July 25th

This is Steven (our orientation coordinator) in the wagon, and Aziz (our driver) on the right.

Today we went to visit a small village, and in particular a farm run by our teacher's friends. We first went to the farm to harvest some sunflowers. We cut the heads off, collected them all in a trailer pulled by donkeys, and then beat the heads with sticks until all the seeds fell out. It was really fun, and a bunch of their extended family and neighbors came out to help us. I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun laughing at us. Then we walked into the village to see the primary and secondary schools. The kids were still in school when we arrived at the primary school, and they began to talk very excitedly and all stuck their heads out the window to watch us walk up. Occasionally we would hear "Wazungu!" which means white people in Kiswahili. There were 600 kids in the primary school, and only 11 teachers. They are only short 4 teachers. However, attendance is 92% every day, and 74 out of 82 kids went on to secondary school last year. By the time we got to the secondary school, the students were gone for the day, but we still looked around.

When we got home, we had a couple hours free, so 7 of us decided to go to an orphanage which is about 100 yds outside of the compound we're staying at. There are 35 kids there ages 0-3. We got there right at dinner time, so after we told them who we were, they said excellent, grab a kid and bring 'em inside to eat. The kids were so eager to get attention, that especially after feeding when most volunteers leave, we'd have two or three kids attached to us at all times. They are definitely not picky as to who holds them. We'll probably continue to go there every afternoon that we have free. Alright, I think that's all for today.