March 24, 2015
Hello!
It has been a long time since I last posted so I have much
to update! Time has flown since the New Year began. It is hard to believe that
I only have a little over 3 months left in my fellowship year! Time has flown
by. Projects take much longer to get done here, so having only 3 months to
finish up projects and work puts some pressure on me. We currently have 4
volunteers with us, some leaving soon and some staying for a few more months.
There is one that will even be here after I leave! It is nice to have a small
closely knit group, and it will be sad to see some go. As of now, we don’t have
any new groups/people coming until June, so the next two months will be quiet.
Two weeks ago, I had the awesome opportunity to go to Uganda
for the first time. Princeton in Africa was hosting its annual retreat at a
Nile River camp in Jinja, Uganda. Forty-seven fellows made the trip and we had
an amazing retreat. I got to swim in the Nile and take a boat trip to the
source of the Nile in Lake Victoria. After growing up hearing all about the
fantastic Nile River, it was very cool to see it in real life. Our days were
filled with bonding and reflection exercises, aimed at preparing us for the
last few months of our fellowship. It was so nice to see all the other fellows,
most who I have not seen since our orientation in June. It was so relieving to
see that other people are going through the same challenges and experiences.
When you are placed alone as I am, it is easy to think that you are the only
one having issues/feeling like a failure, so it is so nice to hear that you are
not alone in this. I think everyone went away from the weekend feeling
de-stressed and ready to tackle the remaining time in our fellowships. It was
also just nice to see a different country and see the similarities and
differences from other parts of East Africa I have been to. The day after the
retreat I went white water rafting on the Nile with 16 other fellows. It was an
awesome day, very thrilling and exciting. We did the extreme level 5 rapids and
it was definitely an adrenaline rush. The only moment that was really scary was
after flipping on one rapid, I was stuck under the raft for a few seconds. I
included some pictures below:
I spent my last night in Uganda in Kampala, the capital
city. We stayed at some fellow PiAf fellows’ house and went out to an amazing
Japanese restaurant. It was nice to see another Eastern African city. We even
got gelato for desert! It was cool to see where other fellows live and work.
The next day I flew back to Nairobi and returned to the Village soon
thereafter. It was a great getaway.
On another note, this month was Kenyan sports championships
at the high school level. I helped prepare our boys and girls basketball teams
for competition. It was awesome to see them improving and getting excited for
the tournament. The first stage is county championships. I accompanied the
teams for the first day of the games. It was not just basketball, but also
rugby, track and field, and cross-country. Nyumbani had two basketball teams, a
rugby team and some boys and girls competing in track. After playing sports my
whole life in the States, it was cool to see the equivalent in a very different
culture and country. The highlight
of the day was seeing my girls’ basketball team literally crush the one other
girl’s team in the county. They won 80 to 0, and that was with our second
string playing as well. The boys also won against the other 3 teams. Our rugby
team also won. This meant that all three teams would move on to districts the
following week. Unfortunately because I was going to Uganda, I could not
accompany the team to districts. But nonetheless, the girls played great and
had the opportunity to move onto regionals this past week. Although they did not
make it past quarter-finals and have the opportunity to go to nationals, they
had a great time and still proved themselves as an amazing basketball team. I
am so proud of them and know they will still work hard to improve in the next
year. It was awesome to be able to accompany them to some games and represent
Nyumbani. I took some pictures but unfortunately, the phone they were on was
stolen so I lost the pictures.
Anyway that’s all the news for now. I am trying to keep busy
working on my water projects and starting to get everything together concerning
volunteer coordination so that the transition from myself to the next fellow
will be smooth!
Ill try and post more often!
Love,
Maggie
