R.I.P.

I apologize for the long, long gap between blogs, but the past (almost) two weeks has been kind of crazy for me. Its also kind of hard for me to write about this, because it has been really an upsetting experience, but here we go.....

Two of my very good friends here are skydivers named Hayden and Zak. I met them the first day that I was here, and hung out with them practically every day since then. They are both amazing people, very kind, and so much fun to be with. On Wednesday, Feb 13th, they went up in their plane with two other people (Baraka, the pilot, and Sian, a tourist) and the plane died and crashed. Baraka was killed instantly, but Hayden, Zak, and Sian were retrieved from the plane still alive. They were taken to the hospital in the back of a police car because there was not a way to get an ambulance to the scene. Hayden died as they were doing tests at the hospital. Zak and Sian made it. Sian was air-lifted to Nairobi on that Thursday morning, and I went on the medical plane with Zak to Nairobi on Friday afternooon. The hospital in Nairobi is AMAZING and very shortly after arriving there, both were in stable condition. In Nairobi, I stayed with a family that used to go to my church in Moshi, and they were really wonderful to me. It was still lonely though, and really hard to handle seeing Zak and Sian in such bad shape. Zak became concscious on Monday, and was able to nod and shake his head and recognize me as well as recognize names that I mentioned, which was very encouraging. Claire, Adam, and Sinead came up to Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon, and that really helped me out too. Both Zak and Sian are doing very well now. Both have undergone multiple surgeries, and will have long recovery times, but will eventually live normal lives again.

That was a very brief overview of what happened, but it would take wayyyyy too long to write all the details in. Today Emma, a good friend of mine from i-to-i as well as Hayden's girlfriend, had to answer Zak's first questions about what happened to Hayden and Baraka. Please pray that the news won't hinder Zak's recovery, as it has been very hard for him to take. Also pray for all the families and friends involved in this situation. It is so hard to understand why such amazing people have their lives cut short. Everyone at my house has been so amazing and supportive to me througout this and I am so thankful for all of them. While I was in Nairobi there was a beautiful memorial service for Hayden at the airport. All the kids from Boma orphanage (70 of them) came and sang a song (Zak and Hayden always spent time helping out there), Emma and Nodd got to go up in Babu's plane (he's a good friend of our boys), and everyone released helium balloons into the sky at the end. Sometime next week, Emma, Nick, and I will go up in Babu's plane to a picnic spot that he once took Zak and Hayden too for our own smaller memorial.

Sorry that this was depressing. On a happier/funnier note, Maggie gave me the wonderful idea of listing daladala themes on here. I'll try and post one on each entry. Just to explain, the daladalas (see previous entries for a description) all have wierd themes to them with strange slogans.

Seen on a daladala in Nairobi: Baby Exodus
-who knows what it means...pretty creepy...really funny

Abby

Oops

Well, the picture of my whole class appears to be missing, I'm really sorry about that. I was able to see it yesterday so I don't know what happened. I was planning on putting up more pictures now but the internet at this cafe is too slow and there is also no USB in this computer. Polepole right?

The clothes that most of my kids wear are their uniforms. They are mostly green checkered but some of the kids have blue uniforms, and some have no uniforms at all. There are two kids in my class who are very, very poor and the only food they get each day is the school porridge. One of them, Martha, has a mother who is mentally disabled and has no idea where the father is. Three or four of the children are orphans. One of my favorite kids, Patrick, acts up a lot, and the teachers, Flora and Romoy, say it is because his dad is in jail. That was all pretty depressing, sorry. On a happier note, the children all seem very happy when they are at school.

Pictures coming soon (once again).....

Abby

I got the pictures to work!!!!

Waiting in line for us to check their copy books.

This is the kids working on their writing in their copy books. The school is in a church so they don't have desks, they just use the benches.

This is my class at Njoro ^^. This is not the picture where I was dancing behind Emma. Aren't they lovely though?!?!?


I think that posting pictures only works on certain computers. I will spend a long time posting more on Saturday, but here is a small taste!

A day in the life....

I am officially going to be working at Njoro kindergarten for the rest of my stay here! I am so excited! This week has been really, really busy and is kind of how the rest of my time here will be. We leave the volunteer house at 8:30 and walk to Njoro which takes about an hour and a half. The route is really nice and there are little kids all along the way, so we get lots of encouragement and high fives during our walk. When we get to Njoro, the kids are usually starting their writing exercises, and so they bring us their copy books to correct and we give them more material to copy. After a bit its our turn to teach. This week we have been doing a lot of games with animals in them. All of the kids love to act like animals. We've also been teaching them songs like the ABC song, and Old McDonald. Yesterday I taught them how to play 'Duck Duck Goose' but somehow by the end it had turned into 'Duck Duck How-are-you, big kids run in circles while the little ones roll in the grass' but they had fun, so I consider it a success. Before we leave school, the teachers always give us tea (SO good) and a little snack which is nice. I don't know if I would make it home without that!

After school is over, we walk, as fast as we can while dragging 2-5 children on each arm, to the daladala stop to catch it to town. I will try and take a picture of the daladala because I'm not sure that words can really describe it (I will try though). A daladala is cheap public transport in the form of an ancient VW-esque bus. I honestly have no idea how they keep running day after day, and am also now sure that there are no emissions tests here. There are 3 rows of seats, not including the front, and as many people as possible are crammed into each row. The 'conducter' hangs out the window to look for potential passengers, and bangs the side of the bus when we need to stop and pile on more people. I really enjoy riding the daladala every day; it is quite an experience (one that everyone should have)!

When I get to town, I head straight to the church and eat lunch there with the Macha's (the pastor and his family). After we eat I get to work doing whatever it is that is needed that day. My work at the church is pretty varied which is nice. Dinner is at half seven, so I try and make it home around six to shower and relax a bit before I eat. The days here are very long, but also very enjoyable.

Aunt Carol, to answer your question about the kengas, they are about a yard long (I think) and you wrap them around you kind of like a bath towel. I will bring one home for you!

I'm still trying to work out how to put up pictures on this blog. We took a class photo on Tuesday, and it came out really well. Emma took the photo on her really nice camera, and I danced on a bench behind her to get the kids to smile (or laugh, really). I will try and post it ASAP.

Out of time!

Abby