A Week's Recap

Hello my swahiba (friends),
So much has happened lately but i have not been able to post anything due to some recent blackouts. Yesterday I was right in the middle of typing this when the electricity went out. The same thing happened later that night and we sat around singing by candle light for an hour. It felt like an indoor campfire. Yesterday we went to New Life Orphanage and we were able to play with the babies there and feed them lunch. It is one of the nicest places I've seen in Nairobi so far, which is largely because it is financed by Americans. Everything is super clean and even the walls were painted with fun pictures. The kids are all between 0 and 5 and were abandoned. How could you ever just drop your kid off?

In funny news, I experienced my first matatu (van) wreck yesterday. Now don't be alarmed (mom) b/c it really wasn't a big deal. I was riding home in the matatu and we kept getting closer and closer to the other matatu, which is really common. I knew we couldn't fit through where we were driving. The other matatu's mirror hit the back of our van where i was sitting but we weren't going really fast, so no big deal. the police came running over and we pulled off to the side. and then the other driver gave our driver a few hundred shilling for the damage (less than $10 probably) and then we drove on. It's not like they'll actually fix their cars anyway b/c it probably happens a lot.

last week was safari, which was pretty sweet. i know i'm not an animal lover, but i did love seeing these animals in their natural habitat. the cheetahs and giraffes and elephants all walked right in front of the road in front of us. we stayed at this nice camp and had running HOT water...quite a blessing. then we went to the masaai village and they took us in their huts. it was completely dark inside and i felt a bit like i was being kidnapped. but no worries, they don't want to hurt you; they just want you to buy stuff :) we even got to do some of their dancing with them. i wonder though what they think of americans, especially the women who have the worst life ever...they are forced to marry and do lots of work. the men were basically like, here come dance for these white people.

4 people from my team left last night, which was sad. there have been 10 muzungus (white people) here so far. actually we're not all white, but the africans call us that anyway. we have 1 canadian and 3 asian americans among us and represent all parts of the u.s. from california, iowa, maryland, florida, etc. so quite a nice blend. more people are coming next week.

today we taught at sarah junior school (3-6) year olds. it is very hard to adjust to the chaos of schools here. mostly i think our being there really helps give the teachers a break. there are 2 of them for 65 kids! julie and i are planning to do a rainbow art activity and noah's ark lesson with them next week. we usually sing with them and attempt to play games, but seriously it's impossible to even get them into a circle, plus there's no room. and we feed them lunch. i always imagine this event to be like jesus feeding the 5000 b/c we divide one pan of rice among all of them. but somehow it works and they all get a good amount.

i'm in Karen, outside of nairobi now. it is wierd being here b/c it is the super posh area of nairobi. there are lots of british muzungus here and to me it doesn't feel like africa. it is so clean and every house is gated. i feel stuck up just walking through here. but it is a nice refresher to be near a toilet that flushes :)