I feel like these updates are getting much more irregular. I remember in the first few months I was a very regularly weekly blogger, and now I make by and give excuses. My latest excuse is that there was a power outage this past week in the line which my room in the visitor wing of the boys dorm is on, so from Tuesday to Friday I not only had no internet, but no power or water as well. The line to the dining hall was irregular, but thankfully had power each evening so the children could study for their exams, and the girls dorm was out Tuesday until Thursday. Honestly, the boys dorm might still be out, but I have run away to Nairobi for the weekend. I needed to pick up my mail, and if I have to pay as much as I do... I might as well make it worthwhile.
Life at Hope continues on... We had midterms this week and most of my students performed nicely although there are a few who really struggle with school generally which is hard to see. I am sure they have learning disabilities, but we don't really have the capacity to meet those, or probably a proper awareness. Still, even when a student performs poorly, the teachers are often quite encouraging. The week before midterms we had practice exams and they were harder than our midterms(my students did not perform so well) and the teachers encouraged the students and even me:)
One low point of the week was catching one of my students, a girl who is one of my better friends, cheating on her science exam. While she tried to deny it, she did have the science text book open on the bench beside her. I reported her to her class and subject teacher and then ran away. Otherwise, I think my students were good and didn't 'steal' as they call cheating here.
I am still enjoying teaching, feeling more competent as time goes by. On the thought of school, the new secondary building is almost finished. The roof has been going on before our eyes this week despite the horrendous winds that we have been having. I can't imagine putting the sheet roofing on in those fierce gales. Still, it should be finished in March for sure which will be incredible. It is big enough I think some of the primary classes will be moved in there as well.
Also thinking of school, we have a school break for two weeks come March 14, which is a little puzzling. All of Kenya has school holidays over April, so why are we breaking in March? Everyone needs a break on the staff end, and probably the kids too, but I hope none of the teachers have children away at boarding schools or they won't even see them... Still, whatever the Madam says is law, so we are breaking in March. Personally, I haven't a clue what I will do on my break, but I have two weeks to think of something.
Meanwhile, I have run away to Nairobi, coming in yesterday to get my mail from MCC and then deciding to make a weekend of it. I needed the break. Today I have just been walking around downtown for hours because I can. Everyone asks if I have plans, and I am like no... I don't want plans, I want to wander... be anonymous... Life confined to a 13 acre compound for several weeks at a go has its challenges, so I am walking for all the days I can't go anywhere.
I am staying at my country reps house although they are out of town, so last night and this morning I just enjoyed reading outside because it was actually warm enough to be outside, and eating food like cheese and tomato sandwiches and mangoes... Then this morning I came downtown, caught up on my email in the cyber cafe, walked around, found the Railway Museum and visited there, wandered longer, had fries and a milkshake for lunch(I always eat junk food when I come in... because I can...) walked through the parks and around some more and then decided to hide from the heat and update my blog... Altogether a lovely relaxing day.
The Railway Museum was a fun place to go although I was the only one there. The man at the desk said the museum is quite popular with school groups, but being a Saturday, it was quite empty. Empty but interesting, and I learned some parts of Kenyan history I did not know. For example, in Kenya you find a lot of Indian people, and these families mostly came here to build the railways at the turn of the last century. The British colonists first tried to get the Africans to work, but they were quite hostile to the idea of a railroad through their land, so instead the British transported workers from India, India already having built a railway so these included people with some expertise. Then, after the railway was finished, the Indians stayed, being quite succesful in business. For example, they owned most of the supermarkets and continue to own several of the major ones.
The railway project in itself was highly ambitious and very expensive. The British parliament dubbed it the 'lunatic line' because of how much it ended up costing, and in addition to monetary cost, it was quite dangerous, claiming nearly 2500 lives of the people building it. Also, there was one part, where there was quite a bit of trouble to do with man eating lions...
The museum inside had all these old old photographs, of the railways but also of places like Nairobi and Mombassa. These cities have grown ALOT in the last 100 years. Then outside were a lot of old train cars that you could climb in. I was sorry to have not brought my camera, and was very glad I decided to go.
Meanwhile, wandering Nairobi has been lovely. This was the first place I was in Kenya, spending my first two weeks here, and it is where I always come for a break, so walking the now familiar streets gave good opportunity to reflect on the past six months. It is also great for people watching as most of the people out on a Saturday afternoon are out for leisure, and look quite smart, smart being the word people in Kenya use for when you look good.
I will head back to Hope tomorrow afternoon, so have some time left to wander and relax and, always important, stock up on books from the Mennonite Guest House library.
Meanwhile, the rains have not returned, and talk of drought continues even in the highlands while Northern Kenya and regions of Ethiopia and Somalia are facing very dire conditions and starvation. Pray for that region. Pray for rain. Even in the highlands I think people are feeling it if they do not have generous financial backing as we do... The shamba does not grow, and the grass is much too dry for the cattle to be satisfied. They say the rains should come in March or April, so hopefully soon...
In other news, I received an email with my return ticket this week. I leave Kenya on July 19, have reentry retreat in PA, and then fly home to Seattle on my birthday, July 26. Seeing my family will be a pretty lovely birthday, but it feels weird to have a document saying I am leaving, even if I still have five months time... When asked recently how it was going, the best answer I can give is life here is good and hard, but I am glad I am here...
Finally, I still love getting emails...
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Life has been busy...
At one point I was going to be good and blog every week, regardless of whether anybody actually wanted weekly updates of my life here in Kenya... Needless to say, since the holidays, that has not happened. However, life has been busy, so before it gets overwhelmingly much, an update is due...
I think I mentioned our newborns. Two weeks ago we got four new babies, and I even got to play nanny for the weekend until the nursery was ready. They are doing very well. There is a picture on facebook but uploading to here is painfully slow on my connection, so I have given up trying. I think all the nannies have rather fallen in love with them.
Meanwhile, teaching continues to be a full-time job. I am in the system, and finally, through some trial and error, have learned more of what that means. It means in part that if my students don't perform well, I answer to the board... yikes! I have faith in my students though. Also, it meant I got included in the teacher meeting yesterday with the Madam. She called them all, and me, for tea. It was pretty funny. Everyone is pretty shy, especially around the Madam, and I don't think the primary and secondary teachers know each other at all(I really don't besides one or two secondary) so the bulk of the meeting was going around the circle saying names and then going over a few issues. It was really nice to be included.
Other highlights include my skipping school and going to look at animals. Two weeks ago our two Canadian visitors invited me to go to Lake Naivasha with them, expense covered. While Naivasha is our biggest nearby town and my general transit point when going to Nairobi, I had not been to the lake. It is the second largest in Kenya, has a very large bird and hippopotamus population, and in the middle is an island/peninsula that we took a boat to to see giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts and other 'prey' animals. There are no real predators there, so they have a pretty good deal and it was incredibly beautiful. We saw two baby giraffes less than a month old which were very cute. Then, as is one of the woman's custom, on her way back she picked up icecream for all the children. It is a great treat, and they were thrilled.
The other woman, who was here for the first time, meanwhile wanted to go on a full safari and Madam worked her charm and got really good rates, and somehow I got thrown into the deal. She has been great working with the babies and teaching everyone, myself and the nannies, how to take care of newborns... None of us are mothers, so we really don't know, but she has grown children and knew the ropes... Anyways, this past week she and I went on safari to Masai Mara, the big game park here in Kenya.
Masai Mara was incredible. We left here Monday morning early, and the drive to Narok and the game park took some five hours but was stunningly beautiful as it took us through the Great Rift Valley. Even as you drive, you pass a stray zebra, giraffe or ostrich along the way. It is very dry, and would be very hard to farm, which is probably why the Masai who live in that part of Kenya are traditionally herders, with their special humped cows who need less water.
We arrived at our rather nice tented camp(everything around the park is overpriced and luxury...) in time for lunch, and then once the afternoon started to cool, our driver took us to the park. Shout out to Kenya. Because I am here for a year and have my residence card, I can pay resident rates to get into parks and museums, so instead of paying $120 as a foreigner, I paid 2000ksh, or the equivalent of $25. Not only is this nice for me, it makes most of the parks and museums accessible not only to wealthy foreign tourists but to locals as well. Our driver was saying even the accomodations have resident rates, but we already had a really good deal.
Safari vans are cool. It is a pretty good industry here. They look like white minibuses used for mtatus, but have a really big gas tank so you don't run out of fuel in the parks, and once you get to the parks, the drivers can raise the roof, so you can stand and look out over the top of the bus but still have the shade from the raised roof. You bounce along these dirt roads, and are so close to the animals! It was like being in a National Geographic video, and we saw practically everything.
Our first afternoon we and around 10-20 other vans were circling a pride of sleeping lions, and at the very end as the evening began, they began to wake up. It was incredible to be so close to such an incredible animal. We took a lot of pictures... okay, I didn't as my cameras zoom is not ideal for animals, but my friend did and I stole all her pictures once we got back and they are incredible! Again, I can't put any here because I am not patient enough... We took some funny pictures of the other tourists too...
The next morning we were blessed by lions again, finding some finishing off their breakfast of bufallo near a tree where a whole bunch of babies were lounging. Baby lions really are just big kittens. It was incredible.
While the lions were probably my highlight, we also saw and chased a rather shy leopard, saw several lazy cheetahs, saw ostriches in their element(which was a nice contrast to the ostrich farms I stayed on in South Africa... they are such an old bird), saw hippos and crocodiles lounging in their muddy river, all sorts of gazelles and zebras and wildabeasts and water bufalloes grazing peacefully, as well as giraffes, elephants and an assortment of rather remarkable birds whose names I don't remember. It was very much like being in a National Geographic video...
Unfortunately, my stomach was on the rocks for part of my time, but even with that, it was an incredible experience and totally worth going. The teachers did a great job of covering my classes and were really sweet about it. I wished I could have taken all the children with me. On top of their resident rates, the parks also have student rates, but we don't have a school van yet so school trips are hard. One day...
I had the thought though, once back here and watching my students play football for PE... the lions were incredible, but this, right now, is the real deal! I'm not sure how I will be able to say goodbye to these children come July...
So life continues in its fullness here, always rich, at times hard, and I am excited to see what the next five months have in store. At the same time, I miss friends and family back home, and seek to live in a tension of place and time. As my mother said the other day, rather summing up my emotions and some of my struggles here... 'life is real. Praise God!'
I think I mentioned our newborns. Two weeks ago we got four new babies, and I even got to play nanny for the weekend until the nursery was ready. They are doing very well. There is a picture on facebook but uploading to here is painfully slow on my connection, so I have given up trying. I think all the nannies have rather fallen in love with them.
Meanwhile, teaching continues to be a full-time job. I am in the system, and finally, through some trial and error, have learned more of what that means. It means in part that if my students don't perform well, I answer to the board... yikes! I have faith in my students though. Also, it meant I got included in the teacher meeting yesterday with the Madam. She called them all, and me, for tea. It was pretty funny. Everyone is pretty shy, especially around the Madam, and I don't think the primary and secondary teachers know each other at all(I really don't besides one or two secondary) so the bulk of the meeting was going around the circle saying names and then going over a few issues. It was really nice to be included.
Other highlights include my skipping school and going to look at animals. Two weeks ago our two Canadian visitors invited me to go to Lake Naivasha with them, expense covered. While Naivasha is our biggest nearby town and my general transit point when going to Nairobi, I had not been to the lake. It is the second largest in Kenya, has a very large bird and hippopotamus population, and in the middle is an island/peninsula that we took a boat to to see giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts and other 'prey' animals. There are no real predators there, so they have a pretty good deal and it was incredibly beautiful. We saw two baby giraffes less than a month old which were very cute. Then, as is one of the woman's custom, on her way back she picked up icecream for all the children. It is a great treat, and they were thrilled.
The other woman, who was here for the first time, meanwhile wanted to go on a full safari and Madam worked her charm and got really good rates, and somehow I got thrown into the deal. She has been great working with the babies and teaching everyone, myself and the nannies, how to take care of newborns... None of us are mothers, so we really don't know, but she has grown children and knew the ropes... Anyways, this past week she and I went on safari to Masai Mara, the big game park here in Kenya.
Masai Mara was incredible. We left here Monday morning early, and the drive to Narok and the game park took some five hours but was stunningly beautiful as it took us through the Great Rift Valley. Even as you drive, you pass a stray zebra, giraffe or ostrich along the way. It is very dry, and would be very hard to farm, which is probably why the Masai who live in that part of Kenya are traditionally herders, with their special humped cows who need less water.
We arrived at our rather nice tented camp(everything around the park is overpriced and luxury...) in time for lunch, and then once the afternoon started to cool, our driver took us to the park. Shout out to Kenya. Because I am here for a year and have my residence card, I can pay resident rates to get into parks and museums, so instead of paying $120 as a foreigner, I paid 2000ksh, or the equivalent of $25. Not only is this nice for me, it makes most of the parks and museums accessible not only to wealthy foreign tourists but to locals as well. Our driver was saying even the accomodations have resident rates, but we already had a really good deal.
Safari vans are cool. It is a pretty good industry here. They look like white minibuses used for mtatus, but have a really big gas tank so you don't run out of fuel in the parks, and once you get to the parks, the drivers can raise the roof, so you can stand and look out over the top of the bus but still have the shade from the raised roof. You bounce along these dirt roads, and are so close to the animals! It was like being in a National Geographic video, and we saw practically everything.
Our first afternoon we and around 10-20 other vans were circling a pride of sleeping lions, and at the very end as the evening began, they began to wake up. It was incredible to be so close to such an incredible animal. We took a lot of pictures... okay, I didn't as my cameras zoom is not ideal for animals, but my friend did and I stole all her pictures once we got back and they are incredible! Again, I can't put any here because I am not patient enough... We took some funny pictures of the other tourists too...
The next morning we were blessed by lions again, finding some finishing off their breakfast of bufallo near a tree where a whole bunch of babies were lounging. Baby lions really are just big kittens. It was incredible.
While the lions were probably my highlight, we also saw and chased a rather shy leopard, saw several lazy cheetahs, saw ostriches in their element(which was a nice contrast to the ostrich farms I stayed on in South Africa... they are such an old bird), saw hippos and crocodiles lounging in their muddy river, all sorts of gazelles and zebras and wildabeasts and water bufalloes grazing peacefully, as well as giraffes, elephants and an assortment of rather remarkable birds whose names I don't remember. It was very much like being in a National Geographic video...
Unfortunately, my stomach was on the rocks for part of my time, but even with that, it was an incredible experience and totally worth going. The teachers did a great job of covering my classes and were really sweet about it. I wished I could have taken all the children with me. On top of their resident rates, the parks also have student rates, but we don't have a school van yet so school trips are hard. One day...
I had the thought though, once back here and watching my students play football for PE... the lions were incredible, but this, right now, is the real deal! I'm not sure how I will be able to say goodbye to these children come July...
So life continues in its fullness here, always rich, at times hard, and I am excited to see what the next five months have in store. At the same time, I miss friends and family back home, and seek to live in a tension of place and time. As my mother said the other day, rather summing up my emotions and some of my struggles here... 'life is real. Praise God!'
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A long time coming...
So first let me apologize and make excuses for my blog delay... my internet went down again, so it truly is not my fault... This doesn't change the fact that it has been weeks and so writing a blog to cover all that has happened since cabbages remains a daunting task. I will do my best...
One definite highlight was the children coming home from their holidays... for many, they had been away for four months, and while we had had a lovely time here without them, we definitely missed them.
Here is an excerpt from my journal on January 9, the day after they came home...
' Homecomings were beautiful yesterday and we still have some to go. The day was full of an air of eager expectation and each time a child came in the gate it was like something missing was being returned. The day was full of the sweetness of smiles as dear friends reunited and the glorious spontaneous play as if all the days apart must be made up for in that one moment.
Devotions and dinner the hall felt alive again with a festive air of reunion, and I know we are all eager to see our last dear ones returned.
Even the babies shared the joy. I was there in the morning and when two of the girls came in, the two babies they are close to streaked towards them with the biggest smiles'.
It really was so good to see everyone, and I think after being away, everybody appreciates each other more.
The children returned and then school began... and they were ready. As for me, I was ready too, and was happy to see my position as a teacher more fully integrated into the school. This term I am teaching grade 4, 5, 6 and 7 English as well as assorted PE, and instead of taking part of the class like last term, I am teaching the whole grade(each between 14-20 students) in their normal classrooms of tin. I keep my books in the staff office, and can enter and exit without feeling like I need to explain my presence. Even sometimes I do my marking in their although if the weather is nice, I try and mark outside. I feel like I am making progress with the teachers too as they more fully accept my presence. It has been really good, and over the last two weeks I have developed some good strategies and I like to think my students like me, if at times are amused by my antics... I will dedicate another blog entry more fully to school soon...
Another event of the past few weeks was going to Nairobi to see my fellow mzungu off to the airport as after eight months she is returned to Canada. She is missed by the children and myself, and I was glad to be able to go and see her off. I was supposed to have found my own lodging, but last minute realized I didn't have any viable options, and begged my way along anyways. Friday night, after good-byes at the airport, I slept on the Madam's sisters coach, and spent most of the next morning following her sister around to the bank and phone store as she sorted out matters as her phone had been stolen the day before. Her sister lives in one of the suburbs and it was fun to just be in the part of town that people live in and to people watch. Then that afternoon we met up with the Madam, ran some errands with her, were supposed to return to Hope that evening, but because the driver wasn't feeling well ended up staying another night, this time in a guest house near the Madam's house. Life is always an adventure, and the weekend had its share of absurd moments, but it is good to have those to look back and laugh on when things are business as usual here...
Other funny occasions include the next weekend getting locked in the Madam's sitting room for several hours when she forgot that myself and two of the girls were organizing the storage when she left to Naivasha to pick up some chickens... and locked her gate... it was really quite funny and they found a way to lift our lunch onto the balcony so we did not go hungry. It is good to finally have the chickens too, and to think that in six months eggs can be added again to the children's diet.
In other news, the mzungu quarters didn't stay quiet for long as two women from Canada are currently here. One is the big partner and the other came along with her. They have been doing a lot to prepare for some more little babies(four is the number I heard) who are coming tomorrow(somehow I find it hard to believe anything until it happens, but they probably will in fact come tomorrow...which is kind of exciting). It is nice having them here, but it is funny too because I can see how everything changes(and probably adjusted when I came too) when visitors come. Nothing major but just little adjustments to make them feel more welcome, and being somewhere in the middle, it can be funny, and a little painful at times, to see. I have crossed the line to familiar, but still am foreign... it is hard to try and explain...
This month has been overall really good though. I feel like my life here is full of potential. With relationships with the children and with teaching, there is a lot of promise. My days are full and busy and I feel part of what is going on around me. With six months in Kenya remaining, I am ready to make the most of each day, and feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to be here, in true SALT fashion, serving and learning...
As always, I love emails, to hear how things are going back home in your lives... assuming anyone actually reads this thing beyond my parents and grandparents:)
One definite highlight was the children coming home from their holidays... for many, they had been away for four months, and while we had had a lovely time here without them, we definitely missed them.
Here is an excerpt from my journal on January 9, the day after they came home...
' Homecomings were beautiful yesterday and we still have some to go. The day was full of an air of eager expectation and each time a child came in the gate it was like something missing was being returned. The day was full of the sweetness of smiles as dear friends reunited and the glorious spontaneous play as if all the days apart must be made up for in that one moment.
Devotions and dinner the hall felt alive again with a festive air of reunion, and I know we are all eager to see our last dear ones returned.
Even the babies shared the joy. I was there in the morning and when two of the girls came in, the two babies they are close to streaked towards them with the biggest smiles'.
It really was so good to see everyone, and I think after being away, everybody appreciates each other more.
The children returned and then school began... and they were ready. As for me, I was ready too, and was happy to see my position as a teacher more fully integrated into the school. This term I am teaching grade 4, 5, 6 and 7 English as well as assorted PE, and instead of taking part of the class like last term, I am teaching the whole grade(each between 14-20 students) in their normal classrooms of tin. I keep my books in the staff office, and can enter and exit without feeling like I need to explain my presence. Even sometimes I do my marking in their although if the weather is nice, I try and mark outside. I feel like I am making progress with the teachers too as they more fully accept my presence. It has been really good, and over the last two weeks I have developed some good strategies and I like to think my students like me, if at times are amused by my antics... I will dedicate another blog entry more fully to school soon...
Another event of the past few weeks was going to Nairobi to see my fellow mzungu off to the airport as after eight months she is returned to Canada. She is missed by the children and myself, and I was glad to be able to go and see her off. I was supposed to have found my own lodging, but last minute realized I didn't have any viable options, and begged my way along anyways. Friday night, after good-byes at the airport, I slept on the Madam's sisters coach, and spent most of the next morning following her sister around to the bank and phone store as she sorted out matters as her phone had been stolen the day before. Her sister lives in one of the suburbs and it was fun to just be in the part of town that people live in and to people watch. Then that afternoon we met up with the Madam, ran some errands with her, were supposed to return to Hope that evening, but because the driver wasn't feeling well ended up staying another night, this time in a guest house near the Madam's house. Life is always an adventure, and the weekend had its share of absurd moments, but it is good to have those to look back and laugh on when things are business as usual here...
Other funny occasions include the next weekend getting locked in the Madam's sitting room for several hours when she forgot that myself and two of the girls were organizing the storage when she left to Naivasha to pick up some chickens... and locked her gate... it was really quite funny and they found a way to lift our lunch onto the balcony so we did not go hungry. It is good to finally have the chickens too, and to think that in six months eggs can be added again to the children's diet.
In other news, the mzungu quarters didn't stay quiet for long as two women from Canada are currently here. One is the big partner and the other came along with her. They have been doing a lot to prepare for some more little babies(four is the number I heard) who are coming tomorrow(somehow I find it hard to believe anything until it happens, but they probably will in fact come tomorrow...which is kind of exciting). It is nice having them here, but it is funny too because I can see how everything changes(and probably adjusted when I came too) when visitors come. Nothing major but just little adjustments to make them feel more welcome, and being somewhere in the middle, it can be funny, and a little painful at times, to see. I have crossed the line to familiar, but still am foreign... it is hard to try and explain...
This month has been overall really good though. I feel like my life here is full of potential. With relationships with the children and with teaching, there is a lot of promise. My days are full and busy and I feel part of what is going on around me. With six months in Kenya remaining, I am ready to make the most of each day, and feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to be here, in true SALT fashion, serving and learning...
As always, I love emails, to hear how things are going back home in your lives... assuming anyone actually reads this thing beyond my parents and grandparents:)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
New Year Reflections...
Happy New Years from Kenya! Maybe I am a bit on the late end of wishing that as we are already a week into 2011, but the year still feels pretty new to me. Probably because while school was allegedly supposed to start this past week, it got pushed to this coming Monday because of some dorm repairs and the children are not all returned(as the girls do not have their full dorm to sleep in). Currently, the twelve girls who would be sleeping in the dorm are sleeping in the room next to mine, and they honestly make pretty fun neighbors... I will be sorry to see them go, and as the other volunteer leaves on the 14th, things are going to feel pretty quiet in my wing of the dorm. I think we are all very excited for the rest of the children to return tomorrow and Sunday though. It feels much too quiet around here, and I think the students are very much ready to start school again. Me too, although I am hoping somebody tells me what I am teaching before the day of... I might ask, but I figure if they haven't told me, they haven't actually written the timetable yet...
This past Tuesday I hit my four month mark of being here at Hope. Things definitely get easier with time, which is why I wanted to come for a year. Relationships take time... I have even seen that with the children and the two Kenyan teachers who started the same term I did. Seeing their progress with the children parallel to mine has been rather encouraging as it is pretty similar... I think we all are feeling a better sense of belonging these days.
Life has been a pretty lazy routine of break; work, play, watch tv, meals... There are several projects going on around the compound these days. They are trying to finish the boundary wall, putting cement outside the girls dorm, refinishing the bathrooms in the girls dorm, and then always, looming but rather untouched, the highschool which still is not roofed(I am not sure where exactly the delay lies, but probably finances...) For the students and teachers and myself, that means periodically moving sand or water to mix the cement with, blocks for the wall, or even as the rains really did stop, yesterday we hauled water for the shamba(farm). Play is pretty mellow feeling with so many of the children gone, but a favorite game of this past week has been racing three car tires that showed up from somewhere. It is pretty fun to watch although not a game I feel like actively participating in. Watching TV is probably the children's favorite pastime, and while we watch a lot, they won't once school starts again and their world can be pretty small here. We watch a lot of kung fu bootleg movies which is pretty funny as that is another favorite item of play, kung fu fighting... Meals and mealtime devotions meanwhile take up a good chunk of time too, and put it altogether and it makes a typical day during school break.
Monday I even had the opportunity to go out and see part of the Madam's ministry to IDPs. IDP stands for Internally Displaced Peoples, and here in Kenya even now, three years after the 2007-2008 election violence, a lot of IDPs have yet to be resettled. The work Madam does is community development type and she has a similar vision for microenterprise to what she is doing in Uganda. For Monday, myself and some of the secondary students came along to take part in a brief worship service and then food and blanket distribution to the families. It was pretty interesting although as it was local, the whole thing was in the local language of Kikuyu which I only understand a handful of words in. Still, it is always pretty amazing to see the vision in action.
For me though, probably the best part of the outing was the cabbages...
We took two cars to Kjabini where the IDP work is; Madam going in one with some friends who came for the day, and the students and myself going in the other. On the way there we had passed mounds of cabbages piled along the road, harvests ready for pickup. Our cabbages had a sickness awhile back so for a week all we had eaten was cabbage, but it has been scarce in the diet of late. So on our return, the Madam's car stopped abruptly before us along one such pile and cabbage field where a man was working, and after a minutes negotiation Madam's car left while everyone piled out of the van to help carry cabbages as the farmer, machete in hand, began to harvest afresh for us. Deftly he would cut the heads and then toss them to the waiting hands as they were carried, two by two, nearly a hundred in all, the the back of our van.
I probably wasn't expected to help or even supposed to, but as the nanny, teacher and pastor all were working I had not good excuse not to. My whiteness is not a good excuse, but sometimes if my peers of teachers or nannies are waiting in a situation, I will chose to wait with them, because then it is my pretend authority, not skin color, that excuses me. Helping is always fun though if only for the amusement it brings. I am sure my friends and passer-bys alike were amused to see me emerge from the van and carry my share of cabbages two by two.
On the drive back, 20 km or so, the van smelled like cabbages and as we had left Hope just before breakfast was served, they smelled very good. The drive back should have been uneventful, but twice our back door flew open, spilling stray cabbages behind us and people would have to pile out to chase them(as it was never too many cabbages, this time I stayed in the van). The first time it happened we were on a dirt road, but the second was in the rather bustling town of Engineer and we must have looked a site. It always happened right after somebody had entered or exited the van, so I think the driver had simply forgotten to secure the locks.
Kinangop, which I have learned is a district, not a town or village as I first imagined, always amazes me with its beauty and fertility. It seem whatever is planted grows and grows big at that; corn taller than a man waving in the wind, waist high kale, or sukuma wiki as it is called here, or these cabbages bigger than our head.
Anyways, that is the news from here. As always, I love emails and word from home, for while a year is a good length of time to get to know a place, people and community, it is also a long time to be away from home:) Happy New Years!
This past Tuesday I hit my four month mark of being here at Hope. Things definitely get easier with time, which is why I wanted to come for a year. Relationships take time... I have even seen that with the children and the two Kenyan teachers who started the same term I did. Seeing their progress with the children parallel to mine has been rather encouraging as it is pretty similar... I think we all are feeling a better sense of belonging these days.
Life has been a pretty lazy routine of break; work, play, watch tv, meals... There are several projects going on around the compound these days. They are trying to finish the boundary wall, putting cement outside the girls dorm, refinishing the bathrooms in the girls dorm, and then always, looming but rather untouched, the highschool which still is not roofed(I am not sure where exactly the delay lies, but probably finances...) For the students and teachers and myself, that means periodically moving sand or water to mix the cement with, blocks for the wall, or even as the rains really did stop, yesterday we hauled water for the shamba(farm). Play is pretty mellow feeling with so many of the children gone, but a favorite game of this past week has been racing three car tires that showed up from somewhere. It is pretty fun to watch although not a game I feel like actively participating in. Watching TV is probably the children's favorite pastime, and while we watch a lot, they won't once school starts again and their world can be pretty small here. We watch a lot of kung fu bootleg movies which is pretty funny as that is another favorite item of play, kung fu fighting... Meals and mealtime devotions meanwhile take up a good chunk of time too, and put it altogether and it makes a typical day during school break.
Monday I even had the opportunity to go out and see part of the Madam's ministry to IDPs. IDP stands for Internally Displaced Peoples, and here in Kenya even now, three years after the 2007-2008 election violence, a lot of IDPs have yet to be resettled. The work Madam does is community development type and she has a similar vision for microenterprise to what she is doing in Uganda. For Monday, myself and some of the secondary students came along to take part in a brief worship service and then food and blanket distribution to the families. It was pretty interesting although as it was local, the whole thing was in the local language of Kikuyu which I only understand a handful of words in. Still, it is always pretty amazing to see the vision in action.
For me though, probably the best part of the outing was the cabbages...
We took two cars to Kjabini where the IDP work is; Madam going in one with some friends who came for the day, and the students and myself going in the other. On the way there we had passed mounds of cabbages piled along the road, harvests ready for pickup. Our cabbages had a sickness awhile back so for a week all we had eaten was cabbage, but it has been scarce in the diet of late. So on our return, the Madam's car stopped abruptly before us along one such pile and cabbage field where a man was working, and after a minutes negotiation Madam's car left while everyone piled out of the van to help carry cabbages as the farmer, machete in hand, began to harvest afresh for us. Deftly he would cut the heads and then toss them to the waiting hands as they were carried, two by two, nearly a hundred in all, the the back of our van.
I probably wasn't expected to help or even supposed to, but as the nanny, teacher and pastor all were working I had not good excuse not to. My whiteness is not a good excuse, but sometimes if my peers of teachers or nannies are waiting in a situation, I will chose to wait with them, because then it is my pretend authority, not skin color, that excuses me. Helping is always fun though if only for the amusement it brings. I am sure my friends and passer-bys alike were amused to see me emerge from the van and carry my share of cabbages two by two.
On the drive back, 20 km or so, the van smelled like cabbages and as we had left Hope just before breakfast was served, they smelled very good. The drive back should have been uneventful, but twice our back door flew open, spilling stray cabbages behind us and people would have to pile out to chase them(as it was never too many cabbages, this time I stayed in the van). The first time it happened we were on a dirt road, but the second was in the rather bustling town of Engineer and we must have looked a site. It always happened right after somebody had entered or exited the van, so I think the driver had simply forgotten to secure the locks.
Kinangop, which I have learned is a district, not a town or village as I first imagined, always amazes me with its beauty and fertility. It seem whatever is planted grows and grows big at that; corn taller than a man waving in the wind, waist high kale, or sukuma wiki as it is called here, or these cabbages bigger than our head.
Anyways, that is the news from here. As always, I love emails and word from home, for while a year is a good length of time to get to know a place, people and community, it is also a long time to be away from home:) Happy New Years!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Christmas in Uganda
Merry Christmas! I might be a little late on wishing that, but I truly hope everyone did have a good Christmas as mine was rather remarkable. For four days over Christmas I had the opportunity to travel to Uganda with the Madam and some of the Hope family to visit a girl and some families that the Madam has been working with. There is no limit to the scope of her vision and passion, and it was pretty incredible to get to see some of that vision and passion in action.
Background on Hope's work in Uganda is pretty simple. A North American donor contacted the Madam and said he wanted to help children in Uganda(but not Kenya?) and would she go and find a child there that he could help. Over the course of several trips, she did find a girl who is disabled and through her this man sponsored the girl to go to a special needs school where she could grow and learn to smile. In conjunction with this, they sponsored children from ten families in a local village to go to school as well as planted orange trees as a fledgling micro-enterprise project. Once the trees are mature and producing, they will provide income generation for the family. Small, pretty simple, but good. Apparently the first time they went, it was hard for the families to see how a Kenyan could be helping them, but as Madam says, even when we do not have so much here, there is always something to give. While this was largely started with one donor, he is unable to continue, but the ministry there should still be able to continue and be an active part of the Hope family. He might have had the funds, but Madam has taken over the vision and as we all say here, 'God is faithful'.
As for me going, I feel pretty blessed. It almost didn't happen, for while I had been invited to come back in November, some transportation fall through at the last minute almost meant no room. As it was, there was only one spare seat between myself and the other volunteer, but as she had already been twice with the Madam, the seat fell to me. As it was, it meant I spent the ten hour drive perched on the narrow middle front seat with no foot room between the driver and another man. Not the most comfortable, but so worth the discomfort. I was the last minute add-on, for the party was already pretty big with seventeen of us going involving small children(Madam's three musketeers and the baby of the board member), school children(three from Hope and the sister to the baby), a board member and his wife, the Pastor, Madam, myself, a photographer friend, the musketeers nanny, and two drivers as the transportation fall through meant taking two cars. It was quite the traveling caravan.
Our journey began around 10pm Wednesday and soon met with mishap as the car I was in ran out of gas on the way to Naivasha. The nearby town had none, so we tried anyways, but ended up waiting an hour and a half for the other car to go to Naivasha and bring some fuel back for us. So after midnight we were on our way again, and while we may have been driving at night, there was little hope for sleep as the roads to the boarder are quite poor and especially for me in my seat, I was a little worried of being launched through the window if I quit paying attention... We did have to swerve to avoid two crossing zebras at one point, but otherwise, made it to the border without further mishap. At the border, they were reluctant to let us pass(I think hoping we would give them a little something for Christmas, which we do not do...i.e. a bribe), but we made it through eventually. Then, in Uganda, the roads were much better and I was able to sleep some. We arrived in our destination of Iganga around three, bargained our way into a discount at the hotel, and all took a much needed rest. Thursday was a catch-up afternoon from travelling.
Friday was busy. Except for the transportation issues, the plan had been to arrive a day or two earlier, so we were packing everything in as best we could. At times this made things feel quite rushed, but I will hold that God is faithful and everything worked out all right in the end, and even better than might have been expected. Friday morning we went to the school to visit the girl, who I ended up spending a lot of time waiting with(we all spent a lot of time waiting; it goes with life here, and I am even used to it although I do like to make bets on how many minutes or hours a wait might be). Apparently when they first met the girl, our Ugandan sister, she did not smile, but now she has a beautiful smile and has even learned some English at the school so we were able to communicate some, and with lots of smiles. I am okay being the funny mzungu. Then, after a detour with our community contacts in search of a market that was not open, we headed to the village and got to see the growth of the trees of the ten families. We barely had time at any of the families, but it was alright as the other part of our mission was to invite them to a Christmas celebration the next day. The trees were looking good, and it was a whirlwind tour of what I imagine is a typical Ugandan village. The one community contact, a man whose family was also part of the orange project, enjoyed pointing out houses of his relative and local dignitaries. I liked him a lot. If you are working in a community, you need somebody in the community you can trust, and this was the man...
Saturday was Christmas, and our morning was busy with preparations for the celebration. I spent most of the morning waiting with our Ugandan sister, but that was good as in the busyness, she might have had to wait alone without me. The plan was to gather with the families in the community and to have time of fellowship, a brief sharing of food(nothing too special but something simple and nice), a giving of gifts, and then to wrap up. As it was, we started later then we had planned, and by the time we were going, it was pouring in a true tropical downpour kind of way(Uganda, unlike Kinangop, was quite hot and quite tropical). I was worried we would get stuck, and not on the way too the celebration, but when leaving, our car did get stuck, but we were able to push it free of the mud. It was still raining when we arrived, and everyone crammed into the spare building of our community contact and celebration host. We were pretty tight, but everyone did fit, and we proceeded to have a brief time of fellowship, with singing and a message and a reiteration of the ties between this community and that of Hope. Truly, as the Church, we are all one, and that was the gist of the message, that God is love, and that we are to love one another, to love one's neighbors(in the case of Kenya and Uganda this could be taken quite literally). It was good, simple, and real.
The time of gift giving was good too. The families truly were grateful. The gifts were simple, some clothes and shoes for the students as well as pens, a toy or two, some basic food items, yet we know here at Hope and even moreso in the village, things can go a long ways. The woman, mothers and grandmothers, were truly grateful, and danced in celebration with our Madam. It truly was a time of fellowship, and was humbling to be part of. I think it passed very much in the true spirit of Christmas, and I don't wonder that each Christmas I shall be reminded of packing into that tiny room in the pouring rain and celebrating Christmas with my family from Kenya and our family in Uganda and being humbled to be a part of such a beautiful and global gathering and family.
Then, that afternoon we had business to attend to as our Ugandan sister had no place to be over the school holiday, and part of our trip was to figure out where she could stay until school started again. For myself and most of the rest this just meant following our leaders as they sought a place. Here again our community contact proved most valuable, mentioning a local Catholic children's home, which led to conversation with the Sisters that led to an agreement that the girl would be better served not at the school where she was(where while she had grown, there were things lacking that were to be desired) but at one of their sister schools where they even taught in the girls native tongue(like Kenya, Uganda has a lot of languages). This was better than we could have hoped, and again 'God is faithful', and so that very day we were able to leave her in their good care, knowing she would be well taken care of and provided for.
Sunday, meanwhile, we were on our way again, back to Kenya(although we did not leave until afternoon with one thing an another). All the Kenyans I was with wanted to stop in Uganda and do shopping before we left, apparently things are cheaper there. I was reminded of Canadians coming down to the States to shop... There are many differences perhaps with life here, but probably I am more struck how very in common so much of life is... The simple things, the funny things, the daily life things... I love just living in the shared humanity... imperfect, yet full of room for sharing together and grace...
We must have made quite a site in Uganda, all seventeen of us piling out of vehicles, and I am sure my whiteness did draw more attention to us than even our numbers. In some of our waiting in town, I had some pretty funny moments. In one, a boy stopped and seeing me(sitting in the car with the others waiting) asked for money or my watch. I said no, and seeing as he spoke good English asked if he was in school, and hearing that he was, told him to study hard so he could get a job and buy his own watch... Then, telling him to have a good Christmas, I hoped he would leave as I felt pretty awkward with all my Kenyan fellow travelers to have this boy staring at me. However, he kept staring, and after a while I decided I would have to do more to get rid of him. I asked if he thought I was an animal that he could just stare at me. To which he replied, yes. I said, no, I am a human being, go away... He went, but my fellow passengers found this hilarious, and I was happy enough to provide them with the entertainment.
Our trip home was quite an adventure too, through two major downpours and lightning storms. One could barely see, but our driver made a living through driving so kept on undeterred. Personally, I was praying we would not die a good part of the trip... Also, once it is dark, it is hard to see the speed bumps in the road, so we hit quite a few at full speed which always made for an unexpected start. On the way, we pass through Kisumu, and I got to see quite a bit of the town as we got lost looking for the major supermarket. It is on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africas largest fresh water lake, and I have been told, a source of the Nile. As one of my traveling companions told me, Kisumu is also the homeplace of my president. Obama's grandmother still lives there... We got back to Hope around 1am...
It truly was an amazing experience and Christmas. I feel so fortunate and blessed to have been a part of it. I may have felt out of place at times, and often did not understand the flood of Kiswahili that was spoken around me, but I felt a part of what was going on by the grace of my Hope family which has welcomed me from the beginning and continues to be patient with me. Now, once more, I am back at Hope, and I am looking forward to this last week of break before school resumes again.
Background on Hope's work in Uganda is pretty simple. A North American donor contacted the Madam and said he wanted to help children in Uganda(but not Kenya?) and would she go and find a child there that he could help. Over the course of several trips, she did find a girl who is disabled and through her this man sponsored the girl to go to a special needs school where she could grow and learn to smile. In conjunction with this, they sponsored children from ten families in a local village to go to school as well as planted orange trees as a fledgling micro-enterprise project. Once the trees are mature and producing, they will provide income generation for the family. Small, pretty simple, but good. Apparently the first time they went, it was hard for the families to see how a Kenyan could be helping them, but as Madam says, even when we do not have so much here, there is always something to give. While this was largely started with one donor, he is unable to continue, but the ministry there should still be able to continue and be an active part of the Hope family. He might have had the funds, but Madam has taken over the vision and as we all say here, 'God is faithful'.
As for me going, I feel pretty blessed. It almost didn't happen, for while I had been invited to come back in November, some transportation fall through at the last minute almost meant no room. As it was, there was only one spare seat between myself and the other volunteer, but as she had already been twice with the Madam, the seat fell to me. As it was, it meant I spent the ten hour drive perched on the narrow middle front seat with no foot room between the driver and another man. Not the most comfortable, but so worth the discomfort. I was the last minute add-on, for the party was already pretty big with seventeen of us going involving small children(Madam's three musketeers and the baby of the board member), school children(three from Hope and the sister to the baby), a board member and his wife, the Pastor, Madam, myself, a photographer friend, the musketeers nanny, and two drivers as the transportation fall through meant taking two cars. It was quite the traveling caravan.
Our journey began around 10pm Wednesday and soon met with mishap as the car I was in ran out of gas on the way to Naivasha. The nearby town had none, so we tried anyways, but ended up waiting an hour and a half for the other car to go to Naivasha and bring some fuel back for us. So after midnight we were on our way again, and while we may have been driving at night, there was little hope for sleep as the roads to the boarder are quite poor and especially for me in my seat, I was a little worried of being launched through the window if I quit paying attention... We did have to swerve to avoid two crossing zebras at one point, but otherwise, made it to the border without further mishap. At the border, they were reluctant to let us pass(I think hoping we would give them a little something for Christmas, which we do not do...i.e. a bribe), but we made it through eventually. Then, in Uganda, the roads were much better and I was able to sleep some. We arrived in our destination of Iganga around three, bargained our way into a discount at the hotel, and all took a much needed rest. Thursday was a catch-up afternoon from travelling.
Friday was busy. Except for the transportation issues, the plan had been to arrive a day or two earlier, so we were packing everything in as best we could. At times this made things feel quite rushed, but I will hold that God is faithful and everything worked out all right in the end, and even better than might have been expected. Friday morning we went to the school to visit the girl, who I ended up spending a lot of time waiting with(we all spent a lot of time waiting; it goes with life here, and I am even used to it although I do like to make bets on how many minutes or hours a wait might be). Apparently when they first met the girl, our Ugandan sister, she did not smile, but now she has a beautiful smile and has even learned some English at the school so we were able to communicate some, and with lots of smiles. I am okay being the funny mzungu. Then, after a detour with our community contacts in search of a market that was not open, we headed to the village and got to see the growth of the trees of the ten families. We barely had time at any of the families, but it was alright as the other part of our mission was to invite them to a Christmas celebration the next day. The trees were looking good, and it was a whirlwind tour of what I imagine is a typical Ugandan village. The one community contact, a man whose family was also part of the orange project, enjoyed pointing out houses of his relative and local dignitaries. I liked him a lot. If you are working in a community, you need somebody in the community you can trust, and this was the man...
Saturday was Christmas, and our morning was busy with preparations for the celebration. I spent most of the morning waiting with our Ugandan sister, but that was good as in the busyness, she might have had to wait alone without me. The plan was to gather with the families in the community and to have time of fellowship, a brief sharing of food(nothing too special but something simple and nice), a giving of gifts, and then to wrap up. As it was, we started later then we had planned, and by the time we were going, it was pouring in a true tropical downpour kind of way(Uganda, unlike Kinangop, was quite hot and quite tropical). I was worried we would get stuck, and not on the way too the celebration, but when leaving, our car did get stuck, but we were able to push it free of the mud. It was still raining when we arrived, and everyone crammed into the spare building of our community contact and celebration host. We were pretty tight, but everyone did fit, and we proceeded to have a brief time of fellowship, with singing and a message and a reiteration of the ties between this community and that of Hope. Truly, as the Church, we are all one, and that was the gist of the message, that God is love, and that we are to love one another, to love one's neighbors(in the case of Kenya and Uganda this could be taken quite literally). It was good, simple, and real.
The time of gift giving was good too. The families truly were grateful. The gifts were simple, some clothes and shoes for the students as well as pens, a toy or two, some basic food items, yet we know here at Hope and even moreso in the village, things can go a long ways. The woman, mothers and grandmothers, were truly grateful, and danced in celebration with our Madam. It truly was a time of fellowship, and was humbling to be part of. I think it passed very much in the true spirit of Christmas, and I don't wonder that each Christmas I shall be reminded of packing into that tiny room in the pouring rain and celebrating Christmas with my family from Kenya and our family in Uganda and being humbled to be a part of such a beautiful and global gathering and family.
Then, that afternoon we had business to attend to as our Ugandan sister had no place to be over the school holiday, and part of our trip was to figure out where she could stay until school started again. For myself and most of the rest this just meant following our leaders as they sought a place. Here again our community contact proved most valuable, mentioning a local Catholic children's home, which led to conversation with the Sisters that led to an agreement that the girl would be better served not at the school where she was(where while she had grown, there were things lacking that were to be desired) but at one of their sister schools where they even taught in the girls native tongue(like Kenya, Uganda has a lot of languages). This was better than we could have hoped, and again 'God is faithful', and so that very day we were able to leave her in their good care, knowing she would be well taken care of and provided for.
Sunday, meanwhile, we were on our way again, back to Kenya(although we did not leave until afternoon with one thing an another). All the Kenyans I was with wanted to stop in Uganda and do shopping before we left, apparently things are cheaper there. I was reminded of Canadians coming down to the States to shop... There are many differences perhaps with life here, but probably I am more struck how very in common so much of life is... The simple things, the funny things, the daily life things... I love just living in the shared humanity... imperfect, yet full of room for sharing together and grace...
We must have made quite a site in Uganda, all seventeen of us piling out of vehicles, and I am sure my whiteness did draw more attention to us than even our numbers. In some of our waiting in town, I had some pretty funny moments. In one, a boy stopped and seeing me(sitting in the car with the others waiting) asked for money or my watch. I said no, and seeing as he spoke good English asked if he was in school, and hearing that he was, told him to study hard so he could get a job and buy his own watch... Then, telling him to have a good Christmas, I hoped he would leave as I felt pretty awkward with all my Kenyan fellow travelers to have this boy staring at me. However, he kept staring, and after a while I decided I would have to do more to get rid of him. I asked if he thought I was an animal that he could just stare at me. To which he replied, yes. I said, no, I am a human being, go away... He went, but my fellow passengers found this hilarious, and I was happy enough to provide them with the entertainment.
Our trip home was quite an adventure too, through two major downpours and lightning storms. One could barely see, but our driver made a living through driving so kept on undeterred. Personally, I was praying we would not die a good part of the trip... Also, once it is dark, it is hard to see the speed bumps in the road, so we hit quite a few at full speed which always made for an unexpected start. On the way, we pass through Kisumu, and I got to see quite a bit of the town as we got lost looking for the major supermarket. It is on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africas largest fresh water lake, and I have been told, a source of the Nile. As one of my traveling companions told me, Kisumu is also the homeplace of my president. Obama's grandmother still lives there... We got back to Hope around 1am...
It truly was an amazing experience and Christmas. I feel so fortunate and blessed to have been a part of it. I may have felt out of place at times, and often did not understand the flood of Kiswahili that was spoken around me, but I felt a part of what was going on by the grace of my Hope family which has welcomed me from the beginning and continues to be patient with me. Now, once more, I am back at Hope, and I am looking forward to this last week of break before school resumes again.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Long and overdue, but this month has been busy...
So looking at my blog I realize it has been almost a month since I last wrote... which means I am left with a lot to write about and not knowing what all to include... so bear with me... First, a quick disclaimer, the large gap has mostly been due to a lack of internet, not blogging negligence; my internet went down and then I was travelling on vacation... so here goes...
School ended the last week of November, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the holidays, both here at Hope and the two weeks I had between a personal vacation with friends and the MCC East Africa retreat. Especially the first week of holidays here at Hope was fun. With no classes, there was a lot of opportunity to just be around with the kids, and I felt like I crossed over some line of belonging, if only in my own head. When they worked, I worked with them... and provided a certain amount of entertainment in doing so... When they watched tv, I watched tv... and it was good.
I was almost sorry to have to go when the time came for my vacation... Almost might be an overstretch. I was quite looking forward to my vacation to the Kenyan coast with some friends who work with MCC Uganda, including my SALT orientation roommate and a fellow Peace Studies friend from Whitworth. I did not mind that my ride out from Hope was two hours late though as it allowed me plenty of time to tell the kids goodbye, and more importantly, that I was coming back in two weeks. There is enough ambiguity in life here at Hope that I did not feel the need to add to it by mysteriously disappearing.
That was Friday, December 3, and I got to Nairobi before my friends, bought us bus tickets to Mombassa which was the first leg of our journey, and then met them when their bus arrived from Kampala. We stayed Friday night in Nairobi, and then Saturday spent the day in Nairobi, including getting lunch at a coffee shop where I suffered my first Kenyan misadventure(and hopefully last). The one moment I was not hyper vigilant about my purse, having put it between my feet instead of on my lap, it was stolen... live, learn, and life is too short for regrets... still, not the funnest incident as my purse had some money, my bank card, my camera and what I was most sad to lose, my journal I had started halfway through November... at least the likelihood of a pickpocket reading fifty pages of rather boring reflections and existential angst written in cursive is slim to none, but still... I rather enjoy reading those things and am sorry to have lost those weeks of my time here. Thankfully, I was able to cancel my bank card immediately, and sorted out how to still get money(thanks to one of my travelling companions and my dad...) and so the vacation was not thwarted. I personally decided I was not going to let it ruin my time... and it didn't... I have had my close calls back in the states even, so robbery is not just a Kenya or Nairobi thing, but wherever or whenever it happens, it is unfortunate.
And so Saturday night, we took our bus to Mombassa. Our tickets had been in my purse too, but the company we used had computer records of my buying the tickets, and our names, so we were able to retrieve them. Also, I was able to get my same cellphone number back as the phone company makes you register for SIM cards, so once I could prove my identity, they were willing to restore my number. I was overall very impressed by the infrastructure and service I met with after my misadventure, as well as the sympathy that I received whenever people learned what had happened.
So the downside to taking the overnight bus to Mombassa is you arrive in Mombassa at 5:30 in the morning... which is really early to be in a new place. Thankfully, we found a place to have breakfast(and even store our luggage) before exploring the old town and visiting a 14th century Portugese fort. Fort Jesus had been built by the Portugese, conquered by the Arabs and then taken over by the British. We had a great guide, and I enjoyed our tour. I had expected the fort to be very much like the castle forts I had visited in Ghana, and while serving some of the same purposes, there was a different feel. Old Town meanwhile was a great walk. The coast of Kenya has a very different feel than inland and a very different culture. It is predominantly Swahili(not to be completely confused with the language of Kiswahili, the Swahili are also one of the people groups in Kenya). The details are escaping me, but they are pretty heavily influenced by Arab culture as well as they were the main traders centuries ago. For instance, the next day we visited the Gedi ruins a few hours north up the coast which were the ruins of a deserted 13th century Swahili city. What is left of the city is beautiful and included artifacts from as far away as China. Little is known about it except that it appears to have been deserted, for whatever reason, voluntarily and not violently.
I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Mombassa even if it was short as we headed that afternoon north to Malindi(where the ruins were) and stayed at this very funky eco camp... It was lovely, a little random, but we were the only guests so very relaxing... Monday we went to the ruins... and Tuesday we headed to our main destination for the trip which was Lamu Archipeligo on the northern coast of Kenya. It is a Unesco Heritage site, and so a very well preserved Swahili town. Also, no cars are allowed on the islands so the primary means of transportation are donkeys and dhows, the local sailing boats. On Lamu we rented this random house which was quite reasonable and again away from the major hub or tourists although Lamu is definitely a tourist destination. It was really very nice, included breakfast and house help who we rather enjoyed as individuals... I am sure they thought we were quite mad and I do not think we were there average guests passing through.
Some highlights from Lamu:
-how insanely beautiful the island was
-getting to explore the town which was old, with narrow streets, lots of donkeys and despite being a tourist destination is also very much a place where people live
-the fact that Lamu might be the one place in Kenya where it is safe to walk around after dark
- eating lots of good seafood, especially seafood curries and drinking lots of really good fresh juice
- going to the beach and getting to swim in the Indian Ocean which is warm
- renting a Dhow boat one day and sailing on the Indian Ocean and then going snorkeling over a coral reef(which is rather like being inside the aquarium at the zoo) and eating a delicious meal that was cooked on our boat... also, if you ever go snorkeling, remember to put sunscreen on the back of your legs or it hurts the sit down the next day...
- exploring all the little shops in town
- simply being on vacation with the good company of friends...
And so the days passed, bringing us to Sunday where we had decided to skip the sixteen or so hours on very bumpy and hot buses it had taken us to get to Lamu and fly back back to Nairobi for our retreat which started the next day. The retreat was lovely too, more good company and good food. All the MCC workers from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan were there, and it was cool to learn more about what MCC is doing in the region, and I still very much like their philosophy of partnership and how while certainly not perfect, how it works on the ground. One of my favorite things about the retreat was an outing one afternoon to Mt. Longonot in the Rift Valley. It is about a 45 minute hike up the mountain and then you can hike around the rim of a crater. It was pretty cool and had great views of the Rift Valley.
As this is much too long already(what happens when you try and cover a month in a blog...) I am going to try and wrap up. The retreat was good though, very refreshing and a good reminder of the greater community I am part of outside of Hope CC. Then Friday I was welcomed home here at Hope, and reminded of how blessed I am to be a part of this community here. I really am excited for the coming months, to see what they hold, and believe the relationships I have already begun are only going to get sweeter with time. And I promise to blog again before a month is up, and so to keep these shorter in the future.
And in light of the season, a very Happy Christmas! I would encourage everyone to truly have it be a season of giving, and to consider giving beyond yourself... to consider giving to your greater community and around the world... truly, from this side of the world, a little can truly go a long way, and programs like child sponsorship or providing a micro-finance enterpise through Heifer International or Kiva, really does make a difference... Give a gift that has the potential to change a life...
School ended the last week of November, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the holidays, both here at Hope and the two weeks I had between a personal vacation with friends and the MCC East Africa retreat. Especially the first week of holidays here at Hope was fun. With no classes, there was a lot of opportunity to just be around with the kids, and I felt like I crossed over some line of belonging, if only in my own head. When they worked, I worked with them... and provided a certain amount of entertainment in doing so... When they watched tv, I watched tv... and it was good.
I was almost sorry to have to go when the time came for my vacation... Almost might be an overstretch. I was quite looking forward to my vacation to the Kenyan coast with some friends who work with MCC Uganda, including my SALT orientation roommate and a fellow Peace Studies friend from Whitworth. I did not mind that my ride out from Hope was two hours late though as it allowed me plenty of time to tell the kids goodbye, and more importantly, that I was coming back in two weeks. There is enough ambiguity in life here at Hope that I did not feel the need to add to it by mysteriously disappearing.
That was Friday, December 3, and I got to Nairobi before my friends, bought us bus tickets to Mombassa which was the first leg of our journey, and then met them when their bus arrived from Kampala. We stayed Friday night in Nairobi, and then Saturday spent the day in Nairobi, including getting lunch at a coffee shop where I suffered my first Kenyan misadventure(and hopefully last). The one moment I was not hyper vigilant about my purse, having put it between my feet instead of on my lap, it was stolen... live, learn, and life is too short for regrets... still, not the funnest incident as my purse had some money, my bank card, my camera and what I was most sad to lose, my journal I had started halfway through November... at least the likelihood of a pickpocket reading fifty pages of rather boring reflections and existential angst written in cursive is slim to none, but still... I rather enjoy reading those things and am sorry to have lost those weeks of my time here. Thankfully, I was able to cancel my bank card immediately, and sorted out how to still get money(thanks to one of my travelling companions and my dad...) and so the vacation was not thwarted. I personally decided I was not going to let it ruin my time... and it didn't... I have had my close calls back in the states even, so robbery is not just a Kenya or Nairobi thing, but wherever or whenever it happens, it is unfortunate.
And so Saturday night, we took our bus to Mombassa. Our tickets had been in my purse too, but the company we used had computer records of my buying the tickets, and our names, so we were able to retrieve them. Also, I was able to get my same cellphone number back as the phone company makes you register for SIM cards, so once I could prove my identity, they were willing to restore my number. I was overall very impressed by the infrastructure and service I met with after my misadventure, as well as the sympathy that I received whenever people learned what had happened.
So the downside to taking the overnight bus to Mombassa is you arrive in Mombassa at 5:30 in the morning... which is really early to be in a new place. Thankfully, we found a place to have breakfast(and even store our luggage) before exploring the old town and visiting a 14th century Portugese fort. Fort Jesus had been built by the Portugese, conquered by the Arabs and then taken over by the British. We had a great guide, and I enjoyed our tour. I had expected the fort to be very much like the castle forts I had visited in Ghana, and while serving some of the same purposes, there was a different feel. Old Town meanwhile was a great walk. The coast of Kenya has a very different feel than inland and a very different culture. It is predominantly Swahili(not to be completely confused with the language of Kiswahili, the Swahili are also one of the people groups in Kenya). The details are escaping me, but they are pretty heavily influenced by Arab culture as well as they were the main traders centuries ago. For instance, the next day we visited the Gedi ruins a few hours north up the coast which were the ruins of a deserted 13th century Swahili city. What is left of the city is beautiful and included artifacts from as far away as China. Little is known about it except that it appears to have been deserted, for whatever reason, voluntarily and not violently.
I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Mombassa even if it was short as we headed that afternoon north to Malindi(where the ruins were) and stayed at this very funky eco camp... It was lovely, a little random, but we were the only guests so very relaxing... Monday we went to the ruins... and Tuesday we headed to our main destination for the trip which was Lamu Archipeligo on the northern coast of Kenya. It is a Unesco Heritage site, and so a very well preserved Swahili town. Also, no cars are allowed on the islands so the primary means of transportation are donkeys and dhows, the local sailing boats. On Lamu we rented this random house which was quite reasonable and again away from the major hub or tourists although Lamu is definitely a tourist destination. It was really very nice, included breakfast and house help who we rather enjoyed as individuals... I am sure they thought we were quite mad and I do not think we were there average guests passing through.
Some highlights from Lamu:
-how insanely beautiful the island was
-getting to explore the town which was old, with narrow streets, lots of donkeys and despite being a tourist destination is also very much a place where people live
-the fact that Lamu might be the one place in Kenya where it is safe to walk around after dark
- eating lots of good seafood, especially seafood curries and drinking lots of really good fresh juice
- going to the beach and getting to swim in the Indian Ocean which is warm
- renting a Dhow boat one day and sailing on the Indian Ocean and then going snorkeling over a coral reef(which is rather like being inside the aquarium at the zoo) and eating a delicious meal that was cooked on our boat... also, if you ever go snorkeling, remember to put sunscreen on the back of your legs or it hurts the sit down the next day...
- exploring all the little shops in town
- simply being on vacation with the good company of friends...
And so the days passed, bringing us to Sunday where we had decided to skip the sixteen or so hours on very bumpy and hot buses it had taken us to get to Lamu and fly back back to Nairobi for our retreat which started the next day. The retreat was lovely too, more good company and good food. All the MCC workers from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan were there, and it was cool to learn more about what MCC is doing in the region, and I still very much like their philosophy of partnership and how while certainly not perfect, how it works on the ground. One of my favorite things about the retreat was an outing one afternoon to Mt. Longonot in the Rift Valley. It is about a 45 minute hike up the mountain and then you can hike around the rim of a crater. It was pretty cool and had great views of the Rift Valley.
As this is much too long already(what happens when you try and cover a month in a blog...) I am going to try and wrap up. The retreat was good though, very refreshing and a good reminder of the greater community I am part of outside of Hope CC. Then Friday I was welcomed home here at Hope, and reminded of how blessed I am to be a part of this community here. I really am excited for the coming months, to see what they hold, and believe the relationships I have already begun are only going to get sweeter with time. And I promise to blog again before a month is up, and so to keep these shorter in the future.
And in light of the season, a very Happy Christmas! I would encourage everyone to truly have it be a season of giving, and to consider giving beyond yourself... to consider giving to your greater community and around the world... truly, from this side of the world, a little can truly go a long way, and programs like child sponsorship or providing a micro-finance enterpise through Heifer International or Kiva, really does make a difference... Give a gift that has the potential to change a life...
Monday, November 22, 2010
Where has the time gone?
While some days have felt an eternity, overall, I am left wondering where has the time gone as the students took their final exams this past week. How have I already been here a term? I got to see the video of the 12 year celebration that we had one of the first weeks I was here, and it was so fun to watch the video because now I know the kids; their names, their personalities, who pals with who, and all that... When we had the celebration, I was still pretty lost. It really is beginning to feel like home here, if a very different feeling of home than I might have on the island, in Seattle, or Spokane... Home nonetheless though.
The exams went well, with the primary school finishing yesterday and the secondary are writing their last exams as I type this. At least my fourth and sixth grade English students all passed. I still need to get a hold of the grade five scores. I monitored the fourth grade exams, and they are a fun class. There are two boys who kept trying, and succeeding, at making me laugh when we all were supposed to be quiet... While they were writing their kiswahili exam, I took it myself(the other teachers had told me I should) and I was happy to hear that I had 33/50 correct, or 66%, which is passing. Anything above 50% is passing...
The kids are pretty excited for the holidays, and I think they will be good. One lovely perk is that morning bell will be like the weekends which means more than an hour later each morning. As I only rolled out of bed when I heard the bell this morning which is still early for the secondary finishing, I am excited for this fact. Apparently all that happens, according to the kids, is kucheza(or to play...). They will of course have some chores too, but they were ready to play as everyone was out yesterday afternoon just having fun... I know the secondary will be happy to be finished today as well.
Personally, I won't be here for all the holidays. I have an MCC East Africa retreat in three weeks, and the week before am taking as one of my vacation weeks and going to the coast with some friends working in Uganda. I am looking forward to both my time here(although I am sure transitioning into the new schedule will take me a few days) and my time away.
Meanwhile, my biggest challenge will be fitting into the new schedule, but I am very good at just hanging out and watching kids play, which at least the younger grades appreciate. Also, the weather is finally consistently nicer. While I doubted it was possible, it does not rain every afternoon/ all afternoon anymore, and I have started having to apply sunscreen on a regular basis.
Finally, I love comments on my blogs and emails... just saying:)
The exams went well, with the primary school finishing yesterday and the secondary are writing their last exams as I type this. At least my fourth and sixth grade English students all passed. I still need to get a hold of the grade five scores. I monitored the fourth grade exams, and they are a fun class. There are two boys who kept trying, and succeeding, at making me laugh when we all were supposed to be quiet... While they were writing their kiswahili exam, I took it myself(the other teachers had told me I should) and I was happy to hear that I had 33/50 correct, or 66%, which is passing. Anything above 50% is passing...
The kids are pretty excited for the holidays, and I think they will be good. One lovely perk is that morning bell will be like the weekends which means more than an hour later each morning. As I only rolled out of bed when I heard the bell this morning which is still early for the secondary finishing, I am excited for this fact. Apparently all that happens, according to the kids, is kucheza(or to play...). They will of course have some chores too, but they were ready to play as everyone was out yesterday afternoon just having fun... I know the secondary will be happy to be finished today as well.
Personally, I won't be here for all the holidays. I have an MCC East Africa retreat in three weeks, and the week before am taking as one of my vacation weeks and going to the coast with some friends working in Uganda. I am looking forward to both my time here(although I am sure transitioning into the new schedule will take me a few days) and my time away.
Meanwhile, my biggest challenge will be fitting into the new schedule, but I am very good at just hanging out and watching kids play, which at least the younger grades appreciate. Also, the weather is finally consistently nicer. While I doubted it was possible, it does not rain every afternoon/ all afternoon anymore, and I have started having to apply sunscreen on a regular basis.
Finally, I love comments on my blogs and emails... just saying:)
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