This is Africa

How do you tell a taxi where to pick you up when you don’t understand Swahili? Recruit Jen and Agnes to teach you a quick lesson that you will surely forget as soon as the conversation is over. :)

We have moved into new housing with some American volunteers here. They have graciously (that word is not strong enough) taken us in and now the four women will be staying in their house with them. We have shifted many times now and it feels good to know the bags can finally rest.

We are still working on getting into the hospital, getting ourselves into some sort of productive activity. In the meantime, we are getting to know many people and learning a ton about the region. We are also learning how to be flexible, patient, let our plans have time to work themselves out without our constant input…we are becoming a great team as well. I am glad we are here together.

We didn’t know we were going to get a lesson in local politics, but indeed this is exactly what we are learning. I am certain these lessons will play an important role in our future pursuits. But as we talked about this over dinner the other night, I was reminded by everyone in the group that we are here for the patients, we are here to help and we can’t loose sight of that. Whatever bullshit we have to dig through, it is worth it to be able to help those who are on the other side.

Some highly repeated phrases that have punctuated all our conversations so far:
“You are most welcome””Be free”
“There is somehow a problem””There is no problem”

From a desk at the ngo office, listening to beatles, wearing an African shirt, and sporting clean hair,

rachel