It’ll be a month tomorrow that I’ve been in the so-called “Dark Continent” and there has been a lot to process. There have been highs, there have been lows, and I expect that this is only the beginning of the roller-coaster. I’m heading off to climb Mt. Kenya tomorrow which will take five days. So even though I just posted a couple updates a few days ago, I’m going to empty my mind onto the page before I go, so enjoy my sixth entry.
Surprisingly, the least interesting/exciting part of the journey thus far has been the volunteer placement. The people there do great work and it’s nice to help out, but it’s definitely not clicking with me like I had hoped it would. I only end up teaching music for about ninety minutes each day and only after suffering through the mind-numbingly boring class that I have been placed in. I feel useless when I’m in that class (class 2, about 7-8 years old); the teacher there is usually looking for something for me to do rather than actually needing my help. The music section of the day is a little bit better if only because I get to play with a guitar for a while. At first it looked as though I had a group of pretty keen musicians to teach each day, but Pastor Regina has started sending three different kids my way. Only one of them is actually putting any effort into learning, the other two just take the opportunity to mess about. I originally had this dream of teaching a bunch of kids a simple song on guitar and having them play it for the staff on my last day, but there are only a few that I can actually see that being a possibility for anymore, and most of them don’t come to music class anymore. I’ve been told by Regina that the three kids I have are doing really poorly in their academics and so she’s hoping that they can learn another useful skill by coming to me in the afternoons. It sounds nice on paper but in reality they just have severe ADHD or some other learning disability and it carries over to music class as well. I’ve tried to teach them the seven simple open-chords (hoping to eventually teach them a simple song in the key of ‘G’ like ‘Redemption Song’ or ‘Wish You Were Here’) but they can’t be bothered to remember the fingerings and each day is like starting fresh with most of them. I even drew out the fingerings for said chords in the simplest way I could think of on a sheet of paper and had it photocopied so that the kids could study at home, or at least occasionally glance at it and have the shapes ingrained in their minds, but it’s been (almost entirely) to no avail. Don’t get me wrong, the placement is still pretty cool, but it’s easily the part of the day I’m excited the least for.
What is nice though is that Paddy’s soccer team (with Adrian as assistant coach yeeeeeeee) is actually looking like it will be game ready in a few weeks. We really want to organize a game against another school and are both hoping that future volunteers follow our lead so that eventually something with more organization is formed. There are dozens of schools in the immediate area that could easily form a league of some sort. These kids are dying for that sort of outlet for their energy and creativity as well. Growing up, constantly being on soccer teams was a huge part of what shaped me as a person. It’s true that organized sports teach kids teamwork, humility, and discipline, all very important things for young people to learn. It’s really upsetting seeing all the wasted energy that these kids exert; an organized soccer league would do wonders for them. At practice a couple weeks ago we were approached by someone who is volunteering in Kibera (the gigantic slum in the middle of Nairobi) that was interested in organizing a game against his in-the-works team, so let’s hope that pans out. As far as our team goes, we are starting to get an idea of who could play where. Teaching positions is going to be a massive struggle, but certain kids were born to play very specific roles. We have a great goalkeeper, a couple natural defenders (although one of them is going to be pissed that he won’t be a striker) and some very clever could-be midfielders. I’m really hoping that we can get these guys into shape, both physically and mentally, in time to see them paly a proper game before we go. That would make all this worthwhile.
This past weekend we kept it pretty low key, or I did anyway on account of feeling pretty sick (more on that later). Pretty much the only thing I got up to was yet another trip to the Masai Market. I’m a pro now and don’t get hassled at all. I acted as a friend’s husband a few times to get the various pushy locals off her back. It made me feel like a straight-up gangster. I’m the least-intimidating person that I know so it’s pretty fun for me to get to act all hard every once in a while. After kicking around the market for a while we crossed the street to the Hilton Arcade (which I previously hadn’t heard of) to check out their selection of apparently cheaply priced souvenirs. Guess what? Nearly everything that you could find in the Masai market can be found in the two tiny shops of the Hilton Arcade but at waaaaay lower prices. My friend Smijai was feeling pretty good about himself for haggling this one proprietor in the jungle of the Masai market into selling him a knife for 600Ksh, until we found a box full of the same knives in the Hilton Arcade going for 100Ksh each. We were pretty pissed off that we hadn’t known about this place earlier because their prices were basically as low as you could possibly hope to pay by expert haggling in the market, quite possibly lower. We let our rage subside and picked up tonnes of junk for dirt cheap. I’ve nearly finished my Christmas shopping. All that’s left is to try to find a way to send it back home without paying an arm and a leg.
On Wednesday, most of the Fadhili volunteers (myself included) headed up to Nakuru for a medical camp. Smijai did a great job organizing it all with the volunteers and Smij, if you’re reading this, we all thank-you profusely for your amazing work. They expected something like 800 Kenyans from the surrounding slums (garbage slum included) to show up but in the end the actual number was less than 300. This resulted in not much for us to do, which couldn’t have been predicted so it was in no way Smijai or Pastor Anthony’s fault. In the morning I was busy at the “pharmacy” portioning out various drugs. After lunch I was placed at the intake table, taking people’s temperatures. As the day wound down and we had less and less to do, we decided to have a bit of fun. Paddy decided it would be a good idea to get tested for HIV, just for a laugh. The doctor explained to him that the strip of paper upon which the blood sample was placed would produce two lines for a positive result and one for a negative. What he failed to communicate to Paddy though was that it would take about ten minutes for the correct reading to appear. About a minute after the finger-prick, there were two lines on the paper and Paddy freaked the fuck out. The doctor then explained that he had to wait but he spent the next ten minutes stressing out. I only heard this second-hand (obviously not allowed in the room for something like that) but it sounded absolutely hilarious. He isn’t HIV positive, don’t worry ladies, but it was a pretty funny scare. What was genuinely alarming was that his blood pressure is waaaaay too high. That’s probably mainly due to his body trying to fight off a throat-infection, but he’s still pretty worried about it (as I would be). We all had a turn on the blood-pressure/pulse-measuring dealie (oooooh I’m so technical) just as we were killing time, waiting for the vans to take us back to Nairobi. This one guy, Chomlee, who works for Fadhili, is half-Jamaican/half-Kenyan or something like that and is apparently the most chilled-out mother-effer you’ve ever met; his pulse was 55 bpm. That’s gotta be too low, right? Elle, a fellow volunteer, nearly maxed out the machine with a reading of 105 bpm. We all spent a good couple of minutes laughing at how her heart beats twice for every one beat of Chomlee’s heart. All-in-all it was a very fun day and it was nice to be able to help out with something like that. These people living in the various slums are in desperate need of more access to reliable medical attention and this camp was a start. We hope to eventually be able to hold them more often than the current frequency of once a month.
My mysterious illness became more prominent as the week dragged on, forcing me to miss several days at the orphanage. At first I was worried that it was the side-effect of my anti-malaria medication starting to kick in: photosensitivity (it’s been really hot and there have been few clouds in the sky lately). Well today it got bad enough that I decided to go get checked out by a doctor. I got a blood test (okay) and had to provide a stool sample (hahahaha what?). I didn’t have to go at all though. I mean, I’ve done urine tests before and it’s relatively easy to make yourself go pee when you don’t have to, but how do you force a poo? (Fair warning: this is gonna get kinda gross.) I sat there for minutes trying to produce some…uhh… “stool” for the lab techs and in the end I was worried that the sample would be too small. I used this little device that they had given me to scrape some off the toilet paper. Walking back through the hospital with a bag containing a plastic capsule filled with my own shit was a pretty weird experience to say the least. (Hahaha sorry. /disgusting details). Guess what? I have amoebiasis! Wooooo go me! It’s not serious or anything, it’s actually quite common for tourists to get. It comes from their dirty tap water which I could have ingested a small amount of any number of ways. Washed vegetables, damp, just-washed dishes, using the tap water to rinse off my toothbrush etc. etc. Anyway it is what it is and I have to take four different pills three times a day for the next five days then I’ll be good as new. Paying for a doctor consultation, blood test, and prescriptions made me really appreciate how good we have it in Canada. I’ve never paid for anything like that (not directly anyway). I think that my traveller’s medical insurance might cover it actually so I should remember to try and get reimbursed for that.
There’s not really much else to report. This is just a quick little update. I head off to hike Mt. Kenya tomorrow which I am very excited for. Expect a detailed account of my trek in a week or so but until then, keep it real everybody.
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