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Published: July 13th 2007
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Jambo!
Well, I was thinking I didn't have much to write about this time but when I started thinking more about it all I realized I actually have A LOT to talk about. Life is definitely feeling kind of routine here but then when I think about all the things that are happening it sounds far from it.
It has been a strange week, and certainly not my happiest. It started off with a visit to Joakim's house. Joakim is the project coordinator for LETOA. The first thing Joakim did was show me 'our land'. Anyone fancy coming out here and building us a house? The next thing Joakim showed me was his graveyard (right next to our land). His mother, wife, and two sons. He told me his mother died because of problems with her sugar levels and both his sons because of chest problems. He didn't mention his wife and I didn't ask. I do know that he is HIV positive so I am really not sure exactly what the story is with his wife and kids. He is quite open about his HIV though as his organization is made up of members who are all
positive (LETOA - LEarn TO Avoid aids). Joakim now lives with one son and has his sister, her husband and daughter living next door.
We went inside his house (which seems to be really quite nice compared to a lot of the 'houses' around here). Suddenly around 15 people show up. They then burst into extremely loud song, and, just like in the movies aswell, they were amazing! How come there wasn't a single person who was tone deaf?! Harmonies and all. Then the preacher started. No idea what he was saying but it was really fast. At one point everyone was praying. The preacher was leading it but half the people in the room were chanting aswell. Hope i'm not cursed. After the preaching, most of the crowd left. Apparently they were just friends and neighbours who heard there was a guest in the neighborhood and so thought they would stop by.
The menu for lunch was ugali and veg. I asked if I could watch the ugali being made (BIG MISTAKE. HUUUUUGE MISTAKE). Helen & Mike Ross, if you're out there....you thought the food in our house was bad????? The recipe for ugali? Boil water. Add
flour. Add more flour. Add more flour. Add more flour. Dish & serve. YUM. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this mixture sometimes known as glue????? It was then cut (it had become hard enough that a knife was required) and served with the obligatory blend of unidentifiable green vegetables. I managed to eat it by eating a tonne of the slightly less disgusting green vegatables with small amounts of the ugali. I told you. Great start to the week!
On the way back from Joakim's house, we stopped by the LETOA office. I have only been to the office once, at the very beginning of my project. That day I was shown the kids files. For each kid there is a page, with a passport sized photo of them, their name (not always certain), age (again not always certain), whether or not they are HIV positive and whether or not they are taking drugs for it (almost all yes and no respectively), and their likes and dislikes. On that first day I had never met the kids so the files were kind of meaningless but this time they were not because I know them all. It made
me really sad looking through them. I think I am looking at the kids differently again now. You forget cos they are just like normal kids but I was reminded that none of them have parents and they are almost all HIV positive. They really are sick a lot too.
Day to day the kids are always great. It's going to be difficult to leave them. A few random things....even though I don't understand swahili that well I have figured out that the boys have decided that they won't drink their porridge out of the pink cups. They refuse them. Today Naime asked if she could come back to Scotland with me. I think I posted a pic of her before. Sophia came in this morning and the first thing she did was come up to me and show me her new dress. I have only ever seen her in one skirt. She was well chuffed and kept checking it out all day. They all want a lot of attention. It is quite difficult actually because there are so many of them and they get jealous and start fighting with each other over who gets to hold my hand
or be picked up by me. This is a bit of a problem when you have 8 year olds trying to jump up onto you! Sophia and Naime now want me to hold their hands for their walk home from school. Africans generally walk unnaturally slow (it almost feels awkward trying to walk at their speed) but walking with tiny little Africans....it now takes me A LONG time to get home! Oh, another thing that happened today. I had to correct the teacher as she started telling the kids that their eyes were called 'ears' in english. You can imagine how difficult this is to correct once they have heard it a couple of times. It also really messes up 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' when you get to the line with the eyes and ears.
Our house is mad as always. We have some new volunteers - an australian couple - Angus and Shasta. They are just here for a week, as part of a big holiday. There are now 15 of us including the staff so really, there is always something happening. Nicky put her shoes on the other morning and thought she had left a sock
inside one of them but the sock turned out to be a giant frog. More and more Maasai are showing up to have their pictures taken. I have several videos of them jumping and chanting and me also trying to jump (very poorly in comparison). I am becoming dirtier by the day. This may have something to do with me really not liking freezing cold showers and finding it quite an effort to hand wash everything. I really have taken to wearing kangas most of the time (otherwise known as bedsheets). They dry quickly. That's all I care about. I also don't have a mirror so most of the time I am relying on friendly people to tell me if I have something stuck in my teeth or porridge all over my face.
I really am quite busy here. It's hard work. It's a 6.30 start and there's a lot of walking and hanging off buses, but at the same time there are a lot of great things happening. Apart from the fun times with the kids, the new school is really exciting. Nicky has also managed to arrange a new school building for WEMA (I think this stands
for Women's education and management of aids). She has only been here a week or so and managed to fundraise a lot of money from home. That 'school' was actually not even held inside a building but rather on a concrete floor, with the kids sitting outside and the teacher using a concrete wall as a blackboard.
I will keep you updated on everything! It is the weekend now and I have to tell you - we are headed off to a lodge tomorrow. Volunteers get to use a few of them for free so we shall go and laze by the pool, do a bit of sunbathing, eat a nice meal, laugh at the monkeys that are roaming around and look at the view of Mount Meru and Kili. Like I said, there are a lot of great things happening!
Badye
Joanna x
p.s. forgot to say...(to answer some questions)...I haven't yet received any mail to the PO box but other volunteers have. The kids are from 3 to 8 with the majority of them being 4 or 5. Most of them are pretty small for their age aswell. Hope this helps? Like I said
before, anything will help them.
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Helen
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OMG
Yum yum - I am really hungering after Ugali. Must remember to make some for the family - maybe after the graduation next week. I am cooking fish, chips and veggies just now - which would I like - Hmmm? Think about it. As for frogs in the socks - that beats lizards on the arm I reckon. I bet there was much shreiking and mayhem at that one. You sound like you are really working very hard - I hope you are taking care of yourself as well. Have a great time at the lodge - I am so envious. I keep looking art flights tpo see if I can get out again before you leave but they are so expensive it s not going to happen. Mike back now so will go and eat the DINNER. Love to all H