Friday 12am

I had a drink with a few friends after school today. When they proposed, I said "what about the Mungiki?" and the reply was "don't worry we know them, you'll be fine." Okey dokey, then. We addressed the Kenyan problems of dead capital, bureaucracy, and the governmental inability to take advantage of natural resources. We debated whether judges should be elected or appointed. We discussed the pervasive fear of AIDS, including stigma and spread.

In Kayole, the main cause of HIV is infidelity. The parents of By Grace children were probably infected in the late '90s and early 2000s, before the government got on board with awareness campaigns. Today, Kenya's ABCD campaign (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condoms, Death) is widely accepted. Monogamy is not a virtue that arose from self-reflection, it is a lifestyle that emerged out of fear. In theory, this means that fewer and fewer children will be coming to By Grace annually.

A few years ago, Salome bought a plot of land to build a decent By Grace, with separate dormitories and classrooms. Of course there is no money to begin building, but my hope is that as the years pass, more and more students will be sponsored to attend university (only 4 are currently sponsored, but a few have some university under their belt already and are waiting for new sponsors. GRATUITOUS PLUG - sending someone to college is only $1400 per semester, which includes meals, books, housing, tuition, etc.). Once there is a decreased flow into the orphanage and an increased flow out to universites, my hope is that By Grace can focus less on the orphanage aspect and more on the academics. One day...

By Grace-ians often ask what type of music I like. We listen to music all day long on the radio, and I find myself enjoying the music more and more. It's dance music avec super catchy melodies. Yesterday I brought my laptop into the staff lounge for the day so they could hear for themselves what I liked. They asked if I had any R&B and when I admitted I didn't, a flash drive immediately appeared out of nowhere, full of beats. So we spent the whole day listening to the songs we hear every day anyway.

Then they discovered photo booth and spent hours taking pictures. Hilarity ensued.




I am hooked on the soap operas here. Linda, one of the volunteer teachers, and I always discuss what has happened on the latest episode of Storm over Paradise (Will Aymar ever get over Nicholas? She deserves so much better than him! Will he ever leave Carena? Will they ever find out Carena actually has Leonardo's baby? Will they ever discover she's not the actual Carena Rosenberg?????). I watch these shows in the living room, with Enoch on one couch, and Grace next to me on another. Last night on Storm, Little Mermaid was raped. Then a woman was beaten up by hired thugs. These are topics deemed appropriate for Enoch to absorb. Watching such gruesome scenes will not affect him. But Harry Potter -- surely this will lead him down the path to witchcraft. I'm just saying is all.