Tales from the Bush Part 3

It is the end of week two. I am terrified, because the end of week two means the beginning of week three and I leave at the end of week three. It is odd how quickly this place felt like home. The routine was easy to fall into and I feel so comfortable here.

Week two was filled to the brim with amusement to say the least. I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday passed out in bed coming in and out of a 102 degree fever brought on by God knows what. I felt terrible for coming all this way and being sick so I probably made it worse by trying to get out of bed and go play with the kids. Once I gave in to being sick, I was on the mend by Saturday. I just drugged myself with Cipro, hoping the strength of the drug would kill whatever was living inside of me. A doctor was near to out of the question as the closest is at least an hour away and I just didn't like the idea of resources being wasted on me and not the kids. But, all is well now. Plus, I learned having a fever sucks, ALOT. My roommate Coco came in at one point and I had a winter hat, sweat pants, yoga pants, a fleece and a hoodie on. I think she was convinced I was either crazy, going to die or a bit of both.

The other big news of week two was that I got to move into one of the children's houses. Two long term volunteers from Tennessee left on Sunday, and Coco and I with all of our 10 days worth of experience were the next senior people, thus it seemed a good idea to move us in with 11 kids, an 18 month old and two mamas. It is certainly an experience. There are five girls in one room and 6 boys in the other, with baby Vicente living in the mamas room. The kids get up by 6am and aren't in bed and asleep until 8pm. I have never worked an 14 hour day, it is long, not sure if I like it. I even find myself napping at 1pm with the kids in order to make it to dinner time. I really like living with the kids though, I like being the first person they see and the last person to kiss them good night. Only a few hitches, the girls take forever, already, getting dressed and at bath time. I need a cattle prod to get them going sometimes. I could have killed all of them the other night, I was awoken by an odd noise in the night (odd noises are the norm, so normal noises seem odd), I check my watch, it is 2am, there is no reason unless someone is sick, for a child to be out of bed. I get up to investigate and as it turns out, all the girls, at 2am decided that they should get up, brush their teeth, get dressed and sit with their backpacks on. My only thought is that they took my suggestion of being more on time getting ready literally, thus my motivational speech backfired and resulted in them being up at 2am. I was pissed. I came down on them hard, mainly because I know that they did it to the last two girls in the house, then I felt bad. Aside from that hiccup, life in the house is good but loud, why do kids have to yell everything when they have perfectly good inside voices. I have learned how to detect a fever, treat ringworm, see if a boo-boo needs a bandaid and treat the hacking cough that would probably send any American child to the doctor but here it is normal. I have started helping out at kindergarten in the mornings. For kids who come here and have little or no english, they start out at kindergarten as a way of preparing them for school. It is 10 kids, mostly under the age of 5 tearing about, climbing all over me and having a grand old time. It is usually pretty amusing and all the terror is made up for when they curl up in your lap and ask for a story, it makes it all worth it. Today was wonderful, on Wednesdays we eat with the kids, chipati (round flat bread that is kinda sweeter than a pita but the same idea) and beans. Last week, prior to faling deathly ill, the mamas taught me how to make them and this week they insisted that I help. So, to the amusement of all the Tanzanians around, I rolled out several chipati and mama even let me eat the first one, which was easily detectable because it was less than round. Simple pleasures here!

The elephants continue to ravage the village, much of the corn has been totally destroyed. The government has offered a sum of 20,000 per person affect (roughly $18 dollars) to supplement an entire season's worth of corn. I feel really terribly, because on the one hand I have become a member of this village and hate the way the elephants negatively affect their lives. But on the other, after 4 months in Kenya I have grown attached to them and know the positive they can do. I will certainly miss hearing elephants in the night munching on the corn.

So, I fly back to Nairobi next Thursday, head out to Lake Naivasha three hours north of Nairobi for a weekend safari and then classes start June 10th. It is going to be a huge change from here, to the big city of Nairobi. It will be just as loud but not the sound of screaming children, but instead cars and exhaust.

I have no clue how I am going to leave next Wednesday. They have become my kids that I am totally attached to. Regardless of anything negative that has or may happen, the kids make it worth it. When another volunteers gets on my nerves I just have to remind myself that I am not here to make friends, that I am here to give something of myself. I love it here.