Resolutions

      As I prepare for my fourth trip to Kenya it has come to my attention that it could not be more different than the preparation for my first trip. The first time I left American soil I toted my body weight in luggage around the world. I packed anti-malarial pills, protein bars, and more hand sanitizer than I knew what to do with.  I stepped off the plane confused, and lived what I only assumed could be a strange dream for six weeks. Upon returning to America I realized I couldn't wake up from the dream and four years later I'm not sure I ever will. 

This year I am calculating my precious space for only the most important things I will need in the six months I am away. Easy Mac, Cards Against Humanity, pen-pal supplies, and a nice bottle of wine to celebrate a particularly good day of work have taken the place of precautionary first aid kits and 14 different pairs of shoes. Since I lost my DL in Kenya last year my passport is never more than an arm's length away and since I've been living out of a suitcase for the last year one could say I'm two steps ahead in the packing game. Having a apartment, a family and students to come home to makes the transition significantly easier and I'm eager to get on my way!

 
I have high hopes for my six months abroad. Kenya has always given me a new perspective on my life and this year I think that is exactly what I need; less distraction, more simple beauty, and a chance to soak in the honesty of my little home town. I am in a curious place of self-discovery in life, and I can’t think of a place I would rather do some soul searching. 

2014 started out with a lot of hope and a list a mile long of things I wanted to fix or focus on throughout the year. When it all comes down to it most everything on the list involved being more grateful on a daily basis, and looking for self-empowerment where ever possible. This is a peek at my list and the things I will be working on in my six months away this year. (Note: there is a fine mix of work related and personal efforts included here)

·         Be more present. Something about lying in the middle of the grass on the side of the road or in a field by yourself isn't entirely accepted in America. Thankfully, in Kenya it’s encouraged. To sit down where ever you want and relax, read, or talk is exactly when I need in my life. With no screens in my face, full of presence, and something curious to look at all around me.

·         Travel more. Kenya is smaller than Texas and I've seen only a handful of the places I would like to. I’m keen to travel to the desert, to the rain-forest, and everywhere in between.

·         Become, even if slightly, more involved with local politicians. I would like to start talking with local government representatives about the troubles that we (long term volunteers) have faced and about the options for making glue (as an inhalant) more of a prominent issue with law enforcement.

·                  Learn more. About everything. By reading, by talking, by living. 

·         Do more social work. It’s such an important part of the work we do and one I’ve become very passionate about, also one I’ve regretfully neglected in the past.

·         Do yoga every day. Whether it’s ten minutes when I roll out of bed or a class in the evening with friends. Yoga is something I’ve only just started to ponder, but I think that it’s going to be something I hold onto for some time to come. My rooftop was made for morning yoga, and if I can savasana while resting my mind and body into Maasai land I’d be a fool not to.

·         Accept that mistakes do not equate to failure.

Alright, I have been neglecting the blog, again. Here is a short summary of the last month or so here in Kenya. 

What I have done in the last month[ish]:

• Been really grateful when the Teacher’s Strike ended. The strike has such a harsh effect on the impoverished children of this nation and continues to happen year after year without progress. Seeing kids run the streets when they should be in class breaks my heart. 
• Got electrocuted for the first time.  It hurt. Kenyan electricity is janky. I thought I would never be able to let go of that plug.
• Renewed my visa for an additional 3 months, placing my return to the States at sometime in mid/late October.
• Booked a flight to Ethiopia. Can’t wait to travel outside of East Africa!
• Spent plenty of time playing with the Faraja babies. They are all growing up so much! They are as smart and healthy as ever.
• Got mugged for the first time.  That sucked, a substantial amount. 
• Drastically improved my Swahili. I am beginning to have full conversations without the use of English and it is one the best feelings I can imagine.
• Got pickpocketed on a bus. Even though I knew it was happening I just couldn’t figure out what was lost till it was too late. Thankfully it was mostly unimportant.
• Spent a week with the house to myself while my flatmates went to Uganda. 
• Endured a mighty chilly Kenyan winter. I am so grateful I am not withering away in the Texas heat. I have really had to work to stay warm, but I am never going to complain about a cup of hot coco in July!
• Got chased by a cow to my apartment gate. Equal parts funny and alarming.
• Spent an almost unreasonable amount of time cuddling with my Afri-Cat, Nala. 
• Got rear-ended by a matatatu while sitting in the boot of a car. Oww. Kenyan transportation is the bane of my existence. 
• Watched (via media) as the Arrivals Gate and Immigration areas burnt down at NBO. Guess I will never walk down those stairs to see friendly faces at the bottom again. 
• Said goodbye to Zach as he left the +254 with the promise of a speedy return.
• This video. Well Benjamin really did it. But this is just shameless promotion. If you have't watch it you should. 
• Watched as all my best friends fell into adorable inter-racial relationships and worked on my 3^rd Wheel Skills (and sometimes 5th Wheel and on a few occasions 7^th wheel)
• Welcomed the ever brilliant Joe to the #5/#7 Apartment Complex, now making it the #2/#5/#7. Our neighbors are really confused as to why white people just keep showing up to live here. 

     As I look at that list, I can't quite say I am missing July. It was probably the toughest Kenyan month I have ever had. I was continually coming dangerously close to real danger, and by the end of it I really just wanted to wrap myself in a bubble. My work load was not an easy one and every day seemed to come with a new challenge. However, I can also say that last month made me realize some really great things. That I am a hell of a lot stronger than I thought, for one. More importantly though, that this job means more to me than I ever knew could be possible. It is never easy, but it's worth every challenge we overcome. The kids I work with have faced more challenges than I will likely ever meet in my life, and they are often just a quarter of my age. They are so strong and so beautiful. They are my role models.
     I am so grateful to have met Ben & Liana last year and to have been welcomed into Longonot Education Initiative. Our organization is growing, and we are learning as we go. It's been such an interesting experience to spend these last three months as the person on the ground, but I am more than ready for Benjamin to return next week. Together I feel like we will be capable of  making some major changes, and I look forward to seeing where things go.

xx

72 Hours

It is Monday afternoon and I feel like I am finally recooperating from the last 4 days. This weekend was crazy!

Let’s start from the beginning, Fourth Of July. We started planning our Fourth of July party on Monday. The residents of the #7 (Sedona, Zach, & I) were all equally excited and equally nervous, as this was the first house party we had ever thrown. On Tuesday we sent out a few mass texts to all of our groups of friends inviting people over and reminding them to sport some red, white and blue for America. 

On Thursday afternoon we had a very American dinner downstairs with just the residents of the #5#7. It was very peaceful. We enjoyed some burgers, fries, and watermelon in an attempt at making our holiday as homey as possible. After dinner we came upstairs and people started arriving shortly after.

Our home went from empty to all seats full in about 20 minutes and people kept pouring in the doors. Nearly everyone was rockin’ some type of red or blue and all of our Kenyan friends had a ton of “Happy Independence Day” shout-outs.

After dark we rallied the group and headed outside for the main event of the night; fireworks in the football field behind our home. We were met by a handful of police to monitor the execution of the process and everyone was giddy with anticipation.  Many of our best friends had never seen fireworks before and when the first explosions lit of the sky the “ohhhs” and “awwws” were audible for miles. The whole process only lasted about four minutes and was unimpressive by American standards, however the thrill of sharing such an awesome experience made it so much more special. After things were done we re-grouped and watched and re-watched the event on several different cell phones. Everyone was so pumped up! 

In the aftermath of the fireworks display I got a phone call from the social worker at Faraja and he just said to me “Happy Fourth of July! At first we thought there were gunshots then I realized it was your Independence Day and rushed all the kids outside to watch!” I was so happy he was so intuitive and grateful my babies got to see such a magical thing.

We continued partying until about 3am when people started trickling out and we went to bed exhausted but happy with the turn out. When we woke up the next day and surveyed our home there was no doubts about it; Operation Kenyan Fourth of July had been a success.

The next day (Friday) brought about my first day of work at Reloaded. Reloaded is a place I have become very familiar with over the last seven months. It is so far from a place I would hang out at home, let alone work at, but it’s been my go-to spot on Saturday nights for a long time now. It is a bar/restaurant/night club combination. It has a few different areas for relaxing, eating, listening to a live band, or dancing while some of the hottest DJs in town lay down tracks. As I walked up the stairs I definitely thought to myself, “am I really working in a night club in Africa for $2 a night?” but it was too late to back out and as I met my boss she instructed me to start wiping down the tables for the night.

The first few hours consisted of wiping tables and stocking the bars for the evening. The staff and I walked around making ourselves look busy every time a manager came by. Since it was a Friday evening the beginning was so and I think I cornered all the tables in the main lounge about 20x each. It was about this point in the night that I realized some things are universal.  The service industry doesn’t change much even from 8000 miles away in a third world country. 

My first night was rough… the staff was not very welcoming. I was the new weird white girl who took up a 250 Ksh a night serving job and they could not figure me out. I had never worked overnight, and working off my hangover from Thursday’s event was still wearing me out. I was getting used to the prices of things and being as clutzy as I am was showing in all of my actions. I remember sitting at the well and thinking to myself, "I am completely weeded and there is no one who speaks enough English to bail me out right now." Come 2am (mid-rush) I was certain that I would not return the next day. However, as the night went on, and I’d had a Red Bull, the place slowly calmed down a bit and the staff saw that I had made it through my first shift, they started to warm up. One of the servers walked up to me and said, “that was your warm up, I hope you are ready for tomorrow night,” and before I could stop to think about it I told him “I’ll be here, I’m sure it can’t be harder than my job at home.” Several people around laughed out loud at the fact that an mzungu girl could possibly be a simple waitress in America and I knew then and there that Saturday night would be heaps better.

On Friday night I left the club at 4:30am and sat in my bed thinking “what the hell just happened?” I was absolutely beat I left a note for my roommates not to wake me up in the morning and passed out till 1pm the next day. When I finally got up I was so tired. I only had a few hours to sit and relax before it was time for Round 2.

On Saturday I showed up appropriately Kenyan Late. We started the shift out the same way, but people were much friendlier this time. At one point we were hanging out in the back of the bar and I got drug into a conversation talking trash about our boss. At that point I realized I was accepted in the group and I was so excited. Saturday’s shift went MUCH more smoothly, it was busier, I was more knowledgeable, and the staff was more helpful.  My friends came in and hung out for a while and I served up plenty of tequila shots and it was so fun to see faces I knew in the midst of all the chaos. By the time I was finally able to leave on Saturday, at 5:30am, the club was still in full swing I snuck past my manager and got into a taxi. I came home and cooked myself breakfast and my head finally hit the pillow just as the sun was coming up.

All-in-all it is an experience I am SO grateful that I had. Most people called me crazy, and I am not denying it. It was tough, but a cool thing to do for a weekend, at least. And thankfully I earned my $5 and about $1.50 in tips!

The following are comparison notes I made to myself while I worked about serving in Kenya that I feel like most of my service industry friends would appreciate:

• On average I consume 1-2 Red Bulls a week here, but as soon I was at work I realized my consumption went up to 3 per day. 
• Lots of people told me, "you walk so fast, you always look like you are in a rush," and I've been accused of the same thing at Reata countless times. I don't think the majority of people here could wrap their heads around the concept of 'prompt service.'
• Even in giant Kenyan nightclubs the servers still stand around the well and yell at the bartender to go faster, even though they are obviously trying their very best and the harassment does no good. 
• Wearing a name tag in the club two nights in a row may have sealed my fate of all the creepy men in the metroplex knowing my name from now on. 
• While the other servers were able to steal a break every now and again by hiding in dark corners, my skin glowed like neon in the dark room and I was constantly being called on. 
• I am grateful I don't have to "hustle" for tips in America, E.G. hiking prices on certain drinks to pocket the extra cash, telling customers we are out of change, ect. It was not something I was comfortable doing, but it was at least interesting to know how the servers earn their bread each night. 
• The staff will always stand around and complain about management and assume that they know how to fix all the problems in the restaurant. 
• The level of harassment for a white girl in uniform working at club full of skeezy drunk men isn't quite as bad as you would imagine it.... it is so much worse.

I really just can't put into proper words how similar it was to working in any place in America. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life, honestly. I decided I really quite enjoyed most of the staff, and I really enjoyed getting to work with dancehall, reggae, trance, and East African music alternately blaring in the background. However, having said all of that I have to admit it was very hard to be away from the Ngong Crew for 48 full hours. When I finally woke up on Sunday at two in the afternoon I felt like I had not seen them in a month. I still haven't decided if I will work again, but regardless I am sure to be back at Reloaded, either as a patron or server within the next month!

TOMS: One for One in Action

     What a great week for the LEI team! I am really grateful I got to be on the ground this week, and I have some brilliant news to present to you.

     Yesterday I made the trip to Longonot with Simon, Sedona, and Zach. We were headed to check on the school and document quite an interesting event... as it turns out from a phone call I received on Tuesday that  each child at Longonot was granted a pair of TOMS from the Kenyan Red Cross!! 

     In case you are unfamiliar with TOMS let me fill you in briefly, TOMS is an American based company that sells simple trendy canvas shoes, however for each pair sold they have promised to donate a similar pair to a child in need. “One for One” is the TOMS slogan, but as popular as the shoes are I’ve known many people to be skeptical of the company’s follow through initiative. Who can ever really be sure that a pair of shoes is donated to a needy child in a third world country? Well now, you can.

     I will never doubt them again after seeing all the children at Longonot proudly rockin' their new kicks. Many of the children had worn down or outgrown their shoes and some were even walking to school barefoot, so as you can imagine we are very grateful for this donation. They were so precious with their tiny shoes.

     In whole TOMS donated one million pairs of shoes to the Kenyan Red Cross and it was up to specific beneficiaries to request the donation [read about another of my favorite organisations success with TOMS here.] Thankfully, our very own Teacher Jane heard of this opportunity and spent the time to fill out the application for each child in our school and was granted her request! Now all the little ones at the Longonot Education Center have at least one solid pair of shoes and no one could be happier.

     In addition to the TOMS the teacher had some  more great news to tell us. Recently the children participated in a musical competition hosted by the Education Board of Kenya in a town up the road from Longonot. Our youngsters were stunning! They took 2^nd place in Best Western Style Song and Dance, and one of our little girls took 2^nd in Best English Solo. We are so proud!

      In other news we were able to get our first of the Street Boys back into school this week. Samson is happily attending Ngong Township in Year Four. Each time I see him he is all smiles and feels very grateful to have been given this opportunity. I have spoken with his teacher several times since taking him to school on Tuesday and she says he is adjusting well. It is a situation that Joseph and I will continue to monitor as we work to rehabilitate the rest of the boys and eventually get all back on the path to a proper education.

     On a more personal note I want to welcome the beautiful Sedona Keenan back to Kenya! She has returned to stay for the next 10 weeks and we are excited to share our projects and inspiration. I also want to say thank so you much to everyone who has helped LEI get where we are today, who has helped and kept up with our projects, and who has given me the personal motivation to get here and stay strong when there are challenges. I can't say how much these projects mean to me and I am so grateful everyday to work with all of my children.

x

Samson

     Meet Samson Wanjohi. He is one of the youngest street boys I have been working with for the last month and recently he had a pretty major request. After examining the situation with Joseph and talking to Samson about the implications and expectations of his request we have come to a conclusion... Samson is going back to school!

     Samson is fourteen years old and has been on the streets for some time now. Samson was the youngest child born into a family living in poverty, with little hope of support from his parents. Thankfully, he was able to enroll into school in Class One and held onto his one uniform as his most dear possession until it was torn to shreds and entirely out grown four years later. Without a proper school uniform Samson was forced to drop out in Class Four and without food or clothing at home he turned to the streets to beg. 

     Today Samson explained to me that he desires to return to school to study so that he can escape the slum life he has known since he was born. He also said that he would like to continue his schooling until he is able to obtain a proper job in order to help his mum financially. At this point in his life Samson desires to be a pilot, and says that he knows he will have to work hard in mathematics and English to help make this dream a reality.
     Being one of the youngest boys at the center I feel confident that he will adjust well to the changes he is about to take on. We talked seriously with Samson and explained that he will be expected to be in school daily and that we will be monitoring him carefully during the adjustment period. He told me, "You are so welcome to visit me, and to see my work, please come everyday." I was encouraged by his positive attitude and I am looking forward to seeing where he goes from here.

     On Monday our hopes are that we will be able to help Samson find a uniform and pay for his exam/activity fees for this term. We are also hoping to find a safe place for Samson to take lunch each day so that he is not going hungry in his nearly nine hour school day.

    If you are interested in donating to help with Samson's uniform, textbooks, lunch, or school fees please let me know, or donate directly at: http://www.longonoteducation.org/donate.html

Also, if anyone is interested in sending letters/cards to The Boys please feel free to send them to my PO Box with a note on the envelope and I will be sure they get to the center and you get a response! The boys would really love it!

Street Boy Rescue Initiative

Collecting plastic bottles to sell for minimal profit. 

Alright y’all! I’ve been speaking of a “new project” for about a month now but not giving much insight as to what that is… well the time is here!

It all started one night at Savannah. We were sitting around our picnic table enjoying the sunset. I was thinking how grateful I was to be able to enjoy time with so many incredible people from all over the world. We talked of many things; our projects, the highs and lows of Kenya, and the cultural differences from our respective homes. Eventually the conversation turned to projects we hope to start one day and without hesitation my roommate and brilliant work partner, Benjamin, mentioned that he would like to start a program to help the street boys in Ngong. He explained his hopes briefly and shortly the conversation was dropped and we headed to watch the Barcelona V Bayern Munich game.

At this point maybe I should give a bit of background on The Boys. There has been a group of about 15 boys who hang out at the edge of Marthare (Ngong’s roughest slum) and have been huffing glue and causing a ruckus for a long time now. Their “thuggish” attitudes towards the community have caused them to have an overwhelming social stigma. They have been branded as petty thieves and a general social disruption with little hope of reintegration into proper society.

With my generally forgiving, and striving to see the best in everyone nature I had hope for the boys. With each hassling call and every spotting of a glue bottle I would hope that there would be a time where they on their way to getting clean and had pride and hope in themselves.

Glue.

For a few days after that night at Savannah the conversation weighed on my mind. The thought of a rehabilitation center for these boys was something that really appealed to me. Is this something we are just going to mention once and then let it slip away? I pondered and pondered this, until one night over dinner I looked at Ben and just said “why not?” Why are we just talking about it? What’s stopping us? We considered the prospect of actually starting this program within the next year. We decided on a game plan, and mapped out a few first steps to take to make this vision a reality.

Our vision is to start a small home where the boys could come and take a meal a day and have a place to clean their clothes, and perhaps a few beds to give them a place to rest. We will not force them to be there, but will not allow glue to into the center; this way if they want to get clean and get sober they will have a healthy environment in which to do so.

Step one to making this a reality, we decided, was to get some photos/video of the boys and get to know some of their stories. This way we could see what their biggest problems were and how we could help. So one day, the week before Benjamin left we headed down to Mathare... At first the boys just hassled us for food and money, but after we started asking questions about their lives they really started to participate. After about an hour of photos and talking a man walked up and the boys went wild. “This is our Street Father!” they shouted. “He coaches us and cares for us!” they said.

The man introduced himself to us as Joseph, and told us these boys were his mentees. He explained that he has been informally looking after the boys for about a year now and that he has high hopes for them all. Then the most miraculous thing happened… The man began to explain a project he hoped to start. A project word for word like the one Ben and I spoke of. He said he wanted a place where the boys could rest and take a meal and get clean without pressure. The boys gathered around while he spoke and Benjamin and I listened with matching shocked and giddy expressions. This man wanted exactly what we did, he has the contacts, and the knowledge; all he was lacking was support.

The Boys do incredible acrobatics! 

We listened to the man’s hopes and watched the way the boys admired him, and before we left them we asked Joseph if we could take him to lunch to speak more about our plans. He said he would love to meet, but told us he wasn’t coming to lunch without his boys. We could hardly say no to that and made plans to see him the following Saturday afternoon.

When we met on Saturday Joseph had 16 very hungry boys with him and we went to a small café and enjoyed a simple but hearty lunch. It was our first time really getting to know the boys and it was such a pleasure. They were gracious and just as curious about us as we were of them. After lunch we decided to have a proper meeting with Joseph and were headed to his office to sit and talk. Along the way we ran into two other people and Joseph greeted them warmly. He explained to us that he had met them in the course of the week and that they too shared our vision. They explained to us that they wanted to start a feeding program for the boys. We had a small meeting and all shared our ideas, and by the end of that very day we’d managed to find a small room for the boys to sleep in and the other two people had agreed to provide one meal a day. Once again Ben and I came home and sat in our living room in complete shock. Things are pretty much never easy in Kenya, but this project was/is just falling into place so easily.

I met with Joseph by happen stance walking through Ngong one day, and he expressed to me, “Portia, I worry about the boys, they only have one set of clothes each and winter is coming. This should be our next goal.” Within mere hours a friend and fellow volunteer from another children’s home texted me and said “We have some big bags of clothes, you know anyone who needs them?” That’s how this whole project has been. It’s been miracle after miracle. I am lacking words to express how strongly I feel that this project is going to be a success.

Now, three weeks later, the boys are happily staying at the center and eating once a day. The boys have dramatically cut down the use of glue, and I am so humbled to say I’ve only caught 3 bottles in the last three weeks. I have been visiting the center about three times a week to spend time with the boys and get to know them better. They have even started giving me Kiswahili lessons!! I am so much enjoying getting to learn from these boys, and I have to say they are great teachers! Every single time I leave them I feel rejuvenated and full of hope. I am grateful to say I can see the hope building in the center too. They want so badly to show their self-worth that they are making some big changes in their lifestyles.

The Boys on our first day of Kiswahili lessons

Our next step is to begin informal teaching at the center. We’ve acquired a large black board and would like the boys to start having lessons about two hours each day in basic school subjects as well as life-skills. We are hoping to get some books for the center to give the boys something to do in the day so that they are less likely to wander out and back onto the streets. In the long term we would like to help these boys find sponsors and either make it back into form school or perhaps technical schools for skills like carpentry or electrical engineering.

I am so excited to be around for the initiation of this project and cannot wait to see where it goes. They are incredible boys and I am so grateful to get to know each of them. Our areas of stress right now are as follows, if you have any interest in helping out please feel free to contact me directly or donate here.

• Underwear [$1.20*] (many of the boys have none at the moment)
• Washing basins [$2] (now that they have a few clothes they need to be able to wash them!)
• Laundry detergent [$1]
• Books [$2-4]
• Stationary [$.50-4] (Exercise books, chalk, pens)
• Food [$25] (the approximate cost of a meal including meat!)

*Prices estimated.

Teachers.

Thank you all so much for reading this! This project is very dear to my heart and I am so thrilled to keep everyone updated in the coming months. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me as always!

Portia
xx

Work Week/Wild Weekend

    As I sit in my apartment by myself for the first time I can only let out a hefty sigh. The last week has been so overwhelming! It was filled with lots of work and lots of play, all of which has left me exhausted.

     First off let me say if you've never heard me complain about making the trip to Nairobi you are lucky, it is about one of my least favorite things to have to do. However, I can say that I made the trip four times this week and each one was better than the last and for that I am mighty thankful.

     Last Monday Ben and I headed into Nairobi to have a meeting with Omari about some Faraja work. The meeting, like every meeting here in Kenya, lasted about 5 hours. In the end though it was productive and positive we came back to Ngong that night feeling tired, but really pleased with the outcome of the day.
     On Tuesday we headed back into town to run a bunch of errands. Going to Nairobi to stand in lines to pay bills and pick up packages seemed like a miserably daunting task. We lucked out however and had an almost effortless second trip into town for the week.
     Thankfully my workload on Wednesday was minimal. I savored not having to leave Ngong for the day and Ben worked diligently preparing LEI's taxes for the last year. He did plenty of tedious work and I made my contribution by making sure we had hot cups of tea at all times.
     With Thursday came another trip into town with some friends, and then a little farther; from Nairobi we caught a matatu to Longonot to check on the school that LEI built in early 2012. The trip to the school was really nice. The school has been open for just about one full year now and things are running so smoothly. It was so encouraging! We were honored to be invited to have lunch in the teachers home and it was such a lovely meal. From Longonot we moved on to Maai Mahiu were we relaxed for a while before catching a matatu back to Ngong. The journey is a long one (about 2.5 hours) and I wasn't looking forward to it, but with good company the trip was made so much more bearable.
     On Friday day we had an extremely gracious and productive meeting with a few members of the community about an up and coming project to help the street kids in Ngong. The meeting was so very helpful, with support just coming from every direction. I will be very excited to talk in more detail about this project once we have some more details hammered out!!
     Friday night on the other hand was all party and no stress of work! I was so grateful to have the week behind us! That evening we all headed to Savannah to have a “farewell” party for Ben. The night was filled with so many good people and drinks and choma; pretty much the standard fare of any good party here in the +254! At about 1am after the party had been in full swing for quite some time someone decided it was a great idea to make a round of pinky promises that we would all get tattoos in Nairobi the next day and we enjoyed a hearty laugh on the subject unknowing what the morning after would bring. We sat around the bonfire until the early morning hours chatting amicably and laughing about our shared experiences reveling in the beauty of the night.

    On Saturday morning we woke with a few too many headaches and a shared thirst for a glass of cold water. Even in our condition it only took about 30 minutes for someone to mention the pinky promises and we all gave a hesitant glance at each other before someone piped up, “So, are we really going to do this?” In Kenya it seems, even your craziest ideas are generally good ideas… so off to Nairobi we went.
     Fueled by adrenaline, we arrived at the tattoo parlor to discover it hiding at the back of a small cyber café. To say the shop was small is a vast understatement; the five of us could hardly fit inside at one time. Still not believing that we were all really going through with this we one by one stepped up to the needle and got our most precious souvenirs yet. My tattoo says “endelea kuota” (Keep Dreaming in Swahili) wrapping about the stars I already had on my left shoulder. I've been wanting  this tattoo for a long time and it has a lot of significance to my time spent here in Kenya and my life as a whole. I even had to draw parts of the tattoo myself and that was scary! I am so very pleased with the outcome and don’t regret a thing! On a humorous note I got to watch a good friend of mine get “sawa sawa” tattooed on the inside of his lip in what the ladies present could only describe as one of the manliest events we had ever witnessed. 

    Sunday and Monday were spent helping Ben to prepare for his journey home; tons of tiny errands to run, a few last minute meetings, and lots training on my behalf. Ben had an ample to-do list and we tired ourselves out working to make sure nearly everything got checked off. Come Sunday evening at 7:30 the best of Ngong’s company piled into a taxi to see Ben off. The ride to the airport was bitter/sweet. Seeing Ben leave the country was so hard, but I am thrilled for the great work he is going to do for our projects over the summer and have full confidence that he will be successful!
   That brings us to today, and I can tell you honestly that I didn't do a whole lot. I sat in my apartment and let the realization that I am now living alone in Africa wash over me. Every time someone asks me about “my apartment” my stomach twists in knots with fear and excitement.  I am so grateful for the experiences that life keeps throwing my way and I can only believe this is going to one of the best ones yet! xx

  

PS: I would like to mention one thrilling thing that happened today! I GOT MY FIRST LETTER! I've been checking and checking my mailbox to no avail and plenty of sad sighs, but when I turned that key today I was so excited to find a letter from none other than my incredible boyfriend. It was definitely the highlight of my day and I would like more thrills like that one so... send me mail. Thanks!! 

Portia Duke
PO BOX 1069-00208
Ngong Hills, Kenya