Bunabuyoka!!

These past couple days have been life changing to say the least. Get ready for it. You should seriously read this, not just look at the pictures because it was the greatest thing of my life.

Monday morning the whole crew (except four) journeyed back to the village where we are building the health clinic and the roof/floor to their school...we were planning on staying the night so we had to bring our mattress with us! (If you can even call those mattress', they are basically just soft pads haha)

 Luckily we didn't have to take our stuff all the way up to the village...people from the village came down and carried it for us. We felt really bad but they insisted. We planned on taking Bodas up the steepest part of the mountain but that didn't really workout. Ashley and I got on one and the hill was so steep, the Boda couldn't even make it up the hill and we ended up sliding off the Boda. Every steep part from then on we had to get off the Boda and walk up which was frustrating considering that's why we took the Boda in the first place!! Oh well, builds character, and leg muscles.

When we arrived, we were surprised to see that the community was already setting up the land where the clinic is going to be built!!

We stayed in a "house" in the village which was actually pretty nice. (for a village house) It had a cement floor and a tin roof. The family we stayed with was super nice and welcoming. They speak English but it's very simple and limited so it's kind of hard to communicate with them. We hung up our misquito nets and such and they made us a wonderful meal of posho and makote (not my favorite but it's the only thing they eat/have so I was grateful) The rest of the day consisted of talking to the community about details of the health clinic.

The night sleep was hilarious. Nine of us were squished on 4 mattress pads in a confined space. I don't think any of us slept that night...Here we are in the morning of our great night sleep...

The bucket is food we brought from the house: bread, peanut butter, bananas, jam and our favorite treat here: shortbread cookies

 We woke up nice and early to the sound of a rooster at 6:30 am and started the day teaching P.E. to little 4 year olds. It was the most cutest thing of my life. We did jumping jacks and played the hokey pokey. We also taught them English and they didn't understand what was going on half the time but that was the beauty of it. Next up was manual labor. I seriously have been looking forward to this the whole time I've been here (in Africa) as weird as that sounds...during the kids break at school, they walk down the hill to go get stones for the foundation of the clinic, that's how bad they want it. You could never get kids to do this in America...

 It was super motivating and humbling to watch these children have so much dedication to their community. Half of them probably don't even know what is going on, but they do it because everyone else is. I love them so much. I didn't get any pictures of the treturious/steep hill I hiked up and down for 2 hours straight carrying stones in a sack but just trust I didn't stop and was completely in the zone. The following picture is the only one I found of myself and if you look closely you can see the sweat coming down my spine. There was a guy we met named Henry who came up to me after the manual labor and said how envious he was of me that I kept going up and down the hill with no breaks and I motivated him to keep going...he said something like he was thinking how an American woman was passing him up and he was ashamed. Haahaha I just laughed and explained to him this is the most useful I've felt the whole time I've been here and it's the only task I've felt like I could do well so I was going to do it good and not stop until the deed was done. 

 Two of the volunteers taught a health class in the afternoon that I sat in on it and took pictures of them and these precious ones sat by me...

 Tessa and Tabby (the women that got us involved with this village) said that they wanted some people to stay an extra night so we could interview families to see what their views/needs/expectations are about the health clinic. Four of us stayed and when school was out, we played with the kids that live near the school until it was dark. It was so freaken fun. I could not stop smiling. They taught us their fun games and were obsessed with the camera, it was so cute.

It started raining so we all piled in the house we were staying in and they literally sang songs the entire time. It was incredible to see how content they were just singing songs when it was raining outside. They don't have electronics, all they have is each other. 

 This little boy, Enoch has quite the story:

His dad is an alcoholic and his mom doesn't know how to take care of him and 3 of her other children. He has lived in pretty much every house in the community because his mom doesn't know how to cook so he just mooches off other families, but can you blame him when he is neglected by his family? The best part about him is he is so happy, he always has the goofiest smile on his face. You would never guess he is neglected. Tessa and Tabby adopted him and took care of him for a while and brought him back to live in the village and he kinda just does his own thing but sleeps at his house. He is the first one to arrive at school and the last one to go home. He is the happiest little boy I have ever met in my life and he has quite the dance moves too. 

 I am seriously obsessed with these children. The little girl in the blue dress (Juliet) was constantly following me and holding my hand. The little girl I'm holding is her sister and she would just carry her on her back everywhere she went.

This is the little boy (Derrick) that is in my facebook profile picture who I found the first time I came to the village. He was super quiet when I first met him and I finally made him talk!!! I did the batman voice and he copied me and it was the funniest thing ever. I got him to say "Hey, I'm Batman" and then I got him to say his name and my name then he ended up just coping everything I said. He is the cutest child I have ever encountered since I've been here and he was literally latched onto me for a good 3 hours and ended up falling asleep on me. Oh and I found out, he's an orphan and some random lady took him in who takes care of 8 other children so he's not loved the way he should be which is why he loves being held. I went through the longest thought process of how I could take him home with me and raise him then realized I couldn't take him to Idaho and started thinking about all these other dumb realistic things. URG I just want to bring him to American and clean him and give him clean clothes. 

(sorry for the creepish face I'm making...just ignore that and focus on his adorableness)

 This is Vicki and her family is the one we're staying with, she speaks the best English and she loves us.

 She took my camera and was loving the concept of taking pictures of everything.

That night, we got treated to beans instead of matoke and it was a real treat. Our faces lit up when we saw beans in the pot...Sara (Vicki's mom) is the woman who made us dinner and let us stay at her house and she always had the biggest smile on her face. That night, she made us African tea...I'm not really a tea person but this was the best tea I've ever had. It was lemon grass tea and you add sugar to it and oh my gosh I'm craving it right now just thinking about it. Mmmmmm...

That night since there was only four of us meant we all got our own mattress pad and we all slept so well. Jan woke up and said, "There's a snake in my boot" for some odd reason and I replied back, "There's a roach on your net" hahaha it was really funny. Guess you had to be there...

Oh I didn't even talk about the bathroom facilities. It is literally a hole in the ground and you have to squat. Luckily the hole is in a 20 ft by 20 ft brick structure with a tin roof and it has a door but even with all of that, it's still quite awkward....but that's why I came here! To have the experience of going to the bathroom in a hole hahaha. We did some more stone carrying that morning and Henry and I went strong the whole time and he again mentioned to me how impressed he was by me. He made me feel like superwoman haha but I can't take the credit. Sounds cliche, but honestly it's God. He has given me the strength to be here in Africa and to carry those stones down the hill so many times and ahhh I am so grateful. Oh let me also mention how faithful these people in this village are. I honestly don't know how they can have so much faith when they have nothing. It's what they do have that makes them so grateful. They are just grateful they have food for that day. They always pray and they are the most honest prayers I have ever heard in my life. Tessa said a prayer before we went to bed one night and it was like one of the most spiritual experiences I've had since I've been here. It is truly unbelievable how humbled this village has made me and how I've realized how blessed I have been to be born in America. It is mind blowing how we are all people just trying to figure life out living in different parts of the world. Life is truly a gift from God and I am so grateful that am able to be here and gain a 

different perspective on life.....

I can't wait to go back there on Monday to actually start building health clinic and the roof/floor of the school! I also can't wait to go back and see the kids and be obsessed with them and ahhh I love this village so freaken much and my life and there is so much to be thankful for in life!!!!

Oh if you'd like to donate  to help build the school roof/floor and the health clinic it would be very much appreciated...we can't build it without your help actually...haha..but like really...

* P.S. M.J. the cat I took a picture with in a couple posts ago is dead. He got eaten.