keep going

yesterday I had a shower, then I washed away, last remains of my „tan“ with baby wet wipes and put some Waterless germ soap on my hands, so now I´m still dirty but it´s clean harmless dirt. And my feet were relatively clean too, until the first step I took after my „shower“.
Yesterday was wonderful day with Boniface, I had my first bite of shugar cane ever and I loved it and I had a cup of tea without shugar and I loved it too and I´m still in love with Africa.
Amazing
Frustrating
Ridiculous
Incredible
Changing
Africa
And btw I changed the date of my flight, so I´ll be home next Sunday (august 9th).

masai mara

more pictures from safari....

back "home" from safari

3 days on safari with the best guide ever...thanks Stanley!!!! :)

world has to know

First two weeks here in africa were absolutely amazing (except for little sickness and the fact that I didn´t have my baggage for first ten days ). Orphanage seemed to be so much better place for these kids, than staying with guardians or grandmoms who couldn´t take good care of them... I mean, they get food three times per day, they get clean water and place to sleep and they get toys and volunteers to play with and people who care...but this little paradise illusion started to fall appart. One persom from the staff doesn´t agree with orphanage policy (no beating or physical punishment for kids) and she beats girls all the time – apparently she did it before but G. decided to give her another chance (not second, but another!) and now she did it again, all staff, volunteers and kids are against her but nothing has been done. „Boss“ of the organisation came and said he´ll resolve this problem but now he´s leaving again and all we get was appology from D. and she said she won´t do it again...was that supposed to be the solution? Is this all? Nothing else? Girls will still sleep in the same room with her and nobody cares? – WE DO CARE but for God´s sake what can we do? Leave? Close our eyes and go back to our comfy normal lives???
Paradise is lost and I can only pray for it to be found again. Sky is grey and storm is coming but I don´t fear because God is with me, but why does it have to be so hard for the kids? They already lost their parents, they won´t see them again on this world and the only place they have is this orphanage.
World isn´t fair but we´ll try to make it at least better place,
to make it place where kids could smile,
to make it place where kids could do mistakes and learn from them without being punished,
to make it place where they could grow and live.

I wish I could dream like this, I wish I could say how wonderful it is but I can´t. World has to know and we won´t be silent.

PS: I´m still the same optimistic Jarka you know and I´m happy we are here because I believe that we´ll bring some change (and we will change as well).

We´re still waiting for the final decision and whatever it will be, world will know, I promise.

hot and dusty, never clean...

I was washing my clothes today - they are still dirty but at least they smell like my laundry soap so it´s better than nothing.
we (volunteers) are having BBQ tomorrow :) yumm yumm
...

everything is hot and dusty here, today we went to do some "field work" with Bonifac and I have some cool pictures but I´ll have to resize them because this internet is incredibly slow :P

I´m also homesick and quite sad right now (might be a side effect of those stupid anti-malaria pills as well)

so I´ll say ttfn, here´s one more picture from yesterday :)

best shoes for climbing trees= no shoes

Sospeter took some really great pictures, and as he´s usually very shy, I was so happy to see him come to me. I let him listen to my mp3 player and then he smiled and world was turning again...he talkes to me in Kikuyu (local language) and I smile and talk to him in English (each of us just guessing what the other one says)...

today was really hot and we didn´t have much to do, so we went to shamba (garden) and there I was pulling strings out of one sack to get them long enough to tye tomatoe plants to the sticks...then I came back home and had rice with beans for lunch...then I was bored so I climbed few trees (yes, I´m still as white as I´ve been when I came - african sun is strange) and then Sospeter came...

bath time

it´s hard to keep clean here in Kenya but you have to try (at least)...

so much to say...so slow internet...

bell is ringing - that means everybody should go out and wash before dinner (I had "shower" today = I washed myself in a bucket full of cold water, so I don´t have to go now...)
sun is going to sleep and we don´t have electricity today, but it´s weekend so no homework done with the light from the torch...
everything is slow here, life, time, internet, and I don´t mind, it´s nice to get some rest.

I´m ready for dinner (literally starving to death) :)
we use some food seasonings here, called "chicken masala", "beef masala" and today boys bought "fish masala" - all yellow stuff with exactly the same taste...

swing on mango tree

today I was swinging on a swing on mango tree....
life is so peaceful here in Kenya...

love africa

everything is great. you just have to love africa.
my feet will probably never be clean again but I don t care. Life is so good over here.
{sorry no photos for now , internet is a way too slow to even send regular updates home , so no chance to upload pictures}


thanks for all the comments, I appreciate every one of them.

love from Kenya

J.