Billy Blanks has Nothing On Him

I've had a pretty busy, non-work-related week this week. A long walk around town on Monday which adding the morning and afternoon walks together ended up being over four and a half hours of wandering around. It definitely helped to get to know the town better. Tuesday was a super busy day filled with all sorts of stuff, even a little bit with what I'm actually supposed to be doing here. So it started out with going to the Sally Test Pediatric Center. I went with another girl here, Sarah, and spent most of the morning there. The Sally Test Center is a place for the children in the hospital to go when the doctors do not need to see them. It allows them some fun while having to spend long periods of time in the hospital. It was created by Sarah Ellen Mamlin, who is the wife of the man who created the place where I am staying. He has done a million other things as well, but that is for another post. Definitely look him up though, his name is Joe Mamlin and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice already - yes the Nobel Peace prize - how cool is that? So Sarah Ellen helped to create it, but a woman by the name of Sally Test put up the initial funding to make it all happen. That morning was wonderful. We played with plastic blocks, playdough, and foam clay stuff and just tried to interact with the kids as much as possible. I know how to say my name is and what is your name in Swahili, so I could communicate a little with them. We also went over to the baby area, where four babies were being looked after. Most of these babies were orphaned by their moms who had left them at the doorsteps of the hospital. The Sally Test Center will then take them in and care for them until they are old enough to be able to go to another center. I held this one baby, named Jeremy, who was adorable. He couldn’t have been more than a year old, and seemed a very happy baby. There was another baby there that loved the music that they were playing and one of the people who worked there danced with her a lot. Many of these children have sad stories, but this center provides such a great outlet for them to play and have an opportunity to be kids while they have to go through certain hardships during their very young lives. I think if I ever have any real money, giving back to this place would be amazing. There are some pictures in my photo gallery of the center and me with the kids. I guess some maternal instincts may be appearing just in time for my nephew to arrive. We’ll see about the babysitting Justin and Milana!

I ended up having to run from the center, back to the IU House to change then back to the hospital because I found out last minute that I actually had a meeting with my preceptor to talk about the project that I am supposed to be doing here finally. My Preceptor’s name is Dr. Violet Naanyu, and she is amazing. She is so down to earth and personable. We both saw though, that neither of us really knew the project that I was supposed to be doing and that a lot of questions needed to be asked to the person who organized this whole thing. Thankfully Dr. Naanyu was cool enough to take this in stride and planned on contacting this other person shortly after our meeting. She has also planned a dinner for Jessica and me for tonight which we are very excited about.

Next, the real “fun” came in for the day. So there is this gym in town called Billy’s Fitness Depot where many IU House residents have gone in the past. The true kicker is the guy who runs the place (not named Billy). His name is Javin and he is a two-time placed body builder in Kenya. He has come in first and second. He may be a mere 5’ 7” about, but he is all muscle, and like scary muscle. Seriously his thigh to ass muscle is ridiculous and then his shoulders are enormous. I’ll have to take pictures next time I go so you can get a better picture of him. The best part is that he is seriously one of the nicest men there. Why I’m going into all this is because we took a Tae Bo class that night. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a harder class in my life. The “warm up” even killed me. You are jumping and running and squatting and kicking and punching the entire time. I stopped after 25 minutes. The fact that I was seeing white spots and thought I was going to fall to the ground kind of let me know that taking a break was a good idea. Thankfully he did abs twenty minutes later so I joined back in. During the class though he is super motivating slash scary. He will yell at you to do better but then go ayayayayayayaya in a high pitch yell so you can do nothing but smile at him even if you are in a lot of pain. And then he will get in your face and tell you to kick higher, so there are good and bad parts to it. I told him at the end of it that it was my goal to actually be able to finish an entire class by the end of my four months here, may be a lofty goal because he said this class was actually slower than normal… I’m going to die. Next class is next Tuesday, which seems like the perfect birthday present… :)

Well the fun just couldn’t stop from there. We all came back, scarfed down some dinner then had to jump in the showers because we had to get ready for the night’s entertainment, karaoke! I thought I was leaving my musical prowess back in the states, but oh no, at Club Spree in Eldoret every Tuesday they have Karaoke. So we jumped in the cab to check it out. Kenyans here take their Karaoke very seriously. They have a book of all American songs, many from the 90s and early 00s, and all amazing of course. For most songs only one person would get up on the “stage” area and sing their asses off. None of them had good voices, but this didn’t matter to anyone. You got up there and gave it all you got. After the Armageddon song was done I knew that this was a must for my birthday next week. Now, I did not actually go up myself this time around; I’ll have to get used to getting the guts to go without flip cup confidence behind me. Next week I’m hoping we can all put on a show. It will help that the large beers here are only 150 shillings (almost $2). One really cool part that night was that the actual singer of one of the Kenyans most popular songs was actually there singing that song! None of us knew it of course but most everyone in the bar was up and dancing and having an awesome time. It’d be cool if he came back again.

So as to not make these posts too too long and deter people from getting through them I’ll stop here. Each day though it seems like some cool new things are here for me to do. Many new experiences and ones that I will be able to really become a part of after these four months have passed.