Creepster, Moda-Boda, Trees, and Fo-Wedding

Obama Day was pretty uneventful. Julie and I took the Lubanga kids to town for some lunch. I thought town would be packed with people celebrating, but I think most people stayed home and relaxed. It was nice to be off from school for the day.

On Friday night I learned how to play this card game called Mau. There are a bunch of rules to the game.
Some of the rules are:

You must call out all spades
If a seven is laid before your turn you pick two cards up
An 8 of any suit skips you
You can receive cards from other people for excessive verbocity, flinching, rudeness, and taking too long.

I'll teach the game to willing learners when I get home. The group I played with said they would have me reduced to tears by the time the game was over (because it's a fast paced game with lots of yelling). The first time I played I did have half a deck of cards in my hand, but they underestimated my competitive card playing skills. The second hand I played I came oh so close to winning the game. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself :).

Saturday morning some of the girl volunteers went to Kakamega for breakfast. We were also suppose to see a movie while we were there...too bad I was lied to by one of the locals. There are a lot of us that really miss movies so we look for cinemas everywhere we go. Since there was nothing to do in Kakamega we decided to go back to Kisumu and visit the craft market. The matatu ride on the way there got a little crazy. I love talking to the locals around the different towns. I like answering questions they may have, hearing about their lives, or just joking around with them.

The following story is not suitable for young readers:
A group of rowdy boys were on our matatu. One guy just kept telling me that I was painfully beautiful. I told the guy that I was married and all of them asked where my ring was. I told them that I didn't want it to get lost so my husband was keeping it safe for me. Then the guy tells me that it doesn't matter and a little cheating never hurt anyone. I gave him a big lecture on monogamy that he didn't care for. He then says that my husband is at home enjoying a black woman and I need to enjoy a black man. I puked a little in my mouth at this point and told him absolutely not. He then said some other very inappropriate things to me. Finally our matatu stopped and I got away from him.

Some of the guys on that matatu were really friendly. One of the guys was named Brad P., hahaha. When we were leaving Kisumu and trying to find a matatu back we hear someone yell "Bridget my sister, are you going back to Kabula?" I told him we were so he had the driver turn around and get us. Julie started cracking up because this is the third time something like this has happened. I talk to a lot of people and give them my name but I don't always remember their names. They remember me because I'm white and now with the braids they can't miss me. When we walk in town I run into people that I know and I really enjoy that. When I hear someone saying "Hi Madame Bridget!" from the road I am so happy. The more people I meet the more I feel at home here.

The other night Nabeela, one of the IU volunteers, told me that a little girl stopped her on the road and asked "Will Madame Bridget be at school today?" Nabeela told her she wasn't sure and asked her why she wanted to know. The little girl told her that I was her favorite teacher. It just made me want to cry. Hearing things like that solidify why I'm here. When things get hard that's what I'll remember.

On Sunday Julie, TaVonna, and I went to Isongo to help plant trees for Simuyu House, a home for street children. A volunteer named Eric who came to Kenya from IU saw a big need. He has been raising money in the states and one acre of land has been purchased. Fencing was put up my Chris (Manager of Simuyu House and local Kenyan) and we were asked to help plant trees and move crops. We arrived in Isongo late Saturday night where Chris was waiting to take us to his home. It was pitch black out and pouring rain. We soon found out that we had to take Moda-Boda's (motorcycles) to get to his village. After a quick bathroom brak in some bushes I hesitently climbed onto the Moda-Boda. Scariest ride of my life! I kept telling the driver that I wanted to make it back home to my Mom and that if he killed me I wouldn't be able to pay him. He laughed and told me not to worry. Maybe ten minutes later we were falling into the bush. I of course got really scared as I'm falling down, but my beast of a guy put his legs down and stood us back up, thank goodness! I got there in one piece. In the morning we walked 40 minutes to the land from Chris's home. As we were approaching the land thirty children came out of the bush. When they saw us they started screaming and running. They were terrified because they had never seen white people. I walked up to them carefully so I wouldn't scare them, took their picture, and then showed it to them. They went crazy over it as everyone in Kenya does. One little baby was scared the whole time we were there and just cried. I have a little video of her. We planted 200 trees in 2 hours. It was really great because all of these kids stayed and just watched us. Many of them laughed because they said that Muzungu's don't get dirty. I had Chris tell them in Swahili that I get dirty all the time when I'm at home. So many people in the community came to watch and thanked us for our presence. Different women wanted to feel my braids. They couldn't get over a Muzungu having braids. Our whole group of seven was suppose to come and help but the other people weren't into going. Chris thanked us for coming and said "To have good things happen you must sacrifice." I was really glad that I went and I'm looking forward to working with him more. Oh and one of this sisters is named Bridget, she was very excited to see her "namesake" as a white person. His moms name was Theresa. I told him if he had an Emily I would have all of my sisters there :). I love you my little squirts!

Sunday night was one of the highlights of my weekend. Last week a group of the volunteers were talking about weddings and I was telling everyone how much I loved weddings. Then I said that we should have a fake wedding on the farm, partly kidding. Well one of the guys was said he would marry someone. Then another girl said that she would do it too. HOT DOG! My wedding was taking shape. I cast everyone as different parts and people were really excited about it. I was the wedding planner so I picked the location, had Mama Betty order a cake for us (no joke ), and planned the reception dinner. Nabeela (the bride) is Indian, so the cake said Afrimerian Wedding. I combined African, American, and Indian. I thought people might not do it, but boy was I wrong. Everyone got so into it. Hilary brought a DVD player so I was able to play some of the CD's I brought. I picked a song for Nabeela to walk into, a first dance, garder, bouqet toss, cutting the cake, etc. The two people who got married both have significant others at home so they have some serious splainin' (as Ricky Ricardo would say) to do, haha. We feasted on chipati, meat, cheese, rice, and fruit. Everyone ate together, something that usually does not happen. It was really nice to sit together and enjoy eachothers company. The Fo-Wedding was a success. I love it when people play my silly games!

"The way to get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning" -Mitch Albom