Happy Birthday!

Monday June 13th

Today was a great day! Joyce, the middle and top class teacher, has six kids and today was two of her daughters’ birthdays. Lydia and Margaret are not twins but were born on the same day 2 years a part. I first met them on Saturday during outreach weekend when the group stopped at Vumilia. I was asking them how old they are and they said that they’re birthday was coming up on Monday. Joyce is so sweet and generous and so are her daughters, and I knew I wanted to do something special for them on their birthday. I was thinking something along the lines of a cake and a small gift. When I got to the school this morning Joyce asked me if I was going in to Gilgil today because, if so, she wanted to tag along and get a cake for the girls. Perfect! We agreed to meet around 2pm. We arrived in Gilgil and I was hoping to find a nice, fresh cake for the girls. I really wanted to make it special. I had seen plenty in Nairobi, but apparently they don’t really exist in little ol’ Gilgil unless you order two days in advance. Where is a Giant when you need one?! I have grown so accustomed to being able to waltz into a grocery store at any hour of the day and buy a fresh, personalized cake. We had to settle for a packaged heart-shaped cake with hard icing, but it was pink and it said Happy Birthday (albeit upside down), so we got it. I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to get something nice for these girls and their family since they haven’t had a nice birthday in 4 years (before the election violence). I also picked up some nail polish, remover, and a pair of clip-on earrings for each of the girls (plus the aforementioned for Lydia and Margaret’s younger sister, Rachel, and a backpack with a soccer ball on it for big brother, Harrison). I didn’t want anyone to be left out, but oldest brother, James is at boarding school, and youngest sister, Anna, is only 1 year old and was content with a lollipop- the markets here don’t have much in the way of toys.

On the way back to Joyce’s tent/house she invited me to come in. I was a little surprised by this. I would have been totally happy with her pretending she bought the stuff for the kids as a surprise or telling them that it was from a friend. I didn’t do this for the “credit”, and that’s not why I’m writing about it either- I want to convey just how rough these families have it and how incredibly appreciative they are of the smallest kind acts. Shortly after arriving at Joyce’s the girls came home from school, and were very excited to see cakes waiting for them. Joyce encouraged them to invite some friends in and before I knew it we were having a full-fledged party. It was fabulous. We all squeezed in to the tiny living room (that doubles as the kids’ bedroom) and sat on the small wooden benches anchored into the dirt floor. Thankfully, it had rained so it was no longer hot, and we all sat around under the blue tarp ceiling and sang “Happy Birthday” to the girls. After that it was cake time, and apparently it is Kenyan tradition for the host, me, to feed a piece of the cake to the birthday girl(s). After that they fed a piece to me- I watched as each girl picked the best looking piece and fed it to me. Then the girls fed a piece to their parents and everyone clapped and cheered. Next everyone got a little piece and was offered some orange punch. All of the kids had to share eight cups because that is all Joyce has- one for each family member. No one minded, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Lastly I gave out the presents, and I have never seen three girls more delighted in my entire life! They giggled and squealed and put their hands up to their mouth in joy. My heart sang. Harrison was so happy to see his new backpack. I’m sure his classmates will be jealous tomorrow. J They spoke to their mom in Kikuyu and she translated saying that they were so happy- that they had never had such a nice birthday. That they loved me; their new best friend, and they hoped that God would bless me and guard my path. Joyce said that the entire family forgot that they were living in a tent. I am so thrilled that I could brighten their day and make them forget their circumstances, if only for one day.

Today has been my favorite day, and is one I will never forget.



Peace&Love

Ashley

Volunteer Day

[Note: Ashley's internet connection, as you might imagine, is spotty at best and non-existent at worse. Posting pictures and blog posts can take considerable time with her internet connection, or it may just time-out and not upload at all. She is able to get a few emails off to me and she includes blog posts from her daily journal of the trip, so that is why the date posted and the actual date of the recording are different. I will post them as I get them. Enjoy! -Anthony]

Friday June 3 2011

Today we got to help teach, and it was a great experience. Joyce and Rose do their best and the kids seem to be learning a lot. Joyce teaches the middle and top class and she showed us the kids’ workbooks. They are mostly learning English and Math, I assume it’s the basics that they need to get into primary school. The school day is only from about 8-12, and the children get one break during that time. I haven’t been there that long, but the schedule seems to be; opening songs, math or English lesson, break, Ugi (flour and sugar porridge), story, home. It doesn’t seem like a long day, but I think the day ends around noon because it would get too hot in the afternoon. Also, I am sure it is hard to have in depth lessons with such limited resources. And, you have to remember, this is basically just up to kindergarten. After that they start year one at primary school. And the fact that it is multiple age groups doesn’t help either. Despite all of these difficulties the kids are eager to learn and most seem to be picking up on everything. The children are very eager to show you their work. They want to show the white teacher, and they will even write extra work to impress you. Elijah, a boy in the top class, is very smart and kept adding math problems to the bottom of his English work to show how smart he is. Very cute! Even though they can’t understand you they still look for sign of approval and can tell when they’ve impressed you. I started drawing smiley faces on their work after I correct it and the first couple kids I did it to eagerly showed off their “prize” to all the other kids. They talk to each other in Kikuyu (they don’t speak Swahili but rather their tribe’s mother tongue- which makes it even more difficult to talk to them) and point to it with big smiles on their faces. It’s amazing how appreciative they are of the littlest things; smiles, high fives, handshakes, etc… That’s another thing, they all want to shake your hand or give you a high five. All. The. Time. Also, during recess the children come up to you and just pet your arms or legs. They love my tattoo. One girl kept trying to scratch it off. Haha. They also put their hands around my arms as if to measure them. And they love to play with mzunga hair, which is unfortunate since mine is almost always dirty.

Even if you shower in the morning you feel so dirty by the end of the day because everything is so dusty. I wiped my face with a face wash wipe and it was all brown. Eww. When I put sunscreen on (which is like a million times a day) I feel like I am just rubbing dirt around. How pleasant. And, it’s impractical to shower daily because the shower isn’t really a shower but a bucket bath. And you take it in a tin shack that shares a tin wall with the pit toilet. Plus it’s dark and there are spider webs. Oh, and the water is only hot if Mary boils it for you first. Not exactly the best, but it will do. When I go on safari in a couple weeks we will be staying in an actual hotel with actual showers and actual toilets! I can’t wait. It’s amazing how appreciative I’ve become of the smallest things/conveniences that we take for granted and I’ve only been here for a few days. I can’t imagine how I’m going to feel at the end of this.