Week 1 Recap

What a week it has been. In so many ways it doesn't feel like a week of camp has gone by. In other ways, it feels like the longest week ever! I'm so glad we've come back for the second running or as Francis calls it, Seasons Two! To be able to see some of the same students now two years older brings so much joy. Only a handful of the students are the same, and we are loving getting to know the new faces. We had 120 registered students (up from 75 in the first running). On the biggest day of the week, our largest number was 108. We are expecting that a few more will show up for week two.

 

Monday

Day one. We had ambitious plans for day one. But it's always good to have more planned then to scramble to fill time. We started about 2 hours late - Kenya time at it's finest. We sorted kids into their camp groups - Lions, Elephants, and Giraffes - and introduced them to the concept of camp. The students had prepared a short "opening ceremony" for us with songs and dancing. One of the "youth" volunteers, "Moses," wants to be a radio personality so he performed a short "segment" for us as well. We decorated reusable bags and did get to know you activities to round out the day!

Tuesday

We took the campers to the local field to play. It was a bit of a hike along a few treacherous paths. We even had to share the road with a heard of cows for a while. At the field Kennedy, one of our volunteers, lead a soccer station. He’s a collegiate player and coaches youth soccer. He even brought jerseys for the kids to wear for the day! The kids absolutely loved it. One thing that always gets a lot of love are the new soccer balls we are able to provide them. 

The other big hit was the parachute. When I taught Elementary PE, the parachute was everyone’s favorite activity. Once the kids got over the confusion and skeptical looks, they had a great time exploring all the different ways to use the parachute. It will have to come out again at the next games day. 

We also brought with us jump (skipping) ropes which are another favorite activity of the kids. Noramy and I got in on the action and promptly remembered why adults stop jump roping...it’s hard. I think I have some working out to do!

 






Wednesday

Today was a much quieter day at camp. We had three stations to rotate through. The theme for camp this year is, "Ourselves, The Community, and the World." So we are trying to intentionally lead activities to fit this theme. Amanda lead mindfulness activities and talked about emotions. She made an anger volcano to talk about managing difficult feelings. So many of our students don't have a lot of coping skills and come from really challenging backgrounds. This area was one of the areas Francis asked us to focus on since it is an area of expertise for Amanda and something I am familiar with from a teaching perspective. 

 

My session was about community service. We discussed ways to help in the community from cleaning up the environment to helping our neighbors out with hanging laundry on the line. We learned from giving a pre-survey on day 1 that a lot of our kids don't feel like they have a lot of power to make a difference in the community. We wanted to start helping our kids feel empowered to not only make a difference in their own lives, but to help others and make their communities stronger. So we bought bio -degradable trash bags and gloves and went out in front of the school to pick up the plastic trash. The difference we made in 3 hours was incredible! I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. You'll just have to trust me on this one. What I think has the potential to be powerful is that the community saw the students out picking up and having fun beautifying their area. Hopefully others will notice and this can be the beginning of change.

Thursday

If you followed along with the blog during the first running, you learned about Little Einstein’s. Well, they are back with us this year.  Thursday they came to camp with 3 hands on experiments involving baking soda. 

1. Growing Hand

 

2. Exploding Color

 

 

3. Slime - Universal fun for kids and the bane of every adult’s (with kids) existence

Jane came to camp again to lead shampoo making. It’s such a practical skill to have in a community where having a skill in making or creating something to sell really can be the difference between eating or not. We still have to bottle up all the shampoo to send home with the kids (everyone has been saving plastic bottles for several months in preparation for camp)!

Amanda read the book Bucket Filler and started a kindness challenge that will continue into week two. She also shared a video and photos from our sister camp in Canada (which Amanda planned and lead back in July). 

 

You can see the "All About Me" Hands from Monday!

Some of the class 7 and 8 girls.

It was a crazy busy 4 days, but everyone left with full bellies and happy hearts (at least I did).

Days for Girls

Kenya recently banned plastic bags. Plastic bags used to be everywhere and now, it’s very hard to find a plastic bag. In the supermarket, we were only able to find biodegradable trash bags. Not having plastic bags poses some problems, but overall, it’s a wonderful change. You can purchase reusable bags at all the large supermarkets and even at small market shops.  I’m curious to see how this all evolves as most of the reusable bags I have seen are not very sturdy. I’m curious to see what kind of recycling system gets put into place or if these bags will also end up in landfills. At least, they won’t have the same eco footprint as plastic. The other thing I am curious about is how those living in poverty are getting their goods from the market. A lot of families purchase just enough milk or cooking oil for the day and it’s always carried in a plastic bag. Overall however, the United States could learn a lot from Kenya on this one.

On Wednesday, we went to visit Fays for Girls, in part because of this ban on plastic bags. Amanda has connections with a Days for a girls sewing group in Canada. Every time she comes to Kenya, they give her menstrual kits to donate. Our friend, Jane, will facilitate handing them out because she also provides culturally appropriate education about puberty and menstruation. The kits usually contain a plastic ziplock bag, however under the plastic bag ban, the Kenya Enterprises have had to come up with a reusable version. We connected with Christine to pick up the reusable, water proof bags to add to the kits.

Christine is an incredible woman. Her story is both sad and uplifting. She now runs a Days for Girls Enterprise in Nairobi and helps manage the other Nairobi groups. We stopped by their shop and learned about their process and met some of the people who create and sell kits in their community. Christine believes that anyone who needs a lot should have one whether they can pay or not. So, whenever she can, she donates kits to women and girls in her community. Some of the women also make and sell dolls to help tell their stories and support their families. Of course - we all had to buy one!

Camp Preparations

It's time to blog again! Camp Marafiki Pamoja starts again on the 20th of August! We are only running two weeks of camp this session, but it's going to be even bigger and better than before. As in, we are expecting 120 campers! In our first session, we hosted 75 campers.

Francis, Janet, and Amanda

 Amanda and I stopped by school this week to meet with Francis to finalize plans. Amanda's friend Noramy is joining us this year as Michelle is not able to attend. We have two returning volunteers, Cristina from Spain and Sara from Sweden. We are expecting about 15 local adult volunteers to help with activities and food preparations. This is really starting to align with our vision of a locally run camp with international support!

The students began their school break this week, but many showed up to school any way. This week they have been painting and decorating the school! They've been painting the different things they have been focusing on in their classes - body systems, African geography, and plant biology. How many kids do you know that gladly show up to school on break?! This really is a safe and enriching space for the students.

Of course this is my favorite painting.

Sink made by some of the older students

Since we were here last, there have been many improvements made to the school. They've added two toilets (4 total, now), a second water tank (2 total, now). They've transitioned a storage room into a classroom, added gutters to help manage water during the raining season, and planted flowers in the school yard. The most exciting addition to the school - ELECTRICITY! They now have a light in each room and wall plugs in the library and teachers' prep room. This might not sounds like much, but in this area of Nairobi, this is huge! When we rebuilt a few of the classrooms we added skylights, but on cloudy days, it was still nearly impossible to see the board. Now, they can see whenever! Since they do not have running water at the school, some of the older students (8th grade) made sinks to make art projects and hand washing easier!

We started unpacking some of the donations and before we could even get the books out of the bag, several of the students (middle schoolers) came into the library and excitedly started digging through the books. The two favorites - a book about reptiles and a the book about Obama! 

Rae's Golden Birthday

Friends are such a wonderful thing. I met Rae when we were sophomores in high school in 2003. It's hard to believe we've been friends for 14 years - almost half our lives. I went to Washington DC to celebrate her 30th birthday. Her wonderful boyfriend threw her an EPIC Golden Birthday 1930s themed party!

The next two days we spent time celebrating Rae and hanging out. She showed me her favorite neighborhoods and took me to some of her favorite restaurants. Her boyfriend introduced me to an incredible local ice cream sandwich.

I've been to DC several times, but there is so much to see. I got to check out a museum I've never been to before and I totally geeked out! We went to the Postal Museum. I LOVE mail and I find the whole mail system to be absolutely fascinating.

This building that houses this office, was built in 1911. This office was the office of the Postmaster General. Wouldn't this be an amazing office to work in daily. The position has been in existence since revolutionary times. Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster General of the United States, before it was a United States, managing all things mail.

We looked at stamps including the first stamp which made its debut in England in 1840. We learned the history of the Inverted Jenny, the postage stamp accidentally printed with the image upside down. We got to select 6 stamps to take home as a souvenir.

There's so much more to learn and see in this museum... but I'll leave you with this. In the early days of air mail, it was hard to get mail in and out of rural communities. So, mail was literally dropped in canisters into fields in rural communities and then picked up by the local post office and mail carriers to be delivered. Out going mail was placed in a canister and strung up on a goal post of sorts. Then, a plane would come by and mail was collected with the hook at the end of a pole hanging from the belly of the plane. It took two people to collect mail in the way - the pilot and the person maneuvering the hook. I only wish I could have seen this in action!

Adventures a Little Closer to Home

The first weekend of December I needed to be in Atlanta. So I decided to make a little adventure out it since I was flying down there. Adventures don't only oceans away.

Atlanta is massive city and it's so spread out so I wasn't able to do much on foot. It also rained most of the weekend - so walking and taking in the sites was also a bit challenging!

I stayed in a Airbnb. I've been hosting since June, but this was my first experience as a guest. And I'm sold. It's so much nicer than a hotel. I used Uber to get around since the public transportation seems to be about as good as Indianapolis (not great in other words).

I went to the Martin Luther King Historic Site and toured all of the buildings except his birth home (it was closed for repair). It's pretty amazing how something can be both simultaneously historic and current. Many of the homes in the neighborhood are owner occupied by new owners since the 1960s and many are rental properties. And there are several that are still occupied by the same owners, or families as during Martin Luther King's life.

I also went to the World of Coca Cola. For a big flashy tourist attraction, it's actually quite interesting. You learn about the history of Coca Cola and see memorabilia spanning decades of Coke advertising. They have a 4D adventure about the secret of Coca Cola and my favorite part - you get to taste test various Coke products from around the world!

 

Sodas from Africa (Stoney is my favorite)!

The other tourist attraction I enjoyed was the museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts. They have a a section of the museum dedicated to puppets from around the world, which is pretty neat. But I really enjoyed the Jim Henson exhibit. Some of the puppets are the original puppets from Sesame Street and the Muppet's along with many other productions. Some of them are recreation or photo puppets.

Overall it was a good trip. It's fun turning quick trips into adventures!