So much to learn

I just recently moved into my friend Beck’s place for a couple weeks and that is why I haven’t been really able to post a blog. Even though the house is quite hectic, the change is really nice. Beck’s is a friend of Josh’s I met here on my first time around. From Australia, she originally came with an organization to volunteer and returned and found work here as a teacher. Even though she works at a private school in one of Nairobi’s most wealthy areas- Karen, she also started up her own library in Kibera, a large slum here in Nairobi. Having a friend around for company is nice but during the day I still travel often to Mlolongo by matatu.

The centre has been quite busy. This week we had two in-school educations. Running at about two hours long, our youth run an in-class education session on HIV prevention. One day this week we also did VTC, voluntary counselling and testing. This week we did door to door testing which has proven to be quite effective. Since it’s more private and discreet, there tends to be less fear of being judged by the stigma attached to being tested for HIV. Since I am not a trained consoler I cannot do much on these days. I travel with the youth anyhow and while we wait outside I get Swahili lessons all day. I have managed to learn quite a bit here!

Yesterday I went to my friend Aziz’s for lunch. He lives with his sister and brother, Amina and Chym, his mom, and Amina’s baby daughter Solange in a one room apartment. They served vegetables in tomato sauce with beef on rice, which was very good. As they served me they kept on piling on the rice, when I told them I could only eat a small portion, they laughed. Everyone here apparently tries to get me to eat like an African. Amina later came up to me and whispered to me: “Lexi, do not get angry when I say this, but you’ve reduced”. As if losing weight was an insult. Sometimes the cultural differences go unnoticed, especially after living here for just over five months in all.

Even in town while having coffee it doesn’t faze me anymore when military men with huge guns that they carry in front of their chest walk past the table and say good morning, or when I walk past the barefoot street children on my way home. It’s not that I am not appalled, it’s just been accepted over time as the way it is. When I really think about it; the things I see here are nothing compared to at home, but over time I have become comfortable with the environment I chose to live in. At home life seems much more comfortable. It is much more sheltered, and things like a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, accessible health care, education, and even having clean water, are easily taken for granted, even for me when I returned home after the first go around. Even though I realize how fortunate we are to have a home in Canada and when I am aware of the poverty and sickness that surrounds us here, I wouldn’t leave this place if I had the chance. I have become so comfortable here, with my surroundings and with the people. I am now able to look at a Kenyan and take a pretty good guess at what tribe they are from, and when I hear music on the matatu, based on the beat and lyrics, I can identify what tribe it’s from also. This morning while I sit at a Java House drinking my morning coffee so I can use the internet, the waiter learns that I can speak some Swahili. For the rest of the time spent here, he hasn't spoke a word of English to me, and we have carried out the rest of necessary conversation only in Swahili. Everyone here is always willing to teach, and I love that.

I still have so much to learn here, but that is what I enjoy so much about living here in Kenya. Everyday, the time spent with our youth at the center and with the locals and friends I live with, is a constant learning experience. Whether it be a new word or saying in Swahili or a new tribal ritual learnt, everywhere I go, Kenyans are willing to immerse you and share with you what makes Kenya. This is unlike any education I will ever have, and sometimes I feel like a child, ready and willing to completely absorb each experience and everything that is being taught to me.

Colorful Africa