I leave the snowy northeast after a one day flight delay and begin the journey to Kisumu, Kenya. The journey was long and tiring and I spent some of my flight time having preparatory mental conversations with my stomach as though it is a child. “You are not going to like many of the things here, but you are going to have to learn to tolerate them. You have to be strong. It won’t be bad, little by little you will adjust”.
When I landed in Kisumu at around 11am two days later, the prime heat of the day is just starting and I can’t believe how quickly things change. It felt like I had just walked in one door and out another. I had just come in from the cold.
A week into Kenya and I can say that temperature transition has epitomized the Bob Marley song “Coming in from the Cold”. I am not a blogger so I create my own rules and highly recommend that you listen to this song while you read this post to get the full experience. In fact, hard -core readers can listen to the whole Uprising album starting with that song. Let’s invigorate multiple senses at once.
Welcome
The number one thing I became conscious of here is that we don’t use the word “welcome” enough in America. Perhaps, it’s because some people have a poor perception of foreigners, or we just don’t stop to notice and embrace people in the same way. However, if I had 5 dollars for each time I’ve heard a genuine welcome here, I would have probably raised a couple hundred for the rescue center. It sounds even sweeter here because it is said in the mother language Luo or in Swahili. They really do have a way of not just saying words but making you feel them. I am truly welcome and that feels good.
English is one of the official languages, but it is intriguing how unusual yet attractive English can sound. What I’ve noticed is that it is not so much about the accent as much as it is about the way they structure their sentences and the words they use most commonly. My ears are not auto -tuned to this way of speaking so it forces me to listen to each distinct word in order to gain the full context. It is similar to the experience of learning another language, and provides for active listening so I am embracing that.
When I landed in Kisumu at around 11am two days later, the prime heat of the day is just starting and I can’t believe how quickly things change. It felt like I had just walked in one door and out another. I had just come in from the cold.
A week into Kenya and I can say that temperature transition has epitomized the Bob Marley song “Coming in from the Cold”. I am not a blogger so I create my own rules and highly recommend that you listen to this song while you read this post to get the full experience. In fact, hard -core readers can listen to the whole Uprising album starting with that song. Let’s invigorate multiple senses at once.
Welcome
The number one thing I became conscious of here is that we don’t use the word “welcome” enough in America. Perhaps, it’s because some people have a poor perception of foreigners, or we just don’t stop to notice and embrace people in the same way. However, if I had 5 dollars for each time I’ve heard a genuine welcome here, I would have probably raised a couple hundred for the rescue center. It sounds even sweeter here because it is said in the mother language Luo or in Swahili. They really do have a way of not just saying words but making you feel them. I am truly welcome and that feels good.
English is one of the official languages, but it is intriguing how unusual yet attractive English can sound. What I’ve noticed is that it is not so much about the accent as much as it is about the way they structure their sentences and the words they use most commonly. My ears are not auto -tuned to this way of speaking so it forces me to listen to each distinct word in order to gain the full context. It is similar to the experience of learning another language, and provides for active listening so I am embracing that.
<--- Myself and Courtney (left) and Camila (right)- fellow advocates who are training me and helping me adjust before they leave.
Where there is a will, there is always way
Arriving to the rescue center reminded me of leaving for school in Madrid back in 2005. As I told my friends I was leaving to go to school in a foreign country, where I didn’t speak the language, and I surely had not taken a campus tour, they rightfully questioned if I was even sure that the school existed. I did not have any doubts that it did (despite the discouraging number of photos in the course manual and online), my mom had already paid tuition so for my sake it had better exist.
This experience was similar in that friends were asking where I’m staying in Kenya, what it's like there, and questions about the center and the work I will do. The only thing I really know with certainty is the work that I am going to do, worries about what my living accommodations are going to be like are not even a thought. I’m flexible when it comes to commodities. I look forward to a simpler lifestyle because it brings a certain level of peace. Transport to a different continent and suddenly things that annoy me stateside like slow Internet don’t really matter. Although, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to get these pictures uploaded at the rate they were going.
So that feeling is replicated and transported here, several years later, in that I’ve been telling you all to help me raise money for this rescue center that I’ve only seen in picture. I have faith that it is there, and guess what?... it is. So it’s great to arrive here, take shots, and share them with you and bring it all to life. Sadly, pictures of the inside of an empty building aren’t particularly appealing, but here are a few. I think before and afters as we go along will be a more powerful visual. The center is real, the children in need are real, the money needed to complete it is real, and the urge to make it all happen is real. The harsh reality is that I have a real budget, that I can only do what I have raised money. Crunching numbers is not really something I do much as a nurse, unless it’s to calculate your intake and output, or make sure I don’t overdose you on something. So itemized lists of materials, labor costs, and transport costs and meetings with various people in various spots are not my day to day way of operating in the US, but its my reality here. Thus, far it just feels fancy, foreign, and refreshing because it’s a change from throwing on scrubs and wondering how much of a drug pusher i'll need to be today in order to keep my patient safe in bed or content. So ill let you know how I feel about it in a few weeks.
Where there is a will, there is always way
Arriving to the rescue center reminded me of leaving for school in Madrid back in 2005. As I told my friends I was leaving to go to school in a foreign country, where I didn’t speak the language, and I surely had not taken a campus tour, they rightfully questioned if I was even sure that the school existed. I did not have any doubts that it did (despite the discouraging number of photos in the course manual and online), my mom had already paid tuition so for my sake it had better exist.
This experience was similar in that friends were asking where I’m staying in Kenya, what it's like there, and questions about the center and the work I will do. The only thing I really know with certainty is the work that I am going to do, worries about what my living accommodations are going to be like are not even a thought. I’m flexible when it comes to commodities. I look forward to a simpler lifestyle because it brings a certain level of peace. Transport to a different continent and suddenly things that annoy me stateside like slow Internet don’t really matter. Although, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to get these pictures uploaded at the rate they were going.
So that feeling is replicated and transported here, several years later, in that I’ve been telling you all to help me raise money for this rescue center that I’ve only seen in picture. I have faith that it is there, and guess what?... it is. So it’s great to arrive here, take shots, and share them with you and bring it all to life. Sadly, pictures of the inside of an empty building aren’t particularly appealing, but here are a few. I think before and afters as we go along will be a more powerful visual. The center is real, the children in need are real, the money needed to complete it is real, and the urge to make it all happen is real. The harsh reality is that I have a real budget, that I can only do what I have raised money. Crunching numbers is not really something I do much as a nurse, unless it’s to calculate your intake and output, or make sure I don’t overdose you on something. So itemized lists of materials, labor costs, and transport costs and meetings with various people in various spots are not my day to day way of operating in the US, but its my reality here. Thus, far it just feels fancy, foreign, and refreshing because it’s a change from throwing on scrubs and wondering how much of a drug pusher i'll need to be today in order to keep my patient safe in bed or content. So ill let you know how I feel about it in a few weeks.
Just looking at these pictures some of the major needs are paint, glass for the veranda, beds, desks, inside doors, closets, some more masonry work, a perimeter fence, water heaters, and many other little things.
Last, but not least I have to back track and thank everyone who came to Tir Na Nog in Philadelphia the Monday before I left. It was good to see people that I haven’t seen in a long time and some an even longer time. Even better to hear what you all have been doing and share some details about the project in person.