Day 1. Nov 16
th. I take my first shower in 5 days, Bucket and all, and get ready to depart. Trying to be nonchalant about the fact that I'm about to walk into an orphanage housing 50-70 children ranging from 2 to 22. Its Cynthia's birthday so she decide to bake a few cakes for the kids, we all pitch in for some 'meat'. Its probably been many months since they've had beef. I'm told their diet consists of
Ugali, a simple mixture of corn/maize flour and water. You either love it or hate it, I'm in the later category and its not very nutritious. We enter the gate and the kids stare. I'm the eighth volunteer in 12 years here and probably the first male
Mzungu(white) guy they've seen in years, some never. All other volunteers were female at this home. Most kids are between the ages of 4-8. The brave ones come in for a test run. They come and introduce themselves and then scamper off. Then a few others come and start plucking and feeling my arm hair. I must seem like a hairy beast(maybe I am). Another volunteer, Maria, takes me for a tour. The younger kids room with 4 bunk beds sleeps 20. My eyes focus on the extremely thin mattress, must be uncomfortable sleeping on the 1.5 by 1.5 inch wire frame underneath. I go to touch the mattress and realize that its just a sheet folded in two. It seems counter intuitive but the older boys are sleeping on the real mattresses as there would be too much daily cleanup with the youngsters(bed wetting). Lucy tells me how the new cow won't be generating anything for a while as the milk it produces must be used to pay for the feed it needs to eat. Catch-22. She's hoping for increased milk and a new calf on the way. She shows me the store room, there is one small bag of food left. The teacher has enough paint and crayons for about 5 kids. Water availability is an issue. The school dubs as a church, party hall, cafeteria, nap area, school, play zone and rain shelter. The kids use the bushes as cloths lines, pretty industrious!
Ugali. Yuk! I'm here for 3 weeks so I better get used to it!
Nancy!
Group photo.
First time for an Ipod. They liked it!
Cakes from Cynthia.
Before we get started.
Day 2. We decide to paint the school. The cement never really brought out the colour in the
children's wall paintings. Food and water seem to be good this week so I take a different approach, I'm going to focus on the creative side this week. We head out into Nairobi center and before getting paint, we stop in to
Nakumatt(
KenyanWalmart) to get some bubble blowers, board games, rulers, light bulbs. I tell Julius, a boy from the home, that I'll treat him to a book. He picks up a bible. "Don't you have plenty of those at home?" I ask. "No, mine was stolen at the school I go to" "Alright, lets get the Good News Bible"
He stuffed his face after this shot.
Julius
Cleaning up
Chow time.
Kitchen.
