Life in Mtito Andei

So, I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in such a long time!!!

A lot has happened: I went into the bush and saw a lot of really awesome animals, I went to a local celebration called African Child’s Day, I’ve started teaching at my school, I moved into a home and I’m living with a family, and so much more. So I’m just going to talk about some highlights of the past few weeks. And from now on I will be updating more often!

First: the African Child’s Day. A few weeks ago we went to this international celebration of African children, which highlights the problems they face. Rosina did a lot to plan the celebration in this district, and luckily Global Roots was able to help out by chipping in some money for the fuel to get all the children together from their many schools and buy milk and bread for all of the children who came. The day consisted of many presentations by the schools that attended. These presentations included poems, songs, traditional dances, speeches and skits; about half and half of the presentations were in English and the others were in Swahili.

It was so inspirational to see these students get up in front on over a thousand people, and with loads of confidence, talk about the injustices that they face and how they will stand for it no longer. They spoke of issues such as HIV/AIDS, incest, early marriage, child labor, the right to an education, abuse and gender discrimination against women and girls.

One girl in particular left a deep impression on me. Her name was Betty, and she was about 12 years old, and was one of Rosina’s orphans. Both of parents died due to HIV/AIDS, but because of Rosina’s program she and her caregivers are able to receive support in the form of new school uniforms, and occasional monetary support for other school fees and food. Betty was one of the strongest, most confident 12-year-old girls I have ever met. She was the honored child that day and performed two speeches that nearly made me cry. The vocabulary she used and the topics that she addressed were so beyond her age, but seemed so natural to her. I dearly hope that she is able to continue with her schooling, because I see this young girl going very far in life, despite the cards she was dealt.

Next: teaching at Mtito Andei Primary School! So the past two weeks I’ve started working at the school; in the first week I just observed classes, and the next week I started teaching. I teach two classes: Standard 6 and Standard 7 English. I will try to paint a picture of the school and my classes: The ages of the students are fairly independent of the grade because of the way the Kenyan school system is set up. This is because at the end of each grade students take a test, and they must get above a certain score to move on to the next standard. So my two classes are composed of about 45 students each, from about 11 years old to 15 years old. The school consists of a few small buildings and one large L-shaped building that house the classrooms. Inside of a classroom, depending on the grade, there are about 35-55 students. The classrooms consist of a cement room, with a tin roof, and cracks in the ceilings and walls. There are windows with bars and no glass, and sometimes there are doors, but most of the time the doors have been ripped off their hinges. There are probably about ten to twelve wooden, broken down, desks in each class, and about three or four students to one desk. The books are kept in the staff room, and before each lesson a student runs down to get the box of books. If you’re lucky, the class can have about eight very old, very torn, books, but usually there are about six or more students crowding around one book. In my Standard 6 class right now, we can’t find the books, so there are none. There is a blackboard painted onto one of the walls, where I do most of the teaching; especially in the Standard 6 class, I do a lot of writing on the blackboard.

I remember the classrooms and schools in the states and it is a stark difference. I think of schools in the states where every classroom has a smart board and multiple computers, and the injustice of it all really hits me.

But sadly, that is only one very minor form of the unfairness that children here face.

In the house I am living in now, I live with a woman named Alice and her son Abel. They run a pretty big bakery business, and because of this Abel works nights and Alice works days. Abel told me about one early morning recently when he was about to go to bed. He went outside for a smoke, and saw about three children picking through the burning trash that litters the side of the road for food. He went inside and got them a few loaves of bread, and when he approached them they ran away because they thought he was going to yell at them and beat them. The next day he was able to give them the bread, and he asked them why they weren’t getting ready for school, and they didn’t answer him.

Most likely, even though Kenyan primary school is compulsory and “free” (I say “free” because there are still fees involved for books and uniforms), these children do not go to school. In a lot of cases, children do not go to school because their parents can’t afford the very nominal fees, or the parents put their children to work to support the family. In fact, at Mtito Andei Primary the ratio of boys to girl is about 3 to 2. This is because some families think that educating girls is not worth it, and/or because the girls are required to stay at home to do the housework and take care of their younger siblings.

Kenya is a beautiful country, rich in natural resources and amazing people. But sadly, in a lot of ways it has been robbed and taken advantage of, and is now very behind and has a long way to go. A lot of the times the problems here seem insurmountable, but all we can do is continue to try. When I was talking with my mother about all of this, she reminded me of something Mother Theresa once said: “We cannot do great things, only small things with great love.” And that is what I strive to do everyday.

If you would like to help, we can always use more books, clothes, medicines, used electronics, and more. Kenyan people are very resourceful, and if you have something you’d like to donate, I’ll bet we can find a use for it. Email me at etk@bu.edu if you are interested in mailing something.

Meeting People in Mtito Andei

“We walk together.”

Those were the words of the district officer (similar to mayor) of Mtito Andei when we met with him to discuss our plans in his town. The past few days have been a little slow going but important. In order to start the work we want to accomplish while we are here we need to meet with government officials in the area to get approval and other local philanthropists that can give us advice and help us get things started. We have met the aforementioned district officer, children’s officer, Kenyan Wildlife Service ranger, and a woman named Mama Mercy. The day before yesterday we drove down to a safari lodge just past the town of Voi (it’s about halfway between Mtito Andei and Mombasa) to check out the accommodations of the place we will be taking the 10 volunteers when the come. While we were there we also met Mama Mercy. She was a very inspiring woman who has created a women’s’ group in her community named the Imani Women’s’ Group. From what I understand the premise of the group is: Empower and educate the women and mothers of a community and they will be the branches to spread that information to the rest of the community. With her group they have fought against child labor, early marriage of girls (she said some girls are forced into marriages at 12 years old), rape, and destruction of the environment by charcoaling and poaching. They have also provided education and training on various subjects including HIV/AIDS and how to prevent the passing during childbirth. And not only that, but she has helped start many other women’s groups in the area who work to accomplish similar projects. Travis was thinking, and I agree, that it might be very beneficial for Rosina and Mama Mercy to meet as they can both share their knowledge and help each other. If we can find women here in Mtito Andei who desire to start a group like Imani, we would love to help them get it started.

Another group we met with recently is the chief and elders of the Kampa (sp?) tribe who wish to start a safari lodge on their land and get out of the charcoaling and poaching business. They have a long way to go, but we hope that we can support them as not only would this greatly help the environment but also it would help the community by providing a stable income and jobs. While we were there we took a tour of their land and had a meal with the tribe members. I can’t remember the name of what we ate, but it consisted of corn, beans and a green herb. While we were eating, some women who did not speak English were sitting nearby talking amongst themselves and decided to give us names. Travis and Jen were given the male and female version of the same name of mwenda and mwendwe, meaning ‘the one who loves’, and I was given the name mwekali, which means ‘the one who remains.’ The baffling thing about this was that no one there knew that I was the one who was staying for 6 months, longer than everyone else. Eddie tried to get the women to tell him why they gave me that name, but he got no answer. He called it a prophetic naming.

Today we met with many of the primary and secondary schools in the area for two reasons; first, to scope out a place I will be teaching at, and second to talk with the principals about introducing solar cookers. As charcoaling and cutting down trees for cooking is a major environmental problem, we are working with a Kenyan organization based out of Nairobi to try to introduce the idea to communities here, South of Nairobi. We’ve decided to go to schools because of the massive amount of charcoal and firewood they need to cook lunch for their students. Meeting the students was a complete joy today! The students were so excited to see us visitors and crowded around us so close that there were times we couldn’t move! They were yelling, laughing and smiling and it reminded me why I am here! All of the kids were so interested in our cameras and loved seeing pictures of themselves on our screens and would scream and laugh every time they looked at them.

After seeing a bunch of schools we went to Baraka Orphans headquarters and met with the Baraka ‘Mamas’. These were by far the most energetic, full of life, full of love old women I have ever met! They were just as excited and energetic as the children to meet us! These women are caregivers (like foster parents) for Rosina. While we were there Rosina officially introduced us to Baraka Orphans and all of its projects. At the end we all had tea, and it was the sweetest, tastiest tea I have ever had. As a testament to their hospitality they offered to slaughter a goat for us, but we said if they we wished to do so, it would be better to wait until the other volunteers arrived.

Among the mamas was a beautiful baby girl that they had rescued, probably about 6 months old. Rosina explained that her mother had sold her for only 3,000 Kenyan Shillings.

That converts to about 37 U.S. dollars.

I thank God for Rosina and women like her that are here for children like that girl, and for more than 1,870 other children.

P.S. Our means of Internet here is USB drive modem (called Safaricom). But the way they charge isn’t per minute but its by how much information you download or upload. Because of that it would be extremely expensive to upload my pictures using Safaricom. As such I will wait until I have plenty of pictures and then go to an Internet café that charges per minute.

In Mtito Andei

Hello! Yesterday morning after Travis, Jen and I had breakfast we left with Eddie and Joseph to Mtito Andei. The drive took about 4 hours.

Tsavo Inn is absolutely gorgeous from the outside. There are many different types of trees, and flowers covering many of them: orange, magenta, bright red and yellow flowers. I hear foreign birdcalls outside my window often and hear Islamic chanting over a loudspeaker every time there is prayer.

Tsavo Inn is confusing. I say this because we are the only guests here (it kind of feels like I’m in a bad slasher movie, haha). It is so odd to be the only people in a room with 15 other tables at dinner. We all wonder how this place is able to stay in business.

This morning we met Rosina! She is incredibly kind and loving and brimming with happiness. It is impossible not to smile being around her. Her English is very good but she always talks very fast so sometimes it is hard to understand her. We also met some of her friends/colleagues/local community member volunteers for her orphans. Rosina and I talked about a place that I could teach and she mentioned a primary school just a short walk from Tsavo Inn where I could teach. Rosina also mentioned today that Mtito Andei means “Forrest of Vultures.” Interesting! After we talked with them Rosina left to attend to her father who was ill, and we left with her friends to go to their church.

I was honored to be invited to their church, but I have to admit, it was very awkward at first walking in! The service had already started so we were late, and on top of that, we are three very foreign looking people walking into a tiny country church. I could feel everyone’s eyes in the entire church on us as we sat in the empty seats in the front! The church consisted of a very bare room with wooden benches and a small stage. There was no piano, or banners or even a cross. The people who we came with seemed to be high members of the church, so they introduced us, and made each of us come up to the front and say hello and our name. I felt very embarrassed to get up in front of the entire church and speak in English, a language that most did not understand! The music was definitely my favorite part of the service. It was absolutely beautiful; only their voices in harmony, a drum and occasionally clapping.

After church we left for Rosina’s main headquarters. She has a few centers for the children in different places throughout the community, yet this was described as headquarters. It consisted of a building that was halfway done being built with no roof, a small office that had a roof (tin metal and the ground of the office was just dirt), and some projects that had been started (fish farm pond, unbuilt chicken coop, outhouse). We were speaking with Rosina’s colleagues about this and we mentioned that a woman from Global Roots (Hong) is planning on starting a library and that this building would be good for that. The people thought that this sounded great. They also mentioned that they had originally thought that this building would be a rescue house for the orphans. Meaning that when the orphans come to Rosina to say they have been abused she has some place to put them. We were thinking that when the building is finished, they will be able to use it for both; have the books along the walls and beds in the middle.

Later in the day for lunch we ate at a little roadside stop/restaurant near Tsavo Inn. I had pilau (I think that is how you spell it), which is rice cooked with spices and herbs and small chunks of meat. Travis had ugali which I tasted. Ugali is made out of ground corn and is the texture of sticky bread. Kind of like a play-dough texture actually! You eat it with your hands by taking chunks off and dipping it into a sauce (usually a meat based sauce). Without the sauce ugali is very bland.

After dinner Jen and I played cards for a long time and later Travis joined us. It was a nice relaxing evening. Later for dinner we had chicken curry and chapatti, a flat bread cooked with a few spices, fairly similar to tortillas but a little crunchy and with a different taste because of the spices. Dinner was extremely tasty.

Overall my time here in Mtito Andei has been very good! We are meeting with Rosina tomorrow again and have a full day’s work ahead of us.

Arrived safely into Nairobi

Hello! This morning I arrived safely into Nairobi! There were some troubles with travel (my name was printed ‘wrong’ on my ticket and it had to be changed last minute, and I had to RUN in London to catch my connecting flight to Nairobi) but I am here! Travis picked me up this morning and had a cab waiting to take us to the hotel to check in and drop my things off. Travis described the hotel as rugged, and I would aggree with him;  pictures of my room to come soon. What I remember most of my travel from the airport to the hotel was: a LOT of traffic, the heavy smeel of exhaust fumes from the many cars, and all of the people walking along the side of the three lane highway. There was so much fog when the plane landed and it is very grey outside now. After we dropped my things off, we walked about 20 minutes into town and got breakfast and ran some erands. After that we walked around the city some more and then headed back to the hotel. We were both exhausted so we took naps. Probably not the best idea but I was so tired!

Just now I had a late lunch at the restaurant next to the hotel with Travis, our driver to Mtito Andei for tomorrow, Joeseph, and a contact of Rick’s, Eddie. For lunch we had a whole roasted leg of a goat and french fries. Accompanying that were a spicy red sauce (that looked strngely similar to salsa) and sea salt to dip the pieces of cut up goat into. We ate with our hands (well hand; only the right as the left is seen as unclean). It was tasty!

Right now Travis left with the two other men to run some errands and pick up Travis’ girfriend Jen from the airport, while I stayed at the hotel. The hotel has a litle inernet cafe/business center that I am using now.

I will update you all again hopefuly very soon!

Travel starts tomorrow!

After months of planing and fund-raising, I can’t believe Kenya is almost here! Right now I’m writing from my hotel room in Portland, OR doing some last-minute work for Global Roots before I depart for New York tomorrow. Tomorrow I will travel to New York, where I will spend my last night in the U.S.  On the morning of Thursday the 3rd I leave from Newark to London Heathrow, have a one hour layover (I hope that’s enough time to change planes!) then board a flight to Nairobi. I arrive in Nairobi on the morning of the 4th and will be met by a senior volunteer of Global Roots, Travis Gearhart. I met him in Portland a few days ago and I’m very impressed by him and excited to have someone with Global Roots experience with me for the first few months I am there! On the evening of the 4th his girlfriend Jen arrives, and we will all spend the night in Nairobi before traveling by car to Mtito Andei the next day. Hopefully during the day on the 4th I will be able to get to an internet cafe to update you guys!

This is everything that I am bringing with me to Kenya!

Jen, Travis and I will spend the first month in Mtito Andei getting settled and setting up all the accommodations for a group of about 10 volunteers to arrive July 4th. I met most of them last Saturday for lunch with Travis and I’m very excited they will be joining us for 3 weeks to help with me and Rosina in the orphanage and many other project in Mtito Andei! During that time the director of the organization, Richard Montgomery, and another senior volunteer Patrick Firouzian, will come to Mtito Andei as well. Jen and Travis will be in Mtito Andei with me until the beginning of August when they will return home to the U.S.  After that I will mostly be on my own!

To be honest, right now I am very nervous. There are so many unknowns! And I have plans about how I want things to go, and ideas about what will happen, but I know that those will change with time. I hope that I will be as adventurous as possible and defy my expectations of myself. I know that even though I might be apprehensive and a little scared now, in the end things will work out and this will be an amazing experience.

Please wish me luck and safe travel, and I will update you all soon.

Hello world!

Hello all, and thanks for visiting my blog! I am leaving for Kenya on June 3rd; less than two weeks away! This will be a place where I will update about my experiences and post pictures. If you wish to stay updated, please subscribe to my blog using the box on the right. I am both excited and scared, but mostly I can’t wait.

I am thrilled to be volunteering for Global Roots, a small nonprofit based out of Portland, Oregon. For more information about my activities while in Mtito Andei, Kenya please visit my About Me page.

I wish you all well, and I thank you for your support!