day 4.

well.. today was only a half day at joyspring,
i felt sick last night and even more this morning
i had some pills my mom packed but this one kind wasnt labelled..
none of the other ones were ones i needed to take and the internet wasnt working so i just winged it and took a blue pill haha
(thankfully it was the right one -- i looked it up online when i got home)
but we ended up going home early
apparently i have a low fever amoung other symptoms. nothing major
the nurse mom prescribed bedrest
she said im not allowed to go to the school tommorrow because i had a fever
but i think by tommorrow i will feel fine, we will see..

but im taking the bed rest as an opportunity to write in here,
as a side note, please ignore all my grammatical errors in this blog, i know that i should be using capitals and saying "Elise and I" and all that, BUT i am rebelling for a while against the system and just typing ..

So yesterday i taught a bit in standard four (grade 4) by myself. because exams are coming up before break, most of what the kids are doing is review. i wrote questions on the board and they copied and answered. i marked the books this morning and some of the answers are very cute, i will have to tell you all about them when i get home.

everyday the school feeds all the children. usually we have rice and these split yellow bean things or wheat stuff with the split yellow bean stuff... haha the teachers say its not actually very kenyan food BUT i ALSO found out the government provides all the food for the kids everyday! i was impressed. sometimes the kids bring a little something from home, like chipati (kind of like a pita but better) Oh, the kids also get porridge in the morning during tea time.

Some of you may know that before i left for kenya i had a new found love for chai tea. (the starbucks kind) So i was REALLY happy when i found out, everywhere, at every school they have "chai time" for their first break. of course it tastes different then starbucks but its still pretty good. usually its made with milk, but yesterday and today there was no milk so it was just "black tea" so .. chai tea made with just water. ALSO if you have ever tried tea that i drink at home it is VERY sweet, but here.. i think their tea is even sweeter then mine, so its pretty intense.. The nurse momma thinks that maybe thats how i got sick, because if you arent used to the water here, and its not filtered, you need to boil it for like 15 minutes before using it, but it probably wasnt boiled that long at the school. its hard sometimes to figure out what you should and shouldnt eat. i dont want to be rude or make the school feel bad so its hard to say sometimes..

LAST THING ummm from some of the things being said i think that i should tell you a little about HIV/AIDS here. contrary to popular belief it is NOT that easy to get HIV/AIDS
the easiest way and most common way is through sex
next is blood exchange.
now when i say blood exchange it does NOT mean if i have a small paper cut, and a little blood gets on me, that i will get it, it is VERY VERY VERYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY unlikely to happen, i would need like a HUGE cut to get LOTS of blood on it. there are also pills here for if you have come into contact with potentially hiv/aids fluids you can take them and it somehow protects you.
anyways i just want to say it is not something anyone needs to worry about.
Africa is usually seen as an HIV/AIDS country, and while it does have a very high percentage of the victims LETS NOT FORGET that it is also in our countries, what people dont realize is its spreading everywhere.

Heres some interesting stats:
Between 40,000 and 50,000 Americans become infected with HIV every year. Half of them are between the ages of 13 and 24. That means at least two teenagers and young adults in this country are infected with HIV every HOUR of every day.
Remember, one in 250 Americans is HIV positive; only one in 500 knows it.

so believe me when i say this is not only a problem here, it is quickly becoming a worldwide problem.
but thankfully for the most part, if you are not sexually active and don't inject drugs, you don't need to worry about contracting HIV.
i dont know how comforting that is, BUT the point is.. it is not really something i need to worry about, not anymore then anyone else at least..
well..
on that note..
ill probably add a bit tomorrow, maybe some pictures, because i imagine ill be bored..

day 3 at joysprings

so today was the first day i didnt feel completely overwhelmed at the school.
i dont know how to explain it but until now, in kibera, i would not actually SEE anything, i would just walk. it was like .. sensory overload? i wasnt taking in anything. but today i am starting to see things (and not in a bad way -- things that are actaully there.. ) so that is good. i have a lot to say but not enough time to write it right now so i will write more later!

HEY ALL !

Well today was the second day at Joy Springs, it is a very small (spacewise) school but has around 300 kids. Things are going well and Elise and I are trying to figure out where we would like to work. Sorry that I am not on msn very often and am not answering messages right away, life is a little crazy, BUT hopefully this blog will make up for that! I decided to make this a little more interactive. What would YOU like to know? Comment and leave me a question and in the next blog I will try and answer it. There are so many things, i just dont know what you would like to know!
Hope all is well whereever you are!
God blessssss!
p.s. the first picture is the inside of the school, this is the "yard" for 300 kids lol its really hard to hear anyone talk when kids are playing.. which is like.. most of the day because classes take turns going since there is not enough room for all of them to be in there and actaully.. move.. at the same time. it looks a lot bigger in the picture then it feels, but all the kids still have tons of fun!
the second picture is RIGHT outside the school door. there is just enough room to get out of the school, i guess some kids managed to snag some chalk from school and drew on the house next door haha!

Jambooooooooooo

HELLO! yes im still alive!

so basically this week its going to be really easy to write on here because i dont start till friday at the school. today issss wednesday and we had another orientation day, we had the afternoon off so me and jael went to the yaya center. which is like a mall closeby. it was good to get out of the compound and we are starting to get some freedom. i actually feel extremely safe here, so that is not really in issue at all, especially in the daytime. The yaya center is definitely more touristy. we saw some some other mzungus there (what kenyans call white people) and a lot of the advertisements in the mall have white people soo its fun to go to for a walk but also has higher tourist prices.

there are other people here with sim that are living in other parts of the city, on tuesday nights everyone gets together at one house and theres like a good dinner and a bible study. so i met almost everyone who is working in the area, there are about 20 people all together. we have elise from france (my roomate)

jael -swiss, -came the same night as me- working at a hospital

eva- swiss, - working with.. disabled? maybe..-not living on compound

christy- southern states, - working as photographer

adam- texas, - working at a school - not living on compound

calib-states, - airplane mechanic - not living on compound

alice-taiwan, -came the same night as me - working at a school for blind kids- not living on compound

(uhhh ok this whole remembering names thing is super hard for me.. )

we have shevon - manitoba, -met her at orientation - working at new adventure

sarah wassink - right by me aka ontario, -working at childrens home - not on compound

sarah cavers - lindsay ont, -working at hospital -met her at orientation

Annelie- who works with sarah w from germany

Cathy -who lives in my house from Sandiego cali

OK so i left writing this yesterday and TODAY is a new day -- THURSDAY

Today me and elise went to visit the school sarah wassink is working at, which is St. Nicholas school. Its is in Karen (sp) which is where all the rich people live. the school is on the property with an orphanage (Which they call.. childrens home? you arent suppose to say orphanage, i guess they are catching onto the wests' "political correctness" Anyways. The school is in the country and it is BEAUTIFUL landscape. Sarah and Annelie live there, it looks like a little .. sketchy cottage, but they have a fridge and an american toilet and that. The main building there is for special guests only and is empty at the moment. The children are amazing. I really dont know how to explain everything i saw today it is a little overwhelming.

Later Daniel picked Elise and I up and we set off for Kibera which is the slum that we will be working in. Daniel lives in Kibera, he has for years even though he might be able to afford to live somewhere a little bit better. So as we are nearing Kibera i guess you could say i was mentally preparing myself because... im sure all of you have seen the pictures of the slum and it is very different from what we are used to.
We get to the entrance of Kibera and there were a lot of people gathered, i guess since its the political rallying time the politicians are handing out free food (the day before they handed out free beans? ) so people were waiting around for them to come. ..
As we walk up we see all these men yelling and then this fight starts and people all kinda running towards it but we just kept walking. and in my head im thinking.. okkkkk what the HECK am i getting myself into. BUT it was fine.

Now about Kibera. honestly i thought id be fine to see it, i mean ive seen TONS of pictures of it.. but i honestly cant really describe it. millions of roofs you can see just.. tin everywhere .. garbage everywhere its very very different. im not really one to wear my emotions on my sleeve and if you know me you know i very rarely cry or show a lot of emotion but all im going to say is i had a pretty hard time walking through there.

the kids are amazing. most really young kids dont know english yet and in kibera whenever you see a kid they will start running towards you HOW ARE YOU ! HOW ARE YOU! HOW ARE YOU! its hilarious. some of the girls including me at the very beginning(jael and alice met us in kibera with their kenyan guide) would answer "fine and how are you?" but as time went on i pretty quickly realized they are not ASKING us how are you.. they are CALLING us how are you. i guess the easiest way to get money from a mzungu is to ask how they are hahaha so all the kids (if they want money or not) are just know that is the way you greet the mzungu. anyways it is very different from home. but the first thing i asked daniel when we got out is.. "are they happy even though they are in kibera" and he answered yes. Daniel is big on explaining (and i think we all agree) that no amount of money, no amount of food will change kibera, only God can change Kibera, and all we can do is bring God there. the BEST thing we can do is bring God there.
it was a strange experience, because when i walked through kibera, it seemed like it was .. a tight community. if you know of community you will know what im talking about, either people of the same background, or who live in the same area, or who have experienced similar hard times. these people have all three so i almost felt like when i walked through there i was an intruder (which i suppose i am a little bit) But for some reason the sense of community also made it seem.. more hopeful? less heartbreaking? im not sure. but i like it there, even on the first trip theres something about that place that i really like..

ANYWAYS. it was a good day. oh and i rode on a matatu too that was cool annnnndddd yeah also went to the grocery store last night and bought some frosted flakes. :)
the end for now

Arrived Alive

Well, here I am. In Kenya!
It's hard to believe it wasn't long ago i was sitting in Canada and now am halfway around the world!
The plane rides went smoothly with no delay. The KLM airline took super good care of me. Each flight had a drink, a little snack and a drink, a meal, a drink, a big snack box/small meal and a drink. On the first flight the snack box was all breakfasty with a bagel, creme cheese, granola bar ex. but on the second flight there was soup and some sort of salady pasta type thing. I didn't want the box so instead the stewardess brought me some mini chocolate bars and a granola bar. So they took really good care of me.

On the second flight I became friends with a UN worker who is a Kenyan national so that was very interesting. I asked him a lot of questions about the country and his opinions on the people (like me) who are white and come to try and help for a couple months. When you looked around on the flight you could tell there were a lot of people either going on safari or trying to do some humanitarian work. I thought, if I was someone from this country I wouldn't know how I would feel to have all these people come who thought they could come for a few weeks and fix everything. Anyways we talked for a while. He explained that there is starting to be a problem with something they like to call "slum tourism." Many people come to just see the poverty. A lot of tourists will hand out cash or supplies to the people in the slum, they are trying to help but actually doing the exact opposite. So many people are learning to just say "give give" to the tourists that they are not doing anything to help themselves.
Basically what I got out of the conversation was that the best thing that I can teach the kids at the school is essentially that they don't really need me.. if that makes sense. Also that giving out free handouts is not helpful, I need to offer skills not money.

Today I learned that I am no longer going to be working at New Adventure school but at a different school on the other side of Kibera. The reason for the change is that, a girl from here is already working at New Adventure, and a team of 14 Americans has recently come to help do some work there. I am definitely not needed there, and quite honestly when I heard there were that many North Americans there already I wasn't overly ecstatic about going. I am working at a school that is run by a local church. There is a Kenyan man that works here named Daniel who is basically a big brother to everyone here. He is a bodyguard and advisor. Because he is Kenyan he knows what is culturally acceptable and whatnot, and because he has worked with SIM for so long he knows how we act as well. Anyways it is his church that runs the school. The pastors wife is the headmistress there and me, and my new roommate Elyse (from France- we both arrived yesterday) will be the FIRST team to ever work there. There are about 350 kids, and it goes up to standard (grade) four! I am VERY excited because this means I will be working with young children. The ages there start from 2 and 3 all the way up to 12. I am very very excited about working at this school. It is a big privilege and challenge to be on the first team going there as we will be paving the way. Daniel is also very excited and it is the hope that many teams will be able to work at this school after we are done.

Everything here is absolutely beautiful. i will fill you in more later!

The First Post

Well.

Here is my blog, in all its glory! Haha!
People have been asking me to write a blog. So here it is!!
Im naming this blog. Jafrica.
hahahahha in honor of my mother who thought it was the best name ever
In less then a week I will be sitting in Kenya. Hard to believe but very true.
All the last minute details are being taken care of.
Just thought I'd unceremoniously make the first post to get this thing rolling!