Awake. Wednesday afternoon I met with the 7 other volunteers who will be here over the next few weeks. Jane walked me to a storage unit and when she opened the door I realized the block of storage units was actually used for shops and offices. I stepped into the By Grace office, surprised at the size despite the tiny turquoise blue metal door. The other volunteers arrived and we waited for the volunteer coordinator, Sonya (my roommate at Jane’s house) to show up for our orientation. We waited. And waited. The car she was in had broken down,.
In the meantime, it rained for about 40 minutes. In the states, rain makes the ground immediately shiny. Its a strange effect here, because there is so much dust on the road that it takes about 10 minutes of rain for the ground to actually appear wet.
When it wasn’t raining, we waited outside, getting various reactions from people. Some gave us the stink eye while others tried to hide from us. Some came up to us and shook every one of our hands “hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.” Chickens ran across the road and a group of school children played jump rope at the end of the street.
After we had waited for 1.5 hours, it was decided Sonya would not make it. We walked to the field where the By Grace children were playing. The field is actually just a yard of dirt with groups of tall weeds growing in patches everywhere. A group of mixed age boys played soccer in the middle of the field, and the older kids hung out around the perimeter and watched. The younger kids surrounded us and shook our hands. There was a lot of hand holding. Even when I was just standing, someone was in front of me, with both hands on mine.
When it was time to go, a group of children led me out. I told them I didn’t think I lived this way, but they said, yes, you live this way. Suddenly a teenage boy runs up to me and points back to Jane. I had already walked a block in the wrong direction, so I waved bye to the kids and headed home with Jane.
Back at home, we ate dinner, played with Grace, checked our email, and watched a dubbed Chinese soap opera on TV (the cleavage is also blurred out, for modesty’s sake!). The power went off twice for about 20 minutes each time. Then we played some race-solitaire and off to bed.
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