I’m having a wonderful, wonderful time. I moved into the hostel last Monday. I can already tell the next month is going to be so completely different from the previous month. There are a dozen other volunteers at the house about half and half guys and girls, and even more volunteers in Nairobi that started their trip staying at the hostel, but have since moved to host families that still come around to hang out. There’s a guy from Mexico, a guy from Great Britain, a guy from Spain, a guy and girl from Denmark and the rest are scattered across the states. I share a room with three other girls (I’m on the top bunk). One of the girls kind of keeps to herself, but the other two – Jen and Jenna, are super cool. We talk about music, god, and the books we’re reading. It’s great. Jenna has been here for three weeks, and unfortunately is leaving this week. I’m really bummed she isn’t staying longer because she’s really cool, from California and might be my musical soulmate, except that she’s cooler than me. We knew it was love when a weepies song came on my computer. I told her about the music co-op that Justin and nick and the other guys do, and we decided we’re gonna do the same thing. Except all four of us girls (Jen, Jenna, Gretchen and me) are gonna do it together, so it’s gonna be a music/book/movie/fun, great, exciting things co-op.
I also started working at the orphanage this week. Three other volunteers from the house work at the project with me. The Spanish guy, Alex, works on construction at the orphanage; except when the other construction workers don’t show up, then he sits in the room and tries to play with the babies with us. Needless to say, it’s a little awkward. It’s sweet when he tries to hold them, I guess he just doesn’t have the baby gene. The other two girls that work with me are from NC! Jen just graduated from High Point University and was in the same service fraternity as me! Go A.P.O!! She reminds me so much of my cousin Lisa, it’s wonderful. Jen has been here for a couple weeks, and is staying six months! I don’t know how she’s doing it, but more power to her. She’s fun. And my new best bud is Gretchen. She got into Nairobi the same night I moved into the hostel, so we started at the orphanage on the same day. She’s from Durham and plays soccer at UNCW. She is cute as a button and so sweet. She loves animals so much, she even says “aawwww, look….” When we pass the really dirty sheep and goats digging in the trash on the side of the road, and then takes a picture. Know anyone else like that? I’m gonna go on the same safari with her in a couple of weeks. She’ll be here for the whole month of July, and leaves the day before me. I can tell we’re gonna be tight; we’ve already made plans to go to a Durham Bulls baseball game, and visit her brother in Boulder, CO, and she’s gonna come to the TMP and I’m gonna go to one of her soccer games. We both talk a lot about our boyfriends and our families; we’re kind of each other’s reverse-wing-man, meaning when all the other girls are going to find boys to flirt with, we just take a walk and tell each other about the really wonderful, sweet email we got from our boyfriend or our family and then make the other one really miss their family and boyfriend, but then get happy that we have each other.
Working at the orphanage can be summed up in three words, to quote Justin: “AFRICAN BAY BAYS!” It’s about a 45 minute walk to the orphanage, which always seems to be a speed walk in the morning. Unlike walking to my last project, which was mostly a city street walk with shops and people selling things, this is much more countryside, pretty classic Kenya. I’ll try to get a picture next time to post. As soon as we get there we head to the baby room and are immediately handed a baby to feed. There are 12 infants under 9 months. The sisters at the orphanage set up an assembly line to change and wash the babies, then hand them to us. We grab a bottle and start feeding. It’s so wonderful. We basically sit in a circle bottle-feeding babies; we talk to each other some, we talk to the babies some, but mostly we just sit and stare at the little darlings and do a lot of ooing and awing. It’s fun. Daniel is the front runner for my favorite. Or maybe it’s Austin? Or Rosemary? Or Nahashan? Or Nathaniel? Ok, I love them all. But especially Daniel. After the infants, it’s the toddler’s turn. There are 5 toddlers, each with their own beautiful face and adorable personality. The three I usually play with are Elijah, Gloria and Patience. Elijah is a complete boy, he has one yellow ball that he will play with for hours. If he’s not playing with ball he’s running around the room just jumping and falling. When he smiles, it melts my heart. Patience is definitely Ms. Priss. She is the girly girl that wants all the attention and will fake cry if she doesn’t get her way. At the orphanage they say “this is Patience, she doesn’t have any.” And Gloria is the quiet, but kind little girl. She usually gets last pick of the toys, but is still happy with what she gets. She’s also very pensive. You can tell she really thinks about what you say to her, or about what is going on around her. She is darling. After the toddlers are fed, we play with them for a couple of hours. Then we do whatever needs to be done around the orphanage – cleaning bottles, sorting beans, hanging pictures and posters in the classroom, etc. At 12:30 it’s lunch time and the whole process is repeated. The babies are so adorable, and it is so much fun to hold them and play with them. Most of them are severely underweight and many of them have developmental problems. The infants probably spend 20 hrs a day in their crib. The other girls and I decided we are gonna start taking our shukas to work and carry the babies on our back while we play with the toddlers. After lunch we finish whatever odd jobs need to be done and head home anywhere between 3 and 5. Last week the weather was nice enough that the women let us take the babies outside. There is a giant playpen outside (it really just looks like a cage with two mattresses in it), so we took the babies out there and just laid them down on the mattresses. It looked like a baby yard sale. We just shuffled the babies around, trying to give them all a turn to be in our lap and get equal attention; of course there wasn’t enough time or hands for all the babies to be held, but it was still good to let them have some time outside of their crib. The walk home is a little bit more leisurely. Alex usually walks home alone, but the girls and I walk and talk the whole way home. We’ve already done some serious bonding.
This weekend a group of 14 of us took a train to Mombasa. The train looks like one of the first trains ever made. It’s super old-fashioned, and super-cool looking. We were all really excited about taking the train and hanging out together. We had a lot of fun doing dumb things, (i.e. sticking our head out the window), and snapping pictures. We left Nairobi at 7pm on Friday and were supposed to get in Mombasa around 10, but a train ahead of us was derailed so we didn’t make it all the way. Instead we decided to jump off the train (cause we didn’t know how long we would have wasted sitting there waiting for it to go again), and we started walking to find a matatu to take us the rest of the way. We found one matatu that pulled over and kicked everyone out to let us all ride together for a good price, and took us right to the hotel. Most of us stayed at a really cool tree house hotel called “Stilts”. There wasn’t enough room for all of us to stay in the treehouses, but the owner was this really awesome, laid-back british guy that set up tents with mattresses and sheets so the rest of us could stay there. Gretchen and I shared a tent. It was really cheap, and everything we needed. There was also running water and flushing toilets (the first I’ve used since I’ve been here). The whole property was absolutely gorgeous, and had a tree-club house in the middle where we all hung out. During the day we walked across the street to the beach. There was a bar/restaurant on the GORGEOUS white sand beach called “Ali Baba’s”. It was straight out of a movie. There were loungey couches and chairs under the cabana right on the water. There were also camels right there! Heading Justin’s advice, Gretchen and I wasted no time. The first thing we did was go for a ride down the beach. It was incredible! Saturday night Stilts had a barbeque that all the guests came to. It was by far the best food I’ve had since I’ve been here – steak, mashed potatoes, salad, grilled veggies, and some other really great stuff; and we all sat around the bon fire. It was such a cool vibe. After dinner we went back across the street to Ali Baba’s, which had turned into a really cool, dimly lit loungey beach bar. It was all tourists staying there, but most were foreigners (not Americans) so it was really cool meeting people and talking to them. Unfortunately Gretchen was sick all weekend, so after Ali Baba’s everyone else went to another club but she wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t really feel like going to the club so we went back to Stilts together - WMFL (wing-man-for-life). Sunday was also great, the only problem was that we realized we didn’t have enough time in Mombasa. Most of the other volunteers decided to stay a few days longer, but again Gretchen wasn’t feeling well, and we’re trying to save our money for the other gazillion things we have to do before we left so Gretchen and Jen and a few other people came back on the train. Before we left on Sunday, we were hanging out at the Ali Baba’s, sitting on the beach, all of a sudden I heard this really great Jazz band. It was the neatest group of cool, old, black men that were just the hippest group of guys wearing matching shirts, (the saxophone player had on shades), playing Dave Brubeck, and Frank Sinatra, and Eric Clapton. Jenna and I went up to the bar and just watched and drooled. It was soooooo cool. It made me the most homesick I’ve felt since I’ve been here. I know that everyone I love, would have loved to have been there. And I thought they woulda been so great for the music party! It was a great, GREAT, weekend, and a much needed get away trip. I couldn’t have made the switch to the hostel at a better time.
I am so grateful for the time I had staying with the host family. Not only was the work project incredible (see posts below), but also being there alone I really had a good chance to experience African culture. Although it was lonely at times, I can tell from talking to the other volunteers, that I was lucky to get quality experience; and even though I was staying connected to home through emails pretty regularly, being there by myself, and really living with the family and living the way the family lives, I can confidently say I was disconnected from American culture. Don’t get me wrong, at the hostel we’re still eating African food, using African toilets and taking African showers. But it’s definitely different doing it with other wazungu (white people). I had a great time with my host family, but I was in need of a change. I came to the hostel, and met the other volunteers at exactly the time I needed to. It’s almost like it was done on purpose? I wonder if someone’s looking out for me? Someone that knows exactly what I need, exactly when I need it. It’s a pretty cool feeling.
The night before we left for Mombasa I talked to the girls in my room and Gretchen (who is staying in another room, but will most likely switch to ours before long) for almost four hours. I basically told them my life story (including justincase, which I was a little shy about, but they all loved), they were fascinated, and that opened up a whole huge awesome conversation about boyfriends, family, love, sex, God, what it means to be Christian, and a bunch of other really great topics. It was so much fun to talk with these girls because everyone’s got their own story, and everyone has their own unique, personal perspective on life. That night was my turn to tell my story, next time it will be someone else’s. And we are all just a little different, but so completely open and honest and willing to share and listen and learn. We usually go to bed and pass out asleep around 10:00 (because we’re so tired from working) but we stayed up talking until 1:00. It was just some serious quality time. These people are really, really great.
