Bungoma, Kenya!

Jambo!!!! I say hello in Swahilli now! I arrived safe and sound on the 25th to Nairobi Kenya. I was met at the airport by an arranged taxi who brought me to a place called Bush House and Camp where I stayed for three nights. I was only suppose to stay for one but Nairobi caught my interest quite a bit! I spent the time wandering the streets, trying local food etc. The last day there I brought the maids son with me. We had a great time and browsed the Masaai Tribe's market since it was Market day. I got some really nice paintings and some bracelets. Next we were on the matatu (minibus) to Langata to find the Giraffe Centre. Shawn who is 5 was ecstatic. He had never done anything like this before because all of his mothers income goes towards his schooling. We were petting and feeding the giraffes and then had some hot dogs and ice cream before heading home. Great fun! All eyes were on the white girls with the hand of the black baby and people all around told me how lovely it was that I had adopted him! I assured them I would be bringing him promptly back to his mother!!!!! I have now been in Bungoma for two nights. I took a nine hour bus ride leaving at 8am on Sunday morning from Nairobi. I almost missed it because they forgot to get a taxi for me but luckily things were running on African time as usual. I thought 9 hours can't be toooooo bad, I'll just nap and it was a coach bus so I figured there would be lots of space. Not so much. I didn't even close my eyes once because I was too busy holding onto the seat in front of me to keep from bouncing my head off the ceiling. Anyways I still arrived in good spirits and it was fun in a painful sort of way. When I got to Bungoma I was greeted by the brother of WOPEGA's (Western Province Organic Growers' Alliance) organizer. His name is Steven and he brought me up to the bar and I had a couple of beers with him and his wife, one of their friends and the other couple that is volunteering. This couple comes from Whales and are named Chas and Celestria. They leave in 2 weeks so I take over what they've been doing. Everyone is young which is great. Benson and Steve are just 27/28 and the Whales couple are about the same. So anyways..... finally Benson made it to the bar place (which was quite posh by the way) and he took me to the village. We jumped on the back of a couple Boda Bodas which are just bicylces with a padded seat over the back wheel. I was laughing the entire way and everyone was pointing at me saying Mzungo which is white person in swahilli. Then we had to get off the bikes and catch the matatu (minibus) to the end of the path into the village. We walked about 15 minutes and finally arrived. I was thinking where the heck am I going but I was glad the walk ended after 15 as I started to think I had a good hour's hike ahead of me!!!!! So... I met Solveig my roommate next. She is nice.. Her English is not perfect but we get by. The area I'm living in is comprised of 4 mud huts. The main hut is where Bensons parents live.... who immediately greeted me as the new daughter. Their English names are Ezikial and Gertrude. Gertrude takes care of Bensons two oldest children who are adorable. Joe is 3 and WOPEGA (named after the organization) is about one and half. His wife is busy with the new one week old baby so this is why Gertrude takes over. It's normal for all the extended family to live together in one compound. When you marry you move to your husbands parents compound. So I was very excited to learn that I'd get to live with these children! The new baby is named Chas after the Whales guy. Benson and Lillian have one half of the mud hut which barely fits their bed and Steve and his wife Shilla have the other half which is again just as small. Steve and Shilla had to move out of their hut so that us volunteers could move in. Shilla is also expecting a baby and says it will come by the end of the week. Steven had to go to Nairobi so Shilla has decided I will be the one to go to the hospital with her when she gives birth because she's taken quite a liking to me. It's her first baby so it will be great fun I'm sure. Everyone here is married and having children quite young. Shilla is just 20 and the neighbours in the next coumpound have 3 children... the first being born when the mother was only 15. Scary stuff! I lectured her on family planning the other day lol. OK... so the first night Benson just shows me around. He takes me to see the kitchen. It's all very dark already so I can't see anything because there are just some oil lanterns, no electricity. I hear squacking from behind me and turn around to see that the chickens live in the kitchen. They come out during the day by the dozens and run all over with their little babies. I spend my free time so far chasing the baby chickens trying to catch them..... Then, I see the best part. There are 2 little kittens just about 3 months old. They are very friendly and sleep with me both nights so far. I try to keep them out because they have fleas but they just won't go away so I guess I will have flea bites very soon. I tried to explain to Gertrude that in town I would look for some flea collers because they insist on sleeping in my bed and she just laughed hystarically saying what a silly Mzungu thing to spend money on but said ok dear do what you wish! Learning swahilli is going to be more difficult than I expected because they all speak English quite well. I told them not to talk to me in English unless at the school when things needed to get done. . I woke up the first morning quite ill so stayed in bed all morning. Just my luck to get sick right away. All three of the others have had malaria and right now Celestria has this huge swollen head because she has caught some other mean disease. Things are not very hygenic that is for sure. Anyways I got feeling better and sat outside to read my book. Joe snuck his way up onto my lap and fell fast asleep on me. He was very amused by my flashlight. Thismorning I got up at 7 and did the commute to Shibanzee where the school is. First we take the Boda Boda again and then another Matatu. Since it is Tuesday the market was open and this was the real African market stuff. No carvings for tourists.. because tourists don't exist. Just tons and tons of people selling everything you can possibly imagine. I got to the school and saw the garden that they have developed. The kids are adorable. They are packed into these 'school rooms' and were lined up parcticing their ABC's when I got there. Of course that ended when they saw me because I was a new Mzungu so I was just stared at for a while but I'm ok with it! Next I went to the older kids classroom who are 5-7 or 8 years old. These kids were working on mathematics and the teacher told them to show me their work so as quickly as they could they were completely surrounding me trying to pass me their little notebooks. I just kept saying "Jina lako nani" which means 'what is your name' and then looking at their books and saying "Poa" or "Siki" which mean 'Cool' and 'Great'! I was really excited about the school stuff, it sees like it's going to be fun. They went on break while I was there and the soccer ball came out and all the boys went nuts over it. The girls all practiced singing and dancing and I could have sat there for hours watching them. What we have decided is best for me to do is have a 'parents day' to talk about the health of the children. Most of the children are orphaned and living with relatives or neighbours and some you can see are quite quite unhealthy.... but somehow happy. And happy counts for something!!! Anyways I am going to introduce the growth charts that we use in Canada to keep track of the children and see that they are normal for kids their age etc. From there I think that we will be better able to determine who needs most help etc. I am going to use this information to write a proposal on the situation and try to get some funding for a feeding program. While I wait for funding to come (if it ever does) I will be doing seminars with both children and paretns about what sort of things are growing in the garden and what vitamins etc are in them that they need to have. Also I will teach in the school about Hygeine and hand washing etc. It seemed like all of the kids had colds and were coughing all over so I can just imagine what sort of disease I'm about to develop. Well that's all I know so far, I haven't really gotten into it more than that. You will laugh to know that I sleep in this little room made of mud walls and I wake up at night to the sound of a big dried chunk falling off the wall to the floor. Also, the floors are made of cow poop..... luckily it was made earlier so I can't smell it and we just have some plastic covering over it. It's very interesting I must say... and somehow I am quite content so far. The washroom is my favourite..... just a hole in the ground and at night I expecially love it when I see all the cockroaches that are having a party down the latrine with my flashlight. Bathing is interesting also. Standing in a little cubicle in a bucket and pooring water over yourself. Good times.