Forever an American

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL MOM TODAY!!

I proved to be an American through and through this week. As we continued to make visits to the homes of children in need of sponsors I was racking my brain trying to find a more efficient way to do it. We have 500 homes to visit, and average 30-50 a day, which is WAYYY better than I thought we would do. But there are sometimes 6 of us working together and the first day all 6 of us went to every house. Crazy, right?! So I ever so politely called for a team meeting and explained to them my suggestion of splitting up into teams in order to better use our time and resources. They were all shocked and excited when I gave them the figures of how many more houses we could reach if we split up. The social worker, Grace, who is a very bright girl working on her masters was ecstatic, her quote exactly : “Fleming, your last name is Fleming. Are you related to Alexander Fleming because you would be a great scientist like him.” I wanted to shake them all and tell them it is called problem solving skills not science, and in America we learn those skills in school at an early age! Unfortunately in the schools in Kenya they only learn how to memorize facts and NOBODY, I repeat NOBODY learns common sense or problem solving skills. It drives me crazy because even the brightest people can’t get themselves out of a simple problem or think ahead to avoid certain problems. That is a major reason why I could never be a teacher here, I don’t see many benefits of having the students do rote memorizing for every single subject.

This whole week I kept making small suggestions to perfect our process, and I always started by saying, “I’m sorry but the American in me wants to make this a bit more efficient will you please consider doing it this way….” So now they are all joking with me saying they are becoming American since I am teaching them how to adjust their plans. My partner, especially is taking a lot of pride in the fact that we always finish our visits first, and of course do the best job too! At first I wanted to do it their way since they know the area better than I do, but then I realized I have something to offer them, so if they can learn how to work more efficiently it will hopefully benefit them in the long run. Who knows though, I am continuously amazed by the lack of change that occurs here! For as much as they love Obama, they don’t follow his slogan very well!


Moral of the story, I am quite thankful to be an American for a many reasons, but most of all because we have problem solving skills and those are invaluable in today’s ever changing world!