Kwaheri Kenya

The day is finally here.  I fly back to America tonight and it just seems crazy that it is already time for me to go home.  I have been in Nairobi for 3 days and I am already missing the children at Tumaini so I can't imagine how much I will miss them when I get home!  It has been very strange being in Nairobi because it is not at all like the Kenya that have been seeing for months.  It's a well developed city with many restaraunts, expats, and luxuries.  I have seen Americans and Europeans everywhere I have been.  It a little disturbing to see the difference in how some people live here in comparison to how the majority of the rest of the country is living.  Just about everyone I have met is working for some type of non profit or NGO that involves development, so hopefully that is a sign that conditions in East Africa will be impoving. 

During my stay in Kenya I have realized that I have a strong desire to work on the improvement of education systems both in America and abroad, and hope to continue this type of work.  One project that I am very excited about is something Eline and I plan to work on together.  We realized while staying at Tumaini that none of the children or people in the community have access to books.  They obviously don't have the money to buy them and there is no where to borrow them from, so even if they can read there aren't many options of reading material.  We talked to Rose about the needs at Tumaini and have decided that they need a library!  Eline and I are hoping to be able to fundraise all the money within 2 years, but it's going to be a lot of work.  The school also has no administration office or place for the teachers to hold meetings so we are going to use the building for both purposes.  Eline and I are very excited about what opportunities this could bring to Tumaini and how it could improve the education for the kids.  If anyone is interested in learning more about our project please contact me.  I will also keep this blog so I can let people know how the progress is going.

I don't feel that my stay in Kenya has been long enough, so it makes me happy to know that I have this project to keep me connected to my second home and I know I will be returning!  I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to do something like this and it has definitely changed who I am and how I see the world.  

Last Blog from Tumaini

Well, my time here at Tumaini is coming to an end – and it is bittersweet.  While I am very excited to see my family and friends, in less than a week I have to say goodbye to these amazing people and children who have become my family.  Yesterday during Class 6 English a student ask if it was true I was leaving soon, and I told her I was.  She informed me that America could wait because I needed to stay and finish the term.  I have tried very hard to be the best English teacher possible, but I have never been as proud as I was today when I was walking out of class and said, “Later gators!”  And they replied, “After while crocodile,” with huge grins on their faces!  We have been practicing typical American slang and they are catching on!

This week there is an awesome American named Katie visiting for just a few days before she goes to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Today she and I battled the unthinkable- having THE TALK with the older kids.  And let me tell you, it gave me no desire to have my own kids any time soon!  We started with all the kids 11 years and up together and talked to them about HIV and how you can get it.  Katie is a nurse, so she talked and I stood next to her.  Then we split the boys and girls so that we could talk more specifically about what happens to their bodies.  I took the boys thinking they would be much easier.  Your voice changes…you get hair…don’t have sex.  WRONG.  I asked them to please let me know if they had any questions…and boy did they.  I would feel like I was breaking confidentiality with the boys if I told you specifics, but let’s just say we covered everything from if an unborn child can be hurt by intercourse, can a girl contract HIV from having her from having a drink spiked with sperm, to several extremely awkward questions about what can be used as a condom.  I without a doubt had developed a few gray hairs by the end of class.  I have realized a teenage boy is a teenage boy no matter where he lives.  On the positive side many of their questions were so naïve it’s evident they are not actually doing any of these things.  But I feel like it was a successful, educational class with a strong emphasis on abstinence and respecting both yours and others bodies.

On Sundays I usually take a long walk on the back roads, and I never know what I will encounter.  This week I was invited into someone’s home to have a soda and talk.  He said he wanted to build a culinary school in the village and wanted to know if I wanted to help.  I kindly told him I didn’t know how prosperous that would be because most people eat one of 3 things in Western Kenya and right now they didn’t even know how much of that they would get.  On my way back home I saw some of my students gathered around a few tree branches in the road and asked what they were doing.  “Collecting termites,” they replied.  “Why?”  “To eat!”  And then Kevin tossed one in his mouth.  I was extremely disgusted by this and proceeded to ask every Kenyan I know if they ate termites.  The general consensus was yes, mostly when they were kids and that they are tasty.  I learned that you can eat them raw or fry them.  Gross.  But these are the kinds of conversations I am going to miss the most.

When I leave Tumaini I will visit a friend from college who is living in Nairobi for a couple days and then head back to America.  I will write about the last part of my African adventure there!

Lodwar

“Thank you for your generosity.  Tonight there will be smoke coming from every household!”  When Rose told me this was what one of the Turkana tribe members said to her I didn’t understand what it meant.  After spending a little more time with them I realized they were saying every family would be building a fire to cook with that night. This is not a daily guarantee for the people of the Kakwanyang village.

Before the plane touched down in Lodwar you could feel the temperature rising in this desert like region. Rose and I were traveling with her friend, Pastor George who has already done some mission work in this area and had friends who could show us around the different villages.  Driving from the airport (landing strip with a tent) I was already left speechless from the living conditions- or lack thereof.  We drove about 20 kilometers out of the city to visit one of the many communities that has no food and not many options of how to acquire any.  Once outside of the city there were no roads or really any sign of life besides the women walking their goats.  After a few random turns in the sand path we came upon a cluster of grass huts belonging to the community we were going to visit.  We were greeted by a young mother breast feeding an infant followed by several more half-dressed children. Many of these grass homes don’t even have roofs because it keeps them cooler at night.  If by chance it does rain they seek shelter in one with a roof.  They don’t have to worry about their belonging because they don’t have any.

In this particular village there is one primary school.  When Rose inquired more about their educational goals we found out there aren’t many.  For the entire school (1^st through 8^th grade) there are two teachers.  But, they rarely have to worry about teaching because the children only come to school when food can be provided. Due to obvious circumstances, this hasn’t been much recently.  Rose and I had originally planned to supply food in 3 different villages, but the large population of the first one made us realize the supplies were not going to make it anywhere else. These people are helped by larger NGOs, but can only rely on them to bring food every one to three months.  When this runs out the women make a few brooms and baskets (the only items exported from the region)  then travel the entire day to town in hopes of selling a few for 10-50 shillings, equivalent to less than a dollar.  If they are unable to sell their baskets then they are forced to slaughter whatever livestock they have to feed their families. 

There are so many things that need to develop in the Turkana area, with the biggest problem being lack of education.  But how are you supposed to teach starving children?  When young girls are given the opportunity to go to school many of them will drop out between the ages of 12 and 14 because their parents force them to get married so they can receive the dowry.  The only option for dowry is livestock so in famine stricken areas this seems to be well worth trading your daughter for.

What bothers me the most is Northern Kenya did not become this way overnight.  And yes, the drought has increased the starvation severely, but these people were short on food before.  I think this famine might be a blessing in disguise for the long term wellbeing of the Turkana people.  The international attention it has received will hopefully mean some investments will be made in sustainability for the area.  No human being should have to live under these circumstances.  As my eyes are opened to more and more layers of poverty I wonder how there can be such contrast in the world. 

While we do not have the resources for development in the area, Rose is hoping to at least help keep these children from going to bed hungry at night.  If anyone has any questions about how to help with the Lodwar Feeding Project, please, please, contact me.  These people need all the help they can get.

New Adventure!

Eline left yesterday and I have been going around like a lost puppy dog.  It’s really strange to spend all day, every day with someone and then POOF!  She is gone.  Today while I was walking in the village several people stopped me and asked, “Where is the other one?”  So I am now the only volunteer until my last week.  I am certain Eline and I will stay close friends.  Not only do we have future plans for a project at Tumaini, but she has only been back in the Netherlands for a couple of hours and we have already been communicating.

Well, building the cow shed was a success!  Many people have asked me, “Why are you building a shed for the cows?”  And my answer to that is I have absolutely no idea.  When I asked the Kenyans they just looked at me funny and said that was where they will eat and sleep.  So we (well the men) nailed tree limbs to wood post that were cemented into the ground.  Then we made a mixture of mud and water and placed it in between the limbs.  That was it!  Now I understand why so many people here make buildings out of mud.  I actually thought it was fun!

Not only am I becoming Kenyan because I can build a mud hut, but I have also been harvesting maize!  Today I was working so hard getting the kernels off the cob that my thumb started bleeding under the nail and I have blisters!  Although it is not as bad as harvesting the beans, I am still certain I have no future in farming. 

On Monday Rose and I will be going on a new adventure.  While we have been running the feeding program here in our village, Rose has also been doing some research on places in the North that have been facing severe food shortage.  We will continue feeding the neediest here, but many families will have crops harvesting in the next couple months and will be less dependent on us.  So Rose has felt very strongly that God is sending her to a place in the North Western part of Kenya called Lodwar.  It is a very undesirable desert area that is about 70 kilometers from a Somalian and Sudanean refugee camp.  With both Kenyans and refugees in the area they have been hit very hard by the famine.  So I, Rose and a Kenyan pastor (who has been to the area a few times) are going to travel there and visit three different villages.  We will be distributing the basic food needs such as flour, sugar, tea leaves, and cooking oil.  After observing the area and situation we will see if there is a possibility of providing some long term help to stabilize the area.  If anyone has any questions about our work there please contact me!  I will make sure to give an update when we get back.

Update at Tumaini!

Habari asubuhi!  This is one of the ways to say good morning in Swahili.  Things are very busy and moving fast here at Tumaini.  I feel like I am going to blink my eyes and it’s going to be time for me to go home.  So here is an update on my Kenyan life!

My 6^th graders have been working very hard this week writing pen pal letters to AMS 6^th graders (thanks to the help of Mrs. Elizabeth Mills!) asking questions about the U.S. and telling about life in Kenya.  While revising the letters I found some of the things the children said quite entertaining.  For example, “We have corruption in Kenya.  Do you have corruption in America?”  Children in Kenya have been taught over and over that polygamy is wrong in hopes that it will prevent it from happening in the future.  So some children proudly wrote, “I live with my mom and dad.  We have a monogamous family.”  I kindly ask them to include a different fact instead, so that Mrs. Mills is not stuck explaining polygamy and monogamy to American 12 year olds.  Another fact that some kids mentioned was if they have a permanent roof on their home (instead of grass).  They are very proud of this, and it will show kids at home how nice they have it.  A very bright boy named Kevin informed his pen pal about the famine and told how there was a hotline, “Kenyans for Kenya” and if they wanted to help all they had to do was text 111111 on their phones!

Eline and I have started painting the classrooms and as with everything I do in life I am very slow and would bet I will be painting until the day I fly home.  I am also still waiting to help build the cowshed out of mud (it takes a while for things to happen in Kenya), but I will let you know when that happens!

On Thursday Eline and I travelled to Kisumu because we had to renew our visas.  Kisumu is located on Lake Victoria and is known for their very tasty tilapia.  After leaving the immigration office we walked down to the lake where everyone is hustling you to sit at their “restaurant.”  We chose one and then were told to pick out our fish.  Literally there is just a bunch of different size dead fish sitting on a slab of wood.  After picking you sit down and wait for your fish to be cooked.  When it comes out it looks the exact same.  Head, fins, bones, and all!  Not only did I eat it, but it was delicious!

There is an orphan living in our community who graduated high school in 2007 but hasn’t had enough money to pay her tuition and can’t receive her diploma.  Rose said the fact that four years later she is still trying and hasn’t gotten pregnant (that’s what girls do if they don’t have goals or money) means she is a very determined, good girl.  The community had a fundraiser for her and was able to raise enough to pay her tuition and get her started in college!

Eline leaves in 2 weeks and I am going to be lost.  Aside from when I teach English which is around an hour a day, we spend every moment of everyday together.  We sleep in the same room and even shower at the same time and can talk between our stalls.  Both of us are in complete shock that after all this time not only have we not strangled each other, but we actually still like each other!  We even have plans to do future projects together!

Rose and I are trying to update the website, which is comical.  Rose is still learning how to do things on the computer and I am the American who wishes I lived in the time before computers existed.  So far we have mostly just been staring at it deciding what needs to change.  Rose has asked a man from town to come help us, so we should be making progress soon!

All is going well with the feeding program.  I think I am getting muscles in my arms from transferring the maize into the small bags.  We had a young boy who travelled to us from a different community looking for food for him and his grandmother.  We were happy to help him.  I want to thank everybody again for all your contributions, it has really meant a lot to these people.

Miles of Smiles at Tumaini

Habari yako?  This is Swahili for “How are you?”  Then, you would reply, “Mzuri sana!”  This means very good!  It’s actually quite pitiful how much Swahili I have NOT picked up on.  The only words I know really well are the ones that are repeated to the toddlers over and over again.  And I am sad to say that I am not fluent in Dutch either.

After the Americans left Tumaini, my Canadian friend Dylan and I traveled to meet the Dutch girls in Mombasa, a beach city on the East Coast of Africa.  It was a wonderful break to have halfway through my trip.  Watching camels walk the beaches of the Indian Ocean made the 16 hour bus ride well worth it!  Evidently I am a magnet for Dutch people.  We were staying at a campsite called Stilts, where we met a lot of fun people, the majority of whom were from the Netherlands, and then we met a nice Belgium couple – who of course spoke Dutch.  Finally while sitting on the beach I saw a man with a Georgia Bulldogs cap on, so I asked him excitedly if he was from Georgia.  He laughed and said, “No, I collect caps.  I am from the Netherlands.”  Eline was dying laughing and all I could say was, “Oh, of course you are!”

I was also attacked by monkey on our trip.  We were staying in these cute little tree houses a little bit into the woods (kind of).  Femke and Eline left to go to the beach, but I stayed to sleep a little longer.  I woke up to the sound of plastic rustling around and thought, “Oh the monkeys must be on the porch…”  (They had been stealing everything we left outside the whole trip.)  As I was falling back asleep I heard the rustling sound again and realized how close it was.  I popped up in the bed screaming bloody murder!  Sitting on my bed was a monkey staring straight at me and three more looking through our trash and bags!  They looked at me with an annoyed expression as if to say, “Well thanks for ruining our fun.”  Then they sauntered out.  Although they weren’t causing me physical harm yet, I know they were plotting…

Femke got really sick at the end of the trip and the night before she was to fly back to the Netherlands we ended up having to take her to the hospital in Nairobi.  Luckily it was just a bacterial infection and she was feeling better by morning.  It’s weird not having her back at Tumaini, especially when it’s time to do the dishes!  Now Eline is forced to always speak English and that makes Rose and me very happy!

I was glad to get back to Western Kenya to see all the children and our Tumaini family.  While I was gone there was a nice American who left some Velveeta Shells and Cheese and brought me a bag of sunflower seeds.  These were very nice surprises to come home to!  Since we have been back I have been extremely busy.  I am still teaching English and Arts and Crafts in the morning and after lunch we have been helping Violet do a lot of cleaning and organizing at the orphanage.  The children go on break from school next week so we are going to paint all the classrooms.  We are also going to take advantage of the orphanage kids being out of school and do some fun crafts and games with them.

The feeding program has kept us very busy as well.  Originally the plan was to give maize to about 80 families once a week for as long as we can.  But we have realized that there are more who are in severe need of food so we have increased to 120 families a week.  We give the bags of maize every Wednesday, but people have been coming all this week and just wait outside the orphanage hoping if they sit there long enough we will be able to give them something.  This is really hard to see, but luckily Rose knows which of these people are in need the most and we give to them.  Our main goal is to be able to provide for all the elderly widows that are taking care of a lot of children because they physically cannot work and have mouths to feed.  While I hope that my English teaching skills are changing lives, I know now that if my only purpose being here was to make others aware and concerned about the food shortage then it has been completely worth it.  Thanks to all of you that have been donating so that my students aren’t going to bed hungry.  Everything that goes on at Tumaini makes me realize how much impact one person can have.  Three years ago Rose was sleeping on a floor with a few orphans, and now she is helping to feed an entire community.

Update On Food Crisis

Although it has not been long since my last entry, I didn’t want to keep anyone waiting to hear about the food situation.  I am blown away by how many people were willing to immediately respond to our urgent need.  Between myself, the Dutch girls, and the American team we were able to raise a little over $6,000 dollars in the less than a week!  So thanks to all of you who were willing to throw us a few bucks there are people who won’t go to bed hungry this week.  The food supply is not supposed to get any better in the near future, so we have started a food program for our community at Tumaini.  Our community is a little bit like Mayberry in the sense that everybody knows everything about everyone so we (aka Rose) know which families are living with the most severe conditions right now.  Most of these are widows with many children, or the elderly that is providing for lots of orphans.  Every Wednesday these people are going to be able to come to Tumaini and receive their bag of maize and try to make it last until the next Wednesday.  It is estimated that the famine will be at its worst towards the end of September so we are really hoping to be able to feed these families at least until then.  Our plan is to keep the food program going until the funds run out.  Cheryl (the CEO of ISF), is leaving the spot on their website so if people want to continue to donate for our food program they may do that through their PayPal.  Again, huge thanks to those of you have helped or plan to do so in the future.

Aside from the food situation some others changes have occurred here at Tumaini in the past week.  I have been surrounded by Americans!  Rather than sleeping alone I now have six roommates (and absolutely no quiet time), who are spoiling me rotten with American things I had forgotten about.  Items such as oatmeal, starbursts, and goldfish have a lot more significance when the highlight of my day typically consists of being served cabbage or beans for lunch.  The American team also decided that because I have been here for a while it would be most beneficial for me to act as their camp leader for the Vacation Bible School they are providing for the children.  Femke and Eline found my new role hilarious and have been calling me “Captain Alex” the entire week.  I’m not sure how well I did at leading the team but I do know that the children had a wonderful time and were given lots of love, and that’s all that matters.  Although it will be nice to get back to my calm African lifestyle, I have enjoyed getting to know all the visitors and know they love Tumaini just as much as I do now!

On a sad note, Femke and Eline left to travel yesterday and I already miss them.  But we will be meeting up in four days in Mombasa, which is a city on the east coast of Kenya and will be staying in a tree house close to the beach!  I hope it is as nice as it sounds!  Well, that is all I have for now, the Americans are exhausting me J