"life without love is like tea without sugar"

Life here has been really interesting, hectic, sometimes frustrating, funny, serious, sad and everything else.
On Monday, the younger kids at Calvary got their measles shots from the government so there was a lot of consoling involved but they were running around an hour later.

Tuesday, Chloe and I went to Mwokoeni where we had a frustrating day because there really isn't anything set for us to do and we felt like we were just replacing the teachers instead of helping. But today, we actually taught a few classes and have decided just to focus on the kids and help them as much as possible.

As for smells, it really depends where you are. As we walk to Calvary, there are two trash piles that don't usually smell bad because there are always goats, cows and chickens who I assume eat anything that would be perishable. The road is very dusty and there aren't many houses around so there aren't many distinct smells. At Calvary, there isn't a washing machine so the clothes often smell a little of pee because of the younger ones who still wet themselves. When the older girls braid the younger girl's hair into lines (or what we usually call cornrows), they sometimes you a steamer to help straighten their hair and then coconut oil to smooth it out. The coconut oil has a very specific smell which fills the room.

Yesterday, three of the workers had to pump the sewage out of the tank at Calvary and the pipe burst so the smell of sewage was everywhere, but it is so hot here that everything evaporates and the smell was pretty much gone when we left for home a few hours later.

At Mwokoeni, there is no real kitchen because the last place the kitchen was is very rundown so now they cook everything in a shack behind of the buildings. The pots are huge so the fire is huge which causes there to be a lot of smoke everywhere.

In other news, Joli, a 7 or 8 year old girl who is both deaf and mute, has been more responsive to our presence and lets us play with her a little more. She was brought to Calvary a few months ago because she had been abandoned on the street and the police took her in for 3 months waiting for a relative to show up, when no one did, they took her to Calvary. I hope that she will be able to go to a special school because it is clear that she finds it very frustrating not to be able to communicate.

The two babies seem much better and are both much more attentive. They are still very small and weak because they probably never used their arms or legs when they were in the hospital. Destiny is eating real food and Kaleb gobbles milk down to the point where we have to stop him so that he takes a breath.

Tomorrow, Chloe Emma and I are heading to Wasini, an island one hour south of Mombasa that has a beautiful national park including a coral reef where we will go snorkeling. We may even see dolphins!

I haven't been able to upload pictures because the internet is too slow but I have been taking pictures and will upload them when I have the chance :) Got some great ones of the kids playing around with my Survivor buff and some closeups of the giraffes we got to feed at Haller park.

Hope all is well

Where I live

I have been asked by my father to describe where I am living and the surrounding area so here goes.

I live in a one story house that has a living/dining space, a kitchen, a shower/sink room, a toilet room and three bedrooms. I share a room with Chloe, my fellow volunteer, Kelyn, Timo and Irene share a room and Njeri has the third room. The house we live in is part of the Blue Estate because there is a row of 20-30 identical houses with blue roofs. It is not an estate in the sense of a huge property with lots of houses, it is just called this because they all look the same. In front of the row of houses, there is a field of sorts that is used for cows and goats to graze, for young boys to play soccer and for the occasional “crusade”, an event where a church sets up a stand and uses it to dance and sing every night for a week (this happened last week). On the other side of the field, there are little shops including the cyber café where I write my posts. They are pretty run down and some are merely shacks. There is a main road that runs between the shops and the field that leads to Bamburi. The road is paved and is barely wide enough for two cars but often can fit two matatus and a cart full of tree trunks. There are no sidewalks so you walk along the side of the road and make sure that you are facing the cars that way it is harder for them to run you down. On the way to Calvary, the orphanage, there are lots of little fruit and vegetable shops as well as some places that sell eggs, and even some little shops that are kind of like corner stores at home. Our favorite place to stop is the juice parlor as it has really yummy passion fruit juice. Yesterday, I tried avocado juice mixed with passion juice which ended up with a thick passion juice, delicious!

Today, I am going to Haller Park with Chloe and Emma. Haller Park is a wildlife park near Mwokoeni that has giraffes, hippos, buffalo and other fun animals. We are hoping to make it in time to feed the giraffes!

How to tell time in Kenya, Chakula (food) and my work at Mwokoeni

Not only did I have to learn numbers in Kiswahili, I had to learn a new way of telling time. The day starts at six in the morning but here it is called: saa kumi na mbili (12 hours). Between one o'clock and six o'clock, you add six hours and between seven and twelve, you subtract six hours. The most confusing part is that when Kenyans are speaking English, they use the hours that we use but when they are speaking Kiswahili, they use Kenyan time. When kids are learning to tell time, they have to add or subtract hours from the time it says on the clock. Some families change their clocks to Kenyan time (I saw this done in a matatu).
As I am writing this post, it is 9:00 PM, saa tatu.
Kiswahili numbers:
1 - moja
2 - mbili
3 - tatu
4 - nne (pronounced inne)
5 - tano
6 - sita
7 - saba
8 - nane
9 - tisa
10 - kumi

Saa ngapi? - what time is it?
response: Saa tatu. (3 --> 9 o'clock)

Chakula = Food
Irene, Njeri's cousin and househelp, cooks lunch and dinner everyday. Startches include: rice, corn, chapati (kind of like thin naan) and ugali (a mash of some sort of grain). Usuall yshe makes some kind of stew dish with meat, onions and other vegetables.

Chai
We drink tons of chai (tea). Chai here is made with water (maji), milk (maziwa), ground up tea leaves and masala seasoning. Masala is made up of: ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and nutmeg. You then add sugar to taste. At home we have it at least twice a day if not three or four times a day.

Today was my first day of working at Mwokoeni. We took two matatus there and walked through a very poor neighborhood to get to the school. The school is made up of buildings made of sticks and clay and tin roofs. We met with the director, Mr. Morris, who is very friendly and showed us around. He then placed us with the youngest class (3-5 year olds). Usually the class is split into two, KG1 and KG2 but Patricia, the teacher, told us the other teacher is not working at the moment. Unlike in the US, this kindergarten doesn't have a drama area or an activity center with squiggly scissors. It has two wooden tables, benches with placks attached for desks and a couple mats for the younger kids to sit on. The teacher has one chalkboard to teach from so there is a lot of repeating words and singing songs. Patricia asked me to help teach but I wasn't it expecting to at all so I wasn't really prepared. I ended up singing "head shoulders knees and toes" and "I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas"--which alex and hannah will rememeber we sang in Cassie's class. Couldn't think of any other simple songs to teach so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to comment on this or email me: emacrakis@yahoo.com

Hope everyone is having a wonderful fall so far :)

Mambo

Habari zenu Cambridge? (literally: what news of Cambridge?)

I have learned a lot of kiswahili this week from my lessons with Lydia. The story goes that kiswahili was created by children of Bantu women and Arabic men who were in Kenya as traders. Because of this, everyday words such as kula (to eat), kunywa (to drink), kupika (to cook), and kupenda (to like/love) are from Bantu origin and words associated with an absent father such as kusafiri (to travel), kusahau (to forget), kusameke (to forgive), and kurudi (to return) are from Arabic origin.

I have been going to Calvary Zion, the orphanage, after lunch at home. It is about 15 minutes by foot and you have to walk on the street while trying to avoid all of the matatus (the local form of transport). At Calvary, the other volunteers and I play with the younger kids who entertain themselves with a few dolls and some little cars. We also help take care of the two babies who were both abandoned at a hospital and who are suffer from malnutrition. Jane, the woman who runs Calvary, picked them up from the hospital this past week and within a month they should be back to normal. Kaleb is around 2 months, very small and only likes to be held if you are walking around. Destiny is probably around 7-9 months and sits very quietly while looking around at everyone. The older kids are leaving for boarding school on Sunday but will be back in November. Today I helped cut up a huge tub of kale for the children's dinner (think big like laundry basket big).

Starting next week I will be working at Calvary on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and at Mwokoeini, a school in a nearby slum, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

People here are very friendly and laid back and are pleasantly surprised when you respond to their "jambo" with a real greeting. Unlike in Cambridge, it is starting to get hotter here as their "winter" is ending right about now.

P.S.
If you are trying to send anything my mail, the address is:

Njeri Wathika
PO Box 82056
Mombasa - Code 80100

Don't put my name on the envelope as it will be lost more easily.

mombasa!

Here I am!
I can't write a very long post today because I have to get back home but I have been getting to know the area as well as the family I am staying with. I am staying with Njeri and her two sons, Kelyn (11) and Timmy or Timo (4). They are very lively and a lot of fun to be around. Tomorrow I start my Swahili class which I am very excited about. I have already picked up a few words from being around the kids and from my handy Swahili phrase book.
the first list of random words I know:
Somaki- fish
Chupa- bottle
matatu- local public transportation in the form of vans
kuku - chicken
maridadi - beautiful (for an object)
maji - water
chakula - food
funga macho - close eyes: figured this out while playing a game with Timo :)
a more detailed post will follow in the next few days.

Leaving

Well here it is. I'm leaving at 5 o'clock. I've got everything packed, but still haven't fully wrapped my head around my trip. I will miss my family and friends a ton, but I know that once I get to Mombasa, things will fall into place. Next post will be Kenyan :)