A New Year, A New Place

Hi family and friends,

Below is a mass email kind of thing I sent out- please excuse cross postings. :)

Hello everyone,

Happy 2010! The first four months of being in Kenya have really flown by...
First and foremost, thanks are in order. I have reached and surpassed my fundraising goal thanks to all of your wonderful support. I was always a little anxious about this factor in participating in the program, but you have all shown more faith than I had. So, wow, huge thanks.

Things are going great in Kenya. It's a strange and refreshing feeling to feel so at home in such a faraway place. I feel myself streching and growing in ways I never imagined, and yet feeling rather grounded and comfortable. It's a nice tension to have. If you are not able to make it through the entire email, know that I am starting to make some great friends, am forming community with people in my town and church, and that I really love teaching and have had quite the diverse experience so far. Oh, yeah, and I saw some lions in the wild. ;)

I arrived in early September and had a month-long orientation in Nairobi with the other Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs). We were given a crash course in Kenyan history, politics, religion, economics, and language. Sad to say I have not retained a whole lot of Kiswahili as most people default to English when they see me (the other official language of the country), but there's always room for resolutions, right? We also met and stayed with our designated support families and were introduced to ugali, chapati, sukoma wiki, and various delicious tropical fruits. Our stomachs adjusted eventually, and before we knew it, it was time to go our separate ways and begin our work for the year.

Most of my group (7 total) hangs around Nairobi working at non-profits, in churches, or teaching. As some of you know, originally I was supposed to work with the YWCA. However, when I arrived, I learned that they had collected too many volunteers, and so a new placement was needed. I have not done a lot of work with children, so I was skeptical and nervous when I found out my placement was teaching at a primary school.

Meru Junior School is a private school with about 500 students preschool- 8th grade. It is a combination day and boarding school, so some students are local while others are from different parts of the country. The boarding aspect definitely enhances the community life of the school, as children are away from their parents and taught at a very young age to depend on each other. Most of my anxiousness was wiped away within the first five minutes of arriving. I got out of the van to be greeted with a full children’s chorus singing and dancing some standard African welcoming tunes. Each of them proceeded to give me a bouquet of hand-picked flowers. I was reassured exactly then that things were going to turn out ok.

I’ve been teaching 4th-6th grade English and am doing a little music with them whenever possible. I find teaching simultaneously challenging, humbling, rewarding, and creative. It’s taking me awhile to adjust to the different system and rules, but in general, kids are very warm, bright, and well-behaved. I’ve only had to break up fights when students were overly-enthusiastic about answering questions- if that gives you an indication. I definitely find that I learn as much or more from them as they do from me, and that they perform best when we're both having fun. And we are having fun, inside and outside of the classroom. They have inspired me to brush up on my meager guitar skills (and learn some new ones) to accompany them in singing. I performed with three classes for both class eight graduation and “prayer day” before that. I was also given the opportunity to chaperone the field trip to the Meru National Game Park. That’s where we saw the lions… I think I was much more excited than they were.

Outside of school, I’ve been attending a PCEA church and this dictates most of my social life. The young adult population in almost every church here is thriving- something U.S. churches can only dream of. I’ve also been lucky enough to have friends traveling to different parts of the country and letting me tag along. I even got to plant some maize and beans near Mt. Kenya for the school farm. Kenya really is a beautiful country. Mountains, rivers, ocean, coastline, rainforest, wildlife, you can’t ask for more. It’s a rainy season now, so everything is especially green and lovely.

On the whole, I’m really loving it here. I’m making great friends, being adopted into families, and building some good relationships with my students. I’m still adjusting and perpetually learning, but I’m also growing some roots. I can feel subtley my perspective and attitudes starting to change. I think a lot of it is transformative in its pace alone. Though even I will complain about the lateness of Kenyans, it really does give you that time to simply be, reflect, and recognize the sort of “holiness of the moment.” It’s also easier to live more holistically, I think. They have a good balance here. There is always time for friends and family, prayer is almost constant before and after everything, organic vegetables from the local farm are at the market for cheap, everyone sings, everyone dances, people walk most places, there is always more tea, and living simply is the norm, not the new trend.

I’ll try to bring some of this back for you all…I've been on school break since mid-November and have been in Nairobi. Unfortunately, I spent most of my break being sick with a mysterious parasite. I'm feeling better, so I hope this is an indicator of it being gone. In between rounds of medication, my work assignment was with women's and children's groups in one of the slum areas. It was a great experience. We threw a great Christmas party for some children that live there, and celebrated the end of the year with women in a micro-finance group. Again, more is on the blog if you are interested. I was able to spend Christmas with the other Americans and we ate and drank and churched to our heart's content. Our site-coordinator even indulged us with a big 'ol turkey.

Again, thank you so much for your support and prayers. It means so much to me. I think of and miss you all often.

Blessings,
Deanna