WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

October 24, 2012

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD:

This is going to be a random list of happenings that makes me want to sing....What A Wonderful World By:

•    I was feeling sick one night and went into my room early. My Host Mama knocked on my door and asked me if I was alright. I was feeling so homesick and my head/stomach hurt and it was just not a good night. She asked me what hurt, so I told her that my head hurt and she launched into this wonderful speech about how stress can cause stomach aches, head aches and make you miss home! And that I was very far from home but I had a goal and a dream and that was to be here and teach children who are deaf! She said I know that you miss your family but your our family now and we will be here. She told me I had to keep thinking about my goal to be a teacher and even though it was hard I have to follow through with my dream. Before that moment I wasn't sure how my family felt about me staying with them. There had been a few times when I didn't think they truly wanted me there but after host mama's speech, I felt liberated, rejuvenated and so welcomed into their home. It was just the remedy I needed for a bad case of the homesickness.

• Hearing from everyone back in America. I know it's tough for my Mom and Dad to have me living half way across the world but they have expressed so much encouragement and every time I talk to them it makes me that much more excited about what I'm doing. It is the same for when I talk to my sister, brother and Chris as well as Neal and all my friends. You guys inspire me to keep realizing what an amazing journey I'm going through and how excited I am to get into that classroom and teach those kiddies!

•      We went to Machakos School for the Deaf and I finally had enough KSL (Kenyan Sign Language) to have conversations with the kids!!!!! They were so excited to see a bunch of foreigners able to communicate with them. It makes me think of what our trainers have been drilling into us as we learn how to become teachers in a deaf school. They keep saying many of these kids come from hearing communities where no one knows sign language, including their parents. Many of them don't know how to read or write, cutting them off from any communication to the outside world. When they finally get to a deaf school it's wonderful because they have one another and some of the teachers who take the time to get to know them and know how to sign. But that can sometimes be the extent of their world because not many people learn how to sign. When I can communicate with these kids well and know that I can teach them how to read and write, it makes me realize how much bigger their worlds can get if they can become literate. They can go to the market and buy food by themselves because they can write, or talk with their parents through writing until the parents can get sign language, they can read books about the world, Kenya or famous deaf people to make them realize that being deaf is not an inability!

•      Elizabeth, Carla and I went for a 3hr hike the other day up one of the many mt's surrounding Machakos. It was one of those It's A Wonderful World moments but i'll do a post about that another time. But a great moment that stuck out was when we were coming down the steep slope. We were all slipping because the tread in our shoes wasn't enough and the incline was steep enough for us to feel like we were skiing down rather then walking down. As Elizabeth is sliding down almost doing a split she yells back to me...."I feel like Elf. You know when he tries to get onto an elevator."  (look at picture above) I laughed so hard while trying to keep from rolling down the hill. There are so many moments with Elizabeth and Carla. My walking partners, who walk the 45min to and from school everyday. On our walks, I listen and share about my own life back in America, we talk about what was exciting that day, we practice our small amounts of Kiswahili and our KSL, we laugh a whole lot, everyone in my group has a great sense of humor. I guess you do when you place your self in a foreign place for 2years and know that you will be living with minimal amenities. But it was just another moment that I think about and makes me enjoy my time here in Kenya more.

Those are just a few of my What A Wonderful World moments! I have a lot that brighten my day and help me through the tough days.

Thanks for reading!