I leave WHEN!?!?!?!?!?!?!

WHAT!! Where have the past months gone?!?! I have such little time left and SO MUCH to do!!

I guess I'll see Rwanda another time...it began to cost a little too much, and is now taking up too much time in my plans!

Today is Friday, April 23rd and my flight is Saturday, May 8th – that's 2 weeks left. 2 WEEKS?!?

I'll spend this weekend in Nakuru with the family and friends here, Monday here, Tuesday here helping during the opening of the new school on camp, Wednesday maybe one more day, and then thursday back to Nairobi to Lucy!!!! Man I've missed her!

That leaves one more weekend when Grace and I can go to Uganda, but then there's still Tanzania! The more I read about the caves, the more I'm dying to see them!! So I can either go there by myself during the week for 2 days, or Grace could come but she'd have to miss some of her week on camp...maybe there are other volunteers who would like to come, too??

Then after the trips, I'd like to spend Thursday and Friday chilling around Nairobi buying souvenirs and saying goodbye to Nairobi friends and Lucy, maybe coming back to Nakuru for one day, and going for a day safari in Nairobi. I can't believe this is all coming to an end!! I still need to figure out my jewelery project on camp, and write a speech and make a slideshow for when I get home...I think I'm giving a presentation at school a day or so after I get back! I guess I should figure that out, too. NEED MORE TIME. AHHH!!

Hah, and can you believe that 3 and a half months ago I was ready to get on a plane to go home?! I would have been kicking myself the whole way back!

change of plans.....MOMBASSA!!!

The plan was to go to Uganda for the rafting this past weekend, but another volunteer who wanted to come with us, Manal from the US, had forgotten her passport so we couldn't leave the country. SO instead we headed to Mombassa!!! Ahhh it was paradise...we took the long bus to get there, then a series of matatus, finally arriving at our resort/hotel late at night. The weather was beautiful, the beaches were soft, and the rooms were huge! Hey we also went wind surfing!!

It was the perfect weekend to follow that horrible Thursday and Friday—and no sunburn this time!!

When Manal and I got back to Nairobi (Grace stayed for an extra day at the beach) at 6am after taking the overnight 8 hour bus from Mombassa to Nairobi, we went straight to Ngong Town and climbed Ngong Hills to see the grave of the guy in Out of Africa. I've never seen the movie, but she promised that once I watch it I'll really appreciate having gone...and the scenery was fantastic!

We parted in Nairobi, Manal went to the airport for home, and I took a matatu home to Nakuru. It wasn't the weekend we had in mind, but it was fantastic!!

CAMP IS SO DISORGANIZED AND CORRUPT!!!

Before Grace and I took the 5 orphans to the orphanage in Nairobi, the camp officials assured us that all forms were completed and that taking the kids was approved—no problems! A lady from a local NGO came on Wednesday, though, and squawked at us about how irresponsible we were, we had no right to move those children, the Nakuru Children Department would come after us for taking the kids without informing them. Without informing them?? The camp officials told us that everything was arranged!!

Ugh, well this is certainly a problem, isn't it?

The next morning Grace and I went (yet again) back to Nairobi to pick up the kids, take them to the Nakuru office to finish whatever paperwork, and then take them back to Nairobi. When we arrived at the orphanage, though, the staff wouldn't release the kids. ...........

There're a million little details: people lying, phone calls silenced, screaming and cursing....bah!!! If only people here would trade shoes--the government on camp is stealing from people who literally have nothing to steal!! I mean, when people charge the mzungu double price because i'm a tourist SURE I get annoyed-- if they would simply charge me a fair price, i'd tip them or say "keep the change", but these are poor Kenyans stealing from poor Kenyans...I can't begin to understand. Grace and I were just puppets for some game....ugh corruption....SO anyway this weekend we are DEFINITELY getting out of here!! Uganda here we come!!

IM IN AFRICA!!!!!

In my last couple weeks in Africa I'm so excited to do some TRAVELING!

I would LOVE to go to Rwanda—it's one of the few French speaking countries in Africa, and I've been looking through my Lonely Planet and came up with an entire itinerary for what I would do there!!!!! The only problem really is money...I'd have to buy a plane ticket, all of my hotels, and then I'd REALLY love to go silverback gorilla trekking but it's nearly 400USD/day. But Everyone who's done it says that it was the most exciting experience ever!

Also on my list are Uganda for white water rafting on the Nile, and Tanzania for a 3 hour hike to a cave to see the oldest caveman carvings and paintings in Africa.
AHHHH!!!! I hope it all works out!!!

The travel bug bit me while I was in Cambodia, and I can't wait to add a couple more countries to the list!! And of course (this is especially to mom...and Hammad...) I'll let you guys know exactly what I'm doing when I do it—I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!! :D

My first wedding!

Last weekend I went back to Nairobi (I've been back to Nairobi nearly every weekend since I came to Nakuru....I've just had things to do!) to be Lucy's date to the wedding!

The party that we had gone to a few weeks ago was the pre-wedding party, so this last weekend was the actual wedding! Both sides of the family are Kikuyu and Catholic, so the ceremony was held in a really huge, beautiful Catholic church...and it was entirely in Kikuyu so I couldn't understand any of it. Then we piled in personal cars and drove 20 minutes down the road to a field where there were tents and tables and chairs and cakes and traditional foods for the “after party”...which was entirely in Kikuyu. The whole day was really nice...but you can only sit in silent, ignorance for so long, ya know? People around me were laughing, though, so apparently it was fun! My first wedding ever was in Africa—cool!

When Lucy and I finally arrived back home, the Canadians were there! We stayed up most of the night playing one of my new favorite card games, Cadie. --mom and popo, we're having some serious tournaments this summer-- They needed a place to stay for their last 2 nights before heading back to Canada! I know that my last few weeks here will fly by...but a part of me envies them, of course!

"rabbits don't even have hands"

The past week has been fine but ssslllooowww---seems like everything in Kenya works that way---and frustrating! If the small group of “government” on camp gave half of a care about its people SO much more could be accomplished!! But no, the government sells the special-needs food supply and distributes the money among themselves, or gives jobs at the new school to family members even though there are other more qualified applicants.....OR RUNS AWAY WITH DONATED MONEY THAT SHOULD BE COMPLETING A CHICKEN COOP ON CAMP!!! So, anyway, this week has caused more stress than...what's the opposite of stress, cheer? More stress than cheer, but this weekend is Easter so Grace and I are going into Nakuru town to use a hotel's pool and hot showers for some serious R&R after the longest week ever.
Happy Easter!

Birthday!!! :D

This past weekend was my BIRTHDAY!!!! Happy last-year-of-being-a-teenager! (oh god....)

Despite a little wishing I could've spent it in the States with you guys, it was still very fun!

Not only was it my birthday, but it was also Lucy's last weekend in Kenya before flying back to the US. She and I went back to Nairobi together to stay with Lucy (my Kenyan Lucy in Nairoi...yeah it was complicated having 2 Lucys in the same small house!) We arrived on Friday evening, got all dressed up, had a bite to eat, then headed out dancing for a girls night out! Nairobi has a great dancing scene, and the best part is that people here actually dance!!

Things were going perfectly until the next morning (my actual birthday) when I started to feel rrreeeeaaaaalllllllllllyyyyyyy sick...like, SICK. I became very familiar with Lucy's bathroom floor and didn't do much moving around for the day...so the Lucys and I ordered a pizza (which I ate none of) and sat around the house watching Nigerian soap operas. Eh, it wasn't the BEST in the world but it was still enjoyable despite feeling nauseated for an entire 24 hours. I'm nearly positive what made me so sick: I've been drinking the regular water at the house in Nakuru (there's really no other water available) which I have (on a couple different occasions) fished out some small water worms or filtered out bizarre moving shapes. I'll be much more careful, but since the people here drink the water, I'd like to also!

The following day, I said goodbye to Lucy as she took a bus to the airport headed home (things at camp are going to be MUCH quieter without her around...) and then hung out with Wycliffe who wanted to introduce me to his family...I didn't know, though, that he lives in the middle of Kibera through some of the poorest sections. We did eventually get there and his family was absolutely beautiful and showered me with homemade birthday bracelets, earrings, and food. I'll have to figure out some way to repay them before I leave!

I'll head back to Nakuru tomorrow (Monday) to begin some more orphan projects. Thank you for all of the birthday texts to my cell and messages on facebook!! When you're feeling really gross AND it's your birthday it's easy to think about home a little too much....but your messages got me through it! Happy Birthday, Maryclaire!!! (I'm still older than you are! =]

AIDS

I know how serious a problem HIV/AIDS is on camp...but it's one thing to know that “it's a problem”, and it's another to find out that someone close to you actually has AIDS. It doesn't make me uncomfortable or awkward when we're together, I just know that my friend isn't getting medical treatment because it's too expensive. My friend's attended all of the seminars and support groups and “knows how do deal with things”, but I can't help but worry in the back of my mind. I don't really know much about the disease itself..I just know that it kills people before they should die, and causes
a lot of pain, mentally and physically. It makes me love my friend even more, really, knowing that there's a lot more than the tip of the iceberg. My friend doesn't know that I know, although I don't think it'd be a big problem, so I'm gonna let him tell me in her own time. Until then, I'm gonna learn as much about AIDS as possible.

Sidai Children Rehabilitation Center

At IDP the volunteers are basically in charge of community development.

I've been really enjoying the projects I'm in charge of – besides the chicken coop and finding the orphans new homes, I've been helping in the clinic every Tuesday and Thursday. After the volunteer nurse sees each patient, they're sent to me where I fill their prescriptions and hand out stickers to kids with booboos. Then last week I was in charge of the distribution of several bags of kids shoes, and helped give rice, beans, and corn to families when the food trucks arrived. The hospital is crazy enough on clinic days with desperate mamas pushing into the door crying and screaming, positive that they've been waiting longer than all the other crying, screaming mamas. Then when I walked out with a huge bag of shoes it was utter chaos. Naomy and Njoroge helped me pass the shoes out (god bless them) but it was still insanity. Mamas were snatching the shoes out of my hands, kids yelling “mzungu give me shoes!”, all while they created a mass around me that almost knocked me over a few times. Eventually, though, all of the shoes were given away.

Then later that day I heard cheering and applause as the food trucks pulled up carrying tons of rice, beans, and maize. Everyone on camp divides into sections and forms a “line” (a big groping mass) with plastic bags to collect 2 bucket fills of rice, 1 of beans, and 3 of maize per household. I was in charge of the maize and rice for one of the sections, a job that was thrown onto me as I was walking around taking pictures. If a bucket of rice wasn't filled to the rim, mamas were clawing into the bag to collect fistfuls. If 5 pieces of rice fell on the ground, kids were running to collect each grain from the dirt.

This Tuesday was one of the most stressful, heart wrenching of my life...while it felt great to put a new pair of shoes on a baby, or give a shosho medicine for her stomach cramps, my stomach cramped when I looked at the mass of mamas who hadn't been seen by the nurse, or the kids who were still walking around barefoot. What a day.

I took my group of 5 orphans to Nairobi to their new home. It's not a home, rather an orphanage in Nairobi, but at night they sleep in a bed, are dry, and have 3 meals a day..compared to camp, it's a palace. Finding the orphans on camp was a struggle. There's an existing list of “Orphans on Pipeline IDP Camp” but it's a couple years old, and half of the kids on the list had either been relocated or had died. So, I went from tent to tent visiting the remaining orphans on the list, and adding new ones as I met them. Sidai Childrens Rehabilitation Center in Ngong Town, Nairobi asked for 5 children ages 2-10. On the list, there were some 50 orphans, but only around 20 within the age requirement.

I “interviewed” each of the families, asked about the child's parents, took a picture, and picked the most “needy” 5...not that every family on camp isn't needy. I was really looking forward to taking a 1 year old, Victor, (Sidai said they could make an exception) to the orphanage, and I had him packed and ready to go when some random aunt called the grandmother and insisted that he stay with the family. Victor's mom had been run over by a matatu when she was drunk wandering around the highway next to camp.

Victor is the most malnourished child on camp because the mom would sell all the food given on food distribution day for alcohol and drugs. So there I am about to take him to a new, fantastic home when some random relative calls off the whole operation. If she really planned to take care of Victor, she would have already been DOING it! I realize the mom didn't know what she was doing, but apparently neither does Victor's grandma or any other relative on camp cause otherwise he wouldn't look the way he does! I was really worked up about this for several days until I finally got to meet the aunt, Sally. She's pretty young and speaks extremely limited English, but she's not stupid. She understood everything I was saying about the orphanage but was still really shaken by her sister's death...and then the more I watched her holding Victor, and the way his grandma looked at him...

I dunno, maybe that is better than 3 meals a day...

And I found out that he was born a couple months premature, so that's why he's SO small...he's still malnourished, but at least that explains his size. I still check on him every couple days and if the family ever changes their minds then Victor will be on my lap to Nairobi in an instant, but I support their decision I think. They really love him.

So, Solomon, Michael, Gladys, Samson, and Ralphael went to Sidai last week. We piled in a matatu (THAT was stressful trying to keep track of 5 kids) to Nairobi then took a bus to Ngong Town. Samson sat on my lap to Nairobi, and once we had sufficiently explored outside the window, played with the sliding glass, sung the alphabet, and tickled each other, he fell into a deep sleep...I wanted him to sleep all day because it was so precious. I had him on my lap, holding him with my arms, and he had nestled his face into my neck. He's 3ish, and beautiful. We finally arrived to the orphanage after 5 plates of french fries and 5 orange Fantas...and the place is absolutely magical. It's not squeaky clean and clothes aren't sparkling white, but there is laughing, singing, dancing, learning, and family. The 5 kids joined the existing 40 at Sidai and seemed to jump right into things. Ralphie had some trouble because his grandma told him that he was just going on a trip and would be back that night, so when we headed toward the door he flipped. Njoroge came with though, and was able to calm him down. Gladys, too, started to tear up when we were having dinner, but just as her little chin started to wrinkle 2 other girls took her hands and led her upstairs to play. We left the orphanage feeling like the lives of those kids were definitely changed for the better.

I was able to visit Sidai this past weekend when I was in Nairobi to give my 5 toothbrushes, 10 shilling each, and to make sure they were 1) being fed, 2) not being beaten, 3) making friends, 4) going to school, 5) happy...and while Samson, Ralphie, and Gladys are too young to understand most of what I said (when I asked Samson who his best friend was he put on a huge grin and said “YES!!!!”), I got all positive feedback from Solomon and Michael. Halleluiah!! :D