March 26, 2014
This
week has been one for the books. I don’t even know where to begin with this
entry. I guess going back a few days would be better in terms of clarity. We
got back from expedition and jumped right into finals week (mid-semester that
is… never had a mid-term that counted for 40% of my grade). Paige and I
commandeered Daniels office so that we could study in peace, which worked out
perfectly because he was on off-days for most of our study time. Exams were
pretty much the same as in America but with one glaring difference. We are in
Africa. I know that seems redundant but
let me explain…in Africa there are wild animals much bigger than a squirrel in
our backyard, including baboons. Baboons that enjoy bananas even more than
students do. Baboons that don’t care if you’re in the middle of taking an exam
right near the banana stash. We heard a big thump and a few students looked up
in the rafters of the kitchen and saw a baboon the size of a black bear
casually strolling along with a banana in its mouth. Never in my life have I
had to flag down a teacher or proctor for the purpose of informing them that a
baboon has invaded the testing area! The babs were chased away but came back
three other times! One was even bold enough to steal the entire bunch of
bananas! It was quite the distraction but we all somehow finished our exams on
time anyway.
After
exams were finished, some students decided to paint a side room off the chumba,
lovingly referred to as the smush room (even though it was never used for that
purpose, for all you Jersey Shore fans). They painted a giant map of the united
states and we all placed a red dot where we come from, with instructions for
future KBC kids to continue the new tradition. We also had a blue wall with a
double rainbow, where we all signed our names and what school we attend. It was
a really cool way for us to leave our mark on Kenya.
For our last non-program day we all
hopped into the land-rovers for a group hike in Chulu Hills! Unfortunately,
this day would prove to be a pretty big test for me. I found out the hard way
that dehydration is actually a seriously debilitation condition…Hydrate or die
as the saying goes. Turns out Mike wasn’t telling us to pump water down our
throats for his health! Anyways, I’ll start at the beginning. We started out on
the hike and everyone was breathing a bit harder within minutes (apparently no
one told us that this hike was pretty difficult). Meanwhile, Daniel and our
guards were pretty much sprinting up all the hills and pathways, which were
just cattle trails through the bush. After about 20 minutes, my legs started to
drag and I noticed it was getting hard to breathe due to a few cramps in my
sides. Being stubborn and not wanting to fall behind, I tried to keep going.
This lasted for all of 10 seconds until sharp pains were shooting through my
ribcage and my heart was racing. I quickly grabbed Zoe, who was walking behind
me, and she helped me sit down while Sipaya called for Mike to come back. Turns
out my medications had made it difficult for me to retain water that day and I was
pretty dehydrated. Luckily for me, Mike had a few rehydration salts handy
(imagine drinking salt water … on purpose. Yuck). As my pulse was taken and I
drank my salts, all I could think about was how devastated I would be if I got
sent back to the car to wait for my friends. After a few minutes, Mike said “Okay let’s
keep going.” I think it was then that I finally realized that I was holding my
breath for that verdict. Payton and Zoe (two friends from camp) were basically
my body-guards. Payton was in front in case I stumbled and Zoe was in back for
the same reason. Sipaya led the way, taking breaks every 40 feet or so, saying
he was an old man and got tired easily (My ego appreciated his attempt). Mike
stuck with me like the fantastic SAM that he is, even taking my back-pack for
me to make the trip slightly easier. We finally reached the summit of a
particularly large hill and I saw the other students waiting in the distance. As
we slowly approached the group, a few of them cheered and clapped. It made me
feel amazing to reach the top of that dang hill. I had confessed to my small entourage
earlier that I sometimes felt like I wasn’t physically cut out for this line of
work due to my back issues and days like this one. After we slowly trudged back
downhill to the cars, Mike told me “You did it! Don’t worry you are cut out for
this”. Sometimes you really need that affirmation, no matter how confident you
are in your path. I learned a pretty big lesson that day – that it’s totally
okay to lean on people if you need to and to HYDRATE, all day every day. Seriously,
it’s kind of a big deal!
Leaving KBC and my Kenyan family
was extremely sad and difficult to do. It leaves you with a kind of homesickness
that can’t be remedied as easily as the kind you get for America. The only
thing you can really do is hope that the story isn’t over yet and life has a
funny way of bringing people back together. Maybe someday I’ll make my way back
to Kenya and visit my extended family again. Or they will come to visit
America. Regardless, I will never forget my Kenyan family. My brothers Martin,
Charles, and Harrison will always have to deal with emails from me! Harrison
made me promise to stay in contact with him and promise to try to visit again
someday because he will miss me so much. It’s amazing the kind of connection
you can make with people in 7 short weeks! Martin and Charles are also waiting
for my future visit…Martin even told me he would keep me in Kenya forever if he
could! I will always be Daniel’s namesake and he has inspired me to continue my
Swahili so that I can be fluent one day. I’ll miss Moses hanging out in the
Duka and saying hi to Francis every night at dinner. My friend Isaac, who still
talked to me even with a huge language barrier; who always yelled “Dan!” every
time he saw me, to which I yelled back “Iss!” My pseudo-grandfather, Olioborr,
and my amazing professors. Okello, who made everyone’s cup of joy overflow with
his positive attitude. The fantastically crazy kitchen staff who always made
early morning cook-crew fun. Sipaya and Kioko, who were always ready to give
you a good laugh or have a serious conversation about life. And of course, I’ll
miss our fantastic SAM, Mike, who handled every curve-ball our group through
his way with patience and positivity, and still managed to become a friend to
each and every one of us.
This is baadaye to Kenya, I hope to
be back one day because she has stolen a bit of my heart and bitten me with one
heck of a travel bug.
Asante sana for reading!
Dani
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