From a Peopled out Introvert

Hello all! So, personal space and quiet time are challenging things with a roommate and 33 kids around anytime you leave your room, so I am definitely feeling my introvertedness right now! My brain is tired from all the communication work. But that is okay- life here is good!

So, I have started a new chapter of life in Kenya and it is great so far! Yesterday, Stella (my roomie and friend) decided to head into Nairobi a day early to hang out with a volunteer stranded in a hotel since her flight couldn't leave on Sunday morning. We were so excited to be clean! We got dressed up and went out for supper and bought a bunch of snacks and had a great time. We are now staying with a family in Nairobi for a week and then heading to an orphanage on the slums of Nairobi. Stella and I are hoping to try and get around a bit by ourselves and explore places while we are here. I don't think I would ever try by myself since I am so directionally challenged, but between the two of us, I think we will have fun.

After the two weeks in Nairobi, I am planning to head to another area of Kenya and work in a school for orphans that is there. I have emailed previous volunteers and they assure me that it is not as remote as I had heard and they loved their experience.

On a less details level, I have been thinking a lot about the different way that Kenyans treat each other. There is a respect for individuality that I can't really put in words. Some days I think it is the best thing since margarine on bread, but other days it drives me nuts! There are so few expectations on who you are- there are expectations on what you do in terms of doing chores or something, but who you are is just accepted. There is a child who cries all the time at WWB and the response is 'Oh, that is okay, that is just her way.' Not like they don't care or anything, just that they are not judging her or trying to make her change or something. There is a child who whines all the time and the only person who got frustrated at the whining was me. I can't quite find words to describe it, but I wish I could bottle it up so that you could all experience it for yourself. I think that it is definitely something that would fix a lot of the brokenness in the western culture.

I had the most interesting matatu ride yesterday- sheesh, those things make me nervous sometimes. There was a fight between a lady and the conductor about change and I thought for sure someone was going to get hurt. After that was solved, the men around me assured me everything was okay (I wonder how often I look confused). The man beside me chatted for awhile. And then all of the sudden, we were stopped at the edge of Nairobi and all told to get out. My luggage was unstrapped from the roof (I have left WWB for good so have everything for five months with me) and Stella and I looked at each other and said "HUH?" Apparently the driver didn't want to head into Nairobi because of the bad traffic, which would cut into his profit. I had no idea where we were or where I needed to go because the Matatu was supposed to drop us off at a spot I knew and then I would be able to find the Hotel. Thankfully, Kenyans are fantastic and very friendly. The man I sat beside and the man behind me took me, my luggage (largest, stupidest, clumsiest piece for mud roads and small spaces!) and Stella and got us on another matatu and escorted us to our hotel. What would I do without friendly people?! I find that most people here are really nice and really willing to help, although some treat me a little like a freak show.

Anyways, that is enough writing for me. I forgot to post a quote I found in a newspaper that cracked me up (the writing, not the situation). here it is

"They fell asleep drunk, and woke up dead." Ahhh.... gotta love newspapers.

Anyways, that is all for now.

A Quick Update

Hi Everyone! So I was supposed to be finished on the internet in two minutes so this will be a quick update. I found out this week that I will be leaving the orphanage where I am at on April 20th- Yikes! I had understood that I had until the end of April, possibly even the end of May, but this week the director sat down with me and said that my time is up on the 20th and I couldn't stay any longer because he had other volunteers coming. Well, that did not go over well with me. He proposed two places for me to go- but unfortunately with the language barrier, sounded more like commanding rather than offering suggestions. I was just a little stressed! Plus I have no internet access so I couldn't find out anything about where he wanted me to go! I think if I would have talked to anyone from home, I would have cried! But then I realized that I could do this. I have come to Kenya on my own and didn't actually want to stay at this orphanage anyways. So after a frantic text to Tam and then time to calm down and engage my brain, I told myself to stop freaking out and then I was fine. So its all good :)

I don't know yet where I am going to be for the next three and a half months. I have three options that I know of and am trying to figure out. I am currently in Nairobi visiting an organization that works with kids with cerebral Palsy- which really tugs at my heart. I am not sure how useful I would be able to be, though, so I am not sure what to do because I get bored quickly. Another option is heading to an area that, according to staff, is extremely remote (like not even cell phone coverage!) where I would work in another children's center and teach for three months. Teaching the younger kids does not appeal to me at all because they don't speak enough english, but maybe I could teach the older kids. Another option is an orphanage in Nairobi, which is right on the slums and also has a school. Too bad teaching just isn't really exciting to me right now. :)

So that is where things are at. I have no idea what I am going to do or how often I will be able to update this.

On a different note, some highlights this week were

taking some kids home to visit their grandma... which included taking me, two kids and a driver on a motorcycle :)gotta love the motorcycle

discovering that there are tarantulas here.... in my shower

eating bananas- I have eaten more bananas in the last two weeks than in the last 15 years!

spending time with volunteers from South Korea, Germany, Texas, California, and England- lots of fun!

But my time is up and everyone else is ready to go. Gotta run!!

The Fun of Communication

Do you ever have it where you are speaking words and phrases but the message just isn't getting through? Or where you understand the words and phrases of someone else, but it just doesn't make sense? Welcome to my world! I often just have to laugh at the lack of my ability to communicate things here- especially details! The staff all speak English to varying degrees, but there still seems to be a pretty big understanding gap going both ways. One thing I have figured out is that when they don't hear something, they say 'Yes.' So now, whenever I get a yes, I repeat myself. I wonder how many times the are completely puzzled by my responses to what they say... ahhhh... what fun. This past week, I have been trying to get details about upcoming volunteers because I just like to know stuff. I like to know who and what and when and all those details even if it doesn't matter- I just like to know! Well, at first, I thought they were coming last week. But none showed up. Then I heard that there was going to be two couples but they were really young. One couple showed up from California, but they aren't really young. Then I heard that I would have a roommate and I got a roommate from Germany (really nice lady! So far we have hit it off great!). She has joined my pursuit of finding out about the mysterious volunteers that are coming. We were told yesterday that one more volunteer was coming today. Then today, we found out it was three. Then today, two showed up! Lol. And it wasn't a couple and a male, which I thought it was- it was two more girls. From what I understood, all the volunteers were going to be here for two months, but so far four of them are here for two weeks. Stella tried asking more about it today and came back to the room and laughed because she had no idea what information was just communicated. I guess I will just have to learn to just go with the flow a bit more. I have learned that some already, but I obviously have more to go.

As I mentioned, I have been joined by more volunteers. Right now there are a married couple from California, my roomie, Stella, from Germany, someone from South Korea and one from London (I think). I think it will be fun to have more people here. There already seems to be more gel between this group of volunteers than the ones that were here when I got here.

Not much is new with me. This week, I start teaching the older orphanage kids for four hours a day. I am going to focus on literacy, ESL, and math, all of which I love. Because the kids are on a month of holidays, there is no curriculum to follow (they just don't want the kids idle) and I get to do whatever I want as long as it somehow relates to what they learn in school. I already have my daily structure in place and I start on Monday.

I will probably head to Nairobi on Tuesday to go clothes shopping for the kids, but other than that, this week will be fairly normal.

The end of my two months at this orphanage is coming up so I am starting to think of what to do next. The director at the orphanage thinks that volunteers should stay for a maximum of two months and then he gets them to volunteer at other places. I have mixed feelings about the whole situation, but I am sure I will figure something out. I think I have until the end of April at least.

Well, I am feeling like I have nothing to say today. Probably because I have been having conversations with people this week in English rather than just in my head so I don't have stored up conversations to tell you all about.

Happy Easter to you all! and have a good week.