Volunteer Journals

One week in Githinguri

Renae Lawson — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:25:45 +0000

Jambo Sana

Yep, one more week in Githinguri with Elizabeth and Samuel.
One more week until I say goodbye to my babies at El Shaddai.

Then off to Happy Life with Kyle!
We are being visited today by the VICDA team to ensure we have only positive things to say about our placement, but apart from that its another day of feeding cows, cooking food for 150 kids and having my hair braided by the primary school girls.

There have been a few young boys around the 1 or 2 year age who are scared shitless of white people, But after much effort one has come round and will now come up and say Jambo and give me (and Claire) a cuddle, I am quite proud

After using the cyber caf previously to write on my journal, I was handed a small peice of paper along with my change, on it had “Sammy” and a phone number, I took my change and the peice of paper and left, today we have decided to use a different cyber caf and sure enough as I log onto my Facebook a friend request pops up from him. Slightly amusing.

Tomorrow we have the day off from the Orphanage and we are going to a womens fellowship for Elizabeths church…. Afterwards Claire and I have decided that we will make our Kenyan mum and dad dinner, Western styles.

I will be sure to update over the next few days and let everyone know how it went.

Before coming on the adventure I was so sure id loose weight, that is not the case!
People here get very offended if you do not eat a substantial amount, and our subtantial compared to their substantial are worlds apart. So many Japati’s and rice and bread and potatoes!

The TV shows here are hillarious, most are filmed in Mexico, With a very dodgy english overvoice that one in a blue moon will actually match the words coming from the characters mouth. Its all very dramatic and quite funny, there are few Kenyan shows, with much voilence and little english. I usually head to bed when they come on.

I have been given a Kikuyu name (not sure if I have stated this is previous posts)
WAJIKU is the name people have been shouting out to me from the streets, and Elizabeth calls me whenever she cannot be bothered to try and pronounce Renae.
The people he have much trouble trying to pronounce my name, I am starting to introduce myself as Wajiku.

Still adjusting to Kenyan time, Claire and I enjoy being quite organised and punctual in our lives back home so when someone agrees to pick us up at 830 and doesnt arrive till almost 10 it is tricky to get used to, we have started adding an extra hour to the times we are given here just so we arent dissapointed each day.

The artwork in the markets is amazing, Im loving it! I have bought a small piece already, it is brightly coloured dye on canvas, and it illustrates the Kenyan people at the market. I am a big girl when it comes to batering the prices of things, Im sure I have been ripped of quite alot, althought with my painting, I enquired of the price with no inetntion to buy it then and there as I only had 1200 Shillings on me, He said the painting was 9,000 Shillings and I said thankyou and left, He chased me around the markets writing smaller and smaller prices on his hand for me. I continue to refuse saying a honestly did not have that amount on me right now and that I plan on returning the following weekend with the right amount. He didnt beleive me and I claire and I left the Markets he chased me asking how much I did have, When I responded with 1200 he handed me the painting and asked for that. I ended up paying a little under $15 AUS dollars for something he originally wants over $100 AUS dollars for, and I didnt even try! I do however plan on buying some more from him, he deserves it.

Oh and Claire and I saw Vultures, I beleive they were taller than me, Claire however disagree’s. Either way they were HUGE and being on a bus did not stop me from having a little girl moment and squeeling.

Well, I think I stretched the brain enough to make anopther post, I’m getting quite used the Kenyan living. I am doing lots of reading (Alain De Botton- The Consolations Of Philosophy) and little writing, but im feeling pretty mentally healthy.

Now we are off the get the Matattu to the Orphanage, Love!

feb 21

Kyle Johnson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:55:00 +0000

So im a lil better got words of encouragement from tucker. I am a lil uncomfortable of how people r not talkin about the lil girl, it seems like there just sweepin it under the table. Me and rob talk about it and people said it was a sad thing but that was it. The person from the morgue came and picked her up yesterday, but she was layin in the play room for the whole night. It seems like cruel irony. I think i am going to suggest peter do a memorial service for her on sunday. i dont think i could have done what rob did, but he is an emt so he has seen alot of crazy stuff. Im just not comfortable with death especially after justins. I am kind of ashamed that i didnt go to bobbies funeral, i think id just rather ignore it then embrace it. I didnt know what i would do once a death came along again that gave me the oppurtunity to go to the funeral. With brians funeral i was in san diego so couldnt go, with aunt cindy i was in michigan so couldnt go, with rebecca i was in montana so couldnt go but bobby there was no excuse and im sorry for that. Off this mopy death stuff. i got goats meat today and i am cookin it tomorow. I but it in a mango marinade and gonna make a mango glaze and a mango salsa. I talk to rosemary about startin a cookin class for the staff here. when i am cookin at a restaurant its kind of tedious but when i cook at home it takes all of my worries away. i just go into my zone and no stress, no reality. This online journal is pretty theraputic too. All the kids sit in my lap and when they do its always a given that there gonna play with my sideburns and i think its funny but it hurts sometimes. They laugh even harder when i say ouch silly kids. Some of the older kids were just chillin with us tonight upstairs and we were just chattin with them like they were our buddies. we sat down with them one in each of our laps and they chilled for about an hour. There is this trouble maker jon the one i told u got into our lunch the other day. I told laya to tell him when he is doin something wrong to tell him its wrong be nice but let him know so he doesnt get in trouble. And u remember when i told u that if i had a bad day all i would have to do is make one of the babies smile and everything would be better i did that today and it worked. also rennae called me today and she is coming to stay for two weeks on tuesday so excited cant wait to meet her. she seems cool and down to earth. thats all for now love everyone and peace

feb 20

Kyle Johnson — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:53:01 +0000

So i left off with michelle leavin. so to get my mind off of it me and rob went to see preach perform at the college. Preach rapped that night but we were to late instead we were tryin to get in for free but no dice, so the only way to get in was to be auctioned off for v day. We got in there and there r people performing in like a talent show or something then they have a dance off. I almost didnt go down but nobody else was goin so i was the 3rd person and my buddy adil was the 4th. Adil is the prime minister of saudi arabias son. Me and adil went to the finals i got in with my feet action. I pulled out some stuff and the audience couldnt decide who they liked better so for sudden death i did some ground work and won the dance competition with that. On thur we hung out with peter all day. We went to the new spot in juja where the orphanage is goin to be relocated in july. The other pastor prepared a chix for us i got to see from the time it was alive until it was ready to cook. It was kind of brutal u think of choppin the chix head off but he more or less slit its throat. The property is way bigger and the kids r gonna be so happy there. Then we went to this fancy restaurant and the scenery was beautiful it was like a tropical paradise. It was so green and there was a waterfall, stream, and pond which i zend out for like ten min. The soup was amazin coconut chix, the buffet was ok. The were peacocks just roaming the lawn it was so breath takin. Fri i spent all day recording my song, its called Love will follow u. i spent from 11am until 9pm. We made it perfect jacuzzi the beat maker changed a couple things but most of my stuff was honored. I come down durin the mornin and am greeted by prince first every time, then by the other kids. Which proceeds to require pickin all the kids up and tossin them in the air or puttin them on my shoulders. I brought out legos and dominos today the kids loved it. I chased the older boys around and played tag. On a sadder note one of the toddlers died last night. It was the new one so i didnt grow an attachment to her, but its still sad because its a human life. Im a bit confused on the whole situation old people r supposed to die not lil babies, she died of dehydration. She was eatin fine but she had a bacterial disease so the food she was eatin wasnt being processed right. We found out what was goin on bcause one of the workers cried out this heart felt cry and we knew that wasnt a baby cryin. I am kind of ashamed that i didnt even know the babies name. what bothers me to is that the grandma came to pay her respect if the grandma is around why was she in happy life u dont just give up on ur baby. Its so sad how some babies r found on the side of the street, in the garbage, on somebodies door step. And it really hit me to when we found the lady cryin because she had so much passion for the baby that she fell down because she was weepin so hard. She is truly a good person because she cares about a baby that is not her own. I couldnt even imagine what rob went through he went to the hospital with the baby and held the lifeless baby in his arms. Just remember everybody life is precious dont waste it if ur 1 or 100. That baby will never have hopes and dreams. Never get to play with the kids here or make friends. I have been a zombie all day i dont think about when I zone out. I dont even think of anything. I tried contacting tucker for some comfort but he hasnt responded yet so if u read this before ur email tuck contact me and facebook is messin up right now for me so if u want to send ur condolences for the baby my email is weasel2321@yahoo.com Love u guys thanks for keepin up love everyone peace we need ur support and prayers over here

Burn baby burn

Renae Lawson — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:22:21 +0000

Yeah, I am sunburnt.
Elizabeth our host mum took us to her church today, and that is where I discovered that church is boring in any language, in any country.
They do however sing some super cool songs in there native tounge “Kikuyu”. We danced and clapped and it was all quite amusing until one of the preachers kindly decided to say every 15th word in English. A few long minutes later we heard something about same sex marrige, and a few minutes later we heard a negative comment. We were expecting it to a point, but they totally lost me after that. I found it very hard to show enthusiasm after that.

I bought some nice things at the markets, not everything I wanted because brokers decided to hassle us to the point of exhaustion. Few little tacky Kenyan things and a bag, top and a little something for Jackson.

Claire would suck as a sibling, she is favoured in everything. Although, no one has called her beautiful yet.

I am still getting used to everyone looking at us and the children following us, most the children in our town havent ever seen a Muthungu(white person in kikuyu)
I am getting a little some sick at night, I wake up most nights for a half hour or so, I am not sure if the constant contact with home is doing be more bad than good.
I have another 10 days in Githunguri than Claire leaves me for a Safari and I will move onto another Orphanage closer to Nairobi.

Our host family are amazing, Both Claire and I have been invited back again with our families. They are the most self sufficient couple I have ever met, They have goats(they call them sheep here), rabbits and chicken, all which they breed, kill and eat. They have a huge avacado tree, taller than a 2 story building. They rarely eat the avo’s, instead they feet them to the goats. they also have dozens of bananas trees and a plot of land about 15 minutes walk away which they grow various vegetables. Everything is so fresh.

Not much else to say, Claire has become my rock. So many great changes I feel I have made, and cannot wait to put into action once im home.
Trying to get lots of reading in, although by the end of the day I am too exhausted to even talk.
Ok, as young female westerners we have a curfew of 6pm, its just after 4 and we have some groceries to get before walking home so im our.

R

CLAIRE

Renae Lawson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:50:39 +0000

Claire and I are having a ball, this keyboard is horrible so this post wont be huge.

It feels like I have been here for a month already, the children are amazing and quit naughty at times, Some very very sad cases-more so than the already sad situations. I have made a new best friend- John. He is 5 years old and about the size of maybe an 7 or 8 month old. He is HIV positive and has more character than any other child here. He follows me around holding tightly to my pants at all time. He cannot speak, only mumble a response. Because of his condition and size he is left to play, sleep and mingle with the other babies, he cannot attend school as he gets picked on. Another girl in the class is struggling to read and write because her parents locked her in a room for over 4 years. She finds it very hard to interact with the other kisd.

Today Claire and I Caught the Mattatu into town from our village-Githunguri. It is a mini van that somehow fits a minimum of 14 passengers. Very scary.

We ahave visited the markets but got hassled too much to we will go back after out tour of the Kibera Slums, a 2-3 hour tour which only requires a tip to the tour guide.

I am struggling alot with the children, It is such a happy environment until you realise that I get to go home to my big bed and hot shower, my well paid job(considering) and 3 meals a day. I spend two weeks here at El Shaddai then I head back and do another two weeks with Kyle at another orphanage.

Living here requires many continuous deep breaths, and zero expectations.

Ive never been looked at and approached as much as I have here, but I think I had that coming.

Hope everyone is safe and happy, much love

Im here !

Renae Lawson — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:55:52 +0000

This place is beyond description. I cannot beleive I am in Nairobi. I was picked up at the airport and taken to a host family, a lady called Alice. I stayed there for two nights and on the second night Claire from NZ joined me. We had our orientation today and I have bought a phone over here after much confusion. The number of my sim is +254 707904925 although I have no idea what digits to put infront of it- the guy just told me and the computer is too slow to delete everything so there you go, call away? I will be in contact with the close ones via Claires phone, text only. Its beyond overwhelming here, I think i’ve almost died about 7 times. It still all a huge shock and I am busting to get to the orphanage, with Claire! Im writing lots, more than ever. The food is interesting, nothing like African Feeling! I am not sure what else to add, im in a huge amount of shock.. Please email as Facebook isnt an option at this point in time. A big thankyou to my family for making this possible. I cannot believe I am in Africa, Who would have thought!

Ok, Bye, Love to everyone

Oh and im not sick yet!!! (touch wood)

feb 14

Kyle Johnson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:24:07 +0000

happy v day everyone. i went out on thursday with rob and we met up with ernest one of the community service people. Then the next day i got way sick like shakes, light headedness, throwin up. So i didnt do anything on fri. on sat i felt better so we went to a elephant and giraffe refuge it was sweet. The elephant one was kinda disappointing bcause we didnt get to interact with them we listened to a worker tell us about the elephants and the elephants were playin in the mud. They had a ball and was kickin it around and they sprayed mud on some of the people. They were all baby elephants also. Then we went to lunch and the food court had people to bring u menus and they all came at us at once it was crazy. So we had like 10 different menus in front of us. I got curry mutten from the indian place and a ice cream sundae. I have been craving ice cream for so long. Then we went to the giraffe spot and it was better bcause we got to feed them and pet them. I put a pellet in my mouth and the giraffe took out of my mouth so i got a giraffe kiss. We got back and Docos started on my hair. I was goin to get braids but i got corn rows instead and she intermixed my hair with some fake green hair and now I have green corn rows, ballin. Sunday i went to church and it was a great time. Kenyans do it right there was a live band and the drummer was sick and Peter was very inspirational. We were dancin and the kids were just listenin in. i got a couple of the kids to dance. On the way home they gave the kids bananas and they were throwin the peels all over the van. I had to go parent on them and uncle kyle put the hammer down. I have been gettin a lil strict there was this kid and he was smackin this other kid so i slapped his hand. He did it again and i took my shoe off, didnt even lift my shoe up and he knew and instantly stopped and backed up scared. i said sorry when he was done cryin and put him on my shoulders. We went out on monday night with rob and michelle for michelle last day. We had a good time i confessed to michelle that i was into her and she said she was diggin me to, really sad she is gone. We were holdin hands. She left today at 7pm. Almost cried me and rob and michelle have been inseprible this whole time. Divine went to the hospital he has enlarged heart not spine ebifida. I met this dude named steve last night he wants to donate toward happy life and divine bcause happy life doesnt have enough money for the surgery. I set it up to have him come by at 1pm today. So its set in stone and he is going to give alot of money. Everybody have a lovely love day. Love everybody and peace

feb 9

Kyle Johnson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:38:57 +0000

This is my daily routine now, get up at 9 right in my journal, do my morning stuff, feed the babies at noon, have lunch, play with big kids, feed babies at 4, start cooking dinner, feed babies at 8, have dinner, then chill until bed at around midnight. i pretty much have the names of everybody down staff and kids. Prince is my lil buddy when i come down he runs up to me and says my name in his cute accent. Then laya is my other fav, i mentioned her before. On monday i sat in on there class they were learning to count to 20 in english. The teacher would say it then they would repeat it. Prince would hold up something and he would say it in swahili and i would say it in english and all the kids would repeat it in english it was so cool to help teach. For the infants sean and judy are so smiley. This hasnt happened yet but if i have a bad day all i have to do is make one of the infants smile and it will make me feel better. I almost passed out durin a late night feeding the other day and judy giggled and i woke up. Kind is always crying but i am the only one to make him smile. Divine has spine ebifida and u can really tell so Michelle and I said something today and now he is going to the hospital to get a surgery, so awesome. Michelle just got back from Mount kenya on monday and she is so nice and caring to the babies she is just overall a good person. She is from australia. She is very pretty. Renae is about to come sometime this week cant wait. She seems cool to been talkin to her on facebook. I started takin pics of the place and all the kids and staff so i will post them on fb when i get back. I told laya to line up like 5 of the kids yesterday for a photo and it took a while but i finally got the pic. There is no certain jobs that the workers stick with 1 might cook 1 day and then do laundry the next. Wilson is awesome he is the one who taught me how to make chipati and I taught him how to make cheesecake yesterday. I have never been the teacher before so it was kind of cool, he followed me around with a pen and paper and wrote down what i was doin. It still tasted the same i messed up on a couple of things. i didnt butter the pan so the cheesecake stuck to the pan and it fell apart and we had to dig it out with a spoon, so it fell apart, but it still taste the same. i had put the crust in and poured the mix in before i started bakin but realized i put it in a bowl that would melt so i made a new crust and then just dumped the whole thing into the other bowl then the crust was mixed in with the cheesecake which wasnt half bad. Then the oranges over here r yellow so i got an orange by mistake instead of a lemon, which wasnt half bad either. Then this was the most interesting part they dont have an oven so i cooked it in a wood stove, I put it in a bigger pot and put sand at the bottom so it wouldnt burn the bottom and then I put a lid over it to create a natural oven. I shared it with everybody today and they loved it. For college people community service is required so college students come to the orphanage all the time and i got most of there numbers to hang out all of them r really nice. Most of the older kids when they eat get food all over there face and in the play pen and use there hands, so i started to feed them. Some will let me but others refuse and say i am a big kid i can feed myself as half of the food goes on the floor. I got the ladder and went on the roof to get all the toys that were up there and they have those type of rooftops that r just set there and morter is layed down so they will stay but all of them moved when i stepped on them it was kind of scary. All the kids loved seeing me on the roof they pointed and laughed. i went for a ride with peter yesterday to get the cheesecake stuff. Peter is the preacher that owns happy life, he is very nice and very inspiring, he is in the process of building a new orphanage that is bigger and i hope to go there soon. I took my maleria meds the other day without eatin, big mistake. I thought i was goin to get sick while feedin salome so put her back and drank some water and ate a bowl of cereal. Then went back to salome. Salome is my lil gorilla. She is one of my favs. Rob is inspiring to work in the medical field of the volunteer stuff so he is not really into this whole baby thing, he is trying to get transfered i think to the hospital. he is pretty cool last couple nights we stayed in and played cards and chatted. While im here i hope to go on the lake naguru safari and mombosa which is on the ocean to relax and see the sights. This weekend we r goin to a giraffe and elephant refuge. Its only 15 for both can wait. Docos one of the workers is goin to braid my hair tomorow and i am going to do it kenyan style and put green extensions in its gonna look wild. I met this older dude named henry he wants me to try to get him to america I told him he needs the money but i will be his reference and try to search for a job for him. I am startin to get known by the locals and i give fives to the motorcycle guys and the sausage guy and we have our fav bar now. I bought this sausage the other day so good split it open but salsa in it and then hot sauce so good and only 20 cents. I also made friends with a goat lol. There are goats and chickens that roam by the smokin pit and I fed one of them leaves and grass. In the smokin pit the other day there is this turned over car that these kids were jumpin up and down on it and playin in it. I ate sugar cane today very sweet and juicy. There is this lady to adopt she picked zack and i am kinda disappointed cause he is one of my favs he is the one who falls asleep if u rub his head, but its good that he is gettin adopted. Also sometimes the water doesnt work so we have to take bucket baths all new stuff i hear the babies cryin so its time to feed love everyone and peace

Test

Renae Lawson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:13:07 +0000

Two days out from Kenya, Bag is packed, Tickets are printed and now I am just playing the waiting game. My family and close friends are gathering at “African Feeling”, an authentic African Restaurant in Newtown on Saturday night just to help celebrate my departure. If this post goes to plan I will be posting [click here to read more]

feb 5

Kyle Johnson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:43 +0000

jambo everyone thats hello in swahili i went to that restaurant yesterday it was awesome i ate all those things i mentioned plus camel and ox testicles it was very fancy and i felt so rich again with the hot towel thing dont get it but still played along they have a swahili bible in the office and i started reading it thats in reference to u tucker. Today was church and i wanted to go but slept in through my alarm, disappointed but there is next week. i got up and fed the infants. I really like the toddler room the infants dont do much besides sleep and the older kids are a lil overwhelming. I got done at 1 and chilled with rob for a bit then at 4 fed the infants again then went outside to play with older kids. I met this other lil girl who helped talked to the other lil kids She was really nice and stuck by my side the whole time. When i came down all the kids got hard candy from somewhere they all wanted to share with me. One lil one took a piece out of his mouth and was like here have this one it was a lil gross but cute at the same time. They have some odd toys tires and shovels. We had a tire race and those kids r fast. I never won even when i tried. Then i brought my discs down and once again they all bombarded me. We tossed them around for a while and when we were done i put them back in my bag. I went to go push the kids on the swing. The older kids wouldnt let the younger kids play with the discs so when i was distracted one of the younger kids got into the bag and handed out the discs to all the other younger kids and they all played with them in there own special way. One buried a disc in the sand with the shovel another one had it in a tire rolling it around another one thought it was pretty so she just held onto it and looked at it and i couldnt find the last one and later on in the night i found out one kid had taken it to bed with him. I helped out with dinner yesterday i just seperated kidney beans the whole time. Today I fried potatoes. I found out the other day with a stew we had there was goat meat so i have had goat now also. Right before all the kids went to bed they were watchin u ready for this teletubbies lol. There was this girl laya who came up to me and gave me a hug and said goodnight I told her she was my fav and she said i know lol. The same girl earlier that day came up to me and said what is ur name i said kyle, she said kyle isnt a girls name, i said i was a boy, she said boys do not have long hair, i said hippies do she said whats a hippy, i said i will tell u when ur older. Dont be surprised if i come back with one of these children just kidding. Also a lil tidbit about yesterday i met this dude preach he is the pastors nephew he is a rapper from philly and is being produced by organization. so we followed him to the studio and checked it out he put me on the spot and told the producer i could sing so i went into the recording room and sang and i am on the cd that they r makin so i might be famous in kenya soon lol crazy. until next time love everyone peace