Claire's Blog

well i made it back.  and its weird to be home.  my family and some friends met me at the airport and it was so nice to see them, but it is so different here.  first of all, the heat is just suffocating.  i dont remember how i did it before.  in congo it was nice and cool just about every day.  the friday before i left, we all went to the hotel karavia to go swimming.  it was a great last hoorah.  i want to tell you more about all the girls, i could write to you about each one, but i want to respect their privacy, and it seems inappropriate to put up information in this setting.  if you get me talking about these girls though, i'm not going to stop.  the girls told me that when people ask how many are in my family, i cant just say two anymore because i have 47 daughters and sisters.  (yes the number went up again).  next year, i would really like to take the girls out in the country for a few weeks during their summer break.  it would be really nice to have some fresh air, exercise, and a change of setting.  i'd love to get a team together.  i'm not sure how all that works with vim etc, but holler if you're interested.

    i wanted to thank auntie j, mamaw pat, uncle tom, sonya, brooke, and callie for the letters as well.  if you sent one but i dind't thank you, then i didn't get it :( sorry.  that happens a lot, and in zambia the government opens all the mail and looks to see if you sent money.  so thats a little irksome.  

    would you believe that i used russian in the drc?  i went into town to look for batteries, (if youre going to the dr congo, bring your own batteries because the ones you can buy there are total crap and last for 5 minutes at best) and i overheard some guys speaking russian.  they were un peacekeepers and we talked for just a minute, but we were both surprised.  

    its weird to be back.  i want to get some things together to send back to congo.  i'd also really like to share this experience and talk to you if you're thinking about doing something like this.  i also have a really sassy outfit from the congo and some great fabric too.  this culture is just so different.  there are some things here that are hard to understand.  it is nice to walk around and feel normal.  i really enjoyed taking a shower.  but i know that i will be going back to congo, and theres nothing i'd rather talk about.  i feel strange speaking english all the time.  i miss swahili and french and dancing and singing, and i can't wait to print out my pictures.  

this week, another visitor from the states, Ginny, came to stay for a  week.  As she was pulling out of the driveway, it hit me that at some point soon, i too will be going home, something that hadn't registered up to this point.  i'm really learning a lot of swahili, and its starting to get fun! i can actually communicate (granted the 18 month old still has a bigger vocabulary than me).  These girls amaze me more and more each day.  They break my heart, but inspire me over and over again.  Some of them are so fragile, but they are all strong for eachother.  Before Congo, I was shy and nervous about people with special mental needs, but our girls here with special needs are the ones i may be closest with.  All three are so desperate for attention and love.  They love hugs, and don't mind that i dont speak swahili very well. 

Today we took our new baby to the hospital.  We think its meningitis.  The doctors want to keep him there till monday, and i took a taxibus ALL BY MYSELF back home to bring some food and clothes for the baby.  It's only a 20 minute ride, but i've never been more proud of myself!  It's a rush to actually feel capable of doing things on my own.   This is a short post, but its gettting close to sunset here! 

it has been a hectic last week, and the past two times i've tried to go to the internet, we needed to go to the hospital instead!  Last time i wrote, there were 37 girls and a baby boy here.  Last week, three girls came back from their boarding school for students with special needs, and a new baby (1-3 weeks old) arrived.  Also,l the full time house mother went to Zambia for a conference for the week.  I've been to the hospital 5-ish times at to the pharmacy about 10 times (not as a patient, don't worry).  It's been an eventful week

A group of visitors came from the states last thursday, and i found it strange to be speaking so much english, and i forgot some simple words.  It was a different perspective, and one that i found strangely unfamiliar.  One of the group members is a rising junior like me and she'll be coming on the 9th to spend a week.  I think the girls will have a lot of fun practicing english with her and having a new face around.  On Sunday, I'm going with the group to a conference in Kipushi, where I will attempt to translate a little for them, so don't expect an update.  Sorry!

Saturday marked the 47th anniversary of Congo's independence from the Belgians.  We celebrated with chickens, cokes, and cookies.  We watched parades on TV and they also played a movie about Patrice Lumumba.  It's called Lumumba, and its in French, I bet you could find it on Netflix.  He is revered as a hero here, and I think mom sent out an article about him to her email list.  You should check it out. Saturday was also special for me because I recieved a package from home!  Thanks to everyone who sent an email w/ my mom.  I feel encouraged!  The girls had a fun time looking at all the pictures and learning about life in the states.  We also discussed how races have more variation than black and white, and the pictures illustrated that.

 English classes are going well.  The girls are divided into three classes based on their year in school.  Each group meets twice a week.  The older girls have learned written English some in school, so we focus more on conversation and sometimes culture.  The middle age group is the smallest class, and we work on conversation and vocuabulary.  The youngest group is sometimes a little hectic, and the girls in the class range from 2-8 years old.  Some of the girls just want to play and not work, but some of them are very eager to learn and hunt me down for extra practice outside of class.  Each of the girls can now tell you where her head, shoulders, knees, and toes are, and all can sing the alphabet song.  About half of them have grasped how the letters and the song actually match up, and we work on that each time. 

Yesterday they annouced grades at school.  Its different than the states.  They call out the first 20 or 30 in the class of 50 with your class rank and percentage earned, starting even in pre-school!  If you fail, they just hand you the report card.  Everyone knows everyone elses grades.  We had four girls in primary and 2 girls in secondary fail, but we also had a 1st, 2nd, 3 5ths, 3 8ths, and several others who did quite well.  All of the girls finishing primary school did pass and will start at secondary in the fall. 

I can tell you that I'm hungry, thirsty, tired, angry, sick, and laughing in Swahili.  I learned that the girls study Swahili at school some in addition to French and English.  The Swahili spoken here isn't "proper" Swahili, so they learn the proper words and practice conjugation at school.  I think its a great way to give the girls some pride in their language and culture.

Church services almost always in Swahili or other Bantu languages, but Bibles in Swahili are very expensive ($11, but thats about 1/10th of some peoples monthly income), and most people, including the girls here, read the bible in french.  Part of the beauty, complexity, and difficulty of this part of the world comes from all the different languages spoken.  Many of the girls here count English as a 4th or 5th language, and they can easily name 20 languages that are spoken here in Lubumbashi.  Each tribe or village has a different culture, with dieversity ranging fomr how to eat bukhari, to language, to names.  The girls hwere have anywehere from 2 to 6 names, and even if you have the same mother and father, you can have completely different names.  Sometimes names have meanings that are much more significant to the girls than names are in the states. 

Thats about in for today! Thanks for reading!

when i first came here, all i could see was how different it was here.  Different food, different ways to eat it, differnt weather, different amout of daylight each day, different was of showing respect, different clothes, different ways to bathe and even pray!  And it is different, but this week i'm beginning to see how much we all have in common.  We eat red beans and rice (muchele na malaki) every Sunday, we read the same Bible (albeit in different languages), and baby hands and feet are still widely accepted as the most beautiful things in the world.  The girls are patiently teaching me Swahili grammar, and I can now roughly conjugate verbs in the past present and future.  This week i worked on a grant proposal, which was something totally new for me.  i only typed it up and formatted it, but i learned something about the tricky world of NGO's.  I went into town on Friday and it was a little overwhelming.  The UN, World Food Program, and other international organizations are very present there.  The city is pretty big and brimming with cars and people.  I am not used to the currency, which fluctuates a lot at the beginning of the month when people are getting paid, and I spent 25$ on one box of cereal, a small tub of nutella, and a box of teabags.  |Needless to say, i'll be sticking to fish and bukhari from now on!  On Tuesday, English classes start, and sometime next week we're baking cookies!  Lots of people sell bread and other little goods from their homes, and if we get good at it, we may try to sell bread and cookies as well to generate a little income.  I know how to make-ish bread now!!  I hope everyone else's adventures are going well, and some of the girls wanted me to tell you all hi! 

First of all dear reader, let me apologize for that last post.  This time i've planned what to write in advance, and i learned how easy it is to change the keyboard language.  I'm starting to adapt to the schedule here and I have recieved my work duties, so i'm staying busy.  i've been working a lot in the office and the kitchen.  in my free time, i'm reading a book in french, "quand les enfants crient misere" and i love talking with the girls and getting to know them better.  we watch french, congolese, and nigerian tv shows and music videos sometimes.  i'm learning more about the history of congo, and more specifically the history of this part of the country, Katanga.  there have been many wars here and so much oppression.  last week, i translated and typed the stories of the girls here, and the boys at the brother orphanage.  some of the stories are unbearable.  it really did shake me.  i can't imagine living what some of these girls have lived, but there is so much joy here at the orphanage.  the girls love to dance and sing.  we have discussed everyone from shakira, to michael jackson, to patrice lumumba.  The girls have had exams at school last week and will have them next week.  the power has been working for the past few days, but when it doesn't the girls wake up early and study by candle light.  no one complains about going to school, never! i know it sounds cliche, but it really is true that these girls value their education immensely, and i hope it teaches me not to take those opportunities for granted.  After this week, school will be out for the summer, and i will start teaching english and baking!  the girls want to learn how to make cookies, cake, and pizza.  I'll also be teaching some of the adults how to type and use the computer more.  I have an address now! and i'd really love to get a letter.  i promise to try to write back!  a wise woman once told me that email is nice, but nothing compares to holding that letter in your hand!!  so heres the address:

Claire Kendig

Jamaa |Letu Orphanage

c/o The United Methodist Church

South Congo COnference

P.O. box 20219

Kitwe, Zambia, Africa

 Thanks for reading!

Dear friends and family,

I'm starting this blog as a way for you to keep up with me as I travel to the D. R. Congo.  I'll be leaving on the 21st of May and coming home on the 14th of August.  I will be staying at the Jamaa Letu orphanage in Lubumbashi where I will be helping out with chores and also teaching some English.  The director of the orphanage and the local pastor will be receiving me at the airport.  As a little background, the D. R. Congo, formerly Zaire, was a Belgian colony, and French is widely used.  I will be in the southeast corner of the country and a dialect of Swahili is also used there.  Feel free to leave comments!  Thanks for your prayers and support. 

P.S. I'm not sure if I have a mailing address, but I will post it if I do!