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.

3 days...ONLY DAYS left!!!

it´s raining...

some more shopping today - basicaly I´m ready to go :)
people keep freaking out when they find out I´m going this Friday - and I was considering to join them and panick a little bit more but I just feel so ready to go!
the shop keeper from the Sport shop where I bought my watter bottle was very kind and he even gave me some advices - it was wonderful to meet someone who doesn´t think I´m nuts.
right now I´m packing - yes I know it´s time to pack and don´t worry I´ll manage to pack it all-there are still 3 days left :)

and there was nice little note with "useful information for travelers" in my anti-malaria medication - there are nice little stickers for me - to mark the day of next dose ...yumm yumm...

23 C in Nairobi right now (73,5 F). I´d love to tell you more but there´s nothing interesting going on right now- you´ll have to wait few more days.

Dear anonymous,

I´m writing this blog with love and hope that it might inspire someone and I also want to share my joy with the whole world so I´m sure you´ll understand why I didn´t publish your comment. I praise God with everything I do (at least I try to do so). I´m sorry if you really believe in what you said but if you opened your heart, just a little bit, you would feel His love and His care for you.
I´d love to ask everyone of you my dear flowers to pray for anonymous commenter(s), pray for wisdom and faith and peace for their brokem hearts.
I have to approve every comment you make on my blog – but it´s just because I like to receive e-mails reminding me about all those beautiful encouraging comments you leave here and I never thought that I´ll have to deal with something as sad as broken spirit of anonymous.
I wish you luck and lots of love on your way through life and I sure DO hope your steps will lead you toward Him, because He´s the only right way, dear anonymous.
I wish I could hug you and say that everything will be fine, I wish I could give you piece of my heart and you would feel Him in your life, because He´s here all the time.

XXX

Jarka

PS: don´t even bother to comment again, if you don´t have anything constructive to say, and please don´t hide your own face behing stupid wrong quotes of people who made so many mistakes in their lives that only God can forgive them. Say something on your own, if you have to, but don´t make me read such ridiculous quotations.
Thanks

PPS: sorry that you had to read this because (thankfuly) it doesn´t concern majority of you... :)

my doctor was scared...

today (finally) I got my last shot (YF) but oh boy...I had to fight for it!

so first thing in the morning we went to my normal doctor to get the documents about my Hep A and B vaccination, them we went to that "special"doctor for exotic disseases and infections...
but she wasn´t there...actually she was, but they had some meeting today and apparently I´m not an "urgent case" as they call it so they said I should go to my normal doctor and she will give me the shot...ok...we went to the doctor who gives international certificates of vaccination and asked if it would be ok to get the shot from my normal doctor and just bring her some paper about it...she said it´s absolutely fine and that my normal doctor can call her if she had any questions (because YF is live vaccine they were all a little bit "cautious" about it...) so I went back to my doctor (nurse was shocked to see us again) and this is the moment when my normal doctor panicked...(I completly understand her because side effects/complications include death and she didn´t want to take such responsability + she isn´t allowed to give such shots because it should be done by specialist or something...) so she called the doctor who gives certifiate and (with high, panicked voice) they were yelling at each other, keeping conversation at friendly (children appropriate) all time long...



and so we went back to the special doctor and with some luck she gave me the shot. (no panicking, no extra caution...she just said: "Ok but quickly!" :D )She´s great (remember that photo of me getting a shot last time? - so that´s her next to me :)

and I have my INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATES OF VACCINATION (for YF, typhoid, meningococcal meningitis and Hep A and B)

just go and read it...

this beautiful post touched my heart and I´m going to remember it for the rest of my life. Just go and read it:

http://fumia.blogspot.com/2009/06/malachi-33.html

PS: Ashley thanks so much for posting that story. I keep praying for you guys :)

Africa- coming soon!

Two university exams ahead, Evan peacefuly resting under my table and /best book ever/ "Enough to make a cat laugh" by Deric Longden is trying to catch my attention by constantly staring at me from the opposite side of my table. Sun is shamelessly bright, it should be illegal - how am I supposed to concentrate when everything´s so marwellous outside?
I cleaned was trying to clean my table today. I really was! Anyway... Africa is almost here! 18 days left! One more shot /yellow fever/ and many good byes to be said. 4 letters to be written and sent, luggage to be packed, flight ticket insurence to be found actually I found it already, it was hiding in the mess on my table.
so I´ll be packing my "carry on" soon - that´s my favourite part of packing - so any suggestions about what should I have there?

And yes, don´t even bother to ask...I still have Christmas decorations over my table, and yes it´s mid-June . ... who cares?

this will be so importand day for my friend...I pray pray pray...

court date sounds like something very serious and really importand, and it really is! And even more important when it´s a date for which you´ve been waiting such a long time.

Make your own Countdown Clocks

so let´s all pray together because this day (Thursday June 11th) is one of the most important days of this year.
It´s been a long journey for us, but for God it´s all just a blink of His eye,
but we are human beings and as every child, we are impatient and we can´t wait to hear You answering "YES" when we ask "Are we there yet?"
...so Dear Lord, give us strength to see beauty of every moment and make our waiting shorter by showing us Your Love. You as a Father, know how difficult it is, to wait and count down seconds until You can bring your child home, so look at my friend and give her peace as she´s waiting for the day when she´ll be able to bring her son home :) ...I know my Lord that every story in your book has Happy Ending, so all I ask for is patience and peace, while we are waiting for that joyful moment.

M&M's and typhoid and tye-die

today was long day, but I enjoyed every second :) ...getting a shot, playing with little angel (our teacher´s daughter) all afternoon and it was quite sunny ... and Iwas wearing my tye-died t-shirt (which I made few years ago when I was a "water fairy" during "Fairy tale forest" - one local action for kids :) ...and finally I´ve sent my hair to locks of love...and I gave my teacher all school books then borrowed us for this year :P so it was really long and successful day

good night everybody, I´m off to bed :)

God doesn´t have everything

He never had, and will never have a plan B. All what´s happening here, on the world is His very first plan A which works perfectly and He only knows why he planned this for us.
We have many plans...of course everybody starts with plan A, then B,if something doesn´t work as we imagined, plan C because our situation changed, plan D because we see an unexpected opportunity... and soon we are running out of lettres and wishing that alphabet was longer.
And He only needs one letter, His alphabet could start and end with the very same letter A.
And all what´s happening is His first plan, He doesn´t have to adjust it when some accident occures or when there´s the end of the road. And this brings peace to my heart, knowing that He planned this all, everything has reason, every step leads toward Him.
Our plans are just foolish dreams of kids, His plan is leading hand of loving Father.
And our plans might change but everytime, when you are at plan Z remember it´s just the A for Him and everything´s going well.

some more babbling about medical stuff

my doctor thinks it might be funny to give me one more shot, apparently she enjoys sticking needles to kids (Nick says I´m still just a kid so...let´s pretend it´s true).
and that´s why I´ll get a MENINGOCOCCAL MENINGITIS shot this week and YF+ typhoid later.
I will call it M&M's (short form of meningococcal meningitis shot) because if you tell a kid that the doctor will give you M&M's, day seems to be brighter and world is up side down.
meningococcal meningitis breaks my tongue even if I just try to say it out loud, so the actual disease have to be much more dangerous - that´s why I´m quite happy my doctor suggested this and I´ll get my M&M's without complaining (as a good 19 years old kid).
so this makes my list of medical stuff even longer, but because "safety first" I really can´t say anything.
And how mean is my doctor - every time when she´s about to give me a shot, she asks if I´m right-handed and then she sticks that needle to my left arm -so I can still write at school (no more school for now, but still, I think she´s mean! )

this is for ABBY and for Locks of Love...and all kids of the world, who deserve little joy :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

that was really easy and I feel so much better now :)
The first second, when my friend started to cut my hair, was pretty scary but then I remembered that it´s for good thing and I enjoyed getting my haircut :) so now I´m ready for summer and for hot weather in Kenya (it won´t be so hot there, as it will be Winter in africa but... :D )

few more photos:

just YF and typhoid left...

today whas the day with big H ...my second Hep A and B shot is over and there´s only Yellow fever and typhoid left.... :D I´ll have to get the last Hep shot in 5 months but I don´t care because it really doesn´t hurt :)
-sorry, no photos because I forgot to take my camera :o
I´ll update soon but now thare are BIG exams at school and I should concentrate :P

run and tell that

(just turn out the music -there´s a player on the side bar)

the blacker the berry sweeter the juice....the darker the chocolate the richer the taste....
...I completly agree ...
I just wanted to share this video because I can´t get it out of my head-great song
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

anybody wants to cut my hair?

this summer will be really hot - as I´ll spend it in Kenya :)
and my hair is quite long now and so I´ll have to cut it before I go (because it´s really annoying now - it gets stuck in the shoulder strap of my school bag, it´s literally everywhere and I NEED change...)
and then I realised that if I´m going to cut my hair now, I can use it for some good thing...at first I only wanted to cut few inches but now I changed my mind...
10 inches will go away...far far away actually - all the way to some little princess...

I´m going to DONATE my hair because:
-it´s long enough to make someone happier
-I don´t really need it
-it will help someone who´s fighting for life

you can do it too - get some nice short haircut for summer and make someone´s life a fairy tale :)

What a honor it will be for me, to know that some little knight or sweet little fairy are smiling because of me :)
I´m sharing this on my "Living Big" blog because I think it´s important part of my "WORLD CHANGING" ... sharing my happiness with the others and helping kids to live their dreams - that´s all what matters :)
I´m writing this whole blog, in hope that it might inspire someone and I thought this is worth sharing as well :)

(photo of my hair 3 months ago)

almost ready

so my backpack arrived yesterday! it´s here and I call him Evan (that wasn´t my idea -giving a name to it but... :)
Evan - because I love the meaning :
It is of Welsh origin. Variant of a Gaelic name anglicised as John (Hebrew) "the Lord is gracious". In Celtic, the name means "young warrior". In Welsh, it means "God is Good". It is also used as a short form of Evangelos, which means "good messenger" in Greek. In Hebrew, Evan means "rock".

here´s the picture of me with Evan - I payed for it myself (with money I earned last summer) so it´s completly mine :)


and it´s gorgeous - all the pockets and straps and zippers and velcro everywhere :) and I will take it as "carry on board" backpack so I can start thinking about the way how to pack it :)
+ ouch next week is another round of my hepatitis vaccination - if you don´t like needles don´t look because I´m planning to take a picture of the shot :D

DOs and DON´Ts

there are so many rules in this world. e.g. now, in two months or so, I´ll be flying to Kenya and so I checked the "baggage allowance" and "restricted items" on the website of the company and..

-I can´t carry any radioactive material! (oh no!, I´ll have to leave the tone of that nuclear waste we have in the cellar at home!)
-I can only take 20 kg ( 44lbs.)
-I can NOT smoke (nobody can THANKS GOD!!! :) ...it will be nice flight after all...)

ouch...it didn´t hurt at all...

fisrt HEPATITIS A and B shot is over...

it looks terrible but I didn´t feel it.
-I will need 3 of them (one now, second in one month time and last in 6 months)
-after first two shots, I´ll be protected for 6 months
-it costs 50 € per dose (= 150 € for full vaccination)
-you can buy it in pharmacy, without prescription
-younger kids (born 1998 or later) are vaccinated for free...my fault I was born in 1989 - bad order of last two numbers :P ...let´s face the truth - I´m too old, nobody wants me, who cares I could get hepatitis? :D ...but I´m happy that it´s free for kids now :)

unfortunately it doesn´t have any funny side effects so no interesting story to tell (yet)

some purchases made today...

-backpack ordered (many many thanks to the best of the best friends Martin!!! )
-flight ticket bought (many many thanks to "CKM travel" office for being so kind and patient with me )
I´ll fly to Cairo and then to Nairobi - it´s night flight so I hope the pilot won´t fall asleep somewhere in the middle of the journey...and I also hope I won´t miss my flight and stay sleeping at the airport in Cairo - they wouldn´t be very happy there :D

I´m flying ...

it´s even more real...becoming really real!!!
7th April 2009 - flight is booked
(UPDATE - 9th april - I bought different ticket)

I´ve started a "ta-da list" and there are really so many things to be done
(how many times am I going to say "really" till I finish this post? )
no funny story about booking the ticket - the CKM employee was pretty brave (I beg she has houndreds of volunteers flying to Nairobi every day so there was nothing to be excited about...God knows I wish there were houndreds of volunteering people - world would be nicer) - but seriously, one would think she at least look at me..no, not a single blink...

geez...will they pick up that phone or not???

calling my doctor to say "Hi...and btw do you have a yellow fever vaccine for me?"
and guess what she said - nothing!!! she didn´t even picked up the phone - I´m wondering if she´ll do it in this century, or should I wait few more decades and try again?

I guess she doesn´t have many patients who would let her to come close with a needle without trying to get her down...I guess she doesn´t have many patients who are begging to get vaccinated and I guess not many of them are accually looking forward to it!!! - so she should enjoy me - peaceful, willing to get vaccinated girl!!!
I can´t wait (literally) to have my own documents...
someone else was lucky enough so here´s the picture from complete stranger of who I´m completly jealous!!!

I´ll soon become an earth explorer...

yes, you´re right...this baby will travel with me...
my camera equipment (consists of one fairly small camera and bunch of memory cards) would easily slip into the pocket of my pants so you might be asking yourself why for goodness sake am I buying this?
the answer is easy :
- I simply enjoy feeling like a real explorer and looking cool with a backpack of each traveler´s dreams...
-it will last forever (I like the idea of my grand-children playing with it in the garden - pretending to be explorers like their grand-mom )
-it looks cool (and it really is cool, breathtaking, handsome, practical backpack)
-it´s NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - it will add a pinch of professionality to my wandering (do you need another reason?)

and that front pocket for photographer´s gear can be filled with socks and diary or candy for kids (not if I´ll put socks there - don´t worry)
....now you can stare on my baby and be jealous...enjoy

XOXO

Jarka

I´m officialy happy

4th april 2009 - official acceptance letter from WWB
things are moving forward...
I know it´s just a small step on my journey but as Mother Teresa said:

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. "

no progress

hmmm, my doctor was quite surprised when I announced I´ll go to Africa this summer and I need some vaccinations. But she handled it quite good and after one hour of waiting I levaed with small “sticky note” paper with phone number and name of some other doctor who´s a kind of specialist and so…
still NO PROGRESS!!!

how did I found out about WWB ?

watching Twilight movie inspired me...actually it was Edward who said the magical phrase... " you can GOOGLE it..."
and so I did GOOGLE it and here I am.

decision made - 27 march

my dream comes true. in summer 2009 I´ll be volunteering in an orphanage in Kenya. Right now, I´m getting ready - getting all the vaccinations, anti-malaria medication, information, ...being happy and overexcited...

you may want to visit the homepage of the orphanage where I´ll be helping, so here it is: http://www.watotowabaraka.org/