New Home
Well, Kenya is now feeling like home. We are missing our homes in America of course, but really loving it here. The past week was pretty emotional with Ben leaving, then the kids going off to school. We were sad moms. Many tears were shed. We had made great friends with a lot of the older kids so it was hard to say goodbye. I fell in love with a 7 year old named James, who I am going to sponsor now, and he left on Tuesday. We are left with the little ones (age 2-10) and a few older ones.
This week has also been very eventful. One day we walked to a school with some kids to get their certificates, then walked to Ngong, the nearest town. It took 3 1/2 hours and was ridiculously hot. We treated them to chips (french fries) and cokes and had a great time. It feels wonderful to make kids happy with a plate of fries and silly conversation. We also went to Ngong to run some errands another day and I brought back a street kid. Mary the director kept calling me their little social worker and calling the boy, "Meghan's son." He is going to rehab next week and will come to the orphanage in a few months. Yesterday I was sitting around with the older boys in the fields and I saw an antelope in the distance....that doesn't happen in Texas too often..haha. The orphanage is in the heart of Massai land so there are buffalo and animals all around. Haven't seen monkeys yet...The security guards are hilarious and gave us all Massai names.. mine is KaKenya, meaning born in the early morning. The kids call me KaKenya or Teacher Meghan.
I started teaching this week too. It has been VERY interesting. Remember when I said over my dead body would I ever teach pre-school? Well I have the youngest ones...it is hard, the language barrier is killing me sometimes, but I am sticking it out, and just trying to enjoy it. Little Jimmy flirts with me while I try and teach the ABC's or a song, so you can't get too annoyed when a cute 3 year old is waving at you while you teach.
Haven't gotten sick at all, have a small cold, which I am thankful for because it smells in NGong, the nearby town, so having a stuffy nose is great. I finally took a shower last night after another 6 days..we don't have water for our shower anymore. We used a bottle of water to wash our hair..hahaha. I hope all of you appreciate washing machines, dishwashers, and showers. We have come across many interesting bugs. We have 3 huge spiders in our room that we refuse to kill but I'm afraid they might kill us. The kids got a kick out of sticking a HUGE grasshopper on me one morning and we have it all on videotape of me screaming and running away. That thing was gigantic. I finally held it though.
We have met cool people from Australia and other volunteer named Bethany who is actually from New York, she is awesome and hangs out in me and Larissa's room every night. We have great meal times and laugh at eachother's accents and tell stories. I'll be sad when they leave at the end of the month. We have gotten into a regular routine of waking up around 7, I go to school (which is like 100 feet away from my bed haha) at 830 and get out at 1230 then we just play or help with cooking or washing, eat lunch, play some more, then eat dinner around 7. The food is pretty good. We have our own cook and they cook us different food from the kids. We are eating a lot of rice, meat, fruit, chips (french fries). The cook is a good friend of mine now and they make sure we eat something every meal haha. We are using a lot of Tricia's hot sauce on everything. Larissa makes me try things first like the fruit and if I don't kill over she eats it. The other day we went exploring, the security guard, Bethany from NY, some kids and I, and we tried to find snakes and geckos but only caught tadpoles.
It is so so beautiful here. I sit on the porch every morning and thank God for making such a beautiful place. Everyone here is so happy and full of life, even when they seem to have nothing. I am so blessed to know all of these people and be family with them. Mary the director of the orphanage calls us her white daughters and I enjoy having tea with her in the afternoons and good talks. Larissa and I have both had some marriage proposals, but don't worry we turned them down. We have made great friends with all the aunties and house mothers. They laugh at us all the time and tell me I am like a 'cartoon.' The kids here are too serious so Larissa and I make them dance and be silly. They love our cameras and have taken a million pictures with them. It's great because we forget to sometimes. We are in Nairobi today and tomorrow just visiting Edward and his family. We slept on a bed made of wood last night...I have a huge headache and my back hurts. We are missing the orphanage already so I think in the future we might just run to Ngong to use the internet. My sunburn is gone, pretty tan now, they had never seen a sunburn before so that was funny. They were like oh what happened to your face is it painful? So funny. I learned how to make fire with a stick. I'm going to be so awesome at life when I get back. You guys will be so envious of my skills. Fire making skills, hand washing clothes skills. I learned to milk a cow and feed chickens too. I haven't been homesick at all until today. We woke up to David Crowder playing at Edward's house and it made me miss Waco. My favorite thing so far about this adventure is that every day is new and exciting. I never know what to expect. I love that feeling. Next week we are having a bonfire and introducing everyone to "smores"..they are so excited. We are going to get burns to show we are true Massai.
Sorry for those on the email list, I am tired, and losing my train of thought, so much of this is repetitive. I love and miss all of you, enjoy the pictures :)
Meg
Enjoy these pictures immens
ely.. they just erased and it is taking forever to put them up :)
our room
James, who I sponsor now.
Kelly, who Genevieve sponsors. She's my best friend.
School time!
I love when they fall asleep on me! This is Mercy. She's a mess.
This week has also been very eventful. One day we walked to a school with some kids to get their certificates, then walked to Ngong, the nearest town. It took 3 1/2 hours and was ridiculously hot. We treated them to chips (french fries) and cokes and had a great time. It feels wonderful to make kids happy with a plate of fries and silly conversation. We also went to Ngong to run some errands another day and I brought back a street kid. Mary the director kept calling me their little social worker and calling the boy, "Meghan's son." He is going to rehab next week and will come to the orphanage in a few months. Yesterday I was sitting around with the older boys in the fields and I saw an antelope in the distance....that doesn't happen in Texas too often..haha. The orphanage is in the heart of Massai land so there are buffalo and animals all around. Haven't seen monkeys yet...The security guards are hilarious and gave us all Massai names.. mine is KaKenya, meaning born in the early morning. The kids call me KaKenya or Teacher Meghan.
I started teaching this week too. It has been VERY interesting. Remember when I said over my dead body would I ever teach pre-school? Well I have the youngest ones...it is hard, the language barrier is killing me sometimes, but I am sticking it out, and just trying to enjoy it. Little Jimmy flirts with me while I try and teach the ABC's or a song, so you can't get too annoyed when a cute 3 year old is waving at you while you teach.
Haven't gotten sick at all, have a small cold, which I am thankful for because it smells in NGong, the nearby town, so having a stuffy nose is great. I finally took a shower last night after another 6 days..we don't have water for our shower anymore. We used a bottle of water to wash our hair..hahaha. I hope all of you appreciate washing machines, dishwashers, and showers. We have come across many interesting bugs. We have 3 huge spiders in our room that we refuse to kill but I'm afraid they might kill us. The kids got a kick out of sticking a HUGE grasshopper on me one morning and we have it all on videotape of me screaming and running away. That thing was gigantic. I finally held it though.
We have met cool people from Australia and other volunteer named Bethany who is actually from New York, she is awesome and hangs out in me and Larissa's room every night. We have great meal times and laugh at eachother's accents and tell stories. I'll be sad when they leave at the end of the month. We have gotten into a regular routine of waking up around 7, I go to school (which is like 100 feet away from my bed haha) at 830 and get out at 1230 then we just play or help with cooking or washing, eat lunch, play some more, then eat dinner around 7. The food is pretty good. We have our own cook and they cook us different food from the kids. We are eating a lot of rice, meat, fruit, chips (french fries). The cook is a good friend of mine now and they make sure we eat something every meal haha. We are using a lot of Tricia's hot sauce on everything. Larissa makes me try things first like the fruit and if I don't kill over she eats it. The other day we went exploring, the security guard, Bethany from NY, some kids and I, and we tried to find snakes and geckos but only caught tadpoles.
It is so so beautiful here. I sit on the porch every morning and thank God for making such a beautiful place. Everyone here is so happy and full of life, even when they seem to have nothing. I am so blessed to know all of these people and be family with them. Mary the director of the orphanage calls us her white daughters and I enjoy having tea with her in the afternoons and good talks. Larissa and I have both had some marriage proposals, but don't worry we turned them down. We have made great friends with all the aunties and house mothers. They laugh at us all the time and tell me I am like a 'cartoon.' The kids here are too serious so Larissa and I make them dance and be silly. They love our cameras and have taken a million pictures with them. It's great because we forget to sometimes. We are in Nairobi today and tomorrow just visiting Edward and his family. We slept on a bed made of wood last night...I have a huge headache and my back hurts. We are missing the orphanage already so I think in the future we might just run to Ngong to use the internet. My sunburn is gone, pretty tan now, they had never seen a sunburn before so that was funny. They were like oh what happened to your face is it painful? So funny. I learned how to make fire with a stick. I'm going to be so awesome at life when I get back. You guys will be so envious of my skills. Fire making skills, hand washing clothes skills. I learned to milk a cow and feed chickens too. I haven't been homesick at all until today. We woke up to David Crowder playing at Edward's house and it made me miss Waco. My favorite thing so far about this adventure is that every day is new and exciting. I never know what to expect. I love that feeling. Next week we are having a bonfire and introducing everyone to "smores"..they are so excited. We are going to get burns to show we are true Massai.
Sorry for those on the email list, I am tired, and losing my train of thought, so much of this is repetitive. I love and miss all of you, enjoy the pictures :)
Meg
Enjoy these pictures immens
ely.. they just erased and it is taking forever to put them up :)our room
James, who I sponsor now.
Kelly, who Genevieve sponsors. She's my best friend.
School time!
I love when they fall asleep on me! This is Mercy. She's a mess.
Riding in a matatu. I forgot to say that we took a girl to the hospital to get stitches. They think we are doctors, with our first aid kits and gloves haha.
We are silly
.
This bug was HUGE
Church, I love to hear the kids sing
Willie, Mary the director's son.
posted by Meg at 2:27 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Meg! We love the pictures. Thanks for sharing yourself in your blog. You make us feel like we're there with you. We miss you so much! I can't believe you've almost been there one month! Be safe. Stay healthy. Take all medicine. Keep close to Jesus and lean on him. Tell Larissa hi. Love, Mom
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