Wednesday 31 July 2013
If I tried to write about everything that happened in the past 48 hours, it would probably turn in to a novel. Between the old man who almost peed on me, the little girl who kept asking me to take her with me when I go back to America, the beautiful clothes and beadwork that the Maasai women wore and the fact that we came within 3 yards of hitting a zebra in the middle of the road on the way home last night... I really don't know where to start.
On the way to Beacon, we took two separate matatus (little 16 passenger vans) and it got bad fast. Branson Jr was puking in the front seat, and his dad caught it in his hands, threw it out the window then continued scooping handfuls out the window of the van. Then, Caroline got sick behind me. Walker (beside me) chugged the last of his coffee in less than a second, then turned and held it out, trying to catch some. I grabbed a plastic bag and turned around with it also. Definitely a hilarious ride haha.
We finished packing the last of the 25,000 pills that we would bring with us t the camp and eft after lunch.
The Maasai village that we visited was surrounded by mountains and had one paved highway that ran through it. On one side, up a steep dirt hill, there were a bunch of the traditional Maasai homes, and on the other side there was the school and a little market. When we got to the school, we unpacked then broke in to small groups to do home visits. W started walking up the hill with some of the college students from Mavuno who came to volunteer at the clinic. I was glad they were there because I got a little bit of background information before we got to the homes. When we were walking up the hill, and old drunk man in a dirty grey suit and huge thick black shoes started stumbling up the hill with us. He kept repeating "God is my creator and Jesus is my savior!" Then he told us that he knows Obama. Over and over. Then he pointed at the church and told us that it was Obama's church. Luckily before we got there, one of the students told me that as a form of respect, children will lower their heads to adults and the adult will place their hand on the child's head, and people our age lower their heads to the elders in the village. I was really glad I knew this when we got there and an old man held out his hand to touch my head! Then all of the children were around me lowering their heads for me to touch. I somehow ended up being the only one not inside one of the homes (woven stick/mud huts), and before I knew it I was surrounded by 30-40 children jumping and singing to me. They wanted me to sing with them, but I couldn't understand so I just repeated "somasuma ay sake ay wah" over and over and they believed that I had learned the song. SUCCESS. When they were done singing, I shook one of their hands, then less than a second later, I felt like Taylor Swift at the edge of the stage. There were a million little hands reaching out for me and they all kept saying "howah you?"
This is when all of the Kenyans that we came with started calling them my children. We left when it started getting dark, and before I knew it, I couldn't see the rest of the group. I was with one of the local girls who went on the home visit with us, and I knew we were going in the right general direction.. The roads there are just as bad anywhere else we have been, but there are no street lights and barely any electricity, so I didn't know there were rocks or holes until I tripped over them or fell in them. These two little boys came up to us, asking if we wanted to buy food from them, but my wallet was back at the school. The younger one was around 5 and the older one was probably 8. The little one was carrying a Gatorade cooler sized metal can on his back, full of the hot food. It was so heavy that he was almost horizontal trying to carry it. So, you know me, I couldn't say no. They followed us back and waited while I got my money. When I walked up with this huge plate of corn and beans, everyone laughed and no one wanted to try it. They were probably the smart ones because I definitely felt it later that night. After tea time and a briefing about the following day, we went to a church service. The music was very loud and upbeat and all of the school kids were in the back jumping and dancing. At first we all slid in to the bench seats, but then I was like, what am I doing? I'm only going to be here once. So I went to the back and learned all if the different jumping dance moves (there is a video of this). :) They said church wouldn't take long, but over an hour later, it was finally done and we went back to our tiny classroom to sleep.
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