Beans, Dolly and lots of bad grammar.

Sept 2nd-4th
I don’t even know where to begin. The life here is so different. Even though I have traveled before, nothing could have prepared me for this. The people are amazing, so welcoming and genuinely happy with their very simple life.

Last night I stayed overnight in a hotel in Nairobi because my flight arrived so late. This morning Geoffrey (the founder of the orphanage) picked me up at 7am to head off towards Watoto Wa Baraka. On a side note, I would like to just say traveling alone is awesome because you can thrash your hotel room and you’re the only one who knows about it. I had my stuff scattered all over the room and then I ate crackers and jelly bellys in bed.

When I first arrived at WWB I was immediately greeting buy 30 smiling faces. All the children are so sweet. They all have such personalities and I have only been here for one day. There are three girls named Joyce, Little Joyce wrote her name in my notebook before dinner tonight. Earlier in the day one of the staff members, Pricilla and I walked to the well with some of the children and got water for doing laundry.

Around 1pm I went to a very small village with some of the other volunteers and the orphanage manager. It was quite the journey to get there I must say. In this village was a family that the volunteers had heard of that needed some serious help and they decided to sponsor two of the 9 children. They brought some shorts and shoes for the children. It is 9 children and their father living in one “house”. When I say house I mean three crumbling handmade brick walls with no roof and there toilet is a hole in the ground.. Their mother died 2 years ago from breast cancer and the father has been trying to make do. When we arrived the father was out hunting. I asked what they ate if he didn’t get anything while out hunting.. The answer was, nothing, that they would just skip a day. From the looks of their swollen bellies and stick figure frames, I would say that happens more often than not.

After a bowl of beans and a long matoto ride back, we made it back to the orphanage. I had a nice shower before dinner. It is somewhat odd to squat down and look at a bucket of water and try to figure out how to make the most of it. I am sure I did everything completely backwards. But by the 3rd or 4th I should be an export bucket showerer  .. For dinner we had beans and something I forgot the name of, ugari? It is finely ground corn meal mixed with water, reminds me a lot of cream of wheat. Now I am back in my room that I share with a German girl I have yet to meet because she is gone for three more days on safari.

So far everyone is amazing, all the volunteer and staff are all great. I miss everyone, and I am wishing I had saved more pictures to my computer to look at and show the kids. Tomorrow I am going to a nearby village with Nate from Seattle; we are on a quest for the internet. Until then…

September 5th

Woke up this morning to the sound of squealing pigs, awesome. When they are about to be fed they go crazy. When they aren’t being fed, they go crazy. Life is so simple here; bathe from a bucket, use the bathroom in a hole in the ground, have bread and tea for breakfast and beans for dinner, yet I am sitting in my room on my laptop writing all about how simple it is. Soon I will go into town with Nate and hopefully get some emails out. We are thinking of going on safari next week so I need to email the company and get a spot.

My feet look as if I have been walking around barefoot for a month and I don’t care. Wasn’t able to connect to the internet, the owner of the shop was at church. Everything seems to shut down on Sundays. Picked up some flatbread, bananas and sunburn instead. Came back to the orphanage to find the children had all left to go to church as well, they were gone for about 4 hours. It was very quiet around without them here, somewhat eary around here without 60 feet running amuck. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the orphanage. When they all returned we had lunch, rice and beans. The servings are huge and I usually give my leftovers to the kids, they gobble them right up.

Ok so as the day went on my feet kept looking at me screaming to be washed, I caved and now have perfect peppermint smelling feet. After all the walking around today they were in dire need of a washing. We walked to and from Maikuu *spelling?* twice today. Made it to the “internet café”, which is one computer that barely works. But I had a chance to email my family very quickly before it stopped working. I also made contact with the safari folks.

Nate showed me that there is a library here, books that past volunteers have left or traded. The very first book I picked up was *drum roll please*, a travel book on Prague. I think that is one of those moments that Aunt BK calls “a sign”.

The sun is just now going down and I can see the kids still playing outside with each other. Katherine is running around in her new pink cowboy boots, compliments of Scottsdale Salvation Army. One of the boys just walked by in a pair of overalls that are clearly too small for him but he couldn’t be happier to have something new to wear.
Dinner: beans, hominy, and potatoes.

September 6th

Woke up to the sound of excited children today, instead of excited pigs. Today is their first day of school and they could not be happier. They are in the dining hall eating breakfast in their school uniforms looking at their new school workbooks in awe.

Today I was in the kitchen with Grace, made tea this morning for the kids before they went off to school. After breakfast Grace and I did the dishes from the night before, about 50 bowls caked with beans. This afternoon Grace showed me how to make porage, that will be there breakfast in the morning. Tonight I think we are having rice for dinner.

In between all of the kitchen madness I went into Makuyu and got my hair did. I am now sporting some cornrows and a full head of braids. I feel like someone has got hold of my ponytail and is refusing to let go.

September 7th
Today is the hottest day of my life. Ok not really but I feel like the sun is less than 100 km away, because it is. This morning I woke up at 5:30am again, I was tossing and turning and I am sure keeping my roommate awake , so I help Grace in the kitchen. She was happy to have me because I came with my instant coffee in hand, or “chocolate”. I helped her make tea, porage and lunches for the kids. Lunches are easy because it is just two pieces of bread and the same tea they had for breakfast.

After I ate breakfast I help Jane with laundry. Everyone said it was going to be the hardest chore, so I thought I should probably just tackle it right off. It didn’t seem too bad, my back wasn’t hurting but then… I took a break and washed my hands only to find that they were pretty well raw and I had no clue. With all the water they absorbed I wrung them into a stinging, blistering, bloody mess. Jane was extremely thankful for the help though. Since I am a huge sissy, I decided to spend the rest of the day sorting beans with Grace and Susan.

Sorting beans is a tetius job, but not gonna lie I kind of love it. Three buckets; 1 master bucket, 1 with bad beans and pebbles, 1 with the good beans. We each have a tray, basket or in my case the lid to a pot; grab a few scoops and away we go. I am a fan because I stick my headphones in, rock out and torture everyone around by forcing them to listen to me singing Celine Dion. Grace likes Dolly Pardon so I play “Jolene” the one Dolly song I have, on my iPhone.

Had beans and hominy for lunch today, I put blue cap on mine and it made it especially delicious. After that I did some cleaning/organizing/unpacking/decorating/arranging in my room. Now that my roommate is here I could get a little more settled. Did a bucket full of my own laundry, and left it dry in the strong sunlight. I will be shocked if the elastic in my stretch pants isn’t melted. I worked up a sweat hanging my mosquito net with duct tape, so I took a much needed bucket shower. No warm water around today so I let my bucket sit in the sun for a bit just to take the edge off, it didn’t .