Last day in Lenana

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Hello again everyone!

As always...thanks so much for the messages! I am feeling MUCH better! I got some yogurt and gingerale into me, and was pretty much better by the next day.
I would love to respond to peoples messages, but the internet at Dormans is being BRUTAL today, so i'm just going to copy and paste my entry as quickly as possible.....LOVE YOU ALL!

Here you gooo....
After junction on Tuesday, we came home and went back up to the office. The kids were all there and playing with the toys we had given them. We also met this girl, Lillian. She is 18 years old and is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I got talking to her, and she started explaining her story to me. She told me that in 2007, when there was a lot of problems and violence in Kenya due to tribal conflicts, she came home one day to find her house completely destroyed. Her dad had had a good job and therefore they had a home, and could send each of their 4 children to school. Lillian is the oldest and had just finished high school and was preparing for University. However, because of her family loosing their house (and everything inside), they were left with literally only the clothes on their backs. They left their home, and had to move to Lenana area to find a cheaper place to live. Now, she cannot go to University although she has good enough marks to go, and her 3 younger siblings are in school right now, but in danger of being kicked out because they may not be able to pay the school fees by the end of the month. She has had a pretty rough life for the past couple of years!

On Wednesday we went to an HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria awareness march in the Nairobi city centre. It was really cool! We went with Kilonzi and 4 of the ladies we had done home visits with, The idea of the march was to get a message to Obama, that in Kenya, half of the people who need access to treatment are now receiving it, however still half are NOT! They had postcards that we signed and were being sent to the Whitehouse. We also got a really cool t-shirt that says “Yes we can! Stop AIDS, TB and Malaria”
We got downtown by about 10 am, but there was a bit of problems with starting the march. Some police came and didn’t want us walking through the downtown streets, but people just kept on singing and chanting, and for whatever reason eventually we were allowed to go. So we walked a big block down town singing songs in Swahili (Brittney and I had no idea what we were saying, or if we were even saying it right, but it was fun anyways…) and there were TV cameras filming and even one CNN camera! It was such a nice day too! Almost too nice in fact… since it has been raining ever since we got here basically, we expected another crappy day, and therefore didn’t bring any sun screen. Well it turns out the Kenyan sun does NOT mess around. It is a full 2 days later and my face is STILL bright red! It is really painful and I’ve been applying aloe to my face ever since.
In the afternoon we went back up to the office again and played with the kids some more. Lillian was there again, and before we came back home for dinner she took us to see where she is living. It was really unbelievable. Her and her brother share a one room shack, that has a curtain through the middle of it. On one side, they have about a 1 inch thick mattress they sleep on, and on the other side is their “kitchen”, “bathroom” and “sitting room”, which is actually just a small wooden bench and a bucket. It was really unbelievable to see. It really hit hard to be there with Lillian who comes from a great family, and had a really good chance and getting a University education and then all of a sudden she is an Internally Displaced Person.

Thursday morning was our last day up at the school. We went up to the office in the morning to meet Kilonzi so that he could walk us up to the school (because we aren’t allowed to walk on the ‘forbidden path’ alone..) but he wasn’t there. So we came home and Maggie called him, I guess he had gone somewhere to have a cup of tea. He would be there to pick us up whenever he finished - yet another example of Kenyan time! Time here, really doesn’t seem to matter. It’s relaxing, but at the same time kind of frustrating. Nobody even talks about time. I remember one of our first days here asking Maggie what time church started, and she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said something like ‘around 11, Kenyan time though’ which means basically anywhere from 11 to 12:30.
At the school the kids were awesome! I taught them some more Spanish and they loved it! They asked a million questions (most of which I didn’t have the answers to). After break, one of the teachers asked Brittney if she could show the kids how to use the toys we brought for them. So we decided to take both her class and my class down to the playing field to play some games. We showed them how to throw a Frisbee, and then we taught them soccer-baseball. They went crazy for it! These kids are so competitive though, and it kind of turned into tackle soccer-baseball. So we had to keep reminding the, they can’t pull each other down as their running the bases!
After the game, we took a few pictures with both of our classes, and we went back up to say goodbye to the head-mistress. We exchanged e-mails with her, and said our goodbyes which was actually really sad…I didn’t want to leave! Then some of the kids from my class walked us home.
In the afternoon Gladys and John from VICDA (the volunteering organization) met us at home and gave us our certificates for volunteering. We had some lunch and then did some laundry. Which turned out to be a pretty bad idea because 2 hours later a massive storm hit, so our clothes (now Friday morning) are still soaking wet, and we need to pack them up tonight!!
We went back up to the office in the afternoon and hung out with the kids. They braided our hair for quite a while, and did a little too good of job with my hair. The braids would NOT come out…it took Brittney me and Lillian all working on it to finally get the tiny little braids out - I don’t know how they did them so small!
We came home and had some dinner with Maggie, and after dinner I started working on my teachers college applications so that I could have that done before starting our Overland Tour on Sunday!!
We started talking to Margaret about what we wanted to do to help. Brittney and I had come up with a plan that we thought was pretty good, but we wanted to talk to her and see what she thought. Well it turns out our plan wasn’t so great, and she gave us some other suggestions of ways we could help after we’re gone.
Basically - the best thing you can do is to sponsor a child. We had thought about that, but weren’t sure how it would work, since we didn’t feel quite comfortable just wiring money over to Kenya every month and never knowing if it actually did what we wanted it to do. So Margaret explained that when she has volunteers that want to sponsor a child, they will wire the money to her, that way she can send the sponsor updates as to where the money is being spent and how the child is doing. She said that she always ensures the school fees are paid and the basic needs are taken care of. There is usually some left over money each month so she will go out and buy food and take it to the family rather than just hand over cash. This way, the money actually benefits the entire family, and not just the one child.
I was happy to hear that, because my biggest concern was picking a child. There are so many here who need help, and it seems strange to just pick one and help one, but Margaret explained that really, that’s all you can do. Providing a child with school fees and a school uniform helps them so much. She recommended we choose a young child who we can stick with all throughout their education.
I have decided to sponsor the little girl I have a soft spot for. (Since I can’t realistically adopt her…) She is about 4 years old and should be going to school, but as of right now she isn’t. So school starts in January here, and I am going to leave some money for Margaret to get her started in January and then send money on from then on. I think it will feel really good to know that I am helping this little girl I’ve fallen in love with, and since I know her it will be really cool as well.

Anyways, this morning we are spending the morning at Junction updating our blogs and uploading pictures, and then going to spend our last afternoon at the office with the kids. I think it’s going to be really sad and difficult to say goodbye…

After this afternoon we start our big safari adventure for the next two months....I may not be able to update as much as I have been....but I will every chance I get!!

Love,
-Denise

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Comments

[One Who Swears Too Much]

Hi Deni
I wasn't going to add any comments mainly because of my typing skills, (swearing verbally is easy, with fingers NOT), but this entry, you've put in, really has hit home, to me, why you and Brittney are doing what you've done. I'm sure there have been a lot of quite tears shed both by you and people reading your blogs through these last few weeks. We can only share, through you, the trials and tribulations experienced by the people you meet. DO NOT MISTAKE what you two have done as trivial. That you could have done more. Far from it. You will leave a small part of yourself there through the visits you made to the sick, the games and lessons you teach the kids ....even the pleasure of touch to braid your hair. That will be left behind forever in their and your memories. Its nice to have the photographs but you know in your heart that most everything has been etched into your psyche forever. Can you believe it a whole sort of paragraph without a F word. Good luck on the rest of the trip, be safe and don't you dare go into that pool at the top of the Victoria Falls. OK I'm not your father, but I refuse to look at any photographs taken. Mark