Day 25

Today marks the beginning of my fourth week. On Friday I will have been here for a month. 1/12 of my 21st year on this earth will have been spent in Africa.

It’s the little things I’ve come to miss most about America. Like not sharing a single shower and a single toilet with 8 people. Running water. Opening your soap and not having a swarm of ants attack you. Hot water. I tell you, nothing in this world sucks more than an ice cold shower at 6:30am. Nothing. Except for frown lines. But other than that, NOTHING.

So, there was no water at Dickson today. Another day of washing laundry by hand in a dirty water basin because we can’t afford to change the water in the basin. Another day of urine and fecal matter flying through the air like the birds and the bees and not a single drop of H2O to sanitize with. I nearly went through an entire bottle of instant hand sanitizer. Now my hypochondria is going to show a little here, but I don’t really believe that those sanitizers work. I think you have to wash your hands first and then sanitize. So I held my breath for about 8 hours today and ran to the nearest bathroom the minute the mutato hit town. Tom B- thanks again man. Your mini soap strips are rockin my world. PLEASE pray that we get some water tomorrow. Also, I didn’t pee all day out of sheer fear of opening the toilet lid. When 28 kids can’t flush a toilet, the fluids in the bowl become beyond toxic.

Clueless and Idiot pretty much just sat and watched the kids all day. I don’t get them. I don’t get a lot of the volunteers. I think of Diani Beach, White Sands, the safari, all the fun stuff, as icing on an already sweet cake. I came here to volunteer and bond with my kids and I have and do. A vast majority (but not all) seem to think that they’re here to travel and find work to be a big hunk of mold on their cake. If you want to travel, TRAVEL, you don’t have to do it under the guise of volunteering. Clueless left early on Friday and is skipping this Friday AND Monday to go to Lamu Beach. A huge group of people are going. Skipping two days of work to go to the beach. I just don’t get it. It also pisses me off because they’re going to go home and be like “I volunteered all summer” when really they sat around their projects, never learned their kids’ names, and took a bunch of days off to travel around. I wanna bitch slap most of the crew.

After 4 weeks, I finally caved. I really wanted to go the whole time without failing, but today I realized that I am a weak man. Try as I might, I couldn’t fight it. I broke into my secret stash of Cliff bars. I really wanted to just eat the food that was available here, but I did have a couple emergency Cliff bars in case of utter starvation. I gotta tell you, even on the brink of death from bad food, a Cliff bar still tastes like shit.

Today was a jam packed day at Dickson. Aside from no water, Manu took a shit the size of his leg, Moses is still fighting his malaria, Mary has a massive chest infection and is getting intravenous drug therapy and I found out that the girl who we were told has malaria doesn’t actually have malaria. They told us she has malaria to explain why she hasn’t gone to school in over a week.

Remember the scandal I mentioned a few days ago about the girl from Dickson and the boy from Onesmus dating? Well, it’s a lot worse than that. Pregnancy scare worse. So obviously the staff and owners flipped out. A street girl and a street boy having sex leads to street children, something we’re fighting, not encouraging. So the girl is being kept in lockdown 24/7 because evidently they’ve been warned several times and have been caught lying to staff, to teachers, to friends, to everyone. That’s when it really struck me. How do you discipline someone who has nothing to lose? There are no car privileges, cell phone privileges, trips to the movies, trips to the mall, allowances, there is nothing that can be revoked as punishment. Aside from lockdown, there is no solution to stopping these two. They’re doing their homework at home and the staff is trying to figure out the next move. If we can find a sponsor, we can send one to a rigorous, heavily monitored private school, but really that’s about all that can be done. It’s so scary and frustrating and makes you feel so helpless.

I stayed late today and watched “Garfield: The Movie” with my kids. It was God awful. Also, I realized that I may very well be “The Child Whisperer”. Today I wiped more tears than baby ass. As Clueless and Idiot did nothing, I stopped no less than 5 kids from crying. I think it has to do with my upbringing. My mom was very big on communication and treating her children like adults and talking to us and empathizing with us. She nurtured and as a result got an explanation as to what happened. My father was incredibly patient with me. I was an annoying child. I mean, annoying. I would tell 3 hour stories that went nowhere and would add about 37 rules to every game…including tag. I would set up boundaries, escape zones, reverse tags, no running zones, fast zones, slow zones, I was a complete and utter douche bag of a child. And my father always played along. At any rate, I think I learned a lot from them and can now handle a lot when it comes to children. To quiet the rowdy ones and to ease tears. It must be my upbringing that shuts them up. Either that or the Michael Jackson costume and anal probe that I carry around.

On the way home I got a ride down the ½ mile road. I rode in the cab of a semi. This is the second time I’ve gotten a ride and the first time it struck that I do things here that I would never dream of doing in America. It didn’t dawn on me until a minute ago, but I’ve now hitchhiked twice. Who climbs into a stranger’s car in a foreign land? Your favorite faggot, that’s who. It’s just so normal here that I didn’t think about it. It’s encouraged to try to find rides from people who are driving along the route you’re walking. So bizarre. But, I’m still here, typing away, so you know I’m safe and sound. The last ride was from a Muslim couple and upon finding out we live in New York, the woman asked if we could mail a package to her sister in Boston (remember, corrupt mail here and very expensive), so we said sure and for the woman to text me when she wants to give us the package. Right then and there though, I decided that Idiot would take the package since she was returning to the US first. Muslim couple? Package? I’ll pass, thanks.

Finally, Stallion has malaria. The first of the volunteers. Sad, but true. Still, I’d risk a little hospitalization for some summer love. Ah, l’amour, l’amour.