Peace Corps - Kenya

Tribes in Kenya

2010-02-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

Tribes in Kenya are something that you would expect to be fairly comprehensible to an American, at least after some explaining. A tribe, after all, is just an ethnic group and every urban area in the US has plenty of those. However it really is so much more that it becomes very difficult for the average American to relate to what one's tribe means to a Kenyan. Tribes are far bigger and more important than the threads that tie people of the same ethnicity together. A tribe transcends a sense of identity, a common language or a cherished culture. And tribal stereotypes, though just as commonly held and just as partially true as ours in America, are no more than an often humorous side note. Unfortunately some of the more significant aspects are not so innocuous. When it comes down to it, tribe is the device an individual uses to distinguish "us" from "everyone else."

The general attitude is if you're of the same tribe, you're probably OK. If you're not, well then I don't know you and I don't trust what you're up to. It's funny to watch how Kenyan visitors are treated when they arrive at the market center nearest to me, which also serves as a bus stop. First the local men give sideways glances at the outsider (especially if it's another man), which quickly turn to flat out stares. If it seems the man doesn't know the place well and nobody knows him, someone will go up to the fellow and say something in Kikamba, the local tribal language. If the visitor responds in Kikamba, smiles explode and everyone lightens up and acts like family. If the visitor responds in Swahili then his questions will be answered politely yet coolly, and everyone will continue with their business with an eye kept on the stranger.

Even me, when I'm in different parts of the wider region inhabited by the Kamba people, if I speak the little Kikamba I know I am treated completely differently than if I use Swahili. Simply saying "Watinda ata?" (Kikamba for: How is your day going?) has people freaking out. They immediately start cracking up laughing, they want to know where I stay, what I'm doing, am I going to marry a Kamba woman (because we can ask each other how our days were, which is about the amount of interacting married couples do in the country side), and often a soda is offered. If I speak Swahili MAYBE they will note "Ah, you have learned some Swahili. Good for you." To have learned any Kikamba means I must have spent time with and been accepted by other Kambas somewhere, therefore I must be OK.

With 45 tribes in Kenya, and the largest comprising no more than 1/5th of Kenya's population, the problems come when you look at national politics. First of all Kenya got off to a bad start. Soon after gaining independence from the British in 1964, Kenya's founding president, a man of the majority tribe fittingly named Jomo Kenyatta, immediately seized the best pieces of land and distributed them to other members of his tribe. This set the tone early for tribalism and protecting narrow interests. To this day many people exclusively vote along tribal lines, and when elected into power a person is expected to use that influence to advance his or her tribe. Regardless if this means 'misappropriating' money or blocking a project in a rival tribe's land that might benefit the whole country.

Even worse, when any type of problem arises that incites tribal tensions violence is not uncommon. This is usually fairly isolated and tends to happen in more urban areas dominated by a single tribe but with a small but significant population of another tribe. During the 2007 election tampering was suspected by the majority tribe which has dominated national politics due to their strength in numbers. In the aftermath there were pockets of vicious violence against that majority tribe which ended up killing over 2,000 people and displacing around 300,000 more. Peace Corps actually pulled all Volunteers out of the country for six months (my group was the first full, new group to return).

Most of the time most people of all tribes get along just fine. But the fractiousness of tribalism makes national unity elusive and stability tenuous when issues of national importance arise. Living in Kenya has made me appreciate what Iraq and Afghanistan must be going through. You have all these distinct ethnic groups who may or may not see any connection whatsoever with each other, and you're asking them to become a single nation that they may or may not want to be a part of, under leadership that most absolutely do not support. There are bound to be bumps in the road. Luckily Kenyans have gone well beyond questioning whether they should be a single state or multiple. And as more people become educated and the population shifts to urban areas where peoples naturally mingle tribalism should slowly dissipate. Though for the foreseeable future tribes and tribalism are going to be shaping forces in Kenya. This will keep it an interesting place, with an enormous diversity of cultures existing right next to one another, but it will also hinder development and make national elections dangerously contentious affairs.

still alive here

2010-02-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

OK just in case anyone still checks this thing and has concern about my well being, worry not. All is well. I just haven't been feeling the motivation to keep up with this blogging madness. Though I'm feeling a little juice again I can't promise I'm going to all of a sudden post any more regularly than I did in my first year. Regardless of frequency, I might as well write to the world while I still have something interesting to write about. Even though I have a solid ten months remaining it truly does feel like I've entered the downswing of service.

Looking back at my old posts I think I've done a decent job of telling the story of what I go through over here. My trials, my tribulations, my victories, my failures; all the emotions evoked in the process. However I noticed I really have neglected one of the major characters in this whole experience, which is tragic for reasons beyond poor story telling. There's an actor that shapes literally every single day's events, yet I mention her in passing as a part of some specific story. Shameful. And the aggrieved one is Kenya, of course. I've provided bits and pieces on landscapes and a general sense of what the people are like, but nothing trying to explain what Africa is in reality. Part of the reason I've largely left this alone is that so much here is so different from life in America that there is no point of reference I can offer to make understanding any easier. Despite the fact that a lot of the things about Africa just wont make sense to the American perspective, I still think it's worth trying to explain. First of all this place really is fascinating for a ton of reasons. You have these many different traditional African cultures surrounding the bastion of modernity of Nairobi, with each trying to maintain some of the uniqueness of their own identities all while coalescing around modern principles of education, opportunity and equality. To me nothing represents that better than the tiny old man with a bow and arrows who got on the same bus as me a few weeks back. Now that man is what you might call old school. He probably travels armed because as a young man he was a clan warrior who had the responsibility of protecting cattle from raiders, now just hasn't come to grips to this world of speeding metal boxes. And it's a safe bet that his grandson lives in Nairobi hustling to make money however he can so that he has enough to send back to his wife in the country side to pay for their kids' school fees. When you step back and look at this world with that progression in mind you start to appreciate how far many areas have come and understand why certain things don't happen faster. The other big reason I want to talk about Africa itself is to show that there is more to it than AIDS, dictators, abject poverty and genocide. Unfortunately recent and current history has provided enough of those tragic happenings that these widely held Western perceptions aren't completely misplaced. Still, it is not accurate for the vast majority of this continent's inhabitants and even when the perception might be accurate it is grossly misunderstood. While I certainly can't speak on behalf of all of Africa, I can speak with some authority on the tiny sliver that I've been immersed in for over a year now, which is probably fairly representative of a number of other parts where people are struggling to simply lead happy and fruitful lives, with the hopes that their efforts will make things at least a little better for future generations.

Before I go I absolutely need to mention that the library is officially and completely finished! I don't think me extending one more thank you to all those that supported this effort will really be doing much of anything, so instead I will share the short thank you note a student wrote to Ade Otenaike and Wings of the Dawn. Tobias Isika is exactly the type of student I have in mind when I say something like "this library can change lives!" It will be a very nice thing to many many people, but to someone like Tobias who's very curious, very ambitious and works hard, a library just might be the outlet he needs to develop and reach his potential in life. He's already finished a few of the Harry Potter books and every week his name is all over the library log. This note was addressed to Ade, but the message certainly goes out to everyone who contributed:

I would like to thank you on behalf of all the library going addicts in Nduluku Secondary. Warning this to you means I am the most addicted due to your generosity for equping our libary. Words alone could not express how grateful I am for the opportunity you have given us (especially me). It has boosted my creativity and increased my knowledge at an alarming rate. It has also enabled me to see the world in a whole new perspective. May the Almight God bless you. Amen.

Tobias Isika

put it on the board!

2009-11-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

Folks, we're no longer dealing in fractions here. I and the thirty or so remaining Volunteers from my training group have now been in Kenya for a full year. I think nearly everybody would agree with me when I say that the time has been some of the most interesting, enlightening and rewarding (though the latter most tends to be quite fleeting) life has yet to serve up. I also know that everybody would whole heartedly agree with me when I say that it has been at least equally disheartening, uncomfortable and all around difficult. Because a plane ticket back to an easier more comfortable life is just a phone call away, I congratulate everyone from my group, and really all Peace Corps Volunteers (except for those guys who are on some sweet beach in Costa Rica or some country like that), for pushing through. In this existence surviving ain't no small thing.

With that self-congratulation out of the way, I have to say that for myself the reward has been beyond worth the struggle. Sitting here trying to catalog all the ways this experience has served me is no easy task. The things I'm getting to do with work are infinitely more interesting, challenging and aligned with my values than anything else I could possibly be doing right now. When I came here I was somewhere between highly uncomfortable and terrified to speak in front of crowds. Now every gathering I go to I'm asked to say something (because I'm in the interior of Africa and white). More than a couple times I've had to speak in front of over 400 community members and I'd like to think that I was comfortable enough that I did a decent job. Granted that comfort might not perfectly translate over to the context where most people actually understand what I am saying, but hey, at least I know I can do it. And having the opportunity to spend the day to day looking at the big picture trying to solve problems from scratch, getting people to cooperate with no real authority, and using all that as a platform to build people up and change mindset; with all do respect to my previous employer, it certainly beats trying to get people to buy a sponsorship.

Also getting to (alright maybe at first it was: being forced to) understand and integrate into a culture and value system that is so vastly different from what we have in America that there is no way I could ever get you to understand it. Not to mention that a lot of the people I live with are in a type of poverty that would have been unimaginable to the world I previously knew. And to see them in that condition but still happy and enjoying life. It really opens your mind.

When I joined Peace Corps I wasn't too sure how I was going to fit in with other Volunteers. You know I'm at least kinda jockish, or as a past colleague would say: a bro, and I wasn't sure how that would mesh with the average person who decides to spend two years of their life doing whatever it is that Peace Corps Volunteers do. I've found that there is no typical Volunteer and people join for a multitude of reasons (on a related note I'd like to do a post on the misconception that is altruism). My training class is crazy diverse but if you got to know them all the two traits you would see the most are the desire to do things that matter and the desire to do things that are interesting. Not bad qualities to have in your companions for something like a two year stint in Kenya. More so, not bad qualities to have in people that you'll inevitably be linked to indefinitely.

Now I could go on and on, but the last thing I'll mention is the excitement of just living the life and seeing the sites that come with spending a year in Kenya. It's an absolutely beautiful country that is as geographically diverse as a New York City subway train is ethnically diverse. Even my area, which is not at all special by Kenya's standards, is stunning. When I'm bored or demoralized nothing picks me back up or reminds me of the uniqueness of this whole experience more than a ride on a country bus. Speaking of being bored, that is near the top of my list of complaints these days. I'm used to so much of what was once new and exciting that when things get slow man I just do not know what to do with myself. Despite that I still think my life is in the net more interesting than what it would be even if I was still living in New York. There is more of a pure rush in getting off the bus into that crazy depot in Nairobi and more excitement in a single night out until 5 in some semi-shady club to compensate for the slowness of village life.

Of course there are the down sides. A lot of the things that ostensibly fall in this category actually just provide a challenge or a change of pace. But unfortunately there are many that do nothing but grind on my patience, will, spirit or all of the above. Number one on this list would ironically enough be the same thing you would find on my list of positives: people. Part of this stems from the frustrations of working on rural African time (a 9am meeting actually starts at 11am, and people will STILL be JUST showing up at 1:30 or 2...that's five hours late people!). But it's also more substantial than that. Most of the older community leaders are far more interested in politics than they are in development. Community groups are vehicles for gossip and opportunities to have a title, rather than any type of real mobilizing initiative. I tried a little bit to change that at first, which I quickly learned was A) a huge mistake and B) impossible. Now I've accepted it and try to get things done within it, but honestly I tire of it all very quickly. Also people regularly disappoint. They say they will do something, which you're relying on, then they don't. Or someone helps me out with something and I start to think they're decent but it turns out that they just want me to give them money or to get me to ask the General to help with some problem they're having (and he always listens and often tries to assist). And occasionally I have found out that people I have been working with or just respect are as corrupt as a human being can possibly be (and I will definitely post about corruption in Kenya at some point, it's awful and complex and interesting all at the same time). If a series of those events come in a row it can get to be a bit much. You start to wonder what the point of it all is. When I get into these modes, which isn't too frequently but it does occur, I look for some kids to pick me up. First of all they're just about always really excited to see me (I now understand the appeal of being reality TV start, being adored for no real merit doesn't take away from the fun at all). Plus they remind me that there is a future. These kids deserve more opportunities than what this place currently offers, and they should not have to pay for the sins of their parents and grandparents.

This next thing has slowly started to wear off, but man not getting to see football is killing me. The first few weeks of the NFL season were brutal. Broncos starting 6-0! Say what! Of course this happens when I can't see a single game. This might seem like a small thing to a lot of people, but it's weird and depressing to have something that was such a big part of my life almost completely absent, at least absent in a meaningful way.

I'm an optimist and part of the way one achieves optimism is by deliberately not focusing on the negative, so this will be the last difficulty I'll mention (because I could go on and on with this too). I'm really pleased with the way I've integrated into my community and I have a lot of people who I consider to be real friends. But no one really understands the world I come from and the struggles I deal with. I mean I don't think there's a single villager that even knows what American football is! Most or the time this is more than fine, but occasionally it would be nice to be able to reminisce about college or vent a bit about the meeting that nobody showed up for or have someone else appreciate how insane looking some bird is.

Each one of the difficulties I face, listed and unlisted, isn't too bad by itself. Occasionally a few descend on me at once, and those are the times this becomes a really hard gig. But Peace Corps recruiters tell you early on in the application process that this will be the toughest job you ever love. Truly stated.

Two quick side points:
1) My mom did good job telling all the interesting stories from their visit that I didn't see any need to elaborate. Eliot was going to do an entry but he's been bitching about being busy with law school and wanting to get the most out of his 100K+ investment or something like that. Mixed up priorities if you ask me. If you haven't checked the blog for a while take a look at the previous post. Moms made an excellent contribution.

2) The library is getting very closed to completion! All the money was raised for the furnishings so now we are waiting for the money to transfer so construction can get started. In just a few short weeks the library itself will be all wrapped up! The books are already being used by students and teachers, but I have a lot of work to do in getting most of the villagers to understand how a library functions and encourage them to at least get books for their young ones to read. This will require real effort for a number of people, but a lot of fairly well educated people and shop keepers are excited about it. Once it is completed I will get pictures up one way or another and do a blog post/email dedicated to the event. Thanks to all who contributed!

Mom's post

2009-10-27T00:12:00.000-07:00

Entry for Alex’s blog

First I want to say I am very proud of Alex for doing this and want to thank him for including Eliot and me in his Kenyan experience.

As a child every time a Nat. Geographic Mag arrived in the mail I would spend hours looking at the pictures of Africa…the elephants, the Masai people, Mt Kilimanjaro, the sweet babies riding on their mama’ back ..never did I think I would ever have an opportunity to go there. Thank you Alex for giving me such an unbelievable opportunity.

The welcome the Kenyans gave us was so heartfelt, warm and generous.In Oloitokitok we stayed with Mama Alice who drove us around in her brother-in-law’s pickup, so we did not experience all the walking Alex had to do during his training. But I can tell you he walked many miles those months on dusty roads with no road signs and very sparse scenery giving very little indication where you are and which direction you want to go! But Alex made it home every night!. Mama Alice fed us until we could eat no more, introduced us to her sisters and their husbands, to other host mamas, slaughtered a sheep in our honor and invited many village people who knew Alex to share the feast. We parted great friends and I will not be surprised if Kevin, mama's son, does not come and stay with us some day. The only disappointment was that it was very over cast so

we could not see much of Mt Kilimanjaro, just a very thin strip of snow in the distant clouds.

We stopped at the Makindu Children’s Center, a school for Aids orphans. It was heart warming and also very distressing. The children get such wonderful care there but their lives are so tenuous, they have so little yet they had such wide eyes and big smiles, they warmed up to us very quickly and were so proud to show us their school work(they speak 3 languages). It made all the Stuff in our children’s lives seem almost obscene. No that stuff isn’t good but these children who have so little seemed to be able to get such pleasure from the little they have.

I have to tell you about travelling in the matatu bus. This is the way the Kenyans travel. It’s a bus about the size of a VW bus, has seats for about 15 people but does not leave the bus “station” until it has boarded at least 25 people, 30 bags of onions, several water barrels on top,3 men collecting money and tickets a driver and a man sitting next to the driver for what reason I am not sure. It stops anywhere, in the middle of nowhere, picks people up anywhere and in the middle of nowhere! Alex, Eliot and I shared the last seat in the back, each of us with our back packs on our laps, for 4 hrs on a dirt rd…one of those roads with no road signs, many pot holes or should I say mini dirt ditches every 10 feet. On the way back (there is only one way to go to and from Oloitokitok-the way I just described) we were smart and got a seat in the front of the bus…but still the 3 of us on one seat with our back packs on our laps…no come to think of it Eliot’s pack

was put on the top of the bus under one of those bags of onions!

The people in Alex’s site village also welcome us with such overwhelming generous hospitality. They really appreciate Alex and were so honored and flattered that his family would travel so far to visit him in their village. Another goat was slaughtered in our honor which was okay because all the people in the village were invited to the feast and got to eat a lot too. We met the principal of the primary and secondary schools. The kids very excited, swarmed around us when we walked into the school yard. Other than Alex I’m not sure they have had much exposure to white people especially one with a beard and one with long gray hair! They think our English sounds funny.

The safari on the Masai Mara was fantastic. Being 4 feet from an elephant was so cool! Our last morning we went on an elephant hunt and saw UP CLOSE a big mama with her baby, and 3 aunts…one stood right behind our vehicle checking us out with her trunk while the mama and baby almost walked into the front of the vehicle…they freaked out our driver!!! We saw a big male lion resting after his morning kill, many zebra, a 1 day old giraffe running with his mama and 16 million wildebeest in a single line, horizon to horizon heading toward the Mara River. It was quite spectacular. I sat in front of a camp fire early in the morning with a Masai warrior talking about our similar beaded bracelets…mine had 3 colors, his had 2 colors, he taught me how to say thank you in Masai (shantee..if you ever need it)

Then on the other end of the spectrum we stayed at the General’s house in Nairobi, and were very well taken care of. Again the General appreciates Alex and Peace Corps Volunteers and couldn’t say enough about their work. The General grew up in the village and is quite eager for it to prosper and he feels Alex is helping make that happen.

My trip to Kenya was Fantastic…go visit Alex if you can.

Again Alex thank you for making those National Geographic mag pictures come to life.

and finally...pics

2009-09-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Surprise! The pics are coming a little bit later than expected. Forgive me, I'm working on Kenyan time. Without further ado I offer what is actually wanted:

A link to the photo album from the fam's trip!

For the less tech savvy: click on the above link to access the album. Mom uploaded over 400 pictures to a Kodak gallery and I wasn't going to ask her to go through all that hassle again on Picasa for the sake of a little bit of convenience.

Ninataka kuandika zaidi lakini sasa nina njaa na ninahitaji kupika chakula cha jioni. Pole sana, labda nitafanya kesho. (I want to write more but I'm hungry and I need to make dinner. Sorry, maybe I'll do tomorrow...I said I'd try to work some Swahili into this thing.)

Mom & Eliot - Part 1

2009-08-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

Whew! So Eliot and Mom have come, stayed and left. It was an interesting 14 days full of crazy bus rides, being force fed excessive amounts of food, big animals, absurd gifts, being force fed even more, all while seeing just about every side of Kenya there is to see. I have to say I'm quite impressed with both Mom and Eliot. They were thrown into the fire and rolled with the punches that inevitably come when traveling Peace Corps style. By the end I think they might even have been enjoying the bone chattering bus rides through the country side. Well "enjoy" is probably too strong a word. "Cheerfully tolerate" might be more accurate. Either way I think they're going to share some of their impressions of this fine country once they've had time to digest everything.

However, whatever I say and whatever they say, so much of our experience can't every really be articulated. There were certainly noteworthy events and stories, and those will be recounted. But I don't know if there is enough story telling ingenuity on the face of the earth to truly capture things like a simple exchange with a traditional Masai man who might have never talked to a white person before, or the sensory overload of a bus ride where the aisles are packed with giant bags of noxious onions, dust is blowing mercilessly through the door that can't be closed because the bus is too full, crazy old African men are acting especially crazy, the road is so rough that the windows are shaking to the point that it has to be considered a miracle that they haven't shattered, and despite all that every twenty or so minutes something so outlandish happens that you manage to be shocked. Some of those experiences involve a certain amount of misery as you go through them, but I'm happy Eliot and Mom got their share because I have a feeling that's what they, and I, will remember in ten years.

As the title implies, details will be coming in a few installments. First I'm just going to give a brief outline of where we went and what we saw. Following posts will have pictures, stories and some commentary from my two visitors.

The adventure began almost immediately after they arrived. Their flight landed at 6:30 AM in Nairobi and less than twelve hours later we were waiting for the night train to the coastal city of Mombasa. The night train is a little bit of a blast from the past with its less than shoulder width hallways, cabins only slightly wider and timeless decor. If you've seen The Darjeerling Limited it's like that but with better scenery. After two days and nights of being tourists in Mombasa we got on one of the legendary public buses headed to Loitokitok to see Mama Alice and the rest of my host family. Even though the first leg was on a pretty nice bus and paved road, it did provide one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my time in Kenya, and possibly life, when the unedited version of Akon's I wanna f*ck you was blaring as I sat next to my mom (warning: don't Google those lyrics if you're easily offended).

Mama Alice was her usual overbearingly welcoming self, feeding everyone until they were nauseous and refusing any help whatsoever. She really is a great and kind woman, and I think Eliot and Mom will agree with that. From Loitokitok we traveled half way to Mbumbuni (my site) to a town called Makindu, staying at a cool Sikh temple that has lodging for all types of weary travelers, which we most certainly were at that point. In the morning we visited another Volunteer's place of work, a nursery school and support center for orphans of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I've been in Kenya almost 9 months now, and I like to think that I'm pretty hardened to the realities of Africa. But going to a place like the Makindu Children's Center requires serious effort on my part to stay composed. I think it was while watching parentless five year olds, most of whom are lucky if they get two meals a day, playing with old broken toys that Mom and Eliot started to grasp the crazy abundance we have back in the US, and how frighteningly little of the essentials Africa has. Here's the website for the center - http://makindu.org/. It's definitely a place that will put donations to good use.

After that excursion it was off to my home in Kenya, the sprawling metropolis (sarcasm) that is Mbumbuni. Almost immediately we went to the Secondary School where I teach, and oh were they ready for us. Exams were stopped so the whole school could assemble to present us with their gifts for Eliot and Mom. Mom got a traditional bag that Kamba (the predominant tribe of the area) women use to lug stuff the many kilometers they walk daily. When it was time for Eliot to get his, there was some big commotion about the gift being misplaced so the principal sent two students out looking for it. A few minutes later they came back sharing the burden of carrying a 6 foot 2 inch, 75 pound carved giraffe. The thing is nothing less than absurdly massive. An incredibly generous and memorable gift, I must say, but they've put us in a little bit of a conundrum in figuring out how to get it back to the US. Whatever the shipping cost ends up being, I'm sure it's worth the conversation starter Eliot has for his future home. Other than school, we went around and saw the projects the community and I have been working on. General Kianga came with his wife for a night and they held a small dinner for us and about a dozen neighbors. The next day there was a bigger community celebration that saw the trip's second slaughtering of a goat. This party also probably made me feel as appreciated as I ever have. The community groups did give a few "real" gifts like carvings (normal sized, for better or worse) and some traditional garb for my mom, but then a bunch of old ladies who own next to nothing and don't speak a word of English came and gave bag after bag of fruit from their farms. This seemed to be far more genuine than a lot of the bigger more formal tokens of appreciation I''ve seen or received in Kenya. The stay in Mbumbuni concluded with the church I go to having a send off service, also borderline over the top, for us.

From Mbumbuni we went on a safari in the Masai Mara. We got there just in time for the beginning of the great wildebeest migration, which is when millions of grazing animals (mostly wildebeests, obviously, but also tons of zebras and gazelles) leave the savannas of Kenya for the Serengeti in Tanzania. Unfortunately we did not get to see the epic climax of thousands of animals surging across a crocodile infested river, but we did see a few lions laying down trying to catch their breath before eating the prey they just caught. On top of that there was a pretty terrifying up close and personal encounter with a family of elephants. This is also where I had my 26th birthday. I can't say that I ever expected to spend a birthday on an African campsite with Czech women from the Humanist Movement and a few men wearing red dresses (more or less) and holes the size of golf balls in both ear lobes. Just so there's no confusion the latter isn't referring to myself and Eliot, the camp is run by a Westernized Masai man who employs traditional Masai warriors for guards (and for the sake of authenticity).

The last day and a half was spent in Nairobi, preparing to get back to our various realities. Again, it was a great trip for me, and from what I saw and heard I think the fam is going to concur when they have a chance to formally respond. That's most of the generalities, more specifics to come!

Before I go, and this will get its due attention soon enough, I need to announce that the books for the Nduluku library are on their way! Mr. Ade Otenaike, the President of Wings of the Dawn, agreed to send the books out before all the money was raised in order to get this thing up and going sooner rather than later. I and the students and staff of Nduluku are GREATLY appreciative of everyone who donated, and to Wings of the Dawn for everything they've provided and done, as well as their shared sense of urgency. But I was hesitant to make any announcement for a reason! My work in sales, and the influence of some good bosses, taught me to have the discipline to not count any chickens before they've hatched. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done before there are real fruits from everyone's labor. I need to do a lot on the ground here and I think there might be a fundraiser or two in the works to get the remaining money and to help ensure the library is furnished properly. Regardless, thanks to everyone for helping get to this point:) Soon updates about the library will be posted on the Wings of the Dawn Facebook page - linked here - which I encourage everyone to join so that you can follow easily.

Random Things

2009-07-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

In just a few short days the moms and Eliot (again, middle brother) will be arriving in Kenya. I think it's going to be a heck of an experience for them, and a great time for me. Also it should mean this blog will be flush with pictures in about 3-4 weeks. Until then, here are some interesting things about my life I don't think I've yet shared.

- I wash my clothes by hand. This involves a basin, a bar of soap, 20 liters of water and elbow grease. Fortunately for me dirty clothes are socially acceptable in the country side.

- The most common news network here is Al Jazeera. East Africa gets their international programming, meaning it's mostly staffed by Europeans. I don't watch it regularly, but I've been generally impressed. Definitely not a hint of Islamic extremism in their international arm.

- My tribal name is Mwethia, which means shepherd. When I told the Chief that my last name meant shepherd in German he immediately christened me with Mwethia. Now as I walk past little kids they repeat "Alex Mwethia! Alex Mwethia!" until I go over to them and shake their hands or wave to them six or so separate times. The little ones here can be quite uplifting.

- I'm not sure what you picture when I talk about an African Chief, but it's probably wrong. Chiefs are like Mayors. My Chief wears a suit to work everyday, is well educated and is one of the friendlier people around.

- Occasionally I cook myself vegetable curry and rice. I'd say the recipe has slowly improved to "good." Most of the time, OK the vast majority of the time, I eat little other than bread, butter, eggs, peanuts/peanut butter, fruit and a Kenyan dish called githeri, which is just beans and corn. Oh what I wouldn't do for two slices of pepperoni from Famous Ray's or a steak and cheese from Mario's.

Next post should be an interesting one. There are all types of good stuff planned for the fam's visit. Come back in about a month to get details!

Fund Raising Update

2009-06-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a quick update on the library. Thanks to all who have donated up to this point - your generosity is greatly appreciated. Really I've been quite overwhelmed with where a lot of the donations have come from. Family and friends have gone way above just throwing some money in and people who I didn't think would remember me much less care about something like this have also given. In these tougher times I understand it's no small gesture. I'll make sure you're rewarded with many good pictures of where that money went and some hard work ensuring the books are put to good use.

$3,230 have come in online and another $800 have come in via checks in the mail. That's a total of $4,030 with another $1,520 remaining. All help getting the last bit will be just as appreciated as the help getting the first bit. Actually, donations from here on out might be appreciated more. I'm running low on donation sources so money is especially scarce and valued at this point. Someway or somehow it'll come, I'm sure. Again here's the link:

A library with no books!

Other Volunteers do a good job of incorporating Swahili into their blog. I think I'm going to start trying to do that. Here's my first effort: Asante sana tena! (Thanks a lot again!)

6 months in Kenya...crazy

2009-05-13T11:17:00.005-07:00

Yeah so me posting regularly might be a little bit of a pipe dream. Sorry. I have some good stories to share that I'm sure I wont get to in this post so maybe a few will come rapid fire. No promises though.

Before getting down to business I have to quickly note that I have now been in Kenya for a whole 6 months. That's nearly 1/50th of my entire life. Spent in Africa. Not an insignificant fraction. Still kinda crazy to think I'm here doing this, much less have been doing it for 6 months.

Anyway, on to the updates.

So I've been at site for more than 4 months now. At this point I have a good feel for what I can be doing in a kind of formal way and what the smaller less formal things I can be doing to gently push along progress. It's funny, in a slightly embarrassing way, how long it has taken for me to put together what I've observed and what I've been told to see the root issues that I now hold to be blindingly obvious. I've had more than a few "why didn't I ask myself that question 3 months ago?" moments over the last few weeks. Well I guess at least I eventually got around to it.

So here's what I got going on:
The Kitile Village Development Committee, my official partner organization, is now one of around 75 sub-groups that make up a newly formed Community Based Organization (CBO). Because of their size and reach, CBOs are able to get big government grants and are positioned well to attract NGOs that only do bigger projects. I'm working with the management committee on figuring out how this thing should be structured (which is proving to be pretty difficult because A) the thing is an unwieldy beast - around 1,500 people populate the 75 groups, and B) some key members of the management committee seem to think their job is finished now that they've won their respective positions' election) while trying to take advantage of our CBO status and get some outside help. To be honest I think it's likely the CBO collapses. There are some forces working in its favor, but when it comes down to it if the leadership doesn't have interest in doing the required work then it's not going to pan out. But I think one of the reasons I was put in this role is because I'm a little bit of a relentless optimist (naive, foolish, slightly pathetic - they could probably all replace "relentless" accurately enough) so we'll just keep pushing with the members who obviously do care and get whatever we can out of it.

Dairy cows are tremendous weapons against poverty in places like Mbumbuni. They provide a steady stream of income as well as a great source of nourishment. Over the last few years a lot of farmers have invested in dairy cattle and it's proven to be mostly successful. I've just started talking with the local dairy cooperative on ways to increase dairy production in the area. This initiative breaks down into three categories 1) increase outputs of current farmers, 2) help farmers who are capable of supporting dairy cows acquire cows, and 3) get very-small scale farmers to start planting different types of cattle feeds because right now the cooperative ships in massive amounts of hay from far away places for a hefty sum. This area has the right climate for cattle feeds, and they're extremely low maintenance crops, so it's what you might call a low hanging opportunity. It really is remarkable how dairy can be a micro-industry capable of supporting an entire community. There's a town about 30 miles (I think in the metric system these days so coming up with 30 miles just took some effort) down the road that faces the exact same conditions as we do but it's a prosperous, bustling little place. All because about 20 years ago an old man with some foresight bought a few dairy cows and told everyone that would listen to do the same. Now they have all types of value adding facilities and produce so much milk that it's dirt cheap locally and they still have enough left over to sell to big buyers. Most of you who know me well may be surprised to learn this, but I actually have no knowledge whatsoever on dairy cattle, or the dairy business for that matter. Mostly I'm just facilitating meetings with groups who might benefit from meeting, mobilizing the community when appropriate and helping write proposals.

Lastly I'm helping a group of mango farmer find ways to get more money from their mangoes. This is actually the area that I think has the most potential to help the most people the fastest. There are a ton of people with a few mango trees, and there are a few people with a ton of mango trees, and that adds up to an absurd number of mangoes come mango season. The problem is there isn't the access to markets needed to get a decent amount of money for these mangoes. Historically farmers only sell locally or to the few middlemen (appropriately coined "exploiters") that come through the area en route to bigger cities, and that usually results in a selling price of 3-5 shillings (4-6 cents) per mango. And these mangoes are gigantic and incredible, it really is criminal that they get such a paltry sum of money for something so ridiculously delicious (on a related note, if anyone is considering visiting, come during mango season,December to March...every day we'll eat 8 mangoes, each one contending for the best mango you've ever had in your entire life). So this group is looking into ways to cut out the middle men, start doing value-adding processes (drying and packaging, juicing, etc.), tap into export markets, or really anything that will fetch them a fair price. There are of course some hurdles, but this group is run by smart people who are approaching this professionally, so I think their likelihood of succeeding is good. In fact, they've got their act together enough that I'm not even really sure how it is I can be of assistance, but this has potential so I'm going to stay engaged in case something does come up.

Those are the formal things I have on my plate. They're not yet specific enough to be termed "projects" but they are on their way. And actually earlier this week the not-for-profit arm of Land O' Lakes (the U.S. dairy company) started a project in Mbumbuni around building water harvesting capabilities with the goal of using the water to increase milk production. That pretty much encapsulates what I see as the solution to many of this area's problems - harvesting/conserving water with the consideration of then doing something with the water to create food or money. The Land O' Lakes development should stimulate more formal projects with this mission.

My other focus and key to quality of life improvement, education, is coming along as well. It turns out Wings of the Dawn will be sending around 20,000 books (Have you not donated yet? Is your credit card readily available? How convenient because here's the link to the fund raising page:
www.change.org/wingsofthedawn/projects/view/a_library_with_no_books) so that might end being enough for two libraries, one at Nduluku and one at a new high school that they are in the process of building up (or maybe at an all girls school down the road a little). The President of Wings of the Dawn, Mr. Ade Otenaike, has said this is fine as long as the libraries are fulfilling the mission of Lifelong Learning Centers where people of all ages have access to educational materials. I think the two library approach will serve this purpose best. On top of the library I'm still loving teaching two days a week. I just got all the XO One Laptop Per Child programs from a Volunteer on the coast. Some of the programs are really good, now it's just a matter of putting them to use. There are a few other things in the works but none are worth mentioning in any detail right now. Maybe if I wait another 3 months to post again they'll be full blown paragraphs by then. Well regardless of when I post again hopefully they'll be worth at least a paragraph in 3 months. I digress...

In general, life's still good. Peace Corps is definitely an emotional roller coaster. Some days I feel like I'm making a big impact (because it popped in my head, we've just about finished our first sand dam on a near by dried river bed. Getting that done will be nice...sorry, digressing again) some days it feels like everything is falling apart and I question if anything I'm doing is going to make a lasting difference. The latter moments usually don't last too long though. Anyway, I shouldn't complain. Because I live on a General's property people seem to think most of what I do has his support and that leads to an unusual amount of cooperation for the work of a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Moms and Eliot (middle brother) are coming for a visit in July. I'm really excited about that. We're gonna go on a safari and visit my host Mama and do a bunch of other fun stuff. I'll give them all my pictures on a flash drive so they can upload them with all their pics once they get back. That means lots of pics come some time in August (should be for real this time).

Over the last few weeks I've had a few epic battles with horrifying spiders (get excited Mom and Eliot!). I wont talk about them right now because these are worthy of full posts in themselves. Heck, maybe even novels with some type of cinematic adaptation. For now I'll leave it at spiders are awful awful creatures.

Well a lot has happened in the last 6 or so weeks, and I'm sure I'm leaving out some important stuff, but this will do for now.

a few pics

2009-03-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

Alright there's a way to do a slide show but it would require me to download a blog gadget or widget or something like that and my internet connection is not nearly good enough and I am not feeling nearly patient enough to go through all that nonsense. So here are a few pics until one of those two things is resolved. Enjoy!

Wait before you enjoy take a sec to put a little money towards Nduluku's library - http://www.wingsofthedawn.org/NdulukuLibraryKenya.html. Alright, now enjoy.

didn't get a picture of me putting the male in a head-lock

the highlight of the trip to Loitoktok

view from a hill in Loitoktok

twin peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro

my 10th grade computer studies class

me and my neighbor William

the property manager (Mutisia), me and the Gerneral's niece posing in front of the main house

I'll get a bunch more up within a few weeks!

Operation: Books for Mbumbuni

2009-03-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

Great news! An organization called Wings of the Dawn has said they are willing to provide books for Nduluku's library, as well as handle the logistics of getting books from the US to Kenya, if I raise money to cover shipping costs. At first WOTD was hesitant to agree to help, mainly because of the resource strain the economy is causing them and their lack of experience in Kenya, but after exchanging emails with one of their Nigerian officers (a very enthusiastic man by the name of Pastor Andrew Duya) they said they would make it work.

Directly below is a link to the fund raising page that tells a little bit of the story and provides a secure and easy way for you to donate. Wings of the Dawn is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization so all donations are tax deductible. The students of Nduluku would be greatly appreciative if you contributed towards a brighter future for them and a better Mbumbuni overall! They would appreciate it even more if you could forward the fundraising page to anyone who might think this is a worthy cause!

http://www.change.org/wingsofthedawn/projects/view/a_library_with_no_books

Also I'm looking for ideas of ways to generate a little interest in reading because, naturally, in a place that has never had books nobody, child or adult, has any sort of reading habits. For the teachers out there, if you know of a program that worked well at your school or another school I'd like to hear about it. For everyone else, if you remember something that encouraged you to read when you were in school or if you just have an idea I'd like to hear about that too. The email I check regularly is schaef5053@yahoo.com.

Seriously, an enormous thanks to everyone who contributes money or ideas towards this!!

Poverty

2009-02-25T01:20:00.000-08:00

Whenever I strike up conversation with town folk I am inevitably confronted with a comment that goes something like “help bring this area out of poverty” or “lift these people out of poverty.” I often wonder what exactly they mean, and if they even know what they think they mean, but the general point is clear enough – improve the quality of life of the people in the area. If the conversation continues a common question is “do you have poverty in America?” I tell them: yes, but it looks different. We have tons of people who struggle to make ends meet and parents who can't afford the basic necessities for their children. With their vision of America as this place of endless wealth, curiosity has been piqued. “These people, are they employed?” is the follow up. Many Americans in poverty do have a job. “Their homes, do they have electricity and running water?” Yes they do. “Don't all Americans have cars? Do they have cars?” I try to explain that the ones that do have cars, well they aren't nice. Like it makes a difference to this person who couldn't afford a car if they had 10 life times to save up. The topic of conversation usually closes with them glaring at me with a look of extreme skepticism. But I do consider many Americans to be impoverished. Even ones with a job, electricity, running water and a car. That led me to think: What is poverty? And since I'm on the subject, how am I supposed to lift anyone out of it?

Poverty is usually expressed in monetary terms, one's annual income or daily living allowance. While the amount of money someone has is an indicator of the quality of life they are able to lead, something about defining poverty as a financial matter didn't sit right with me. Because of currency conversion rates and purchasing power differences trying to capture life in a country like Kenya in dollars and cents paints an inaccurate picture. And, worse, it creates such a narrow focus that the most troubling parts of the true picture are missed entirely. Living on less than two American dollars a day is the standard that is commonly used to identify someone as suffering from abject poverty. Two dollars is a little more than150 Kenyan shillings. 150 Kenyan shillings a day is enough to have shelter over your head, food on your plate, water in your cup and education bills paid. Granted all these would be done at an extremely basic level, but it seemed that if certain conditions were in place the worst of poverty could be avoided.

In Loitoktok, where our training was held, there was a large population of Maasai. The Maasai tribe is Kenya's most primitive group of people. Nearly every other tribe has adopted Western dress and a Western way of life. For whatever reason, most Maasai have decided to continue to live in isolation with the same culture and traditions they've had since the tribe's inception (which was probably sometime shortly after man as we know it came into existence). If you're watching TV and you see a group of present day Africans wearing colorful beads, carrying spears and doing crazy jumping dances, you're likely seeing Maasai. They are also unique because they are roving herds people. A traditional Maasai man spends most of his life wandering around with a massive herd of cattle, sleeping in temporary huts and eating a thick cornmeal-like substance called ugali mixed with a little bit of sour milk. It is a common thing for a Maasai to have over 50 pieces of cattle in his herd, with each animal valued at 30,000-40,000 Kenyan shillings. By Kenyan standards their net worth is pretty outstanding. But no non-Maasai Kenyan would accept that wealth if it came with that life. By any Western measurement the Maasai are in the gravest need of immediate assistance. I dare you to go tell a spear wielding Maasai warrior, who hunted and killed a lion as part of his coming of age ceremony, that he is a member of the poorest and most pathetic classes of men.

It has been through the work with my community organization – learning about past failures, hearing the members discuss current goals and then seeing how they approach those goals – that I think I have begun to get a grasp on this issue of poverty. The challenges mother nature poses in this area are very real, and they are great, but it's not the lack of water that seems to weigh the most on the people. And it is not necessarily the lack of food and the lack of money that result from water shortages. I have come to understand the worst of poverty to be the exhaustion of the spirit that is caused by a lifetime of feeling held captive to your circumstances. It is the overwhelmingly pessimistic worldview that robs one of hope and stifles life itself.

My high school football team went 3-27 over my three years on the varsity squad. Now I can't claim that we were uber-talented underachievers, but we certainly had enough talent to compete and win games in the subpar conference we were a part of. Unfortunately we could never break free of the loser's mentality. We went into every game fully expecting to be defeated. If you haven't played seriously competitive sports, especially an effort intensive game like football, this might sound like it should be an insignificant thing. But it isn't. The second an opponent got up on us, we just gave in. Why try? We were going to get smoked anyway, just like the last game and the game before that. And that attitude brings out a look in the eye and an atmosphere on the sideline.

That look, that feeling in the air, is exactly what I'm confronted with when I discuss projects with my community counterparts. They tell me “We want to harvest the fish that are in one of the reservoirs...but we don't have a net...and we're not really sure if there is a market to sell them here anyway.” Why try? The operation would fall apart just like the honey harvesting project they tried six months ago and the commercial tree nursery before that. Instead they choose to sit and look to the sky hoping that this will be one of the off years that rain comes and they actually have a harvest. Besides, when things get bad enough relief-food will come.

I don't want to be an apologizer for my community, and others in similar situations, because that is the exact opposite of what is needed. But it is important to acknowledge that the human causes to their condition are just as real as the worldly causes, and the former is the far greater challenge to overcome. Moving earth might be an expensive, capital-intensive endeavor, but it takes a lot less time and diligence than moving a worldview rooted in 40+ years of experience and a belief system that credits divine entities for all life's events.

So what can my role be in lifting Mbumbuni out of poverty? First it's to inject a little confidence in what they are currently doing. As far as the struggle against mother nature goes, there is already a pretty smart long term plan, devised by the General and a Danish NGO working to develop the region. Because I'm white and from the most developed country in the world, the community gives me more credibility than I deserve. If I just show up to a dam site and work with a sense of purpose it seems to help convince people that they are on the right path. Next it is to get people to feel good about small victories. A day of gathering stones and digging holes might not end with a landmark event, but it puts the group a day closer to having much more water than they did before. And that's something to get excited about. Lastly I want to make sure people see the connection between the work they are doing and the results that follow, and in a bigger way; the results they are creating and the improvement in their quality of life. Now in no way, shape or form am I claiming to be some champion bringing all these changes on my own. Over the last few years solid progress has been made and I can see why. There are a few individuals who are fearless and attack their tasks relentlessly. I'm just trying to leverage some of my status as an interesting outsider to get more people to adopt those attitudes.

Of course these efforts to improve the psyche of Mbumbuni must be applied to projects that break mother nature's painful grasp and knock down other barriers to opportunity, freeing people to pursue more fulfilling lives. That's one of the reasons why I'm so big on improving the education facilities here. The more you know about the world the less scary it becomes. The more you know about opportunities the more you can work to seize them. The more you know about the problems you face the more solvable they become. I don't have any misconceptions about education being some cure-all. But I do believe it can be a source of empowerment that would give people the confidence to more aggressively take on the big external issues they're up against. And that's something that will continue to be felt long after I leave.

other blogs

2009-02-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

Here are a few other volunteers' blogs. Nic's has some decent pics. Haven't looked through many of the others.

Tameisha - www.fromemaliwithlove.blogspot.com
Nic - http://nicdominguezpctrip.blogspot.com/
Paul - http://superkeen.com/peacecorpsweblog
Leah - http://iminkenya.blogspot.com/
Harmony - http://www.kenyarising.com/
Charlotte - http://zlotte.blogspot.com/
Ginnie - http://ginnieseger.blogspot.com/
Will - http://worandpeace.blogspot.com/
Matt - http://www.hearkenya.com/
Pat - http://patinkenya.blogspot.com/
Jon - http://jonmcleanpcv.wordpress.com/
Alyssa - http://avavrusa.wordpress.com/
Jeff - http://mzungujeff.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

What I'm doing and where I'm doing it

2009-01-28T02:23:00.000-08:00

Well I am now a full four weeks into being an actual Peace Corps Volunteer, which feels incredibly, fantastically liberating considering the monotony and structure of training. More importantly, I came with these grand ambitions of finding work that is meaningful and fulfilling; now I get to discover if Peace Corps offers that.

My assignment is one that is exactly what I wanted in many ways and in others it is kind of what I feared I might get when I decided to apply for Peace Corps. I'll start with the positive. Many months ago, when this idea of me spending two years in a developing country was still in its infancy, one of the things that got me the most excited about Peace Corps was the freedom Volunteers have in determining the projects they pursue and how they go about pursuing them. Now all Peace Corps assignments certainly don't offer these wonderful liberties. Many in fact put you in an established, often well run, organization and come with a defined role you are expected to fulfill (and many volunteers prefer this type of scenario). When I was talking to Peace Corps administration about what I wanted in my site I was explicit-as-can-be in expressing my interest in getting one of the flexible ones that allows for me to define what I deem to be good work and then create the plan to complete that work. Well I got exactly that. I have been partnered with a Village Development Committee, which is something like a group of activists who want to improve this, that or the other about their community. But my partnership with them is pretty loose. My Peace Corps director has allowed, and even encouraged, me to go around and talk with a lot of people/groups to find out different ways I might be able to help. Essentially they put me down somewhere and said "make it a better place." Couldn't ask for anything more with the work itself.

Now the negative. When I was talking with administration about site placement the other thing I was explicit-as-can-be about was that I strongly preferred being in a more developed, urban area. They gave me the exact opposite of that. I am in a tiiiiiiiiiny town called Mbumbuni in the middle of nowhere. It is very appropriately pronounced "boom-boonie."

My thinking was that if I was placed in a decent sized city the diverse population would have a lot of different things going on and I would definitely be able to find a bunch of projects that were of interest to me and at the same time beneficial to some group of people. And being in a developed area there would be ample resources allowing me to be effective in doing whatever it was I was doing. On the other hand, if I was in a small town I would be confined to the small number of projects that are relevant to the needs of a small, homogenous group of people. And even then doing anything significant probably wouldn't even be possible because the rural parts of the developing world aren't too resource rich (or else they would probably be developed and not developing). The good news is that my thinking was very wrong. The volunteers who have been placed in bigger towns are struggling to be accepted by their community and get an understanding of the issues it is facing (making it nearly impossible to figure out what should be done) and my community has embraced me with open arms which has allowed me to quickly find some really obvious areas where I can help and have already begun working on them. Unfortunately my thinking wasn't entirely wrong. The limited access to resources thing has turned out to be real, and will make progress with certain kinds of work slow. Internet access is expensive and unreliable. I have to walk 20 minutes to any place that sells food or water, and closer to an hour if I want something more than bread, butter, sugar or fruit. So I am finding that over two hours of my day are spent walking. There are towns relatively close by with everything American (including Heinz Ketchup!) so I shouldn't complain too much.

Also unfortunate, the reason that I have found things to work on so quickly is that Mbumbuni is truly entrenched in poverty. Though the area is actually pretty scenic, being surrounded by rolling hills with interesting rock formations, it is semi-arid and prone to long dry spells. This makes two of the most basic aspects of life, ones which Americans take for granted, huge challenges that are a struggle to meet daily - getting food and water. Most people here walk a Kilometer or two with a donkey or a small cart to one of the dammed areas to fill barrels full of water for the day's drinking, cleaning and cooking (and sorry ladies, this is a woman's work in Kenya). The bigger issue with the water scarcity is the havoc it wreaks on crops. Mbumbuni is a farming community. Farmers who can't keep crops are like salespeople who can't sell - broke and miserable (who would've thought my work experience in New York City would help me relate to rural Africans). Practically speaking, not only is the locally-produced food supply very low, many people have their only source of income completely decimated on a regular basis. Right now the region is in the middle of a pretty severe drought. I have already witnessed two massive deliveries of relief maize (not to take away from the seriousness of the situation, but the atmosphere at relief food handouts is surprisingly cheerful. There's something about free stuff that is overwhelmingly uplifting).

But the solutions to those problems are not very simple, and I don't really have any relevant useful knowledge to offer. I'm helping as much as I possibly can to keep the group organized and focused on a few ongoing projects that should make a dent in the water situation (there are a few areas they have set aside for dams or water catchment). Though that sounds like it shouldn't be something I should have to contribute towards, it is and for good reason. Most of the group members are poor farmers so I would estimate about 80% of their waking life is spent doing something to secure that day's food and water. It is a big sacrifice to not only give up the remaining 20%, but take a small chunk away from the 80% to work on something that will pay off in a small way a few months down the road. It is unquestionably worth it though. Once there is a reliable and easily-accessible water supply, there are bunches of other income generating activities that become possible. And besides, if nobody works on these long term projects then in a hundred years the people of Mbumbuni will be facing the exact same problems, probably only more severe versions of them (which is one of the things I've said to surprising effect. Kenya's culture doesn't allow for parents to be particularly affectionate with their children, making me think the youth's future quality of life wouldn't be a concern, but wanting our offspring to have a better life than our own must be something inherently human).

The other thing that I've jumped right into, and that I absolutely love doing, is helping out at the local primary and secondary schools. On one of my first days in town I visited to introduce myself, meet the staff and tell them I would be around for a while. The Principal ended up being this very nice and cool lady who has a progressive attitude towards education (a lot of Kenyan educators are big believers in wrote memorization and toeing the line, neither of which I subscribe to) and said if I wanted to do anything I was more than welcome. Well they have a new computer lab and only one teacher so I said I could teach some computer basics. And since I was going to come two days a week anyway I might as well teach something else. She said fine and that I had another 40 minute block to do whatever I want with the 10th graders. "Just enrich the children" were her exact words. So I start off with a15-20 minute life lesson. With this part I’m trying to balance the inspirational and the practical (dreaming big followed by goal setting and working hard, and such). The last half I try to use business as a platform to get the students thinking and solving problems. The major problems Kenya faces (and they are major by all scales) are solvable if there were only more people with initiative, courage and an active mind (the HUGE exception here is HIV/AIDS, but luckily for Mbumbuni and myself that epidemic hasn't hit this area too hard, but it certainly could). Either way, it's tons of fun. The kids like having a white teacher (not many American/European tourists make it to Mbumbuni) and they're all pretty likable students.

Also there is a library with no books in it. Read that again - a library with no books! I don't know why they call it "the library" and not just "that empty room." So I've been reaching out to different NGOs/charities that send books to Africa with a little progress. That's something I'm dead set on doing. I will not leave this place until there are books in the library. Ideally it ends up not only having books, but is a comfortable place for students to come and develop their own intellectual interests. I have been a huge beneficiary of free and easy access to a wide range of books. If the only learning I got was the learning that I was subjected to during formal schooling hours who knows what I'd be doing now. This lack of books thing is everywhere in Kenya. No rural towns have a library or anything like a book store (other than the Kenyan government issued text book suppliers). Even Nairobi's book stores are pretty shameful. Very very limited selection. I'm hoping that Barnes & Nobles makes it to Nairobi sometime in the very near future (I suspect that I will still be hoping when I step on that plane taking me back to the U.S.).

A cool little twist worth mentioning is that I am living in a nice, big house (with electricity, running water and a gas stove to boot) on the property of the head of Kenya's armed forces, Chief of General Staff J. M. Kianga. He grew up in Mbumbuni and went to the elementary school that I teach at. His story is a sort of Kenyan rags to riches one - a normal son of a farmer who joined the army at a young age, worked his way up the ranks, was sent to the US to be educated and is now one of the more powerful men in Kenya. He knows exactly what the people of Mbumbuni are facing and cares very much about helping their situation (and Kenya as a whole). All the major land development projects that require heavy equipment and expertise are made possible by him. A few years ago a Peace Corps volunteer did a bunch of good work in a nearby town and he saw that Mbumbuni could use a lot the same stuff that volunteer did. So he built a house on his property and lobbied Peace Corps until they finally consented. Now I'm here.

In summary, it does indeed look like I will find the work meaningful. And I am happy. Every day I wake up, do things I enjoy doing, read things I enjoy reading, write things I enjoy writing and think about things I enjoy thinking about. Now only if I could follow football a little easier my life would be complete...for the time being.

Well I've written entirely too much again. I'll try to plan a little better and break these posts up a bit and update more regularly. Pictures to come eventually!

Catching up

2008-12-13T02:43:00.000-08:00

Hello All! Sorry for the looong delay on this first post. Peace Corps kept us absurdly busy throughout training and what little time I had on the internet I used to keep myself somewhat connected to the larger world. And to get frustrated by staying on top my losing fantasy football efforts.

I'll give a quick rundown on what as happened so far:

Me and my fellow trainees arrived in Nairobi on a Thursday night, almost 10 weeks ago today. They broke us in to Kenya gently by putting us up in a swank little resort just outside of the capital city, Nairobi. The property was immaculate, the rooms were pleasant and the food tasted just like the food available at any decent place in America. Since all of us had been mentally preparing for a rugged, raw experience this threw us off a bit. It felt more like a Hawaiian vacation than a face first dive into the developing world.

Next morning we got a little more of what we were expecting. After hours of filling out paper work, we loaded up a few small buses and prepared for our long journey to the town of Loitoktok, where we would be spending our entire 9 weeks of training. Well one thing that you notice very quickly about an underdeveloped country is that the "underdeveloped" especially applies to the roads. Few are marked by signs, fewer yet are paved and most don't even really look like roads at all. That made our trip from Nairobi to Loitoktok interesting. First of all the entire 8 hours was like being on a massage chair in warp drive, which is only fun for about 15 minutes. And how the driver knew when to turn is a complete mystery to me. Somehow there is a system because people do manage to get from A to B.

Eventually we pulled up to Amboseli National Park - a Wildlife refuge. We were told not to get our hopes up, but that we might get to see some safari animals. We made it about two thirds of the way through without seeing a thing ...until we finally pulled up to two lions sitting about 50-75 feet away from the "road" we were on. Now I'm not going to lie, the lions didn't seem any different or more energetic than the lions I've seen in the zoo many times before. They were just minding their own business, laying around relaxing as passive as can be. We stopped for about 10 minutes and the big highlight was when the male lion got up, walked about 5 feet then laid down again. But the fact that these were honest-to-goodness wild lions made the whole experience pretty cool. Our good fortune continued because we didn't have to wait long for our next siting. After driving again for a short while we pulled up to an elephant family (mama, papa and baby) strolling around. This was actually much cooler than the lions. For a while they were walking right beside our bus at a distance that seemed barely more than an arm's length away. Then we had to come to a stop because the mama weaved between two vans (we were only rolling at that point, and I didn't get a good view being in the last van in the pack). Making the whole experience more exciting was the fact that our driver and another native Kenyan who was with us were getting noticeably uncomfortable because apparently elephants can very easily do some serious (usually unintentional) damage to vehicles and the passengers within. Those were are most interesting encounters with fun animals. In the distance we saw a herd of zebras and a few giraffes and some other interesting deer looking creatures. After the elephants everything else was anticlimactic.

Life as a trainee...where to begin. It was an interesting, often frustrating, experience, but completely necessary to get acclimated with Kenyans and their way of life.

Loitoktok is a small farming town of 40,000 people nestled in the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The "city" part of it consists of about two and half roads sprinkled with shops, restaurants, hotels and small businesses (carpenters, cooperative offices, mechanics and other essential types of services). It is a nice little town with incredibly nice people, gorgeous scenery and all the bare essentials a Westerner could ask for when living in rural Kenya. The gorgeous scenery part really can't be emphasized enough. Every morning I woke up to the twin peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro on one side and on the other a landscape of rolling hills sprinkled with farms and open plains. The whole thing looked and felt like it was ripped right out of Lion King.

The day to day...slightly different than what it was back in the states. First of all Peace Corps always places you with a local family during training to help you integrate with the community and understand the local culture in a personal way. I stayed in the home of a force of nature of a woman named Alice Wanjiku. As a whole, Kenya has a very patriarchal, male dominated society that has traditionally left women out of any and all positions of authority. My Kenyan mama never got that memo. She's smart, ambitious, outspoken and runs a handful of successful business interests. Almost all the families that volunteered to host a Peace Corps family for two months were full of kind and generous people that provided their guests with an extremely warm welcome to Kenya, but I feel especially lucky. My Mama made sure that I was always completely taken care of in every way but at the same time realized that I'm 25 and gave me my space (as much as is possible in a relatively small home) when it was clear that I was feeling a little cramped. Also, because she was such a respected commodity around town when I told a shop keeper that I was staying with Alice Wanjiku I often got preferential treatment. Nice additional perk. She had a son, Brian, who's in the fourth grade and a daughter, Paris, who's in her first year of university. Brian and his best friend Kevin (who stayed with the family the vast majority of the time) are great kids and were invaluable in my efforts to get a grasp on Swahili. Paris is like a calmer version of her mother. Very strong willed and straight forward (the latter is a rare commodity in Kenyan, and a valuable one from a Westerner's perspective). Altogether they provided a really amazing home stay experience and I'm incredibly grateful for the fact that they treated me like blood from the day I moved in. I'm sure I will go and visit them at least a few times while I'm in Kenya.

Every morning I woke up around 5:40 to bathe (not shower...I use a mug to dump heated water from a basin on my body. You get used to it quickly...). After getting ready I studied Swahili or I scrambled to do whatever assignment I should have done the night before until breakfast is ready. Like every meal with mama Alice, breakfast was almost always massive. Eggs, bread, peanut butter, jam, butter, arrow roots and a gigantic fruit plate consisting of mangoes, papayas, oranges, bananas was pretty standard fare. Sometimes there would even be avocados or passion fruits or some other random exotic little thing that I may or may not have seen before. I never ever started the day wanting another bite to eat.

Around 7 I would begin my journey to my first training session of the day. And when I say journey I do mean journey. I would have to walk anywhere from 3-6 KM (1.6 KM= 1 mile) uphill (this is not an exaggeration!) to get to the place where my class/meeting was taking place. Travel time varied anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour and a half! Luckily for my fellow trainees I did live farther away from town than anyone else. Luckily for me there was a group of six that all lived in the same distant location, and all six ended up being pretty good folk. Our long walks to and from training sessions allowed for us to become good friends pretty quickly.

Most mornings started with 2-3 hours of Swahili. Swahili is a simple, well-structured language that assembles as logically as a language can. It also sounds nothing at all like English. That has made the vocabulary very slow to stick with me. Either way, after a little more than 2 months I am able to get by in areas that speak little to no English. I understand enough Swahili that I can usually understand what is being said to me, and I'm able to speak enough that I can usually express whatever meaning I'm trying to get across (this of course happens at the level of the most basic of human exchanges - purchasing goods, ordering at a restaurant, asking where something is located, etc.).

After the morning class me and a group of trainees would go for lunch at a local restaurant. 90% of the time lunch would consist of beans, a tasty pita bread type dish called chapati, and some type of steamed vegetable. Put enough salt and hot sauce on that meal and it never gets old. After lunch we would usually have a "technical" training session. These would attempt to teach us how to engage a Kenyan community, what pitfalls to look out for, how to identify and execute viable projects and other types of skills you would think a development worker should possess. Now to give Peace Corps credit, their training challenge is pretty absurdly insurmountable. My training group consisted of around 20 people, from the ages of 20-64, with backgrounds as diverse as recent college grads to ex-teachers to experienced executives. And we are all going to do different things. And the trainers don't know who is going to do what until at least three quarters of the way through training. With that being said, the following statement isn't too critical or damning, technical training was very close to worthless. Building from un an uneven base to an uncertain point is nearly impossible to plan for. The only times I got upset about it was when it just seemed to be unnecessarily adding stress to the trainees lives. Either way, I'll post links to other volunteers blogs. I know others have gone into more detail on their blogs about how they feel about the technical training. Feel free to peruse through those.

After technical ended, usually around 4-4:30, my training group would go grab tea or coffee. After relaxing for about an hour me and whoever was left from my group of six would begin our 5-6KM trek, uphill again! (ok, that's a lie), back to our homes. At home I would do whatever little chore I could to help mama prepare the house for dinner. Mama always gave me the most menial mindless tasks (cutting vegetables, stirring some pot, etc.) to reduce the chances of me ruining her hard work in the kitchen. After my day I was always more than OK with this. Dinner, again, was always more than ample and was followed by another massive plate of fruits. Kenyan food is actually really good, but slightly limited in variety. Dinners were a rotation of a steamed vegetable next to the main course of stew, beans/legumes, rice, maize, potatoes or some type of bread.

After dinner I would study Swahili or work on some assignment while mama cleaned up. After she cleaned the whole family would sit and take tea and talk. Between 9:30 and 10:30 everyone would be exhausted and call it a night. 5:40 next morning it would begin again.

That was my life during training (for the most part). I have now been placed to where I will live for my two years, but I'll talk about that on my next post (which I PROMISE won't be another two and a half months from now). Today I'm running out of internet time so check again in a week or two to read all about where I'm living, what I'll be doing and possibly other random thoughts I have about life in general.

Pictures...I'll do my best to post those as soon as I can but uploading pics takes a long time and is costly with most of the slow computers that I have access to. I know my fellow PC Kenya bloggers have pics up so until I post my own I'll try and link with a bunch of those.