Pendo!

Blog Post

Jun 6

Written By

Yesterday was a great day!! I didn’t wake up until 8:30which is sooo late to wake up in Africa considering the roosters, cows, anddogs start making noise around 5am. After I woke up, I took my miserablyfreezing cold bucket shower and got dressed for the day. As usual, I gave thedogs their flea and tick medicine and gave them daga (small fish), which theylike to eat for all their meals. Two days ago, I met this girl named SamanthaKarlin from California—she is Jewish and goes to Indiana and is an SDT there! Shecame back to Akili for the day- Akili day care is a daycare that we run at Tuleenito bring in extra money. Yesterday morning, Akili got two new CCS volunteers—Aboy named Levi from Montana and a girl named Hannah from Houston! She isactually from West University and went to Lamar High School! Such a smallworld. Around noon, Samantha and I walked into town and went to the PristineTrails office and met up with Edward and Musa. Samantha, Musa, and I went tounion for milkshakes and lunch and then we went back to Tuleeni. When we gotback to Tuleeni, I started to give the children their new clothes, which Ibrought with me from America. They were soooo excited--- I will need to takemore pictures of them in their clothes this week. I walked from mama’s houseover to tuleeni to give the younger kids their clothes. The smiles thatoccupied their faces when they held their new clothes in hand were incredible.I have never seen children so happy. It warms my heart to know that I was ableto help them some. While I was at Tuleeni, I found a puppy. It was stuck undera wooden fence and was crying so loud and nobody was helping it. I was able todig out the dirt below the puppy and rescue her. I brought her home to mama’shouse and asked her if I could keep the puppy. She told me that I could!! Ipulled 20 ticks from her torn coat and ears and then I put her in a bucket andgave her a good bath. Then I fed her daga and milk and she fell asleep in myarms for hours!! Mama’s husband, who we call Baba which means Dad, is aveterinarian and when he returned home from work, he brought medicine for thepuppy. I decided to name her Pendo, which means love in Swahili. I made her acollar and leash out of some African fabric I had tied onto my backpack andthen made her a small bed out of a shallow bucket, some towels, and a blanket.I put the bucket on my bed on a towel and then I pulled my mosquito net overPendo and me. I was truly exhausted last night. We went to bed around 8:00 butPendo woke me around 11:30 as she peed on the sheets right by my feet. I wassoo tired that I grabbed a towel, dried the sheets, and put a clean towel overit and went right back to bed. Then I was up with her again at 3:30 because shewas crying because she was trying to get water from this bucket in my room butcouldn’t reach it. I gave her water and then we slept until 6:30 this morningwhen the started licking my face. I took her outside to go to the bathroom andgave her and the other four dogs that we have daga for food and their flea/tickmedicine.