no emotion. I tried to become as animated as I could to encourage her to smile back, even just a little. Nothing. But as I held her, she wrapped her arm around mine. She was comfortable with me and she just watched me as I made a baboon of myself trying to get her to smirk (talking in a foreign language to her too -the youngest children did not know any english). Finally, I gave her a little tickle and she smiled. It sounds silly, but it was amazingly rewarding! I got to hold her for quite awhile and when we had to leave she didn't want me to put her down. I wish I could have brought her back to our complex and made her clean and cozy. Some of the children at the school were not orphans, but this one was so young that I'm sure she was. I'd smuggle her back to the states if I could! All the kids were really active and animated! One little girl LOVED my watch. she would press a button to hear it beep and laugh and laugh. I would pretend like the beep scared me and she would laugh and laugh even harder! Even the little 1.5 year old gave a little smile at this!

I wonder what these kids would do if they saw my world. I try to imagine what it would be like to grow up how they do. The roughest of the rough. Yet how much energy they all seem to have! I wonder if this little 1.5 year old (I never did find out her name) will develop a same spirit, I wonder what her story is, what kinds of things her eyes have seen...

We left the orphanage/school and instantly talked about coming back. I can't wait to spend more time with the kids! We plan to go back again some evening after our work in the hospital begins! It's crazy, I've already seen so much and I haven't even yet been to the hospital!

We took the 25 min walk back into the walmart-type store to buy a few things and spent the rest of the evening bonding with one another and the elective africa employees. Edwin, the founder and man in control came today. He usually lives in the states, but he's moving back to Kenya after 15 years in the US! He has one baby daughter of 15 months and she and his wife are moving back with him. He seems really excited about it. It was neat to talk with him about the program!

I hadn't planned on writing until tomorrow, but falling asleep is not coming easy to me yet again, so here I am! Tomorrow we are taking a ferry to a beach area and shopping area and will get dinner at a restaurant that is INSIDE (literally INSIDE) a cave. It sounds beautiful! I can't wait!

I wish everyone of you could have the opportunity to see what I saw today. It is life changing. These kids are amazing! I wonder what percentage of the kids are HIV positive? I hope to ask eventually... I wish I had a better way with my words, so I could give a better description! Moral of the story: We are all so so so blessed!