Today the group of new volunteers went on the Marangu hike. This meant that I had my little munchkins to myself today. It was a pretty fun day, minus the fact that I thought I had malaria and felt awful this morning!! I woke up with at least sixty bug bites this morning. A lot on my arms, some on my right leg, a bunch on my upper back and a few on my neck! It sucked so badly, I couldn’t believe it. Not to mention that I also hadn’t really eaten dinner last night and ate a small breakfast today – which led to me feeling weak. I think that my problem was that I ate too little the past couple of days, not malaria. I still had a mini scare this morning though what with waking up covered in bites and feeling light headed and nauseous. Never come to Africa and forget to lather yourself in deet. I must have received them all last evening when I wasn’t wearing a lot of bug spray! Ahhh. So awful.
Despite feeling ill I went to placement and I was really affected by watching my kids today. It was a pretty average day except one of my littlest ones got really scared and ran to my side so I cuddled with him and comforted him for awhile today. One of the teachers hit his leg with a plastic ruler (which was really upsetting for me) and he got terrified of the sound and the pain and came running to me. I just took care of him until he calmed down and felt better. I also watched a lot of things that made me reflect on the difference between here and my home and the reality of the lives of children here. One thing that happened was that two cute girls in my class came to me and said, “mwalimu angalia!!” and as I turned I saw that they had a marble. This green orb became a treasured possession as these cute girls began to pass it to each other and roll it around on the step. Immediately after this one of my boys called for my attention and he had bunched a black plastic bag into a ball and was kicking it excitedly. Soon the ball fell apart and he was hitting the bag and making it bounce around. It is so beautiful how children are able to find joy in simple things and are also able to love life itself. These kids were playing with a marble and a plastic bag and they had the biggest and brightest smiles I have ever seen. I thought about kids at home who have balls and toys and jerseys and whatnot and I thought about the fragility of life and the necessity for joy. I know that these kids have very little, but what they do have is big. In many ways these people are so much more rich than I am…and I am so happy I can learn from them.
We also took Kira to get her yellow fever shot for Kenya today. I am so glad she can come with us!! I am also unbelievably excited for Kenya…woohoo! I think I will love every moment. This is because it is Kenya and also because I am going with my favorite humans J. While waiting for Kira to get her shot I sat with one of our local volunteers Daniel and talked about his future aspirations. I was amazed by him and I realized that his dreams are so important for the world and so meaningful! As a twenty year old he has already begun to create a nutrition-based initiative for kids in Tanzania. He began by providing chickens for the kids at the juvenile detention center so that they could have a source of protein in the form of both eggs and the meat of the chickens. He now wants to start and NGO that will provide both education and healthy food to families in need in TZ. Super incredible, I know. J
The rest of the day was pretty normal. I basically hung out, did my laundry, watched some movies with the friends and we played with a hedgehog! I love Africa so much and I am so happy to be here. Now it is time to take some Benadryl, coat myself in anti-itch stuff and tuck in the net! Lala salama. (oh p.s. I am getting so much better at my Swahili! The fluency by August plan is in the works!)
"subiri kidogo" - 1. wait a moment. 2. a phrase I know all too well.
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