TGIF

today is friday....meaning we've made it through our first full week of school! (the 2 weeks i was here before this was school break so we were on a different schedule running activities for the kids). The week has been hard and long, but im the 1st and 2nd grade aid, meaning i get to work with a few kids in those classes one on one, which is really fun! (and pathetically, when we do overview on math-it allows me to brush up on my skills, haha!) i will shar more about school in the blogs to come!
but the fun thing about friday is that its the weekend and on weekends we get to travel outside the rafiki compound! since i got a late start on this blog i never got to fill everyone in on my first couple weekends, so to get you all up to speed i shall start with our first weekend here!
saturday morning we drove into town (about 45 mins) and went to java house...which has the worlds best coffee!!! then we went to the maasai market and bought some goodies! after that we went to the mathare slums...and even though i'v had a couple weeks to process, im not sure if im yet in a place where i could articulate the things that i saw or how i felt about it. It was everything i expected...things iv seen in pictures or movies and yet it was SO MUCH MORE! it is such a raw picture of poverty and disparity, of hopelessness and helplessness. i wish i had pictures to show although im not sure i could capture anything remotely close to the reality of it. (we were encouraged to not take pictures). The smell alone was enough to make you cry! as we walked around the slums we carefully tip-toed around garbage, animals, small trails of waste water and feces. Kids would shout "Mzungu" (white person) as we walked by and would come grab your hand or hold onto your waist as if to say "take me with you!" As we stopped to gather ourselves a tear fell down my cheek...i looked around and saw all of what is wrong in the world and it is a burden heavier than i could bear...and i think thats what hit me hardest...i havent had to bear it (and i havent chosen to). i felt very small in that moment...and still to this day dont know what to do with the images i carry in my heart!
Sunday, we went to church with our director Yeen-Lan and after church went to lunch (a very cultural experience at ethiopian!) On our way home i was extremely itchy and noticed a little rash on my elbow...within minutes it was ALL over my body! so yeen had our driver drop us off at the hospital. After waiting there for 2 hours without being seen we left and went to a chemist (what we call a pharmacist) although it was a little sketchier than our pharmacies in the states..they asked for no form of id, didnt look up any sort of information on a computer or have any sort of doctor on call...we simply asked for what we wanted and she handed it over! over the next week or so my rash came and went and so we went back to the hospital later that week and got it all sorted out! (my guess is that it was that dang ethiopian food!)
anyways, as you can tell, weekends are jammed packed! which is why i will set aside the next blog to tell about our second weekend adventure! until next time!