Nairobi_ day 1

Karibu! Welcome! We're here!
After a 6 hour flight to London and 8 hours to Nairobi, we finally landed around midnight to an empty air port wanting to go home as much as the workers. We took a bumpy ride to our apartment, which is awesome. We're split up into 2 different suites each equipped with a full kitchen, living room, 3 bed rooms, and 2 bath rooms. It's a gated community with a guard out front and feels very safe. We're a 3 minute walk to New Life Homes and a 10 minute walk down dirt roads to Yaya, our local mall/super market.

We woke up this morning and took a trip to Yaya to grab groceries and fresh fruit and veggies, fix cells phones, grab coffee, and get wireless internet cards. It's taken a while to get internet working but now that we have it I can post more regularly.

After grabbing groceries and other essentials we came back for some down time to unpack, make lunch, then walk the 3 minutes to New Life Homes, which happens to be on the same road as the place we're staying. We took a tour of the facilities which are divided into 3 separate ages (babies, crawlers, and toddlers). Then we grabbed aprons, picked and age group, and started playing. We did everything with them. We played inside, outside, fed them, then they took a bath and we clothed them, and put them to bed. It was amazing to see how independent and mature the kids were. They are on a strict routine and the repetition of times and activities lets the kids move around a lot on their own. They knew that after cleaning up their toys outside it was time to eat so they went and sat in their specific chairs for dinner. After getting a bath they knew they would be dressed so the toddlers (who I worked with) waddled over to the play room to get their onezies and sweaters. They are very social, outgoing and smiley, although they are not as talkative yet since they don’t know weather to speak English or Swahili yet. But they're all beautiful in their own unique ways, each with a shining and different personality from the others.

At this Nairobi home there are 41 children and lots of volunteers. It will be different at the other 6 homes because they aren't in big cities and they aren't near university which require service hours. Tomorrow we have a meeting with Rhoda, who's the New Life Home's social worker. She is the one who puts together the adoption files that we will be helping to compile and transfer electronically. She will tell us everything we'll need to do, so I expect after lunch we'll get rolling on work, then our daily routine will set in.

I can't film or photograph yet, I must be culturally respectful which requires me getting to know the staff, children, and other regular volunteers better. Plus, getting into a routine will help make filming more efficient as I will know who's best to interview and the best times of day to film. I have a general plan of action. At orientation I wrote a bunch of notes, outlines, and specific interview questions.

Overall, It was a fantastic first day!I'm exhausted from the 36 hours of traveling and 7 hour time change but I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have for us! :D