Howa You?

I can’t believe it has only bee three days since I have arrived in Kanyawegi – I feel like I am already fluent in Luo(the native language) and getting quite used to the smells. Okay, fine, I only know about four words in Luo (Good morning, good day, good night, and good bye, and very much) but those words get me through every situation so far. And the smell, well let’s just say I still prefer the smells of home, where deodorant and garbage cans are a bit more widely used by the general population…

It has been a busy three days. My first day, while battling some crazy jet lag, I spent meeting Maurice and hanging out at the little Bank, watching how he preps files and conducts transactions.

Yesterday was another great day at the bank, except things got a lot more exciting when Graham and I began to pick apart the files, looking at which village every member is from, and determining that all the files were accurate. Somewhere during those three hours Graham and I realised we really needed to computerize the system, as we basically spent the afternoon doing something which Excel could have done through “highlight, sort, okay, perfect”. We also got to meet some of the children that live in Obambo market, and got to show them the magic of Disney. Though doubtful they understood the words, the kids L-O-V-E-D the Lion King, and were laughing so hard at “Hakuna Matata” (which really does mean ‘no worries’ in Swahili)!

Today (Sunday) we went to church! The villagers are extremely Christian, which Graham and I found out after we had been chided by Maurice for only going to church once in the past year. Oops. The entire service was in Luo, but the singing was lovely. They also dance, like full on a step below full-blown hiphop during their hymns. So entertaining to see them in their Sunday best, rocking out to Hallelujah.

After church, we met with Chief Phillip and presented him with gifts to show our thanks for his involvement with the Bank over the past year. While the bank was undergoing changes, Chief Phillip acted as an extremely important figure and a great ally to GIVE. He was very kind to us today, and we got to talk about his visions for the bank, and how closely they aligned with ours.

After working all afternoon on Access forms and Audits (kills me that access is so useful and I didn’t pay attention to a minute of it in MIS class), Graham and I decided to head outside to do some yoga on the lawn. I would say that we got about ten seconds of time in before the children who live in the compound with us came running over yelling “Howa You Howa You”. They tried downward dog a few times, got into warrior pose maybe once, but then started throwing grasshoppers at us and begging us to play. There was no way to turn down that cuteness.

That recap doesn’t even do justice to how amazing the past few days have been. Pictures to follow and definitely more posts!