Friday-Monday

Friday: Discover to Recover, TI and Ugali

On Friday we visited Discover to Recover again. (Discover to Recover is a center where kids are either effected or affected with HIV/Aids...There is also a school attached for kids whose parents can't afford school) I met this really sweet girl named Nancy who made me a ring out of beads. She was 14 and spoke English really well. After talking to her for maybe 5 minutes, she proudly showed me her bedroom that she shares with 3 other girls, one of which she shares a twin bed with. It was really interesting to hear Nancy’s take on her friends that are infected with HIV. She personally isn’t infected, and she answered a lot of my questions. An eight-year-old named Derek who is HIV positive hung out with us in Nancy’s room. He was so sweet. I showed him pictures of my family and friends and a picture of me when I was about five-years-old. He was so stoked on it and thought it was so funny to see a picture of me closer to his age. He kept confirming that it was actually me. Since he was taking medicine regularly he looked healthy and I would have never known he was infected if Nancy didn’t tell me. I know I must have spent time with children here who have HIV but this was my first experience of knowing for sure.

Here is Allison blowing bubbles for the children at Discover to Recover

Here is a picture of Benja and Allison at Discover to Recover...how cute is he? Allison says, "He's like this rad, old fat man as a kid!"

Here are some more kids from Discover to Recover

Here is Me (and my ring), Nancy (ring maker), and Christine at Discover to Recover.

Later that day we went to another compound called TI (Transformed International) for a BBQ. TI is a Christian organization where American’s and Canadians (mostly) stay for some time and work on various projects in Kitale. It was so funny to be surrounded by a ton of white people. I was laughing to myself at the fact that it felt weird at first. It was a lot of fun though, and we got some good laughs out of me rapping “Gangsters Paradise” and Allison trying to “jump” and touch the ceiling. (Side note: If you haven’t seen Allison try to jump, you have to ask her!)

After returning from the TI compound I had my first taste of Ugali (I’m not sure why I feel the need to capitalize all the new foods I try). Ayub calls it “African Cake” (very misleading). It tastes like air. Not good or bad. But he also made this delicious dish with kale. I just enjoyed hanging out with him and trying a new food I’ve heard about for 4 weeks.

Saturday: Halloween

In the afternoon we attended a Bible study that is held at Oasis for some of the older kids. I actually led this weekend and I talked about Ephesians 3:20, "With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine," something I've been thinking about a lot since I've been here. Besides that, Halloween pretty much came and went like any other day here. It’s so funny how I saw nothing even remotely “Halloween-ish.” I haven’t even seen a pumpkin. Allison and I watch "Donnie Darko" which has a scene that takes place on Halloween, so that sort of counts.

Sunday: Jordan’s Birthday!

On Sunday Jordan turned 22! It was a fun day! We actually visited this deformed animal conservancy. It’s pretty much exactly like it sounds. There are 3 and even 2-legged goats and sheep. But this was the most shocking of all! A bull with 4 horns and two faces merged into one. Totally creepy! Sorry bull.

Then we took a boat ride in this little lagoon. Emanuel (they guy next to me) is from Rwanda, and someone made a joke a couple weeks ago that he’s my boyfriend, so everyone told him to put his arm around me for our” first boat ride.” He just recently starting learning English so he actually sits in Leyla and my class at Oasis.

Also at the conservancy: Emanuel and my first see-saw ride-haha.

Monday: Oasis of Hope and Jeffery and Olivia's

Yesterday at Oasis I thought it would be fun to do a project with popsicle sticks. Jordan and I gave each student 10 popsicle sticks and some glue. We told them they can make anything that they wanted and to be as creative as they want. After about 5 minutes of the students looking at their sticks with blank stares, Jordan finally made a sample “house.” Then they were all about it, and it was really fun to see them jump in and get really excited about it.

Here is the class I teach with Leyla. This is where I go Monday-Friday.

This is me with Rose on my right shoulder, Sarah in front of her and

Here are the kids working on the popsicle stick project

In the front of this pic is Emanuel. He is so bright. He knows the answer to almost every question I ask in English or Math. He's has such a sweet personality too.

This is Joanne. I love calling on her to write on the chalkboard because she is so very tiny that she has to stretch to reach even the bottom of the board. It's so cute to watch, and sometimes I like to call on her just because it's so cute! She is Centrine's (from the girl's house) sister.

This is Elizabeth...she's so sweet! Last week when we were playing "Heads up 7up" Jordan came into play with the class. He wanted to guess that Elizabeth touched his thumb but he was unsure of her name so he asked me. Elizabeth saw me whisper her name to Jordan and she thought I was cheating by telling him who touched his thumb! I felt so bad because with the language barrier there was no way to explain that we weren't cheating!

Last night we had dinner at Jeffery and his wife Olivia's. She is such a great cook! She made chicken in curry and chicken in coconut milk, chipati, rice, green grams, and this really really spicy dish (carrots and peppers). It was really fun to hang all together. We watched Madagascar and Juno, ate SO much food, and just lounged. I was just telling Allison yesterday I can't believe I've only known Jeffery for a month. I feel like I've known him for years. He just has a very warm and welcoming personality.

Making up for lost time...

October 28-Happy Birthday Molly StoeckerJ

Sooo…It’s a quarter to 8pm here, and our Internet is finally up and running again. It’s been down for about ten days, so, sorry for the lack of blogging. I'm really excited to fill you in..I have so much to share!

I’m having a wonderful time here and the past 10 days have been great! I will share some of my favorite memories…

Oasis of Hope

I’ve continued helping Leyla teach at Oasis. It’s been fun (and a little challenging) trying to come up with new ideas. Today we played “Heads up 7up” for fun. I kept laughing because there would be 7 kids standing in front of the class and 6 or 8 kids would stand claiming their thumbs were touched…always one less or one more than the kids standing in front of the class. They eventually got it, and the greatest thing about my participating with them is that I was picked every time. On Monday, Leyla and I also tried this sort of pictionary-like game with English words. They all seemed to get involved...it was just great!

Allison’s Birthday celebrations:

Allison turned 27 this past weekend on the 24^th. We celebrated by going to the “Girl’s House” on Friday and some of the younger boys from "House 1" joined us. Then, “House 2” on Saturday, and out for some great food on Sunday at a restaurant called Pinewood.

The “Girl’s House” was so fun! We ate chipati, green grams (lentils), and rice and drank soda from the bottle (from the bottle-which I love about Kenya). Then after dinner we passed out brownies that Allison had made earlier (which the kids loved). We then danced for an hour with no music. Well, we created our own music, which was so fun. Beat-boxing, spoons drumming on the table, etc etc. I taught a bunch of kids the dance moves to the Macarena (and now I’m asked everyday, literally, to do the Macarena someone,) However, since I don’t know any words to the song (does it even have any words…I think there are two versions, one with words and one without) I just make sounds until I get to: “HEY MACARENA!”

Saturday at “House 2” consisted of Chipati, dancing, and Uno playing. Spending time with these boys has been one of my favorite things about Kitale. They all have unique stories to how they ended up at Oasis of Hope and in their home. They have such high aspirations (judge, lawyer, newscaster, pastor…to name a few) it’s encouraging to me personally.

Sunday we went to Pinewood for dinner. Pinewood is a Chinese/Indian/former dance club restaurant, ha! The food was delicious. I ordered this great soda called Alvaro and it tasted like pineapple gummy bears (Shane-you would have loved it!)

Dinner at Pinewood: Allison, Jeffery, me, Olivia (Jeffery's wife) holding Charlotte (their daughter), Jordan, Leyla, Emanuel, and Dan (our taxi driver...who we see almost everyday...so we are well acquainted)
Olivia, me, Allison, Charlotte, and Leyla

Girl's House: We counted 22 of us that night...all eating and hanging in one room
This is me painting Jon's nails (yes, Jon). I brought nail polish over to the Girl's house and I didn't know it would be such a hit with everyone...the boys and girls.
Here is Wiki, Kamau, me, and Eso
Me and Allison dancing and singing
Me holding Kamau
Me hugging Lucy (Lucy in her same dress that I love & want one of my own)

Oct 19: The Boys House

Allison and I went over to house two and hung out (House two is the house we have been going to on Monday and Wednesday nights to help tutor in math). It was so fun to spend time in an informal setting with no agenda. Allison, Evans, Moses, Justice, Martin and I played Uno for hours, drank soda (again-from the bottle) and ate this really great pastry called Mandazi. It was fun spending time with these boys and laughing with them and totally getting competitive in trying to beat them in Uno. Moses was sitting next to me and every time he had a card that would make me draw 2 or draw 4 he would set it down on the table face down and make some comment about having a gift of present for me and he would make me turn it over. I’m smiling writing this but I don’t know if this will be funny to anyone except Allison and myself.

House Two:

Justus, Steward, Martin, Stone, Allison, Moses, me, and Jose eating dinner together

Allison, Pato (brother of Lucy, Ajix, Amlango) and me

Tree planting:

Last week (Oct 20) was so fun! We were invited to attend a tree planting ceremony at the Kitale Club where 5,000 new trees were being planted. I kept joking around asking if I would be able to plant some trees on my own and lo (it’s not low, Allison and I looked it up) and behold I planted about ten trees! I mean the holes were already dug and all I had to do was place the tree in the hold and put some soil around it, but I feel solely responsible for ten new trees in Kitale. Haha.

5 pics of me planting trees (about 4 pics too many)

Jordan, me and Allison planting our first tree

Me...planting my very own tree
Little baby tree...

Me planting a tree by myself...yepppp, told you I was proud

I know this is a bad pic because my hand is in the way, but I had to add it because here I'm pictured with these men: one of which is a pastor, the other a bishop, the third, I'm not sure. I've never met any of these men but the man taking the photo insisted I get in the photo with them. I couldn't stop laughing.

Today in Shimo:

This afternoon we visited 12 homes in a nearby slum called Shimo. All the homes we visited were homes where children from Oasis live. We’ve only been home for a little over an hour and to be completely honest the afternoon is still sinking in. It was great to go to these children’s homes and meet their mom, dad, aunt, or grandmother. We brought each family a blanket, flour, bars of soap, and some candy for the children. The crazy thing about this was just to see how poor some of these children's families really are. But regardless, it was a great experience and I enjoyed going.

It was SO funny. When we first got out of the car in Shimo there was a group of kids surrounding us saying "Muzungu" (white person). Jeffery told me it's the first time some of these kids have seen a white person. The kids looked excited, most were laughing and a few looked scared. I put my hand out to shake one of the girl's hand who looked scared, and she slowly crept up to me, touched my hand, and then ran as fast as she could. I laughed for a minute straight...I've never thought of myself as scary!

Shimo...I just had to add this because it's so beautiful

We crossed this bridge...

Back: Jordan, Leyla, Jeffery, girls' mom holding baby Chris, me, Allison,

Front: Jennifer, Ester, Jon, and Celinah

Jennifer, Ester, and Celinah all go to Oasis and they all have great personalities!
Jeffery, me, Lucy (holding her baby brother Peter), Leyla, Lucy's mom with Erica hugging her leg, Allison, and Jordan. Lucy, who I've mentioned many times, is the cutest little thing. She also goes to Oasis everyday. She is still wearing her infamous dress, but it just is covered with a little jacket in this pic.

Here is little baby Peter (Lucy's younger brother)...isn't he just the cutest little guy?

Allison, me, Brenda, Jordan and Nancy. Nancy and Brenda are sisters who also attend Oasis. Brenda is in Leyla and my class.

More pics of the compound we are staying on:
This is right outside our compound...

These are some animals from our compound...they don't look like it, but they're super loud

And finally...this is what I see when I look out our living

room window...isn't it gorgeous?

Love you all!

A little somethin'-somethin'

Pokot Travel Health Clinic

On Thursday we accompanied Sister Freda and her husband Richard on a travel health clinic. It was a very interesting (to say the least) 2-hour drive with a car filled with ten people on “roads” that barely had a path cleared. When we arrived, we were greeted by a group of 60 or so people dressed in bright clothes singing songs (the only word I understood was Jesus). This was probably my greatest moment of culture shock-I felt like I was in a completely different world. As I looked around in all directions, all I could see were some shrubs, trees and a few huts and mud houses in the distance. Richard told me that we were the first white people some of these people have ever seen. They all surrounded a little church waiting to seek medical attention. We quickly began unloading the medical supplies and setting up inside. Sister Freda and her staff had quite the methodical system. Ten or so people would come in and state what was bothering them. Then they would be written prescriptions that Allison and I would fill into little bottles for them to take home. My afternoon consisted of pouring medicine into little bottles and writing the name of the medicine and instructions on labels. Some children were immunized and some people were even tested for HIV. At one point we ran out of little bottles to put the medicine in, and not wanting to disappoint anyone, Sister Freda and her staff had us wash out the water and soda bottles we used for lunch and had them filled with medicine. The day flew by and was probably one of my favorite days here. It was such a cool experience to witness and take part in. Sister Freda visits this community twice a month because their closest hospital is about a 3 hour walk. The church gave us a rooster to show their appreciation for the clinic and we had to drive home with the rooster (still alive) under our seats (Ah!-Allison and I were officially creeped out)

This is what it looked like in all directions around

the church....
Here is the small church where the clinic was held with patients waiting outside... Here's the medicine we used all afternoon...
Some Pokot women and their children waiting to be treated...
Me, Allison, and Richard inside the clinic...
Allison and I playing pharmacist...
Sister Freda checking the heartbeat of a Pokot child...

Pictures!

This is me, Kevin, and Shaban at Purpose Driven Academy
Here is David laying on my lap at "House 3" The first day I met David, I played this game where I shook his hand way too long and wouldn't let go...He now does it every time I see him:)
This is a pic of me and a little girl named Irene

How adorable is she? She is sister's with Lucy Ajix, and Amlango from the other pics
Here is a pic of the house we stay in...I figured I'd add it because I always want to know where someone is staying exactly...So, if you're anything like me-here you go:)
Okay, here is me cracking up riding a Piki-piki (or piggy-piggy as I've called it all week) That's Elisha driving, me in the middle, and Allison behind me. I've only rode on it twice and I've laughed hysterically both times...it's a great mixture of fun and tad scary.

Oasis of Hope pics

This is Leyla outside at Oasis
This is the front of Oasis
Another view of the front
This is the classroom at Oasis
Outside at Oasis-beautiful!

Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday

My initial goal was to update my blog daily but clearly this idea hasn’t been all that successful. So I have opted to give some highlights…

I’m settling in here more each day and I’m thankful that this isn’t just a two-week trip. I’ve just started to get comfortable here and I couldn’t imagine having to leave in 2 days. I was able to help Leyla teach at Oasis again on Friday. We reviewed what we taught them earlier this week and I was pleasantly surprised that the class seemed to remember most of it. (Yay!) Tomorrow, Leyla and I plan to teach them body parts…I’m thinking…”Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes…eyes and ears and mouth and nose…” haha…

On Friday night we went to “House 3.” House three consists of some younger boys who also used to attend school at Oasis but are also now at public school. A really sweet man named Anthony watches over them. Allison and I helped make Chipati. I mentioned before that Chipati is sort of like this homemade tortilla but it’s much thicker, like pita bread almost. I can eat two (max!) because they’re so filling! After dinner the boys danced for us...so fun! I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face! The dancing was great and well choreographed, but Kamau, the youngest of the group (5-years-old) could not stay in sync with the rest of them…So instead, he decided to do this belly rub thing and grab his belly (that was sticking out so far because he had something like 4 Chipati and 10 cookies!). My story doesn’t do it any justice but I have a video of it I will definitely share with anyone who asks me when I’m back!

Kamau above in blue with his big belly...and David next to him in Orange (I laugh just looking at this picture!)

Yesterday, we went to Purpose Driven Academy. I really enjoyed it because we were able to talk with some older kids (who all speak English well). I met this teenager named Kevin. Kevin is going to take the KCPE test this year because he is in 8^th grade, and it’s a really big deal in Kenya. The test significantly affects the direction of a child’s future depending on how they score. It would be sort of like colleges looking at only our SAT scores, not our grades, but instead of college, it determines what high school they go to (this is the same test I mentioned in my support letters). Kevin asked me to wish success over him. Not really understanding what he meant, I questioned him further. Then he explained to me that it is tradition for friends/family to write cards to wish an 8^th grader success on their test. I thought it was so cute that he wanted a letter from me only having known me for less than an hour. So Allison, Jordan and I are going to give him a card, and I also think some of the children at Oasis are going to help make cards as well.

Today we went to Oasis church. It was so great! The children led it this week so there was a lot of dancing and singing. I loved the energy at the church and it’s really great to be able to see the kids and know their names (big contrast from church last week having only been in Kitale for 2 days). Today we played “Down by the banks” (Sorry if you’re over 40 and don’t know what that isJ) but we sang their Swahili version and the kids laughed at me trying to learn the lyrics.

Oh, and also today...I did a load of laundry without using a washing machine for the first time in my life! It was actually sort of fun…

You are now officially caught up…Thanks for reading and for your support!

Wednesday

Today we woke up and headed over to Oasis again. We helped wash the kids feet, and played with the kids. I wasn’t able to teach English today (but hopefully tomorrow). After Oasis we headed into town to meet Allison’s friends, Ben and Christine. We had lunch with them and then they took us to the secondary school they run called Gilgal. Gilgal is a school where students attend (as well as board) and the students pay whatever they can.

The students at Gilgal asked us a ton of questions. It was so funny because they were sophisticated questions like, “What has President Obama done to improve your economy?” “What is the life expectancy in America?” and “How does the climate and environment in America compare to that in Kenya?” Umm...hmmm??? These kids are incredibly smart, and spoke beautiful English.

Tomorrow we will have been in Kitale for one week. It feels longer. One of my favorite things thus far is how warm and comfortable the culture is here. We receive such a warm welcome everywhere we go. Total strangers smile at us and say “Habati?” (How are you?) all the time.

Today as we were driving home from Gilgal our taxi broke down. We had to get out while we waited for another one and literally 15-20 little kids surrounded us saying, “How are you?” A lot of the kids were touching my arms and hands. It’s weird to get attention solely based on my skin color for the first time in my life. They were all smiles and I enjoyed trying to make them laugh.

This is a picture of all the students at Gilgal listening to us answer their questions...

Here's me attempting to answer their question...I was honestly self-conscious that they would notice my grammatical errors! Smart kids!