fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun

After officially surviving month number one in Kenya, I can say I am feeling at home! Dunga, the sub-district of Kisumu where I live, is a nice small area where everyone knows each other and all that goes on. It’s lovely waking up to roosters cocka-doodle-dooling, and then riding on the back of a bicycle to work. Most people are very welcoming and friendly and it’s refreshing to be greeted so eagerly. As comfortable and acclimated I feel now, I’m still reminded of how tough of a life it is over here. Daily negative occurrences are expected, but it’s easy to remind myself that this is all for the kids. They really make it all worthwhile.
Speaking of the youngins, they are still going strong and surprise me every day. Despite having been through so many hardships and having far less than posh lives, they remain positive and happy. And SERIOUS hard workers! At ten years old I cannot imagine cleaning the huge pots we cook in, but they sure get that done. No grumbling or complaining, ever. Our classes are going much smoother now as well, which is mainly due to the fact that we have an established lesson plan these days. Every other day, they learn a new letter of the alphabet, which we incorporate into various games and activities, just so boredom doesn’t kick in. School is such an important asset down here, and the children all realize this. They reamin eager and enthusiastic, making it a fun and rewarding education experience. We had our biweekly Saturday Empowerment Day today as well, which went great. We brought some clay in and had a counselor from the Kiwanis Club talk to the older kids about the hardships of growing up. I also broke out the electric slide, I’m not too sure many of them caught on but it was fun making a fool of myself. J
Aside from teaching, feeding and playing in the dirt, I have gotten to experience much of Kenya’s gorgeous environment. We (Eve and I) have gotten to escape and see hippos, along with many other villages in the surrounding areas. These villages basically define Africa for me. The people inhabiting these places take great pride in where in they live, keeping everything clean and green. It’s completely refreshing to travel to these little corners of Kenya, and I really look forward to these mini-vacations that come about every other weekend. Just last weekend we traveled to Mageta Island for “Clean Up the World Day” for fun tree planting festivities. It was my first experience traveling on Lake Victoria, and wow, it was awesome. Although we traveled in a slightly leaky boat, filled with bicycles and fisherman, it was easy to feel comfortable on the water. The scenery is breathtaking with the surrounding islands, hills and endless sky.
One frustrating fact about building a home here is that I (along with every other mzungu) am constantly on showcase. I feel exactly like an animal at the zoo; constantly stared and hollered at. For this reason, among many others, I am so thankful we are living with Maurice. Him being Kenyan seems to deter some of this when we are out walking around and running errands. I really appreciate this kid; he has such a great sense of humor and genuinely cares and looks after us. It’s great coming home to his impressions of people and stories of his day, and he always seems to make a stressful day better.
Something that still surprises me, no matter how much of it I have experienced since arriving or how much I thought I was prepared, is how truly prominent HIV/AIDS is. Everyone I come across is infected or affected with either of these, and work their way into daily life no matter where I am or whom I’m with. In the short month I have been here, many people have passed away, which seems to catch no one off guard. However, a more positive outcome of this is how much more advertised the risks of the virus are. Signs are posted everywhere on how to live a healthy lifestyle and children are taught dramas, poems and songs on how destructive HIV and AIDS are. I find myself constantly wondering what more we can do to improve the conditions of Africa’s situation, and how to go about lowering the sky-rocketing contraction rate. So many questions!
Well I’m out for now, asante sana for reading this, I am thinking of you all and I hope everything is A-OK in the USA!

Brittani Erickson
C/O Kiwanis of Kisumu
PO Box 19086, Pembe tatu
Kisumu, Kenya
011-254-723-036527 (yup, I have a cell phone, 10 hours ahead but no worries)