RaNdOm EnCoUnTeRs

Sooo…I have a lot of thoughts. Here are some of them:

1. So, in the community outreach that I’ve been a part of the past two weeks, I have has a lot of interaction with very young mothers…some as young as in the 6^th grade. What is interesting about this is that children have such different roles here. Even in the family I am living with, each child has certain chores to do. Now, to many of us, chores include unloading the dishwasher and folding laundry (which, P.S.—the ladies in my house asked if I have those things that clean dishes and clothes or if it is just in the TV haha!). But here, they wash all their clothes by hand and hang them to dry. Even the little 4-year-old girl knows how to scrub her clothes and then passes the clothespins to her older sister while she hangs up the clothes. My family is VERY fortunate and has one working sink in their house, which is located in the kitchen. But, the water does not always work…this happens sometimes several times a day. So, all of the children have these huge water jugs and they must walk to the nearby waterhole where there are 2 water faucets there to fill up their water and carry them back home. And they are HEAVY!!! No pictures have been taken yet because I am seriously sweating (you’re welcome for the visual) before, during, and after all of these water-retrieval occurrences haha. When one of the children in my family was ill, the older daughter was told to stay home from school to help with the sick child while the mother continued with the typical chores of the day. These are only SOME examples of the various roles that children have here. Even the little 3-year-old knows his role and knows when he is in the way and knows when he has to stay out of the kitchen and such. Okay, so because of these responsibilities placed on the children, especially the female children, it almost encourages them to think that they can handle having a family and a baby on their own.

I was speaking to Mohammed, an EAC worker and my mentor on the health team, about the roles of women and he also thinks that the roles the young women have in their     household make them think that they can be successful in caring for a child and cooking     and cleaning a house when they get married because they are already doing those things at their own house. Interesting, right?

2. Rain does not hinder any activities here. You just keep walking or keep up with your conversation. It is like no one is even phased by the rain haha! I’ve only seen the Boda Boda drivers wearing raincoats (I’ve been wearing my ADPi raincoat mucho), and someeeee people have umbrellas.

3. So, dogs are NOT liked amongst the locals here. The stray cats are nicely fed scraps from a meal, but stray dogs are shooed and yelled at. I asked why people don’t like dogs, and I told about the two dogs that my parents have, and two young girls in my house said that they are a form of the devil. If you touch a dog or a pig that you must wash your hands 6 times and the 7^th time you must use sand to scrub your hands. I told them that I still like dogs better than cats…lol haha!

4.  Out of respect, I am called “Madam” or “Mother” at the school. I hate it. I keep asking to just be called by my name, but it isn’t sticking lol! Darn kids making me feel SUPER old! In one of the classes, I told them that I’m not married and don’t have kids so I’m not a madam nor a mother. I’d even settle for being called a “Miss Noelle” (hahaha shout out to Paisley and the Voelker family!)!

5. So, as part of my community outreach, I help to fill up condom dispensers around town. Well, today I went to one of the locations and one of the guys at this location was telling me about a burial that was occurring today. Apparently, a local young man was on the Acrobat team and traveled to Russia to compete and he fell from a building or tower or something and died. It was very sad to hear and the whole Acrobat team and community was saddened by this news. Well, after hearing that sad story he asked if he could bring one of the boxes of condoms (has 244 condoms in it) to the burial. I kinda laughed and then asked why and he said that burials are not only sad, that they celebrate life and those still living. Soooo, this celebration requires condoms haha! Hope all of those people at the burial have a great and safe time today lol! Oh, how I love Takaungu.   

Pictures:

1. Past volunteers at the school painted this picture of Africa! Pretty impressive!

1. Even when in Africa, I still will randomly glance at my phone and it will show 813 (Tampa's area code)! I alwayssss happen to look at my watch or phone or clock when I'm living in Philly and it is 813! Shout out to the 813!!!