My Reflections

Reflections

  The year is almost over how is this possible? All my travels for now are over. This year has been amazing! I think now I should take a little bit of time and just reflect on the year and put a face or faces on my world. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to experience all of these amazing things from the food to all the people and faces.

 First there was Emanuel, he visited my for six days it was loads of fun! I showed Emmanuel a traditional California beach day he loved it, it was the first time he had ever seen the ocean up close and personal he thought that is was amazing! Luckily Emanuel came during Fiesta time you can't fully experience Santa Barbara without going to Fiesta! 

This is a classic picture of Emanuel succeeding his goal of riding a bike and getting his prosthetic leg.

Next I visited Panther Bior. That was very interesting to experience his culture and fun of corse. I remember swimming in the Nile River that was very relaxing but I remember I was very nervous that it was not safe and some crocodile was going to hurt me, but I was fine. Some thing that also really sticks out in my mind about that trip was that Panther took my to see a concert in Nairobi. The concert was this rapper who was also one of the lost boys of Sudan. I think that Panther had said that he was friends with the rapper when they we children but I am not quit sure since there were so many lost boys. 

This is Panther and his wife. 

Next up on my agenda was a unforgettable trip when I visited Maruge! I think that this trip was my favorite one! I did so much  I can't tell you every thing I did but if you want to read all of my adventures you should read my previous blog post Visit With Maruge numbers 1-8. But some of my most vivid memories are when we went to Lake Victoria and went fishing for Tilapia. After we had caught some we cleaned then and we fried then our selves. They were the best Tilapia I had ever eaten probably because there we so fresh and things taste a little different when you are the one who caught it and cooked it. We were about to get back on the Matatu/bus to go back to Maruge's village when we saw this little Cafe on the shore of the lake and so we decided to have some dinner there. It was so good even though I did not really know what I was eating it was amazing! Then the next day I went to Nairobi and I went to the Nairobi National Park and Giraffe Manor. That was amazing! Giraffe Manor was so cool it was a once in a life time opportunity to go there and it was just so amazing! I do not really know how to describe it! It was so.. I looked kind of like a old English farm house and manor, but surrounded by Giraffes that look so big and a little scary but when they eat out or your hand and they stick their huge heads into our window you get a different connection with them.  

  This is the amazing Giraffe Manor. 

This is a picture of Maruge with two of his friends from his class.

Then I went and visited Nenita Muleta. The reason I decided to visit her was that I landed her $25 for her banana and charcoal stand. It was so fun to actually meet Nenita and not just know her for her profile on Kiva.org. This is Nenita in front of her stand.

Now my last stop was Glide Memorial Methodist Church. I am so glade that I got the amazing experience of going to Glide how I got to go was my school was on our end of the year trip in San Francisco and Marin County. On the fifth day Pam took about 13 of our the the service at Glide. Glide is an amazing Church that focuses on re habilitating homeless people in SF. The Church is located in the tenderloin District of San Francisco. We got to the Church at about 9:00am for the service and for the service it was mainly gospel singing and people talking and motivating people that it will always get better and that here there is always a warm hug here. After the service we went down stairs to the soup kitchen were we got the remarkable opportunity to help prepare and serve the food in the soup kitchen to disabled and homeless families with small children it was amazing and a life changing experience! I am so glad that I got to go to Glide and now I want to bring my amazing experiences home and help homeless people in Santa Barbara on a regular bases.

This is Glide Memorial Methodist Church. 

So all in all thins year has been amazing and life changing! I feel so lucky that I get to go to such a remarkable school as SBMS and I get to have all of these amazing experiences and opertunites. Once you got and experience these people and places that are not so fortunate as we are here in Santa Barbara and at SBMS you really get the sense of how truly lucky you are to have such an amazing family, get to do all these things and experience all of it. Mainly make all of the bridges and connections with all sorts of people from Emanuel taking him to the beach for the fist time and to Panther and his family taking me to the concert. Then there is Maruge the oldest first grader and to sit with him and to hear him tell you stories and knowing Nanita more then a picture and some words on a computer screen but to actually know who you are giving your money to and to know that you are helping someone survive. Ofcorse then there is meeting all of the amazing people at Gilde and hearing their stories and thinking that I just helped someone get their next meal and to feel just how much such a little thing to us is such a big thing to them and that really warms your heart/. I know that I will never forget any of thins and that all of my experiences really truly changed my life for the better! I really hope that other people get to have just some of the life hanging experiences that i have had this year! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to that!

Today was a big day for me but for a lot of people it was normal. So I am here in Zambia just for a couple of day to see the sights and experience life here. I am here with a tour group that was all women so today we were going to live the life of a women here. The first step was wake up extremely early and take a five hour walk to the local well, that is not so laical but it is the closest one. Sine we are from America we are not used to be doing such extreme walks so we cheated a little bit and we drove the fist half of the walk. When we finally got the the well there were probably fifty other women and met of them had a couple of children with them if they could not afford to go to school, more like could not afford to get the school uniform to go to school. We saw women literally begging for water from the well because they all new that the water would soon run out and would not seep back up from under ground for probably two weeks. Since we did not need the water we let all of the women who actually needed to survive off of it have our water. When we were at the well we talked to some of the people and children there and I made friends with one protocolar girls named Naailah. She is four years old and has two older siblings who are in school. I think the reason why i made friends with her is she was sitting all by her self so I decided t go play with her and we became friends. When her mom was done filling up their  three jerry can that weight five gallons each I started walking home with them the walk took five hours and it was getting hotter and hotter. i was very surprised but I managed to do the entire walk I think it made it easier that it was all flat an I had shoes on witch all most all of the there people did not have. Once we finally got back the the small village that I was staying in and that Naailah lives I went back to the cottages that my group was staying in I was the fist one back so I decided to read my book after about a page of reading i slowly fell asleep after the long day of walking.

Nenita visit 6

Once again this morning I got woken up by the same roster so I went down to the shore and just sat with Nenita for probably a hour or so it was very calming and I can understand why she dose it. Then we had breakfast, then today we had to work in her stand for a couple of hours. It was actually pretty fun to work in her stand I got to talk to a lot of different people! It was very interesting to hear all the different peoples stories. For example there was this old lady and one of her kid had just died and so Nenita is very nice and is giving the lady free bananas for 3 weeks, it's 3 weeks because that is the typical morning period. After we were done working at the stand for the day we went back to Nenita's hut and we went swimming the ocean was beautiful! if you went far out enough little fish would brush up agains your leg, it was amazing! I only went swimming for a little bit then I sat on the sand with Nenita and that was amazing the sand was soft like a baby blanket and it was warm to! After a while of lying in the sand I looked at my watch and realized that now it was almost 3:00 so I had to get moving I sadly had to catch a 5:30 flight. I rsn into the main part of town and I said good bye to all of the people that I had met, the people that work at Nenita's stand, the people that I met working at Nenita's stand and I said good bye to people that I never really talked to but were always there like the drunk dumbs on the corner and all of the other people people that own stands. Next I ran back to Nenita's hut and you found Nenita starting to make her dinner and so I had to get all of my belongings together. That did not take so long since I did not bring that much stuff but, when I was done there was a very sad good by that I still had to do, it was Nenita. We both new it was coming. I walked up to her and we hugged for about 3 minutes and then we said our good byes. When we were down I ran out side whistled for a taxi and waved my last good bye to Nenita, I hopped in the taxi and said "step on it to the air port!" That was probably the screeds taxi ride ever it took about a half hour and it was twisty and bumpy! When I finally got to the airport, I ran in, found my plan and luckily they had not left yet. I ran on and then when I got to me seat I had to find my book in my bad to I was digging around in my bad and I found that Nenita hard slipped in her bracelet that she always wears and there was a little notes attacked it said "Here is a little gift from me to you so now you will remember me and you will come back to visit me!" When I finish reading the note I got a little choked up. I was thinking about my over all trip and I was thinking about playing Hide and Go Seek with the kids and I thought how kids that maybe aren't as lucky as others don't think that they're not lucky because they don't know the difference. I had a very good trip and I definitely will be going back!

Nenita visit 5

This morning super early I got woken up by a roster. I got very angry. Since I was awake I said to myself "Hey Im awake now theres no use sitting in this hut, I might swell go down to the beach and see the sun raise." It was magnificent!

When I went down to the beach I saw Nenita there and so I went up to her and asked her why she was there so early she said "Ever since my husband died a couple of years ago, I have been coming down here every morning and thinking about him." There was a small pause then I asked "If you don't mind me asking, why do you come to the the sun ride and not say, the sun set?" I could tell that that hit a sore spot in her heart but she slowly answered, holding back tears. "Its because he was a fisher man and he spent most of his time on the water, and then one rainy August afternoon he was out fishing for the family and he got killed in a surprise typhoon." Long pause... Then I felt really awkward because I brought up the subject and now I had no idea what to say, so I just said "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." Then Nenita said after clearing her throughout "Oh, it's okay, why don't we go inside and we can make so breakfast." So we went up to her hut and collected some fresh eggs and we made scrambled eggs. They were some of the best scrambled eggs I had ever eaten, probably because they were so fresh.

Since today is Sunday we had to load up Nenita's banana and charcoal stand for the next day. Nenita makes all of her own charcoal at her sisters farm and gets the bananas form her sisters farm  also so they have to split the earnings. But, before we went to her sister's farm Nenita played me this song on her little music CD player, this is the song music video.

After she played me this song we took a hour long taxi ride to her sisters farm and them we got straight to work Nenita's sister is a sweet women she has a couple of children and a husband her farm is quit large but not that big. she had about an acre of just banana trees, a big pile of charcoal in the making and some livestock that Nenita trades for extra money. It is very weird how to make charcoal but the basic ideal is burning wood in a really weird and difficult way. Some of Nenita's sister's children were helping us pick bananas.  Reason that Nenita sells the charcoal and bananas and livestock and not the sister is that the sister has HIV/AIDS and is slowly dyeing Nenita is one of 6 though so it's not like she dose not have a small family but the rest of them live far way. After about 4 hours of harvesting bananas and making charcoal we took a community pick up truck to Nenita's store and we loaded all the bananas and charcoal on to the selves the stand looked pretty good her is a picture of Nenita in front of her stand.

Then we had to take the community pick up truck back to Nenita's sisters neighbors house so after we did that we went back to Nenita's sister's house. at her house we sat on the porch and we drank ice tea that and the tea is grown in the area and it was delicious! It was so relaxing on the porch that I dosed of for a while when I woke up Nenita's sisters ids had drawn a mustache on my face in charcoal and they were all surrounding me waiting for me to wake up and see my reaction. When I woke up I jumped up and screamed "ROAR" and all of the kids surrounding my screamed and then ran away laughing so I chased after them and we played a fun game of hide and go seek tag. After a couple of rounds Nenita yelled at us from the porch "kids come inside it is time for dinner," so we all ran inside and all of the kids libeled in to the door way it was pretty funny. For dinner we had fresh chicken and she vegetables. For dessert we had fresh bananas they we simple and delicious! After we finished dinner we said god bye and thank you to Nenita's sister and I hugged all of the kids and then we caught the last buss going back to were Nanita lives. Once we finally got home we both were very tired so we said good night and went to bed. Right before I went into a deep sleep i was sad to think that tomorrow I had to get on a plane again and leave Nenita. Then I fell asleep.

Nenita Visit 4

Once I got to her village she met me at the bus stop. Kabankalan is very different then the other places I had been, I thought that it would be sort of like the small villages I visited in Africa. I was wrong. It's hard to find one perfect word to describe it be I think a close word it developed yes Kabankalan is more developed then the small villages I visited in Africa. I don't know about you but before I actually came to the Philippines I did not know much about it at all so here is a little in sider information, the beaches are very beautiful and tropic but, the actual village has a lot of poverty but it also has some not so poor parts of town. They do have buildings but not very many some of the streets are paved but again not very many and they do have streets signs and once again not very many but that is pretty good for place with so much poverty. So any way, I met Nenita at the bus stop and we walked to her hut it took about 20-30 minutes which was difficult considering I had my luggage but it was not very much because I alone had enough time to stay with Nenita for 3 nights sadly I wish I could have stayed longer but I had to get back home to go back to school. So far I could tell that Nenita is a very find and gentle old lady. The second I walk in the door I smelled an amazing smell of some kind of food I smelt mean and bread, it was amazing! Also when I walked in I was bombarded with lots of  "Hello" and I could tell that they learned how to say hello recently because I was coming I was also bombarded with hugs from all sots of people short tall fat skinny it seemed like Nenita had invited the whole town in her little 2 room hut to meet me! After about an hour of eating and talking to people they finally all started to leave the food that was there was so delouse there was some kind of chicken then there was a bread rolls and potatoes and some other delouse thing that I don't quite know what it is. Now that everyone left I could talk to Nenita more, she has four children but they live in a couple of cities over working and they send most of the money to Nenita. I was unbelievably tired after a long day of planes and buses so I asked Nenita where I will be sleeping and she offered me her bed but I did not feel quite right taking her bed and making her sleep on the fool or I took the floor instead. I slept on about 5 blankets and had three more on top of me because at night it gets quite cold.    

Here is a picture of Nenita's hut you can't see from this picture but since she lives on the shore her hut has to be raised on polls. 

Here is a picture of some of the food that I had it was all so delicious!!

         

Nenita Visit 3 Currency

Now since in Kabankalen their currency is different then ours in America I needed to exchange my money for Philippine peso. 

$1 = 42.65 Philippine peso


$5 = 213.25 Philippine peso          


$10 = 426.5 


$20 = 853


$100 = 4265


Now that will make my stay a lot more convenient!

Nenita Visit 2 Communication

Now since in the Philippines they speak Filipino I have to lean some basic words or phrases in Filipino.

Hello : Hoy

Thank you : Salamat

Goodbye : paalma

Where is the bathroom? : Kung saan ang banyo?

My name is Grace : Ang pang ko ay Grace      

You're welcome : tuloy po kayo

Excuse me : patawarin ninyo ako

Hi : Hi

May I : maaaring I

Please : pakiusap


This will make my trip a lot easier!

Visit Nenita #1: Transport

For a class assignment we when to Kiva.org  and we picked someone to lend $25 to. I picked Nenita Muleta. So I decided to go visit her she lives in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, Philippines. Before I met Nenita all I knew about her is what I read about her on her description on Kiva, but when you actually go and stay in there hut you really get a new sense of the person first I had to get there. Here is a picture of my flight plan.

Since there is not an airport in the village were she lives I flew into the capitol Manila, Philippines. Once I finally got to Manila it was only about 9:00 pm but after 19 hours cooped up on a  plane I was very tired. I took a small bus to her village the bus felt like it was falling apart so I was pretty scared but I thought in my mind over and over again that this bus runs every day and nothing will happen, nothing will happen, will happen, happen, happen... I repeated as I fell asleep.

Visit wit Maruge #8

Today I got up bright and early a little to early if you ask me but I had to catch my plane back to America. THe plane ride was so long!!! It was about 40 hours long. I flew out of the Nairobi airport to New york city and sadly I had to keep going I wanted to stay in New York for a night but I had to get back because of school! Then from New York I flew straight to L.A then a little flight to Santa Barbara. When I got into Santa Barbara my parents were waiting for my on the other side of the gate my mom was so happy for me to filly be home! During the whole car ride home my mom was asking me lots go questions about my trip! I think that, that was the most fun trip ever and I hope to go back to Africa soon and to travel in more parts then just Kenya. 

Visit with maruge #7

Today I woke up and I definitely had the best nights sleep on the whole trip because at Maruge's hut I slept on a mat on front, in front of the fire place. Maruge offered me his mattress and he would sleep on the mat but I took the mat.  After I got up and got dressed I went down stair to the Muthaiga Club dinning room to have some breakfast. The food was pretty good but it did not beat those fresh eggs Maruge gave me. Next I  hoped on a Matatu and road it over to Giraffe Manor. Giraffe Manor is pretty much an old English house set on a big filed. You can go up on the second story and a Giraffe will come up to the window and the Giraffes will eat out of your hand! On the big field it is kind of like a sanctuary and there aren't only Giraffes there, there are bird and plants native to that area. When I was done feeding the giraffes I walked around the garden part. After I did that I was very hungry so I went over to the little dinning room place. I ordered tea and biscuits I thought that, that was appropriator since I was in an old English house. After I finished my last biscuit I saw the Matatu pull up in front of the house, I through some money on the table where I was sitting and ran out and hoped on the Matatu. When I got on I asked the driver if he could take me to the Nairobi National Park? The drive said of course and we were on our way for another bumpy ride. When we got to the Park I jumped on a Jeep that was about to leave to do a tour around the park. When we started on the tour it felt like we were the only people in the whole park! It was amazing how many animals there were and we were and we were literally right out side of Nairobi.  Next we stopped for a back break and there were baboons left and right with blue butts and they were trying to steel our food! Its a smallish park so it did not take us long to get back to where we started. I hopped back on a Matatu and when back to the Muthaiga Club to go for a dip in their wonderful swimming pool and have a pool side smoothie (I sure am lucky to stay here!). Now it's time to go back to my room to get dressed for dinner. The food was great and very elegant. I have to go t sleep now because I have to get up bright and early in the morning tomorrow! 

Giraffe Manor 

Nairobi National Park

Visit with Maruge #6

This morning I woke up and  Maruge was making me breakfast. It was Chapati which is a fried flat bread like pita bread and we also had Chai which is a little bit of tea and a lot of milk and sugar. After breakfast I packed up all of my stuff because I was going to go to Nairobi for the rest of my trip because there is not much other things to do in Elderet.  Before I got on to the Matatu, Maruge took me to the school that we visited, so that I could say good by to all of the people that I meat there. All of the little kids were saying kwaheri which means goodbye in Swahili. After that we had to rush over to the Matatu stop so that I did not miss my Matatu. When we got to the Matatu stop Maruge gave me a big hug and said kwaheri and hope to see you soon! Then I said the same to him. "That was the most fun week of my life!!" I told Maruge then I told him that I would keep in touch but then I had to get on the Matatu. So, I got in a started a long bumpy and dusty trip back to Nairobi. If you wandering why Maruge did not come with me to Nairobi it's because it's a long way and Maruge just did not really want to. When I finally got to Nairobi I went to The Muthaiga Club. Although it's a privet club my mother used to be member and I brought her old membership card and I got in so that I could stay two nights. The Mathaiga Club dates back to the colonial eaira and Africans and women were not allowed got be members. My mom spent a lot of time there after they started allowing women. So my mom wanted me to see it. If you ever saw the movie "Out of Africa" it is the club where Meryl Streep, playing Karen Blixen was kicked out of the bar. When I entered the Hotel it is very prestiges and fancy so I go up to my room and I change into m fancy clothes and head down to the dining room for dinner. The food was so delicious!!! When I finished my meal I dragged myself up to my room and passed out on my comfortable bed.

Visit with Maruge 5

Today I woke up and Maruge was hard at work making scrambled eggs and the eggs were so fresh he had just collected them. After we ate out breakfast, we hoped into a Matatu heading to Lake Victoria. A Matatu is a small bus with people crammed in and hanging of the sides. They are decorated with bright paint and streamers and they were incredible bright and colorful. They did not care about seat belts but how many people they could fit in one. When we got to the Lake we first went fishing for some Tilapia. Tilapia is a fish that is native to Lake Victoria. After we caught our fish we cleaned it and then fried it and ate it. It was the best Tilapia I ever had the freshest to! After we ate our lunch we sat by the Lake for 30 minutes and digested our food. Them hoped in the Lake for a swim/bath. The water felt great and it was pretty warm to! When we were about to get back on the Matatu and we saw a little Café so we stop in to get some dinner, because it's a long way back to Eldoret. Maruge ordered for us Irio, Sukuma Wiki and Ugali. Irio is a Kikuyu dish that is mashed peas, potatoes and corn. Sukuma Wiki ("Stretch the Week") is Kale and tomatoes. Ugali is corn meal mush and is a staple for Kenyans and is like bread. Maruge ordered for himself a large Tusker Beer. The food was kind of bland for me except for the Sukuma Wiki was delicious! After we devoured our food we got back on the Matatu for a really long and bumpy ride home. I did not feel to good on most of the ride. But we finally got back to Maruge's hut and we both went straight to bed! Here are some pictures of the Lake.

Visit with Maruge 4

Now its the third day here in Eldoret and Maruge is going to take us on a Safari to see some animals.  We saw Giraffes, Lions, Elephants, Zebras and much, much more animals! We were going with a tour guide because Maruge dose not have a car. So, we got in a Jeep and and drove to the middle of no where. We saw so many animals, I lost count! The ride was very bumpy and very dusty and quit a few times I felt like I was going to see my breakfast again! I got lots of good pictures of animals! When we got back to Maruge's hut we were both very tired out so we just went to sleep with our dinner because we weren't really hungry.

Visit with Maruge #3

Today we woke up bright and early grabbed a quick bit to eat and then we went to school! If you wandering why we went to school it's because Maruge is famous for being a 84 year old man and going to school. So, today we are going to go to his school, well it's not his school but it's the school that he went to.  Kapkenduiywo Primary School was the school he went to. When we got to the school all of the kids new Maruge and were jumping up and down singing a song and some of them were dancing also! A lot of the kids came up to me and hugged me, they were all very sweet! The day was lots of fun I told the kids about America and my friends, my friends and Santa Barbara. The kids thought that America sounded weird but they all wanted to go! Some of the kids taught me how to say Hello and how are you. You say Hello like this Habari and How are you like this Hadari Gani. When the school day was done we walked back to Maruge's house and we passed a group of drunk old guys. They we kind of creepy! When we got back to Maruge's hut we pretty much just talked for a while and then we made dinner another delicious meal then when to sleep. Before I when to sleep I bought about how lucky we are in America to have ally hat we have and here in Eldoret most people don't have running water into their hut ket along electricity! But the Kenyans they don't care that they don't have a great live full of riches but they are happy and intertane them selves with songs and dancing! Here is a video of some children dancing and singing.

Maruge's Visit 2

Today was really nice and relaxing. First when I woke up there was a nice hot breakfast waiting for me it was scrambled eggs, patatoes and some or things that I'm not quite sure what they were but they were good! After we finished our breakfast and washed our plates, Maruge took me around his village and introduced me to all of his friends. Then after we walked the town we came back to his hut and I helped him make dinner. Usually the wife or mother dose all the cooking but since all of his family died in the Mau Mau Uprising. At dinner he said that we were going to have a special guest. At dinner the special guest was his old teacher Jane and a little girl that was his friend when he went to Kapkenduiywo Primary School. The dinner was delicious! I don't know what it was, but I think it was some meat and beans and probably some corn thing.  After we had finished dinner I was very tired mostly because of jet lag. So, we walk Jane and the little girl to the van and said good night and see you tomorrow because we were going to spend more time with them.
This is a picture of Maruge's hut.

Maruge's visit 1

I'm so exited today were on our way to visit Maruge!  He lives Eldoret which is a small village in Kenya. Since they live in a really small village, we are flying into Nairobi and Maruge is meeting us there and then we are all going to take a bus to his village. I'm getting really tired, this plane ride is SO long! I'll tell you more about my adventures tomorrow talk to you later!

MY STOP IN ELDORET, KENYA

On my way home from South Sudan, I stopped in Kenya. I was invited to the village of Eldoret.





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