from Kenya, with love.

Who:
Martin; 21 yr old Volunteer Mentor
Wilfred; 23 yr old Agricultural Development Coordinator
Maureen; hilarious God-send of a cook and washing woman
Pauline; single mother teacher
Lin; 28 yr old Chinese volunteer from Germany
Me; 21 yr old American from Uganda

What:
Volunteer project in community development

When: Dec. 15 to Jan. 5

Where: HAVOCO compound, top of the Hill, Wagusu Village, Bondo District, KENYA

Ready. Set. Go.

12.17.2010
the kids had a blast discovering my tattoos and petting thm- then flapping their arms around mimmicking birds like the ones on my foot.. taught al the kids to make fish faces…then joke of all jokes: Pauline had me ”teach maths” (me, the most numerically challenged person on the planet, teaching addition to the kids that don’t speak English…) also: i have committed to not shaving until I get to Sweden. I haven’t since i left Mukono anyway, i see no point in starting now.
12.18.2010
from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: ”No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
Math problem: 3 people need to pay 180Kshs each on a bus to Kisumu. 2 decide to cover the fee for the 3rd…one pays 500Kshs for himself and ½ of the 3rds fee…then changes his mind and pays for 2 people. Needs change. The second pays 200Kshs to cover her fee, gives 90 to the 1st, asks for change. Ticket man is confused. Can’t imagine why.
12.20.2010
Martin took me to town today to see all the gold mines, and i came back to find Maureen washing all my laundry. She even did my delicates…bless her heart. ☺ i feel like i have lost MY language here, living on the compound entrenched in broken English, bits of Chinese and German, KiSwahili and the local language: Dmluo. I feel like i have severed all connection to MY mother tongue…
12.21.2010
thought process today: wake up homesick. Brainstorm finding a way to contact Ben & Sean, borrow a few hundred dollars, say ’screw it’ to Sweden and jump a plane to be home for Christmas. Take stock of fact that it will be ridiculous…that i will waste a paid-for ticket to Sweden, will disappoint Beatrice and let down all the people back home who supported me coming here, and let down this program. Reject thought. Take bucket bath. Dance to phone radio with Maureen and realize: i CAN, in fact, do this.
12.22.2010
this afternoon i drew elementary-style drawings of butterflies and boats and birds for the kids to colour in, since they have no colouring books. The donkey drank my bathwater tonight…furry bastard.
…and from there, sitting at the plain wooden table in the yard (still holding all the ½ eaten remnants of dinner), seeing the white plastic chair across from me just barely lit by what starlight can reach it- i think: maybe i should take a picture of this romantic glow of stars on plastic on a Kenyan night- until i see: a chair is still a chair. Even when there’s no one sitting there. Even when it’s dirt smudged plastic is glowing clean as doll porceline in the gentle light of the stars…but of course, ”starlight” does not have the same kind of maturity and poetic effect as the moon, ergo:

a chair
in the moonlight
is still a chair.

12.23.2010 turning point
today i was in all my glory as i ”taught colouring” to the kids. I was elated as i dispensed handfuls of crayolas to the kids and watched them fill in the pictures i drew. I almost cried seeing the pride in their eyes as they held up their pictures for me to ”grade” with a thumbs-up sign. it was beautiful. A true transformation, of white pages to coloured creations, and of my attitude here in Kenya.
12.25.2010
from Paul Auster’s ”The Locked Room”
…there was a certain pleasure in this, i believe- to experience language as a collection of sounds, to be forced to the surface of words where meanings vanish- but it was also quite wearing, and it had the effect of shutting me up in my thoughts…
12.28.2010 (un)HolyNight
the opened child’s game and the
boss’ neck tie lie discarded
in the same pile under a tree
of glitter and anniversary ornaments

the scent of cinnamon and
stale perfume crawls up the chimney-
blocking Santa’s way with all
of the weight of holiday temptations.

The party’s over. Downstairs the record
Is still spinning beside a bowl
Of tinsel and tangerines…
Silent night. Holy night.

12.29.2010
helped with HAVOCO budgeting plans for 2011 term and started to look into revisions for the diet of the feeding program…
my legs are getting really hairy.
I feel fat from chapati.
My face is breaking out.
My feet look (and smell) like hell.
But God is good.