Jambo!! Laura and Izzy in the house! Yesterday we moved 150 rocks in the hot hot sun 250 meters from the pile to the construction site. The rocks were from 50 to 100 pounds and we moved at least 100 more than they thought we could, putting us ahead of schedule. We ended the work day with a soccer game and helping the students study for their finals. The soccer game ended in a tie 0-0 and the kids quizzed us on the questions they were studying and none of us knew the answers. We noticed that the kids were really excited to learn and put a lot of effort into studying their finals and were also eager to start high school, which is far away from their town. [By the way, the teachers' union is on strike, and there has been no formal school since we arrived, making the students' dedication all the more impressive.]
Today we had a delicious breakfast of omelets, sausage, and juicy fruit. We then headed to the worksite at promptly 7:45am and began work immediately. We mixed cement and covered our trenches with cement and rocks and started building the walls of our library. We then broke for lunch and heard an amazing story from Christopher, Shani’s brother. He told us about when he was a Maasai warrior. One night he heard someone making his way to him and he suddenly woke up. He quietly grabbed his spears and snuck out into the bushes. As he heard the noise get closer, he used three spears to strike the animal, which made it roar. The roar woke up his friends around him and they all ran up into the trees and the animal ran away. In the morning the boys followed the paw prints to find the animal and found that it was a lion! The tradition when you kill a lion is to cut off its tail and put it on the top of their spears, so when they walk back home the whole village knows that someone killed a lion. Everyone sings and dances and praises the boy who killed the lion.
As we headed back to the work site all the children followed us and slipped their hands into ours. We all travelled together to the site and we finished up our work from the morning. At 4:00pm the students going on their homestay left and the rest of us headed to the soccer field. We brought out the cameras and the kids were ecstatic about taking pictures of us. They day ended well because we won the soccer game 1-0, which was such an accomplishment!
Now we’re about to get some amazing soup and dinner and head to bed. Goodnight!!
Peace out,
Laura and Izzy
