Orientation and Placement

So a few days ago we had orientation. This group of guys came and did a african song and dance for us and then told us what to expect from our stay here like how not to get robbed, and some excursions we could do in our freetime. They also warned us that we would see and hear about some pretty horrific things during our stay here and we can’t put the weight of these sad stories on our shoulders or we wont last here. Then they gave us our placements, I am with one other girl at a place called Hubbard Orphanage in a town called Ngong which is 30 min outside of Nairobi. Then I found out that in the morning the kids are all at school so they asked if we would teach too. So we are going to spend out mornings teaching and our afternoons playing! Me and the other volunteer named Fallah arrived in Ngong and were pretty overwhelmed. There were cars, busses, motorcycles, and people rushing past us everywhere. It’s loud, it’s crowded, it’s indescribable, it’s Ngong! It’s a little hard to take pics to capture the true essence of what I’m seeing everyday because it’s not exactly safe to have a camera out but I snuck one:

We are staying with a woman named Naomi. She cooks for us everyday and is really nice. Last night me and Fallah were both woken up by a strange noise at 4:30a.m so we sat here trying to figure out what it was and it was a drunk guy in the distance screaming, singing, and chanting loud enough to wake up the whole town and then we heard goats and a rooster right outside our window. We just had to laugh because this is Africa! We woke up and finally got to go check out the school and orphanage. Lucky for us, the kids were out of school today because of midterms so they all came running to greet us at the gate. It was so sweet, they immediately took our hands to show us inside and were shoving each other fighting over holding my hand. Here is a first grader proudly showing me his desk

After the school we went home for a bit and then walked to the orphanage. There is a lot of walking here but I didn’t mind because the views were so pretty! I like the outskirts of Ngong up in the hills much better than the main road. The walk is peaceful and when you get a glimpse of the Ngong hills in the distance it’s amazing! 

I’ll end this post with something the girl I’m staying with said, after leaving the kids today we were talking about kids greeting us and being SO HAPPY to see us. She said “That was really overwhelming but in the best way.” I feel like I’m going to be saying that a lot on this trip.