A New Hairdo, Sponsor Day, etc.

Hello Everyone!

To start off, thank you all for reading this. I am surprised at how many people actually read what I write! I am not much of a blog reader and am pleasantly surprised that my writings are for an actual audience.

This last week has been fairly uneventful. I did the regular laundry, helping in the kitchen, helping on the computer (stupid thing has a pesky virus that I can’t get rid of!) and teaching the younger kids in the evening. I am trying to live as Kenyan of a lifestyle as I can rather than a Canadian lifestyle in Kenya. Quite honestly- it is a challenge! I am not used to not having cupboards of food to snack on any time I want. Here, they eat three meals a day. And that is about it. During mango season, which is just finishing, I could eat fruit throughout the day. Now there really isn’t anything. I miss my snacks. From my assessment, I am not lacking in calories or vitamins or anything so I don’t need anything… but it is very tempting to go and buy a samosa or a mendazi (which is pretty much fried dough- mmmmm).

One exciting thing that happened this week is that I got my hair done. I figured that spending money on my hair totally fit in with the culture so I headed to the salon to get my hair braided. I explained what I wanted and got something relatively close to it. I now have 33 tiny French braids in my hair. They were so tight it hurt to smile! I was sitting in the chair, trying not to move my scalp because it really hurt if I did, but then some muscle would move and my scalp would be pulling. But I didn’t know what muscle moved my scalp so I tried to concentrate and moving my scalp muscles, only to make it worse! Eventually I figured out that raising my eyebrows helped a little. It has loosened up now and is fun to have. It feels really cool.

On Friday, the kids all got new clothes. It seems like a big job to keep track of what all the kids have and don’t have and try to match that with clothes that are sent or left by volunteers. They work really hard to have accurate records of what they are given and what they give out. So, I tried to help, but eventually decided that I was more of a hindrance than a help and just watched. This week I am hopefully going to the biggest market in Kenya with two of the staff to buy clothes that we didn’t have for the kids. I am looking forward to getting out of the orphanage for a day and seeing more things. The clothes are sold garage sale style sort of. The markets are make shift booths made of sort of fit together wood and bags and whatever. The clothes are apparently second hand clothes intended for Tanzania aid, but are somehow sold to Kenya and then sold in the market. I am not sure how accurate that is or where the clothes are actually from.

On Saturday was sponsor kid day. That means that all the sponsor kids who do not live at the orphanage but are provided by the orphanage come and pick up their months supplies. Last month they got a sack of corn meal (I think that is what it was), 7 crayons, a pencil, shoes, clothes, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush and pens. These supplies are paid for by individual sponsors around the world- similar to the more well known World Vision or Compassion International. This month they got clothes, soap, tooth stuff, stickers, hotel bars of soap, a little toy (like one from McDonalds), beans and maize from government relief or something, Vaseline for their hair and a pack of 24 crayons! We found out last minute (actually after last minute because we were supposed to start at 10, but got the call after 10 to use up more of the supplies in the store room).

The whole process is an interesting one. The room, although filled with at least 50 kids plus some adults is almost silent to start. They sit and wait patiently, even though we are late in starting and even when we do start, it is a long process to get going. Once we have everything sorted (it is challenging to take a bunch of random stickers and make 50 relatively equal groups!) and ready to go, we call up one or two at a time to pick their pile of stuff and sign their name. I think that they are trying to promote ownership in the children or something because they sign their name for everything they get. Once the first round of supplies was distributed, we took out large luggage pieces filled with clothes and sorted those according to size and called up everyone again to take their stuff. The whole process took about 5 hours but no one acted as though they were in a hurry or like it was taking too long. People are much more used to waiting and being patient than I am.

Another thing I noted was how thrilled the kids were with their new stuff. If you think of it- they didn’t really get a whole lot that we would consider exciting. Hygiene products don’t usually make little kids happy. But their enjoyment of their supplies and their new McDonalds toy brought so many smiles and shining eyes. I would of loved to be able to capture the moment with a picture, but as soon as I take out my camera, the moment is over.

Well, I think that is all for today. Some day soon I want to talk about the energy it just takes to be alive in a place like this, but I think I will wait until I have visited a family who lives at the top of the hill- which should happen this week. Then I think I will really have a better sense of the harsh realities of poverty.