First Day and Hard at work

Jet lag had me up at 3am wondering around aimlessly. I showered and facetimed a few of my friends until about 5am when Casey joined me. We talked until about 6 when a volunteer named Sophie came and joined us. She talked to me about some of the excursions she took and how great her trip has been. Sophie was flying out that day so she was up and trying to make the most of her last day. Michael does a mile and a half hike every morning at 6:15 so Sophie, Casey, a few other volunteers, and I all met him at the gate and headed out.
The hike was beautiful and a bit challenging. The altitude made oxygen a little harder to obtain and I am not in the best shape of my life by any means. However, at one point in the hike, when we got to the top of this hill, you could see the sunrise in full view making the mountains a variety of orange and yellow and red with the white and grey clouds surrounding them.

Further on in the hike, we started walking through the town. There were people every where going on in their day to day lives.

The houses were modest and and the culture vibrated off the walls.

 

When we got back to the volunteer house it was time for breakfast. The cook’s name is Safina and for my first meal in Neema she cooked pancakes and eggs. They were amazing and delicious. After breakfast i headed down to the baby home. Started out with the toddlers outside during play time. Everything is a little awkward at first when your not sure what is going on.  The nannies were all very nice and welcoming. Which was surprising to me at first. With an endless stream of ignorant volunteers messing up the flow of the day always coming in, its surprising that they are still so grateful for us. After spending the morning with the toddlers, i switched to the infant room. I fed and rocked the infants until it was time for their walk. A couple of infants were fussy and needed to be held rather than pushed in the stroller, so i held a baby another nanny held a baby and the other nanny pushed the stroller carrying 5 babies. the stroller was so heavy that when we went uphill it took all three of us to push it up. After a full day, I was exhausted and passed out relatively early.. and ended my first full day at Neema.