carol (the "house girl") wanted to braid my hair. and rebecca (in front of me) is a sweet sweet girl that lives down the street, but has come by every day since i met her.

on my way home from work
jojo on the left, sharon in the middle

jojo

“We Can All Dance”

 

Allow me to clarify.  This was a statement made by a kenyan friend of mine, brian. And when he says “we” he of course means all Kenyans, not all people.  This was in response to peter telling me he wasn’t a good dancer. Yeah right.  I went with my host brothers peter and daniel to SPA fest (Stomping Performing Arts festival) last night.

 

It.

Was.

AWESOME.

 

I have never been more jealous of every single person in the room in my life. dancing is just a piece of them, a part of who they are; dancing, and being good at it is like blinking – they always have done it, they always will do it, and it takes no effort to do it.  We left for the festival at 2:45 pm on Sunday, and we got back to the house at 7:30 am Monday. 

The festival is a competition for dance groups from churches in the surrounding area.  I went with our home church presbyterian church of east africa – kahawa farmers district.  The dance group was “the ignitaz”, the returning champs.  In fact, they have won the last two years in a row. Needless to say, they won again. They were awesome.  I’ll post a video of it.  I’ll I’m saying is… amras here I come!! I can’t wait to get back and show off my new snazzy dance moves.

The dancing was great, but that wasn’t even the best part.  That night changed my heart.  I met some of the most amazing people.  In a crowd of over 2,000 people I saw another muzungu (white person) so I decided to talk to her.  Turns out she is from Michigan and is in Kenya for the summer doing research for her nonprofit organization – Redeeming Africa’s Hope.  She introduced me to her sister who is moving to charlotte in the fall to go to nursing school!! Of course we immediately hit it off and exchanged numbers.  It was great to meet another foreigner, someone who is going through the same things I am, but the best part was how she changed my heart about Kenya.  As stated in the previous post, I have been a little bit homesick and still feeling out of place; I just haven’t quite settled in yet.  These girls, who have been here for a month already, totally comforted me, explaining that they felt the same way at first, and that it takes time but before I know it I’ll be running the joint and won’t want to leave.  Sound familiar kendall?

I was having a good night, enjoying the people I was with, loving the dancing, but after talking to those girls, I was having a great night!  My heart was open, and instead of enjoying myself but still missing everyone in a sad way, I was enjoying myself and being in the moment.  it was like a switch was flipped,  I could see all the greatness all around me.  I was seeing everyone with different eyes.  This new way of being in the moment and loving every part of it, gave me the opportunity to have one of the most amazing spiritual conversations.  Richard, who lives down the street from my host family, is in school at the University of Nairobi playing on the soccer team and studying psychology, shared with me his experience with Christianity.  Uh-may-zing. 

 

My journey has just begun.

 sharon.  my favorite
 statue of the first president 
brian is on my lap.  not so happy.  jojo on the far right.
 menasi and brian.

A typical day last week:

 

8:02 -  my egg shaped, multi-colored alarm clock goes off – always making me think of mom.  I can hear the neighbors animals sounding off – the most obnoxious cow moo, and the most cliché donkey heeeee-haaaaaw you can imagine!

 

8:32 -  I finally get up out of bed, get dressed, fill my pack for the day, eat some breakfast (usually a flattened pancake with red plum spread), and head out the door just before 9.  It’s about a 15-minute walk to the main road, where I hop onto a matatu.  The after a 10-minute matatu ride, it drops me off somewhere in kahawa west.  When I get off the bus, it’s another short 15-minute walk to the health center.  Depending on how long it takes to get a bus, and where it decides to drop me off, I get to the health center anywhere between 9:30 and 10:00

 

9:30-10:00 -  when I first get to the health center I say hello to janet and sicily the women at reception who were slow to receive me, but seem to like me more by the day.  Then I go to the clinic side of the health center, which is specifically for the children under the age of 5.  I help check in the babies, weigh them and take their temperature. 

 

11:00-11:30 -  when things start to slow down in front a little, I head to the back to the immunizations.  This week I have been shadowing a woman by the name of Miriam.  She is a wonderful, soft-spoken little woman that moves very slowly and seems exhausted, but when it comes to the mothers and babies she works with, she is so sweet.  She has really taken me on as something of an apprentice.  Although she was slow to talk to me at first, I think she really likes teaching me now.  She is a great teacher, and when I can understand what she is saying, I really learn a lot.  I went from standing in the corner watching, to writing the paper work, marking the books, to now giving the polio vaccines to the babies, and preparing the syringes for the DPT/Hepatitis, measles and tetanus vaccines. This is my favorite part of the day!

 

3:00-3:30 -  I leave work, and begin my walk back.  I usually stop at an internet café where an hour and 15 minutes costs about $1. 

 

When I get home I play with Faith and a few of the kids that live close by.  There is a little group of kids that play outside, but there are three kids that I usually play with.  Jojo is a sweet little 5 yr old girl that always wants to touch me, but just barely; she timidly holds my hand or sits just close enough to be touching me.   She doesn’t entirely understand me when I talk to her, but she tries really hard.  Brian is 2 yrs old and seems to always be a little out of it.  He just stares with big beautiful eyes, and loves to be held.  He is the neighborhood baby, they just pass him around.  He is still figuring out whether or not he wants to be my friend.  And my favorite little darling girl is Sharon (pronounced shalone).  She is 3 yrs old and has no clue what I’m saying when I talk to her, but just smiles at me anyway.  I have never seen such a melting smile in my life.  She is precious.  There are two older boys that play soccer outside, and she runs in there to play with them, and then runs back to give me a hug when I cheer for her.  She ‘s not afraid to hug me.  From the first day she has never had any hesitations about me, she’s just happy to be my friend.  

When it starts to get dark, I go inside where the rest of the family is usually watching some ridiculous tv show i.e. “that’s so raven, wwf wrestling, sebastion & catalina (an Italian soap opera), or strong medicine.  I will either watch with them, or pick up one of the four books I’m currently reading.  We usually eat dinner around 8:00 and talk about our day.  I love sharing about my day with the family.  They tease me that everyday I come home I say, “this was the best day so far”. 

 

Slowly everyone trickles off to bed. It’s usually me and the boys left up watching tv.  There are a couple of shelves in my room that I am slowly filling with my things – books, papers, my clock, and other miscellaneous items.  The more I do this, the more the room feels like my own.  I usually read and then watch something on my computer.  Despite the bed feeling like a board, and the pillow being about as thick as a vhs tape, and about as comfortable as one too, I always seem to get a good nights sleep.  

It's June already??

I WATCHED A LIVE BIRTH TODAY! i'm adopting.

i also observed some immunizations, and they said they would let me do more tomorrow!!

more to come....

Mother Theresa Quote

“May today be peace within. May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be... May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you... May you be content knowing you are a child of God... Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of you.”

i found this quote over a year ago, and typed it in a word document and kept it in a file on my computer. i haven't read it in probably 3 or 4 months. now i know why i found it. i read it everyday.