In the swing of things

Hujambo, friends! It is 5 PM in Karanga, and this day, January 19, marks the busiest day of my life (and 6 months left to shop for my birthday gift). I had a decent night sleep again, surprisingly, despite the dog fight outside my window around midnight.

I woke at 6:30, to be ready for breakfast at 7. (Poridge, fruit, and brownies) At 8 sharp, we had to sit as a group and take care of all of our permit paperwork, which meant filling out endless forms. Following that, we took a group photo in front of the house, with 20 different cameras. It reminded me of Sunday mornings at High Point. At 9, we had a community activity that involved a neighborhood scavenger hunt. It was the first time I have been locally out of the CCS compound. The people here are the nicest people I have ever encountered in my life. Once we finished and returned to home base, we had discussions about what we found.

At 11, we had cultural learning class, which covered introductions, rituals, and family life. At 12, we had our first Swahili lesson. It didn't quite sink in. My brain is on overload! We ate lunch at 1 (rice, beef stroganoff, okra stew, cucumber and avacado salad), and were joined by the "mentors" who will supervise us at our placements. I met two men (one young and one old) who were math teachers at the local primary school. They were very nice to speak to. Then I met with the man who runs the orphanage I will be working at, with Kathryn, the other volunteer who is working there with me. He is very nice, but speaks very little english. We managed to have a conversation, though it took a little while. He didn't tell me much about the orphanage that I didn't already know, other than it is the farthest placement from our home base, so walking won't be an option.

Once he left, I laid down to rest, only to hear that the driver was taking a group into town to shop for clothes. So, I jumped back up and ran out the door. We went to a boutique called Unique Batik, which was about a 30 minute ride from the house. I got a couple shirts and a pair of pants, and everyone else left with something, too. The driver decided he needed to run errands, so we had to find our way back home. The owner of the boutique was nice enough to drop some of us off at the top of our street, and the rest took a daladala (like a bus). I went with the owner, and she dropped us off so that we only had to walk about half a mile down our street. While we were walking, a girl named Glory ran up to walk with us and hold our hands. She was very quiet, but adoreable.

Once we reached home, I decided to start writing this blog. I was about 15 minutes into it until the man from the safari company came to speak with us. It was brief, so afterward I returned to the computer to finish, and the electricity went out while I was typing. Thank god for auto save. So, it is now 6:32, and I am about to go have dinner and go to sleep! Tomorrow is the first day of work, and the bus leaves at 7:30 sharp. Eek! I can't wait to report to all of you tomorrow about how the first day went!