Trying to stay positive!

Well I'm on day 10 in Kenya and things are going okay. Little frustrations do not seem as big of a deal when you are laughing at yourself. I am quite over the whole being dirty and smelly thing, as everyone else is just as dirty and smelly. There is an abundance of fresh fruit available and it is cheap so even though I am sick of beans I have plenty to eat. Morgan, one of the other volunteers, and I have decided to try to name out positive things because there tends to be a lot of complaining by all of us volunteers, about everything from the living situation to the administration here.

Today was sponsors day at the orphanage, and so all the children in the surrounding area that are sponsored by donors in other countries through WWB come to pick up their supplies...schoolbooks, toothpaste, soap, pencils, some clothes (the clothes that were donated by Kristin from TKO were handed out!) and corn and beans. Of course they did not have enough toothpaste and the orphanage is very nonchalant about this - they were just like, well they'll get it sometime...so me and another volunteer went and bought toothpaste because we did not think that was fair. On one hand I understand that this place has limited resources, that this is a different world, and that its normal to less efficient or less fair than what I think is ideal, but it is so simple to organize something like this better...the volunteers have ideas but its hard to implement because it seems like they don't have the desire to change their system.

Either way, it was interesting to see the children and see them get their supplies. Saturdays are usually a day off for volunteers but it rained yesterday so I did not do much, and ended up helping today.

Thursday I signed up for social work...we spent like over an hour sweeping dirt....from dirt? Yes, that is correct, they think its cleaner to sweep the dirt paths of the compound so we did that. And picked up leaves...from the grass...under a tree. But who am I to question - I mean we do really strange things in America too. One of the other volunteers, Blake, was trying to explain walking in America, saying that we do not really walk unless it is for exercise. So we wake up in the  morning, walk around the block (walk in circles) or walk in place (like on a treadmill) and then get in cars and drive to work. Sounds really stupid. I also tried to explain that we buy pre-made food, frozen, and then thaw it before eating it, which they thought was gross.

These differences are funny, because things that seem so so normal sound so odd to people that have never heard of them. The amount of work that people here do is incredible. Washing clothes takes all day. That's something we can do in about 90 minutes and we can do other things while the laundry is done.

Another thing I have noticed, not about the orphanage, but about the culture here, people sometimes just make things up! If they do not know the answer, they will answer regardless and just lie to you. The weather, the time, how far we have to walk, where is the modem, when will new volunteers be here, etc...lies lies lies. Once you see it and recognize it, its funny, but it can be frustrating.

So as you can see, there is a lot of good things going on but many frustrations, not with being here so much as adjusting to the differences in culture here. I am experiencing a lot of homesickness, missing people more than material or physical comforts...everyone said I would be too busy and having too much fun to be homesick, which is wrong. I would not say this trip is "fun" in a traditional sense but I am enjoying myself and learning a lot. I also not busy really, there is a lot of downtime.

That's all for now...thank you for reading!