Weekday Routine

We can hardly believe we’ve been here almost a month and are constantly shocked at how fast the weeks are flying by, especially this past one. Having developed a weekday routine, we thought it would be good to explain just how we are spending our days here.

 A normal weekday find my alarm going off at 6:22. Whether that’s the actual time I roll out of bed or not is another question. Straggling out of bed, usually about 20 minutes later than my original intention, first priority is to shower and purify water. Thanks to the steripen, it only takes four and a half minutes to prepare three liters of water.

Next is breakfast. Or, more accurately, chai. While the menu differs from day to day, the two things that are always present are chai and bread. Sometimes this is the only thing offered, however, other days we are served fruit, bananas or Laurel’s not so favorite, papaya, which I always end up eating when the househelp and Alice have their backs turned. Note: It is also not my favorite, but I do my best to  keep our relationship running smoothly, whatever the cost may be. However, every morning I wake up craving samosas, the most amazing snack on the face of the earth, and go out to breakfast hoping that they awaits me. This meat filled deep fried deliciousness is unfortunately only on the menu about once a week. Another breakfast we do our best to choke ( read I do my best to choke down two portions) are Kenyan sausages. It’s not that they taste bad, or that the texture is off putting, it’s more that they remind us of our walk to Hamomi and bring back memories of the plastic burning, slum smoke taste that leaves much to be desired. But, enough about breakfast.

Leaving the house around 7:15 to 7:30 depending on how late I’m running, we make our way to Hamomi through Kawangware up to Kangemi, which is always an exciting explosion of senses, and the ever present burning plastic/Kenyan sausage smell.

We usually make it to Hamomi a little past 8  and as we approach, running down the street to greet us is 2-year old Godi and 3-year old Sammi. The two sons of Janet, the school’s cook, who is wife to one of the teachers, are the chubby cheeked face of Hamomi to any visitor that comes. More on them later. We then greet all of the teachers with the customary handshake and a “habari yako” or the less formal “Sasa”.

Computer classes begin at 8:30, with each of us taking a student for a twenty minute lesson. Currently, we have covered typing all of the letters, and next week we will be covering other functions of Microsoft Word, such as saving and retrieving documents, and other functions on the toolbar. The progress the 28 students we tutor have made over the last few weeks, with only having two lessons a week, is quite impressive.

Godi, being in his terrible twos, and with little else to do throughout the day, really enjoys computer class. He has also learned how to type, aka banging his fists on the keyboard as the other students are trying to practice. We immediately scold him, Laurel in Swahili, which is greeted with laughter that this mzungu is yelling at him in his local tongue. Needless to say, we expect his return in less than 10 minutes.

We fill the morning before tea break with 10 lessons, and have spent many of our tea breaks sipping chai while mending clothes. Yes, Laurel now knows how to mend clothes, something I plan on exploiting in the upcoming years. However, this is starting to seem like a never ending battle, as we have already seen the same tears in the same uniforms, which is not a testament to our shoddy workmanship, but rather the poor quality material we have to work with. But, we do what we can with what we have, as do they.

After tea break, it is back to more computer lessons, except for on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which is when we do the journal class, referenced in Laurel’s blog post.

Lunch is from 12:35 to 2:00. This gives us time to eat lunch, beans and rice, everyday, and play with the students. After we eat, I usually go down to the field to play some sort of sports with some of the students. While football (soccer) is the standby sport, I’ve also taught them baseball, handball, and ultimate Frisbee. This is usually the time I get dirty. Really dirty. Meanwhile, Laurel jumps rope with the younger girls and spectates with the other students who aren’t playing. Our day usually ends around 2:30 or 3, when all the kids go back to class for more formal instruction. There is little for us to do at this point, so we use the rest of the daylight to learn our way around the area, prepare for the next day, and use internet when we can to do planning and to keep up with emails. We’ve been able to help with various projects as well, including measuring all of the 135 students’ feet, to get an idea of sizes needed for new shoes that are being donated. We also attend the board meetings, held just about bi-weekly, where Laurel is the secretary and takes meeting notes, to then be sent to the American Board.

The rest of the evening is spent relaxing with our host family while watching English dubbed telenovelas, Spanish soap operas, which we guiltily admit we’ve gotten hooked on. We are always surprised at how tired we are at the end of the day, so bed time is usually at 9. Kind of pathetic, since that hasn’t been the case since elementary school, but there is little to be done once the sun goes down that doesn’t require taxi fare and a pub.

I hope this has given you all a bit more insight into how we spend our days and the work we’re doing at Hamomi. 

Eric