We had forgotten how long things take in Kenya.
Friday, July 14, 2006
We woke up early this morning intending to be clean, fed, and ready to go by the time Makena, Victor, or Steve showed up at the center so that we could go to the big Nakumatt at Mega City. We were eager to figure out if we would be able to get a printer and the weird odds and ends we needed to make our equipment work. We had breakfast while heating up pots of water to bathe with. We filled our small basin/large bowl with the warm water and headed for the bathroom for a standing, self-service sponge bath of sorts. Afterwards, we felt surprisingly clean, probably in contrast with how dirty we had been before.
Victor arrived and we told him of our plan to go to the store in town. Victor informed us that Steve had called him to say that he had family issues which had prevented him from returning the previous day. Victor asked if he could borrow Alexis's computer, which she had planned to take to town with her to connect directly to the internet at a cyber cafe. Somehow this led into trying to sort through the donated equipment and trying to set up the G3 we had bought, which sounds like it is getting power but won't go on (this made us both VERY sad, especially because we had lugged it around for so long - Alexis had been with it since she was in LA). During this time, Steve showed up in his borrowed car and apologized for the day before explaining that his family troubles were resolved but he had some kind of gum problem that was causing him a great deal of pain and swelling in his cheek.
A couple of hours later, we piled into Steve's car and all headed to Mega City. Steve made a detour and stopped off at one of the community centers that we would be working with. They deal with youths aged 10-29. We were warmly greeted at the very nice center, which had several buildings and a yard and, from what we could see, was equipped with pool tables, a computer room, counseling rooms, and an outdoor meeting/eating area.
We then went to the Mega City, where we were dropped off. We wandered through the large store looking for the random items on our list. We were able to find a few things that we needed, but no printer. We did find a kodak machine kisosk that does prints from digital cameras, which was exciting. We purchased our items and moved across the way to an "cyber cafe," which seems like a weird description for a place that provides computers but no food or drink. We spent the next 3 hours or so e-mailing, taking care of administrative business, doing research, and trying to upload pictures and update our blog.
As instructed, we called Steve to alert him that we would soon be ready to leave Mega City. Since he was back at the center, we decided to make our own way back. He said that he would wait there for us.
We finished up and started down the road in the direction that we thought would take us to Kakamega Road where we could catch our beloved #10 matatu to MambaLeo again carrying with us one large jug of water. People stared and offered us rides and escort as we made our way down the road for what seemed like a really long time. We finally made it to the road and the bus stop where we waited for our matatu while school kids laughed and stared at us.
We arrived back at the center after 4pm, where we were greeted by Steve and Victor. We walked inside and set down our things. When we walked to the reception area, thinking that now we would have the meeting we had been waiting for, but found that Makena was the only one there. We asked if Steve and Victor had left. She said yes. We asked if they had left for the day. She said yes. We asked if she came into work on the weekends. She said no, but if we needed her to call Steve or Victor and they would find her. We told her to have a nice weekend and she left.
We sat there together in the empty reception area confused. What had just happened? Why had they left without saying goodbye? Were these just cultural differences? Had we somehow offended them? When were we supposed to meet? Were they coming back the next day? Were we not going to meet before beginning the trainings on Monday morning? Where were we? How had we gotten there? Did we want to be there? Doubt and fear had begun to wash over us. What had we done? Did we make a bad decision? We've definitely done it before...
We warmed up some lentil soup and ate. It felt like we were just renting a room in this strange center. We felt totally lost and disconnected.
We decided that we still had work to do and since we would have to wait and see if we had really made a mistake by coming to this crazy place, we should focus on what we were able to accomplish and worry about the rest later. We set to sorting out all the equipment, color coding it, testing it, and moving it to another room. We made a point to try and call Steve and then to send both him and Victor a text message asking if they would be in the next day since we were so eager to meet with them before Monday. We received no response.
We worked into the wee hours of the morning, joking about the possible situations that we could be in and being scared by the strange sounds coming from all directions. When we were satisfied with our organizational efforts, we turned on Michel Thomas Teached French and tried to sleep.
We woke up early this morning intending to be clean, fed, and ready to go by the time Makena, Victor, or Steve showed up at the center so that we could go to the big Nakumatt at Mega City. We were eager to figure out if we would be able to get a printer and the weird odds and ends we needed to make our equipment work. We had breakfast while heating up pots of water to bathe with. We filled our small basin/large bowl with the warm water and headed for the bathroom for a standing, self-service sponge bath of sorts. Afterwards, we felt surprisingly clean, probably in contrast with how dirty we had been before.
Victor arrived and we told him of our plan to go to the store in town. Victor informed us that Steve had called him to say that he had family issues which had prevented him from returning the previous day. Victor asked if he could borrow Alexis's computer, which she had planned to take to town with her to connect directly to the internet at a cyber cafe. Somehow this led into trying to sort through the donated equipment and trying to set up the G3 we had bought, which sounds like it is getting power but won't go on (this made us both VERY sad, especially because we had lugged it around for so long - Alexis had been with it since she was in LA). During this time, Steve showed up in his borrowed car and apologized for the day before explaining that his family troubles were resolved but he had some kind of gum problem that was causing him a great deal of pain and swelling in his cheek.
A couple of hours later, we piled into Steve's car and all headed to Mega City. Steve made a detour and stopped off at one of the community centers that we would be working with. They deal with youths aged 10-29. We were warmly greeted at the very nice center, which had several buildings and a yard and, from what we could see, was equipped with pool tables, a computer room, counseling rooms, and an outdoor meeting/eating area.
We then went to the Mega City, where we were dropped off. We wandered through the large store looking for the random items on our list. We were able to find a few things that we needed, but no printer. We did find a kodak machine kisosk that does prints from digital cameras, which was exciting. We purchased our items and moved across the way to an "cyber cafe," which seems like a weird description for a place that provides computers but no food or drink. We spent the next 3 hours or so e-mailing, taking care of administrative business, doing research, and trying to upload pictures and update our blog.
As instructed, we called Steve to alert him that we would soon be ready to leave Mega City. Since he was back at the center, we decided to make our own way back. He said that he would wait there for us.
We finished up and started down the road in the direction that we thought would take us to Kakamega Road where we could catch our beloved #10 matatu to MambaLeo again carrying with us one large jug of water. People stared and offered us rides and escort as we made our way down the road for what seemed like a really long time. We finally made it to the road and the bus stop where we waited for our matatu while school kids laughed and stared at us.
We arrived back at the center after 4pm, where we were greeted by Steve and Victor. We walked inside and set down our things. When we walked to the reception area, thinking that now we would have the meeting we had been waiting for, but found that Makena was the only one there. We asked if Steve and Victor had left. She said yes. We asked if they had left for the day. She said yes. We asked if she came into work on the weekends. She said no, but if we needed her to call Steve or Victor and they would find her. We told her to have a nice weekend and she left.
We sat there together in the empty reception area confused. What had just happened? Why had they left without saying goodbye? Were these just cultural differences? Had we somehow offended them? When were we supposed to meet? Were they coming back the next day? Were we not going to meet before beginning the trainings on Monday morning? Where were we? How had we gotten there? Did we want to be there? Doubt and fear had begun to wash over us. What had we done? Did we make a bad decision? We've definitely done it before...
We warmed up some lentil soup and ate. It felt like we were just renting a room in this strange center. We felt totally lost and disconnected.
We decided that we still had work to do and since we would have to wait and see if we had really made a mistake by coming to this crazy place, we should focus on what we were able to accomplish and worry about the rest later. We set to sorting out all the equipment, color coding it, testing it, and moving it to another room. We made a point to try and call Steve and then to send both him and Victor a text message asking if they would be in the next day since we were so eager to meet with them before Monday. We received no response.
We worked into the wee hours of the morning, joking about the possible situations that we could be in and being scared by the strange sounds coming from all directions. When we were satisfied with our organizational efforts, we turned on Michel Thomas Teached French and tried to sleep.
posted by Sara Feldman at 4:21 PM
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