So I'm sitting here watching "Tusker Project Fame 5" in the living room with Alex and Judy (our house mom) and I figured this would be a good time to let post about what we do in our down time. Project Fame is a TV show that is basically a combination of American Idol and The Real World, where people from East Africa compete. It's awful, but Judy loves it.
Everybody is at the safari this weekend except Alex and I, and I have to say it has been so nice to have a little privacy. I'd be lying if I said the main thing we do here isn't read books. We read books. A lot of books. In the market they sell bootleg DVDs that have anywhere from 4 to 18 movies on them. Chelsea found one with all of the Harry Potter movies and I'm sooo jealous. So at night we usually watch movies. We also walk to town to get water, visit different schools and orphanages to play with children, and play with the children who come and hang outside our house.Sometimes we take day trips. Like last Monday we went to the Tanzanian border to buy fabric because it's cheaper there. Then Helen's friend who is a tailor came to measure us and make original African garments to take home-I can't wait to see how they turn out and she was so grateful for the business! A few students went to Kisumu (a large city) to go out to eat and visit the clubs there, but it's over 2 hrs away and I didn't want to be on the roads here so late at night so I didn't go. They didn't get back til after 4 AM and none of them went to work the next day so I was glad I made that choice-I'm a girl who needs her sleep! However, it is fun to go to the clubs in town here and dance. We go in a big group and a couple of the doctors or other workers from the hospital come with us so I feel totally safe all the time. We feel like celebrities because we're mzungus. It's a little unnerving.
We don't work on the weekends so yesterday Alex and I got up and went to church with Helen, who cooks for us on weekdays. She is 7th Day Adventist so they go to church on Saturdays. We got there around 10:30 and didn't get back to Helen's house until close to 1:30. It was so hard to keep up because of their accents- they asked Alex and I to stand up a few times and we were clueless. I was glad to have Helen's 9 month old son, Jeremy, around as a distraction. They church has a tin roof so it was sweltering. Also, I get a lot of laughs when I talk to people here. Helen says it's because they can't understand what I'm saying because I talk too fast and "swallow my words." After church they asked us to stay. All. Day. Long. Thankfully Helen convinced the pastor we needed to go take lunch at her house and we graciously left. I carried Jeremy the whole way back as he chewed my necklace and drooled all over. Babies.
After having lunch at Helen's, a taxi came and took us to Garden Park- a hotel of sorts at the top of the hill where we could see the whole city of Migori and take a Tusker. They say "take" regarding anything you put in your mouth here. Claris always says, "Hannah you take so much water!" Or they might say, "Be home by 5 and we will take supper." And Tusker is the main beer here. I love it because I like to pretend it's Husker beer. I know that's cheesy, but it makes me happy! We also love penasol here-delicious boxed red wine! Helen is hilarious and I really enjoyed having the company of her and Jeremy.
Unfortunately all my pictures from this week managed to get erased somehow so I was pretty bummed, but I was grateful for a relaxing weekend and recharged and ready for another week at the hospital.
Working at St. Joseph's really is the main thing we do here, but I thought you might enjoy learning about free time. Again, this is all just stream of consciousness here (is that the right phrase?) so I apologize for all the rambling.
No comments:
Post a Comment