A Day in the Life…

I have been here long enough to get a little sense of what life is like here. At least, I know what my experience of it is and will tell you that as long as you don’t read this and imagine me knowing everything about how all of Kenya is. :)

My day starts around 7 when I wake up and do the whole brush your teeth, get dressed, etc. stuff. I do the same stuff I do in Canada, it just takes a little more time. I get drinkable water to brush my teeth from the tap by the kitchen and then head to the ‘spitting rock’ which is where all the kids brush their teeth and spit out the toothpaste. The washrooms are close to the spitting rock, but I need to bring my own toilet paper and soap with me to them because there isn’t any in them. Have I told you about the toilets yet? I don’t think so. Imagine an outhouse. Now take away the toilet seat. Now take away the wooden structure that you sit on and all that is left is a hole in the ground. The ground is cement and cleaned regularly, which is good because let’s just say using a hole in the ground is a learning process. After all that is done, I walk the nursery kids to school in the village close to here. They walk super slow and banter and bicker and I generally have no idea if they are fighting or just talking, but usually they are happy by the time we get there and we haven’t been late as far as I know. Then comes breakfast, which is bread and chai. The beginning of my day is pretty much the same every weekday.

Between 8:30 and 9:30, depending on what I am doing, I will start my work for the day. I am rotating my time between helping in the kitchen or with laundry, working in the local school (where I cause quite a disturbance), and doing field work (which is traveling around the community checking on sponsored kids and making sure they are doing well).

I am usually back at the orphanage between 1 and 3, at which point I have lunch. My afternoons are usually spent doing whatever I want and preparing for teaching in the evening. Kids start getting off school around 3pm. At 6:30, kids are all expected to be doing homework or learning. I have asked to teach the youngest ones because they rarely have homework and I thought it would be an opportunity to make a little difference. I have 16 students between Kindergarten and Gr. 2. They are taught in English at school so sometimes they understand me. They do not listen to me at all at this point, and I don’t really blame them. With volunteers coming and going regularly (and often being referred to as volunteers rather than there names) if they listen to the ramblings of all these adults, it would be confusing. But… they will need to learn to listen. They are super eager to learn and just giggle when they get to do work that is a little hard but still manageable. I told three girls to write out the number words for 15 through 21 and they collapsed on the floor in giggles! Not sure why, but I will take it as a good sign. The orphanage manager is extremely positive about my work and I enjoy being able to teach a small amount without curriculum solely based on development.

Class goes for 90 minutes and supper starts at 8pm. By this time, even though days generally don’t feel productive in my normal sense of the word, I am tired. I help serve the kids and provide guidance where necessary, but I haven’t yet quite figured out what expectations to enforce so I mostly watch. After super, the kids all brush their teeth and then they have a short devotions led by the older children. They read the bible in Kikuyu (their mother tongue) and then English (their official language). They sing a song and say the Lord’s Prayer and then usually they meander their way to bed. The younger ones are almost sleeping by this point and I think the older ones are supposed to be quiet by 9pm. By then, I am ready for bed. Up until now, Tam and I would chat and get ready for bed by around 10, but I guess that since she is gone now, I will have to develop a new routine.

I am hoping to teach the staff here some computer skills. I have already set up one with a gmail account and started him on creating spreadsheets. I was impressed to find him creating his own yesterday- it was rewarding. They have some computers that need to be set up and I am trying to figure out if setting them up using open source software would be a good idea even though most people use Microsoft products. I like the idea that they would be able to have computers set up in Swahili (their national language) and English, but am not sure if getting them used to slightly different operating systems and slightly different programs would hinder them in the long run. Personally, I like the open source stuff but am not sure what to do. I might set up one and see how easy it is for people to use. Once I set up the computers, or someone else sets them up, I am hoping to do a little more teaching of computers, although the orphanage is looking for someone local to teach full time.

Lately, I have been doing a lot of traveling around, which has broken up routine a bit. I have seen two other orphanages and gone to Thika, the closest major town. I also went to market in a town a little further away, which I loved. The market close to here is okay, but it just doesn’t feel the same as the other one. Anyways, this is already long. Enough for now.