Blog 6 Thursday June 27

 Mambo! Today was a fairly average day on the work site at Orkeeswa. I’m happy to report that the cornrows looked much better after settling for the night. The morning began a little late as Holly, Olivia, and Anna R. forgot to set an alarm (again), but we arrived at the school in time to get an hour or two of work done before teatime. The work today involved measuring and leveling off the steps we have carved into the hillside, and some more bucket carrying of course. Most of the Groton girls have learned to carry the large buckets on top of our heads and a few of us, channeling our inner Maasai women, have even started to practice balancing them with no hands. The Orkeeswa girls are delighted to help us, offering their shawls as cushions to put under the buckets and politely trying to contain their giggles as we struggled.

We split into groups at teatime for our daily language exchange, but mine turned into more of a reunion than a Swahili lesson. While I was introducing myself to the group of Form 4 boys I was sitting with, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a vaguely familiar face but before I could sort out his name, the boy embraced me and shouted, “Lucy! Lucy!” Although his face fell noticeably when I explained that I was Lucy’s younger sister and not the goddess herself, Lais seemed content that we are at least related. We worked hard for another two hours until lunch, and were then rewarded not only with a change from the usual rice and beans but also with our groups for the homestays tomorrow. At the end of the day tomorrow, each group of two or three Groton students will journey to a different Orkeeswa student’s boma (neighborhood), and live with them and their family until Sunday afternoon. The next blog on Sunday will surely be filled with more details and stories about these homestays. Our last activity at Orkeeswa today was a small group, story-telling session with the Form 4 students where I was again paired up with friends of last year’s crew, Lota and Lais. Laurie instructed us to talk about the person we love most, and Lota charmed me with his poetry. We ended the day with a professional Swahili lesson from Osotto, a young man studying to become a history and Swahili teacher at university.

          Hope everyone is keepin it real back in the homeland.

--Georgia

P.S. Many inquiries about the identity of Sir Hungry Hungry Hippo. Give us a hint: what country are you currently in?