Preface: Hello world. It’s been a while since my last posting and a month since I arrived in Kenya. For the first time thus far, I am on my own. Though extremely exciting, the past month has also been a bit on the strange side. Put simply, I’ve had to wear my share of “hats”. Though I have enjoyed wearing them all, it has been different. With the Daraja team members (Grey Brooks, Mark Lukach and Bob Bessin) I was in the “on-the-go-meet-Daraja-Academy-and-Kenya” hat. This had less to do with them, all three are easy to travel with, than it had to do with me and the nagging feeling that I wouldn’t be able to show/do/be and see enough during their allotted time in Kenya. I’ve worn the “meet-and-rally-the-staff” hat, which is now nicely transitioning into the “part-of-the-staff” hat. There has been the “dressed-up-becoming-acquainted-with-potential-benefactors, donors and bestowers of knowledge” fedora and many others.
But, during that time I never really got much of a chance to don the “wow-I-just-moved-to-Africa” hat. This is the hat I have been breaking in since Bob flew off the continent nearly one week ago. It is also the reason my blog has been silent. That and the fact that my cell phone, which also serves as my modem at campus, got wet and was out of action for 72 hours.
As I begin this update I am conflicted. In my first blog entry I vowed to be completely honest, reporting both the highs AND the lows that I encounter leading up to Daraja Academy’s commencement in January. My thinking was: the creation of a free, girls Secondary School in a developing nation, is if anything – a unique story. Tell it how it is and people will read. However, t