(another multiple-posts-in-one-day deal, see below for the entry from Ugenya!)
Filippo and I arrived in Mbakalo after a long trip first in a matatu (at one police check they actually asked for Filippo and my passports, but I think the woman just wanted to see foreign passports), then on boda bodas (bicycles) through Bungoma to go to the grocery store with all of our luggage, then back on the slowest matatu with more technical issues than I could believe (i.e. the sliding door constantly fell off the hinges and had to be yanked back into place, the taillight fell off and we got pulled over by municipal police or something, and they took the keys until the light was fixed), and eventually on pike pikes (motorcycles) to the Mbakalo/SOTENI dispensary. After a very brief tour, the SOTENI Village of Hope – Mbakalo Chairman, Wycliffe, drove us in his car to Mama Anne’s house, where we’ve spent the week.
We quickly got to know her grandsons, Lionel, Nickson, Ian and Eugene. They can be entertaining and funny and then they can become obnoxious very quickly, but it’s nice to have kids around. Recently they have been attacking us demanding sweets, which we don’t have. This is going to sound cruel, but yesterday Filippo and I wrapped pebbles in paper and the next time they ask for candy they may be in for a bit of a surprise… You have to understand that when I say they attack us for sweets, I mean literally coming at us and pulling at my backpack and digging into Filippo's pockets in search of tiny pieces of candy. We are just taking measures necessary to keep ourselves safe.
Mama Anne and her family have been incredibly welcoming to us. As we sat at the dinner table the other night, I couldn’t help but think what I had ever done to deserve such wonderful company. While I don’t know how much more of the chapatti/green grams dinner I can stomach, I cannot complain at all about the hospitality.
One aspect of the accommodations that has presented several challenges is the presence of GIGANTIC spiders. They come out at night and lurk near the ceiling, waiting to attack us. Granted they tend to stay up at the ceiling and don’t actually bother us, it is still somewhat terrifying. I didn’t have a big problem with spiders until I spent time with both Mo and Filippo, who seem to suffer from mild arachnophobia (Filippo also seems to fear anything insect-like that crawls or flies, although he is slowly overcoming that). One night we came in from brushing out teeth by the latrines (also an experience because the spiders appear there at night as well and you feel very vulnerable to their penetrating eyes), and I jokingly shined my headlamp on a little insect on the ceiling. In turning to look at it, Filippo shined his light on the most MASSIVE spider I have seen to date, I think. I saw it first and was surprised enough to yell a little, and then he was startled, which in turn made me so scared that I bolted to my room, in the process running into the edge of the door with my knee. The dash is all a blur and all I know is somehow I ended up on my bed holding my bruised knee and laughing uncontrollably. Filippo had made it safely to his room, where I could hear frequent gasps as he laughed uncontrollably. I can’t believe we didn’t wake anyone else up. We saw the spider the next day, and being such accommodating hosts, Eunice, the woman who cares for the house, took a broom to the spider. I am doubtful that it died, though, since we couldn’t find it after the strike. Needless to say I am very alert these days and I examine the edges of my ceiling before bed and before getting up in the morning.
While the spiders have been distracting, we have managed to spend every day at the dispensary. Unfortunately, we haven’t really gotten any of our assignments done, since the coordinator, Simon, seems to have a different schedule (and somehow lost the timetable we made earlier in the week). We have done a lot here, though. We spent one day visiting clients of some of the AIDS Barefoot Doctors, which was certainly eye-opening. The first client we visited was one that Mo had seen during his stay in Mbakalo. During that visit, the client, a 21-year-old boy who contracted HIV while nursing his father who was dying of AIDS, was not even able to sit up on his own. All of his food and medications had to be crushed up for him to eat.
When Mo was leaving, he took a bag of protein powder he had brought but not used and asked that we bring it to Mbakalo for this client. When we visited, I was still shocked to see his condition, but the progress he had made was also encouraging. With help he could get into a sitting position and then sit unassisted for a time, although he still spends most of his time in bed. He cannot speak nor make eye contact, and while his mother told us he tries to speak when his young siblings visit, the only sounds he made while we were there were deep laughs occasionally. He has been started on ARVs, which is good, and he is beginning to be able to feed himself again. Regardless, it was hard to see. I didn’t know what to say or how to help. He is only one year older than I am. He hasn’t even finished secondary school. I don’t know enough about ARVs to know what his prognosis is, but I hope that he has a future outside of that one room in his family’s mud hut. Now I feel like I understand what it means to be losing an entire generation at the hands of this preventable yet incurable disease.
To end on a lighter note, today I introduced some of the dispensary staff to the iPod. Filippo and I have become good friends with Victor, the dispensary accountant. I promised him I’d share a little American music, and I finally remembered to bring it today. I wish I had the patience to post the pictures here because it was hilarious. It didn’t matter at all what song came on, they were all was “so nice” and he started doing these dance moves and then he put his sunglasses on and when people came in to talk to him he just couldn’t be bothered to answer right away. Everyone else got a kick out of it, too. I’m happy to be able to introduce such refined culture to Mbakalo!
Baadaye!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Ugenya 7/9-7.16
Filippo and I traveled to Ugenya, my second SOTENI Village of Hope, and spent a week there. We did more OVC reports, visiting ten sponsored children with Calvin, the Coordinator. Instead of staying with a family this time, though, we stayed in a hotel called Camunya. I am still confused about how this nice hotel in the middle of rural Kenya manages to continue to operate, but I’m glad it does. One of our assignments while in Ugenya was to, “just eat fish.” So, because we are such diligent workers, we managed to eat fish for dinner about six of the seven nights we spent there. Ugenya is relatively close to Lake Victoria, so I guess they get a lot of fresh fish. We did have to master some timing techniques when ordering, though, since they cooked everything freshly and it took about an hour to get our food. I should clarify that when I say they served fish, I mean the entire fish, eyes and all. Logically, when Marla and Pat, two other interns, joined us in Ugenya, Pat and I decided it was necessary to try the fish eyes, having already sampled the gills. After I carefully extracted one eye, Marla, who was sitting next to me, got spooked by a bat flying through the dining tent, which then caused me to jump and hurl the eye ball to the ground. Luckily, this fish had two eyes, and I was able to extract the second and toast with Pat. Truthfully, it wasn't all that bad until mid-way through chewing I thought about the fact that I was eating a fish eye. Then it was pretty gross. Glad to be able to say I did it, though!
One of the saddest events of our stay there was my accidental murder of a very tiny lizard. It had been in my room for a while and Filippo insisted that I catch it with a glass and release it to freedom outside. Unfortunately for the lizard, when I tried to scoop it into the glass I didn’t quite get all of it and missed its head. Its eyes kind of bulged out and that was the end of that. After a brief memorial service beside the toilet, we flushed it to join fish heaven.
A separate assignment that came up here was an application to establish an AIDS Barefoot Doctor program in Ugenya. This is a program that is already set up in Mituntu and Mbakalo, and it provides home-based care to individuals with HIV/AIDS. The ABDs, as they are called, are members of the community trained in basic nursing care, psychosocial counseling, and HIV/AIDS education, among other things. The program is working well in Mituntu and Mbakalo, and those villages are actually applying to continue and expand their programs. Hopefully it will work out in Ugenya as well.
The OVC visits in Ugenya were very different from those in Mituntu. In Mituntu, all but one of the sponsored children attend boarding schools, so we did not visit any of their homes. In Ugenya, however, most of the students go to day schools. Visiting their homes was a completely different experience, and meeting their guardians was informative as well. One of the most striking visits, for me anyway, was to see a young girl who lives with her mother, a widow, and several siblings. I had read from a previous report that her mother was often sick, and there was suspicion of AIDS, but no confirmation. When we asked the OVC about her health and her family’s health, she mentioned that her mother was still frequently sick. Since her mother was in the room, I decided to ask her about it, without directly mentioning HIV. Surprisingly, she willingly discussed her HIV positive status, and her struggle to deal with the disease in an environment filled with stigma and an unforgiving medical system. She was so open though, which really shocked me because I’d heard so much about the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. I was immensely impressed by her courage and by her love for her children.
Her daughter, too, impressed me. Her English was good enough to communicate easily, and she walked us from her house back to the road, the whole time talking about how she wanted to be a doctor, but if she continued to struggle with physics, then a nurse. She was so curious about the US, too, and our education systems and my own dreams. I wanted to spend more time with her so we could keep up the conversation, but sadly a bus came and we got on to head back to Ugunja and Camunya. It was a remarkable experience, though, and honestly it is somewhat comforting to know that amidst all of the poverty and sickness there is progress and there are individuals with the courage to share their knowledge on culturally and personally difficult issues for the benefit of their community and country.
Since leaving Ugenya we’ve traveled to Mbakalo, a much more rural area but a very welcoming and beautiful place. More from here later!
Baadaye!
One of the saddest events of our stay there was my accidental murder of a very tiny lizard. It had been in my room for a while and Filippo insisted that I catch it with a glass and release it to freedom outside. Unfortunately for the lizard, when I tried to scoop it into the glass I didn’t quite get all of it and missed its head. Its eyes kind of bulged out and that was the end of that. After a brief memorial service beside the toilet, we flushed it to join fish heaven.
A separate assignment that came up here was an application to establish an AIDS Barefoot Doctor program in Ugenya. This is a program that is already set up in Mituntu and Mbakalo, and it provides home-based care to individuals with HIV/AIDS. The ABDs, as they are called, are members of the community trained in basic nursing care, psychosocial counseling, and HIV/AIDS education, among other things. The program is working well in Mituntu and Mbakalo, and those villages are actually applying to continue and expand their programs. Hopefully it will work out in Ugenya as well.
The OVC visits in Ugenya were very different from those in Mituntu. In Mituntu, all but one of the sponsored children attend boarding schools, so we did not visit any of their homes. In Ugenya, however, most of the students go to day schools. Visiting their homes was a completely different experience, and meeting their guardians was informative as well. One of the most striking visits, for me anyway, was to see a young girl who lives with her mother, a widow, and several siblings. I had read from a previous report that her mother was often sick, and there was suspicion of AIDS, but no confirmation. When we asked the OVC about her health and her family’s health, she mentioned that her mother was still frequently sick. Since her mother was in the room, I decided to ask her about it, without directly mentioning HIV. Surprisingly, she willingly discussed her HIV positive status, and her struggle to deal with the disease in an environment filled with stigma and an unforgiving medical system. She was so open though, which really shocked me because I’d heard so much about the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. I was immensely impressed by her courage and by her love for her children.
Her daughter, too, impressed me. Her English was good enough to communicate easily, and she walked us from her house back to the road, the whole time talking about how she wanted to be a doctor, but if she continued to struggle with physics, then a nurse. She was so curious about the US, too, and our education systems and my own dreams. I wanted to spend more time with her so we could keep up the conversation, but sadly a bus came and we got on to head back to Ugunja and Camunya. It was a remarkable experience, though, and honestly it is somewhat comforting to know that amidst all of the poverty and sickness there is progress and there are individuals with the courage to share their knowledge on culturally and personally difficult issues for the benefit of their community and country.
Since leaving Ugenya we’ve traveled to Mbakalo, a much more rural area but a very welcoming and beautiful place. More from here later!
Baadaye!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Maasai Mara!
(I just made a bunch of posts; scroll down to see them)
July 3-5
Mo and I went on a three-day safari in Maasai Mara, a park on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. While I was not thrilled about the price, it was well worth it. Our guide was David, and our driver was Douglas. We were the only two people on the trip, and we stayed at JK Mara, and eco-camp near the park. The “African massage” we got on the drive from Nairobi was quite an experience – the infrastructure here isn’t quite as developed as in the US. I now have a whole new idea of what a “good road” is, and we definitely were not on one for a good bit of the journey. Needless to say, when we pulled into our camp, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, we were pretty impressed. We were greeted by several Maasai who work at the camp (it’s owned by a European – Danish I think, but run completely by Kenyans), and were given wet towels (we weren’t totally sure what to do with them) and then a glass of juice (one of my favorite words to hear Kenyans say – “Ju-weece”). I was skeptical of the beverage, thinking it was some kind of local drink made of chewed plant or something, but it turned out to be apple juice.
They then showed us to our tent. The word “tent” here is kind of an understatement. It was basically a hotel room with walls that moved with the breeze. We were shocked! There was a sink, a flushing toilet, and even a shower that they filled with hot water when you wanted to bathe. We went to lunch and we were treated like royalty. The food was pretty good, too. Before dinner they would bring us hot water bottles bag things, which we had no idea what to do with at first. I stuck mine under my pillow, and it came in handy when my feet were freezing when I was going to sleep.
The whole camp is tucked in a grove of bushes with little paths to follow and nature everywhere. They use solar power to provide lighting, a gas refrigerator that costs basically nothing to operate, and eco-friendly toilets and showers. It seemed to be a very respectful way to use the environment around the game park. The camp wasn’t visible from the road, and while the accommodations were truly spectacular, in my opinion, they also seemed to be intertwined with the surroundings. You can probably tell I really liked it. It was very neat to wake up and be able to see the birds just outside the screen, singing along with the breeze that flowed through the tent.
The game drives themselves were incredible, too. If you’re looking to go on a safari, I highly recommend Finch Travels. Even though it was expensive, our guides were so knowledgeable and able to spot animals hidden in the bush that we saw our money’s worth. We got to see the wildebeest migration begin, and even saw great herds of them crossing a river (apparently a very rare thing to see. Many times you can sit for hours waiting for them to cross, but they’ll all be too chicken and they’ll just stand at the edge). They were everywhere, too! We also saw lions, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, antelope, gazelles, warthogs, mongoose – pretty much everything except the rhino and the leopard. The leopard is a very elusive animal, so we weren’t too surprised not to see one. As for the rhinos, there are only three left in Maasai Mara, a pretty disheartening number. David also told us that Kenya only has about 1.7% forest cover. While much of the country I’ve seen seems lush and filled with plant life, the reality is that there are serious environmental concerns that must be addressed in order to preserve both the country’s natural resources and environmental stability.
What we saw, however, was beautiful. Seeing so many different animals live peacefully together was incredible. Of course, not all of them live peacefully, and we almost saw a lion kill a wildebeest, but even just seeing them walk around and sleep is fascinating. Sorry I can’t post pictures, but I have about a million of them, and even a couple of videos.
So I think that was a string of five or so posts at once (look below if you missed them), so that should last for a while…
Baadaye!
July 3-5
Mo and I went on a three-day safari in Maasai Mara, a park on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. While I was not thrilled about the price, it was well worth it. Our guide was David, and our driver was Douglas. We were the only two people on the trip, and we stayed at JK Mara, and eco-camp near the park. The “African massage” we got on the drive from Nairobi was quite an experience – the infrastructure here isn’t quite as developed as in the US. I now have a whole new idea of what a “good road” is, and we definitely were not on one for a good bit of the journey. Needless to say, when we pulled into our camp, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, we were pretty impressed. We were greeted by several Maasai who work at the camp (it’s owned by a European – Danish I think, but run completely by Kenyans), and were given wet towels (we weren’t totally sure what to do with them) and then a glass of juice (one of my favorite words to hear Kenyans say – “Ju-weece”). I was skeptical of the beverage, thinking it was some kind of local drink made of chewed plant or something, but it turned out to be apple juice.
They then showed us to our tent. The word “tent” here is kind of an understatement. It was basically a hotel room with walls that moved with the breeze. We were shocked! There was a sink, a flushing toilet, and even a shower that they filled with hot water when you wanted to bathe. We went to lunch and we were treated like royalty. The food was pretty good, too. Before dinner they would bring us hot water bottles bag things, which we had no idea what to do with at first. I stuck mine under my pillow, and it came in handy when my feet were freezing when I was going to sleep.
The whole camp is tucked in a grove of bushes with little paths to follow and nature everywhere. They use solar power to provide lighting, a gas refrigerator that costs basically nothing to operate, and eco-friendly toilets and showers. It seemed to be a very respectful way to use the environment around the game park. The camp wasn’t visible from the road, and while the accommodations were truly spectacular, in my opinion, they also seemed to be intertwined with the surroundings. You can probably tell I really liked it. It was very neat to wake up and be able to see the birds just outside the screen, singing along with the breeze that flowed through the tent.
The game drives themselves were incredible, too. If you’re looking to go on a safari, I highly recommend Finch Travels. Even though it was expensive, our guides were so knowledgeable and able to spot animals hidden in the bush that we saw our money’s worth. We got to see the wildebeest migration begin, and even saw great herds of them crossing a river (apparently a very rare thing to see. Many times you can sit for hours waiting for them to cross, but they’ll all be too chicken and they’ll just stand at the edge). They were everywhere, too! We also saw lions, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, antelope, gazelles, warthogs, mongoose – pretty much everything except the rhino and the leopard. The leopard is a very elusive animal, so we weren’t too surprised not to see one. As for the rhinos, there are only three left in Maasai Mara, a pretty disheartening number. David also told us that Kenya only has about 1.7% forest cover. While much of the country I’ve seen seems lush and filled with plant life, the reality is that there are serious environmental concerns that must be addressed in order to preserve both the country’s natural resources and environmental stability.
What we saw, however, was beautiful. Seeing so many different animals live peacefully together was incredible. Of course, not all of them live peacefully, and we almost saw a lion kill a wildebeest, but even just seeing them walk around and sleep is fascinating. Sorry I can’t post pictures, but I have about a million of them, and even a couple of videos.
So I think that was a string of five or so posts at once (look below if you missed them), so that should last for a while…
Baadaye!
Kilometers for Kenya’s Kids
While in Nairobi, my new traveling partner, Filippo (from Italy) and I worked on getting more done for the bike ride fundraiser to be held in October. After making some cold calls to each bike shop within walking distance that we found in the phone book with little success, we tried to look a little more on the internet. Just by chance, I came across a website for Extatic Cycling, a cycling club and a repair shop. I looked at their website, which had little more information than a phone number and a couple pictures of the team doing some long-distance event, I called. A guy answered, but I couldn’t understand him and assumed he didn’t speak English and then I hung up. When Marion, the business manager, came back to the office, I asked her to call him again, and she did and asked him if he’d meet with us the next day. Basically the guy on the other side of the phone knew nothing about us, and we knew nothing about him.
Next thing we know, we’re having coffee with two guys who have biked across Africa (yes, the entire continent, from Egypt to South Africa, riding for four months). Once we realized the experience that was sitting across from us, we started to ask what kind of experience they had with bike ride fundraisers. Turned out they had quite a bit. We went from guessing about how we would run our event to actually having more concrete plans. The cyclists, William and George, even took us to the bike shop they trust in Nairobi, a shop that sells used bikes in great condition. They were very willing to help us make Kilometers for Kenya’s Kids a successful event, and maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll even join in the ride! If anyone's interested in finding out more information or donating, check out the SOTENI website (www.soteni.org) or let me know (shameless plug!).
Since leaving Nairobi, we’ve travelled to Ugenya, in the NyanzaProvince (Obamaland). I’m interested to see how the people here are reacting to Obama’s decision to make Ghana his first official Presidential visit to Africa. Maybe he’ll change his mind and come stay at the Camunya Hotel…
Baadaye!
Next thing we know, we’re having coffee with two guys who have biked across Africa (yes, the entire continent, from Egypt to South Africa, riding for four months). Once we realized the experience that was sitting across from us, we started to ask what kind of experience they had with bike ride fundraisers. Turned out they had quite a bit. We went from guessing about how we would run our event to actually having more concrete plans. The cyclists, William and George, even took us to the bike shop they trust in Nairobi, a shop that sells used bikes in great condition. They were very willing to help us make Kilometers for Kenya’s Kids a successful event, and maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll even join in the ride! If anyone's interested in finding out more information or donating, check out the SOTENI website (www.soteni.org) or let me know (shameless plug!).
Since leaving Nairobi, we’ve travelled to Ugenya, in the NyanzaProvince (Obamaland). I’m interested to see how the people here are reacting to Obama’s decision to make Ghana his first official Presidential visit to Africa. Maybe he’ll change his mind and come stay at the Camunya Hotel…
Baadaye!
More Highlights from Mituntu
(6/20-7/2)
- Tea. We were served tea, on average, about four times a day. I’m hooked now!
- Kendi. Anne and Barnabas’ daughter, Kendi, provided lots of entertainment. She is only 5 and in kindergarten, but she knows a fair amount of English (more than she lets on). She would point to things and say, “This is a…?” and I’d have to fill in the missing word. The funny thing is she would point to things like the modem for my computer, or the power cord, so she learned some random words to add to her vocabulary. She even taught Mo and me a little Kiswahili, but mostly she just laughed at us when we tried to pronounce things. On our last evening in Mituntu, Kendi and I raced outside, hopping on one foot, jumping, running, avoiding cow dung, etc. When it started getting dark I suggested that we go inside, and she kept insisting, “THIRRRRTY MINUTES, then we go to the house!”
- Creepy stalker? There was one strange event where a guy walked with us from the SOTENI office in Mituntu all the way to the Kirindine junction, about three kilometers. He didn’t really say much and didn’t seem that interesting until we stopped to wait for a matatu. Instead of continuing to walk, he stopped and turned around and watched us. He tried to get on our matatu, but Doris, being especially assertive, insisted that he not be allowed on. Maybe he was just heading in the same direction we were, or maybe not. Mo and I both agreed that he was a little bit creepy, and we kept looking behind ourselves when we got off the matatu.
- The Cork Adventure. Anne is a deputy principal, but she also runs a wedding cake business. Over one of the weekends she catered two weddings, and after one she ended up with a leftover bottle of wine. Apparently wine is not a big thing in Kenya, and there was no corkscrew in the house. So, using a little ingenuity, we tried to use every sharp object we could find to open the bottle. After about thirty minutes of trying, basically all we had accomplished was absolutely destroying the cork. They did acquire a corkscrew a few days later and we were able to open the wine. Truthfully, trying to open it was more enjoyable than the wine itself. And Mo and I had to drink full glasses of it two nights in a row. Luckily we’ve gotten pretty good at just swallowing things without tasting them, but this was still pretty tough.
- THIEVES! There was one incident of insecurity in the village, something that is not typical of the area (so I’m told). One evening a group of ten men, split into pairs, robbed five different stores in the market. They shot a gun in the air to disperse people, and were not afraid to use violence to get people out of their way, even beating shop owners and using knives to injure people passing. The police responded, but the thieves got away. In the end everyone was fine, and I think Mo and I were lucky to have been inside when the event took place, since we probably would have been better targets than the shop owners.
Throughout the whole ordeal, everyone around us was speaking in Kiswahili, so we had no idea what was going on. Every once in a while, Barnabas would tell us, “There is no problem, just some thieves, the police are taking care of it.” Honestly, since we only knew bits and pieces of the story, we weren’t too concerned. The funniest part was that we were sitting with one of Barnabas’ friends who only knew two English words, I think: “free” and “America,” but not in the same sentence. So he kept making the extravagant gestures and speaking to us in Kiswahili and we would just nod and agree and make up what he was saying. At one point he even stood up, walked around some chairs and a table and sat down, as if that was supposed to mean something to us. It was pretty hysterical.
- Night in the hotel. On one of the days I was visiting the women’s groups with Maria, the women’s group coordinator, we started a little later in the morning and had to visit some nine projects. By the time we got to the last one, a fish pond, it was dark. My photos of the pond basically just show blobs of varying darkness. When we finally left, we drove down to a village where Andrew, our taxi driver, pulled into a little gas station. He got out, and then got back in the car and we drove to a second gas station. Of course, no English was spoken during this event, so again I had no idea what was happening. At the second station, he got out again and I could only overhear and understand bits of the conversation he had with a man outside. I kept hearing the word “petrol” repeated. I got a little nervous when Andrew got back in the car and we drove back to the first gas station. Suddenly it all made sense – at 8 o’clock, all of the gas stations were closed, and there was no petrol to be found.
I couldn’t come up with any logical solutions, considering I had no idea where I was or how I could get home from there. Maria turned and logically suggested a hotel. Well, I guess this was logical for her, but not so much for me since I couldn’t imagine there were any safe hotels in the area. Little did I know there was one just down the street. We pulled into the back of the hotel, drove into a garage-like thing (the main reason was so no one would see a mzungu, but they kind of tried to hide that fact from me), and then went to our rooms. It was actually a pretty nice little place, and it did seem quite safe. It even had running water. But then the power went out at about 9, so I just went to bed and hoped we’d find petrol in the morning! (We did. I made it back. Don’t worry.)
There were many other interesting and hilarious experiences (particularly when Barnabas was around – he was very kind to us, and also made us laugh constantly, especially at dinners), but clearly I have written more than enough for now. Hope everyone’s enjoying summer!
Baadaye!
By the way – RIP Michael Jackson – have to say I was pretty shocked when I heard that on the news!
- Tea. We were served tea, on average, about four times a day. I’m hooked now!
- Kendi. Anne and Barnabas’ daughter, Kendi, provided lots of entertainment. She is only 5 and in kindergarten, but she knows a fair amount of English (more than she lets on). She would point to things and say, “This is a…?” and I’d have to fill in the missing word. The funny thing is she would point to things like the modem for my computer, or the power cord, so she learned some random words to add to her vocabulary. She even taught Mo and me a little Kiswahili, but mostly she just laughed at us when we tried to pronounce things. On our last evening in Mituntu, Kendi and I raced outside, hopping on one foot, jumping, running, avoiding cow dung, etc. When it started getting dark I suggested that we go inside, and she kept insisting, “THIRRRRTY MINUTES, then we go to the house!”
- Creepy stalker? There was one strange event where a guy walked with us from the SOTENI office in Mituntu all the way to the Kirindine junction, about three kilometers. He didn’t really say much and didn’t seem that interesting until we stopped to wait for a matatu. Instead of continuing to walk, he stopped and turned around and watched us. He tried to get on our matatu, but Doris, being especially assertive, insisted that he not be allowed on. Maybe he was just heading in the same direction we were, or maybe not. Mo and I both agreed that he was a little bit creepy, and we kept looking behind ourselves when we got off the matatu.
- The Cork Adventure. Anne is a deputy principal, but she also runs a wedding cake business. Over one of the weekends she catered two weddings, and after one she ended up with a leftover bottle of wine. Apparently wine is not a big thing in Kenya, and there was no corkscrew in the house. So, using a little ingenuity, we tried to use every sharp object we could find to open the bottle. After about thirty minutes of trying, basically all we had accomplished was absolutely destroying the cork. They did acquire a corkscrew a few days later and we were able to open the wine. Truthfully, trying to open it was more enjoyable than the wine itself. And Mo and I had to drink full glasses of it two nights in a row. Luckily we’ve gotten pretty good at just swallowing things without tasting them, but this was still pretty tough.
- THIEVES! There was one incident of insecurity in the village, something that is not typical of the area (so I’m told). One evening a group of ten men, split into pairs, robbed five different stores in the market. They shot a gun in the air to disperse people, and were not afraid to use violence to get people out of their way, even beating shop owners and using knives to injure people passing. The police responded, but the thieves got away. In the end everyone was fine, and I think Mo and I were lucky to have been inside when the event took place, since we probably would have been better targets than the shop owners.
Throughout the whole ordeal, everyone around us was speaking in Kiswahili, so we had no idea what was going on. Every once in a while, Barnabas would tell us, “There is no problem, just some thieves, the police are taking care of it.” Honestly, since we only knew bits and pieces of the story, we weren’t too concerned. The funniest part was that we were sitting with one of Barnabas’ friends who only knew two English words, I think: “free” and “America,” but not in the same sentence. So he kept making the extravagant gestures and speaking to us in Kiswahili and we would just nod and agree and make up what he was saying. At one point he even stood up, walked around some chairs and a table and sat down, as if that was supposed to mean something to us. It was pretty hysterical.
- Night in the hotel. On one of the days I was visiting the women’s groups with Maria, the women’s group coordinator, we started a little later in the morning and had to visit some nine projects. By the time we got to the last one, a fish pond, it was dark. My photos of the pond basically just show blobs of varying darkness. When we finally left, we drove down to a village where Andrew, our taxi driver, pulled into a little gas station. He got out, and then got back in the car and we drove to a second gas station. Of course, no English was spoken during this event, so again I had no idea what was happening. At the second station, he got out again and I could only overhear and understand bits of the conversation he had with a man outside. I kept hearing the word “petrol” repeated. I got a little nervous when Andrew got back in the car and we drove back to the first gas station. Suddenly it all made sense – at 8 o’clock, all of the gas stations were closed, and there was no petrol to be found.
I couldn’t come up with any logical solutions, considering I had no idea where I was or how I could get home from there. Maria turned and logically suggested a hotel. Well, I guess this was logical for her, but not so much for me since I couldn’t imagine there were any safe hotels in the area. Little did I know there was one just down the street. We pulled into the back of the hotel, drove into a garage-like thing (the main reason was so no one would see a mzungu, but they kind of tried to hide that fact from me), and then went to our rooms. It was actually a pretty nice little place, and it did seem quite safe. It even had running water. But then the power went out at about 9, so I just went to bed and hoped we’d find petrol in the morning! (We did. I made it back. Don’t worry.)
There were many other interesting and hilarious experiences (particularly when Barnabas was around – he was very kind to us, and also made us laugh constantly, especially at dinners), but clearly I have written more than enough for now. Hope everyone’s enjoying summer!
Baadaye!
By the way – RIP Michael Jackson – have to say I was pretty shocked when I heard that on the news!
Tigania West Women's Empowerment Program
(6/23-6/25)
Visiting the Women’s Groups was both an empowering and frustrating experience. Several of the groups sang and danced to welcome me when I arrived, which was neat, although a little embarrassing. They were all incredibly welcoming and willing to discuss all aspects of their projects with me. The focuses of the groups ranged from rearing poultry to running cereal stores to stove building, basket weaving, banana leaf mattress making, breeding goats and even renting out plastic chairs for events. Some of them have ambitious visions for their projects, like building a women’s hostel or expanding their businesses to be able to access better markets for their goods across the country.
I had a lot of respect for each group and all of the members, as they have learned, with the help of SOTENI and a Danish organization called DANIDA, how to manage their own businesses, keep records, plan projects and write proposals. Each group hopes to develop profitable projects that will continue to develop and expand with time.
I’ve heard that it’s been raining constantly at home, which is a bit ironic considering here they've been suffering from a drought for the past two years, and so many people are struggling to eat even one meal a day. So many of the corn fields are dried out, and when I visited women's projects, I went to several (about six thousand) cereal grain stores, and every one of them is suffering from the effects of the drought. Aside from crops, people don't even have access to clean drinking water, or they have to walk for great distances to reach it. It's pretty sobering to see. To make things worse, for me, anyway, many of the women's groups insisted on feeding me and giving me gifts. I know most of it was that Kenyans are just so generous and friendly and giving, but that was difficult to swallow when I knew they were also starving. And I also know that many of them hoped that I would be able to bring them money, which was not my purpose at all, so some of them acted as though they could impress me with their gifts. I felt guilty for taking what little they had (even if I refused, there was no way I couldn't take it), and frustrated by their assumption that all white people have money and will give it to them. Even the man we're staying with thinks that; tonight at dinner he asked us to take a letter from him to the US to give to companies if we ever happened to come across one that might help his school. Of course we want to help, but at the same time we are not bathing in resources. But I guess that's just one thing I will have to resolve in myself while I'm here.
I received more gifts than I knew what to do with. Each day I came back to the house with bags of beans, giant avocados, ripe and unripe bananas, handmade baskets, a carving of a giraffe, a necklace, several calabash for drinking porridge, and once macadamia nuts still in their huge shells. My favorite was probably the banana leaf mattress that one group gave me. When we were leaving their project, two of the women got in the car with us and I figured they were taking their mattress and basket to the market and wanted a lift. The next thing I knew the women were gone and the mattress was still in the trunk. Luckily I was able to explain that I really could not take the mattress home, nor could I carry it around Kenya with me. I did somehow end up with their basket, though.
Another funny thing was when they would try to offer me handmade ropes. They would say, “Look, you can use this rope to tie up your cows!” Of course I would then have to explain that I don’t have cows, and that I couldn’t use the rope. They would immediately reply with, “Oh, well your parents can tie up their cows then!” And I even ended up with a little pouch that is used during planting to hold seeds. A lady demonstrated how I must tie it around my waist and then go about planting my seeds. Of course, when they asked me what I grew on my shamba (farm), and I told them that most Americans don’t actually have their own shambas, they would look at me like I was nuts. “Well then what do your parents grow on their shamba? Not even maize?!”
There was also one point during the three days of visits where I was simply tired of meeting women. So, as soon as my interviewing was over, I ran over to a group of kids that had been watching and asked them/mimed to them to see if they wanted to race. Eventually we were hopping/running/skipping/jumping down the dirt road, and we got back to the car far before the women's group and just kept going. As much respect as I had for the women, I think that may have been my favorite visit! So in all, the women's projects ended up being entertaining, frustrating, depressing, inspiring, and exhausting all at once.
Visiting the Women’s Groups was both an empowering and frustrating experience. Several of the groups sang and danced to welcome me when I arrived, which was neat, although a little embarrassing. They were all incredibly welcoming and willing to discuss all aspects of their projects with me. The focuses of the groups ranged from rearing poultry to running cereal stores to stove building, basket weaving, banana leaf mattress making, breeding goats and even renting out plastic chairs for events. Some of them have ambitious visions for their projects, like building a women’s hostel or expanding their businesses to be able to access better markets for their goods across the country.
I had a lot of respect for each group and all of the members, as they have learned, with the help of SOTENI and a Danish organization called DANIDA, how to manage their own businesses, keep records, plan projects and write proposals. Each group hopes to develop profitable projects that will continue to develop and expand with time.
I’ve heard that it’s been raining constantly at home, which is a bit ironic considering here they've been suffering from a drought for the past two years, and so many people are struggling to eat even one meal a day. So many of the corn fields are dried out, and when I visited women's projects, I went to several (about six thousand) cereal grain stores, and every one of them is suffering from the effects of the drought. Aside from crops, people don't even have access to clean drinking water, or they have to walk for great distances to reach it. It's pretty sobering to see. To make things worse, for me, anyway, many of the women's groups insisted on feeding me and giving me gifts. I know most of it was that Kenyans are just so generous and friendly and giving, but that was difficult to swallow when I knew they were also starving. And I also know that many of them hoped that I would be able to bring them money, which was not my purpose at all, so some of them acted as though they could impress me with their gifts. I felt guilty for taking what little they had (even if I refused, there was no way I couldn't take it), and frustrated by their assumption that all white people have money and will give it to them. Even the man we're staying with thinks that; tonight at dinner he asked us to take a letter from him to the US to give to companies if we ever happened to come across one that might help his school. Of course we want to help, but at the same time we are not bathing in resources. But I guess that's just one thing I will have to resolve in myself while I'm here.
I received more gifts than I knew what to do with. Each day I came back to the house with bags of beans, giant avocados, ripe and unripe bananas, handmade baskets, a carving of a giraffe, a necklace, several calabash for drinking porridge, and once macadamia nuts still in their huge shells. My favorite was probably the banana leaf mattress that one group gave me. When we were leaving their project, two of the women got in the car with us and I figured they were taking their mattress and basket to the market and wanted a lift. The next thing I knew the women were gone and the mattress was still in the trunk. Luckily I was able to explain that I really could not take the mattress home, nor could I carry it around Kenya with me. I did somehow end up with their basket, though.
Another funny thing was when they would try to offer me handmade ropes. They would say, “Look, you can use this rope to tie up your cows!” Of course I would then have to explain that I don’t have cows, and that I couldn’t use the rope. They would immediately reply with, “Oh, well your parents can tie up their cows then!” And I even ended up with a little pouch that is used during planting to hold seeds. A lady demonstrated how I must tie it around my waist and then go about planting my seeds. Of course, when they asked me what I grew on my shamba (farm), and I told them that most Americans don’t actually have their own shambas, they would look at me like I was nuts. “Well then what do your parents grow on their shamba? Not even maize?!”
There was also one point during the three days of visits where I was simply tired of meeting women. So, as soon as my interviewing was over, I ran over to a group of kids that had been watching and asked them/mimed to them to see if they wanted to race. Eventually we were hopping/running/skipping/jumping down the dirt road, and we got back to the car far before the women's group and just kept going. As much respect as I had for the women, I think that may have been my favorite visit! So in all, the women's projects ended up being entertaining, frustrating, depressing, inspiring, and exhausting all at once.
Work in Mituntu
(6/20-7/2)
Sorry for the lapse in posts – after the poultry farm adventure we really buckled down to work on all of the projects we needed to accomplish. And the projects were numerous:
Bike Ride
Ezekiel, the sponsorship facilitator in Mituntu, is planning on doing a fundraising bike ride from Mituntu to Nairobi, approximately 270km. Getting details for this project was important because there is a team working on it in the US, and we needed to get information from the ground over here to share with them. We met with Ezekiel and Doris, the coordinator for Mituntu, to discuss logistics and the purpose of the ride. There are still many aspects that need to be sorted out, but we were able to get many details that were previously lacking, like who would actually participate and when the ride should take place. The funds raised from the ride will go to the development of a Community Resource Center, which will have books, computers and training classes, a cultural heritage center, and demonstration farming to help educate locals on farming practices for the area.
We also spent some time at the Resource Center location, where two buildings have already been constructed but are not really functional yet. We had a sort of a photo shoot with three adorable young kids to use to promote the event. They were perfect and did everything we asked of them. They deserved the lollipops and chewing gum they received as payment at the end of the affair!
Work Plan for CRC
While many preliminary plans have been discussed in regard to the Community Resource Center, we really needed to nail down some details. We met with Doris and discussed all of its functions, how to determine costs and where to look for additional funding. While Mo and I were a bit burnt out from working non-stop for eight days or so and were not particularly helpful (for example, at one point as I was distracted by a letter on the table and Mo was staring out the window, Doris stopped talking, put her head on the table and laughed, telling us, “I realized no one was listening to me.” Sorry, Doris! We really tried to pay attention!), I was able to write a preliminary proposed work plan recapping the meeting.
Sponsorship Manual
SOTENI facilitates a sponsorship program for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in three of its Villages of Hope (the program is in the beginning stages in the fourth village). Sponsorship provides for school fees (applicable in secondary school; primary is free), uniforms (every school has uniforms), health care and food as needed (many of the children are at boarding school, and get adequate food there, but when they return home it can be very trying). It is a pretty comprehensive program, but as the children have gotten older and different situations have come up, it has become clear that a more detailed, concrete sponsorship manual was needed to make concretely establish the exact purpose of the funds, the responsibilities of the sponsor, the child, and the child’s guardian, duration of a child’s sponsorship, and other details. Mo and I met with Ezekiel again for almost two hours discussing a variety of questions, and we got his opinions on the role of sponsorship. Because he knows each sponsored OVC in Mituntu and understands their histories and personalities, he was a great source of information for all of our questions.
OVC Visits
Part of our responsibility in each village with sponsored OVCs is to visit all of them to get an update on how they’re doing. Mo and I spent two and a half days traveling around Mituntu (note: Mituntu is one of SOTENI’s four villages of hope. When they use the term “village,” they really mean huge area covering lots and lots of kilometers) to visit all nineteen sponsored OVCs. We met all of them at their schools, and we tried having conversations with them about how school is going, what they enjoy doing, how their health is, changes in their home situation, and current needs. While some were more forthcoming than others, I had loads of respect for each child. Most of them are orphans in some sense – many live with extended family as one or both of their parents have died, several from AIDS. They have grown up in unstable homes, not necessarily because their parents were ignorant, although that may be the case in some instances, but often because they were unable to afford school fees or adequate food. To read their previous updates and then to meet them and see how so many of them have changed for the better and are now allowed to pursue their studies without the burdens they previously faced is an honor. They were all pretty incredible, although I did have a favorite, I will admit…
Women’s Group Projects
While Mo spent three days working with the AIDS Barefoot Doctor home-based care program, I traveled around the “village” visiting something like 23 women’s projects that are being funded by a Danish group, DANIDA, in conjunction with SOTENI. The program has provided training for the groups to establish profitable, sustainable businesses to help raise their standard of living. This was an interesting endeavor. It deserves its own post/this post is already far too long! Sorry about that!
Thanks for the comments, by the way!
Baadaye!
PS- I have lots of pictures from Mituntu, but uploading them takes forever and my patience is waning, so you'll have to wait until I'm back in the US to see them. In fact, I may stop posting pictures in general because it takes so long and usually I lose the internet connection before I can even make the post.
Sorry for the lapse in posts – after the poultry farm adventure we really buckled down to work on all of the projects we needed to accomplish. And the projects were numerous:
Bike Ride
Ezekiel, the sponsorship facilitator in Mituntu, is planning on doing a fundraising bike ride from Mituntu to Nairobi, approximately 270km. Getting details for this project was important because there is a team working on it in the US, and we needed to get information from the ground over here to share with them. We met with Ezekiel and Doris, the coordinator for Mituntu, to discuss logistics and the purpose of the ride. There are still many aspects that need to be sorted out, but we were able to get many details that were previously lacking, like who would actually participate and when the ride should take place. The funds raised from the ride will go to the development of a Community Resource Center, which will have books, computers and training classes, a cultural heritage center, and demonstration farming to help educate locals on farming practices for the area.
We also spent some time at the Resource Center location, where two buildings have already been constructed but are not really functional yet. We had a sort of a photo shoot with three adorable young kids to use to promote the event. They were perfect and did everything we asked of them. They deserved the lollipops and chewing gum they received as payment at the end of the affair!
Work Plan for CRC
While many preliminary plans have been discussed in regard to the Community Resource Center, we really needed to nail down some details. We met with Doris and discussed all of its functions, how to determine costs and where to look for additional funding. While Mo and I were a bit burnt out from working non-stop for eight days or so and were not particularly helpful (for example, at one point as I was distracted by a letter on the table and Mo was staring out the window, Doris stopped talking, put her head on the table and laughed, telling us, “I realized no one was listening to me.” Sorry, Doris! We really tried to pay attention!), I was able to write a preliminary proposed work plan recapping the meeting.
Sponsorship Manual
SOTENI facilitates a sponsorship program for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in three of its Villages of Hope (the program is in the beginning stages in the fourth village). Sponsorship provides for school fees (applicable in secondary school; primary is free), uniforms (every school has uniforms), health care and food as needed (many of the children are at boarding school, and get adequate food there, but when they return home it can be very trying). It is a pretty comprehensive program, but as the children have gotten older and different situations have come up, it has become clear that a more detailed, concrete sponsorship manual was needed to make concretely establish the exact purpose of the funds, the responsibilities of the sponsor, the child, and the child’s guardian, duration of a child’s sponsorship, and other details. Mo and I met with Ezekiel again for almost two hours discussing a variety of questions, and we got his opinions on the role of sponsorship. Because he knows each sponsored OVC in Mituntu and understands their histories and personalities, he was a great source of information for all of our questions.
OVC Visits
Part of our responsibility in each village with sponsored OVCs is to visit all of them to get an update on how they’re doing. Mo and I spent two and a half days traveling around Mituntu (note: Mituntu is one of SOTENI’s four villages of hope. When they use the term “village,” they really mean huge area covering lots and lots of kilometers) to visit all nineteen sponsored OVCs. We met all of them at their schools, and we tried having conversations with them about how school is going, what they enjoy doing, how their health is, changes in their home situation, and current needs. While some were more forthcoming than others, I had loads of respect for each child. Most of them are orphans in some sense – many live with extended family as one or both of their parents have died, several from AIDS. They have grown up in unstable homes, not necessarily because their parents were ignorant, although that may be the case in some instances, but often because they were unable to afford school fees or adequate food. To read their previous updates and then to meet them and see how so many of them have changed for the better and are now allowed to pursue their studies without the burdens they previously faced is an honor. They were all pretty incredible, although I did have a favorite, I will admit…
Women’s Group Projects
While Mo spent three days working with the AIDS Barefoot Doctor home-based care program, I traveled around the “village” visiting something like 23 women’s projects that are being funded by a Danish group, DANIDA, in conjunction with SOTENI. The program has provided training for the groups to establish profitable, sustainable businesses to help raise their standard of living. This was an interesting endeavor. It deserves its own post/this post is already far too long! Sorry about that!
Thanks for the comments, by the way!
Baadaye!
PS- I have lots of pictures from Mituntu, but uploading them takes forever and my patience is waning, so you'll have to wait until I'm back in the US to see them. In fact, I may stop posting pictures in general because it takes so long and usually I lose the internet connection before I can even make the post.
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