"It's a Small World After All..."

So we just got back and have a ton of stories and pics to share, this will just be the first of many posts...
We just got back from Lodwar and Kakuma around 330 AM this morning...I dont really
know where to start so I guess Ill start with this past weekend in Kakuma...

Kakuma is mainly a city made up of the refugee camp, it not far from the Kenya/Sudan border and it's REALLY hot...
My favorite part of getting to go to Kakuma was going to the refugee camp. Its something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m just curious to see what the refugee camps are like, how they are set up, how the refugees are living, all of it.

The UN doesn’t allow pictures to be taken while youre in the camp so I tried to find some online…






First of all it’s huge! There used to be about 100,000 people living there but recently the UN has made a lot of the Sudanese move back so the population has gone down. There are refugees from almost every neighboring country. The Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia, Burundi, and Sudan all have refugees living in the camp, which started back in 1992 when Northern Sudan was attacking Southern Sudan.

Ethiopian and Somali refugees


Collecting Rations




We had a warm greeting from the Somali’s when we were taking Boda Bodas through their community to get to the Sudanese…Most of them stared and yelled and made noises, but there was a particularly friendly Somali man sitting on the side of the road who yelled “F**k You, Motherf****r!” As I passed on the Boda Boda. Nice…



It was crazy to pass through all the different communities. It didn’t take long being in the camp befre you could tell the difference between nationalities just by looking at the person. As ou walked around you could tell when you moved from the Sudanese communityto the Congolese community to the Ethiopian community.

I was super excited to go to the Ethiopian community and Ben had some friends there so over the 4 days were were in Kakuma we spent a lot of time in that section…He even had a friend who had an Ethiopian restaurant so I got to eat Anjera again, twice…jealous?
No Ethiopian meal is complete without the random hard boiled egg


This was the view FROM the bathroom at the restaurant...The man told us to "go straight down the hall past the chickens and make a right when you get to the goats." No joke...

It wasn't so bad until Alice saw a giant tarantula in a cocoon on the roof of the room next to the bathroom...Safe to say I was done after that...


I have to say my first impressions of the camp weren’t that bad, save for the Somali section. It was one of the only cmmunities that seemed to have trash everywhere and hostile people.
I guess the main thing was I noticed people's lives went on as usual. They had made this place their home. Some created businesses and restuarants. Others had sports teams. I guess I was expecting just a mass of people sitting around wasting away.
Don't get me wrong people were definitely just sitting around, but I had no idea people could create businesses inside the camp, I was really impressed




All the other communities seemed to be cleaned up pretty well in the common areas, now the housing sections were sometimes a different story, but overall it didn’t seem as destitute as I thought it might be…





Sunday, Ben took me at the crack of dawn to a Sudanese service in the refugee camp. I have to say it was the most kick ass experience and probably my favorite church AND service I’ve ever attended, even though I couldn’t understand anything they were saying.


It was one of the most beautiful settings. I freaking loved being outside in the middle of the refugee camp at this service. About 75 kids came out and performed. They sang and danced to this huge drum, while someone sang over a bullhorn...


Ben said the whole church used to be filled before the UN made them go back to Sudan


The pulpit


The road out of Kaku..ma, the boy in the picture Yacob, lives at the guesthouse we stayed at...


The ride home was ridiculous! We got on the bus around 4PM and pulled into Kitale at 330 AM! It was so long and honestly uncomfortable. But I was able to lean out the window and take some of these pictures as we drove.




The Road...




Chris had his awesome new Turkana hat for the ride home...


Bus Driver






Bathroom break in Lodwar

Signing off...but only for a week

Tomorrow morning Chris, Allison, and I will be loading up on a bus with Ben from Gilgol High School, and heading to a region called Turkana.
We will be visiting 2 places called Kakuma and Lodwar...The first thing everyone says when we tell them that is where we are headed is, "Why would you want to go there? It's so hot!"
Who knows why but we are going to be visiting a couple refugee camps and the surrounding villages. The camps are filled with people from all over eastern Africa, including Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. We're not quite sure what to expect, other than an adventure.
So all that to say, we probably wont be posting for a week or so, and Im sure we'll have plenty when we get back. But also, please pray for our safety and health...Thanks

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Last night was dinner at the girls house from Oasis and oh man was it fun...
The girls personalities really came out so of coarse we encouraged it

I taught them "The Claire"


Hhhhmmm Chipati...


The house mom, Rabekah has a rad sewing machine and showed Alice how to sew...She said we could come over any time and make dresses, so be on the lookout the next couple of months for some awesome skirts coming your way...


Alice also melted the cooking fat for the chipati...


Chris and Dorkas came up with an amazing rap, its called "Boda Boda" you should hear it...


Ajix, such a great name...


Centrine makes the best chipati


Janet & Ajix


In case a music video should ever be made for "Boda Boda" Dorkas and I have the coreography ready...



Chris & Dorkas made a good pair for entertaining last night


John and Isaiah from House 3 stopped by


Cute Nancy making chipati


Give Rael the camera and this is what you get...


Awesomeness...


Alice fashioned a great headband for Ajix out of the sticker on the biscuit container..


Alice & Nancy


Centrine wasn't quite sure what to make of Chris' singing


Dorkas


They made such an amazing dinner the anticipation was killing us

Kitale Forest PE Day!

Today was PE day again at Kitale Forest Primary...Last week was one of the best days Ive ever had so I was really excited to go back.



Last week they put class 5 & 7 together, for a total of around 130-140 students, which was just WAY too much, so they gave me another class, for a total of 4 PE classes...



This week we did some physical fitness classes, consisting of how may sit-ups and press-ups the students could do in 1 minute...They've never done anything like it before so it was kind of difficult to explain.
Joseph was working hard


I was surprised for how strong they look, hardly any of them could complete a minute of press-ups, as they call them, or sit-ups...
Jonah


My helpers, the baby class


We also had relay races, the 100-meter dash...A girl won the whole thing


Thank god for this teacher, she was able to translate and help the students understand


The teachers room, so much like an American teacher's room, talking about the students, gossiping about personal stuff...the usual


For lunch I went to house 2 with Steward and Joseph. I thought it was going to be a long walk, but they know a short cut so it wasn't bad at all...It was actually a nice walk...


It was just the 3 of us because the class7 boys stay at school to eat and Stew and Jose' are the only ones in class 6... It was great though because we talked the entire time about so many things. Oddly enough the American economy, money, school, a bunch of things..


The boys are so smart and curious, we always love having conversation with them, its as if they don't have a filter when they ask questions




After lunch, I went to sit in with class 6 on their Swahili lesson and when they were done they wanted to ask a bunch of questions so for about 45 minutes I answered questions about our economy(which I is not so great right now), where we keep our "mad" people (A.K.A. insane), our weather, marriage, abortion, and so much more...they really are inquisitive buggers...But, i have to say i love it because it pushes me and I think there is nothing more important than knowledge, so if these kids want to learn, I want to help...