Two Weeks (and a day) since Waking Up at 3:30am…

          Yes, it has been more than two weeks since I left home. It seems a lot longer because of everything that I’ve experienced. Currently, I feel a little homesick, mostly missing my mother. We have a strong relationship and, at times, it is tested, but she is always my rock. I have a wonderful community here in Kitale who try making me feel at home. They do help and I am extremely thankful for them. I guess the community part is something that I actually need when I immerse myself into service. Oh, and I caught a cold. Don’t worry, I’m taking the proper medicine and I’m feeling a lot better.

            When I am with the children, I forget about any worries or thoughts that I may have. The children are all here to have fun; I have a personal responsibility to make sure they have fun. It is not enough to do something but to do it well… Logistically, the first week of camp went off without a glitch. As staff, I think everyone did an amazing job, whether it was adjusting to down pouring rain during sports or to the lack of materials to finish arts and crafts. My most memorable part about camp this week was having the children create a village from pipe cleaners. They were so creative: houses, people, dish racks, glasses, cups, cars, trees, flowers. What makes this more special for me (and also a personal achievement) is that I allowed myself not to plan for once. I came up with this idea on the spot. As many of you know, I plan every second of every minute of my life. To see that something so beautiful came from spontaneity makes me think what else can happen if I just let life happen every once in a while.

            Friday was bittersweet. It was the last day for the first group of kids; Monday would bring new and excited faces to Nyota. I’ve worked many seasonal jobs where I have to say good bye to children all the time. I knew I would have to separate myself once more from wonderful children, but it wasn’t easy. It’s never easy. The children spent the whole day dancing and singing. We handed out all their crafts and activities they made throughout the week, along with pictures of themselves for their parents. The Sisters say that these pictures may be the only picture the children and their families have of them. When it was finally time to say goodbye, I got huge hugs and many “Bye Teacher Melisa,” (pronounced in Spanish, by the way J).

            Over the weekend, we got to go outside of the compound into town with the helpers. We walked about 30 minutes into town. We visited the Kitale Museum, where we got to see some interesting artifacts. There were some model homes of the natives also at the museum. I found these to be the most interesting because the homes looked pretty similar to me, but when the helpers explained the differences from the type of roofs to number of rooms, I had a whole new perspective. There were also crocodiles, tortoises (my favorite reptile), and snakes. After the museum, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a local restaurant and headed home before the rain started. On Sunday, we were invited to Beatrice’s house for lunch. Beatrice works here at Nyota and is an incredible cook. She made us a delicious meal and we met her son and husband. She has one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen!

            A new week has started and camp started once again. The mornings have gone pretty smoothly. It’s the afternoons that have been a challenge- the culprit, the rain! It rains every afternoon. Emily even says that it has been raining more than any previous time she’s been here. The rain makes it hard for the children to spend time outside but we are adjusting indoor activities accordingly. Yesterday, however, we had a dry afternoon. The first one since I’ve been in Kitale. We had a volleyball tournament for the children. The winners would play the staff. I was the score keeper/ referee. Land sports are not my forte… After the children left for the evening, the staff had a friendly (aka competitive) game against each other, men versus women. I joined in this one but missed the ball every time. Oh well. Today, I read a couple books to the children and introduced freeze dance and the Hokey Pokey. Like last week’s group, they absolutely loved it. And yes, I looked completely ridiculous doing it again. The children loved it and that’s all that matters.

Remember that I love you all and I hope that you are all doing well! Until next time…

-Melisa (pronounce it in Spanish!) J