Hello Everyone!
I have been so crazy and busy this last week that I have not
had a chance to write a blog lately!
This one is going to be a little long because we have done SO much in
this last week!
Last week was full of a lot of classes. We had class five days in a row from 8 am
until 4 pm, alternating between the four classes that we are taking here. But as long as that sounds, one of the best
parts about lectures here is that we have the chance to do field lectures and
travel around the area to see the subjects we are talking about in person. Three of the days last week, we had a chance
to go to different overlooks in the area to see specific land uses and human
dimensions. We all have our collapsible chairs
and find a place on the hill without any thorns or cacti. Then the professors hold a regular lecture,
allowing time for us to ask questions about the things that we are seeing. The
hills allow you to see so far into the distance since a lot of the land around
here is pretty flat. It’s a very steep
hike to get to the top usually, but absolutely worth it when you get to spend
hours up there learning about the area you are looking over. It’s such an enjoyable way to have classes,
and it breaks up the week a lot.
Another way that the week was broken up was the visits that
we got to go on to local schools near our bush camp. The first school that we got to visit was
Kimana High School that shares some of our fence line to the north. The kids at
this school are anywhere from 13 to 22 years old, so there is quite a mix of
personalities and interests and everything else. When we first arrived there, it was so
awkward. None of the students there knew
what to say to us, and we weren’t even sure if they spoke English at all. But as soon as one of us broke the ice, it
was chaos! There were probably over 300
students there, and it is a boarding school so they come from all over. Some of the students told me that I was the
first white person they had ever seen outside of pictures and television! They love being close to you. They grab your arms, wrap their arms around
you, look at your watch, undo your hair and play with it. It’s so funny to watch the things that are so
amusing to them that in the United States, no one would think twice about. The girls I starting talking to first were so
funny! They were a posse of about 6
thirteen year olds, and they swarmed me the second I was away from the SFS
students. They told me that I looked
exactly like Hannah Montana and begged me to sing any of her songs that I
knew. Little did they know that they
picked the expert haha. They loved
having all of us sing for them. They would
literally beg and beg until you sang some song for them. At one point, I was able to get them to sing
for me instead, and I loved hearing their songs in Swahili that they knew from
home. After those girls were bored with
me, the next group to gather around was about 15 boys from ages 17-22 and they
literally asked so many questions, I could barely keep them straight. They want to know all about America and what
it is like and if they could go to college there. And the boys here love asking all of the
American girls to be their wives. All of
the girls from my camp got multiple marriage proposals from the random guys
that we were all interacting with. I
made a new friend, wearing a Dallas Cowboys shirt that loved using my
camera. Unlike the others, he was so
gentle with it and really understood how to use it. I talked to him for a really long time and we
compared America to Kenya. It was so fun
to just hang out with kids our age from a completely different lifestyle than
what we have at home!
The next day, we only had one morning class from 8-9, and
then the rest of the day was designated a community service day. After one of the students here was sick and
was taken to a clinic nearby, we decided that donating blood to this clinic
would be a great way to give back to the local community. The clinic is called Mbirikani and it is
about 30 minutes from our camp. When we
first arrived there, we were greeted by a HIV counselor and she explained the
ideals of the clinic and that it is completely free to everyone that goes
there. We got a tour of the entire
facility, which is sponsored by a woman in Chicago. They had up to date technology, a huge lab,
an in-patient ward, staff quarters, a pharmacy, and anything you could need at
a local clinic. It was amazing to see
the amount of money this woman must have put into this clinic to take care of
hundreds of people a day.
One of the most shocking things about the clinic was when
they showed us the current supply of blood that they had available to give to patients. There were 3 bags of blood, all of which were
half full. It was amazing to me what a
difference our blood could make, as opposed to the United States where you are
not sure where your blood is going when they take it from. The person sitting across the hall from me
was going to take some of our blood that day, which was going to save his
life. It literally was unreal to me how
much this donation could really help.
The only problem with this donation is my biggest fear in the entire
world is needles, especially needles in Africa!
Needles scare me more than anything, and I could barely handle the
thought of getting blood drawn at this clinic without crying. However, there was no part of me that could
justify not giving blood when someone desperately needed it because of my fear.
I was one of the first people to go, and I
was so happy with all of the support that I was getting from our student
affairs managers and other students in my group. I had people holding both hands, telling me
stories, and making me laugh the entire time.
I could never thank all of those people who supported me enough. After they finished taking the blood, we were
given soda and chips and brownies and other sugary things to help us recover
fast! As soon as I was feeling back to
normal, I took over my regular position as mom and helped take care of everyone
else donating blood. I ran around from
room to room, holding hands, delivering coke, and escorting people outside to
get fresh air. I just wanted to show
them the same support that they had given to me. I am so happy that I was able to face my fear
and donate blood, and I am so proud of my entire group doing the same. Is there any better way to share the love on Valentine’s
Day?
The next day was a non-program day, so we once again we got
to sleep in, hang around, work on all of our assignments, and bake cookies and
other stuff if we wanted to. In the
afternoon, we all loaded up the cars and went to a primary school about 10
minutes from downtown Kimana to help teach some of the classes and play games
with the kids. We all split into 5
groups to teach each of the classes for 2 hours. My class was the 8-9 year olds, and there
were about 40 students in a classroom comparable to my freshman year dorm
room. They were the most amazing kids
though. They had so much respect for
their teachers and were so attentive and loved learning the new things we were
teaching. We played Pictionary with them
on the chalk board to practice their animals in English, and then we sang songs
like the Hokey Pokey and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. We were all laughing the entire time, and
then they decided to teach us how to play their favorite game. It was a game that one person in the middle
yells out an animal, and if it is something you eat, you have to all jump at
the same time. The kid would yell cow,
goat, chicken, LION and would look around to see if anyone moved. It was so fun!
Then we all got to go play outside with the kids, things
like soccer, red light green light, and duck duck goose, or twiga twiga simba
as they call it here (giraffe, giraffe, lion).
At one point, I had little girls tell me to sit down in the middle of a
field, and before I knew it, I had 8 little hands in my hair, putting random
braids every which way off my head. They
just love our hair here, and it’s so fun to see what they do with it. I had so much fun at the school and loved all
the new rafikis that I met while I was there.
I hope we get to go back again while in Kenya because these kids are
great and
they make you so happy with everything they do.
I love everything that we are getting the opportunity to do
while we are here. I had no idea I would
be interacting so much with the local community, and I am so happy that we have
the chance to do so.
Thanks for reading!!!
Love,
Mollie Ann
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