Who ate all that chicken?

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Who ate all that chicken?

It certainly wasn’t me. Perhaps it was Jennifer Full Figure (who we saw live in concert last weekend, along with several other singers with equally original names). Why am I talking about a chicken? Yesterday, as Josephine officially moved into her new home, she bestowed upon us the great honor of being given a chicken. Considering my recent return to vegetarianism, you can imagine just how happy I was when we were handed the aforementioned chicken, alive, but certainly not kicking (due to the fact that it’s legs were tied together).

Up until the chicken incident, the afternoon was wonderful. We showed up at Josephine’s house to be greeted by half of the people who live in her neighborhood, sitting under a marquee type thing that they had put together themselves, using branches and palm leaves. All of the ladies were dressed in their traditional clothes, which always look spotless, regardless of all of the challenges that I would have thought would have made the cleaning process rather difficult including the conditions of their homes and the color of their water. There were many speeches (as there always seems to be here) and a lot of dancing and clapping. It was all very entertaining. Josephine cut a ‘ribbon’ before she, and all of her kids (the number of which seems to be growing every day) entered the house. I have to say thanks again to all of the people who donated money. I am so glad that we were able to do this for Josephine and her family. From what I saw yesterday, I definitely think that it may be a ‘community’ house, but we know that it will always be there as shelter for some of the people here who really, really need it. I wish you could have been here. It was a great party!

Apart from everything with the house, we have been really busy lately. We have been painting and decorating the day care room at the Vocational Center. We also attended a ‘briefing’ at Kyotera Central Primary school. This involved us suddenly finding ourselves up on stage in front of kids from 3 different schools, telling them how and why they should prepare well for their end of primary school exams. I’ll tell you something, I was never told that I should study for exams because I would otherwise end up getting married early, being a prostitute, or being a water carrier. We also attended a St James Secondary School debate class, where the subject under discussion was “Money is the root cause of all evils”. Again, we had to talk. You can imagine how awkward this was. I discovered that debating is not my forte.

Everything else is going well. I seem to be settling in (now that I have less than 3 weeks left here). I am heading back to Tanzania for a week’s holiday before moving on to Malawi. I have mixed feelings as the next stage of my journey comes nearer. I am excited to move to Malawi as everyone I meet who has been there raves about it. However, I am also nervous about the work that I will be doing. Finally, with the fact that I am moving on to my last project it seems like time is starting to fly by and I don’t want this journey to end!

I’m off again for now. Talk soon, Joanna x

Oh - in case you were wondering what happened to the chicken….we gave our driver it as a present. He said it tasted great.

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Photos

Josephine's gift to us
Naomi's face says it all. If you look at my eyes you will be able to tell that my smile is fake. What can I say, I tried!

Volunteers
Back L-R - Naomi, Claire, Me, Jan
Front L-R - Katie, Christina

Comments

[helen ross]

Meet me in Nairobi
Can't wait - seems ages since we last met - all of 3 months in fact - but here we go again - NOT Thelma and Louise - |Pinky and perky maybe? Or the Golden Girls? See you soon.

[Katherine]

J that's priceless!!!!

[Jill Kolas and clinical affairs]

Thanks for the card!
Hi Joanna, All of us in Clinical Affairs want to thank you for the card your sent with Innocents picture. She is so cute! We continue to have you in our hearts, prayers and thoughts. You are our hero! Take care! Love from us all.