Wetting the Bed

My roommate Diane used to be my friend. Yesterday, she wet my bed.

Actually, here's how it went down. Diane was sick and whiny and she took the whole day off yesterday while the rest of us went on a field trip past Kiliminjaro to Moshi. (Kili is f*%ing huge - I must admit I'm getting a little, okay a lot, terrified now. I've heard some serious horror stories and no matter how much Al Gore says the snow is melting up there, it still looks seriously white.)

Anyway, I mistakenly assumed that Diane's "day of rest" had allowed her to recover in full. And, when I went to bed on my bottom bunk, I playfully bounced her bed up and down - just enough to aggravate her. After my pestering, she sought retribution and dumped an entire liter of water on me in my jammies and on my already miserably uncomfortable mosquito-net suffocating bed.

I was soaked, and my bed still has not recovered. I'm quite certain my Swahili-only speaking maid is concerned about my incontinence problem. While these escapades went on, Connie, our "prim but mischievous" moo (we greet elders here with ShikaMOO, so we call the old girls, of which I'm now honorary because I'm not one of the coeds, MOOs for short) found a gecko on the wall and screamed like a six-year-old on a sugar-high for our neighbor "Sanchez" to save us from our insect invasion. (She can't remember and/or pronounce Sanjay's name, but I think it's appropriate that she's given him a Mexican nickname since he wants to name his first child Nacho.)

Sanjay ran over and threw the gecko toward Connie, who ran screaming from the room. He did, eventually, remove it. Finally, with the water spilt and the gecko exterminated, we were able to sleep soundly - except I was upside down trying to avoid the wet spot, and Diane whimpers in her sleep. I still like her, though ;)

To catch you up a little bit, we've been going to our placements most days, except for our field trip yesterday. The babies in my class are adorable - although my throat hurts from singing to them for hours a day -loudly - to get them to pay attention. I'm trying to teach them (along with their full-time teachers, Happy and Angel - how appropriate) letter A and number 0. So far, so good. I really adore them - My favorite is Mary. Everyone says she's mine, because she's the child with the lightest skin and she's also chubby like me. Today, she put my glasses on and she looked incredibly cute. She's 2 1/2. Of course, I have about a million favorites. Leah's another - she's older, maybe 10, in Class 3. I taught their math class the other day, and we held a little addition competition which she won. I cut her out a star from construction paper which said "I'm a Math Superstar". She was SO proud, she showed everyone and even put it on every day for the rest of the week. She's such a good girl.

I've also continued working on a fundraising plan for them, which has taken every free moment I have - and then some, which is, in part, why my postings have been so infrequent. But I really think it could help them to begin to raise the funds to continue to grow this school, so I'm committed to seeing it through. I'll be sure to share the plan once it's finished . . .

Tomorrow, we also plan to paint the three new classrooms that they just built in the back yard of the headmistress, Lucy. I can't wait to see the children's faces on Monday after they see what we have done.

Other than that, we went on a field trip yesterday, as I said, to Moshi, which is just past Mt. Kiliminjaro. We hiked down to an incredibly beautiful waterfall, saw a traditional home from the Chaga tribe, which was very interesting and looked like a tropical hut of some kind. (The Chaga people are originally from the Kiliminjaro area and, unlike the Masai, most no longer live traditionally but have substantially modernized.) We also saw some tunnels in which the Chaga hid from the Masai when the tribes battled over cattle (which they still do, sometimes). Then, we stopped for lunch at an outdoor buffet (yes, you read that correctly, a BUFFET) - where raw beef hung, nearly whole and definitely recognizable, next to the totally unpalatable beans, rice, okra, grilled chicken, noodles and beef mash that we ingested.

Later that day, I (I know this will be a surprise . . . ) suffered my first bout with diarrhea. Lucky, stupid me. Anyway, we made up for it by stopping at a supermarket on the way home where we bought Pringles and candy bars. I think I ate my weight in junk food - but, for those of you concerned about my weight loss, I did get up and jog this morning.

Not too much more to tell - we did play a rousing game of Celebrity (during which I was forced to charade "Pussy Galore") last night with Jean, a totally buff park ranger from Boulder - she couldn't stop giggling. I just love unstoppable laughter.

So, I'll end with that. I miss you all sooooooooo much, but we're doing just fine.

I hope your day ends, as mine did yesterday as a consequence of Jean's silliness and Diane's raindrops, with total joy and a bellyache from laughing too hard.

Songs of the Day:

• Africa, by Toto - which I haven't heard since I've been here but I CANNOT get out of my head;
• Faith, by George Michael, which I sing incessantly to a little girl named Faith in my class, who's also 2; and
  
• You are My Sunshine, which I heard my babies sing for the first time today during morning assembly (They sing for about 30 minutes every morning, all 110 of them together - it's really quite a beautiful way to start every day, to the sound of children singing. They must know a million songs.)
  

PS - Millie, thanks for your photo. I thought I couldn't possibly feel more guilty or miss you anymore. But after seeing that picture, I'm not so sure. You tell them to give you pizza and cookies for dinner and let you sleep in their beds. I promise I'm over half-way done now and I'll be home soon. I'll bring you a prize!!!

PPS - Zoe, I was thinking maybe Holland Elementary could be a "sister school" for Shepherds Junior, and you could be penpals with the children here and send them books, toys and school supplies that your school collects for them. Maybe you should ask your principal or teacher???
You'd just love them, and they could really use anything!!!! Pencils and paper are scarce (they actually ran out of pencils today, and couldn't find any to give one of the students), and some of the babies have never held a crayon!!! They LOVE stickers, even just little stars. Give it some thought, and let me know what you think! Ashlee - is there any sort of project the students in your program could do with the students or teachers here remotely???

PPPS - I know, we need pictures!!!!!! But the upload speed is simply overwhelming . . . Samahani, Pole, I'm so sorry - we're working out the glitches, I promise! You just have to see my babies!