Archive November 28, 2007

The Final Countdown

Much to my disappointment, I’m left with only one week and one day in lovely Kenya.

But first, a big Asante (thank you) to everyone who generously sent money. You’ve provided the children at Mama Tunza’s with everything from diapers to shoes to food to textbooks to art project materials to toys to mattresses to specialized formula for the little ones with HIV. Thank you so much – I will send you each a detailed list of exactly where your money went to when I arrive home.

This past week has been wonderful. On Wednesday Hannah and I slept over at Mama Tunza’s . I can’t believe how excited the kids were—not just the little ones, but some of the older kids who can be a bit standoff-ish were too! Mama Tunza and I went to the butcher in Kibera to get meat fro dinner – that was an experience! I’m not sure how I managed to stomach it after seeing the complete lack of refrigeration there (thank you stomach of steel!). Mama Tunza served it up as best she could, with spinach and ugali (a Kenyan staple, cornmeal porridge—my first taste—they don’t serve it at the palace where I live).

Hannah brought nail polish to do up all the girls and we watched the Fantastic 4. Unfortunately both Hannah and I ended up with horrible cases of bedbugs (much worse than the ones I got in Oz—can you believe that Vicki?). Hannah’s looked the worst, but mine got really swollen. My right hand swelled up to about 3 times its size! Needless to say we have added “fumigate orphanage” to our to do list. I hope it will be done this weekend so I can sleepover once more before I go.

Thursday, my roommate Melinda hosted Thanksgiving at our house, complete with a turkey! I provided a Kenyan take on Mom’s famous sweet potato casserole. We were about 25, including 15 Kenyans, friends of my host mom and sister.

Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to attend an HIV support group at a Kibera clinic with my Kenyan friend Daniel, an aspiring doctor. The support group is the brain child of another volunteer, Jolene and it is awesome! One of the things they do is pay an attendance fee of 10 shillings, which goes into a savings pool. Then if member need money for something, say school fees, they can apply to borrow it. If approved, they draw up a repayment plan. As well, they are making jewelry and shipping them to a store in Victoria, BC where they are sold and then the profits are returned to the Kibera group.

Saturday 5 other volunteers and I visited the Siloam Fellowship Ministry Academy, an orphanage on the less developed side of Kibera. Apparently this is what Mama Tunza’s was like two years ago before they got sponsored by my organization…no electricity, no natural light, no mattresses up until last week when Melinda got them some and their walls are just mud and garbage. Fortunately Aussie Hannah (not the Hannah I work with) will start there in December and has some fundraised money to use there. VICDA will send more volunteers there as well, who can initiate projects to improve the conditions there.

In the afternoon I went to an ex-pat barbeque hosted by Mom’s friend Lyn’s in-laws. They live in quite a swanky area, out by the UN and all the embassy residences. Fabulous food and great company.

Sunday a bunch of us went to paint Aussie Hannah’s library. For her project she built a library at the school she was working at. I still haven’t seen the finished project, but even on Sunday with only the base coat and no furniture or books yet, it looked great!

This week has been about fitting in as much time with my little darlings as possible. Yesterday was the last day of school, so now it will just be the orphans. Last night I had one of my best nights in Kenya. Hannah and I took 5 kids, Brenda, Alice, Valerie, Frances and Dennis to the movies to see Stardust. It was fantastic…the film was good and it was so much fun to sit beside these kids and watch them! They have been to movies before, but none of them could remember the last time and for most it was only the third or fourth time they’d ever been. Then we took them out for ice cream, which they loved!

So I have today and tomorrow, then I’m off on safari. I’d originally signed up for six days, but took it down to four, as I want to spend my last few days in Nairobi with the kids. It‘s going to be so hard to leave them, they are so amazing! But I know I’m not done with Kenya or Africa yet.

This will probably be the last email before I get home. I promise to get photos up ASAP once I’m back in K-town!
Love you all
Kelsey