School Day

Today was truly Africa. We woke up early so as to meet Alley (not Ali, like I thought yesterday). She is the resident white chick working for The Foundation for Tomorrow. She's been in Arusha/Tanzania for a little over a year now, so she showed us around the grocery store (Shoprite...think Dollar General meets Costco) as well as the bank. She also has a car, so she drove us to the orphanage. The journey to the orphanage was unique in and of itself. I still haven't figured out the layout of this city, so it seems like it's just endless markets and masses of people. We turned off the main drag after some time and took a dirt road. All of the sudden it was like BAM, we were in the Africa that we all see in National Geographic. I'm talking mud huts, people balancing stuff on heads, skinny cows, random dogs, goats, etc. It was beautiful...very rural and self-sustaining. The entire trip felt like an offroad excursion...the road randomly turns into ditches at places, runs over rocks, etc...and Alley was driving us in a little station wagon-type thing. After a couple of twists and turns, we arrived at Matonyok. Originally we thought that Matonyok was a village, so that's what we've been telling our African friends the whole time. No wonder they have no idea where it is...it's actually Emmy and Ndemno's farm/orphanage. Matonyok is their last name, or their family name...however you want to look at it. As soon as we got out of the car we had our hands shaken by dozens of tiny African children. In their broken English they would tell us their name and that it was lovely to meet us. Luckily, we've made name tags that we are distributing tomorrow so that we can remember everyone. At first they were very shy, but when Ndemno (the dad) told them to take us on a tour of the grounds, they opened up. It was just like a movie: four white people with bookbags being escorted by about a dozen African children and a few adults. Originally we were supposed to stay at a guesthouse (a circular brick hut...Masai tradition) that is currently being built on the grounds. Obviously, since it's not finished, we've been staying elsewhere. Reason for the delay: they make their own bricks and cement at the farm! We were led through the many gardens and plots of corn (maize) as well as sunflowers (they use the oil) and chickpeas. They showed us the brand new bathrooms that they had built as well as the water system they had set up. The house itself doubles as a school and on Sundays, a Sunday school for the kids. There are currently 19 kids living there, with a total of 32 attending class during the day. Many of the kids are orphans, a few are street kids that Emmy and Ndemno have taken in, one has cerebral palsy and is paralyzed on one side, and one is HIV positive. Additionally, Emmy and Ndemno's daughter, Nosim, volunteers there when she isn't working at another school, as well as a lady named Susie who does all the cooking (the kitchen is an outdoor fire pit). There are two men, Emmanuel and Mike, as well as another man (don't know his name) who is a volunteer teacher there. Also in the house is the 91 year old grandmother who only speaks Masai. We thought she was bed-ridden, but when we were walking around later we saw that she had crawled out of bed (she can't walk, and doesn't like the wheelchair), sat herself down on a stool, and was beating the crap out of dried beans to un-shell them...she's 91 and eats little more than beans and rice each day. We sat down and talked with Emmy and Ndemno for a while and then distributed Old Navy flip flops from home to the kids. Mike, Emmanuel, and I sat outside of the house and shared some tea while they tried to teach me Swahili. Emmanuel doesn't speak English, so while he taught me Swahili, I taught him English. Apparently my Swahili is decent enough to where Mike told the kids to treat me not as a European but as someone who speaks Swahili (my Swahili sucks)...now they don't speak English to me. Great. For lunch we had homemade beans and rice with homemade bananas (delish). After that we left with Mike and Nosim, who escorted us back to the hotel. From the orphanage, Emmanuel drove us all in a practically broken down Range Rover (we had to push it down a hill to get it going) to the dalla-dalla stop. A dalla-dalla, as far as I can tell, is basically a small van-type vehicle (there must be at least a million in Arusha) that gets packed with people. Luckily, Mike and Nosim knew exactly where we were going. We got off about 45 minutes from the hotel and walked through the city with the two of them as our guides. We bought some more flip flops for the kids who's feet were too small. It was a lot of fun. We felt like genuine Africans (except we are white) because we're staying away from the huge safari caravans full of old people with dozens of cameras. Safaris are a huge business around here...kind of like prostitution in Vegas but with lions and stuff. We got back to the apartment and invited Mike and Nosim in for about half an hour. Mike decided to get us a better tv deal, so he went to the front desk and came back with a better antenna! I think he's going to be our guide for the remainder of the trip. He and I talk for hours while we practice Swahili. After they left we went to dinner at the hotel again and then came back to the apartment to study up on what we are going to teach tomorrow. I think I got geography. So until next time!