Another week has flown by here in Malava. We've been here for almost a month!
i’ll begin with some funny observations from last Sunday at Mass. Since I can’t understand the homily, I usually look around and check things out, see what’s going on. First of all, there was a little boy who was wearing a shirt that had one of those “No smoking” circles in it, but rather than it being a cigarette in the middle, it said “Tan Lines” and the shirt was an advertisement for some nudist beach (either that or some Abercrombie Shirt) I have to believe his parents did not understand the English on that shirt, or that would have never let him wear it. There was also a little baby in front of me clothed in a full on winter jacket and ski hat. She was also wearing little gym shoes that I originally thought were “Nikes Airs”. I thought that was funny, since those shoes tend to be expensive, until I paid attention to that way it was actually spelled…”Nkie Aib”. Nothing like Kenya knock offs to give me a chuckle at church.
After church, we had our first volunteer brunch/ lunch. It was very nice…Michael and Tom came to our house and Jean and I made spaghetti with steak (not your idea of steak, trust me) and fresh tomatoes...not too bad.
Monday was back for our second week of work. We had a meeting on Tuesday afternoon with Neto (who does play therapy), Sr. Joy (who does admin stuff) Sr. Judi (our director) Tom and myself. We sat down and really had a chance to hammer down what we were all going to do and what our roles will be. While Tom and I are at the center, we will help to take some of the record keeping off of Neto’s hands and do play therapy when there is a need. We will also help to build new play therapy aids in the afternoons, as well as some other responsibilities. We’ll see how things play out. I told Sr. Judi I would be willing to drive some of the kids to appointments they have, since I know how to drive a standard. Looks like I’m going to have to start practicing driving on the wrong…I mean the left…side of the road. So work progresses on and Tom and I continue to do the best to make ourselves a niche where we can make a difference.
Lets see…also on Tuesday, we stopped being able to have running water and electricity at night. The little indicator in the well had gotten stuck on the side, so the sisters didn’t know that the holding tank was almost empty. Therefore, the whole day on Tuesday we didn’t have running water while the holding tank was filling and we didn’t have a chance to shower again (well besides bucket showers) until Thursday.
Wed was a great day at work...we felt really busy. We kept pretty busy updating client files, but I had some time to do play therapy with one of my fav little girls, Elisabeth. I think she’s around 5 or 6, but it’s hard to tell since her cerebral palsy seems to have made her a little smaller than average and she has very little speech. Still, she tons of fun, and has a great smile. She’s a really good walker, her legs were almost completely unaffected, but she has some pretty bad damage to one of her hands. So we tossed a ball back and forth in an effort to force her to use her bad hand and try and stretch out some of the contractions. She’s pretty good about it, but when she gets tired, she switched to her bad hand and you have to help her use the other one again. After work, we got a text from Michael and Jean, wanting to know if we would like to join then for lunch at the petrol (gas) station. Tom and I had a little extra time, so went to find the entrance to the Malava forest, which is supposed to be close to there. We went on a little walk in the forest, and were treated to a few sightings of the local colobus monkeys! They live there like raccoons live in the city. Ok, that’s a bad analogy, but its strange for something that I’ve only seen in a zoo so common place in their natural habitat. It’s very neat. More on the local monkey and baboon population shortly. We had a really nice lunch of chapatti (flat bread) and fried chicken for lunch and enjoyed each other’s company and the (very hot) afternoon. And we found out there are more American volunteers coming through some program in Georgia in April and July. We’re all very excited for new Mzungus!
Thursday was a bad day. Some sort of stomach bug caught up to me and I spent that day in bed (and in the bathroom). Luckily it didn’t last more than that day, and I got to watch a couple movies. Wow, was Friday a big day. We went into Kakamega to do some shopping, go to the ATM and go out to lunch for Laurie’s (another American working at the school with Jean and Michael) birthday. Tom and I got there around 1, but the others got held up, so we didn’t actually go out to lunch until around 3:30. It was worth the wait though…we had fried chicken and fries…so tasty! Laurie also got birthday cake and ice cream from one of the local supermarkets and we had a very nice celebration. Unfortunately, it was cut short when Laurie and Hezbon (another employee of Tumaini) got a call that one of the kids was very sick and needed to go to the hospital. So the four of us finished up our shopping…getting frozen food and other delicacies like hot dogs that are not available in Malava. I was standing outside Mama Watoto (one of our supermarkets) and this little boy came up to me with a sharpened metal stick in his hand. He proceeded to poke with me with it and ask for money. I yelled “Hapana, Hapana” (no, no) at him, but he wouldn’t stop until one of the Boda Boda (bike taxi) drivers pulled him away by the back of his shirt. And then once we got on the matatu and we were waiting for it to fill up, kids selling really random things…from peanuts to combs…came up to the windows, trying to get us to buy. People are often relentless when they think that they’ve spotted a Mzungu with money. Also, we saw three other white people in Kakamega, the first since Nairobi, and I found myself getting irrationally excited, pointing and yelling “look, there’s a Mzungu!”. I’m finally getting an idea of why the Africans always point at us. Jean and I took a boda boda (bike taxi) from the matatu stand to home…my first trip. You sit on a little padded seat on the back of the bike with little foot rests and a handle under the bike seat to hold on to. It was a little bumpy, but over all very pleasant and only 20 KSH (about 0.25 USD) for a half a mile trip.
Saturday Jean, Michael, Tom and I spent most of our day walking in the Malava forest. We walked in the woods for a few miles, then turned off the beaten trail, crossed over a little stream and walked up the hill back to the tarmac road. We were going to head back, but decided to see what was in the forest on the other side of the road, hoping to see some of the famous monkeys or baboons that we’ve seen a little bit of. BOY did we ever. We say a bunch of baboons in the trees, so we decided to go farther in, in the hopes of getting some better shots. Well…we stumbled into their home on the ground. We were walking, and all of a sudden, there are about 10 baboons…babies, mamas and big male baboons…all just sitting in the path. We crept closer and closer (I know…not the smartest thing to do with wild animals and their babies) trying to get better pictures, and were rewarded with some good ones. I looked down to adjust something on my camera, and I hear someone running by. Then Michael says, waaaayyy too calmly “I think we’d better run now. I think they’re charging.” Well I certainly didn’t wait to see if the male baboon were in fact charging, I turned and ran as fast as I could. Luckily, they weren’t looking for trouble, they just wanted us away from their babies. We got back to the tarmac, sweaty and ready to walk back to town, and we saw a ton, probably 25 or so, just on the road. We figured they’d come back to seek their revenge, but they just scattered when they saw us coming. We also saw some really cool black and white colobus monkeys on the way home…so neat!
The time continues to fly by in a series of wonderful new surprises.
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