Memories

May 2, 2009 – Been home for just over a week now and it does seem a little strange. The biggest strange item is how strange it doesn’t feel. We’ve been to East Africa 2twice before and the culture shock coming home was much more than it seems to be this time. I was expecting that there would be major things that were disconcerting to us after living in a developing country for 6 months and then coming home to the land of excess and comfort. But there hasn’t been that much of it. It all seems too familiar, like we were gone on a 6 day vacation, not a 6 month life experience. In fact the strangest thing is getting use to what time of the year it is. Both Joyce and I are thinking Fall in our heads, that the budding leaves and bare trees are a sign that the trees are dropping their foliage, not growing it. People and circumstances keep coming up where we are thinking it doesn’t make sense, like the school year being finished and that the weather is supposed to be turning warmer and colder. I think this has to do with us just going through 6 months of summer weather.

Previous times I’ve returned, entered our house and gone, wow look at everything I have, this is really overkill, how much of this do I really need. Very little of that this time. Last time it was 3 months before I got over the fact that I could just go to my kitchen faucet and get clean, safe drinking water. Only crosses my mind this time when I think about not feeling that way this time.

We also are not constantly thinking about how things were in Kenya for us. The thoughts and memories are fading into the back of our heads. Morgan even mentioned on the plane trip home that the memories that were so close to the surface just the day before were dispersing quickly.

Then there are the memories and discussions about events and life in Kenya that I haven’t written about and can. And since this blog is mostly to capture thoughts for myself, I’ve decided to keep going with this for a while and right about them as I think about them.

The painting in Kisumu ended up well. Shortly after we started painting the dividers for the preschool at the church and discovered that the paint was so bad any thoughts about painting walls soon left me. I thought it would take days just to paint the insides and our days were quickly running out. The last day we worked, the Tuesday before we were leaving, Rachael and we cousin Ace came to help and it was determined that they’d start on the walls. Since it was now their project and not ours, and they’d be around for awhile, they could go ahead and start, but I knew they’d not have much done, maybe the bottom half of one wall, by the end of the day. I was surprised that in no time they had finished the first wall and we’re moving on to the second and there was still plenty of paint. Since the partitions only needed small additions and touchups I left that to Joyce and Morgan and helped on the walls. The paint went on okay, covered okay, even where the scrapping prep work took us down to the plaster. And it made such a huge difference in the look. The walls were peeling so badly, were dirty and scuffed up, had the remains of untold items being taped to them that the fresh coat of paint, even with the marginal paint job, looked breathtaking. One shocker whenwe got home – I saw an article about this great paint and it was $55 a gallon. $55. I thought the $8 to $10 we were spending in Kenya was overpriced. What the heck makes a ca of paint worth $55? Maybe I won’t be painting the inside of my home anytime soon.

Friday Night Bingo. Joyce had brought along a Bingo set. She originally had thoughts of having an occasional Bingo night for the community. As most of our plans, that didn’t happen. But she did start playing it with the kids. I don’t know if they knew the game, but most seemed to catch on pretty quickly. Some were younger and some didn’t attend school, so they did have trouble knowing the numbers. But others kids were willing to help those. As long as Joyce didn’t move ahead to fast most of the numbers called got covered by the kids. And it was a game that they could not cheat at, because for each BINGO call, they would have to read back their bingo numbers to verify they were legit.

And what is Bingo without prizes. Bingo by itself without reward for the pure luck winner is exciting for about 3 and ½ minutes. We had brought many, hundreds, of little Oriental Trading Company gifts along with pencils and tooth brushes galore. And the prizes turned Bingo sessions into a glorious and rowdy time. And Bingo became the most request activity in a matter of days. The kids would show up the next day at the same time it was played the day before, eagerly anticipating the chance for more winner rewards. Of course we weren’t planning on playing everyday, nor did we. But when we did, somehow the word spread and kids appears out of no where.

The session usually lasted until the kids got so unruly and out of control that it was chaos. Finally Joyce figured out that she had to limit the prize winning for the day and once one won, they could play no more that session. Worked great and all the kids usually left happy as they all got something.

The most popular gift – toothbrushes. Even though all had gotten ones when we passed them out a couple weeks before, they were still the most sought after prize.

Reporting form the recesses of my mind,
Paul