Let me tell y’all, 7am in Kenya is the exact same as 7am at home in the States…painful! Given that we went to bed after midnight, getting up to get ready this morning was just as hard as it is to get up and go to work everyday. I supposed I’ll be imposing a regular bedtime upon myself while I’m here too.
I think the hardest thing about getting up in the morning here is remembering not to drink the water. It’s not the act of “not drinking” it as much as it is the fact that you can’t let it in your mouth at all. I did pretty good with the shower last night, but I had to walk back to my room and retrieve my bottled water to brush my teeth.
Anyhow everyone got dressed and two vans were loaded up, one headed for church one headed for coffee before church. Guess which one we were on? Yep, we needed that energy boost. About 9 of us headed to the Java House in the YaYa mall complex less than a mile from the Nfugami house. Mom had her usual house coffee and I had my usual vanilla cappuccino. We boarded the van and arrived at a very crowded church. We actually had to sit outside under a tent and watch the service on a projected screen.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the service but it was by far one of the most interesting services I’ve ever attended. It started out traditionally with praise and worship. Then a male and female choir member took the stage and sang a duet about keeping their marriage strong through fidelity. I was so confused! I’ve never heard that kind of song during a regular church service.
The next thing I knew, the pastor was to be a wedding right then and there! He summoned the groom to the altar and instructed us all to stand for the entrance of the bride. The pastor took the couple through vows as they giggled along with the congregation. We were so confused! We didn’t know if they were really getting married or not. It turns out they weren’t. They were actually a visiting husband and wife pastoral team who had come to speak on the relationship process.
After church everyone piled back into the vans and we headed back over to the YaYa mall complex. Out front the locals had set up a market selling their goods which apparently happens every Sunday. If you’ve ever been to Canal Street in New York City, you’ve got a good sense of what the market is like. They grab at you, compliment you, call you by name over to their lot to try to charm you into buying something from them.
They also keep you on your toes with relentless bargaining. They go high, you go low, and you meet somewhere in the middle. Keeping up with the U.S. dollar to Kenyan Shilling ratio was way harder than I expected. One thousand Kenyan Shillings is equal to about fifteen U.S. dollars. Doing the conversions off the top of our heads probably cost us a few pennies in the long run, but it’s a fun little game. We went inside the complex for lunch…pizza…go figure!
Afterwards we went back to the Nfugami house to regroup before we headed to New Life Homes to meet the babies in the Nairobi house! When we got there we washed up and were given smocks and each handed a baby by the staff. They’re so cute!
The Nairobi home is set up to house and care for babies until they are about 3.5 years old. The isolation room is for any child who is sick to reside until they are well so as not to contaminate other babies. The ICU houses babies from infancy up to four months. These babies are too fragile and small to be put into the “general population.” Then there are the “general population” babies. These babies normally range in age from about 5 months to 2 years. They’re the ones you normally see photographed on Amani correspondence. The “Alice Hardy” toddlers normally range in age from 2 to 2.5 years old. And finally the big toddlers are ages 2.5 to 3.5. Right now the Nairobi home is housing just over 40 babies.
After leaving the home we headed for Kazuri Beads. This is the store and factory that donates a lot of its prized handmade beads to the foundation to make the popular Amani beads. Here’s a bit on Kazuri Beads:
Kazuri, which means “small and beautiful” in Swahili, began in 1975 as a tiny workshop experimenting in making hand made beads.
Its founder, Lady Susan Wood, started with two African woman and soon discovered that there were many other women in the villages around Nairobi, most of whom were single mothers, who were in great need of regular employment. Driven by the desire to provide such opportunities, Kazuri has grown and today boasts a large worksforce skilled in the manufacture of handmade jewelry.
Following our trip to Kazuri Beads we made our way to a nearby mall complex to where we ate at an Indian restaurant. Following dinner we were all pretty exhausted so we headed home to pack and get to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment