Jambo Sana

Its now been a very long time since I’ve written… I am now in Nakuru, Kenya. It’s been a whirlwind of fun and lessons since I’ve left Uganda. My last evening in Uganda I had dinner with the other URF volunteers, which includes the multitude from Engineers without Borders. We even indulged in some laughs over white wine…
My last day in Masaka I went with two of the volunteers to visit Ivan in the hospital. Ivan had been brought in after becoming extremely malnourished... he was refusing to eat and at about 10 months old weighed only 10lbs. I got the most wonderful news via email today from Andrew (the young man that so unselfishly gave up two weeks to sit with him in the hospital). Ivan is out of the hospital and doing much better.

I miss Masaka and the children at the orphanage very much. On the 21st, after being escorted to the airport by wonderful Sylvia, I flew to Nairobi and was greeted by Patricia from Nakuru at the airport. After resting for a while Alex and Patricia (my gracious hosts, husband and wife, not to mention founders of the Walk school) took me to see the progress the school has made over the years.
My packages containing supplies had arrived the prior week and funny enough, so had a misdirected package from some woman from Berea, SC... her homemade preserves and Kmart clothing for her niece ended up in Kenya, when it was supposed to be going to California. I asked dad to look her up and tell her that they'd thought it was their package and eaten the goods, he declined of course... I wouldn't want to tell a redneck her package got misdirected to Africa either...

Last week I started teaching at the school. I can't even explain the joy at seeing the students from my old class grown and almost 9! They've got the same smiles... the same personalities, and some even remembered me! It warmed my heart to see Zipporah again. Her younger brother Simon is in my class now. I'm teaching the baby class again and love bringing arts and crafts every day for them to do. The kids are just beautiful and I'll be honest, I'm going to go through major children withdrawal when I start law school in a month and a half!

So I turned the big 25 last Friday. Don't feel older, but if I had to look back on the past 25 years, I'd say I've had a hell of a run. I'm a lucky woman to have lived out her dreams and every day is only getting better.

Yesterday I got in my third boda boda (pickey pickey's here in Kenya) accident this month. The guy tore the front bumper off of a truck, just BARELY missing my leg. I'm telling you, someone up there is watching over me in a serious way.

How could I forget to mention the crazy evangelicals that were here in town this weekend for a crusade. The best part is they were from Ohio and are banned from preaching in the states because of stealing from the church. Anywho, they came to my school, made the kids shout Jesus for 20 min in front of a 10 foot Goliath/warrior picture and then left...oh wait, not before donating one freaking bag of beef jerky (WTF) and a bag of candy? Don't let me forget that they came into the classroom and said, its great that you're teaching these kids, but they don't need food, water or education, they're different, they just need Jesus. I mean faith is one thing, and I can appreciate that, but these guys were lunatics. Furthermore, they charged the locals about $50 for a "healing" on stage... healing from AIDS, tumors, pain...whatever they had... It was the craziest shiz I've ever seen.

I've only got about two weeks left in Kenya before I'm going back to Uganda and all over to travel. I'm meeting up with a friend in Jinja and going from there. I wish money grew on trees... I got my loan/financial aid notice from law school and I'm going to be one broke mzungu in a few months. I can't let it bog me down because when there is a will, there is a way. I can't let it inhibit my dreams and the work I want to do.



Some quotes from the week (really need to do a better job of writing these down):

"Your husband is very lucky to have such a strong woman. You can birth multiple sets of twins." -Man at airport, to me...

"Mzungu, give me my money. Now." -Streetchildren in Nakuru

"Did you ever imagine on your 25th birthday you'd be sitting around with a bunch of volunteers making sounds with your hands?" -Chris, volunteer from UK

"The best part is, I get to kill the goat." -Other volunteer

"Flick, have you found Jesus here in Nakuru?" -Crazy pastor before shouting at children

"You can only have chocolate ice cream because you're African and I can only have vanilla because I'm white..." SILENCE at the pool followed -Pastor's child from Ohio


In short, I'm still having the time of my life and will be really sad to leave East Africa. I've rediscovered a sense of purpose and a clear perspective on life and you can't really put a price tag on that.

Will write soon... hopefully after I've gone on Safari this week... or after I meet Obama's grandmother in Kisimu (that's right, I'm going to meet her on the 4th of July...)

Much love,

Kim