A Birthday Day

Marjie’s 50^th birthday started early with a last meal at the wonderful Sarova Mara Game Camp, just inside Maasai Mara National Park.  Zebras and wildebeest greeted her on our way out, then we left the park and started the 5 hour drive to Lake Nakuru.

The first hour took us past many Maasai villages and manyattas.  The land looked too dry to be inhabited.  Kids were walking to school in their various uniforms, each carrying  a backpack and a stick—firewood for the school lunch.

The land started to rise and became more and more lush. Maasai land transitioned to Kikuyu land, the farms became larger and we could see the cabbages, wheat, barley, potatoes, corn, and carrots growing.  Wheat was drying on large white plastic tarps on the side of the road, men walking through to dry it.  The vistas were stunning, reminiscent of Italian hill country but with different vegetation and human structures. Every kid we passed waved.

Lunch at Lake Nakuru had the same amazing variety of fruits we have become accustomed to. Indian food, which for us is “ethnic food” and not part of American cuisine, here has been incorporated into the local cuisine.  (Indians originally came as laborers to build the first railroad, exported from one British colony to another.) 

The game drive around Lake Nakuru  displayed nature’s fireworks.  Two leopards  moving effortlessly on the limbs of a fever tree, later seen on the prowl in the deep grass.  A group of impala stood their ground, barking ferociously, the out-front male’s sharp horns not to be messed with.  Several families of lions, luxuriating and licking each other and enjoying the setting sun.  A rare rhino who never looked up from the grass he was eating as he slowly moved along.  Groups of monkeys who intrigued us with their human-like qualities.  Zebras and wildebeest and cape buffalo and a jackal. 

Our guide Juma brought us to our lodging for the night on Lake Elementeita.  Perched on a steep  hill overlooking the lake, with escarpments and farms in the distance, it is a splendid location.  We just had dinner with Juma, hearing about growing up in Mombasa. 

Now we are in the lounge.  This is a cozy, small lodge, and we and the other tourists are on the internet, trying to keep up with our usual lives as we experience this marvelous country.

Kids walking to school-firewood in hand.

 A bike loaded down with charcoal

 Some baby baboons!

 Leopards

 A rhino!

 A mama with her babies- they were nursing just before this

Friday, August 9th

- We woke up and made a dent in the previously mentioned 30 lbs of fruit. Had Masala chai “to go” from our new favorite restaurant in Nanyuki. The waitress was intrigued by our water bottle, which we put the tea into, so after drinking it, Roger quickly ran the water bottle back to the restaurant as a gift.

- Rode in a medium sized 5-person car with: 6 people, 7 pieces of luggage, 5 backpacks, and 2 purses (mostly a jungle of bags and limbs).  Needless to say, no seatbelts.

- Took a 1 hour plane ride in a 13 passenger plane from Central Kenya to the southern border with Tanzania. Some concern about overweight with our 7 pieces of luggage, but they accepted them.  No checking passports, no xray’ing luggage.  They didn’t’ even know our names, other than Marjie and “four more”.

- After being met by Juma, our guide for the next 5 days, we went on a brief game drive on our way from the Masai Mara airstrip to our stunning lodge.  Took naps.

- Went for a game drive and saw lots and lots (pictures to come)- lions, elephants, hundreds of zebras and wildebeests to name a few

- Zoe went for a fantastic run

- Had spectacular, warm showers

- Had a scrumptious, huge dinner

So basically, by the end of the day, we were one extraordinarily content family!

Farewell Chogoria

After a month in Chogoria, which seemingly flew by, we are now on the road and travelling for the next week.  I (Marjie) am eager to see more of this country, and travel as a family of five, but I feel melancholy about leaving.  We quickly created a home for ourselves in Chogoria, trying to integrate with the community and get to know the people and their lives.  With six of us (including our resident Nate), we each contributed our part in getting to know a different aspect of the village life: Nate and Roger through their work at the hospital, Zoe attending the boarding school, Lena having the chance to experience two different schools, and Talia and I exploring a variety of different opportunities (school, hospital, Village HopeCore, learning about the education system, and Talia having quite the social life with the hospital interns).

Not only did we learn about these different institutions, but more importantly, we developed what I hope will be lasting friendships.  One of the doctors, Franklin, will be visiting for a month next Spring. As we were leaving, Franklin, his wife and son, came to bid us farewell with a basket of fruit that must have weighed 30 pounds! In our hope and enthusiasm of having one of Zoe’s classmates, Sharon, come visit, we travelled to her family about 45 minutes away to a town called Chuka.  They spent last Saturday graciously hosting us for the day, with tea, a huge lunch, introducing us to family and friends, (we were the first white people in the village and quite the spectacle) and then taking us on a tour of the school where Sharon’s dad works.  It was wonderful to meet them, and get a glimpse into Sharon’s background and family.  In our last week, we became much closer to Valentine, a dynamic, intelligent, worldly, and warm intern.  Valentine guided us to the locally-famous Chogoria waterfall, took Talia to an intern dance party, and on our last night in town, she and her mother and “auntie” had us for tea and local delicacies.  We became very close with David Mbae, principal of an elementary school.  He was our go-to person for all things from the moment we arrived in Nairobi, having driven 4 hours to meet our plane! And lastly, the 3^rd grade class, under the teacher Janice, held a special place in all our hearts.  On our final morning we went to say goodbye to them, and after hugs and photos, they broke out into a chorus of cries.  It was only by singing one last round of the “Hokie-Pokie” with them, that we were able to leave.

So, what’s the take-away?  After our first week here, I wasn’t so sure about our stay.  I hadn’t yet found what I felt was a “meaningful” place for me, and questioned what I would do for the next three weeks.  But as I look back on our month in Chogoria, I would describe our time as living life in technicolor. It was true sensory overload. Each day we returned home to dinner together (and sometimes lunch) to share our tales of interest and amusement.  We were living life in the details that provided all of us such an enriching experience-  the funny sayings “isn’t it?” or “fine time”, learning about “shang” an entire new language spoken only by Kenyan teenagers, having one of the village market women teach me how to make porridge (which I never really did master), greeting child after child with a handshake or wave, or having them yell out to us “mzungu” (white person). 

How do we bottle up these daily occurrences so we can remember the smells, encounters, and small moments of our trip to Kenya?  It isn’t the safari we will forget, or the hike to Mount Kenya.  It is the details: Joy’s charming little store where we could get just about anything, including water, Lena’s school uniform, or a coffee cake for breakfast.  It is the unpleasant smell of burning garbage.  It is the unpredictable shower- sometimes scalding, often freezing.  It is Allison (our housekeeper’s) tales of her family and daily life.  It is our neighbor girls, Joy and Mary, and Shalom and Patience, coming over to play whatever on our front lawn.  A photo album will hardly do. As we brace ourselves for the hectic lives we lead in Michigan, I so much want to create the spaces we have given ourselves this summer to reflect, pause, and enjoy our lives. 

Last Thoughts (From Roger)

As I wait for the interns to call me to start my last day of rounding, I have a little time to reflect.  Zoe and I were up early, as usual.  I enjoy the groggy first portion of the day, with little but enough spoken.  Strong Kenyan coffee and generic coffee cake, then the short walk to the gate.  The guard is there more to watch for girls leaving than strangers entering the boarding school. 

Four weeks has gone by quickly.  The last week has brought some semblance of normal living, with friends stopping by our house, we visited others, exchanges of gifts, and even the packing up is familiar.  The everyday living outside our home is the unfamiliar, and every day still brings unexpected and poorly understood moments.  I found myself yesterday trying to impart last impressions and recommendations to various members of the hospital staff, despite my striving to not play the know-it-all white guy from the rich country.  I don’t know how these encounters went.

As we pack up for safari, we know how fortunate we are, and at the same time feel a little strange going to Kenyan destinations most of our friends here have not seen.  But there is no point hiding it.  It is our life, and we’ll share it, as our friends and acquaintances here have shared theirs.

I will miss the 4 boys in pink scrubs who are so joyful despite being stuck on the hospital grounds while their parents find money to pay for their hospitalization.  I will miss the long hand shakes and hand holding.  I will miss coming home for lunch and having time at the end of the day to process with my family.  I will miss being called “LenaDaddy” by little kids in school uniforms. 

An Update from Zoe

Here are some more snapshots from my (Zoe) time at Chogoria Girls High School.

I spent the night last Friday to see what it was like. I’m pretty sure the whole school knew that I was staying and lots and lots of them came to visit Sharon’s room, which was only supposed to hold 6 people. I brought them American granola bars which tasted very sweet to them, and also playing cards because I had brought them previously but was not allowed to use them (school rules). So I waited to bring out both the cards and the snacks until I got to Sharon’s room. Most of my friends had never played cards so I taught them several games as well as how to shuffle. I was wondering how everyone was going to find their way back to their own rooms at 9:30 when the lights went out, but they assured me that they had torches. I was a little worried but later I found out that is what they call flashlights. J We stayed up pretty late talking and then woke up at 4:30am, which was later than usual because it was a Saturday and they only had to go to class at 5:30. Much to everyone’s amusement, I took a cold bucket shower just like everyone else. I asked them wasn’t it cold having wet hair at 4:30 in the morning? But they informed me that they only wash their hair when they are home which is about every 6 weeks! It is pretty amusing how often the topic of hair comes up in my daily conversations J

One of the first questions everyone asks me is which church I go to, to which I answer I am Jewish. I am usually met by blank stares, not unlike those I sometimes get in TC. But after they get over the shock, most Kenyans are very curious in what that means and what I believe in. I told one girl that Judaism allows God to be thought of as male or female so she responded “Do you believe Jesus can be male or female too?” It was a logical question for her to ask but it was really funny- I have certainly never thought about that!

I was getting a tour from the head girl about a week ago and she was telling me about punishments students get from misbehaving. We looked down from her classroom across the courtyard and saw about 40 girls crawling along the pavement. I asked who it was and she replied, “Oh, that’s your class!” When I went back to my own class I asked what they had done to deserve the punishment. It turns out they were “making noise”. The principal who was walking by told them to crawl down the 2 flights of stairs, across the very large courtyard, and back up! Later I was talking to a friend, Audrey, who said that on my 1^st day at school the English teacher came into class with a hard plastic pipe (from a Bunsen burner), meaning to use it to hit the students because of something they had previously done but as soon as he saw me, he hid it. Audrey and I realized it was not coincidental that the only time her class has been punished was when I was not with them. There have been numerous other times when my class has done something that is cause for punishment but they get off the hook- I guess because the teachers don’t want me to see that aspect of school. I told my friends that it is very hard for me to see the teacher physically punishing the students (hitting their arms or pinching ears) but they told me that it is normal for them and not a big deal. We decided it is just one of those cultural differences that can be hard for outsiders to understand. I told them about adoption and they were appalled that any woman would, and was allowed to give her child away.

Today, my whole family went to my school after their church service, which lasted 6 ½ hours, to take pictures of my class and me in our uniforms. They loved meeting my family and taking lots of pictures!

I know almost every girl’s name in my class (of 43) and have become good friends with about 5 of them. We have all exchanged FB names and emails and plan on keeping in touch!

 At a boys school!

  

 Chogoria Girls School

one of many signs at the school

950 girls taking tea!

 My class!

 Sharon, my best friend! She will hopefully come visit this December.