The Remains Of The Fallen...

I awoke yesterday morning at my usual 6am, made my bed, got dressed, and headed to the kitchen. After making and packing my lunch, I made my cup of instant coffee, fried two eggs, and slapped them onto some gluten free bread. I ate my breaky while tuned into my favorite show of the day, the nature show on channel 1 every morning. This morning it was about Australia's Untamed. After watching a horse ostracized because he was injured, and a camel kicked out of the herd for no good reason, I washed my dishes, grabbed my bag, and head downstairs at 7:35 to meet my walking partner and friend, Emmy.

We walked and talked of how her situation has been since she stood up to her evil host mother the day before, and about how excited I was now that I chose my classes for next semester. We talked excitedly about our favorite spots on the Twin Cities Campus, and how beautiful Minnesota is in the fall. We talked about where we were headed in our lives, our upcoming internships, and what we were hoping for in the future. Our conversation that morning flowed easily and we covered our 45 minute walk without a pause. We turned into Nazarene University, obviously both satisfied in not stopping at the fruit stand down the road for our usual morning banana, saving ourselves 5bob a piece.

The class gathers at the steps of the buildings, chatting, catching up, and drooling over each others morning snacks until our Profs show up and we break for morning tracks. Environment track with Jama that morning was interesting as ever as we further discussed the problems with deforestation and soil erosion in Kenya. At 10:30 we broke for tea time: a half hour of students chatting some more, drinking chai, eating biscuits, and further drooling over individual snacks brought, generally mine because I can't eat the biscuits. Our second class of the day is Kiswahili, and again we separated into our little groups and endured our second to last class in this subject. We've learned so much at this point that we're all beginning to feel as though we can't remember any of it. The final is on Friday, we'll see...

Over lunch we all met with our presentation groups as we were having our last class with Fred that afternoon and had to present on a topic assigned by him the previous week. My group was presenting on strategies to unite Kenya into one people, forever ridding them of the ethnic divide originally caused by the colonizers. I ate my pb&j as I memorized my part about the need to adapt a new constitution written by the Kenyans rather than the British (they're still living by the rules set by the British!), and all the important laws it must include. One at a time students were running to the fruit stand for one last refreshment before class and when one student starts peeling a green orange, everyone wants to start peeling their own juicy green orange (they eat green oranges here, don't know why, they're not as good, but whatever, we're in Kenya and you're not), so my 5bob was spent after all as Julia ran to get one for me and one for her before we had to go into class.

Sitting at my desk I peeled and ate, careful to pile the millions of seeds these buggers have on my desk, and listened to the first presentation about the pros and cons of Nationalized Health Care. They threw out some trivia and between bites I shouted out "Twenty Dollars!", when Bethany asked how much money per year the World Health Organization figured should be spent on one person for health care. The answer was $35-$50, so I was close. Just then, Emmy came up behind me with her phone in her hand whispering to me that I must call the office immediately; they kept calling her phone, being the other Emily on the program. I looked at my own phone and saw two missed calls. I looked at Emmy like she was nuts, but then parted the presenters as I head outside to make the call.

"EMILY! You must come to the office immediately!"

"Oh, um, ok, but do I need to come right now?"

"Yes, you must come to the office immediately."

"I'm in class..."

"You really need to come right now."

"This is Emily H______, right?"

"Yes, Emily H______, you must come."

".......can you tell me what this is about?"

"Uh, you should just really come to the office immediately."

"Ok, I'll just walk there now then."

I parted the presenters again as I shakily headed to my desk for my bag. Grabbing it, and clumsily scooping the orange seeds into my hand, I rushed out the door. How can they do this to me? I thought to myself, and with a toss, scattered the seeds across the freshly swept campus grounds. It's a fifteen minute walk to that office, and the whole time my mind was racing. Has something happened to my parents? Is Alison okay? Lisa? David? Oh God! What could it be? Why would they pull me out of class? If it concerns matters here, couldn't they wait until class ended since there was less than two hours left, Oh God! What's happened to my loved ones? Has Minnesota been wiped off the Earth? WHAT IF MINNESOTA WAS WIPED OFF THE EARTH?!! JESUS!

Jane saw me approaching the door through the windows, and she opened it as I walked up. "Hello, Emily.", she said sweetly and calmly with her usual smile, though I could see the tears. "So sorry to take you out of class."

"Yeah, um, that's okay, I was just about to.."

"Your dad died."

"..........uh......."

"Your host dad, I mean."

"Oh my God," I responded, partly out of sadness for my mama and Kevin, but also out of relief for myself. What a thing to be told after an emotional walk like that. I let a few tears fall as I thought of poor Kevin without a dad, my strong, lovely mama without a husband. I won't know what to say, I won't even know what one does say here.

"When family dies, do people here openly grieve?"

"Oh, yes. And their whole family comes from everywhere in the country to grieve with them, so you're going to have to leave your home immediately. We've got another family set up for you. Simon's on the way here to take you to gather your things and meet your new family."

I was taken in a taxi to my home, which was empty save for Kevin's cousin, Maureen. I had minutes to pack everything I had throughout the home, including the food I had just purchased the day before. Back in the cab leaving my home without even a goodbye, I thought to ask Simon where I was moving to, but I couldn't speak. I just silently watched my world change its geography in a car ride.

"Hope you like dogs.", Simon said with a smile, as we carried my bags into my new home. I was on the other side of town, now across from school cutting my walk by a half hour. The neighborhood is a bit higher class, called Golfcourse, although there isn't a course to be seen. The househelp greeted us, and I heard the big dog bark, but she had put her away for my arrival. Grace led me into the house with a shy two-year-old at her skirt. She sat me down on the couch in front of the TV, currently playing a "Jeffersons" marathon. Simon told me my mom would be home soon and left me.

I sat in that place for two hours. Grace served me strawberry juice, and Annabelle, the darling little one, warmed up to me, and even made my right arm her new canvas with pen. But she kissed it as much as she drew on it, which I though was quite respectful. Then my dad walked in. He was obviously thrown off-guard as he stuttered that his name was Allan, then walked back out again. Ten minutes later he came back with a big welcome to his home. He had spoken with his wife, he said, and understood now what was going on. He explained that he was going to meet her at church and they wouldn't be home until after 6, but I should make myself comfortable.

At 4:30, three more children came home with a bang of noise. They'd spot me on their couch (which was really a bed, and was soon to become my bed in a guestroom, and three uncomfortable chairs were going to soon replace the spot in front of the TV), and smile, and say hi, then run back into the kitchen. The oldest, Robin, my new brother, finally sat with me and learned what was happening. Then he went and got me some milk tea and toast. Here we go again, I thought as I politely refused both, but said I'd take some drinking chocolate (what they call cocoa here), and he was very accommodating.

Eventually, I came to know Marion and Alison, my other sisters, and everyone warmed up to me real fast. Even Princess, the German Shepherd has picked me as her new favorite. I must say, it is wonderful to sit at a dinner table with a family again, eating a fabulous meal of pilau prepared by Grace, even if the TV was turned toward the table, and everyone watched the Andy Dick sitcom that's so popular here, but that I haven't seen in the States. But it did get a little rough for me when my sisters, all three of them, joined me in my room and helped me unpack by going into everything, EVERYTHING, I have, asking, "What's this? What's this?"

My entire toiletry bag was emptied and neatly lined up on an end table by little Annabelle. Twice now I've had to give an exaggerated, "Thanks!", to my sisters to get them to leave my room, you know, when it's necessary. They are a lot compared to my old, tiny, non-obtrusive family, but I'm again grateful that they've taken me in on such short notice, and with such enthusiasm. And all this fuss over me when I'm leaving on Monday! At the crack of dawn this coming 22nd, we're off to our internships. I'll be shipped out to Embu to begin working with the National Environmental Management Authority, and I am absolutely thrilled. Mt. Kenya, here I come.

Last weekend, I went to Maasai Mara, and saw the so-called Eighth Wonder of the World. The one thing I have truly been dying to see in Kenya since the very beginning: I saw the great wildebeest migration. Thousands and thousands of wildebeests as far as the eye could see. We also saw elephants, lions, cheetahs, ostriches, hippos, and crocs. We saw the wildebeests run together with zebras across the road in front of us, only to see them run right back to the other side (it was a long wait while they made up their mind where to be at that moment). We were brought to the river where we saw huge storks sitting on rocks along a sandy side bar, but the stench was unbearable. Then we realized that those weren't rocks at all but hundreds of wildebeest corpses; all the trampled and drowned.

On the drive home after a wonderful stay at a safari camp, we drove through Maasai country and were surrounded by all the bomas of the different groups still living off the land, herding their cows and goats. It was quite an accomplishment for me to finally be so close to this community that I have read about and researched heavily throughout my years dreaming of Africa. That weekend is the one that finally brought those tears to my eyes. I looked over the savanna, the open grasses dotted with acacia trees and bones of the fallen. I watched the patches of red warriors walk together with their spears and their smiles. But it was when I saw the lion, surprisingly for me. When that lion looked me in the eyes, the tears came, and you know the ones I'm talking about. My God. I'm in Africa.

Glad to be here.

Love to you all, my little lovelies,

Emily Sara