Tuesday report photos from Sun/Mon

Quote of the day from Zhamoyani: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door” –Milton Berle

Sopa!!

Today the group continued building the library. Shani was able to bring Marianna, Thea, and Jessie from their homestay to the work site in the morning. They were dirty and tired, but eager to work and see what they missed while they were with their host family for a couple of days. We were glad to have them back this morning. A day is longer here than it is in the U.S. so I missed them too.

Since the corners for the building were completed yesterday, we were able to fill in the inner rows. The day seemed to be going slow, but we were able to finish the nine rows, leaving space for windows, and beams tomorrow.

Click for photos of Sunday and Monday.

I heard from Marianna about their wonderful time with their host families. She mentioned jump-roping, flying kites, herding goats, and more. I can’t wait for when I go on my homestay on Thursday, which is in two days.

During our work time in the morning, Edward, the man in charge of the construction, told us that two trees had to be removed since they were leaning over into the building, and interfering with the project. We were given two pick axes and a thin, heavy metal, sword-like object to chop off the tree roots and bring down the invasive species covered in thorns. Sure enough, Eddie, with his brute force and massive size, was able to chop down the first tree within a few seconds. I was no match. The second tree was a lot harder to bring down since the roots were much thicker, but Brandt, Eddie, Ycar, and I were able to bring down the thorn-covered tree, after about ten minutes. It was also my first time using a pick axe so I felt so good with it in my hand. The Masai warriors came to our aid to help us carry the tree away.

During our lunch, Laurie explained a project to us. A couple of days ago, we did an exercise with the Rusinga kids, where we would have to listen to each other speak, and write down important words that they said. With those words, we have to create a poem. We can change the words to fit our poem, but at the end, we will send our poems via email to the Rusinga kids. I look forward to my finished piece.

Later on in the day after our afternoon work, we played a game of soccer with Charlotte’s ball. I was so intimidated by the kids. I thought they were going to be so good. And they were. When were separated into two groups, I was on team nabo (one), which mostly comprised of Groton students. I was a little bit worried about how well we would do, but when we started playing, I became more confident. The little kids were really fast. Some kids hit the ball across the field. Others were able to keep the ball between their feet while people tried to steal the ball. It was an amazing game. I was busy running up and down the field. Eddie head-butted the ball; Varsha and Jessie blocked many. And after about twenty minutes of playing, team nabo won 2-1, surprisingly. Everybody was worn out. We returned to our compound, looking forward to tea time and the showers.

Charlotte, Varsha, and Brooke left the camp tonight to go on their homestay, so it will be a small group tomorrow on the worksite, but it will be fun to work on the roof.

Best,

Zhamoyani

P.S: Hi Mum. You are probably worried right now, but I’m fine. I remembered to take my malaria pills. J