Mimi siongei Kiswahili

This week we've started to find a rythym in our days. On Monday we started teaching so we now follow a school schedule. Every morning at about 5:30 we're woken up by the sound of a herd of girls running by our window. We still don't know what exactly they're doing. We get out of bed around 7:30 and eat a breakfast of usually bananas with peanut butter. Once the girls are done with morning prayer, we meet the oldest girls (classes 3, 5 and 6- ages 8 to 14) in classroom 5 to teach a "creative arts" class. This is for the first two or three hours of the morning. We find it so different from American school with such a set schedule because the teachers can just replace a science class with our creative arts class-it's so flexible. Often when we're not teaching, we'll wander into a classroom and see the girls just working in their text books with no teacher in sight. We'll ask them where the teacher is and they'll say, "i don't know". But even when the teacher's not there, they'll still do their work because they're so eager to learn and really value education. During the creative arts class we've been teaching them American songs with a guitar and coloring the song books that we brought for them. On Monday we'll start a new project where we'll paint a mural on a large wall in the dining hall. Today we bought all the paint materials for under 40 U.S. dollars. After this class we have a free period in which we either run or go to the market. Every day it gets easier to run because we're starting to figure out a routine (we time it so that we run while the girls are in class so they don't follow us). Our runs usually consist of us running circles around the compound. There hasn't been a day when no less than three people have come out of their houses and curiously laughed at us. In the afternoon we both teach a seperate english class. By the last ten minutes it's often them teaching us Swahili. Today we learned how to say "I don't speak swahili"-"mimi siongei kiswahili". In preperation for our trip to the market, we learned how to say "I want two bananas please". When we were trying to remember it, we kept saying "nabaka ndizi billi tafadhali". All the girls kept laughing at us and when we asked why, they explained that we were "nabaka"-"rape", instead of "nataka"-"want". We really love spending time with these older girls because we can communicate really well with them and have real conversations. We feel like we've already gotten to know them so well and have learned many of their stories.
Last night we brought down the guitar and taught the girls the MTA song. Even though it's fast and wordy, a lot of the older girls caught on quickly and were able to sing the whole song by the end of the night.

The Machakos Market

This is the Machakos open market that we go to almost everyday. So far weve tried the avacados, bananas, oranges, tangerines and guavas. Were especially loving the guavas and avacados but we take very good care to wash the guavas( in boiled water) before we eat them.


******TOUMINENS(MARK AND LORI) CHECK YOUR SPAM FOR AN EMAIL FROM SHIRA*****

This is us and some girls today after coloring during one of the many photoshoots. In the middle of us is Nasibo. She's fourteen years old and is so incredibly street and loves to touch our hair and give us many hugs. On her coloring paper she wrote, "Abegirly and Shira is my best friends". To the right of Abby is Lilian, who's very smart and one of the two girls in the highest class (standard 6). Next to her is Vivian, the girl who speaks the best English and is nine years old. The girl in the front with her hand in her mouth is Wendy, she's very spunky and always has her hands in her mouth. She sometimes wears a plastic bag over her clothes. In front of Shira is Felista, one of the youngest girls, although no one knows exactly how old she is.

The last couple of days: the highlights

Sunday morning we set our alarm for 8:00 o clock in order to arrive on time to the 8:30 church service held in the rescue center's dining hall. We must have still been jet lagged, because once again, we woke up to the girls calling to us, "Abigail! Shira! It's time for church! Come! Don't miss church! Come! Don't be late for church!" We could tell that this was Vivian, because for some reason, she has a mixture of a british and swahili accent (of all the girls, she speaks the best english although she's only nine years old). We jumped out of bed and threw on the first clothes we could find. We were worried that we would be in trouble, so we speed-locked the five padlocks (which we're getting very efficient at), and sprinted to the dining hall. Forty-six girls joyously singing and dancing in Swahili was very different from what we had expected. After their services, while we were waiting for some visitors from a local church to come, the girls put on a spontaneous talent show for us. It was mostly singing and dancing, and we were amazed by how talented they all were. One girl, Catherine, who coincidentally reminds us of our friend Kathryn (shout out to our girl), was an exceptionally good dancer. It was heartwarming to see how excited the girls all were to perform for us.

Today Francis, the Rescue Center's "preacher" who's been so helpful to us during our stay, accompanied us into Machakos town where we met his cousin Lucy. Every single person we've met here in Kenya so far has been exceptionally friendly and loving towards us, even just random people that we will only meet once. However, we immediately felt a strong connection to Lucy. She founded an NGO that supports Kenyan orphaned children living with HIV/AIDS. She started the NGO because she lost her sister to AIDS and it pained her to see the hardships that her nieces and nephews experienced after they lost their mother. It turns out that she got a scholarship to Harvard University and will most likely be going there for three years in the fall of next year. When she found out that we are from Massachusetts, she was so excited to know at least two people in the states. Both of us were struck by her strong drive to help people and how welcomed and comfortable she made us feel.

This afternoon we decided to pull out some of the supplies that people generously donated for us to bring for the girls. We brought all the girls into one of the classrooms and gave each one piece of paper and colored pencils. For the first half an hour, we couldn't even hear our own thoughts. Every which way the girls were calling our names to ask for more pencils, excitedly showing us their drawings, and bringing carrying in more chairs from other classrooms. Once one of us drew a "maua" (flower) on Felista's paper, all the other younger girls kept rushing up to us, asking us to draw houses, flowers, or "love" (a heart) on their papers. Some of the girls who cannot tell us apart would tug on our sleeves saying, "inzungu!" and proudly display their drawings.

Shower?

We thought we would dedicate this post to Marina's comment about showering, although we don't know if you can qualify what we've been doing as "a shower". It's a long and complicated procedure so we'll break it down into steps.
step 1: We removed all our clothes and of course locked the two padlocks on the door to our room (there are five total; one on each gate, one on the entrance to the building, and two on our bedroom door).
step 2. We proceeded into the big empty room (originally a dorm room, now occupied by wasps) carrying one bucket full of water and two empty buckets.
step 3. We splashed water on our whole bodies and then lathered with soap (this is best done in daylight because the nights can be quite cold (just like the water)...although, there's a big open window so we have to bend down so the girls can't see us, which they probably do because they spend 80% of their days waiting outside our window calling our names).
step 4. we dunked our entire heads in one of the buckets and then scrubbed with shampoo.
step 5. next we splashed more water on ourselves in an attempt to wash off some off the soap that was now dried on our bodies (this step will never be repeated because all it accomplished was to get water all over the floor and somehow make us even more soapy)
step 6. we had to fetch another bucket of water because we realized that we'd have to use one bucket to pour over each of us to get off all the soap. by the end of all this, the floor was practically a small lake.
*side note: a lizard just crawled in our window, luckily we're safe in the misquito net.
step 7. then, with our newly cleaned bodies, one by one we layed down on the floor with our heads in an empty bucket while the other one poured water all over eachother's hair and face. this was probably the hardest step, although eric nazaar would appreciate the great core workout we got while doing it.
step 8. realizing that we had left both our towels in our room, we had to run stark naked passed the open windows where, of course, some girls were peaking inside, and unlock our double padlock.
all in all, a great time. we're becoming showering masters, though, and learning how to condense this process.

first days in kenya pt. 2

when we arrived to the orphanage yesterday, all the girls fought over who could carry our heavy luggage to our building, which was quite a walk. we looked over and saw one of the youngest girls, who looked like she was about four years old, swiftly lifting one of our fifty pound suitcases on her back and running up the hill. what a greeting. there are forty-six girls at the orphanage, ranging from about four to fourteen. all of them are so sweet and excited to have volunteers staying in the compound. the girls quickly warmed up to us and throughout the entire day they were holding our hands and stroking our hair.
we're living in our own building, which is an old dorm building, located in the compound. all the room are empty expect for our one bedroom equipped with a table, two beds, and a dresser. there is no running water. we took our first shower today which was quite an endeavor. all we have is buckets of cold water which we have to boil on a gas propane tank. this is how we wash dishes, cook food, brush our teeth, and shower. when joseph dropped us off, he told us, "now you'll experience the real kenyan life".
this morning we woke up to a chorus of about forty girls chanting our names outside our window. we thought we were dreaming but as we woke up we remembered where we were. we felt bad taking so much time to prepare our breakfast but when we finally went downstairs they were all eagerly waiting behind the gate that seperate our living quarters from the rest of the compound. when we went outside all the girls were fighting over who could hold our hands and as we walked through the compound they surrounded us. today they didnt have school so they were doing their chores; washing clothes, fetching water, washing the dining hall, kitchen, and toilets. Our presence was definitly very distracting to them. the housemother asked a girl named Faith to give us a tour but it soon turned into a photoshoot-the girls love our cameras and the minute they see them they want to take them and take as many pictures as they can. we tried to go on our first run today which was very interesting. when we started running all the young girls ran after us around the compound and we had to stop and explain what we were doing. they still didnt really understand why they couldnt come with us. we tried to find somewhere to run but ended up having to run back and forth on the same road with all the girls watching us from the edge of the compound. after fifteen minutes of this we ran back to the field where they play and did sprints which they eagerly participated in. the girls ended up being the best personal trainers we could get because they kept urging us to do more and more sprints. later, we taught them how to play ultimate frisbee, and there were a couple that were so good that they should belong on the amherst varisty team. the older girls really enjoyed the game while most of the younger girls just ran around fighting over the disc.
later we went into town with the adminstrations manager, francis. we took a taktak, while is a small, three wheeled car. somehow six people, half of which we didn't know, were able to fit in the tiny golf cart-sized vehicle. machakos town is a lot smaller and a lot less modern than nairobi. we went to the open market where local farmers sell fresh fruits and vegetables. we bought an avacado and bananas for dinner. the avacado cost only 10 shillings (80 shillings is one U.S. dollar). we walked back and every single person we passed asked, "how are you", and when we answered they would laugh with their friends. francis explained to us that people in machakos rarely see white people, or "izungu" in swahili, so they all get really excited and curious when they see us.
tonight we sat in the dining hall teaching each other swahili and english songs. the girls were so eager to learn and even more eager to teach. in fact, we ended up learning more than they did as they taught us the name of every body part and numbers up to ten in swahili. tomorrow we will experience kenya church. this will be interesting.

First days in Kenya Pt. 1

We've arrived in Kenya, and after just three days, there's so much to share! After a long two days of travel, we arrived in Nairobi and were picked up at the airport by Joseph and his sister Hanna. Joseph is the founder of the organization called Touchkenya that helped us come here. They brought us to the apartment which we'll stay at when in Nairobi. There's another volunteer from Canada staying there named Alia. She's been really helpful in answering our questions because she's already been here for a month and knows a lot about Kenya already. After taking a quick nap and shower, we went to the orphanage where Alia works. To get there we drove through a slum in Nairobi. There was so much activity going on around us. There were people pushing cars that had gotten stuck in the mud that were entirely blocking our way, lone three year old staring at us as we drove by, animals wondering around in the middle of the road, and horns honking right and left. We picked up Alia and drove to the Nairobi Children's Home, which is another orphanage for younger boys and girls. This is where the girls come from that eventually go to the Machakos Rescue Center. When entered the main dining hall, a rush of children attacked us with hugs, and immediately pulled out outside to play. Being there with the children made us so excited to go to Machakos!
That night, Christine, another Touch Kenya founder, came over to the apartment and cooked us all dinner. Along with vegetables and chicken, she made us Chipatti, which is this delicious but incredibly oily flatbread that Kenyans eat only on special occasions. That night we learned all about how Christine and Joseph met each other and eventually founded Touchkenya only four years ago. It turns out that both of them have other jobs and they don't get paid for any of the work they do for touchkenya. It was surprising to us because for the past three days, Joseph has spent the entire day with us, and been so helpful. We find it so inspiring that they put so much work into this without receiving any sort of payment.
We spent the second day running lots of errands and seeing Nairobi and then finally, today we drove to Machakos where we'll be for the rest of our stay in Kenya. The drive there gave us a really great taste of Kenya. We saw camels and giraffes on the side of the highway and the view of the countryside was beautiful. It was so exciting driving into Machakos because it had an entirely different feel from the modern Nairobi. Unfortunately we only have two minutes left on the computer battery, so this is just part I of this post to be finished as soon as possible.