Chipatis and Beer

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Wednesday 6/15 @ 730
Well the week seems to go by quite quickly which is nice. Monday was fine at the orphanage, just a normal day.. but we ended up stopping to by beer from the shop to bring home and put in the fridge (which rarely works becuase of the same old story.. never electricity.) Well, turns out there was acutally electricity so we fridged the beer and go to enjoy a nice cold Kilimanjaro beer in the evening. Oh boy I crave beer here all the time but its not the easiest thing in the world, finding beer (or cold) here. So theres about 4 types or beer here.. its the same few that are in bars and restaurants and shops... you can't buy 6 or 12 packs or anything like that... its just by the bottle. It's 1500 shillings a beer, so 1 dollar, which is great! Unless you're buying a lot, than it seems kind of expensive.. a 12 pack for 12 dollars, of not such good beer.. hm. I can get me 12 blue moons at home for that price! Anyways, a beer is a big treat here and I absolutely savor the moments I get one (I've been here 3 weeks and had 2).
Tuesday was a great day, started off with chipattis for breakfast! Those are like pancakes kind of.. theyre really thin and made only of flour and water and cooked in a rediculous amount of oil. They're basically dripping with oil, but its nice to change it up a bit! They put sugar out with it, and were supposed to just put sugar onto it and eat it like that, too sweet though! So I bought some honey and its deish on them! Orphanage was good, though its so frustrating when you teach a kid something and they raelly seem to get it, than the next day its like somebody went into their mind with a big eraser! Ahh! It is sometimes hard to remember that they are 5, I just wish I could teach them logic!! A lot of the kids have heaps of potential, just need to develop their brains a bit more.
After school, we came home to have lunch (rice and beans, how bout that!) and than went back to the orphanage and played with the kids a bit when they woke up (they sleep from about 2-4 and than go home.) Most of them walk home by themselves, remember that nobody there is over 6 years old, but the few very little ones (aged 2) generally get picked up by someone. Anna, the school's only teacher, walked us to Alice's house after school - Alice was one of the brightest young girls I've ever met, and she was JUST sponsored last week and now attends St. Vivian, an english school. We went to her house, about a 10 minute walk from the orphanage, and she was not home yet. A school bus takes her (its a yellow dala dala) which is great cuz its probably about a 40 minute kid walk from St. Viv. Her mother and grandmother died, so she lives with her Great Grandmother who's still kickin, and her 1 and a half year old brother. 'Mama Alice' - the great grandmother - must be atleast 80 but looks about 120. She's amazing though, raising these kids and taking care of everything... its a scary thought though, to think about the day she does pass... where will these kids go than? So many of the kids at the orphanage don't have parents, but live with grandparents or aunts/uncles. The kid's parents generation was swept with HIV/AIDS so many of the kids are parentless. Two of the students (that i know of) have HIV... Salimu is one of my kids and he's just an absolute doll, but has paralysis in one arm and i think acutally most of the right side of his body; hes got to be one of the most loving and sweet kids I've met. After Alice's house, we walked home through a 'shortcut' just exploring the neighborhood, and when we reached the soccer field there was a huge game going on between the neighboring areas. There were heaps of people gathered to watch so we stopped and watched a bit as well. Than we heard "teacha, teacha!!" and it was some of the kids! Salimu ran up and wrapped his arms around my legs, and Joshua and a few others ran over as well! We stayed for about a half hour and played with the kids, and more came. It's so crazzy, all of these 4 and 5 year olds are always out on their own, far from home and just roaming... that age group reminds me of about 11 or 12 year olds at home. It was heaps of fun and it's great to see the kids playing and out of uniform, in a whole seperate world from the orphanage.
Oh, I KEEP forgettting to write about this.. okay, so ever since I've arrived, I've been saying that I absolutely will not be shocked if I get hit by someone on a motorbike or bicycle. They drive SO unbelievably close to the people walking, its amazing!! The entire road is open, yet they feel the need to come as close as physically possible to the person walking.. and there are no sidewalks, ofcourse, so we just walk along the edge of the road (well its all dirt so.. yeah you get it).. anyways, the other day Jake and I were walking home and the bikes go flying by real close but its the same as always so we're used to the wind hitting us from them and blah blah, BUT.. we were walking, hear a motorbike coming up behind us but dont flinch because its normal, and than suddenly jake freaks because the motorbike had a big box on the back of it, and he was so close that it knocked jake! ohhhhhhhhhhh my goodness, i was sooo shocked but absolutely could not hold in my laugh. This was a week ago and every time its brought up, i just crack. It was the funniest thing to experience.. I know it must have hurt but HE GOT HIT BY A MOTORCYLCE IN AFRICA. Now theres a story to write home about.

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