The Rose in a Trash Heap, Day 2

Day 2 at Imani: Wow... I scarcely have words to describe the day we/I had... I honestly don't barely know where to begin...BUUUUUT here I go, lol. Well I definitely didn't get ANY sleep last night. The reason must have been a tie between: it being a strange new place; being surrounded by weird loud noises nearly all night long; having drank way too much water before bed; not being able to stay cool or comfortable in my bed; genuine spiritual attack; a million thoughts racing through my head; constantly thinking I heard someone approach my shadeless/curtainless window; the Netherlands guy waking up and using the restroom as much as me; Nathan walking through my room to use the restroom; and just when I thought I was about to truly lose consciousness and rest I heard the rooster start crowing, some girls walked by our rooms singing in Swahili and then stopped feet away from our windows to do morning laundry (while still singing at 5 in the morning) at which point I tried to ignore it but then heard Nathan get up and do push ups, haha. At this point I knew it was over and I was merely delaying the inevitable... We got ready just in time to be picked up at exactly 6:30 sharp and arrived at Imani A at around 6:45. Almost immediately we were separated and given different tasks in different rooms on different floors. If I didn't know better I would have sworn they had received this advice from our boss Pastor Mickey in the Children's Ministry Office, lol. I was placed with the 6 - 9 month old infants on the second floor while Nathan was taken to the 9 - 13 month old infants on the third floor.

From the moment I entered the room nearly all the babies were crying bloody murder and boy-oh-boy did they reek to high heaven! Of course (with our impeccable luck) the very first thing on the agenda was to change all of them. AWESOME! (sarcasm, lol) Though this has never really come up in daily American-youth conversation and is not necessarily something I would want to admit, I have NEVER changed a baby's diaper, nor have I ever been in a hurry to do so. Today I got my chance... multiple times in fact. I changed more diapers in a single day than I had ever planned to do in my entire life! I was always sorta, kinda hoping that was a wife/mommy thing, lol. Oh, and on top of that, these weren't your standard super-duty, hyper-absorbent disposable diapers with a picture of a joyous baby strategically placed on the package cover, no no no, these were your old-fashioned linen towel-like sheets folded into triangles and skillfully wrapped around the baby... The appearance was horrifying, the texture unforgettable, and the smell inescapable. I honestly survived that first encounter fake smiling and almost gagging, lol. Talk about not knowing how to swim and then being challenged to race across the English Channel. What a task. For the longest time (hours leading into days) I couldn't get the poo and pee smell out of my hands! Well the day continued on and shortly after starting Nathan and I were called to breakfast. Already we had stories to share, and share we did. We returned to our rooms and just in time for feeding them. This too was a first and trying experience, not because I had never "bottle-fed" an infant before but because instead of bottles they were cups. Talk about the mess. At one point we got to take the babies outside and around that time a young-lady my age arrived. As God as my witness I was not initially distracted by her presence and was simply focused on not creating an ocean of porridge in my lap, unceasing prayer for strength, and surviving the day. Unfortunately she didn't feel the same. To my surprise, in the midst of baby chaos, this girl actually started to flirt with me. It started with a bunch of light questions about where I was from and what brought me to Kenya (all cordial and often-asked questions for me) but soon became more. Once she asked me my age and she realized we were the same age it all went down hill. Though over the course of 12 hours she literally asked me if I wanted to ever get married, how many kids I wanted, what were my likes/dislikes, and actually said, "Ray? Is your brother cute like you?" I am fairly certain I borderline froze and did not know what to say. I think I scanned the area for facial expressions from the other workers to see if they were picking up on anything I was. UNFORTUNATELY everyone else was hard at work and I was left to face the awkwardness on my own. This along with many other "weird" experiences throughout the week reminded me of Robbie playfully warning us of either finding a Kenyan wife OR at the very least, getting majorly "hit on." I honestly didn't take any of this seriously... Now I do, lol. Needless to say I became extremely well practiced in various diversion-like methods. Methods such as: pretending to not hear; inexplicably becoming distracted with a crying baby; acting as though I did not understand due to cultural differences; walking out of the room with a perplexed look as if looking for something; quickly adding a new topic to the conversation as though I had just remembered an important comment I had been dying to say earlier but had forgotten. This and much-much more became my arsenal of defenses against such extreme moments of awkwardness.

Later that day we returned all our babies to the second floor and changed them, AGAIN! Ironically during all my out-of-the-blue girl troubles Nathan had met two Mzungu girls volunteering at Imani too. As if by some strange twist of fate it was also their first day of work AND they were assigned to the same "area" as him. UNFORTUNATELY for him neither of them were Christian and the one he considered pretty cute cursed like a sailor thus ruining even the fake, imaginative hope for him, lol. That day we both shared our hilarious experiences over lunch and got quite a kick out of them. The day continued, I did a TON more changing, feeding, carrying, snot wiping, and much-much more and though it was killer hard work I really saw the Lord in all of it and thanked him for the opportunity to serve Him in such a way. Those children were downright beautiful and looking deep into their searching eyes while feeling them grip my finger with their tiny little hands was an experience I could never forget (not that I could forget being there ALL week, lol). As the day concluded and I got a closer examination of my muscular soreness and I realized that I felt literally beat up. Aside from an injury, I don't think I had ever felt every muscle in my back scream like that before. My biceps felt broken from carrying all day, my back was pulsating with ache, and my entire person emanated with the essence of "smelly baby." We returned home and I borderline ran into the shower. Ironically even after showering the smells lingered and even the towels given to us for showering and drying smelled EXACTLY like the linen nappies used for the make-shift diapers. This was understandable, but admittedly even after showering I never truly felt/smelled clean. Something ALWAYS seemed amiss, lol. Day 2 accomplished. May God have mercy on us...