Today began with an unbelievable sunrise, which we could see from our tents. The Lion King truly depicted it accurately, for it looked remarkably familiar, although I’ve never seen the sun rise in Kenya. The temperature rose quickly, and we headed off to the work site by 8:15. Once we arrived, we carried water and transported more than 300 bricks to the dining hall, organizing them in order to build walls. We also dug a few more holes for trees (in Maa, enkapalassis).
One of the most notable events was our tea time, when Florence and Sharon, the head teacher’s children, showed up. Many of us played and talked with the girls for hours, and we sang “Down to the River” from O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the Masai workers on our team, then they taught us one of their songs, and they danced a bit. This connection was notable because we truly felt like a team.
Dan brought his Polaroid camera, and we took pictures with the Masai workers. The camera was perfect because they loved to take the pictures and see them almost instantly. Cindy wrote everyone’s names on the pictures, so we could learn them more easily.
After tea (about ½ hour every morning), Dan, Julia, Liz, and I (Carly) went to plan the murals we will paint. We observed the murals that already exist on the walls, and then we tried to sketch out our own ideas. Shani suggested that we depict positive messages on the walls, filling in any messages that were missing. The wall already included “warnings,” such as “Brush your teeth at least twice a day” and “Abstain from sex, fight AIDS!” We decided we wanted to leave the message of caring for the environment, as climate change is one of the challenges of the community. We collaborated on our ideas and designed a mural with a huge acacia tree. In the foreground, we will paint ourselves and the Masai men and women and children holding hands. Shani approved of these symbols of life and friendship, and we are very excited to get started.
After lunch Cindy worked with us to figure out our personality types according to Kiersey and Meyers-Briggs. She would present us with five scenarios and depending on our reactions to them, we stepped either right or left. Our personality type was determined by the side we were on at the end of the questions. There were four different facets of your personality, at least according to this test. It was very interesting to see all the different personalities in the group. Some people were a bit surprised at their personality but others found that theirs was exactly what they (and everyone else) thought it was.
After our lunch break we went back to the work site and began mixing cement. It was very difficult work because we had to blend sand, gravel, and cement with shovels on the ground. Once we had blended enough we added water and shovelers worked hard to keep the water from spilling out and to mix the water in to make cement. They shoveled it into buckets once it was mixed, and we carried the buckets into the structure for the mason to pour into the frames. The cement was very heavy, but doing such hard work felt amazing. Nevertheless, we were all eager to get back to the camp and shower and eat dinner. We have to go to dinner now! We hope you are all well!

Carly and Lena