The Transition Artist

Great news. The bathroom has a door on it and the toilet has a seat. I moved in yesterday and had my first day on my own in Kibera (relatively speaking, considering Peter was with me all day). We’ve done a lot in the short time I’ve been here, but I have to say it’s all been very eye-opening. It’s harder for me to blog now because it takes me a really long time to write my posts, and everything about the culture here is very community oriented and I feel extremely rude separating myself to be writing. The writing almost seems to defeat the purpose if I’m separating myself from living in the present by writing about the past.

Anyway, we have some downtime this evening so I figured I’d use it to catch up. Yesterday was a whirlwind of different experiences, and I quite literally felt like I got tossed into the deep end head first. To be honest, it was a little uncomfortable at times and somewhat intimidating, but it turned out to be really great.

Emily left yesterday, but before she went she came to drop me off in Kibera. We arrived around 10am and sat down to talk with Peter for a while. I’ve learned a lot about HEKO (his organization) in the past week, but sitting down to review his budget and talk about the number of people he serves was eye-opening. Peter and Monica work so hard and touch so many lives on a daily basis that seeing it on paper was absolutely mind-blowing. I was so impressed. This talk served as a great foundation for where I’m meeting the organization, and helped me to start thinking through how I might be able to help while I’m here. The conversation we had gave me a reinvigorated sense of purpose for my time here, because it happened at just the right time. I’ll explain this more later, but yesterday made me feel like my “good intentions” were actually greatly overshadowed by a selfish desire to go on this trip and have new experiences, and I needed something to hold on to so that I didn’t get lost in that.

After meeting with Peter, we took off into the slum to visit a the school I’ll be working at and go to the houses of a few of the HEKO ladies. The school was great. Unimaginably great. There’s really not much to it besides a couple of buildings next to a church, an open field, and a garden in the back, but Peter founded this school using only community and church funding to open it, and that in itself made the humble school simply magnificent. We happened to arrive when the kids were having PE class, and seeing all of their happy little faces absolutely lit me up. Peter told us that they’d be excited if we went to shake their hands (very customary as a greeting here – you shake hands with everyone any time you enter or leave, and sometimes in between), so we walked over. All eyes were immediately on the “Mzungus” (Swahili for white people) and the kids all stuck their little hands out with greetings of “how are you!” “How are you fine!” “Fine!” “I’m fine!”

I thought this was sort of funny at first, but I’ve noticed that most everyone here does it. Greetings of “fine” before you ask how someone is (or when you do) are very common because in Swahili “mzuri” (fine) is a sort of general response that is suitable as a replacement for: nice to meet you, I’m good how are you, glad you’re here, I’m fine, it’s okay, and many other things I probably haven’t picked up on yet. “Fine” as a response in multiple contexts translated into English sounds kind of funny, but I’m getting used to it.

We met with the principle at the school (who is also fine), and discussed briefly what my role there might be. Basically I’ll be a teacher’s assistant working with grades 1-4. I’m incredibly excited about this, even if I have no idea what that role will entail. Apparently I’ll be helping with science and math classes (hilarious because I’m pretty bad at both), but I told them I was fine with anything. After visiting the school we went to Jen’s house (one of the HEKO ladies with an incredible story – I’ll explain later) and stopped by her fish stand. Emily had to leave so we wished her off and peter, Paris, Jen and I walked to Dorcas’ house (another HEKO lady) and had porridge and groundnuts and talked for two hours. The first thing you should know is that African food is not like American food, so I’m still working on doing some adjusting. Porridge is actually not anything like oatmeal. It’s flour, water, lemon, and sugar blended up and served hot in a sort of smoothie-like baby food. You’re drooling, I know. Groundnuts are peanuts with the skins still on that the Kenyans roast themselves. They also eat dried minnows (whole – eyes, bones, skin and all) here as a little treat/protein in a meal.. The dried minnows (which they call “small fish”) are also sometimes ground up and put in porridge.. I’m still working on appreciating those…

The day flew by and we ended by sharing tea and praying all together before bed. Today I was able to go to the Maasai market (a tribe known for their traditional roots and primal arts) with Serphine (who I’m now referring to as my sister) and it was so much fun. I spent way too many shillings (worth it) and got to bond with my new roommate. She really opened up to me on the bus ride home and I feel like we really are becoming like sisters. She and Linette are so sweet and kind to me, I couldn’t have asked for a better living situation. Sharing a room with them actually rocks.

My host parents are equally as kind, and continually go out of their way to make sure I’m happy and comfortable. I couldn’t be more grateful for where I am now, but I have to admit that it took me a little bit to get comfortable and be gracious. At first I quite literally felt like a fish out of water and had no idea what I was thinking when I signed up to be the only American living in Kibera to work, and even considered cutting my trip short, to be honest. Now, I’m so happy I made that decision and even more happy that I stayed. Culture shock is hard, and feeling at home in a new place is harder, but my mom gave me some great advice the other day. She said that, “the minute you start to feel uncomfortable and you want to run, that’s when the growth happens.” It has already started to for me, and I’m only on day two on my own. I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for me here.