Election Day!

A note from a world away.

The last election day, I was in Hawaii feeling a world away from what was going on in the US.  

Today is a totally different experience, but a very similar feeling as I am located about 40-mins off the paved road  - over hill and dale, through coffee plantations and past mud-hut villages  -- in a field in the shadows of Mt. Oldeani, with a view of the Great Rift Valley, that plays a trick on the eye by making the world seem to just drop off in the distance.

In Tanzania, we’re in the “short rains” season and making sure that the kids have the proper footwear to go to school here at the Rift Valley Children’s Village. 

While my early retirement wasn’t really ever supposed to be a long vacation, this volunteer gig is certainly redefining the retirement plan.  It isn’t exactly what I thought it would be (yet?), and it is a strange (different) world that I’ve entered.

By that I mean, I’m living in a house with 12 boys aged 3 to 13. I’m still getting to know many of them, but there are already a few who have revealed themselves to be the house extroverts and others exhibiting more punk-like behaviors

As advertised, days start at or around 6am and go til 6pm.   I prepare their breakfast while they do chores at 6:15 am and make sure they are out the door for school around 6:50am.   From there, no two days are the same.  Some are incredibly trying and others terribly boring.

It starts with Parker starring in Kindergarten Cop 2:  Swahili School, as I am currently  “teaching” 7 Kindergartners all sorts of stuff. And watching The Lion King in 15 min increments.

No real profundities, just the expected shocking of the system when you put a guy who loves kids, but has little experience with them, into an environment where they are everywhere 24/7.    As a result, I’m sore from being a human jungle gym.  Amazed by how many times they ask why.   Frustrated by how quickly attention turns into distraction.  And why kids just wont listen.  And, importantly, baffled by why anyone likes Justin Bieber as much as these guys do.

This past week I’ve also had the pleasure of:

• Celebrating with one of the kindergartners who typically struggles with Math because she aced her Math Test (they go to a proper school for half the day).
• Watching half of High School Musical.
• Watching Lion King twice
• As mentioned, listening to the boys sing Justin Beiber almost every night.
• Washing about a pound of dirt off me a day.  Usually with a bucket because the water pressure doesn’t do the trick.

o   The water for this “shower” is heated by a fire.  I’ve learned that putting an extra log on the fire can go one of two ways – Unbearably hot or hot long enough to not have to finish my shower in freezing cold water.  Obviously one of those does me no good.  Maybe I’ll master how to get it right before I leave.

• Learning Swahili from young boys means that I now know several “bad words”, which has resulted in needing to learn how to discipline their use.   At the same time, I’m also learning all sorts of greetings, which the Tanzanian culture is quite big on.  I’m not very good at them yet, but I’m learning.
• When watching movies, these kids insist on watching all the way to the end.  I had no idea how much love there was for the below the line contributors.  They should know that in this tiny little nook in Africa, their toils are appreciated.
• Seeing the biggest slug in recorded history.  I’m exaggerating in saying it was a foot long, but not by much.  I’m not squeamish, but this thing was one of the grossest things I’ve ever seen.

So, when I get feelings that the experience may be different from what I expected or wanted, I remind myself that it has only been 10 days and that my goal was only ever to do try my best to give in whatever sized way this opportunity may present, regardless of whether my preconceptions are satisfied.  It's still an amazing experience.  And, all in all, I couldn’t ask for a more idyllic setting to be spending time and better people to be spending it with.

I'll share more pictures when I have better internet.