First Day on the Job......and the Culture Shock Grows.

One of my roommates is a 26 year old from Pittsburgh named Lauren.  We've been getting on really well & I'm extremely happy to have her here with me.  Those of you that knew of my trip, know that I came here to volunteer with a Women's Education/Empowerment program.  You will also know that I intentionally didn't choose to do an orphanage or teaching assignment....because I am relatively clueless when it comes to children.  So, you'll get a pretty good kick when I tell you that in orientation yesterday, they informed us that that the "women" we were educating here were male & female children in a community school in Nairobi.  (I'll pause for laughter).  Both Lauren & I were immediately scared to death at the thought of being in front of a room full of children.....but we both took a look around at the amount of need there is everywhere here, and decided to roll with the punches & do our best to make it work. 

So, this morning we woke up, drank our chai & biscuit, and were picked up by our escort Bernadette to our first day on the job.  We arrived at the St. Frank Community School around 9:00am. There are 212 kids ages 2-14 at the school all crammed into rooms approximately 10x10 for each grade class.  We were introduced to each class (to a round of applause which was both awkward & hilarious at the same time).  I’ll be teaching environmental information & physical education and Lauren will be teaching nutrition this first week.  Together we’ll be teaching the girls in grades 4-8 about women’s health topics (healthy relationships, STDs, sex, etc).   I’ll be honest…..it was a pretty overwhelming day for me & I’m scared to death thinking about coming back.  I really have no idea what I’m doing and just feel like I’m going to make a fool out of myself on top of it….but am fighting of the urge to run frantically from the school.  So, we did a little prep for our classes & then left early so we could do some shopping for a Kenyan phone, internet, etc at the Junction (essentially a hangout for all the non-locals).  I’m almost embarrassed to admit it because I’m well aware I came here to do this work….but I was thankful to leave, and dreading coming back.