Current News in Kenya

Correspondence from people who have been to Njaaga Child Hope Home, who are worried about what is happening right now and who are wanting to help out:



Hi everyone,

The situation is not good at all. I know the kids are fine and still safe now, but around Nakuru violence has spread into the villages. Susan (the social worker who used to work there) and her husband
Stephen just called me on Sunday morning as their friends in the village had been burnt and they had been forced to leave. and now they are trying to figure out how to get out. Ethnic violence is happening everyday and there is really no way for
people to protect themselves. Thousands of Kikuyu had come to Nakuru to escape Western Kenya so now there is a lot of tension in that area. People don't know where to go anymore, and don't know
what to do. The problem is nowhere close to sorting itself out. I am in communication with friends and Charles/James each week just to make sure things are ok with the kids. Horrible to see
what that country and its people are doing to each other. The hard thing is we don't really know what to do if things get worse in the Nakuru area, or where we would take the kids. They keep on
closing/reopening the border between Tanzania and Kenya as Tz does not have have the resources or money to help with the refugees. Kibaki is not going to step down and really that is the probably
one of the only things that might slow this down, except for the fact that some believe that ethnic cleansing has started and will just continue.

I'm due to talk to Njaaga tomorrow morning, as we want to make sure kids have food, and will fill you in on how things are.

Other than that, am loving Tanzania, got a new job now which is great-I work with all men which makes my work environment interesting. And my friend and I started a non-profit awaiting NGO status called "Barefeet International" so working on a few projects with that
after work, playing squash and running a bit as hoping to do the Mt.Kili half in March, loving my typical african days of seeing kids on bicycles that are WAY too big for them, having all of them yell mzungu at me and wave cause I'm a female driving a car,
having random babies put on my lap when i'm in the daladala (matatu), eating fresh veggies and fish that would be considered "organic" in Canada, being only able to cross 1 or 2 things off my to do list as in Africa every thing is pole pole (slowly slowly),
stare out at the sunsets over lake Victoria, and hang out with my youth who are still trying to teach me Swahili which I'm failing at miserably.

Hope you are all well.

Ania Wantuch



Hi Ann – I am trying to work through Feed the Children Canada, which is based out of Guelph but have a large presence in Nairobi. I connected them to James last year and Ken Dick, their President for the CDN chapter, visited the children’s home last September along with some reps from their local office. I have financed them twice to deliver provisions to the kids. I am prepared to provide more financial support if they can actually get through to the kid’s and deliver food and supplies. Any help in this regard would be wonderful – and they can issue tax receipts. I am just waiting to hear back. Other than that, the options are to provide financial support to James directly (given the situation I am not 100% sure the funds would get to the children) or find another NGO that can help on the ground. When I hear back from Feed the Children I’ll let you know.

Lynda Kuhn



Hi All,

I've been working on starting a letter writing campaign to urge some more awareness of the situation in Kenya. I haven't seen much come out from our government re: their role in peace talks etc.

Please read the attached and let me know how it sounds. I've only sent it to MPs so far in my area. So we can revamp...make it more general and perhaps get a petition list signed and sent (paper copy) to federal MPs.

With travel advisories etc...there will be a blow to his business and surely that will affect the children, especially if they have to relocate and cannot use the farm food for sustenance.

Cory and I went to a fundraiser in Toronto for Kibera slums. It was quite well done. Maybe this is something we can do? A friend, Lynda has been making donations to the orphanage through a third party called Feed the Children, maybe her contacts can help us assure the money for the children is used directly for the children.
Thoughts?

Ann Bala


Hy all,

I've been watching whats been happening in Kenya very
closely, wondering Ania if we need to divert our Kenya
team in May to Tanzania you could host them.

I am also wanting to figure out what we can do as
Global Youth Network to respond to this crises. I have
been in touch with our contacts in Uganda to see what
is happening with the refugee situation there. Haven't
heard anything yet. If you guys are interested in
throwing out some ideas of how we can respond I would
be totaly interested in working on some stuff.

Dave Skene

Current News from Kenya

Jambo kasia

I hope you are fine, well that is not the same with us here in Kenya .

Alot has changed here in the last few days and things have changed from bad to worse especially in the Rift Valley even with the mediation talks on going.

Irregardless of what the International Media is reporting, about the said disputed polls, It has emerged that some communities have been preparing for war even before the general elections. To be specific, The Kalejin community under the leadership of Hon William Ruto of ODM have taken upon themselves to attack, kill, main and destroy the property of kikuyu and other communities in the rift valley..

As a result and as you may have heard,even with the on going mediation talks taking place,and even with the leaders calling for peace, Unprecedented chaos have rocked Nakuru district and the neighbouring villages especially the ones perceived to be kikuyu dominated. The intentions of these people are unknown and their manner of attack unpredictable.

I am writing to as a matter of urgency because, a few nights, a village neighbouring Kirengero ( appro - 2 kilometers) was attacked and houses set ablaze. the bad news is that these people are now camping at Kirengero Chiefs camp. I am very disturbed because this has happened too close to the home and even the children are very worried.

Some friends have suggested to me to relocate the children to safer places which is a good Idea so now I am having to move them to my residence in Nairobi while other will put up at the office dormitory since there is no business.

I would have done this earlier but my efforts were kind of put on hold on Sunday when I had a road accident. It was not an accident per se. The road had been barricaded by armed youths so as I attempted to drive away and escape them with their poisoned arrows I landed into a ditch and my car was badly damaged, I also sustained injuries on my back and neck. I am lucky to have been saved by the army personnel who found me before the youths could find me.

safety is my immediate concern for these kids and if I can achieve that, Then the issues of schooling, shelter, and food will be resolved latter when they are out of harms way

I will appreciate any assistance you can afford us at this time in form of advice, any contacts of people who can help us here and funds: I should note also that our tourism business is at standstill following the mass cancellations of safaris by clients and of course the travel advisories issued by some governments advising their citizens not to travel Kenya. In this regard I am between a rock and a hard place pertaining to the welfare of these young ones.

Please let me know that you have received this mail the soonest you can reply.

We are counting on your prayers to see us through this misery.


Yours truly

JAMES


PS: James' email contact - njaagachild@africaonline.co.ke

#15 Kenya: Addendum

This will be the last posting under this thread. It’s currently June 14th and I’m sitting in James’ living-room prepping this blog.
Yesterday was horrible. I truly hate goodbyes. I couldn’t sleep the whole night and then got up just past 6am to say goodbye to all the highschool kids who would not be coming back for lunch and whom I wouldn’t see again. I sat on their beds as they got ready for school, hugged them, took some last photos and shed some tears. I’m not the one to cry easily, but some of them were teary-eyed. I tried to go back to sleep after that but gave up on that idea very quickly. Instead I got up and headed into the library where I locked myself in and began writing notes to the kids.
Some of the had written me goodbye letters and I really wanted to leave something behind for them as well so I began with a few for the ones with whom I’ve become most attached. At 9am Steve finally came and we hammered the holes and nailed the shelf to the wall. I arranged all the books, cleaned everything up and returned to my letter writing. By then I had concluded that it would be unfair to leave letters behind for just a couple of the kids but not for the others so I continued my scribbling. By lunch time I had 35 letters done and 20 more to write.
The kids clustered around me as we were eating our last meal (ugali and kale). I also managed to get some last portrait shots of kids that I had realized I was missing and then it was time for the final goodbyes. I walked the kids up the road towards their school. Mary, Joyce and Caroline were sobbing; the others were bravely trying to keep it in. It truly sucks when there is nothing you can say to cheer them up. They probably realize that there is very little chance that we will meet again – or at least not for a long time. So my promises to come back sounded really hollow – but there was nothing else that I could say.
After that I had to get myself together and finish the last letters. By then, having been writing for probably close to 6 hours, my hand was sore, the letters were becoming shorter and shorter, and as the names were sounding more unfamiliar each letter slowly became less and less personal. By the end I knew I just had to get it done. It was nearly 3pm and I still hadn’t packed and my original plan was to be on the road by 3pm at the latest. Well, finally all of them were completed. I folded them up into little squares and pinned them to the cork-board in the library for them to discover at a later time.
Packing went quite quickly and then it was time for my last walk up to the road. With all the older kids still at school I was accompanied just by the tiny ones, each wrestling to be able to hold my hand. With me only having two hands and there being about 10 of them created a lot of havoc until Phyllis (the teacher) forbade any of them to hold my hand. From the matatu I waved goodbye to Phyllis, Peter and the little ones and left Kirengero behind me. By this time it was 4pm and since the matatu was nearly empty, we ended up waiting in every town on the way to Nakuru in an attempt to fill it up.
I got into Nakuru after 5pm, hunted around for a 10 person matatu (rather than the usual 14), but couldn’t find on so finally settled on one that seemed to be pretty much full. Nevertheless we didn’t leave Nakuru until close to 6pm and you should keep in mind that it gets dark around 6:30-7:00 pm and the general advise is not to travel after dark. Well... there was nothing that I could do about it. The ride, however, went smoothly and just past 8pm the matatu dropped me off on the side of the road across from the Total Petro station by James’s house. I was a bit nervous at first making my way alone in the dark with all my bags, but after crossing the highway and getting into the gated residential area I felt completely at ease.
One thing I haven’t mentioned before is the security in this city. It’s mind-boggling and exceeds any of my expectations. Residential areas tend to have security posts and gates at their entrances. Then each house has a massive wall around it with gigantic gates. As I approached James’ house I realized that there was no buzzer on his gate and grew concerned that no one would hear me to let me in. However, after a decent amount of banging someone finally showed up and let me. Then as you walk up the driveway to the front door there is another gate right on the veranda. This one too is locked with about three deadbolts and then there’s the door itself.
I was happy to have finally arrived, although sad to have left Kirengero. Julita was to arrive at 6:30am so after watching some football I headed to bed for yet another restless night.

Today I woke up early and patiently listened to hear whether Julita had arrived. At 7:30am I finally got up and waited in the living room, but by 9am I started getting concerned. Finally round 9:30am James came down to tell me that they’ve been paging Julita at the airport since her flight arrived, but that no one had shown. I brief panic attack sent me racing to a nearby internet café where the internet didn’t want to work. All I could do is open the main page of my hotmail account where I saw a message from Julita entitled “EMERGENCY” but couldn’t open it. Finally, after about half an hour of trying I got into it to find out that she had missed her flight and would be arriving in the evening instead.
So that’s where we are now. I’m waiting for James to get up to head into town with him. I’ll probably just stroll around, maybe go watch the Davinci Code and then in the evening, after Julita is picked up at the airport, head home to James’ with her.


Oh - and I had forgotten to include the website address for the new blog and pictures:

BLOG: http://postvolunteeradventures.blogspot.com/
PICTURES: http://photojourneyafrica.blogspot.com


Kasia

PS: Robin - all the kids pass on their love to you as does the entire James Njaaga household.
PS: I'm coming down with a cold! My head is killing me - as is my throat! sucks - right before my safari!

#14 Kenya: Kwaherini to All!

Tuesday, June 12, 2006

I really don’t want to leave. I must admit that leaving didn’t really sink in until about 10pm on my last night in Kirengero. But when I found myself saying goodnight to the kids for the very last time and then sitting in the library all by myself listening to some Tibetan mantras and typing up this blog, I felt like this really should not be it. It would be different if I knew that I could stay in touch with these kids or that I would see them again. But there is no guarantee of either one. I will definitively write letters to them, but not having access to computers and internet, it’s not going to be possible to communicate via email. As for regular mail, they don’t have money for stamps and I’m not guaranteed that any of them would write back, but I would like to hope that at least a few would. As for seeing them again, well, as much as I would love to come back, I have no idea when I’ll get the next opportunity – when I will have enough time or money. One day though. Yet goodbyes are so much harder when you know that they will most likely be long term or even permanent. In a way I’m glad that tomorrow the kids will be at school and will not be able to see me off.


It’s been a phenomenal 6 weeks here. I will cherish this experience for my whole life. The kids here are simply amazing and really do put things into perspective. We should truly appreciate everything that we have and complain a lot less. I don’t know any kids back home that get up at 5 in the morning to study for school, that go down to the river to fetch water before they leave in the morning, that will do all your dishes even with you attempting to refuse their help, and will continue smiling, dancing and singing around you. They never complain. They never whine. They do their chores. They help out whenever they can. They try. They work hard. They love life and all those around them – whether it would be the people in their life permanently – their brothers and sisters (from the home), their adopted ‘dad’ and ‘mom’ (James & Lucy) – or those who just appear in their lives for short periods of time and then return to their own distant lives – the volunteers. Add to this the picturesque setting and you truly have a small kind of paradise – much more so than anything found on Lamu.
In my last week here (without Robin :o( ), I finished off all the library jobs, finished the cataloguing, sorting, organizing and decorating. I got to share some of my photos with the kids – showing the slideshows from Nepal and Tibet as well as South-East Asia. They loved to see the pictures of the different parts of the world, plus learned a lot about geography, people, culture and just life. Many didn’t know what a mule was, or what other religions were like. They didn’t know where Malaysia was or that Thailand was not a flooded country, but rather had many beaches because it bordered the ocean. They’ve never heard of the Secret War on Laos which dropped a plane load of bombs every 8 minutes, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 9 years nor had they every heard of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. They got to learn the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra as well as Daff Punk’s Around the World. So all around I was really glad that I got to share my travel experiences with them. It was a very simplified version and I’m sure that many of the younger ones didn’t understand much of what I said, but nevertheless, the got to see some of it and maybe became aware of more things.
That was essentially the way we spent our last evening together. We opted against them performing their usual song and dance routine for me (something that I have seen probably about two dozen times since having come here). Instead, after the photos from my travels we began watching video clips from my stay here: of the kids dancing, of them singing, from visitors day, us doing hand prints on the door, and everyone’s all-time favourite – Robin singing Killing me Softly while sweeping the library (with me hiding outside the window). They would ask for that clip to be played over and over – as well as any other clip that Robin or I were in.

It’s sad to leave and I really wish I could say that I will be back. I’ll miss these kids dearly, but as I’m sitting in the library I’m glad that Robin and I were able to leave something behind for them that they will appreciate on a daily basis. I agree that there are many things that can be done and are being done for them. Adrienne and Malaike painted the name “Njaaga’s Child Hope Home” at the entrance. They also sowed up some of the kids’ clothing and backpacks. Aogu and Marie built a basketball hoop and did face paints with the kids. However, sitting at the desks in the library, looking at the world maps hanging on the walls and the cork board on the other wall with the long list of signed out books pinned to it, I feel like this is somehow different. By no means do I want to say that Robin and I were better or had a better project. Everything matters and everything is appreciated by the kids. They remember every volunteer that came through this home and miss them dearly. But signing out the first book of Anne of Green Gables to Consolata or Little Woman to Mary and seeing Joseph, Samwel and a number of other boys playing with the marble maze set all day long, assembling and disassembling it just somehow makes it dearer to my heart. One of my best moments was yesterday seeing first the kids play with a multiplication board (that has sliding parts to reveal the results of your whole 10x10 multiplication table) and then have it taken over by the two Massai security guards who quizzed themselves and fumed and fussed whenever they got something wrong.
The library we’re leaving behind with Robin will serve not only as a memory of us, but will serve as a learning tool for the kids. The books are a great start. It wouldn’t be the same if not for all the boxes donated by Linda (from Canada). The games too will play an educational as well as entertaining role. Hopefully with time we’ll be able to help expand on this library – an encyclopaedia set would be fantastic, but more than anything, Robin and I will do our best to organize a number of computers for them – whether through fundraising, donations or collection of peoples’ old computers. I think it is definitively something that would help these kids out greatly. It would at least give them more equal chances of success as compared to kids in cities which have access to internet and computers on a daily basis.

But enough of my ranting about what we did or hope to do. The library is done (well, nearly done – Steve is coming tomorrow morning to nail the last shelf into the wall - he came today but without any tools – as befitting an African ‘carpenter’.) My bags are almost packed and tomorrow after lunch I head off to take my last matatu ride from Kirengero into Nakuru and then to James’ house. On the 14th I pick up Julita at the airport, have one day to take care of all my business in Nairobi and then it’s off on a 40 day safari through six countries all the way to Johannesburg. The postings from that part of the trip won’t be included in this blog, but rather will be posted separately under .


A few other concluding comments and remarks with regards to things that are on my mind or things that I had forgotten to mention beforehand.

While in Nairobi we caught a ‘disco’ back to James’ house. The matatu that we were taking (it was nearly 7pm so getting dark) had black lights in it, bright stickers on it’s windows depicting dancers and various other disco like images, and blaring incredibly loud disco/techno music. Not a bad right for someone who had a whole day of work and just wants to get home. But it was definitively entertaining.

Being on a big tour bus/truck must really suck. I hated the fact that when trying to shop/bargain in Nakuru everyone assumed I was a mzungu from one of the big trucks and would jack up their prices by 750% (from 40 shillings to 300 shillings). But I did go up to say goodbye to Moses for Robin and ended up being taken out for lunch by Thomas (another one of the vendors) who professed his love for me, told me he would wait for me to make my money in Canada and that the boyfriend that I told him I had back home would not mind or did not have to know. He then proceeded on to despair about the fact that we only met right before the time that I intended to be leaving because more time spent together would have allowed our relationship to grow immensely. That’s Kenya for you. And no worries – this is all innocent enough and part of a normal day’s work – at least that’s the impression I get. Everyone is super friendly and super nice. Although they propose marriage on the first sight of a white girl they by no means present any danger. It’s just talk and they probably try it out on every single person. Other than that though they are great to talk to and nice company. And by the way Robin – Moses says he hopes you had a safe flight and that you will come back and visit him one day.
On a sort of related note – every blond girl is the same person. On Saturday I went to the nearby town of Kambazi to watch a football (soccer for all you North Americans) game. The week before another blond volunteer had been there and everyone kept on calling me by her name, asking me what it was that I bought in a particular store and so forth even after I tried to tell them that this was my first time in Kambazi and that the girl they were referring to was someone else. They did take me into a photo studio though and insisted on getting a picture with me professionally done. This consisted of a guy standing us in front of some drapes and proceeding to pull out this antique camera that still had a wind button and snapping one picture that might be developed in a months time. Another example of blond girls being the same person was when I was taking a matatu back from Nakuru. The ticket guy asked me whether I was Diana and when I said that no I wasn’t, that Diana was another volunteer from Kirengero, he told me that Diana was his friend. At that I wondered why he would think that I was his friend since we had never met before, and I would have assumed that he would recognize his friend.

On Sunday Phyllis insisted on taking us to her church. I had wanted to see what the services were like here all along so I didn’t mind. Although the kids do their own service at the home, it is not the same thing and I was happy to go to Phyllis church. The service started out real nice with a lot of singing. The Africans are amazing at that. All they need is a set of drums, a metal ring to serve as one of those triangle like musical instruments and their voices. Seeing all the grandmas shaking their bums, singing at the top of their lungs and dancing while praising the Lord, was amazing. However, after over one hour of Kikuyu singing and praying I had finished my share of silent prayers and recollections. Yet their sermon went on and on and on and on. The actual sermon (which was a lady preaching in Kikuyu with every 50th word being in English) lasted for nearly 75 minutes. The whole service from beginning to end went on for more than three hours and proved to be more than I could handle. I don’t know if this is representative of African services in general or whether this was so because it was a Presbyterian parish and because they were celebrating Woman’s Guild Week. Overall I was glad that I went and got to see and experience it, but simultaneously wished that it had been shorter.

Mzungus tend to be the biggest attraction anywhere in these little villages. When I went to watch that football game in Kambazi, I had a crowd of kids sitting in front of me staring at me for over two hours as the football game was taking place behind their backs. The same held true at the church service where the kids sat in the benches in front of me and kept on staring a me rather than looking to the front of the church. It’s a really odd feeling. I felt like an attraction at a zoo – something/someone that people come to see and look at, poke at, touch, feed or simply observe. All I needed was a cage to be put into. On the other hand, most of them had never seen a mzungu before and the pinching and rubbing of our skin and pulling of blond hair can to a certain extent be justified or at least explained.


For a finishing note, here’s a list of my favourite questions (most asked by adults):

1. If the Tibetans hang prayer flags so that the wind can carry the prayers throughout the world for all of us, does that mean that there are demons flying around the entire world?
2. From the many leafs of marijuana growing on the side of the trials in Nepal I was interrogated whether I “PICKED” the one particular one that was featured in one of my photos (I had picked it so that I could take a photo of an individual leaf, rather than the whole patch of plants). But I felt like I was being interrogated by a Spanish Inquisitor that wanted to know whether I had in fact PICKED this leaf.
3. Is Tibet in Canada?
4. Will you drown in the ocean if you sink?
5. Is Thailand flooded?
6. Did I really eat snake?
7. What are thumbtacks for?
8. What is Lego?
9. Will I assist them with a electro-plast? (Meaning: can I please give them a band-aid)
10. What continent is Canada on?
11. Whether Hindus and Buddhists are idol worshippers?
12. How tall my mother and my sister are?
13. What is Canada’s cash crop? (this was a great question by a grade 6 student)
14. Who is the vice-president of Canada?
15. Whether I’m a sign-painter? (Meaning: am I capable of writing nice even letters on a wall, door etc.)
16. What I would give them so that they could remember me and never forget me? (A polite way of begging, maybe?)
17. What a desk lamp is for?
18. Singing the national anthem in the movie theater before the movie starts. Everyone dutifully stood as the flag waved on the screen!

#13 Kenya: Random Comments and Facts

After a good night’s sleep I remembered a few more curious tidbits of information that I thought I might share with you guys.

1. Don’t assume anything is self evident. I recently had the teacher come up to me and ask me what thumbtacks are. She had never seen them nor did she know what they were for.

2. Adults that behave like children drive me nuts... but with them having little exposure to different and new things, they tend to approach something that is unfamiliar like a child that is just learning about it. Hence we have one gentlemen that always drops by the library whenever I just want some peace and quite. He’ll just stand there and ask a billion questions. What is this? What is that? Why do you have white spots on the walls (they’re clouds)? What is this stop sign for that’s lying here on the ground? And on and on and on. Then when we were doing handprints on the door and all the kids got to do it, he insisted on holding each child’s hand and placing it on the door where he wanted it to be placed. The kids had no freedom. However, after we allowed him to do his own handprint he was satisfied and left.

3. Robin had a dress tailor made. Firstly I need to describe the circumstances a little bit. She saw a picture of a nice summer dress in a magazine and bought some fabric for it. The dress is a typical summer dress for our western societies: low cut, short and with a bare back. Well, she didn’t get a chance to find a tailor in Nairobi so walked into this Muslim shop in Lamu and before we could weasel our way out of it, the people there said that they knew someone who could make it. So measurements were taken and Robin was told to come back on the next day. When she did, she picked up not a nice summer dress, but essentially what could equally well be a parachute. The dress went down nearly to her ankles (or at least halfway past her knees) and the top was so big that she could honestly fly away if she flapped it hard enough. Robin, you better try it on and take a picture in it before doing any alterations to it.

4. Eating breakfast while looking out over paradise is priceless. The view from our orphanage is just breathtaking and to sit on the front steps while sipping tea in the early morning hours is something that I will dearly miss when I leave this place.

5. Riding donkeys in first gear is quite pleasant. Jordan, I’m happy to inform you that our donkeys never left first hear. To clarify, Jordan and I got to ride donkeys when we were in Egypt in the Valley of the Kings. The ride was about 1 hour one way and 1 hour the other way. My analogy is that donkeys have three gears. The first is when they are just slowly trotting down the road and it’s a nice and smooth ride. The second gear is when they pick up pace and all their legs are moving separately. Second gear is incredibly shaky, bumpy and uncomfortable. My donkey in Egypt refused to get out of second gear. I had two hours of the most rattling ride in my life and thought my entire camera would fall apart and all the screws would come out of it not to mention the ‘shaken-baby syndrome’ that I must have suffered afterwards. Third gear is fine because that’s the gallop. They’re going fast, but at least their legs are moving simultaneously so it’s nice even bumps. So I’ve been reluctant to ever mount a beast like that again, but upon Robin’s insistence we gave them a go on Lamu and I was incredibly thankful that it was first gear all the way.

6. Some volunteer organizations are better than others. Do your research well. Find out exactly where your money is going. I’ll write up a spiel about my takes on my organization at some later point. Originally I was disappointed with it, but after having talked to James I’ve come to understand how it works and to appreciate the work it is doing. But not all organizations are equally deservant of such praise. KVDA (Kenya Volunteer Development Association) might be one such organization. I say might because I don’t have personal experience with them. However, almost all the volunteers that have come through this orphanage while I have been here have been through KVDA. An example of their operation is that for 11 volunteers staying three weeks at the orphanage they have a mere $100 for food to last them the entire stay. This supposedly got augmented later on by a further $100. However, even $200 is not much money to feed 11 people for three weeks. And one should take into consideration the fact that each of those volunteers paid at least $200US to KVDA directly and many of them much more money to their umbrella organization (with one girl paying nearly $3000US for two months). If you consider that out of that $3000 merely $10 or $20 made it to James who runs orphanage then there is something seriously wrong with these institutions.

7. Riding in a matatu is much safer than riding in a big bus. At least the center of gravity is closer to the ground.

8. Bargaining for suvenirs when there is a big truckload of tourists parked right next to it is useless. You keep on getting muzung prices even from people from whom you bought things two weeks earlier (such as negotiating for necklesses for which I paid 45 shillings before and them now quoting me 300 shillings because they're assuming that I'm from the same truck).

9. More info about the kids and the orphanage is available at www.njaagachildhope.or.ke


Ok... that’s all I can think of for now. Time to head off. Plenty more to do.

# 12 Kenya: Ume Choca Sana (please don’t quote me on spelling) --> I’m Very Tired

It’s nearly 10pm right now as I’m sitting down to write this blog and I truly am exhausted. I’ve been working in the library since 8am with only a short break for lunch and dinner. With it being my last few days here, there is no time for African time. There is no way that I will leave this library unfinished, even if that means putting in really long hours. But please don’t think that I am complaining. This is truly a labour of the heart.

However, before I go on ranting about the library, let me fill you in on some other things that have happened over the last few days.

Lamu was phenomenal. I’ve already written a bit and no longer know where I left off. But we spent four wonderful days there beachbumming, relaxing, strolling, and enjoying ourselves. As much as I would have loved to have stayed longer, by the end the island had gotten a bit small. It’s absolutely impossible to avoid anyone on that island. If, in trying to get someone to bugger off you tell him that you’ll come back later to look at his goods, you better be prepared to follow up on that promise. He will remind you every single time you walk by and keep in mind that you will probably have to walk by another twenty times. A perfect example was with a tailor that we visited to have some pants made. He took a liking to us so we tried to avoid his shop and every time we took a detour round it we would bump into him coming back from somewhere. Simply unavoidable. The island truly does get a bit too small, at least for my liking.
But please don’t take that to mean that we didn’t enjoy ourselves. Lamu has such a laid-back and worry-free atmosphere that you can’t have these things bother you for long. Instead you find yourself riding donkeys (I got to ride Malaike), taking free showers while on a dhow, eating barracuda and shark, or hiding your belongings in your hostel so that the monkey doesn’t steal them. In the midst of all of this you relax and do nothing. It was truly a vacation from a vacation, and like all vacations, it sadly has to come to an end and did so for us on Tuesday.
We flew back to Nairobi where we got a ride through James’ agency into town and left our bags at his office. Not having eaten since early in the morning we had a fantastic lunch at yet another amazing Nairobi restaurant and then caught a matatu back to James’ house. At that point we finally had to tackle the jigsaw puzzle of Robin’s bags. With all the souvenirs and presents that we bought we somehow had to reshuffle the 65 kg of baggage to make two bags of 25 or 26 kg each and the leftover in the carryon. Not having a scale to double-check our work we used the coffee and tea that we bought as a comparison. Depending on a given object’s weight, we would either put 1, 2 or 3 500g bags of coffee into a bag and then add 250g bags of tea to it in an attempt of attaining an equilibrium. By this method we finally had three bags hopefully all meeting airport regulations.
The next morning we headed into town with James, roamed around a bit, took care of a few last things and had a last bite to eat together. Finally it was time for me to say my goodbyes to Robin. After having spent basically two months together (since while studying for exams we saw each other nearly 24/7, and now having spent over a month living, breathing, eating and sleeping together), it is really weird being apart. I am all alone now since Robin has deserted me. Well, technically one could say that I deserted Robin since I was the one to leave for Nakuru first with Robin left behind in Nairobi awaiting her 10pm flight. Yet it’s still me here and her back in Canada, so I think I’m justified in saying that it was her who deserted me. It’s funny being back in Kirengero because all the kids keep on confusing my name. They have gotten used to calling us Robin and Kasia that now they find themselves quite often calling me Robin before realizing what they had just done.

So I’m back now in Kirengero. I got the warmest welcome ever from all the kids. They stormed my car as I drove up and I could barely get out if it. By the time I did I had about 5 of them hanging from my neck and another 10 or so from my arms. There were two new volunteers arriving with me (from KVDA) and they were basically ignored and sidelined until all the kids finished greeting me. It was truly amazing coming back. This place is just magical and the kids are phenomenal. I was so glad to be back and my only regret was that I knew I would be saying goodbye to all of them in a matter of days.
John, a VICDA representative, had driven me to Nakuru with the hopes of seeing the library. Unfortunately Phillis was away and she had the key to the room. When she came back, it turned out that one of our shelves had collapsed (so maybe it was a good thing that John didn’t get a chance to see it). It was the free-standing shelf that Steve (the ‘expert’ carpenter) was supposed to nail into the wall two weeks ago. Robin and I had gotten frustrated with waiting for him and had set up the shelves without nailing it in. It seemed quite stable at the time, but as it now became apparent, that was not the case. All the books were in a heap on the floor and the shelf was strewn on top of them. As if I didn’t have enough work as is...

I tackled the mess in the morning. The books are now sitting on the desks again awaiting the timely arrival of Steve (African time is really starting to irritate me). I finished cataloguing them all and decided that there is no way that I’m writing all the books out by hand in their ledger. Instead I decided to print out my excel spreadsheet in Nakuru and past that into the ledger. It would simply take too long to list off 750 books by hand. So with the books catalogued I proceeded to the supplies and toys. Together with Peter and the two new volunteers (Daniela – Denmark, and Nancy – Kenya), I headed up to Kirengero and picked up four big chests for the toys, games, notebooks and supplies. I thought that everything school related would fit into one big chest, but after counting and sorting through nearly 4000 pens, pencils, markers and crayons I realized that they would fill up one entire box. The other three boxes got dedicated to toys and games and thankfully Marie helped me out with sorting through those. So today, for over 12 hours, I’ve been sitting and counting all these things. There’s a few more things to finish, but the library is nearly done. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that Steve will finally show and I will be able to arrange the books back on the shelf.


Other than that, just a few more days left. Depending on whether James will be able to take me on a safari, I might be leaving Kirengero on Sunday (the 11th) or else on Wednesday (the 13th). From there it’s off on a different adventure through another 6 countries and that will be a whole new blog.


For now this is it. I’m exhausted and needing to head off to bed. Goodnight All!

#11: Kenya - The Island Paradise filled with Bob Marleys

Hey everyone

Lamu, the little paradise as the locals call it. We arrived here on Friday and although it's been raining quite a bit, we've been having an absolute blast. But before I get around to talking about that, there's a bit of catching up to do.

Thursday Robin got to say her goodbyes to the kids. Since it was Madaraka Day (Freedom Day), the kids had the day off school and walked us up to the road to see us off. The night before we were up till 3am packign and finishing things off in the library. So we were a bit beat and Robin wasn't feeling too well. But by 9am we were heaidng up to the road with a train of kids and Peter carrying the huge suitcase (weighing 42 kg) on his head.

Matatu ride into Nairobi went well and we got off early to head to Jame's house after being met. There I finally got to have a proper shower (although it fluctuated between scalding hot and freezing cold). It was high time for one because to tell you honestly, I have never seen so much brown water come out of my hair as that time round. Even the washing of hair in Kirengero doesn't really get it clean and it was sickening when I saw the dirt in the bathtub. At first I thought it must have been mud off of my feet... but when I realized it was my hair, then I knew no matter how cold the water would get, my hair had to be washed.

That night we went to Carnivor and pigged out on Ostrich, Camel and Crocodile as well as the regular beef, chicken and pork. The food was fantastic. We were slightly disappointed that they didn't serve zebra, but government regulations prohibit the sale of wild game - so we had to settle for what we got. They keep on bringing the meet to your table so long as the flag flies on top of it. After what seemed to be countless servings we finally surrendered and pigged out on dessert and coffee.

The next morning we headed for the airport and caught our flight to Lamu. Here we've been relaxing for the past couple of days. Lamu is a small island off the northern coast of Kenya. There are no cars here - just donkeys (and a donkey sanctuary). It's a very muslim town with women wearing the full black gowns and men the traditional white outfits. But it is also a very laid back town with most the youth having dreadlocks, wearing Bob Marley necklesses and enjoying the fishing life.

We met up with two other volunteers here and enjoyed our time. We've gone Dhow sailing with a crew comprised of Coffee, Coconut, Lemon, Spoon and Fish - everyone here uses nicknames rather than their Swahili names (unfortunately not into the open Indian Ocean because at this time of year it is much too rough), but in the channels between the islands. We went fishing and then cooked the fish for lunch (Robin even ate one - although she normally hates fish). Some swimming and tanning later it was time to head back to the island and unfortuantely we got caught in a massive downpour. It was nuts. we were completely soked and the streets were turned to rivers (especially the little winding alleys of Lamu Stone town. With it being the rainy season the weather isn't the greatest, but we have managed to get ourselves sunburned.

So loving it for now - one more day to go, then back to the mainland and Robin flies home on the 7th. I on the other hand head back to Nakuru and Kirengero for another few days with the kids. James has mentioned the possibility of taking me on a safari to the Masai Mara on the 11th so I'm keeping my figners that that will work out.

Oh... by the way... I never thought I would be saying this, but a couple nights ago I actually said: "It's a pleasure to meet you Satan". One of the guys here goes by Satan - truly don't know where they come up with these names.... It's odd calling out hey - Calamari, are you up for a dirnk? Or last night Dolphin spilled something on his pants and Coffee uses coconut milk to bleach his hair.


But yeah... till later.


Kasia

#10 Kenya: Goodbyes are Never Fun

Before we get to the goodbyes, there’s still some other things.

How about a rump roast matatu? Well, that’s what I ended up riding again on Monday. I think Robin and me had one like that before where my backside slowly got roasted away until it was well done. This time, on the other hand we would have had nice roasted drum sticks as my feet were sizzling away. The engine was overheating to such an extent that just past Kambazi (a town right before Kirengero) the matatu stopped. As it turned out, the Grade 7 kids had been in Kambazi that day for sports-day and were just returning home. I spotted Grace and Joyce in one of the crowds and decided to walk with them the rest of the way to Kirengero. I was just starting to regret my decision because of all the mocking “how are you’s?” of the other kids when my matatu drove past me, yelling out my name and then stopping to pick me up. So yeah... that was nice.

Other than that I also realized that this is probably the only country where you can buy ½ litre of good beer for a mere dollar and a Smirnoff Ice for just a couple cents more (65 shillings) whereas one litre of gas costs 75 shillings. Got to love what they value most. Oh... and a diet coke is twice as expensive as a regular coke – I guess that is so in order to promote the rotting of teeth that is so widespread here already. I wonder if the dentists pay some kind of subsidy to all the stores and restaurants to charge more for the diet drinks. Plus, while we’re on the topic of oddities, there’s no Pepsis in this country. Honestly, to this day I have seen only one lone can of Pepsi at a gas station convenience store and it looked like it had been sitting there for quite some time.

The Pokot trip that I think I may have mentioned in an earlier posting fell through. Robin was exhausted after her safari and was in no mood to spend yet another day driving. Plus the more we thought about the cost ($50 for the day per person), the less worth it all seemed especially when this was supposed to be Robin’s last two days with the kids. So we apologized to Tom (who had stayed in Kirengero just so that he could accompany us up to the tribe) and cancelled the trip.

As for Robin’s safari – she enjoyed most of it, with two exceptions: 1) having to tie her head and body to the seat of her matatu in order to prevent herself from having whiplash due to the incredibly bumpy roads, and 2) waking up at midnight to a girl’s cries for help after someone had knifed through her tent while she was sleeping in it and stolen all her possession. Now everyone please don’t freak out. Nothing happened and no one was hurt – just a huge freight and an upsetting experience. Essentially what happened is that they were camping near a Masai village and the two Masai security guards had decided to go to sleep rather than guard the camp. One of the villagers used the opportunity to make himself some extra cash by stealing from the tourists. As unfortunate as that is on its own, it was magnified by the fact that the girl was in the tent when it happened, it was in the middle of the night and no one was sure of their safety afterwards. Other than that sleeping in tents with hyenas hunting around the tent was supposedly quite cool. Hearing nocturnal animals on their hunt was in Robin’s words “Pretty Awesome!”

She got to see giraffes, rhinos, lions, elephants, gazelles, zebras, monkeys, alligators, hyenas, birds, cheetahs, flamingos, hyraxes etc. The list could go on, but I’m no veterinarian hence can’t name them all off. All I know is that Robin thought that the cheetah was a pet cheetah. It was one of the first animals she saw in the Masai Mara and it seemed to be so surreal that the first thought that crossed her mind was that someone brought it along with them in one of the matatus and just temporarily let it out. As for the zebras, we’ll probably be eating them tomorrow in Nairobi.

As for the orphanage, well... in the beginning the days seemed to drag on for all eternity. Now the days can’t be long enough. As I’m writing this, it’s currently 1am and we’re still in the library working away with probably a good few hours still ahead of us. Time just somehow disappeared. Maybe the finished product won’t look so time consuming, but we honestly put in a good number of really, really long hours into this library. With Robin leaving tomorrow morning we’re wanting to get a few things finished off and this means that we’ll be here for as long as it takes.

For the last few days I’ve been cataloguing the books that were brought by me or were sent by Linda. I’ve numbered and listed over 600 books by now and still have probably a bit over 100 to go. Unfortunately all the work so far has been done on my laptop but they want it in hard copy in a book so I will have to write out all the titles of the books by hand. However, there is no hurry for that part of the job since I will be here till June 15^th. Robin, on the other hand, had to finish of her footprints poem. We also did the kids handprints on the door. That was quite an experiment. The first hands were really drippy because we had the kids dunking their hands into the paint. Finally, after 3 disasters, Augo suggested that we use the paintbrushes to put the paint on the kids’ hands so that there wouldn’t be so much paint to drip. From that point onwards, things went much more smoothly. Now we’re just finishing some of the final decorations, hanging some more things on the walls and organizing the furniture.

And now to the goodbyes. With Robin leaving tomorrow morning for good we wanted to throw something special for the kids and came up with the idea of buying ice-cream for all of them. Since we were pressed for time we decided to take the matatu north (for the first time) to a town called Subukia. We were told that we could get everything we needed there. Well, after traveling from the southern hemisphere of the globe all the way to the northern to get there (since we crossed the equator), we found out that it was essentially a little village with a few stores in it, but no supermarkets, and definitively nowhere that would sell ice-cream. They did however have a hotel with facilities for conferences, but I will not vouch for it. So having discovered this we boarded a matatu again and headed for another trip back to the southern hemisphere all the way to Nakuru where we bought everything we needed (including three 4.5L buckets of ice-cream) and returned to Kirengero.

Then, in the evening, after dinner, we treated the kids to a feast of ice-cream, bananas and crackers. It was a huge uproar. With the exception of maybe one or two kids, none of them had ever had ice-cream before. They were surprised at how cold it was and we even turned it into an educational experience by explaining to them why at the bottom of their metal cups there would be water drops forming. They all had a blast – including all the staff! Thereafter it was time for the kids to perform their dances again as a farewell to Robin. Since I had now seen them about a dozen if not more times, I started our packing.

The packing is a whole other story. Normally if you have a few breakables to pack it’s not a problem because you wrap it up in your clothes. Well, considering that Robin only brought 5kg of clothes with her – comprising of 2 pairs of pants, and a few shirts, there is not much that can be used to stuff a suitcase. It’s not the weight that is the problem, since between the two pieces of luggage and her carry-on she can have 56kg. The problem is that we have a huge suitcase filled with heavy breakables and a lot of empty space between them because we have nothing to fill the gaps with. For now I think the suitcase weighs about 35kg and Robin’s other pack probably about 10kg. So it means there’s going to be some serious repacking when we get to Nairobi. For now it will have to make do.

So yeah... tomorrow morning we’re off to Nairobi. We’ll be staying at James’ place and hopefully heading to Carnivore for dinner. It was supposedly voted one of the best 50 restaurants in the world and serves everything from buffalo, zebra, ostrich to alligator and whatever else you might wish. Should be fun and I’m really looking forwards to some good meat (especially after the ligament that we’ve grown to enjoy here in Kirengero). After that, on Friday morning we fly to Lamu and are planning to bask in the sun for 4 days before returning back again to Nairobi.

We’ll try to keep you posted and in not will update the blog after our return from Lamu. So take care and till later!

Kasia

#9Kenya – The Silence before the Storm: Visitors Day

Friday truly was the silence before a huge storm. Saturday was supposed to be visitors’ day and all of Thursday afternoon the kids spent cleaning and scrubbing the entire house. The frenzy of that evening was a huge contrast to the stillness of the next day; for Friday after school all the kids headed off to their grandparents and the whole home was really quite – almost eerily so considering we’re generally used to 70 bodies running and rushing here and there. Yet even so, I by no means want to give anyone the impression that we were bored out of our minds with nothing to do. With all the visitors coming the following day there were endless preparations to make.
For most of the afternoon the staff had been getting things ready and one of the biggest jobs was sorting through the rice. They buy it in bulk here and it’s not the best quality rice hence needs to be picked through to make sure that all the empty husks are separated from all the rice. Normally, this is a big enough job for a serving for 70 kids, staff and volunteers. But now we had to go through enough rice to feed over 300 people. That means we had probably sorted through about 100kg (give or take) of rice. In the evening there was about 15 of us in the kitchen, each over a bowl or over a piece of counter going through all the rice. I truly have formed a new appreciation for this staple. It is so much work not only in growing and harvesting it, but also in preparing it.
Yet even with all the work that needed to be done, Friday was a bit odd. I prefer it much more when all the kids are here. There is always someone to chat with, to laugh with, to help, or to tickle. The rooms were silent and empty and it just didn’t seem quite right. But then Saturday definitively made up for it. Everyone slowly started trickling back in starting at about 9am. By 10am there were quite a few grandparents and family members sitting on the lawn outside the home. We were still in the back getting lunch ready. At this stage that meant pealing 50kg of potatoes and chopping up a huge pile of cabbage. Truly a team effort to get a meal for this many people ready. And keep in mind, it’s hard enough cooking for 300-400 people back at home, but it is so much more difficult when you take into account the fact that you are cooking over a fire. They don’t have stoves here. Not even propane ones. Everything is prepared in huge pots over firewood. We had about 3 or 4 fires going and them some charcoal ones as well. I was sitting and pealing potatoes with my hunting knife for about an hour when one of the kids grandmas came and sat down beside me, taking my knife away from me and proceeding to do the job twice as fast as I. With no more knives to go around all I could do was keep on passing her new potatoes when she was done pealing and throwing the pealed ones into a big kettle.
Lunch didn’t end up getting served until nearly 3pm but not due to a delay on our part, but rather because James, who was supposed to arrive at 10am, arrived in true African fashion 4 ½ hours later. So we all assembled in the field in front of the home (some of the grandparents and community members had been sitting in the sun for over 4 hours by now). The food was brought out in the massive pots and the first to line up were the community kids. You should have seen the line. It was massive, snaking back and forth across the field. We handed out plates and then they loaded up on potatoes, rice, cabbage and meet. By the time the grandparents and other adults lined up, we were out of plates. So they stood in yet another huge snaking line waiting as we meandered our way between the kids collecting their plates when they had finished to go rinse them off and hand them to the awaiting adults. This process was repeated over and over. All the volunteers were working as servers while the kids from the home entertained by singing and dancing and the James, his family and a number of other VIPs sat on comfy couches in the shade and were served on glass plates from their separate pots. By the time we got to eat we were absolutely starving.
It’s amazing though how many people we fed, especially when you keep in mind the huge portion that everyone here eats. The plates are not just topped off, but rather heaped off. The mound is probably about 3-4 inches high – and that’s not just for the adults, but also for the kids. I must admit though, that when I arrived here, all the staff were giving me weird looks every time that I put my three spoonfuls onto my plate. However, by now my plate consists of a heap probably as big as that of some of the smaller kids here. I can probably bet you that once again losing weight will be an impossibility.
After everyone had eaten it was time to introduce all the volunteers and address the big boxes that were piled up in the middle of the field. It turned out that one of the volunteers from last year, a girl named Linda from Ontario, Canada, had collected tones of things and shipped them all to James. There were probably 12 huge boxes filled with toys, clothes and books. All the kids from the community got 2 pieces of clothing and the rest went to the kids from the home. The library also got a huge boost in books – ranging from children dictionaries and encyclopaedias, to little kids books and even a collection of about 20 R.L. Stein Goosebumps books as well as the whole set of Anne of Green Gables. I’m personally ecstatic about the books because it will make our library look so much better and some of the kids have already signed out their first books. On top of these donations James had purchased a huge fridge. This will be great because it will help preserve all their food.
However, the afternoon went downhill from that point onward because a number of the VIPs were local counsellors and politicians that each took their time in making long speeches to the congregation of assembled grandparents. This meant that all the “visitors” were sitting in the sun until nearly 6:30pm. After all this it was time to clean up and by the end we were completely exhausted. Yet somehow the kids maintained an energy level that was out of this world. They kept on singing and dancing until nearly 11pm. How they do it I don’t know. I guess for them it was an amazing day. They got to see their families; they got to have a huge feast; they were given tones of presents/gifts; and they got to see their daddy (James). So I guess it’s not that surprising that they were filled with energy.

So that was visitors’ day. Not sure how often they have it, but based on the amount of work that goes into preparing it, I hope it’s not too often.

#8 – Kirengero and the Library (or rather our inspirational labour camp)

Well, the crowd here at Njaaga’s Children’s Home is slowly thinning. The group of 11 Canadians left on Tuesday. Robin left on Thursday for her Safari leaving me all alone. Well, not quite since I’m surrounded by 75 kids and another 13 volunteers. However, it’s nevertheless a strange feeling being separated. We’re honestly starting to feel like a married couple especially when you consider that we had almost all classes in common, studied for the exams together till the wee hours of the night for the last month of school and then spent every waking and sleeping moment for the last 3 weeks together. So yeah, I have a right to feel betrayed and deserted, don’t I? Seriously though… it’s not bad, just odd.

But I don’t think any of you guys are wanting to hear about how attached Robin and I have gotten ;). What I really meant to write about is the progress on things here in Kirengero and more specifically the library project that we’ve tackled.
As I mentioned in the short blog last time, Jane has left us. She was a lady that worked here at the home. She’s 24 and has a 2 year old daughter named Josephine (an absolutely adorable and brilliant sweetheart). We’ve gotten to become quite good friends with Jane and because she has to walk on crutches we’d walk her home every night (just about 500 meters down the path to where a number of the workers live in one long barrack-like building). We were happy for her because she was going to Mombasa hoping to start a new life there but simultaneously we were also worried and a bit sad. The thing is here at Njaaga’s Children’s Home the kids aren’t really orphans as orphans. They all have family of one sort or another. In most cases its grandparents. According to James Njaaga, most of their parents left them with the grandfolks as they themselves headed into the cities with the hopes of getting a job and making a living. I’m not sure but from what he said it sounded as if many of the parents (primarily just single moms) have passed away and the kids are left with the grandparents permanently. Quite often these grandparents are unable to care for the kids themselves, whether due to financial constraints or simply health and age. As a result the kids are often left fending for themselves and it is these kids that James has taken into this home (he himself was raised by his grandparents after his mom passed away when he was 10 years old).
In getting to know Jane we found out that she was an educated girl. She had finished highschool and was really bright. However, the father of her child was nowhere in sight and we didn’t want to pry inquiring about him. She did however have boyfriend in Mombasa to whom she was now going. First her intention was to leave Josephine with her grandma and head to Mombasa alone. It’s really odd – at least in my mind. You’re working in a place with kids who were left behind by their parents and yet you’re about to do the same thing. By no means am I saying that we thought that Jane wouldn’t come back for Josephine – but the possibility (or rather risk) was nevertheless there making us a bit uneasy about Jane’s departure. Thankfully (from one perspective), Jane decided to take Josephine with her since the little girl would be too big a burden on the grandma. It made me feel much better about the entire situation but then you have to keep in mind that this is a disabled lady (not meaning this in any degrading way, but the reality is that here in Kenya there is no special heed or accommodation given to people with disabilities making things much more difficult) heading to a new city with essentially just enough money to pay for the bus and nothing else. She’s heading to stay primarily with a boyfriend that might be happy to see her, but might not necessarily be as welcoming to immediately being a father to a 2 year old child. Starting a life in those circumstances on one’s own would be hard enough, but starting it with a little kid to care for would seem almost impossible. But as I said, Jane is a bright and strong woman and as we set her off on the bus to her new life, we had all the faith in her that she would manage somehow. Either way, her life there should be better than here, since here aside for family for support and a dark room with a dirt floor and no electricity, she had nothing.

Just wanted to write about that to give you a perspective on what life is like here. We’ve met many nice women, but honestly speaking we haven’t met their husbands or fathers. Same thing applied in Nairobi when we were staying at Mary’s and Kathrin’s house and same thing still holds true in Kirengero. There are all the women, all of them smart, all of them aware of the way life is like in Africa, and all of them either with kids already or else pregnant and yet there is no man in sight. It’s mind boggling because one would think that they’d know better, at least one would hope that they would know better, and yet they somehow, for one reason or another don’t. It truly makes me wonder when this cycle might be broken.


On a different note, the library is truly starting to come along. For the first week and a bit all the work we did seemed to produce no results. We were scrapping, scrubbing, washing, measuring, sawing and even putting up the first coats on the mouldings and yet none of this had any visible proof of our hard labour. But with all this grunt work done we were finally able to get started on work that had immediate effects, such as paiting the walls and finishing the three coats of white paint on the mouldings. Immediately the room took on a different appearance. Everyone started dropping by admiring our work and inquiring about what else we would be doing with it. (This could get a tad bit annoying since they never seemed to be satisfied with what was being done… there was always something more. Such as for example Rafael, a worker her, asking us to buy a grill for the window to make it secure, Beatrice asking us whether we’d be painting the filthy ceilings, or one of the kids inquiring whether we’d also paint the outside of the window.) As much as we would love to make the library this oasis-like retreat that is absolutely perfect in every way, we can only do so much. Not only is time an issue, but so are our financial resources as well as the tools with which we are doing the work. Keep in mind that we’re erecting built-in shelves in concrete walls without an electric drill, sawing through what still is essentially one or two live trees in the hope of creating semi-even/symmetrical shelves, painting with brushes and rollers that we can’t really clean because there is no running water and we only have a tiny jar of paint thinner and sweeping/mopping floors with twigs and rain water.
However, we’ll do our best and the whole room has truly become a labour of the heart for us. We want to make it perfect to the extent that we can and although it’s hard work (like Wednesday when we started at 9am and continued until after 11pm), we’re loving it. Robin has spent the last few days putting up the footprints poem over the fireplace mantel. I’ve nearly finished assembling all the shelves (while ‘silently’ nailing all the boards together as well as into the concrete walls – Robin kept on complaining that my nailing was hurting her ear drums) and began painting flowers on the wall. We bought material for curtains that need to be sown and purchased a reading lamp for the room. Adrienne and Malaika painted the three tables into a gorgeous dark green and we still intend on purchasing a plant, a mirror, an atlas as well as some books/novels for it. Another item on the list is a big cork board or something similar so that they could pin up postcards, pictures, letters that they might get from the volunteers. Since it’s impossible to nail anything into these stone walls, the cork board would be idea, but so far we haven’t been able to find one. And then the final project will be a big group photo that I want to take of all the kids, print it out poster size back at home, have it framed and send it to them to hang in the library. I think that would be a nice finishing touch.

If anyone has any further suggestions or wants to contribute in any way to this project or this home, let me know.

#7: Greetings from the White Minority

Just got a couple mintues to write a few words. Over the last couple days we've stocked up on an insane amount of souvenirs. My suitcase will definitively be going back full with Robin. Saturday we spent bargaining like crazy. I had some of my hardest and longest negotiating ever. Guy started at 2500 shillings and I at 200 and it kept on going down/up by 20ties.

Sunay was an incredibly long day that started at 5am and finished at 10pm with us driving to Kisumu and included me falashing people at the matatu station (with my camera), much more bargaining and Robin changing right in the middle of the Sunday market. All in all, although it was an exhausting day, we were pleased with what we accomplished. Oh and on the way back as we were waiting for our matatu we were called "white minority" by someone... really liked that.

Monday we finally finished painting the library. Been more challenging then expected and we were happy to be done with it plus not be covered in blue paint anymore. Came into town today to pick up some more supplies for the library and to take Jane (one of the workers) to the bus station since she's leaving for a new life in Mombasa.

So that's it... more details in the next post in about one weeks time.

Kasia

PS: we have worm-like thingees in our water but they're usually cooked when we ingest them (hopefully - you can never be certain though... and if not then it's extra protine in our diet).

#6 Kenya – The Library & Random Facts

Our project during our stay here at the orphanage is to make the library a truly warm and welcoming place as well as an educational one. This being said, we set out to clean it, paint it (as well as the baseboards and crownmouldings), decorate it, build some shelves and furnish it with some educational material. Now that doesn’t sound to complicated, does it? One would think that a budget of $150 US would be more than enough to accomplish this in Kenya. Yet, as already mentioned, never expect anything and never assume anything.
Turns out that wood in Kenya is super expensive. 14 dinky little boards, un-sanded, uneven and with chunks coming out of them (all supposedly measured but of different sizes) ended up costing us over $35 US. But before we get to the boards and the shelves lets start with the cleaning. Washing filthy baseboards and walls with cold rain water and a bar of soap isn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially when you can’t just keep on refilling your bucket with clean water. So one wipe with a rag turns the water brown and then you’re scrubbing with brown soapy water. After that, although you have a broom, you don’t have a dust pan so you’re using an old pane of glass to pick up all the crap. Next, there’s about 4 layers of old super glossy paint on all the mouldings and all the walls. We want to sand the stuff down, but not having sandpaper, we ended up having to use kitchen knives. We did all the fireplace mouldings but gave up on the baseboards. Now we’re committing the biggest sin possible by repainting all the mouldings and baseboards with super-glossy white paint.
We also had the local handyman come by to assist us with the construction of the shelves. Firstly he bragged about the fact that all the work round the orphanage was done by him – primarily the paint job. If I were him I would never have fessed up to that. The paint is uneven, the baseboards are painted pink and the pink smudges over an inch onto the wall. There are also tones of paint blobs all over the floor. So that being said, Mr. Handyman told us he would help us drill holes in the wall so that we could do a built-in book shelve. When he said this I thought he would show up with an electric drill to drill into the brick. Well, what essentially happened is he came with a hammer and a wedge and basically began hammering huge holes into the wall. We had drawn approximate lines of where we wanted the shelves – i.e. measured out the height at which we wanted them. I remember Robin commenting that hopefully he’d come with a leveller. I didn’t say anything, but figured that this was too much to hope for. Turned out I was right. He didn’t bother measuring anything so now we have two holes that are pretty level and then the third hole that is about 2 cm higher. And this holds true for all the other holes he did.
Another thing that we’ve been able to accomplish in the Library is the painting of the fireplace with Bermuda Blue glossy paint. That on its own was not much of a challenge. However, washing the rollers afterwards of the paint is a whole different story. Robin tried to rinse them in a tub of water and the paint would absolutely not dissolve in it. It would, however, come off onto her hands but then would get stuck to them. It was a hilarious sight considering that her hands matched her shirt and her shorts. We were laughing that instead of being called a mzungu she should be called a bluezungu. I’ve honestly never seen paint do that. It completely would not wash off in water. It was like glue
So this library is truly a “make-it-yourself” adventure where you’re only allowed one knife, an old saw and two horrible brushes. Luckily though we have two extra sets of hands helping us now. Adrienne and Malaika, two Canadian girls, arrived last night also through GVN and are helping us out. Hopefully now the work will go a bit quicker.
Other than that, with the 3000 Shillings that we got from GVN we’re going to buy a big world map and a dictionary as well as an atlas. We’re planning to have the kid’s handprints on the door and the Footprint Prayer over the fireplace. With Robin and me heading back to Kisumu to pick up more material we’re also planning to buy some for a curtain. So for now we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the end result will look good.

Now some other random facts:

— The highschool kids go to school for 5am and come back at 7pm and also have class until 1pm on Saturday
— The primary school has over 1000 kids.
— You can use a bicycle to sharpen a knife
— A five year old kid can eat as much ugali as my entire family can eat potatoes (there’s 4 of us).
— Wood costs 30 Shillings (50 cents) per foot
— Gas costs approximately 70 shillings per litre (1.05 cents)
— Avocados grow on trees and they are 3 times the size of avocados back home and cost 10 shillings (15 cents) for three.
— Kids here pinch and rub at our skin to see if the white comes off.
— Showering every 5 days is acceptable and the saying “if it’s yellow let it mellow if it’s brown flush it down” is mandatory.
— If your feet are dirty at night you just put on “bed socks” to keep the dirt on the inside of them rather than on the bed sheets.

#5 Kenya – Excursion to Kisumu and Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria is the largest Lake in all of Africa and is also the source of the Nile. It therefore seemed like a worthwhile destination for a weekend excursion. However, I have learned never to have any kind of expectations because you generally end up being disappointed. Yet nevertheless, it’s hard not to have something in mind when one things of the largest lake of Africa. As such, we headed to Kisumu, a port town right on the lake’s shore, with the intention to relax a bit on the waterfront while sipping a beer or a Pepsi and enjoying the beautiful views and maybe a magical sunset. You sort of can’t help it. Anywhere in the world, (at least that’s what I thought), when you have a waterfront area, it seems only logical to have access to the waterfront; in other words – to have a seawall, or a park, or even some restaurants or cafes right along the water. Well, logic unfortunately doesn’t prevail everywhere. Kisumu, although a port city, makes absolutely no use of the fact that it’s located right on the shore of such an amazing lake. There is absolutely no way to access the waterfront from town and you only get glimpses of the lake between some alleys, shacks or other buildings. However, before I get into any further detail about Kisumu and what we did there, let me begin with our journey.
We tried going to bed early on Friday, knowing that we had to get up still before sunrise the next morning. Now in Vancouver I would expect to be laughed at if I said that I wanted to go to bed early on a Friday night, but I did not expect to have the same experience here in Keringero. People here don’t go clubbing, dancing or drinking on a Friday night, so I figured it wouldn’t be difficult to just disappear in our room. Boy, was I wrong with that assumption. The kids, not having to do any homework for the next day, were just having a blast. And they definitively don’t need a DJ, loud blasting music or a dance floor. All it takes is a couple buckets, some sticks and a good butt. Honestly, these girls really know how to shake their bum. Two would be playing on the drums, the rest singing and then a whole bunch dancing on the steps – and by dancing I mean primarily wiggling their backsides at super-sonic speeds. So with a party in full swing – as well as a huge full moon in the sky – it was nearly impossible to call it an early Friday night. Yet somehow, by about 10pm, we managed to crawl under our covers.
The morning brought with it a strange experience, considering that we have never gotten up before anyone else here. This time round, with our alarm set for 5am, we were the first to rise and it was oddly silent in the whole house. The huge orange moon was just starting to disappear behind the horizon and the sun still hadn’t shown its rays. We hiked it up to the road, caught a matatu to Nakuru and there boarded on another one that would take us directly to Kisumu.
All in all we arrived in Kisumu at 11am – so about 5 hours of a bumpy, not-too-comfortable and slightly squished ride. However, the scenery along the way was amazing. In the morning all the countryside was covered by a layer of mist. But it’s not like fog at home where everything is enveloped in it. Here, the tops of the trees would be peaking out of the mist creating a kind of fairylike environment. Then, further along the journey, we passed by rolling green fields: just endless mounds of green carpet. It looked as if you could stroll right over it – but in actuality the green were bushes of tea so dense that they formed a solid mass. To my great surprise, Kenya is the third largest tea exporter in the world and tea comprises its largest export (20% of all that it exports). The area around Kericho through which we were driving, is essentially one massive tea plantation owned my small landholders. The tea leaves get picked every 17 days by the same group of workers. According to the Lonely Planet book, a good worker can pick up to 100 kg of tea in one day.

So after this bumpy ride we finally arrived in Kisumu, checked into the YWCA and headed out into town for some cheap local food. The food turned out to be expensive, not so local and not so good, but we didn’t let that stop our excitement. Kisumu, unlike the other cities in Kenya that we’ve seen (i.e. Nairobi and Nakuru), seems very laid back, cleaner and less chaotic. Its streets are wider and there’s just a different feel to it. So we figured we’ll soak in this great atmosphere with a nice cold drink along the waterfront. Having walked through the center of town and seen only glimpses of the lake we resorted back to my trusty Lonely Planet which informed us that there is a Kisumu Beach Resort (campground) 3.5 km out of town that has a restaurant and bar right along the waterfront. Since it seemed like this would be the only place (against all logical urban development planning) that would have access to the water we decided to head for it. So we set off. First I should mention that it’s much hotter in Kisumu. Being warned of this we brought appropriate clothing and were now dressed in short beach shorts and spaghetti strapped shirts.
Our walk started out innocently enough but within a few minutes we would ourselves in the industrial part of town. Now to describe what it was like for us I’m going to create an equivalent scene in Vancouver. Imagine two Italian girls (clearly tourist), dressed in their finery with a big camera strapped around their neck walking through the industrial part of East Hastings. Well just as out of place as these girls would be so were we. Not only were we basically the only girls in this area, but we were also dressed for the beach and not to mention the fact that as mzungus we stand out like sore thumbs without the first two factors. So after 30 minutes of walking past car repair shops, industrial paint supplies and huge warehouses we began having doubts as to whether we were even walking in the right direction. Eventually we emerged out of the industrial complex and found ourselves along a country road with the lake visible about 300 meters to our left. We walked and walked. 3.5 km my a**. The Lonely Planet should better check its distances. We must have walked for close to two hours – or probably the equivalent of 8-10km. Thankfully we did finally find this campground and to our great relief the Lonely Planet at least got it right that there was a restaurant and bar. So we plopped ourselves down on some chairs looking out over the lake and ordered a couple of cold Tuskers.
We had hoped to be able to take a boat back into town since there was no way that either of us wanted to repeat that walk again. Unfortunately after over two hours of waiting around for a boat to come we gave up on the idea and decided to head back to the road and hopefully get a taxi. We were in luck because as we were making it back we were passed by a little 3-wheeled motorcycle taxi and took us back into town.
In the evening we treated ourselves to a fantastic western meal comprised of steaks and mashed potatoes and then found ourselves in need to kill a lot of time. We finished dinner basically at 7pm and it was already pitch black outside. The last thing we wanted to do was to head back to our hostel and go to bed that early, but there really didn’t seem to be any other alternative. We’ve always been told not to be out after dark and there was nowhere really for us to go. I truly don’t know what we ended up doing, but we found ourselves in bed at 11pm – so somehow managed to kill 4 hours somewhere in the meantime.
That night it rained harder than I ever thought possible. Over the years I’ve gotten used to the fact that Vancouver is one of the rainiest cities in the world (well – not quite, but the stereotype does exist). However, I’ve never seen anything like what we had this night in Vancouver. I was worried that our Sunday would get ruined due to the rain, but luckily by morning the weather cleared up and we were able to hit the markets.
Kisumu is known for its huge Sunday market and that’s where we headed. For me it was the highlight of the excursion. I love markets like that. It sort of reminded me of a cross between the market at Otavalo, Ecuador and the market that I’ve seen in Haiti. They had everything there: veggies, meet, fruit, clothes, material, shoes, furniture, hardware supplies... well, like I said, simply everything. The great thing was that we were the only two mzungus there. I don’t think the people there were accustomed to seeing whites at that market. Sometimes we’d be greeted by curious glances, other times by welcoming smiles and shouts of karibu and then there would also be those times of hostile looks or shouts, especially when people noticed my camera. But the best part was when I attached my large lens onto my camera. Some of the people there must have assumed that I was doing photos for some newspaper or the TV because they would request me to take their picture. I could honestly loose myself in a market like that for hours upon hours. I don’t need to buy anything, just walking around, observing everyone, taking photos and enjoying the atmosphere is the best part for me. It’s great to find oneself in places where tourists are not common and where you’re not being continuously hassled by touts.
Unfortunately that’s about all the time we had in Kisumu. We needed to make our journey back to Nakuru and Keringero before it got dark so after the market we grabbed ourselves some lunch, bought some fish for Phillis, She-she and Jane (for which they had specifically asked us), and boarded the matatu for the long and uncomfortable ride back home.

As it turns out, this Sunday we’re probably going to be heading back there for a very long and arderous day trip. We were informed that the gorgeous materials available in Kisumu are only sold there and in Dar es Salam. Both Robin and I wanted to get more and thought we’d be able to get them in Nakuru or Nairobi. Since that is not possible, our only option is to head back there. So this weekend we get to look forward to a 5 hour journey along the bumpy roads there, 3 hours or so in Kisumu, and then the 5 hour journey back to Keringero. Life goes on though and the materials (gorgeous African patterns) will be worth the effort.