pole pole

(slowly by slowly)

I'm in Kenya!!!!! After nearly 27 hours in the air, I'm halfway across the world typing this.

I'm feeling a million things all at once, and it's going to take me time and perspective to sort through how I'm feeling about all of this. So, my plan is to post one or two times while I'm here with details of what I'm doing, and then dissect it later with photos. I need silence.

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Right now, it's 6:19 in Nairobi, and I think I've done more today than I ever thought possible!!! We got up and had breakfast - coffee, fruit, toast, hardboiled eggs...etc. The rooms at Kolping are nice. I'm staying with three other girls, and we all have our own beds. It's great. I slept like a log last night...thanks to a Tylenol PM and one messed up sleep schedule :)

We're staying in the nicer part of town where travelers are, and we have our own security guards and a fence around the place. Almost everyone has fenced compounds with glass or barbed wire on top. I asked Julius if it was because people are really worried, and he says it's mostly because if someone breaks in, the police aren't as responsive...especially to native Kenyans. It's weird. If that was us, the reaction would be totally different. The hotels are like Fort Knox. Everyone loves us because we're white. It's sort of an odd feeling to be ashamed of your privilege. I'd never fullly understood it in America.

It's hard to put everything into words. Today we visited both Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's group) and Villa Teag (Julius' family's orphanage). MOC is maybe a little nicer, but the children are primarily infants, young or special needs. One of the sisters talked with us today about how most of the children get there. It's pretty graphic, but suffice it to say, most of them are brought there because they're unwanted or semi-aborted. The sisters nurse them back to life and take care of them. You want to talk about happy and poor...they've got it figured out.

VT is children aged 4-13, from what we saw today. It's not as nice of a facility, but the kids are precious. I'd like to spend more time there, but I'm not sure what we'll be doing. They did a little skit/song thing for us, and got us up to shake our butts...it was so cute. They sang this song that says "people say you're unattractive, but we think you're cute, now get up and shake it." You stand up and shake your hips and these little babies were shakin' it like a rap video. It was so unsexual, but really tribal. They got rhythm :)

I've been practicing my swahili and the Kenyans love it. You should see how excited they get when you talk to them!!! This place is like heaven. It's not always pretty, but it's real. I can't believe I'm here. I keep pinching myself and crying.

I feel like I was born to be here.