Yes, I'm in Africa

Sometimes I almost find myself forgetting that I'm on the opposite side of the world, but then there are times where it is impossible to ignore the fact that I am in Africa.

This morning I came back into my room after eating breakfast, and there was a huge cow grazing right outside my window! It was a little surprising. I could have reached out and touched it, had I felt so inclined, but I chose to take a picture instead. (Okay, maybe I would not have been able to touch it, I exaggerate, but it was pretty darn close.)

Even though I worked in a coffee shop for over a year, I will admit that I never really knew where coffee beans came from. It wasn't until near the end of my time at "Just-a-Cuppa," that I even found out that coffee grew on trees. But I had no idea what the trees looked like until I came here. This past Saturday I got to help pick some coffee beans behind the Ochana's house. They have a whole plantation, and the trees are all around 10-12ft tall. We had to use stepladders to reach the berries. The coffee beans that we see in North America hardly even resemble the ones off the tree. Picked fresh, they look somewhat like cranberries, and then if you open them up, there are two little beige beans inside which will eventually get dried, roasted, and then ground up to make people happy in the morning. I tried eating the outside shell part, and it's very sweet. It doesn't taste remotely like coffee, which suits me fine.

Another thing to remind me that I'm not in Canada anymore, (Toto), is the way that my hamstrings are sore from learning how to do laundry the Kenyan way! My new friend Sarah at Mercy Home taught me how to be a human washing machine. To avoid back problems, women here don't squat beside the buckets of water to wash their clothes; they bend at the waist so that their legs and backs are both kept straight. It's incredible how efficient they are. I told Sarah that if women in Canada would just start washing their laundry by hand, they could save a heck of a lot of money on unsuccessful dieting attempts.

A taste of Kenya

   Sorry that this has been off to such a slow start.  Procrastinating person + unreliable Internet = an infrequently updated blog.  Here is a little taste of the Kenya that I have been enjoying for the past month:

-Kenyans are generally very friendly, and very eager to meet visitors.  Everyone shakes hands and welcomes us profusely. 

-The name Candice doesn’t seem to exist here, and everyone has a terribly difficult time trying to make it out.  I have to repeat myself at least twice before they can say it anywhere even close.  I get Candees, Cathy, Carlie, Can, Candy, and Dandis, but rarely Candice.  Geoffrey (the man who we’re living with) has taken to calling me Malkia (Malikeea) which means queen, because of queen Candace in the bible, and because it’s easier to say.   

-I love avocadoes here, and never really cared for them in Canada.  They are about twice the size, and I don’t know if they actually taste better, or I just tell myself that because I can see them growing outside on a tree in our yard. 

-Picking your nose in public is not seen as rude.  I am still getting used to this, and quite frankly feel quite embarrassed for the people that I see sticking their fingers up their noses absentmindedly.  I don’t think that it’s a habit I’m going to start, even though it’s socially acceptable here.

-I have witnessed that it is possible to put five people on one motorbike (pikipiki) I have only personally experienced three, and that’s a little squishy for my liking,

-They drive on the left hand side of the road here.  I have gotten used to this way faster than I thought I would.  I caught a glimpse of an American program that was showing on a TV in an insurance place that I had to wait in for a while, and I was shocked when I saw cars driving on the right side of the road.  I was like, “what are they doing?  They’re all going to crash!”  I have been converted very quickly.  I think that when I come back to Gibsons I’m going to cause traffic mayhem. 

-Speaking of traffic mayhem…Let’s not get started... 

-Luckily, English is taught all throughout school here, and most people are quite competent at it.  Even the street kids who haven’t finished school can hold a perfectly good conversation.  One thing that I’ve noticed though, is that the street boys are far better at speaking it than the street girls.  The girls seem to know almost none.

-Swahili is a fairly easy language to learn.  I do wish that I’d studied it a bit before I came though.  It’s completely phonetic, which is very helpful for looking things up in my handy little dictionary (THANKYOU to AnnaBettyBurns!)

-When we go to rural areas, having white skin makes us instant celebrities.  Children line the streets and shout “Howayou?Howayou?” without stopping for breath, or to hear what we have to say in reply.  Half of them are too shy to answer when we return the question, but they all want to hold our hands.

-Everyone has been taught to say ‘fine’ here, instead of ‘good’ when asked how they are.  So if I come back saying ‘fine,’ then I am actually good, but I’ve just trained myself to say that so that the kids will understand me!

Thanks so much for reading!  Have a great day.

My First Ever Blog Post!

   First of all, THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU to Emily, for setting up this blog for me!  You are incredible.  (Emily offered to make a blog site for me, because she knew that I hadn't set one up prior to leaving Canada...and she has first hand experience with Kenyan internet connections.  They're a little on the slow side most of the time.)

   So, I am Candice Veale, and for those of you who don't know already, I am currently in Kitale, Kenya.  I'm with a team of four other people, and we are primarily here to volunteer in Mercy and Caring Children's Home, which is a school and orphanage for kids who come from the Kipsongo slum on the outskirts of Kitale.

   Dane and Trudy Ruck are the 'leaders' of the group, and they have been to Kenya twice before.  Nancy Miller is a recently retired school secretary, and David Williams just graduated from high school. (In the same class as me)  We're calling ourselves an odd little makeshift family for now, with Dane and Trudy as the parents, Nancy as the grandma, and David and me as the kids.  We're staying with a Kenyan family (the Ochanas) who live about a ten minutes drive away from Mercy Home.  They are a wonderful, welcoming and incredibly hospitable group of people, who insist that their home is our home, and that we should make ourselves totally comfortable.  There is Geoffrey and Helen, their son David (34), their nephew Laban (24) and their neice Stella (15) who are all living at home.  Altogether there are 10 of us in the house, which makes for big happy family dinners!

   We've been here since Sept.24th, and we're all beginning to adjust to life in Africa.  It is so amazingly different than life in Canada, that I have no idea where to begin explaining it.  The way of living is different, the way of communicating is different, the food is different, the idea of time is different, and the way that I'm beginning to see God is different.  We've only been here for a little over two weeks, and already, I am starting to find that my views are being altered, and my normal is being shaken.  We're planning to be here for 3-6 months, so it'll be interesting to see the effect that that amount of time will be able to have on my general outlook of life.

Introduction

Welcome to Candice's blog! A place where stories and adventures unfold, and the experiences of her life in Kenya are documented.

Candice recently arrived in Kitale, Kenya where she will be spending the next six months living. She is serving at a local orphanage which is flooding with adorable exuberant children.

I am looking forward to hearing snippets of her journey and life experiences, and I know you will enjoy hearing them too, and journeying along with her. You can also read about what the rest of her team is up to by visiting thekenyablog.blogspot.com.

The internet in Kenya can be very tempermental and constant access is not an option, as I learned while spending three months there this spring, so I have set up this blog for her, which is a place where I hope you will enjoy coming to check up on Candice.

Em
grandfamilyadventures.blogspot.com