Just A Quick Update

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I will have a few more entries up by the end of the week. Pictures may have to wait until I get home, because for some reason when I try to post them here it always errors. So you may have to be patient on pictures, sorry. After this week I will be leaving for my main outreach for two months. I will be in different regions of the Rift Valley during that period. While I am gone on this leg of my adventure here in Kenya I do not know how much internet access I'll have, therefore I may be silent for two months. If I am without internet, I promise that as soon as I can I will start posting my experiences up here on my blog. Until then though The Temporary Kenyan is headed deeper into Kenya!

Notes About the Posts

Alright just wanted to say a few things about these posts I've put up. Mostly I'll be adding pictures to them soon as soon as I find a better computer to upload with. Also After these posts will be coming actual up to date posts, as well as more personal posts. These were mainly done to fill you in on some of the experiences I have had so far. I hope you guys enjoy them and continue to check in for my soon to be recent updates. Thank you all, I love you.
- The Temporary Kenyan

Orphanages and Slashers

Alright so today we went to an orphanage named Springs of Hope, in a near by town called Machakos. It was amazing just to be able to see and be with the kids that were living there. They were excited to see us, well our group, they weren’t so sure how to react to the masungos (white people), but even then they were pretty receptive of us. Regardless it was amazing to just be able to play with these kids and love on them. We got to play with them and feed them and just be with them, it was really awesome, I don’t know how else to put it.

Also while we were there we were each given different jobs to do to help out around the orphanage and help the upkeep. Mine was slashing, which is cutting grass with a blade. This went pretty well, up until I got caught between two clothes lines and had to change the angle of how I was swinging my blade. This is about the time I hit my leg with the blade, right on the shin bone…and down to the shin bone. Seeing my bone was interesting, my first thought being “I really don’t want to go back to the hospital.” I ended up just wrapping it up and letting it heal, but yeah it was interesting.

Overall though it was an awesome experience. I loved being with the kids and just being able to play with them and show them love which so many of them so desperately need. I hope we can do more work with orphanages in the next few months. But for now as usual I remain a Temporary Kenyan, who wants to hang with kids and has a messed up leg.

Norway

Got to have a little vacation this weekend at a Norwegian School in Nairobi. One of my fellow students here is Norwegian and has connections to the school so we got to stay there. It was really nice to just be able to get away for awhile.

At the school they had a pool, so I got to go swimming at 8 o’clock at night in November…in Africa! It also had actual working, hot showers! It’s amazing how great the small things seem now that I don’t have them at all. Mostly we just hung out in the guest house we were staying in, eating and just having fun. At the end of the night I got to have a room to myself with nice beds and everything!

Pretty much it was a nice one night vacation, nothing more, nothing less. Now I continue to be a Temporary Norwegian…er Kenyan.

Hospitals

Alright so I’ve been sick all week with chest pains. After a few days I’ve come to the conclusion that I swallowed a bone or something and it’s either stuck in there or something got bruised or cut up when I swallowed it. Regardless it hasn’t been going away, time for a trip to a Kenyan hospital!
Alright so when I got to the hospital I was asked if I wanted a doctors consult first or just get an x-ray straight away, I figured it was logical to see a doctor first. So I went into the doctors office and she asked me what was wrong, without even looking up. She seemed like she could care less that I was there. I told her that my chest hurt and I though I swallowed something, so she listened to my chest, said she heard nothing and was going to give me antibiotics. I asked her if I should get an x-ray to see if I swallowed something and I told her it hurt to swallow anything. Her response to this was to give me an antacid. She pretty much just seemed like she wanted me to leave, which I did after this.
Moral of the story, Kenyan hospitals aren’t very effective, at least not when I was there. Oh well I can say I’ve had to go to a hospital in Kenya now, that’s good enough I guess. I’m just going to have to continue to be a Temporary Kenyan, if I live much longer…just kidding.

Post Note: I’m not sick anymore!

Roofs

Alright so today was pretty much like any other day, but not really. You see about mid day most of us were up by the kitchen getting ready to do some work around base. It was pretty windy I suppose, but nothing more then what we normally have, and yet it managed to cause quite a problem for the base.

As we were hanging around we heard this loud noise from around the corner of the kitchen and a large dust cloud appear. Upon peaking around the corner we saw a large tin roof flipping up in the air and another small piece of tin roof go flying across the field. Without thinking we all began to run down to the scene because it was the roof of the preschool, which was full of preschoolers. All we could do while running was hope and pray everyone was alright. It turns out that all the preschoolers had been inside so a roof falling on the ground outside was of no consequence, other than them having no roof anymore. By the time we had gotten to the preschool, the kids were already outside…laughing, finding it very funny what had just happened to their building, seemingly unaware of what could have been. It was a miracle that everyone was able to come out of it safely.

So the rest of the day was spent trying to clean up some of the mess and moving the preschool materials to another building on the base. The kids probably thought this was all great, they got a few days off because of it. All in all it was an interesting thing to see happen, not quite normal. As for us we got to tear down the preschool as it was just in bad shape, this consisted of breaking the outer walls off with hammers and then literally pushing the building over, that was fun. Just another adventure here in Kenya, I suppose I just have to continue being a Temporary Kenyan while hoping my roof stays over my head.

Politics

Kenyans are more obsessed with American politics, just thought you all should know that. More so then Americans. Mostly because Obama has Kenyan roots. We have 2 new puppies on base….they named them Obama and McCain…yeah. Yup I’m a Temporary Kenyan surrounded by Obama obsessed Kenyans.