I am in Kenya, not Kenyan and Nairobi is Nairobi is Nairobi

Claire with some kids from Sidai

     I am muzungu. Today we awoke and were lead by leaving volunteers to our placement near Ngong. The of use are at Farajas and one is at Sidai. Claire, our young Scot, is at Sidai and I have nervously taken her under my wing. When she did not return from lunch, nor was waiting at 4 to meet up and walk home we realized there was an issue. I ran a 5K today from our guest house back to Sidai and Farajas to look for her only to receive a phone call at an hour past 4 that she had returned. I am not a Kenyan runner, but I'm glad she is ok. P.S.We're a 1 1/2 miles above sea level too (much higher than Denver). Running no good on lungs

The largest tank is 1000L medium is 100L
and the yellow jugs are 20L and 5L.
My trusty wheelbarrow is taking a rest.

Karen and Morra walk the road to collect water

     Omari, the son of Morra, who runs Faraja, is an amazing woman who takes care of elementary aged children in an orphanage. Omari is 25 and just finished another year of school working towards a civil engineering degree. Together we carried about 600 liters of water to begin to fill their 1000 liter tank for the children (5 liters = 11 pounds, you do the math. I'm going to be jacked!). Kenya is in a dry season and water can not be collected through rainwater and a basin. There is a small farm and a chicken coop that we may possibly work on in the following weeks. Omari just returned home from school so there is some work to do now that I'm more than willing to chip in for.

Mutatus are pimped out with colors, logos, music, tvs and
other ornaments. We definitely began to master these over time.

   A New York minute to ridiculously fast but Africa time can't even be counted you'd be better off saying "sometime in the next 3 hours." As for Nairobi, it is a city center, a city, a surrounding suburb, and a province. The biggest difficulty was when trying to find out where we are they said "20 min outside of Nairobi" and then we found out which Nairobi they meant, the province. Directions below if you want to find us or at least check out satellite images. We have buses, taxis, and mutatus (image below) which are like pimped out multi-passenger vans that rarely obey any traffic rules. It's beautiful here and we'll try to upload pictures and video over the weekend.

Nairobi to Ngong:

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Our first day

Today was our first day at the faraja children's home. It is so tough both physically and emotionally but I have never loved doing anything in my life as much as I love being with the children today. There are 32 children at our location and many have health problems and learning delays. Five of our babies are HIV positive. Most of the children have lost both of their parents to disease and have known no other life outside of an orphanage.

Omari and Morra

I feel compelled to tell you about Momma Morra and her biological son, Omari. Morra started taking in children six years ago from a slum outside Nairobi called Kibera. She moved her orphanage to Ngong just ten months ago and only recently began receiving assistance for the home from the government. For many of the children she is the only mother they have known. Omari is studying civil engineering at the University of Nairobi and assists his mom with caring for the children. He tells me that he get no more than three hours of sleep a night. I don't know how they do it. They are truly angels among us.

One of the roads to Faraja

There is no running water at the children's home so we have to walk about three city blocks up a steep dirt road to collect buckets to bring back to the home. The food is scarce too but Omari knows how to stretch it to make sure the children always have three square meals a day. He is an amazing chef. there is a chicken coop where we collect eggs and eventually the chickens will be used for meat. The clothes and dishes are all washed by hand and a garden is maintained where kale and cabbage are grown.

Kefa and his brother Rojas

The children are so respectful and well behaved and many attend a nearby elementary school. My sweetheart is named Kefa. Kefa is a year old and lost both his parents to HIV related illness. He is the most beautiful child i have ever laid eyes on. today we taught him how to blow kisses:)

Our home in Faraja

We are staying about a mile and half from the children's home with our momma Naiomi. there are four of us sharing a small room and we are the fortunate few who have running water. Momma Naiomi cooks for us and has made us feel extremely welcome.

My heart is so fully of joy and love today. Remember how blessed you all are. xoxo

It's a beautiful day!

Good morning! Slept so well last night. We are staying in modest but wonderful accomodations. Our house mother, Regina just made us breakfast. It was so funny waking up under a mosquito net this morning to the sounds of a rooster. I was a bit disoreinted but well rested. Kids, we aren't in Manhattan anymore:)

Last night was wonderful as we were able to meet another five of the volunteers who will be heading to the orphange with us. Mike, a musician and writer from Delaware, was kind enough to loan me his laptop. Props to Mike:) We were up last night exchanging stories and watching wrestling, the only program that came in a on the tv. The folks volunteering range in age from their teens to thirties and are from all over the world.

We will be at orientation today and then placed with a host family. I am so excited. let the journey begin.

Arrived!

Leaving at 6pm on Tuesday and arriving 6pm EAT (east african time). Flying over Greece and the Mediterranean via Zurich the blues went to light browns and basically stayed that way until about 20 minutes outside of Nairobi.

The Sudanese terrain exposed dried river basins the entire way, and the Kenyan highlands were like giant tree roots exposed for all to see. Picture the Hudson Valley completely barren of trees, put that at the altitude of Denver and that's the highlands.

Our first flight had Orthodox Jews from Monsey who almost started an altercation with an attendant, Christian missionaries were on the other side of the plane, so there was plenty of God in the house. Zurich is beautiful and Swiss Air all the way was fantastic.

Currently we've met up with 5 of 7 other IVHQers and will start orientation tomorrow. Mike from Deleware will be with us the whole 5 weeks and is a musician. Eva from NYC is not only doing a "I'm 30 let me do something cool" phase and will be with the group through August but also is a Pace grad school student. The world truly is small when you find a fellow NYer in your
University on the other side of the world.

Good night. Orientation starts in the morning.

Where in the world are we?

Looks like we will be staying in Nairobi (map)  for the beginning of our trip (Google Map) . Once we arrive in Nairobi there will be some formal training classes and then we will receive our placements. We'll have the weekend to get situated and start fresh on Monday.

With some luck we hope to be able to post on a semi-regular basis with our work and play. Being in country for over a month definitely gives one time to get immersed in the culture. There is a safari planned, a music festival in August, soccer (of course) and I personally intend to make this a Bizarre Foods and Three Sheets (Hulu link) opportunity. Both of the episodes are from Tanzania, just south of Kenya, so I hope for a very similar experience.

Pay attention to who is posting because we hope to make this blog a "he said"/"she said" opportunity. With multiple perspectives on different events we're sure to keep you entertained.

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The night before our journey

This is my first attempt at blogging. And I can't think of a better reason to start.

I've dreamed for much of my life of going to Africa and I've always saw myself working with children there. As I write this on the eve of my trip to Kenya, I can't believe that my dream has become a reality. What makes this journey even more special to me is that I get to share this experience with one of my best friends since college, Marc and one of my dearest friends from the Department of Education, Karen.

When I was in the 5th grade I was asked by my teacher to write a list of my goals for the future. I wrote that I wanted to be a lawyer and live in NYC and help children around the world. My teacher wrote back to me that I should think of some more realistic goals in addition to the ones I had listed. I declined. And well here we are;) 

As you may or may not know I've spent my legal career working on issues impacting women and children and have volunteered my services to these causes outside of work. I've always felt most connected with the cause through direct action. When Marc suggested the idea of volunteering with children in Africa I felt like this was the right time and that we should not put it off. We did some research and came across International Volunteer Headquarters, a nonprofit based in New Zealand. The organization appealed to us for many reasons. Their volunteer service trips received consistently good reviews, they were not religiously affiliated and their program fees were not outrageous. While I am Christian, I did not want to travel to Africa with an organization that pushed religion. My priority is helping the children in anyway needed. 

I want to thank my family and friends for their constant love, support and prayers.

I hope that you will enjoy what we post and that our blog encourages you to follow your dreams and give of yourself in anyway that you can.