It's the Simple Things

                The last couple days have been very hectic. I have moved in with my host family and start work tomorrow! I will write more about both of those tomorrow, but thought I’d share some of my favorite moments first. Kenya has very much been about the simple things for me. A few of those things/moments include:

                -The kids: Seeing smiling laughing faces of the kids here has been a huge high. One of the first things that really struck me here was seeing a little girl giving her brother (who wasn’t much smaller than her) a piggy-back ride down the road. It was simple, but yet her love for him was so obvious. Similarly, seeing a mother feeding her child and pulling away the bottle to kiss the baby also struck me. Finally, when we were on a tuk tuk ride in Kisumu (we went into the city for a day), kids ran after us screaming “muzungu, muzungu (the Kiswahili word for white people)”, waving crazily, grinning ear to ear, trying to get our attention. It was awesome to just see how happy our mere presence and basic attention was making them. I can’t wait to meet all of the kids at Divine Providence and add more of these stories that have made my day.

                -Going on a boat ride in Kisumu: We went on a boat ride on Lake Victoria to go see hippos. It was incredible to see how vast the lake is. I was struck by the sheer joy and excitement everyone feels the moment the hippos head comes up from the water. Something so simple made us all so happy. I think that I can learn much from Kenyans with regards to that, and I started by closing my eyes and simply loving feeling the wind and spray on my face on the ride back.

                -Dancing with the locals: On Friday, we all went out to one of the more traditional local discos. We muzungus had a great time making fools of ourselves on the dance floor, but by the end of the night we had plenty of other people joining us. An older woman danced with some of us and then stopped and said “you’re my daughter and you’re my son” to each of us there. I felt accepted and a part of the community.

                -Human sardines: Matatu’s (the buses which are really vans) are never full. It was hilarious to me to see how many people they would jam into one van… more than I thought was even possible. We’d stop and somehow someone else would get on, leaving the staff man leaning against the door and bent over the seats.

                -Satisfaction and kiswahili: Dylan and I went to Safaricom to purchase a modem. We started using our Swahili to talk to an old man in line. He had just eaten a large meal of ugali and kuku (chicken) and was just so content. I was thrilled, by his utter happiness, and my basic ability to communicate.

                -Handing out of awards: I went with my host sister Sarah over to an education festival where my host mom Immaculate was working after moving in on Saturday. I sat in the VIP section, as Immaculate works for the education office. In the middle of the presentation of awards I was asked to come up and hand out some awards to schools for their achievements in test scores. I was shocked and found it amusing since they clearly thought I was someone important like all of the big names in the district around me. I did it again in the second part of the awards ceremony. Immaculate later told me that it is considered a sign of respect and that was their way of welcoming me as a guest. I couldn’t help but laugh though at the fact that I had given out awards for things I knew nothing about.

                Preparing a chicken: I can now say I have plucked and prepared a chicken. My host mom brought in the beheaded chicken and said I could help pluck it when I asked what I could help with. The chicken was still moving for awhile, but we got the feather off. Also, being the pre-med nerd that I am, I was fascinated with the organs when we were removing the guts. We cooked it up, and I can honestly say it was some of the best chicken I’ve ever had!

                I’m loving Kenya so far! I will give you some more details about my new life with my host family and host organization soon!

                Kelly