First day :)

January 5th, 2009 by Hannah Marvin

Just finished my first day at the orphanage. It’s about 4:30 PM here so the day wasn’t too long. From where I’m staying, the orphanage is about a 40 minute walk. The walk is beautiful.. the Ngong hills are always in sight and we walk through a few fields and farms. There’s a school on the way where the children all ran up to us saying “How ah you how ah you how ah you?” Everywhere we go, the kids all repeat that over and over again.. it’s adorable. After climbing the last two hills which conveniently are located at the end of our walk, we reached the orphanage. This is a new building they are in, since the kids were just recently relocated from the slums to here (the rent is being paid by a few volunteers for the moment). It’s a beautiful orphanage but there were only a few kids there at the time since they were all in school. We walked to the school, which was about a 30 minute walk from the orphanage. Rachel and I were swarmed by cicaedas (spelling?) and then had to walk through a herd of goats, where one peed on her leg (and my yoga pants she had borrowed this morning). The school is in the Ngong slums, so the walk there was pretty dirty. There is no organized system for garbage here, so everywhere you go, the ground is completely covered in trash. When we reached the school, I was swarmed by these cute little kids, the first one being Cynthia who climbed straight up to my shoulders in point two seconds. Right away, I could hear all of the fluid in her lungs when she breathed. Rachel and I might take her and Francis, a little boy we think might have Malaria, to the hospital this week.. depending on if their symptoms improve or not. Cynthia ended up falling asleep on me twice, so I brought her in another room and laid her on a mattress so she could catch some more sleep. The school in the slums is what used to be the school and orphanage. They showed me a small room, about the size of my dorm bedroom, where 15 of the little girls used to sleep. I can’t imagine them having to do this and am so happy they have such a better place to live now. The kids are sooo adorable.. they were all dancing and singing and laughing histerically when I let them play with my camera. I taught them Miss Mary Mac and have played it at least 100 times today. It’s amazing how these children all help each other. You see them cleaning one another, dressing one another, sweeping, pouring water for everyone, cooking.. they are so grown up for being age five and under. Today they were sorting out where each grade will be taught, so today we just played with the kids. I am already in love with all of them and want to take them all back with me (don’t worry Mom, I promised I wouldn’t..). I’m interested in hearing more about how they were orphaned.. what I know so far is that a lot of these children were abandoned, their parents weren’t fit to care for them, or their parents were killed or died of other illnesses. I almost cried today when they all started dancing and singing this song called “I’m So Happy”. I got it all on video tape so will be posting it when I’m home.

After we said goodbye to all of the kids, Rachel and I headed back to the orphanage to sort out school supplies. We divided the supplies needed for the different level grades so that teaching will be easier. The younger kids will be taught in the slums where the school is, while the older kids will be taught in the classroom in the orphanage. I think Rachel and I will be doing mostly teaching during the next few weeks and will be switching off between the classrooms. I know that grade 2 does not have any text books or a teacher, so this week I’m going to go to town to buy 7 or 8 textbooks and probably switch off with Rachel with teaching the class.

We’re now in Ngong city where we just dropped off Jon to go to boarding school. Jon is a bright kid from the orphanage who they have invested in going to boarding school. He is a sweet heart.. every time he asks me something, he begins with “Excuse me Hannah..”. It was funny today when he asked me “Excuse me Hannah? At your college.. ah you called dee perfect ten?” I was very confused but realized that my WNEC shirt says “perfect 10″ on the back, referring to our graduating class 2010.. I wanted to say I wish Jon but just explained the shirt instead haha. Every kid here thinks I live in England because most of the shirts I’ve worn here say “Western New England College” on them. I guess it would be pretty confusing for them here.

Yesterday, we went to the Kibera slums. This slum is the second largest in the world (the first is in South Africa). I have never seen so much trash in my life.. I took a decent amount of pictures because I could not believe it. A few times I had trouble breathing because of the smell, and I stepped on a piece or two of glass as well. I was amazed that people can live like that, but they seem to do so alright.

I’m still very happy with my host family. My accomodation is great and the house is very comfortable. Last night, Rachel and I taught the family how to play Bingo and played outside on the porch. Every night, they heat up water for me and I take a “bucket bath” in this little plastic bowl that’s just barely big enough for me to sit in. They have running water that I wash my hair with but it’s very cold so I try to only do that when I can. I made myself a bubble bath the other night and drank some red wine from a dixie cup during it.. how very Nannoo of me haha. It was very relaxing though.

My family here is soo cute. They give big hugs when I leave and arrive. My host Mom, Millicent, is also housing two other girls- Nancy and Mary. Millicent’s story is amazing and so inspiring. She has taken such an awful thing and turned it into something that is helping girls all around here. Millicent was kidnapped for four days and raped at age 11, giving birth to a son at age 12. She was rejected from her mother because of this and lived between other family members. The man who did this to her was never convicted.. he was let off of all charges because he was still in school. Today, Millicent takes in other young girls who have been raped. Mary has a 4 year old, Peter, and Nancy has a 6 month year old boy. Millicent’s life dream is to start this program that employs girls from around here to weave carpets. This way, the girls’ self-esteem is raised and they feel a purpose. Millicent is the happiest woman I have ever met, and I’m not sure how she can be, because I could never be as strong as her. She has vowed to her self that she will do all she can to not allow what happened to her to happen to other girls, and is so excited that her life dream to help these girls is coming alive. She has typed out her business plan and everything. Some of the other volunteer girls and I feel very connected to this project and are already brainstorming for different kinds of fundraisers we can put together. This is one step further than the orphanage, since it is preventing young girls to give involuntary birth to children and have to give them up, since they are only children themself. I am very lucky to have been placed with such an amazing and inspiring family and hope to help them in any way I find possible.

Rachel and I are heading back now.. making it a total of almost 3 hours of walking today since we’re a good 45 from home right now and had to walk into the city after work. Definately feel like a fat American huffing and puffing everywhere. Anyways, I suppose all of this walking will do me some good. I hope this entry finds everyone well at home and I will try to write individually to others if I can. Love you all!