Exciting News! We have a guest house dog, and by that I mean a dog that hangs around our house. Dogs here are strays that wander and have no owner or caretaker. Same goes for the cats. My house is home to two cats, 4 kittens, numerous chickens, and Ticksy the dog. Previous volunteers named her this because of her obvious affliction of ticks. She is cute though and although not like any sort of America pet, she will do for the year. She is beginning to learn her name and according to other volunteers is doing better than she was when they got here. She is incredibly skinny but appears to be getting healthier. I feed her my scraps and want to teach her some tricks eventually. The cats however are extremely annoying and never stop meowing. They beg and crawl all over the table. They have also eaten some volunteer’s food that they left out by accident. No one is a fan of the cats or the roosters.
I hadn’t stayed up late to watch any of the quarter or semi finals of the World Cup, but I figured I should suck it up and stay up on Sunday to watch the final, as it only happens every 4 years. At 10pm we headed to the computer lab located in the high school, where the one tv in the village is located. We arrived to find over 50 boys also arriving to watch the game. All of us squeezed around the TV on benches for the next two hours. Some boys near us had on a radio to listen to the game in Swahili, but the radio was a couple seconds ahead of the live tv, so we heard the announcer yell “GOALLLLL” a couple seconds before anyone had even shot the ball. It was very confusing and spoiling, luckily they turned it down after the first half. I was so tired after the second half that I left to go to bed, not having the energy to stay up for overtime. All the students were rooting for Argentina but apparently when Germany scored in overtime, they all jumped up and cheered anyway, just happy that someone had scored. I’m glad I got to watch though, even if Monday morning came way to quickly.
I have gotten to go running a couple times this week. I made the mistake of once going mid afternoon and it was so hot that I thought I might pass out. So now, I make sure I go early morning or late afternoon, when its coolest. In the mornings on the road leading to the village there are usually many children walking to school. Some had begun to run with me so by the end of my run I have a group of 6 or so by my side. Its pretty entertaining but usually they are very fast so I have to work to keep up!
On Monday, the nursing student from JMU departed after 6 weeks, but Tuesday brought the arrival of 11 students from Regis College who are visiting for a week, so now meal times get very busy. It was very cool to learn upon their arrival that they are all from Boston and many of them had strong accents to prove it. Half of them are nurses and doctors while the other are student volunteers. Starting Wednesday they have eye-screened all the children in the village and tomorrow they will do the grandmothers and staff. On Tuesday, before they depart for Nairobi, they will bring back and re-check all the people with medical eye problems or very poor vision. It was very sad to see that some children are practically blind and have never received glasses or attention for it. Some children have untreated abrasions or ulcers or infections, that now detected, will be treated. I have gotten to sit in on the majority of the sessions and it is nice to get to see all the children come through. The baby class was definitely my favorite. “Baby class” is what they call pre-K here and they are just adorable and so happy.
Three of the boys in the Boston group are also doing soccer clinics in the afternoons with the high school boys. In addition, some of the women are doing a photo project where they are taking family photos of each house, having each family member sign the frame, which they get to keep in their house. It has been a nightmare though trying to get every member from every family together in one place at one time.
On Friday, the volunteers and I had a bonfire in our yard where we roasted hotdogs and even did whistling apples (a throwback to my girlscout days). The stars were amazing so it was the perfect night to sit out around the fire.
Yesterday, after doing eye screenings and family photos in the morning, the Boston group headed into Kitui (the nearest large town), so I had a free afternoon. Myself and two other volunteers from Emory walked into Kwa Vonza. It was a two hour walk and very dusty, but it was nice to see the surrounding landscape and we arrived in town just as the sun was setting. A couple more volunteers took motar bikes into town to meet us and we all got chips (fries) and a few drinks at the local bar. It was not exactly a crazy Saturday night but it was better than nothing ha ha.
Today, I am hoping to relax more as this week was very busy. I brought the Boston group to church this morning and helped with more family photos after the service. Now I have to do laundry and catch up on some reading!
Sorry no pictures this week! I will try and have more next time! Xx Maggie
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