Another month passes us by and I continue to be amazed with how fast time flies. Everyone at home keeps telling me it feels like I've been gone forever, but the last 5 months have gone in the blink of an eye for me. In a few short weeks we'll be half way done with our time here in Kenya.
In other good news...I will have a new roommate on June 22nd. Katie O'Dea, another NDMV volunteer who has been in Nigeria since January will be joining us in Kenya. While we're sad for the community in Nigeria that is losing her, we're happy to have her coming to us!
There's been a lot going on in the last week or so. Tumaini finally opened its new orphanage (after months of Michael's painting) and we had a chance to see the children off from their old home. Tom, Michael and I joined the rest of the Tumaini staff along with Ryan and Randall (two other American volunteers who were working short term at Tumaini) for the big move from one home from the other. I helped Violet, the social worker at Tumaini, get all the girls dresses in their finest. Unfortunately, I didn't actually make it all the way to the new orphanage with them. Like so many things in Kenya, festivities began much later than they were supposed to so I had to duck out early and head to the hospital in Malava to have some blood work done before they all left for lunch. Sure enough...I had malaria again. They're not sure if it was the same strain as before or if I got it again, but they put me on a much stronger medicine this time and I'm feeling back to my normal self already.
Last week we also had a chance to meet children from another local primary school. Pst. Jairus, a community bases rehab worker and St. Julie's parent invited us to visit the school near his house where his wife is the head teacher. We were introduced to all the classes and the teachers and learned some of the challenges that the school has been facing over sodas. I walked around and took pictures of the children in their classes and we promised to return sometime soon for a whole school day. Afterwards, Jairus invited us back to his home to meet the rest of his family, including his beautiful baby grand daughter. Her mom actually let me hold her for a while which doesn't happen very often. We had boiled maize (corn) on the cob that had come straight out of the field and Jairus told us more about his family. All in all, it was a great afternoon and I'm looking forward to going back. This weekend was a four day weekend. We had today off work to celebrate what we have been calling Independence Day part 1- Madaraka Day. Madaraka means power in Swahili and today in the anniversary of Jomo Kenyatta officially taking power. Part two- Kenyatta Day- comes in December and celebrates the day that Kenya officially become an independent country. I was reading a very interesting article in the newspaper the other day about how many problems in Africa stem from the fact that they have tried to become modern, independent countries in decades while Europe and the US had centuries to get it right. This is kind of amazing to think about. In the US we take being our own nation for granted. There's certainly no one still alive who remembers when we were a British colony. Independence is only 46 years old here and there are still lots of people who remember that transition time in the 1960s. Anyways, we didn't do much special to celebrate. Michael made an excellent brunch of corn, potato and leek chowder and we watched Kung Fu Panda with some of the local kids. I did have a chance to get down to Kisumu for a night this weekend. It was nice to eat out (somewhere other than the Honey Drop or the petrol station), buy yummy new foods at Nakumatt and generally get out of Malava for a little while. Oh and I saw the first movie in the theaters since leaving the US. That was awesome. I found out recently that the new Harry Potter movie will come out in Nairobi on the same day that it comes out in the US. I might be really lame and go to Nairobi to see it. Or wait until it comes to Kisumu.
Well I think thats it for now. I have pictures from Tumaini and from Pst. Jairus's primary school to put, which I hope to do very soon. Thanks again for following my story!