100 bottles of hot sauce.
A ton of potatoes. 70 lbs of
ugali. A bazillion calories of
chapati. 1200 bananas. Countless hot bus rides. Too many inappropriate marriage proposals I’m
still trying to forget. 786 explanations
that I am not a doctor nor do I have money.
534 requests for the shirt of my back.
A million liters of rain water caught.
104 weeks. 728 days.
17,472 hours. 1,048,320 minutes.
Blood. Sweat. Tears.
And pooping in a hole.
10 bottles of hot sauce.
60 bucket baths. 8 laundry
days. 931 high 5’s from kids. 32 hours at the school. 8 Thursdays.
59 days. 1,416 hours. 84,960 minutes.
You could say I am eager to finish. Or to just be done with doing my business in
a hole and shoo-ing away lizards and spiders from the choo. Or to have water
from a tap again. Or to have endless
varieties of food. Or to leave behind
the awkward relationship conversations with people who barely know your name if
at all. (seriously this is a
conversation I had. Well really I was just present. Dude had his mom pull me aside
and with her there he pulled out a picture of himself and a girl. He told me she was his Filipino fiancé and
she had died so he needed a new marriage partner. His mom then tells me she has chosen me. We had just met an hour earlier.)
Or to have ac/heat.
Or electricity that isn’t out 12 hours a day.
So yes, it seems clear that I am ready to continue on, but this
is not to say that I’m not starting to become sentimental. Or that I am even regretting my decision to
be here. I am glad that I did this. I am well aware that I only have 24 softball
practices left with my girls.
Because I have my remaining time down to the minute this
post may read that I’m too eager to get out of here. This is not how I meant it but in the last 3
months of our service our focus is to wrap up our projects and make sure they
are sustainable. I have had several
projects and started many things during these 2 years but threw the ones to the
side that weren’t working or didn’t seem they would continue when I left. My projects that I’ve been focusing on that
seemed to promise sustainability are doing great and well you can consider them
wrapped with a nice little bow. They
don’t need me anymore. Which is every
volunteer’s dream. It’s great, but it
leaves me with a wide-open schedule.
Thus, my eagerness to reach August 6.
Oh and because this cute boy lives in America, and so, I want to be
there.
With my remaining 1,416 hours in Kenya I am making it a
point to take everything in. On walks
through the village.
And as much as I yearn for my family. Food.
Amenities. Normalcy. I know in a short while there will be times I
yearn for my Nambo life.
