Dan in Kenya

Aid Gives Alternative to African Orphanages

2009-12-07T08:29:00.001+03:00

An interesting article in the New York times about orphanages and caretakers in Malawi

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/africa/06orphans.html?_r=2&hp

Continental divide separates Africans, African-Americans

2009-08-01T19:06:00.001+03:00

I came across this article that discusses African immigrants to the U.S. and assimilating into American and African-American culture.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/14/africans.in.america/index.html

"Better Remember This"

2009-07-12T03:06:00.001+03:00

1995 Peace Corps Experience Award winner

Better Remember This
by Meg Sullivan
(Kenya 1992–94)
READ all the
Peace Corps Experience
Award winners

YOU’D BETTER REMEMBER THIS. Because people will ask you. Whether you want them to or not, they’ll ask you how Africa was. And though you won’t know where to start, you’re going to have to have something to tell them. A shrug of the shoulders and “Good” won’t be enough. So you’d better remember this. Open the parts of your mind you need, and work them over until you’ve got them just right. Then put what you know in a place the will be easy for you to get to. Deep, but not too deep. Just enough so that even though no one else can see it, you know it’s there, and you can see it and feel it, and you know it makes up part of who you are now, as well as who you were then, and it will be there for you when you need to speak of Africa.

Remember things like the clarity of the light of the Equator after a five o’clock rain shower, cold and temperamental as broken glass. The bark and thorns of an acacia tree, so long and sharp your own forehead feels sticky from commiseration with Jesus. Tell them of the sound you hear only in Africa. The rattle of a crate of empty soda bottles strapped to the back of a bicycle. Or, the moans of a very pregnant woman in a reed chair on the back of another bicycle as she’s pushed toward the maternity ward. The different sounds drums make. The light beats of the tightly stretched skins, and the louder, deeper sounds of the loose ones. Time beaten out to the movements of even the tiniest kids, fluid as the elephant grass in the breeze of the inland trade winds. The way you can hear the neighbor’s boy no matter where he is, always drumming on his empty water jug. The Max Roache of the bush. Tell them that just two days before, these same people had sung with such exalted majesty you thought God Himself had made his Second Coming right then to join in.

But don’t forget how the stillness can surprise you at times. The quiet of early morning when the children run to school. Their legs long and bony, feet splayed wide across, toes clutching the earth, guiding them down dirt tracks and paths. Picturing them stalking the hyena and leopard that come around here sometimes. For, though they run fast, they are silent . . . silent as a whisper.

Or as the women balancing pots on their heads, disappearing into the banana groves, green and yellow. Remember that, so you can tell them how the women who can balance full pots of water and carry them home from the river without using their hands or spilling a drop are ready for marriage. The little girls begin practicing as soon as they can walk. Tell them about one you know, a good friend of yours, who has progressed from a single matchbox, to a small basin, to these days, a tiny jerrican of her own. Burn her image into your brain like a brand, or the scars on the faces of the old people, and remember what she was like when she was two, since you won’t know her when she’s ten or eighteen, and everyone should have someone who remembers what they once were.

And when they ask you, you can tell the of the shambas dug in anticipation of the afternoon rain. Furrowed in the morning before it gets too hot. The earth rich and black. Heavy. Smelling of decay. And generation. Riding your bike past fields of maize and cassava, and cane so tall and sweet the bees hover around it for months before it’s cut. And, of course, the countless dirty-faced kids who come out of nowhere to watch you pass. Pointing, yelling, chasing you with shouts of Mzunguuuu! Like a password, or a war cry. Floating through the air to the next manyatta where the next group of kids does the same. Staring with big, big eyes as you pass. And you thinking Hey, kid. Didn’tyourmotherevertellyounottostaredon’t pointdon’tpickyournosedon’ttalktostrangers? Well, I’m telling you now.

Remember simple, unaffected pleasures. Teaching a grown woman how to ride a bike. And trying to teach another who was afraid of falling and so would never pick her feet up off the ground. The roar of a lion. The way flamingos dance together, in the scorching heat of a midday during the dry season. The innumerable cups of tea you didn’t want but couldn’t refuse. The ugali and sukuma you can’t believe you actually crave.

Explain that to them. As well as the days and night of frustration and lonely boredom when even crying seemed like too much effort. The hours from 5 to 7 that seemed to go on forever. And how you wished the sun would set so you could go to bed and sleep through the night and wake up in the morning one day closer to the end of all of it. Tell them about the harambees, and the weddings, and the funerals held under trees where the wails of the women were as deep and loud as those of the earth itself when the Rift Valley split open. The earth couldn’t possibly hurt more. Tell them about the ache at the base of your spine and down both sides of your neck after a long matatu ride. And the long, long delays at the sides of empty roads where the bus had broken down, and everyone was staring at you, and you tried to pretend you didn’t notice and it didn’t bother you. Sitting in the middle of all of it, rather bewildered. Watching and listening, and trying to get your bearings. Only to realize, once you finally thought you’d gotten the hang of things for good, that you just didn’t get it. Any of it. At all.

But you stayed for two years. And when they ask you why, you can tell them how your students begged you not to give up their class to another teacher. How your friends took you home to meet their families. How your neighbors were always so glad to see you safely returned from a safari. How profusely everyone thanked you for the little you’d done for them, forgetting that you’d all done it together.

Remember, so when they ask you, you can tell them these things. And tell them how you stood tall and looked those others in the face as you left. Although it hurt you and them both very much. But take the gift of their pain, and yours, for that is love. And feel it as it was there, then. As you turned and left. As they stood and watched you go.

And speak of how you thanked them.
Thanked them for teaching you how easy it is to laugh in so many languages. Thanked them for letting you in.

“Better Remember This” was previously published in Kenya Magazine.

Maternal Mortality in Tanzania

2009-05-24T00:33:00.003+03:00

Here is a link to a very good article in today's New York Times about maternal mortality in Moshi in northern Tanzania. During my time in Kenya, I visited clinics and did home visits in the rural area between Arusha and Moshi.
Death in Birth - Where Life's Start Is a Deadly Risk

Sick Update

2009-04-04T20:27:00.002+03:00

I am basically fully recovered now. I felt pretty weak for awhile and I am still getting all of my energy back. I lost about 6 lbs during the whole ordeal making my overall weight loss since coming to Kenya about 28 lbs.

I am coming home in 3 weeks from tomorrow, so the fattening-up starts then!

Interesting Graphs

2009-04-01T14:07:00.006+03:00

While perusing some of my friend's blogs I came across these two maps of Africa. The first is "The Way the World Sees Africa" courtesy of Jillian C. York

This second map is "Africa in Perspective" courtesy of Scarlett Lion

Sick!

2009-03-21T14:01:00.002+03:00

Well, I made it 200 days in Kenya without getting sick. Of course on my 201st day in Kenya, I got REALLY sick. I had been feeling a little light-headed on Thursday but Friday early morning I woke up with really sharp pains in my stomach. I then had stomach problems all day and had to leave work early because I wasn't feeling well. I had to cancel my usual Friday plans with the other MSID students and tried napping all afternoon. I finally admitted to myself that I was sick enough that I needed to seek help around 8:30pm. There are several hospitals in town - the district hospital (government run), Aga Khan Hospital (a private and very expensive hospital) and Marie Stopes (a private and affordable hospital). I chose Marie Stopes because several of the other students had gone there when they were sick.

I finally got to the hospital after 9pm. Kenyan hospitals are unique in that you have to pay before a doctor even sees you or you receive any treatment. I paid the 500 KSH ($6.25) for a doctor's consultation. Since it's a small hospital, they didn't have anyone working in the lab at night. They took a finger prick to test for malaria and injected me with a broad spectrum anti-biotic. The person doing the injections wasn't wearing latex gloves as she came towards me so I had to ask specifically for her to wear gloves. Her reaction was basically "oh yeah, the gloves."

I was still having stomach problems so the doctor said that she wanted to keep me overnight for observation and to rehydrate me with an IV. I couldn't get any other lab tests done until the morning anyways and they didn't want me to be far from the hospital when I was still feeling ill. I barely slept since I was hooked up to the IV and they checked in with me occasionally to see how I was doing.

Around 7am I was stable enough that they let me go home for a few hours before coming back for the test results. When I went back the doctor told me that I have malaria AND a bacterial infection. It's kind of frustrating since I take my malaria pills every day, I sleep under a mosquito net and I only drink boiled water. They prescribed a few different medicines and I'm feeling better now.

Spring Break Travel - Malindi

2009-03-08T17:55:00.002+03:00

Colin and his dad were with us on our flight from Lamu but we got off in Malindi and they proceeded on to Nairobi. We took a tuk-tuk to the hotel where every other group of students from our program has stayed at. For whatever reason, the guy at the reception was being a jerk and refused to budge on the price of the room. We ate lunch at the Italian restaurant at the hotel and then sampled almost all the flavors of gelato. We lugged our bags around the hotel town with us trying to find another hotel. We went to 3 other hotels which ended up all being more expensive than the original hotel. We grudgingly went back to the original hotel and ended up paying 5 times more per night than the guest house we stayed at in Lamu. $20 may not seem like a lot for a hotel room but with the cost of living in that area, those prices were really expensive. We were both feeling very frustrated that we were stuck paying such an expensive price for a hotel room so when we had to fill out the room registration form, Kevin filled it out under the name "Ben Dover." I don't think the people at the reception got it...

All of the prices for food at restaurants in Malindi were also much more expensive than anywhere else we've been in Kenya. Malindi is a very popular destination for Italian travelers. Since a lot of these travelers don't bargain down prices, everything becomes more inflated which ends up hurting the local people who live there. As much as Malindi is a tourist destination, the district is also one of the hardest hit areas for the famine Kenya is currently experiencing.

Malindi doesn't have nearly as much history or interesting things to see and anything there was to see, of course cost money. On Friday we took a matatu to see the Gede Ruins. Gede was a Swahili civilization first active during the 13th century. We went in the late afternoon because the guide book said that the lighting would be better as the sun went down and peaked through the forest canopy. Being the cheap college students we are, we chose not to have a tour guide and we instead just explored the area at our own leisure. I think Kevin and I were unusual tourists because we spent the majority of our time at Gede ruins taking photographs of these really unique flowers and monkeys. I got some cool videos of the monkeys eating and playing.

When we got back to the hotel, we rewarded our "hard" day with gelato, of course! On our last day in Malindi, we even had gelato for breakfast. We caught a matatu for the 2 hour ride back to Mombasa. To cap off our vacation, we spent the afternoon in the only air-conditioned place in steamy Mombasa, Dorman's coffee shop. We caught our bus around 6pm and spent the next 14 hours riding back to Kisumu. The only interesting thing to report was that I saw a baby elephant on the side of the road a few hours outside of Mombasa.

So now I'm back to reality in Kisumu. I have 5 more weeks at my internship before going back to Nairobi for a final two weeks of "research writing" and then I fly home April 25th.

Spring Break Travel - Lamu

2009-03-08T16:43:00.007+03:00

During my week in Nairobi, I mentioned my travel plans to my host dad. In the time I've spent with my host family in Nairobi, I've found out that he seems to know just about everyone. Within 10 minutes, he called in a favor and got me 30% off my plane ticket for one leg of my journey. I definitely try to be a budget traveler as often as possible so 30% got me really excited. I haven't flown anywhere in Kenya so far and I usually choose the cheap but inefficient buses to travel East Africa. Several other groups of students from my program had made a similar trip to the coast that I was planning on doing and each group said that the road between Malindi and Lamu was just horrible.

I traveled with my friend Kevin from my program who is also working in Kisumu. We decided to take an overnight bus from Nairobi to Mombasa (8 hours) leaving Saturday night and arriving early Sunday morning. As I've mentioned I've done a lot of bus traveling, but this bus was the worst smelling bus I've been on. After 8 hours, the smell just kind of lingers with you. I am still amazed that as much development has occurred in Kenya, some of the roads are still in absolutely horrible condition. The Nairobi-Mombasa road has a section that you drive on for about an hour that barely resembles anything close to a road. There is supposedly construction on the road but nothing is of course labeled. The buses have to dodge huge potholes that more closely resemble craters in the lunar surface in addition to numerous diversions that often result in confused cars heading right at each other nearly avoiding head on collisions. At one point the bus came to a screeching halt because a group of hyenas were crossing the road. A few hours later, I got woken up by the bus honking and as I rubbed my eyes I saw an elephant standing on the side of the road waiting to cross.

All of us academic year students have come up with our own Kenya version of the saying "This is Africa (TIA)." Whenever something bad/interesting happens that you just can't explain through coherent logic, we just say "katiks" which has evolved from "Katika Kenya"- roughly translated as "Only in Kenya."

Kevin and I arrived in Mombasa around 5am. It was too dark out to safely walk around so we sat outside of the bus office and watched early morning Mombasa go by until it became light. Carrying our luggage we found a small breakfast place and ate chapatis and mandazi (fried dough) - an okay breakfast for 40 cents U.S. After breakfast we took a tuk-tuk to the matatu stage to catch a matatu to Malindi. The ride was about two hours from Mombasa to Malindi. We got to Malindi by 9:30am which was more than enough time to catch our flight at 2pm. None of the restaurants were open until 11am so we walked to the end of the pier and read our books for awhile. It was interesting watching people fish because two men would walk deep into the water with nets and then drag the nets to the shore by slowly walking. It didn't seem very efficient and the entire time we were there, we saw them catch 3 fish. We ate lunch at an Italian restaurant appropriately called I Love Pizza.

After lunch we headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Lamu. The flight only took about 25 minutes but I was so exhausted from the overnight bus ride that I slept the whole time. Lamu is part of the larger Lamu Archipelago. The airstrip is on an island across from Lamu island so we took a motorized boat for 100 KSH ($1.25). All of the guide books warned against the touts when you arrive on the island so we planned out a few guest houses that we wanted to go to. The guide books say that people will often to carry your bags and then escort you to the hotel/guest house of your choosing but then demand up to 1/3 of your night's stay from the hotel. The hotel then increases the nightly rate to compensate. Kevin and I both like bargaining so we went to the first guest house and got a good price but we thought we could do better so we went to two other ones. The first price ended up being the best so we went back and negotiated the price for bed and breakfast. The woman who owned the guest house said she was willing to work with us on a good price because we came by ourselves and not with touts. After some negotiating, we agreed on 500 KSH ($6.25) a night for bed and breakfast.

We did some walking around the town but we were exhausted so we went back to the room. Kevin fell asleep at 5pm and I fell asleep around 7pm and neither one of us woke up until 9am the next morning. I guess we saved some money by not eating dinner. Around 4am, I got woken up by a huge crash and I saw electric sparks. I turned on the lights to see that the support beam that had the ceiling fan on it had broken and came crashing down within 5 feet of our beds. There was nothing we could really do at 4 in the morning so we said "katiks" and went back to bed.

Monday was our first full day in Lamu so we did some exploring around the town which was really fascinating. A lot of the buildings are very historical and built in the traditional style. There are no cars on the island but people use some of the 3,000 donkeys on the island to get around or transport goods. We walked along the beach for awhile and took a lot of pictures of some wooden dhows stranded in the low tide. In the afternoon, we met up with one of our friend who works for Millenium Villages Project in Kisumu.

Colin, one of the other students in my program arrived Monday night in Lamu so Tuesday Kevin and I went on a dhow trip with Colin and his dad who was traveling with Colin during Spring Break. We sailed (with the help of a motor) for about an hour to reach the coral reefs near Manda Toto Island. We snorkeled for a few hours and then had a great lunch prepared for us by the dhow crew. We had fresh fish, chapatis, and a lot of fresh fruit. Even though I put on sunscreen my back got FRIED!!! I've been in extreme pain since Tuesday. I guess SPF 30 just isn't enough for equatorial sun.

On Wednesday we just did some more exploration of the island. We purposely got lost in order to discover the in's and out's of the different alleyways. We got lunch with Colin and his dad at a rooftop terrace restaurant overlooking the town and then headed to Shela Beach which is about a 10 km walk from Lamu town. We went swimming for awhile and then watched the sunset. Kevin and I decided to walk back to Lamu town around 9pm but we completely underestimated the tide. We ended up wading through waist-deep water for close to a mile and in the process cut up our feet.

Thursday morning we did some souvenir shopping and then caught our flight to Malindi at Noon.

Research Update

2009-03-08T15:57:00.005+03:00

I was in Nairobi for the week of February 23-27 for my program's mid-term seminar. I met with a few of my professor's to discuss my progress with my research so far. The bulk of my research is already done and now I have a lot of data analysis to do. Along with two Community Health Workers who served as translators, I went to 42 homes of the orphans and vulnerable children who are in my research study. At each home I took a picture of the guardian in front of their house. I find it very interesting to look through all 42 of these photos because it really shows the variation of the styles and conditions of the houses in this area. The families who are the best off have a metal sheet roof and possibly even a few glass windows. One of the houses I remember as being different than all the rest had hard-mud walls with a metal sheet roof. The woman who lived in the house had taken a different kind of mud and painted flowers and other designs on the exterior of the house. I felt like it was really an example of a person making the best of their situations.

A fair amount of the houses I visited had mud walls and sometimes the guardians were even repairing the walls as we approached the home. The one family that really struck me had a young boy at the primary school who was disabled. He has a hunchback and a significant bulge in his chest. Of all of the children in my research study, he was the only one who was "very underweight." The house did not really have proper walls. The walls had a stick frame but there was little substance to the actual wall. About 3/4 of the walls had plastic bags as the barrier from the outside. The other 1/4 of the walls were just open to the elements. This particular family was particularly bad off so after meeting with the family, we made the decision to start him in our feeding center immediately. He was originally in my research study as part of the group who was not receiving help at the feeding center. I chose to not withhold the help at the feeding center in the name of "do no harm." Although we can unfortunately not make this exception for every student who is currently not receiving help at the feeding center, we continue to expand the feeding center's outreach and hope to eventually be able to include all of the children participating in the research study.

During my time in Nairobi for the mid-term seminar and my week off for break, one of my co-workers along with one of the Community Health Workers weighed and measured the children on the assigned date for the two weeks.

For the rest of my research, I will continue to measure the children each week until April 10th. I hope to set up a meeting with the head teacher of the primary school this week to discuss with him academic records. The third and final component of my research is to look at academic performance, attendance records and school drop-out rates at the primary school. I'm looking to compare the two groups of children - those receiving help at the feeding center and those who aren't currently receiving help. Almost every single family I spoke with in the household surveys said that their child never misses school because of chores or household labor. School attendance is a major issue, so it will be interesting to compare the responses of the family with the actual records.

Research

2009-02-12T12:47:00.004+03:00

This semester instead of taking classes, I will be conducting research from January until the beginning of April. I have returned to my internship at OGRA Foundation in Kisumu and have decided to do my research through OGRA. As a Community Health student, I wanted an internship that would allow me to work in the field on the grassroots level working with the people who need help. As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, my organization operates a feeding center in Ombeyi (a small village about 30 minutes outside of Kisumu). Interacting with the children during my first few months, I knew I wanted to work to improve their lives. The feeding center currently feeds 36 orphans and vulnerable children 2 meals a day, 6 days a week due to budget/funding constraints. For some of the children, the food they receive at the feeding center is the only food they eat which means that from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning, some of the children may not eat at all.

My research is focusing on the community of Ombeyi, more specifically, children at Kiliti Primary School. I met with the headteacher of the primary school and he gathered information from each class about numbers of orphans and vulnerable children. For the purpose of the study, vulnerable children are defined as children from extremely poor families who although they may have both parents, the parents may suffer from mental or physical disabilities that prevents them from providing for their family. In Kiliti Primary School alone, there are nearly 200 orphans and vulnerable children! As I said, our feeding center currently provides for 36 children - there is obviously a need to expand the program.

For my research I will be focusing on a group of 21 orphans and vulnerable children from the feeding center who are under the age of 13 (pre-pubescent) and a similarly sized group of orphans and vulnerable children from the primary school who are currently not receiving any help from an organization. I measured their height and weight for an initial reading to measure their Body Mass Index (BMI). Body Mass Index can be a good indicator of if a person is underweight, at normal/healthy weight or if they are overweight. Measure your Body Mass Index here

In the initial reading 14 of the children in the study were either underweight or very underweight according to their Body Mass Index. Five children were considered to be underweight at the Feeding Center and nine children were considered to be underweight (1 was very underweight) at the primary school.

The second major component of my research is conducting household surveys. I will be visiting the homes of each of the 42 children in the study to perform a wellness analysis. The parent or guardian is given or read a detailed informed consent form in either English or Luo. For many of the study participants so far, they have been illiterate so they are read the entire consent form by a Community Health Worker and then they grant their consent through their thumb print.

Summary of research results thus far:
In most of the homes I've visited, there have been 2 main rooms in the house. All of the walls are made of mud with a stick frame. Some of the houses have metal sheet roofs while others have a thatched roof. Many of the children don't brush their teeth, and for those who do, they use a stick. None of the houses have had a toilet or pit latrine so far which means that people just go to the bathroom in the brush.

One of the survey questions asks if they know how HIV is transmitted. A very common response has been that HIV is contracted through infidelity. When I ask them to elaborate, they usually don't but state that they have just heard that it is spread when people are not faithful. This signals a very basic understanding of how HIV is transmitted which can help to explain the very high rate of HIV prevalence in the community. A few months ago I participated in a Community Health Worker training where we discussed sexual health. We asked the people in the training to write down myths that they've heard in the community about family planning. A response that surprisingly came up a lot was that women were concerned that the condom might slip off and become lodged in the uterus. People also kept saying that condoms were expensive even though they can be found in that village for about 10 KSH per (13 cents) and several organizations supply them for free at clinics in the area. When we engaged people further they started talking more about the shame, embarrassment or stigma of buying a condom.

For most of the families I've met with so far, the only meals their children eat come from the feeding center. The feeding center only provides 2 meals a day, 6 days a week. So for most of these children, they may not eat at all between Saturday lunch and Monday breakfast. I have not started meeting with families of the children who don't receive meals at the feeding center, but I feel like the responses will be very interesting.

I am hoping to get a lot more surveys done this week so I will update when I can.

Oil Tanker Explosion

2009-02-03T14:16:00.003+03:00

Less than a week after the Nakumatt Downtown fire, another fire tragedy has struck Kenya. On Saturday an oil tanker overturned on the Eldoret-Nakuru road near Molo town. Hundreds of people ran to the oil tanker to collect/siphon any fuel they could. The crash happened in a poor part of Kenya and the people siphoned the fuel to try to sell it. Most of the people who rushed to the scene were women and young children. Among the crowd of people that gathered were a group of boys who were playing football (soccer) at a nearby field. Several Kenya Police officers were at the scene trying to prevent the looting.

Without notice the oil tanker exploded severely burning many people. The first fire engine to respond arrived at the scene an hour after the explosion.

The death toll continues to climb but the latest report is that over 111 people have been killed and over 117 are still hospitalized with severe burns. Of the 111 people killed, 16 of the 26 children who were playing football (soccer) at the nearby field were burned to death. The Daily Nation reported today that the Kenya Red Cross has declared 36 children are still missing. Among the dead were also the three Kenya Police officers.

The last few evenings, this oil tanker explosion has been the top story as the death toll continues to rise. One of the evenings on the news, they interviewed a mother who had lost both of her children in the explosion. As much as the government has made promises in the days after the Nakumatt Downtown fire and the oil tanker explosion, unless the underlying issues are addressed instances like this will continue to happen. The reason why hundreds of women and children rushed to collect fuel from the overturned tanker was not because of greed but because they like 10 million other Kenyans are facing extreme poverty and starvation. You cannot tell hungry people not to collect fuel from an overturned tanker if this fuel can mean that a family can feed their children more than just one meal of ugali a day.

Downtown Nairobi Fire

2009-02-01T15:48:00.003+03:00

On January 28th, a fire broke out in a downtown supermarket called Nakumatt. Nakumatt is basically the Kenyan equivalent of Wal-Mart in that it sells virtually anything you could possibly want. There are branches all around the country in most major towns. The branch that burned down was called Nakumatt Downtown and was located on the main road in town, Kenyatta Avenue. When I watched the news on Wednesday evening, it came as a shock to me to watch this building engulfed in flames. Just 3 weeks ago Rachel and went shopping in that very store. I've shopped at that branch a few other times during my time in Nairobi. The cause of the fire is being attributed to malfunctioning electricity which resulted in a black out in the store in the minutes before the fire started.

The footage from the scene showed utter panic and fear in the eyes of many people. The building had two floors but the windows on the top floor were too small for anyone to fit through which left only one clear exit for all of the people in the store. In my experiences in that store, it was very cramped and difficult to maneuver around. Some of the employees fled to the roof of the building and then climbed down light poles with the help of people below.

Watching the footage from the scene, it was clear that there was widespread confusion. As the crowds of hundreds of people gathered at the scene, they blocked the fire vehicles trying to get to the fire. As is the case with many accidents or crime scenes in Kenya, flocks of people gather to see what is going on. People often say that when Kenyans hear gunshots, instead of running away they run towards the sound because they want to see for themselves whats going on. Many of the policemen who responded to the fire had to be used for crowd/riot control. Hundreds of people in the crowd were dangerously close to the building as containers of gas and kerosene exploded inside. The police were also worried about looting.

The first vehicle to respond to the fire was not a fire engine. Various agencies responded to the fire including Nairobi City Council, government vehicles, and private companies. Although the fire station is literally down the block from the Nakumatt, the response time was very delayed. Many cars were parked in front of the store blocking the firetrucks from even getting close to the store. The cars were physically picked up and moved by dozens of people from the crowd.

None of the firefighters at the scene had any protective equipment. With no protective equipment, no effort was made to enter the building to rescue people who remained inside.The hoses were all held by dozens of volunteers from the crowd that had gathered. The water being sprayed was being aimed at the top of the fire and not even at the base showing indications that the firefighters were grossly under trained and ill-prepared. I think the worst part of the entire fire response is that at one point, all of the trucks RAN OUT OF WATER and were unable to continue fighting the fire. They had to find a private truck that sells water to donate to the cause of trying to extinguish the fire.

Wednesday on the news, there were several reports from the scene. As the reporter wrapped up their segment from the scene hours after the fire had started, I remember the reporter stating that thankfully there were no casualties to report. The next day, the accounts from the scene were not as positive with more and more reports of missing people coming in. In the days after the fire, the number of missing people has climbed as high as 50 people.

Twenty-fours after the fire started, the fire had still not been completely extinguished. The next day, the Kenya Red Cross examined the scene and started to recover bodies. Bodies continue to be discovered in the various parts of the building. Just yesterday they discovered a mother and child in the corner on the ground floor - their bodies still holding one another.

In the days after the fire, there has been a lot of speculation about what exactly happened at the Nakumatt. From accounts of survivors and people at the scene, the exit doors were closed by some of the Managers who feared looting. When they closed those doors, they locked dozens of people inside who became victims of the fire's heat and intense smoke. The building and the merchandise all had insurance but the more than 27 lives lost in this fire cannot be replaced.

If this fire showed anything, it was that the city of Nairobi is not prepared for any sort of major disaster. One government official was interviewed at the scene and quoted as saying that they are considering developing an emergency services department for Nairobi. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure an emergency services department should have been formed decades ago especially for the third largest city in Africa; one that has also been the scene of a major terrorist attack in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998. When the U.S. Embassy was bombed, it was the Israelis who organized a rescue team before the Kenyans did. The dogs from the Israeli rescue team were the ones who helped find survivors buried in the rubble. If a second fire started in a different part of Nairobi, the entire city would be crippled. In many ways the city of Nairobi has plenty of landmarks that are vulnerable to attack and this past week it has shown that it can not organize an adequate response.

Obama's Inauguration

2009-01-21T10:23:00.003+03:00

In the days leading up to the Inauguration, the different Kenyan news channels would feature at least 10 minutes of Barack Obama stories each night. In some ways, I think Kenyans are more informed about American politics than most Americans.

Yesterday walking around Kisumu you could feel the energy in the air. The city of Kisumu had made elaborate plans for an Inauguration party at the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Grounds, a large open area with a stage, near the center of town.

When I arrived at work, the secretary was wearing a skirt made out of the Obama leso I bought for her while I was in Mombasa. A leso/kanga is a large piece of material that is often colorfully decorated and features a Swahili quotation in a text box. "A leso/kanga can be a declaration of love, a flirtation, an insult, a riddle, a political slogan, a famous proverb and many other things" (Leso/Kanga) The Obama leso I bought for the secretary featured three faces of Obama in the center and instead of the usual Swahili quotation, it featured the campaign slogan of "Yes We Can." One of my other co-workers was wearing an Obama t-shirt so the three of us took a picture together.

After work I met up with a few of the other students from my program. We decided to go to the Sports Grounds to check out the festivities. When we starting getting cloer to the Sports Grounds, we saw dozens of people selling everything Obama and America. Small American flags, Obama shirts, and much more were being sold but my personal favorites were the American flag-patterned shoes. By the time we got there, there were already hundreds of people gathered. One of the newspapers sponsored several projection screens that were erected to show the Inauguration speech. Right when we arrived at the Sports Grounds, the Kisumu version of Barack Obama arrived. There had been talks in the days before the Inauguration that this Kisumu version of Obama would be escorted through town by a caravan of motorcycles and bicycles (both common forms of transport in Kisumu). The Kisumu Obama gave a speech to the crowd frequently mentioning the terms "change" and "yes we can." One of the events that was held earlier in the day was a contest of who could best imitate Obama. The winner received 50,000 KSH (approx $641).

We didn't stay very long among the huge crowd of people because as a group of 6 white people, we attracted a lot of attention. A lot of the street kids (many of them carrying their bottles of glue that they sniff in order to get a high) kept coming up to us asking for money and they were much more aggressive than they usually are. We took a few pictures but had to be very vigilant of our cameras and other valuables. We decided to watch the festivities for awhile from the safe vantage point of the upstairs bar/restaurant at the Sports Grounds. At one point some people lit some things on fire and were swinging the fire around on chains. People thankfully didn't seem to be supporting that and the crowd dispersed quickly from those people. From where we were sitting on the rooftop bar/restaurant, we couldn't see the projection screens so we decided to go across the street to the Imperial Hotel where there would be a much calmer and organized group of people watching the events.

We ended up watching everything in the 5th floor bar/restaurant with a lot of other white people. It was funny to see when we walked in because there was such a segregation of white and black. Down on the street level, thousands of people had gathered in the Sports Grounds and there on the 5th floor of the nicest hotel in Kisumu, two dozen white people (we students included) gathered together in a nice bar/restaurant to watch the events on a flat screen TV. The 5th floor bar/restaurant was supposed to be for hotel residents only but I'm pretty sure that just because the six of us were white we were not questioned when we walked in the hotel. I am sure that if six Kenyans tried to watch the events at the same place, their motives would be questioned.

Watching the Inauguration while in Kenya was certainly a unique experience. The one (white) girl we were with had come to Kenya a few years ago, met a Kenyan man and has since married him and moved to Kisumu. As we watched, she explained a lot of the symbolism of the ceremony to her husband.

Listening to Obama's Inauguration speech was also interesting from the Kenyan perspective. People all over the city of Kisumu erupted when Obama said "to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more."

People also erupted into jubilant cheers when he said: "To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds" Kenya as a country is currently facing a horrible food shortage. Because of the post-election violence, crops were destroyed and even worse some crops were unable to be planted for months. So even a year after the horrible events of the post-election violence, Kenyans are still suffering from the repercussions. There is also widespread corruption on the parts of the millers and different government ministries. Today over 10 million Kenyans face starvation with that number increasing daily because the country is in the middle of the dry season. The rains will not come until mid-March and until then the fields are dry, barren and dusty. Even in Kisumu, food prices have doubled and there are very limited vegetables one can buy - if they can afford them.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Inauguration speech the band in the Sports Grounds resumed playing and the entire crowd started dancing. We decided to join the crowd for a little while. Almost immediately after walking into the Sports Grounds we attracted a lot of attention with a lot of the men asking the girls if they wanted to "make the next Obama." One girl caught two people trying to go through her bag and I felt people going through my pockets. A security guard in a suit found us and stood by us making sure no one came too close to us. We all felt pretty uncomfortable so we left.

All in all, it was a very interesting evening. The Kenyan news channels replayed the Inauguration speech all night. Commentators during the Inauguration coverage remarked a few times that the whole world was watching. In many ways that statement is incredibly true. People all over the world found a television or radio to listen to the events of the Inauguration knowing that the change in leadership of the United States could directly impact their lives. From the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the Israelis and Palestinians holding on to a fragile cease fire, to the soldiers fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - the world is truly affected by the actions of the United States.

In a city in the middle of Western Kenya on the coast of Lake Victoria, among thousands of very happy Kenyans, I watched Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States of America.

Travels in Uganda

2009-01-16T18:53:00.003+03:00

The day after Christmas I took a bus from Kisumu to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. My perception of time when it comes to traveling has become so relative lately. The bus ride took about 8 hours which seemed easy in comparison to some of the other trips I've taken. I wasn't feeling well the entire bus ride which is always scary because the bus rarely makes stops. The bathrooms are of course really dirty and you have to pay to use them (equivalent of 6 cents US). When I was in the bathroom, I heard a guy pleading with the guy at the entrance to let him use the bathroom because he didn't have any change with him. The guy was refusing to let him in so when I paid, I gave enough for me and the other guy and said "no one should be refused the right to go to the bathroom." I didn't even realize the guy from the bathroom was on my bus and he found me when we got back on the bus and kept thanking me.

I was sitting across from this guy on the bus who looked really familiar. I sat there for a really long time confused as to how I knew the guy and then I realized that he was a guest lecturer for one of my classes in Nairobi. I asked him hesitantly what he did for a living because I still wasn't sure if it was him. He said he was a teacher and then I asked him if he knew Dr. Jama from the University of Nairobi who is the director of my program. He started laughing and said that he did so I told him how he taught one of my classes. We talked for about an hour after that. He's originally from northern Uganda but knew Kampala really well so he gave me great advice about where to stay, what to do, etc.

I arrived in Kampala around 8:30pm. I had arranged through a family friend from home to have a Sister (nun) pick me up from the bus stop and bring me back to their hostel for me to stay the night. The Sister was about 15 minutes late because of traffic and thankfully that teacher offered to stay with me until she came. The taxi ended up being really expensive and I'm pretty sure the Sister didn't negotiate at all since I was the one paying for it.

I spent the night at the Sisters hostel but still wasn't feeling well. The shower was ICE cold and I got to the point where I would put water in a bucket to "warm" it to room temperature.

Rachel arrived the next day. Sister and I took a taxi to go pick her from the airport and she once again didn't negotiate for the price so it was really expensive. Rachel brought with her essentially a belated Christmas for me. I got some cards from people from home and presents from my family including the much anticipated Christmas cookies.

The day after Rachel arrived we wandered around Kampala all day. We tried finding the booking office of the bus company to go to Kigali, Rwanda but the "African Map" (walking around asking people directions until you find where you're going) failed us miserably. We didn't want to look like naive tourists carrying around our Lonely Planet book so we memorized the directions but just needed clarification since none of the streets were marked. The first woman who we asked for directions told us the wrong way which subsequently led to 45 minutes of walking around a crowded bus/matatu stage getting turned around and lost. We eventually gave in and took a motorcycle to the booking office instead of walking.

We ended up booking with Jaguar Executive Coach to go from Kampala to Kigali. I have a history of booking with companies that have cool-sounding names, but this one was also based on the recommendation of the teacher from the bus from Kisumu to Kampala. African bus companies make me laugh - the guy at the booking office told us that if we took the 7:30am bus it would arrive at 6:30pm or we could take the 9:30am bus and arrive at 4:30pm. So somehow if we left two hours later, we'd arrive two hours earlier. Evidently there are two border crossings into Rwanda and the earlier bus takes a longer route. I found that out later.

On December 29th, we met up with Fr. Mark who is a friend of my family's. He is from Uganda but has been a priest in America for over ten years. My parents sent some things with him so I got a mini-Christmas all over again. He took us to his village where his nieces and nephews still live. We drove for about an hour and a half and Fr. Mark showed us all around the area he grew up. He showed us the church where he was baptized and the different churches he worked at. As we were driving through one of the villages he saw a guy he knew so we stopped and talked to him. They hadn't seen each other in 3 years. Rachel of course gravitated to the cute kids and made friends with them by giving them Jolly Ranchers. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant Fr. Mark knew but I still wasn't feeling well so I didn't eat very much.

We eventually made it to his home and met his nieces. His sister died a few years back so the oldest niece now takes care of the other children. St. Barbara's, my parish at home, has supported his family and the community for many years. When I was in grade school, we raised money to buy goats for his village. The goal was for the women in the village to raise the goats and then give the offspring to neighboring communities. While I was in the village, I took a picture with some of the goats to send home. Rachel once again gravitated to the cute children and gave out the last of our Jolly Ranchers that we brought with us. We've basically learned to carry sweets with us where ever we go to give to the kids we encounter. I thankfully received a 3.5 lb bag of Jolly Ranchers before I came to Kenya which has proven very useful.

On December 30th, we departed for Kigali the capital of Rwanda in the morning.

Christmas in Kenya

2009-01-16T17:56:00.002+03:00

After I got back from Arusha, Tanzania I left with my host family on December 21st to go to Maseno, a small town 30 minutes outside of Kisumu in Western Kenya. I had driven through Maseno once before on the same day I met Obama's grandmother and I stopped on the side of the road that day to take pictures at the small landmark that designates where the Equator is. On Dec 21st, as we entered the town of Maseno I made a comment that I remembered the town because of the Equator and my host dad told me that the Equator passes within feet of his house. I of course thought he was exaggerating but as soon as we passed the Equator landmark, we turned right and headed up the mountain to his rural home where his mother still resides.

For Christmas, most Kenyans return to their ancestral homes to be with their families. When people retire in Kenya, they often build a house in their ancestral area surrounded by people from their ethnic group. In a country like Kenya where there are 42 different ethnic groups, each with their own distinct language, culture and traditions, it is comforting for people to retire amongst familiar things.

When we arrived at the rural home, there were three houses within the fenced-in compound. In the main house, my host father's mother lives in addition to his youngest brother who is 18 years old. My host family is Luhya and it is Luhya tradition that the sons build homes next to their father's house. The other two buildings in the compound are for my host father and his brother. In the days before Christmas the house was filled with many many people! They would often joke around that there was no way to know who had eaten and who was forgotten because there were so many people around the house. I learned quickly that every evening before going to bed, everyone takes tea (usually milk tea/chai). My body has gotten so accustomed to taking tea upwards of 4 to 5 times a day that it doesn't keep me up at night but I certainly feel the withdrawal if 10:30 am passes and I haven't had my tea yet. The first night staying in Maseno was interesting. I shared a room with my host brother's friend and the farm help. Both of the guys I shared the room with snored but for a good part of the night I just laughed to myself because it reminded me of episodes of the Three Stooges that I would watch as a kid with my dad. The one guy had a loud deep snore while the other guy followed with a soft wimpering snore.

Much of the town of Maseno consists of homes built on the mountain. A few different times, I went on hikes with my host father's nephews and brother. All around the hill there are these huge boulders that we did some rock climbing on. We saw a few monkeys and geckos. I was told that leopards used to be all over the mountain but as the population expanded and houses were built in different areas, the leopards moved away.

In the days before Christmas I inquired about if there was a Catholic church that I could go to on Christmas. No one really knew but on Christmas morning I was woken up by someone saying that they found a place that was having a Catholic Mass but that it started in 45 minutes. So I quickly got dressed and had tea before I headed down the mountain with the help of one of my host father's nephews to Maseno University. When we arrived at the building they usually have Mass at, the entire place was empty. We finally found a woman who told us that the Mass wasn't starting for another hour. So the two of us walked all the way back up the mountain and I had more of a proper breakfast before making the walk back to church.

This Christmas Mass is definitely one that I will remember for many years. The Mass was celebrated in a lecture hall of Maseno University that was in the shape of a small gymnasium. There were no benches but everyone sat in desks. Sitting in a desk for church was something that seemed peculiar at first but as I reflected on it, it seemed to make sense. When we go to church, don't we go to learn and be educated? In much the same way a professor stands in front of a class and lectures, a priest also lectures and discusses the lessons of the Bible.

When the Mass started there were about 15 people, I was of course the only white person and was very aware of it since the children who were present stared at me the entire time. After the priest finished the homily, I heard a large commotion in the back of church and I turned around to see over 50 people entering the church. All of these people had arrived late in the typical Kenyan style but did not want to disrupt the homily.

The entire church service was very basic. There were no elaborate Christmas decorations or poinsettias. There were no elaborate vestments the priest wore. There were no Christmas songs accompanied by musicians playing expensive instruments. The choir consisted of the three people in the front of the congregation who actually had a song book. The only accompaniment came from one woman with a tambourine. During the offertory, people brought up all sorts of things including a huge bunch of bananas, bags of rice and even a live chicken.

When I returned to the house after church, I helped prepare the large Christmas lunch of pilau which is rice mixed with spices from Zanzibar and beef. Per tradition, every single person assists in some way. I volunteered to cut tomatoes and other vegetables. It was funny to see people's reactions because men normally do not cook in Kenyan culture, let alone a white man. People watched me for a few minutes to make sure I actually knew what I was doing and wasn't going to cut myself on the knife. It reminded me of the time my girlfriend Rachel and I cooked hamburgers for my host family in Nairobi. My host mother kept coming in to check on us (particularly me) to make sure we weren't burning down her kitchen and that we weren't going to serve them inedible food.

After the lunch was prepared, we had a short prayer service where we sang and read the Christmas story from the Bible. Many of the people present were not conversant in English so the service was entirely in Swahili. After prayers, everyone ate and entertained the various visitors who stopped by throughout the day. Besides the large lunch, nothing else special was planned.

The one notable thing I realized was that no one exchanged presents. There was never even any mention of gifts or Santa which was VERY different from the material-driven American version of Christmas. The focus during this Christmas wasn't on having more "stuff" but was simply a day to spend time with family and be thankful for what they do have. I feel that so many times in America, we often forget the meaning of Christmas. One episode of The Simpsons comes to mind where Bart Simpson says, "I think people are starting to forget the true meaning of Christmas...to celebrate the birth of Santa Clause."

As a belated Christmas gift, just last week I was able to deliver 5 soccer balls to an orphanage in Kibera slum. The soccer balls were all donated by people from home. Before Rachel and I went to Kibera, we stopped by the store to buy a bag of 100 candies for less than a dollar. When we were playing with the kids and brought the bag out, word spread quickly that there was candy as all the kids started yelling "SWEEEEETS!!!" Those 100 candies went very fast but the kids all loved them.

This Christmas was the first Christmas I have ever spent away from my family. It wasn't until coming to Kenya and spending time with people like all of the orphan children in Kibera that I realized just how many things I have to be thankful for.

Arusha, Tanzania

2008-12-19T21:44:00.004+03:00

In the short three and a half months I've been living in Kenya, I have changed a lot as an individual. Before coming to Kenya, I had never traveled by myself before. After just a few weeks in Kenya, I found myself taking a bus for 7 hours, arriving in a foreign town well after dark, just to see a friend who was living in a rural part of Kenya. Just a few weeks after that, I found myself taking a bus 15 hours overnight from Kisumu on the western coast of Kenya on Lake Victoria all the way to Mombasa on the eastern coast of Kenya on the Indian Ocean to visit with some friends for the weekend and to do some sightseeing.

This week I was supposed to be going to Arusha in Tanzania on Thursday to visit some Catholic Relief Services (CRS) programs. In a typical African fashion, I got an email Monday morning asking me if I could go to Arusha on Tuesday instead because some of the offices would be closing for holiday leave. Before I knew it, I had bought my bus ticket, packed and was at the bus stop the next morning at 6am ready to go to Tanzania. My bus was supposed to leave at 6:30am but then again TIA (this is Africa!). It didn't leave until 8am and then we ran into brake problems that had to be fixed at the border. All in all we arrived over 2 hours late and I missed my meeting and wasn't able to do site visits on Tuesday. I felt bad because people waited for me for 3 hours at the office to show me their programs, but it was entirely out of my control.

CRS Arusha graciously arranged for a driver to pick me up at the bus stop in Akamba and in doing so fullfilled one of my lifetime goals to arrive somewhere foreign/unfamiliar and have someone holding a sign with my name. I think being the only white person on the bus might have also made it easier for the driver to find me. I have worked for CRS for two summers in the CRS Midwest office in Chicago. In working with CRS in America, a lot of my work has been educating Americans about the work of CRS overseas. Visiting Arusha allowed me to see first-hand the great work of CRS in the developing world.

The driver brought me back to the CRS Arusha office where I was able to meet with several staff members and here about their work on various projects including Water and Sanitation and Orphans and Vulnerable Children. After meeting with some of the staff, I needed to get to an ATM and arrange for my accommodation. CRS provided the driver to serve as my personal escort around Arusha. They offered to call us a taxi to get to town, but I opted for the public transport for 1/10 the cost. It's always interesting getting money out of an ATM in another country because the amount of money you have always seems so different. In Tanzania, the Tanzanian shilling to US dollar ratio is 1300 to 1.

I ended up staying at the Arusha Backpackers Hotel as recommended by one of the other students in my program. He said it was inexpensive and "basic." I soon learned how people's definitions of "basic" vary. I paid $9 a night and the rooms reflected the price. When I went to my room the first time, I opened the door and ran into the bed. The room resembled a jail cell more than anything else. It had a single bed and about 8 inches of room on the side of the bed to walk - and that was it.

In the morning, a man from the Arusha Archdiocesan Integrated Development and Relief Office (AAIDRO) picked me up at my hotel. He brought me to the Archdiocesan office and I was able to meet the whole AAIDRO staff that works closely with CRS. CRS works through partnerships with local organizations that are already working in communities. With AAIDRO, CRS helps provide funding for programs for HIV/AIDS patients, money for Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), and agro-enterprise programs. One of the main programs CRS and AAIDRO are working on in the rural area outside of Arusha is working with HIV/AIDS groups to help grow drought-resistant crops like pigeon peas. Many people have a significant amount of land, but the land is being under-utilized. CRS and AAIDRO are trying to help people use their land more effectively to grow crops to sustain themselves but also to generate income.

On our way to the rural village, the man from AAIDRO pointed out Mt. Kilimanjaro peaking out of the clouds. We stopped and I was able to get a quick photo of the top of the mountain. That was the only time I was able to see Kilimanjaro my entire time in Arusha - the clouds hide it very well.

I was able to meet with one HIV/AIDS group during one of my visits. I have never received such a warm welcome in my entire life. One elderly woman, came up to me and hugged me and vigorously shook my hand. Throughout our meeting, she kept staring at me with a BIG smile on her face. 19 HIV postive people have come together in the community to form a group to support one another. They meet once a week and have a constitution. During each meeting, each member contributes 200 TSH (15 cents US) in dues. The money is saved up and used to take care of a member if they fall ill. I introduced myself and fielded questions from people through the use of translator because my Swahili is still quite limited.

During the time I was there, some people brought up the issue that the food that CRS/AAIDRO usually provides for them was not enough for the last month. Afterwards, I spoke with the man I was with from AAIDRO and he told me about all of the financial problems they face. The need is so great in these communities but the funding is very limited. He said that in most cases, he can only make it out to these communities once or twice a month to monitor programs because of the cost of fuel and the availability of vehicles. On this day, we brought this group a large bunch of bananas which only temporarily fixes the hunger problem. All 19 members of this group are also on anti-retrovirals which require good nutrition in order to work effectively.

In the afternoon, I attended a meeting between elders of a community about issues the community was facing. Unfortunately the entire meeting was conducted in Swahili and with my still limited knowledge of Swahili I was only able to catch the occasional word like "but" or "because" which doesn't really help. It was interesting however watching and observing the group dynamics and even though I had very little idea of what was going on, I was able to figure out which people were supporting which side of the argument and how people reacted to different people's points.

I really enjoyed my time in Arusha thanks to the warm African hospitality of the people at Catholic Relief Services and AAIDRO

How to Donate

2008-11-30T20:59:00.004+03:00

I have mentioned several times before about getting involved in helping some causes here in Kenya. My work's website has recently added a DONATE option under "Quick Links" at www.ografoundation.org You can donate securely through an organization called CafAmerica that operates a website for donating internationally to non-governmental organizations. OGRA Foundation tries to respect donor-intent as much as possible so if there is a specific project you would like to contribute to (ie. the orphan feeding center) please indicate that.

Unfortunately, it appears that CafAmerica won't let you donate unless your donation is over $500. So at this point, I don't recommend using CafAmerica unless you plan to donate over $500. If you ARE interested in donating though, please contact me and I can help you find the most appropriate way for you to donate.

I am also working on a project raising money to buy bicycles for our Community Health Workers (CHWs). The CHWs work in very rural villages and perform outreach / home-based care for HIV/AIDS patients on anti-retrovirals. They do a lot of education and help the patients adhere to the complicated anti-retroviral drug regiment. 98% of our CHWs are themselves HIV positive. It would be very difficult to ship a bicycle from the States so we are asking people to donate money. You can make checks payable to OGRA FOUNDATION. Two family friends will be coming to east Africa around Christmas and can deliver any checks to me. If you are interested and would like more information, please contact me directly.

As always, if there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanksgiving in Kenya

2008-11-29T22:26:00.002+03:00

Being in Kenya for Thanksgiving was certainly a unique experience. An American couple, Meg and Daniel, have been volunteering with my organization for a month and they invited me to have Thanksgiving with them at their hostel. We really wanted to re-create an American Thanksgiving as much as we could so we tried very hard to find a turkey. Of course being in Kenya, the only turkey we found was the live bird at the local market. We would then have to kill it ourselves, de-feather it, etc. We also ran into a major problem in terms of how we would cook a turkey. At Meg and Daniel's hostel, they only have 2 stove-top burners. Ovens in Kenya are not designed to fit a turkey. We actually got to the point where we asked the major hotel in town if they would allow us to use their oven to cook our turkey but they said it was against their regulations.

At one point last week we even looked into ordering a honey-baked ham from the States and having it mailed here. We figured the Kenya Bureau of Standards wouldn't let a ham through customs especially since I'm still waiting for my Halloween care package from my parents that was sent in the beginning of October.

On Thursday I was out in Ombeyi, a rural town a half hour outside of Kisumu, working on a USAID APHIA II training. I got back to Kisumu around 5pm, just in time for my parents from the U.S. to call to wish me a happy Thanksgiving. After the phone call, I went into town to check my mail at my host mother's P.O. Box and was excited to have two Thanksgiving cards from my grand-parents. I took a boda-boda (bicycle taxi) to Meg and Daniel's from town.

I have been getting very frustrated lately with the "mzungu price" which is when people inflate the price of a product or service for a white person. I got my haircut last week and the guy tried charging me 5 times as much as the typical Kenyan would pay. I spoke with men waiting in line to get their haircuts the day before so I knew exactly how much I should have had to pay. When I got the boda-boda from town, I was very blunt with the driver and told him that I live in Kisumu and that I know exactly how much I should pay for the distance I wanted to go. I told him to not even bother trying to give me the mzungu price and that if he was going to waste my time, I'd just go on to the next driver who would give me the fair price. This was very unusual for me because I'm usually not as direct and straightforward/demanding but last week had been especially bad with the mzungu price. The boda boda driver actually responded very well to it and gave me the fair price without me having to negotiate.

About two blocks after getting on the boda-boda, it started raining heavily. I still had about a mile and a half left to go and when you're stuck in a situation like that you just have to laugh and take it in. I started humming Christmas songs to humor myself. I arrived to Meg and Daniel's soaked to the bone.

At dinner there were the three of us Americans, the deputy director of OGRA, Gaby and his wife and then the organization's driver, George. As dinner was still being prepared, the three of us Americans took the time to talk about the history of Thanksgiving in America and then we each talked about what our families traditionally do on Thanksgiving to celebrate. Growing up, my family would always deliver meals to elderly people and visit with them. We would also always help with our church's food drive for our church's food pantry. A large part of what my family has taught me about Thanksgiving is to not only be thankful for what we have but to serve others who may not be as fortunate. This motto in general was a huge motivating factor for me wanting to come to Kenya.

After talking about the history of Thanksgiving, we each went around and said some things we are thankful for. This whole experience being in Kenya has really given me a lot to be thankful for. A simple thing like water is almost always taken for granted in America. My host family in Kisumu doesn't have running water. I have to carry water with me to the bathroom everytime I go. I bathe using a bucket of water that has to be warmed on the stove. All the water we drink is collected rain water. The last time it rained heavily, the househelp and I spent about an hour outside in the rain collecting water in buckets to store for later use. The househelp did this all clutching an umbrella while I had put on my swimsuit and was having a great time. I have never been in a situation where I have been so dependent on nature for basic needs. Although it is the rainy season, we haven't gotten a lot of rain lately so our stored water is diminishing.

There are so many people I have met in Kenya who struggle to make it through each day. I met the 82 year old woman who is the sole provider for her daughter and two grandchildren. This woman can only provide one meal a day, usually maize meal (ugali) for her family yet she welcomed me into her home and tried giving me food.

I've helped train Community Health Workers in rural western Kenya who do community outreach and home visits for HIV/AIDS patients in hard-to-reach areas. At the training I attended, 98% of the Community Health Workers were themselves HIV positive. The one training manual I read before the training advised Community Health Workers to treat the patients as if they themselves had HIV. I guess this is pretty easy to do in a province where the HIV prevalence is between 34-38% of the population. In the one rural village I work, the wealthiest man in the community is the carpenter who makes coffins along the roadside.

I've met with a woman who lives in Kibera slum living on less than $15 a month who told me how she saves up money during Ramadan to give to the poor. This left me wondering if not this woman, than who is "the poor?"

During one of my community nutrition classes at ISMAT where I teach, we were talking about the top killers of Kenyans (malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS). After we finished, one of my students asked me what most Americans die of. This was a very humbling moment for me as I stood in front of my class and told them how the top three killers of Americans are cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Two of these three are directly related to obesity. I come from a country where the biggest problem for most Americans is that they eat too much. I read somewhere before I came to Kenya that the amount of money that Americans spend on diet plans could feed the entire world's poor. Even according to my Development textbook, Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, "the $17 billion spent annually in the United States and Europe on pet food exceeds by $4 billion the estimated annual additional cost of providing basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world." Even our pets are overweight and suffer from diseases like diabetes.

As I reflected on Thanksgiving, I really do have a lot to be thankful and being in Kenya has helped me see a lot of these things. It's something that I think a lot of us already know, but when confronted with situations like extreme poverty, it helps to put things into perspective...

Meeting Barack Obama's Grandmother

2008-11-28T13:01:00.003+03:00

Last Thursday when I visited APECC we were near the town of Kogelo where Barack Obama's paternal grandmother lives. As we drove into town we saw the sign posts for the Senator Obama Secondary School that Barack Obama founded during one of his visits to Kenya. We got to one intersection in the village and didn't really know where to go. There were about a dozen men all sitting under the shade of a tree who all started pointing and saying "White House this way!" when they saw us. We made the turn and drove on a little further and when we got to the house, we could just tell that we had arrived. The house compound has a newly installed barbed wire fence and large gate. Just inside the gate we saw two tents where the security guards sleep. 24 hours a day a security guard from the Kenya Police monitors the compound. We started taking pictures but were stopped by the security guard who told us we couldn't take photographs until we signed in. So he opened the gate for us and we signed the guest book. He then told us we were free to walk around and take any pictures we wanted. Someone else directed us to sit in some lawn chairs that were set up near the house. We just kind of sat there not really knowing what we were waiting for. Just outside the home we saw the grave sites of Barack Hussein Obama (Obama's father) and Hussein Barack Obama (Obama's grandfather).

After a few minutes of waiting a security guard in a suit came out and welcomed us into the home! We entered the small home and saw Mama Sarah, Barack Obama's grandmother sitting on the couch. They welcomed us in to sit down next to her. She only spoke Luo and Swahili so our driver did a lot of the talking. We all just kind of sat there in awe at the whole situation. She had a few pictures of Obama's visit to her home in years past. She also had a large cardboard cut-out of him and a large Obama calendar. I took 6 weeks of Swahili when I got to Kenya, so I introduced myself to her, told her I was a student and that I was from Chicago. I also introduced all of my coworkers. She was very impressed with my Swahili and even told me that I know more Swahili than Barack!

We were allowed to take one group picture with her and then we left the home. When we were outside we talked with one of the guys who was in the home with us. He introduced himself and we found out that his name was Roy Obama, Barack Obama's cousin. Basically everyone in Kenya claims that they are Barack Obama's cousin but I think we met his legitimate cousin. He was surprisingly interested in us and where we were from. I told him that I was staying in Kisumu until April and he said that he comes to Kisumu a lot. We exchanged phone numbers and he wants to hang out soon.

Equator and APECC visit

2008-11-21T23:16:00.005+03:00

On Thursday I went on a pseudo-field trip with the 3 other American volunteers working for OGRA Foundation in Kisumu. We drove past the Equator so we of course had to stop and take funny pictures in both hemispheres. The main goal of the trip was to visit the APECC (Apostolic Evangelical Christian Church) home for the destitute and mentally disabled. OGRA is looking to form a partnership with this organization and perhaps build a health clinic within the compound. People from all over western Kenya come to the small rural village to dump/abandon their relatives with mental disabilities. For many Kenyan families, the cost and burden of taking care of a family member with a disability is often too great so they turn to a place like APECC to take care of their relatives. APECC does not receive any money from these families that abandon their relatives nor do they receive any government funding. This place is incredibily self-sufficient - they have many dairy cows, goats and chickens in addition to acres of farmland where they grow their own maize, onions, tomatoes, bananas, herbs and other items.

APECC is completely run by volunteers, many who have lived there for upwards of 30 years. The one director of the home gave us a tour of the compound where they house over 150 people. The occupants of the home range in age from the very young to the very old and from the orphaned to the abandoned. The director talked about their lack of funding and resources saying that they are only able to provide for the people's physical needs, not their mental needs. The children with mental disabilities can not be taught in a regular school setting but there are no special needs teachers so they often grow up without any education. The people with mental disabilities vary in severity. The one man we met used to be a university lecturer before becoming mentally unstable. Speaking with him, he now has a fear of hands. One thing that he said that struck me when he described his fear was that he is afraid of hands because it's hands that have brought him here, hands that keep him here, hands that bind/restrain, etc. For some of the patients who have violent tendencies they spend their days chained to trees. We saw one of these patients on our tour of the compound.

When we finished our tour, they brought us to a building and had us sit down at a table. Six women came in with large trays of food. For the six of us present, we couldn't have finished the food that was brought to us if we sat there for a week without ever getting up. The food was very very good and was truly a Kenyan feast. During lunch, the director told us more about the needs of the home. With so many patients, there is a constant need for varying levels of medical attention. With the remotely rural location of the home and the condition of the roads, it could be hours for a patient to reach the nearest district hospital. This unfortunately has led to several cases where the patients have died at the home because there was no form of transport available.

We at OGRA Foundation are hoping to begin a partnership with APECC soon to improve the quality of the dormitories and assist in other projects like acquiring an ambulance or building a small medical facility that we can supply.

I will try to post more information (contact info) about APECC this week if you would like to donate or get involved. Because of its rural nature, they currently do not have a website but we are looking to link them through the OGRA website soon

Poverty Reflection

2008-11-17T18:49:00.002+03:00

This entry is a work in progress. I have seen a lot of poverty since being in Kenya and have included some stories and thoughts of my experiences thus far. I encourage a dialogue about this topic and look forward to answering people's questions or providing people with more information. If you feel at all motivated to take action, please let me know so I can help you from on the ground here in Kenya. No action or donation is too small to affect the lives of people living in poverty all over the world.

I have been in Kenya now for two and a half months. During this time I have seen some pretty unimaginable things. I have spent some time working in Kibera Slum, the 3rd largest slum in the world. I have been introduced to and witnessed the "flying toilet" where people go to the bathroom in a plastic bag (mostly at night), and then whip it as far as they can. This often will land on people's homes or even sometimes people or animals. I have seen pit latrines built right on the banks of rivers. People must pay to use these latrines which contributes to people employing the flying toilet as an alternative. The owner will often build the latrine with holes from the ground level so that when it rains, water fills the latrine and empties the contents. As I mentioned, many of these latrines are built on the banks of rivers so the fecal matter flows directly into the river (in Kibera slum, into the Nairobi River). This same river is often where children will play or sift through garbage looking for anything valuable; the same river where livestock drink from and defecate in, furthering the water contamination.

Walking through Kibera Slum, I've also seen a young girl wearing a Sleeping Beauty costume dress - but in this case, this girl wasn't playing dress-up, this was what she wore almost everyday. Several of my friends had taken a tour of Kibera the week before I did and mentioned that they saw a girl in a Sleeping Beauty dress. A week later, I saw the same girl wearing the same dress and got chills when I saw her.

In situations of extreme poverty that I've seen, the people are usually not wallowing in self-pity or waiting for a hand-out from any passerby. These people live complete lives and take things in stride. As I walked through these areas, I am always greeted by cheers of "Mzungu! How are you" from the children as they laugh and play. I have been welcomed into the home of an elderly woman and offered dinner yet she could only provide one meal a day for her family.

In Kisumu, there are many boys who wander the streets sniffing glue. The sight is much more common than I ever would have thought. At first it can be quite jarring seeing young boys in tattered clothes walking the streets with a bottle of glue held between their mouth and nose. Getting high off glue can be an appetite suppresent, but are they sniffing glue to suppress their appetite or can they not eat because of their addiction to glue?

As part of my internship in Kisumu I have been working with my organization's feeding centre. The feeding centre provides 12 meals a week for 30 children. Most, if not all of these children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Kisumu is located in Nyanza Province where certain areas have an HIV prevalence of 34-38%! I've also been lecturing at ISMAT, a local community-based college about community nutrition and epidemiology and communicable diseases. In my community nutrition class I presented the feeding centre as a case study. I told my students that it was up to them to analyze and improve the menu. The students really struggled with the fact that the children are only receiving 12 meals a week. For many of the children, the only food they receive in a week comes from the feeding centre. From Saturday lunch until Monday breakfast, some of these children may not be getting any food. I had the students look at the menu and note what was missing. Because of budgetary constraints and limited donor funding, the feeding centre can only provide these 12 meals for 30 children. There are obviously more than 30 hungry children in all of western Kenya but we our resources are limited. I had my students add different foods to the menu to make up for the food groups that were missing (notably meat and fruit). After the students were completely satisfied with their menu additions, I looked at the board and then crossed out the number 30 (representing the amount of students we were feeding) and wrote the number 20. I told the students that the additions they made were great, but since we have a limited budget that means that we could only then serve 20 children. This really frustrated and angered my students who had obviously wanted to better the situation for all of the children not just a select few. From there we discussed the issues that an organization faces in operating a feeding centre. We brainstormed many different income generating activities (IGAs) to bring in additional money for the feeding centre. I promised my students that their ideas would be listened to and after class I went back to my work and typed up their suggestions and presented them to the person in charge of the feeding centre. I am now working with them to implement some of these changes for the feeding centre.

OGRA Foundation now also has an American married couple volunteering with us for the month. Their major project will be constructing a chicken coop for the feeding centre. They hope to house between 200-300 chickens which will provide the feeding centre a constant supply of fresh eggs and occasionally meat as the chickens become older and can no longer lay eggs. The project is progressing nicely and has come from an idea to being half-constructed in less than a week. I will also try to post pictures of the chicken coop as soon as I can.

In Mombasa this weekend I was once again reminded of the extent of poverty in Kenya. There were many many people on the sidewalks begging for money. Rachel and I got to the point where we would take the bananas from the hotel's continental breakfast and pass them out to the poor people we would encounter. I had some extra chapatis (flat bread) from my bus ride to Mombasa that we also passed out to people we encountered. I think one moment that struck both of us was that when we had finished passing out the bananas and chapatis we had, we walked by a mother with two young children begging for food for her kids. The very young boy was standing on the street corner completely naked begging any passerby for food. Rachel and I had gone from a natural high of doing good in distributing food to the hungry to feeling frustrated that we still weren't doing enough. We could pass out food for hours among the streets of Mombasa but there would still be thousands of people that would go to bed hungry that night. Most of these people would also go to bed not in proper beds but on the street corners, stoops of businesses or local parks.

Mombasa Weekend

2008-11-17T17:32:00.003+03:00

This weekend I went to Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya. Mombasa has a lot of history and in modern day still serves as a major port of east Africa. Kenya receives a lot of revenue from land-locked neighbors like Uganda and Rwanda for use of the port.

I took a large bus that left Kisumu at 5pm on Thursday. The bus was only about half full leaving Kisumu because we would be picking up passengers along the way. I sat next to a really nice guy and we talked about all sorts of issues. He too was going to Mombasa to visit with friends. He had a degree in natural resources management so we had a long conversation about pollution and sanitation. I brought up how dirty Lake Victoria is. In Kisumu there's one major path that leads down to the lakefront but a lot of cars and trucks drive directly into the water and then the drivers wash their vehicles. So as you can imagine all of the dirt, oil, chemicals, etc go right into the lake water. Lake Victoria is beautiful from afar but definitely nothing to get excited about at shore-level.

It was really great being able to meet someone on the bus because we'd watch over each other at all the different stops. The bus stopped after about an hour and a half in Kericho to fuel and pick up passengers. The bus then made stops in Nakuru, Naivasha and Nairobi. The buses sometimes leave arbitrarily and without warning from stops so it was good to have someone to tell them if I wasn't on the bus yet. The toilets are always an interesting experience in rural Kenya. Most of the toilets are squatters and have just about everything all over the floors and walls. If you can imagine your worst truck-stop toilet and then multiply it by about 5, you'll be getting close to what some of these toilets are like. We got to Nairobi around midnight and waited there for about 40 minutes. Some people bought some food at a roadside stand but I ate the chapatis (flatbread) my househelp had packed for me. I had way too many chapatis so I made friends and shared them. The road leaving Nairobi toward Mombasa was pretty bad with some parts resembling the lunar surface. It's always difficult to sleep on a bus but I was able to get an hour or two in at a time between fuel/bathroom stops.

I finally got into Mombasa at 8:30am, fifteen and a half hours after I left Kisumu. I ended up sharing a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled motor vehicle that carries max. 3 passengers) with the guy I met on the bus into town. I went to the GPO (General Post Office) because that's where some of the other students from my program were meeting with our one professor. I called my one friend and we met up and talked for a little before all the other students came. The meeting went very well and our professor treated all of us to breakfast. It was really good to see a lot of the other students especially since they've all been working on the complete opposite side of the country from me.

After the meeting I explored the city with some of the students. Got a little turned around but it helped me learn the city quicker. Rachel got into town in the late afternoon so we all met up with her at the hotel and then all laid under the airconditioning for awhile. I couldn't walk more than 15 feet in Mombasa without being completely drenched in sweat.

On Saturday we all met up again to go to the famous beaches of Mombasa. We had to to take a matatu to the end of the island and then a ferry across to the mainland. From there we had to take another two matatus to eventually get to the beach. We met up with two other girls from our program at their resort. The beach was nice but it was low tide so we had to navigate through all the coral (away from the sea urchins and sand fish) to even get anywhere close to the water. We of course encountered the beach boys of Mombasa (no, not the group). Beach boys are young men who will try to sell you things or offer to show you around for money. They are often very persistent, annoying and bother tourists. It wasn't very long into our walk through the low tide when the beach boys started asking us for money. None of us brought money with us to the beach so it was easy to be honest in saying that we didn't have any money. Some of them became quite angry and kept trying to negotiate a price while some of the others backed down. We kept insisting that we did not actively seek out their services so we were not obligated to pay anything. They eventually left us alone with none of us giving them any money.

After that beach, we took a matatu further south to Diani beach and had lunch right on the water. It was really a great experience - there was a band playing your stereotypical beach rhythms with the nice breeze off the water. Rachel and I headed back to town after that because we were getting pretty tired. I surprisingly only got a little sunburn on my shoulders which was a great improvement from my beat-red legs from our Nile River rafting trip.

On Sunday, we walked around town for awhile. We did some shopping on Biashara Street for some kangas (an African-patterned wrap with sayings on them). We did some good-natured bargaining and got very good prices for them. After Biashara Street we walked to the other side of the island and took a tour of Fort Jesus, a 15th century Portegeuse fort on the Indian Ocean coast. I managed to get in for the Kenyan citizen rate which was greatly reduced from the non-resident rate. The fort was really interesting. There is one passage to ocean called the Passage of the Archways which was carved completely out of solid coral! We got some really good pictures that I'll work on getting up on Facebook or here this week. A student showed us around the fort and was very nice and informative. He showed us around a little bit of Old Town which consists of buildings that are hundreds of years old. We asked him upfront at the beginning how much he wanted for a tour (because nothing is ever free) and he said that since I was a Kenyan "citizen" (I have residency status) to not worry about it (Hakuna matata). At the end of the tour he of course brought about the issue of paying him. We had already agreed that we really enjoyed the tour and wanted to give him something for his time. All of the guide books we read recommended 100-200 KSH for a tour of Fort Jesus so we were prepared for something in that range. He asked us for 400 KSH each person! We were pretty shocked to hear his price especially since it only cost me 100 KSH to get IN to the fort. We told him that there was no way we'd pay 400 KSH and we settled on a much more reasonable price.

Sunday evening I boarded the bus for another 15-16 hour bus ride back to Kisumu. I arrived at 9am in Kisumu. I went home briefly but went to work by 10am.

Happy Obama Day!

2008-11-06T16:05:00.002+03:00

Wednesday morning after we found out the election results, President Mwai Kibaki announced that Thursday would be a public holiday to allow Kenyans to celebrate the Obama victory. When the President made the announcement he addressed Obama directly saying that "We Kenyans are very proud of your ancestry." I think pride is an understatement because everyone in Kisumu at least has Obama-Fever!

On Wednesday, I woke up at 5am to watch the election results. I had to hook up the TV through several extension cords, but managed to get it working. It was really exciting to see all the scenes from Grant Park. My host mom ended up waking up to watch it with me and she was SO shocked to see how many people were there. She was also really surprised to see children at the rally. She said that rallies in Kenya never end without some people throwing stones or other violence. She thought it was really great how that many people could gather together peacefully to support a cause.

It was interesting trying to explain to my host mother the Electoral College and what it meant when each state was announced going to a certain candidate. We found out the results about 7am in Kenya. We were both a little late to work because we stayed at home to watch Barack Obama's speech.

My walk to work was a little interesting. I wore a shirt that said "ILLINOIS" on it and wore a Barack Obama pin. I felt like a celebrity because people kept waving to me, boda bodas (bicycle taxis) kept ringing their bells, cars would honk as they passed me. Some people who saw me would yell out "Obama!!!" while others yelled "Thank You!" or "Good Job!" Obama really is loved here in Kenya.

When I got to work, people kept coming up to me and congratulating me and my country for a job well done. In the morning, I taught an Epidemiology class at ISMAT (International School of Medicine and Applied Technology) about Malaria. We spent the first few minutes of class with people asking me about Obama and if I voted, who I voted for, etc. The fact that you can vote through an absentee ballot amazes people. In Kenya, you have to be in the country in order to vote.

The celebrations were pretty subdued here in Kisumu. I heard from people at work and then saw on the news that hundreds of people gathered in the local sports grounds to watch the coverage on a projected screen. There were a few parades/celebrations in the streets but everything was pretty calm. It rained all afternoon which I think also hampered people's celebrations.

In Kogelo, Obama's ancestral home, bulls were slaughtered in celebration. I got a few text messages from people asking if I was headed to Kogelo to share in the celebration.

Next week it looks like I'll be traveling with work. Some midwives from Europe are coming and will be working with Community Health Workers at our OSANI health clinic in the rural lakeside village of Ndhiwa. I'll be helping with some of the trainings. I am anticipating that I will be without internet then from Tuesday until Friday. I will be sure to update this blog upon my return.

Day before the Election

2008-11-04T14:34:00.002+03:00

Well, today is Tuesday November 4th, the day before the U.S. presidential election. Since I've been in Kenya I've seen a lot of support for Barack Obama. Some matatus (small buses) even display large pictures of Obama on the sides and backs of the vehicle. Coming to Kisumu recently, I've seen a whole new level of Obama-support. Barack Obama has familial connections to the Luo ethnic group of western Kenya. Kisumu has a large Luo population so everyone here is absolutely obsessed with Obama. Everytime I walk down the street people yell "Obama!" It was a somewhat welcomed change from the usual call of "mzungu!" (white person). Every single person I encounter asks me if I've voted for Obama. When they find out I'm from Illinois or Chicago they often get even more excited. Kenyans often seem so surprised that anyone would support John McCain. The political knowledge of Kenyans varies greatly. Some people are very informed about American politics and have made informed decisions as to why they support a certain candidate. In most cases, it seems that people like Obama simply because he's "Kenyan." One person asked me yesterday how Americans feel about Obama since he's not "ours." I asked him to clarify his question and he voiced the same opinion that I've heard since I've arrived in Kenya - that Obama is more Kenyan than American.

Many people are very excited about the U.S. election and have a whole spectrum of opinions about what will happen as a result. One of the MPs (members of Parliament) was quoted as saying that he wanted to expand the Kisumu airport to accomdate Air Force One as soon as possible. Some people speculate (somewhat jokingly) that the dollar will be the new currency of Nyanza Province as of next week. Others are convinced that if Obama becomes president, it will be much easier for Kenyans to get visas to the U.S. There is already a Barack Obama Primary School near his "home village" where he has extended family. Foreign journalists have swarmed the small village for weeks now. I've heard rumors that the village is now charging $100 US in order to enter the village.

Obama-Fever is quite prevalent in my internship organization. The organization's Land Rover has an Obama bumper sticker. The Director's car has an Obama bumper sticker on the back AND front (just in case anyone had any question which candidate he's supporting). Almost every person at work proudly wears an Obama button as well.

Every night for the last several weeks, there has been a special segment on the news called "America Votes 2008" featuring Kenyan reporters stationed all over key battleground states in America. The segment usually lasts about 10 minutes and even includes a "Fact File" to teach people about how the American electoral system works (electoral college, etc). On Sunday night they showed the stores in downtown Kisumu that are completely dedicated to Obama. These stores sell all kinds of buttons, t-shirts, framed pictures, and even a DVD about the life of Barack Obama.

Today I ran some errands around town and as we drove people kept running up to our vehicle with today's newspaper that featured a full-page colored picture of Obama with his hand over his heart. Obama really is the Son of Kenya in the eyes of many people here. One of the first weeks I was in Nairobi, I read an article in the newspaper in the young generation's section. The newspaper asked primary school children to write about what they thought would happen if Barack Obama was elected president. One girl wrote that Barack Obama will buy computers for every school in Kenya and help all of the poor people living in the slums.

We will find out the results of the election early Wednesday morning (Kenya is now 9 hours ahead of Central Time in the U.S.). Regardless of the outcome, I am sure that there will be people in the streets; it's only a matter of whether they are protesting or celebrating. In light of the post-election violence just 9 months ago, I think all of us American students in Kisumu are at least somewhat concerned about how people will react to the election results. The repercussions of the post-election violence are still very much present. I work for OGRA Foundation which lost its main building as a result of arson during the post-election violence. At church this Sunday, they made an announcement asking anyone who was sexually abused during the post-election violence to please go to the town hall this week because their is a government commission investigating the abuses during the violence. You just know that this issue must be prevalent in this community if it's included in the general announcments at the end of church!

It will be interesting to see in the coming months how the outcome of the election will be interpreted here in Kenya. If Obama wins will people be disappointed if their lives here in Kenya are not significantly changed? Will they feel left down or forgotten by their national hero?

Kisumu Internship - first week

2008-10-29T18:20:00.004+03:00

I started my internship on Friday with the OGRA foundation On Friday I met with several people on staff and then accompanied several people on visits to rural primary schools. We took the organizations Land Rover which we definitely needed to navigate a lot of the rural roads. The organization runs a health clinic in Ombeyi where people can come for very affordable and sometimes free health care. The facility is equipped with a pharmacy, laboratory, several exam rooms, a maternity ward and bed occupancy for about 30-40 people. The facility also is a VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) for HIV. We provide testing services and then follow-up support counseling with our staff. The organization also provides free anti-retroviral drugs for 294 patients with 424 on the waiting list. Nyanza Province in western Kenya has the highest prevalance of HIV in the country with about 37% of the population being HIV positive.

We have been going to the primary schools to photgraph some of the children as part of their family's registration for the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Through this program, the familes can become eligible to receive free treatment at our health clinic. I have done a lot of editing of pictures and organizing of files since we have to submit the information to the government soon.

Today I spent the day at the organizations feeding center. The feeding center is located near one fo the rural primary schools. We provide 2 meals a day, 6 days a week for about 30 children presently. For many of the children, the meals they receive through OGRA may be their only food for the day. The feeding center has seen great success with classroom attendence increasing and performance improving. Several of the headmasters we spoke to told us how difficult it is to teach children who are hungry. By 10am, the children can not concentrate. The feeding center was built through the generosity of Kenyan Orphan Project who has currently been visiting with us this week. They are looking to build a youth center for the children that can also be used for community education purposes. One of my projects for the internship will be working with OGRA to analyze the operations of the feeding center. I am interested in examining the menu to determine areas where we need to introduce new and different foods. Fruits and meat are very expensive so they are often lacking from the menu at the feeding center. A balanced diet provides these children crucial vitamins and nutrients during these important development periods.

One of my other main projects will be in conjunction with the International School of Medicine and Applied Technology, an OGRA Foundation project. ISMAT is a comprehensive community-response tertiary college that trains under-privileged and vulnerable youth. The college currently teaches 72 students. I will be contributing as a guest lecturer/tutorial fellow for the Community Health and Development program. I am looking forward to this knowledge exchange with the students since we can learn from each other's backgrounds and experiences.

I will also be working with the organizations webmaster to improve on the website. We are looking to expand our networking by linking with our partners' websites to increase awareness about OGRA. We are also looking to expand our fundraising capacity by increasing ways for people to donate directly to OGRA programs.

Karibu Kisumu!

2008-10-25T12:25:00.006+03:00

I have safely arrived in Kisumu in western Kenya where I will spend the next six and a half months with my internship. I will return to Nairobi the second week of December for final exams. I will then be travelling for three weeks. My travel plans are still in the works. I have to be back to Nairobi on January 5th (my birthday) for a weeklong seminar to discuss my plans for my second semester research. I will then be back working with my internship in Kisumu from early January until the end of April.

On Thursday I got a taxi from YaYa shopping center near my Nairobi home. The taxi was about 30 minutes late since the two other students he was picking up had slept through their alarms. We students don't respond well to 6am. We thankfully made it to our bus on-time since it was running late. The bus was quite nice - the size of a Coach bus. They gave us a bottle of water, hard-boiled egg, vegetable samosa, and sweet cake. The bus took about 6 hours, it would have been shorter but we blew a tire so we were stopped for an hour as they replaced it.

I met up with my new host mother after lunch. My house in Kisumu is about 4 blocks from the town center. Both my host mom and househelp have been very nice and welcoming. The househelp speaks little to no Engish so I've been able to use my Swahili I've been learning for the past 6 weeks.

On Friday I went to my internship at the OGRA Foundation. I met several of the staff members and one of them is an American from Connecticut who is taking some time off between high school and college. I went with several of my coworkers to 5 different primary schools to take pictures of children to complete their registration for the NHIF - National Hospital Insurance Fund. By doing this, these children can receive free medical care at our rural health clinic in Ombeyi. I also visited the health clinic in Ombeyi which has a pharmacy, exam rooms, laboratory, maternity ward and VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) for HIV. The costs at this clinic are either greatly reduced or free for most patients.

This is my host family's house in Kisumu.

Sophi, our househelp, coming home from the market carrying eggs on her head. Very impressive!

October 5, 2008

2008-10-16T15:34:00.004+03:00

As usual I met up with my friend Anna to go to church at Holy Family Basilica in downtown Nairobi. We arrived at the church pretty early so we walked around town for awhile. We took some pictures of downtown so we could show people what the city is like. We've both gotten a lot of questions from family and friends about what Kenya, particularly Nairobi, is like. The Parliament is near to our church so we walked around the area. We asked the security guards but they wouldn't let us take a picture with them or Parliament. Kenya is very secretive when it comes to government buildings. The State House where the President lives is a huge complex that is about a mile long with a huge gate. Every 10 feet or so there are huge signs that warn about taking photographs.

When we got to church, we found out immediately that it was going to be a huge celebration. Archbishop Njenga from the Archdiocese of Mombasa (on the coast) was celebrating Mass because he was releasing his biography. The Mass started with a very large women's choir marching around the outside of the church. The children's choir was all dressed up and lined the main aisle of the basilica. The procession contained over a dozen priests and several deacons. The Mass ended up lasting over two and a half hours which was quite longer than the usual hour-long Catholic Mass. After Mass Archbishop Njenga saw Anna and I (being the only two white people in the congregation of 600+ people) and blessed us and smiled. When we were walking in the parking lot we encountered the procession again as it was walking around the basilica. Archbishop Njenga saw us again and personally welcomed us to Kenya.

Ngong Hills

2008-10-14T19:36:00.005+03:00

On October 4th, I went hiking in the Ngong Hills just outside of Nairobi in the town of Ngong. I caught a bus early in the morning with my friend Anna outside of Prestige Plaza (a large shopping center near my home). It took about a half hour to get to Ngong Town and the bus was quite crowded with people going to the Nairobi Show. When we arrived we were dropped off at the main stage where all the buses and matatus pick up and drop off passengers. The town was very busy and had many different stands with vendors selling everything from fruits, sugar cane, rice, nuts and cellphone air time. As always, two white people walking around attracted some attention from people as we got the now expected chants of "how are you" and "mzungu!!!" We utilized the African Map which is basically asking people directions until you eventually find your way. We ended up walking about 1.5 miles from the town up and winding road and eventually found a very small sign that indicated that we were going in the right direction. From there we walked up a STEEP gravel path for about another half mile to the gate. We ended up having to pay 100 KSH ($1.38) to get in which we of course were hesitant to pay since we thought it was another instance of trying to get the white people to pay more for things than the average person. We tried telling the workers that we were residents and lived in Kenya (in Swahili) but they didn't buy it. We figured it wasn't very much so we gave up. They recommended that we take a guide with us on our hike and pointed to the disclaimer sign warning people about wild animal attacks in the area. We politely refused the assistance of a guide.

As we started hiking, we soon realized that having a guide would be completely unnecessary. The hike was very straightforward and we just followed a single path all the way to the top. The "wildlife" that they warned us about ended up just being the occasional grazing goat, sheep or cow. The path was pretty steep so we took several breaks for water and to admire the views. As we got closer to the top, we could see all of Ngong town and for many miles in the valley. It took us about an hour and a half to make it to the top. The top of the hill is home to many satelite dishes and towers. We decided to eat an early lunch and enjoy the views from the top of the hill. As we ate a dozen cows walked by us and we being the city kids that we are got excited and took pictures with them. It was definitely a lot colder on top of the hill and we ended up having to put on our rain jackets we packed. This time of year, the rains come quite frequently in the afternoon so we had to be prepared for anything.

The hike down the hill went a lot faster. Since the decent was so steep, it was hard on our toes. We took the bus back into downtown Nairobi and then went to the Maasai Market. When we arrived we were immediately welcomed by the self-proclaimed "chiefs" of the market. They explained to us that they would help show us around the market and gather things from different vendors to help us comparison shop. When we were finished they would bring together everything and then barter the price. I had been looking into buying a rhino sculpture since I arrived in Kenya and I had been doing a lot of comparison shopping so I knew exactly what I should pay for it. I walked around the market and picked up some African masks, a Maasai blanket, some jewelry and several batiqs (painted murals). One man brought a mural that I really liked but he told me the price was 10,500 KSH ($145). I knew from the minute I heard the price that he was trying to rip me off. I used my new-found Swahili to call him out on it saying that he was charging me "bei ya mzungu" (white person's price). He asked me to name my price so I told him I would pay him 750 KSH for it - a drastic difference from his 10,500 asking price. I could tell instantly that my price was too low and for the first time ever I actually had a vendor walk away from me. Of course being a true Kenyan, he found me 10 minutes later in the market wanting to bargain with me again. I eventually got him down to 2,000 KSH (1/5 his original price!) but I could tell that he was still overly eager to finalize the deal. I told him that it was still too expensive and that I wasn't about to pay an inflated mzungu price. Vendors are never very friendly when they realize you aren't going to buy from them.

It started to rain so I ran across the street with Anna and the "chiefs." I only had 2100 KSH with me so I knew I had to do some serious bartering. I knew that I could get a certain price for the rhino sculpture at the Hilton (hotel) Arcade. They started with all of the prices way over their actual value. I had set aside a small and a large rhino sculpture. They wanted 3400 KSH for the rhino that I knew I could get for 1500 KSH at the Hilton Arcade. They wrote down a price for each item and then asked me to write down my price. For each time I halved their price and then some. Oftentimes the mzungu price is SO inflated that even half the price is still more than you should pay for it. I've started to like the challenge of bartering so I spent about 45 minutes talking the various prices down. When they wouldn't budge any further, I employed one of the my dad's favorite tricks that he always uses when buying a car. I gave my final offer and when they said no, I grabbed my things and just walked away. This definitely got their attention and before I knew it they gave me the Maasai blanket and large rhino for 2100 KSH. They were originally asking for 3400 KSH for the rhino and another 2000 KSH for the blanket. I left the market feeling only mildly cheated.

October 3, 2008

2008-10-13T17:40:00.004+03:00

On Friday October 3rd, we got out of class early so several us decided to attend the Nairobi Show (Nairobi International Trade Fair). It is basically a huge state fair but since it's Kenya, it attracts people from all over the country. The Ministry of Agriculture is a major sponsor and displays all kinds of farm animals.

We decided to walk through Jamhuri Estates which is the equivalent of a subdivision. We had to ask for help to navigate our way to the fairgrounds and two ladies volunteered to help show us the way. Another woman joined us later along our way but when we arrived at the Show, she tried telling us that since she "helped" get us to the Show we had to pay the 200 KSH admission fee. This kind of thing happens to us a lot where people are eager to help but then expect payment just because we're white and are assumed to be wealthy.

When we got there, we found one of our fellow MSID students who works with an orphanage in Kibera Slum. She helped organize a trip for about 50 of the kids to come to the Show so we all volunteered to help bring the kids around for the day. They told all of the kids to grab the hand of the nearest mzungu (white person). I ended up walking with a little boy named Michael who was about 4 years old. He was pretty small so he walked very slowly. I ended up carrying him on my shoulders for the majority of the afternoon. The Show was very very crowded and there were a lot of school groups. Many of the schools give the students the day off in order to attend the Show.

We stopped at the stadium and watched some of the dramatic performances for awhile. None of us white students understood the plots of any of them, but the kids all seemed to really like them. We ended up buying all 50 of the kids ice cream which turned into a pretty funny ordeal. White people passing out free ice cream definitely attracted the attention of just about everyone around us.

After watching the performances, we took the kids to see all of the different animals. We saw sheep, goats, cows, pigs, chickens, and even camels. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. It started to rain so we walked all of the kids back to Kibera. One of the girls in the program had made friends with one of the girls from the orphanage. They found out that they were the same shoe size and the girl from the orphanage had been walking around all day at the Show in a pair of high heels. She told us that the heels were here only pair of shoes besides her school shoes. The student with the same shoe size traded shoes with her for the walk home. It was interesting to see the student reflect on this experience as she put into life the saying to "walk a mile in another person's shoes." In this case, she walked several miles in a pair of high heels that belonged to an orphan girl from Kibera. The student vowed to return to Kibera during her time in Nairobi to bring this particular girl a new pair of shoes.

Spending time with these kids was a really good experience. Granted Michael who I spent the afternoon with gave me his cold, I really enjoyed spending time with them. During my initial visit to the orphanage, I played soccer with several of the boys and since the Show I have come back to visit with the boys one other time. For many of these kids, the only opportunity they have to leave the orphanage is through the activities organized by my fellow MSID student. It's been great to see other U.S. students get involved in volunteering with the orphanage.

Several people have told me that they would like to make a donation to something in Kenya. About 80 kids reside in the orphanage, several of which are HIV positive. Most beds are shared by 2-3 children. Over 200 kids attend primary school classes in the orphanage. The orphanage works to pay the school fees for the older kids to attend secondary school. The orphanage is also currently sponsoring one girl to attend university. The goal is for each child in the orphanage to graduate from the university. This place gives these children a chance that they normally would never have.

I would really appreciate if anyone could support the work of this great place.

Tunza Children Centre Kibera
c/o Diminah Khasiala
P.O. Box 7164-00200
Nairobi, Kenya

tunzachildrenscentre@yahoo.com

Kibera Reflection

2008-09-28T16:15:00.004+03:00

September 24, 2008

Today I went to Kibera Slum with my fellow MSID students Meghann, Lindsey, Chelsey and Rebecca. As Meghann and I walked down the only road that leads into Kibera, she pointed out to me that the area in which we were walking had all been burned down in the post-election violence. We walked through a market called Toi Market that went on for blocks in densely constructed stands selling everything from cell phone minutes, winter coats, jeans, shirts, shoes, candy and much more. This market was completely destroyed in the post-election violence yet today there are few hints of what this area looked like just 8 months before. Kibera Slum is comprised primarily of people from the Luo ethnic group and the Nubian people who were brought by
the British out of the Sudan to fight instead of British troops in the days of colonization. Kibera as a slum has been around since the time of the First World War. The land in which Kibera Slum now lies was once an expansive forest. The Nubian people settled in Kibera because they were a people without a land of their own.

Over the years, Kibera Slum developed into an incredibly dense slum area consisting of people from a variety of ethnic groups. These ethnic groups have organized into "villages" within the congested slum. As a result of the post-election violence, many of the Kikuyus who lived in Kibera fled. Kenyan President Kibaki comes from the Kikuyu ethnic group. Prime Minister Odinga comes from the Luo ethnic group. In Kenya, elections do not simply bring changes in administration and policies, elections can mean the difference between life and death. Since independence, the presidents of Kenya have historically favored the land of their ethnic group. Resources are concentrated in this area and they get good roads, hospitals, schools and other luxuries. As one area of the country is favored, others are consequently neglected. These neglected areas often have very few schools, and the schools that do exist are under-funded. In the northern third of Kenya, there still remains less than 20 schools and even less secondary schools. 90 % of school-age girls do not attend
schools in a country where primary education has been made "free" and compulsory by the government. The education may be free but there are still building fees, teacher fees, uniforms, textbooks, mandatory field trips and other expenses that families struggle to afford. Kibera Slum today has anywhere from 1.4 to 1.9 million occupants. In a place like Kibera it is difficult to determine just how many people reside. Most estimates are derived from doing a sampling of some houses to see how many occupants live in a certain area and then multiplying that by the area. Most small houses that are no bigger than 15 ft by 15 ft often have five or more residents.

We arrived in Kibera around 2pm and met up with Meghann's friend and coworker Cartoon. We purchased a bag of beans and rice from a local vendor which we carried with us in our backpacks. We made a turn off the main road through a thin pathway that led down a rocky terrain. As we walked we were constantly greeted by young children playing in the streets or on their way home from school. "Mzungu!" could be heard in all directions and word spread quickly that a group of white people were walking around. Every time we encountered children they would say, "how are you!?" "How are you" is not a question but has become assimilated into the jargon of the children as a substitute for "mzungu" or white person. They would often repeat "How are you! How are you! How are you!" until we were well past them.

We stopped soon at a local shop of men who knew Cartoon. They welcomed us in as we approached from afar yelling "Karibuni!" (welcome). The one man Frederick welcomed us at the entrance with open arms and greeted all of us with a customary handshake. Frederick told us how this was a shop where they recycled bones. They receive the bones from the local butcher and then grind and polish them into shapes that they use to make jewelry. He showed us every step in the jewelry making process. There are three different machines they use to smooth the bones and shape them into round, square and custom shapes.
They boil the bone pieces which helps in the dyeing process. They dye the pieces in various designs and use them to make bracelets, necklaces, key chains and other pieces of jewelry. He brought out several of his finished pieces but insisted that each one of us take a bracelet as a gift from him. Two of the girls ended up buying other jewelry from him for very fair prices. Here is a man who lives in the second largest slum in the world, yet he insisted that we have a
bracelet. He also sold the other jewelry to the girls for the equivalent of less than $3 US. The jewelry they bought was beautifully handmade and decorated and would sell for no less than $30 in the US. We stopped to take pictures of our new friends and their business before continuing on our tour.

We walked around the railroad tracks that run through Kibera Slum encountering more children and more shouts of "How are you!" I asked if they were still in use and Cartoon told us that the tracks we were walking on are the only railroad tracks that link the coast to the central provinces. The railroad tracks were constructed by the British for the sole purpose of transporting tea and coffee from the Rift Valley to the coast for export. As a common theme in Kenya, the resources are exploited and exported out of the country with Kenya
receiving minimum return. We stopped to take pictures at a point that overlooked the majority of the slum. On the top of the hill were new developments that were built by the government as part of slum renovation projects. The developments lack proper sanitation but are an upgrade from the tin roof shanties that people live in. On the surface these developments seem like a great improvement until you speak with the people who live in Kibera. The government wants to charge people 5,000 KSH ($70 US) a month to live in the developments – a price that is out of reach for almost all of the residents of Kibera Slum.

Our next stop was the only "movie theater" in Kibera. We entered through a short doorway into a dark room. As our eyes adjusted we saw about 15 wooden benches. The walls of this movie theater consisted of tree branch cross beams and cut-up sacks. In the front of the room sat a small TV no larger than 30 inches on a stand with a DVD player and VCR. People pay 20 KSH (about 29 cents) to see a movie or football (soccer game) televised on TV. For a big football match people pay up to 40 KSH (about 57 cents) to watch. This kind of movie theater was vastly different than the typical movie theaters in the U.S. where
people pay close to $10 to see a movie in padded stadium seating on a gigantic screen with surround sound as they snack on their over-priced popcorn and 64 oz. soda.

Our next stop was to visit with a family. The woman welcomed us warmly and insisted that we enter her home and sit down and talk. The room was dark with no light except for the natural sunlight that came in through the doorway. The house was a one-room house no larger than 10 ft. by 10 ft. The woman wanted to know about each one of us and what we were doing in Kenya. She told us about her family and her life. She was born and raised in Kibera and has lived there her entire life. Her grandfather and all of the subsequent generations have lived in Kibera. Her family is Nubian – originally from Sudan and brought to
Kenya by the British. Her grandfather settled in Kibera when the Nubian people had nowhere else to live. The woman told us how Kibera was not always as congested and densely populated as it is today. When her family settled in Kibera, it was still a vast forest. Over the years, the area became populated by people with no other option than to live with next to nothing in a shanty. Most homes in Kibera have walls of stones mixed with mud and supported by a frame of sticks. The roofs are comprised of rusting tin sheets. For this particular woman, she shares a wall with the movie theater with only a cut-up sack between.

The woman we spoke with was Muslim and described her fasting during Ramadan. She showed us her Ramadan timetable of when she begins fasting each day and when she is allowed to break the fast. She told us that a part of Ramadan is giving money to the poor which is called Zakar. She told us how she saves money to give to the less fortunate. As she said this I sat there amazed at her words. This is a woman who lives in a one-room house in the middle of the second largest slum in the world and yet she donates money to give to those who are less fortunate than she is. How relative the perception of poverty is. Not one time during our conversation with the woman did she ever hint at
bitterness regarding her situation or living conditions. She reminded us that generations before her lived in Kibera and then told us how she has a young son who was born and will be raised in Kibera. She told us that she cannot leave because this is the only place she and her family have ever known. She encouraged us to pass by the cemetery on the outskirts of Kibera because she said that it will be the place where she will one day rest along with her relatives who have come before her. We said our good-byes and presented her with the bag of rice and beans that we purchased earlier. She was very gracious and insisted that we come back and visit with her so that she could cook us dinner.

On official government maps, the area of Kibera Slum is still shown as a forest – evidence of the fact that the Kenyan government refuses to recognize Kibera. The official government stance regarding Kibera is that the homes are illegal structures on government land in which the government can do whatever it wishes – and it does. It is a frequent occurrence that the government will come in and bulldoze homes or shops. When the developments were constructed, homes were demolished to make way.

The river that runs through Kibera was once plentiful with fish and was clean enough to drink from. Now the river is polluted with garbage. The fish are long gone and the water is no longer safe to drink. People have built latrines on the banks of the river and when the latrines overflow it empties into the river. Children can be seen picking through the garbage on the banks of the river looking for something valuable or edible. We crossed a bridge that Cartoon said
was built by a religious NGO as part of a peace building project to bring the different villages within Kibera together. We hiked up a very steep hill to one of the highest parts of Kibera. At this point we were near the new government developments. From this distance we could see that these developments remained vacant because none of the people who the program was targeting could afford to live in them. As we walked along the top of the hill, there was a large amount of unoccupied space which is a rarity in the congested slum. Cartoon said that the government had demolished these homes. People who lived in these homes rebuilt nearby but now use this land to have simple gardens on their old properties.

We made our way slowly down the hill to another bridge over the river. As we struggled to make it down the steep decline, we were greeted with giggles and more shouts of "how are you" by the young children. When we stood on the bridge to rest we looked up and saw about a dozen school kids running and jumping down the hill that just took us about 10 minutes to descend. From here our tour of Kibera was just about over. I stopped to take a picture of Flat Stanley who was given to me by one of my coworkers at CRS. Flat Stanley is part of a project that grade school kids participate in to learn more about the world and other cultures. At the end of our tour we came across a woman who Cartoon knows named Pamela. She greeted each of us and welcomed us into her shop. She told us that she is HIV positive and proud of her status. She works with several other HIV positive women in a self-sustaining business in which they make crafts and sell them. They use the money to fund HIV/AIDS awareness and education programs in Kibera. From the outside Pamela appears perfectly healthy. She has high spirits, is enthusiastic and is not ashamed to say that she has HIV. In fact, she showed us a public health poster encouraging people to find out their HIV status in which she is prominently featured. For many people who are HIV positive, they suffer from the stigma that is associated with having HIV. With Pamela, she is a woman who has embraced her status and is using it to educate others about HIV prevention and being aware of their status.

Our final stop in Kibera was at Tunza Children Center Kibera. The Tunza Center is an orphanage that houses approximately 80 children. The center serves over 200 orphans with the majority living with relatives. The Tunza Center provides a primary education for the children and has ten small classrooms. One of the teachers gave us a tour of the center and showed us the various classrooms, dormitories and facilities. In the dormitories, no bed has less than 2 children
sleeping in it. After one of the teachers showed us around, the girls went inside to watch TV with some of the children. I went outside and played football (soccer) with some of the little boys I found. Their soccer ball was a bunch of plastic bags bunched together and tied with string. We had a lot of fun regardless. I started kicking the ball around with one boy but by the time I had to leave there were 8 of us playing. Our "field" was no more than a 15 ft by 6 feet area with the door to the orphanage as our goal and a 3 year old boy as our goal
keeper.

One of the teachers walked us to the bus stop around 4:30pm. We had to leave before it started to get dark. All of us got on a matatu to Prestige Plaza. The four of us parted ways there each in our own direction towards our homes. Each one of us came away from Kibera seeing and noting different things. Each one of us was incredibly humbled and moved by what we saw. This experience is something I will never forget and I hope to go back to Kibera several other times while I am in Nairobi. Throughout the whole afternoon as we walked around Kibera, not one person ever asked us for money or tried to sell us something. Each person we encountered welcomed us warmly and seemed to genuinely appreciate our company. This experience has given me a lot to reflect on and I know that I will use what I have learned in Kibera throughout my life.

Giraffes

2008-09-23T03:03:00.009+03:00

I went to the Giraffe Centre this weekend in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi. I made very good friends with Betty, the giraffe.

Finally some pictures!

2008-09-19T05:26:00.011+03:00

Here's a picture of the non-Minnesota/Wisconsin students. From left to
right (white people): Me, Meghann, Colin, Ashley (in blue), Marie (red
bandanna), Stephanie F., Kristen (in white), Andre (in hat). Africans
left to right: Simon, Jane and Abdul-Aziz -- they are all on the MSID
staff.

Here's the closest I've gotten to taking a picture that looks like
Lion King. This was taken at Babboon Cliff at Lake Nakuru National
Park - with Lake Nakuru in the background.

Giraffes

Here's a picture of me at Lake Nakuru with a bunch of pelicans and
flamingos. (This one is for Grandma!)

This is by far my favorite picture I've taken in Kenya. It's now the
desktop background on my computer.

Lake Nakuru National Park

Me at Lake Nakuru National Park

Me at Makalia Falls

Weekend

2008-09-17T16:32:00.002+03:00

This Saturday was the first time I've felt sick since I've been here. I woke up in the morning feeling very ill and felt nauseous all day. I ended up napping a lot and working on my homework. I had 8 chapters of Swahili homework to work on so this at least gave me a chance to do that. It thankfully only ended up being a 24 hour illness and I felt nearly 100% on Sunday.

Sunday, I met up with one of the other girls in the program at Prestige Plaza (a large shopping center) to catch a bus downtown. We took a short bus ride into downtown Nairobi to attend mass at Holy Family Basillica. The man on the bus who collects the fare of course tried ripping me off again. He first told me that the fare was 60 KSH (the actual fare is 30 KSH). When I basically called him crazy, he said that it was 40 KSH. When I still refused he finally accepted my 30 KSH. We arrived at the Basillica at 10:45am and the Mass wasn't supposed to begin until 11:30am. The Swahili Mass at 10:30am went long so our Mass didn't start until 11:45am. The church is very large and several hundred people attended Mass. This was much different than the small Protestant service I attended the week before with my host family that was in an event tent with 35 people. They sang a lot more songs than I was used to and the people swayed, clapped and danced a lot as well. Me and the other girl from the program stuck out as 2 of 4 white people in the whole church. Communion was very random and arbitrary - basically, whenever people felt like it was their time to go, they would walk up to the front of church and receive Communion. There were definitely a lot of things that were the exact same as my church at home. I guess it is a universal Catholic thing to only give the sign of peace to the people immediately surrounding you. Church lasted about an hour and a half (3 offertory and 3 Communion songs certainly adds a lot).

After church, we went to Steers near the church which had fast food. I got an overpriced cheeseburger. When we were finished eating, the friend I was with reached for her bag and it was gone! Somehow someone managed to take her bag from between both of our legs under the table. It unfortunately had her Ipod, an expensive rain jacket, her cell phone and some money in it. Thankfully she didn't lose her passport or her ATM card. We reported it to the security guard at the restaurant but he couldn't really do much.

Monday morning before class we all compared out interesting weekend stories. One guy while getting his haircut at a salon had 2 armed men burst in and rob the salon. They grabbed the items from one of his pockets then left. Thankfully, they grabbed the wrong pocket and only took sugarcane from him. His cellphone, wallet and other items were in a different pocket! He said that he feels that the only reason the salon was robbed was because of his presence as a white person. We as white people in Kenya attract a lot of negative attention. Our skin color is viewed as wealthy no matter our actual financial situation. Just by being somewhere, we can attract crime.

Internship Info

2008-09-13T15:58:00.002+03:00

As I have mentioned before, my study abroad trip has both an academic and internship component. I will be with a host family in Nairobi until October 24th while I take classes. The last week of October I will be moving to Kisumu which is in the far western part of Kenya on Lake Victoria. Here I will be living with another host family. The Kisumu host family is comprised of a mom, a dad who works primarily in a rural part of the country, a university student and the house help. The university student studies Public Health (the program chose to pair me with this family because of this).

For my internship, I will be working with the OGRA Foundation. They have a health clinic that I will spend some time at but I will primarily be doing community outreach health education. The OGRA Foundation does a lot of work with educating people about nutrition, HIV/AIDS and water sanitation. They receive some funding from U.S. government programs like PEPFAR and the USAID. The OGRA Foundation also works with OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) and works towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals that were set by the United Nations. Another large component of the OGRA Foundations work is using sports to promote health. I was very excited to hear this since during my time in Belize during high school, I helped organize a soccer and music camp for the young people in the community to promote structured activities and healthy alternatives.

I will be working with the OGRA Foundation until December 5th before returning to Nairobi for finals and debrief. I will return to the internship on January 19th following a weeklong research seminar in Nairobi where I will plan out my second semester's research.

First Day of Class

2008-09-09T23:07:00.002+03:00

Today was our first real day of class. I met up with the two girls who also live on Kayahwe Road to walk to class together. We had 4 hours of Kiswahili class in the morning with a short tea break. We covered basic greetings and some vocab. During the tea break I proudly walked around telling people the one Swahili phrase I remembered - Jina langu ni Dan (my name is Dan).

My host mom is a translator, so I tried practicing some of my Swahili with my family this evening at dinner. I started saying some of the phrases I remembered and evidently said, "I have one taco America" instead of "I come from America." The phrase is supposed to be "Ninatoka nchi ya America" and I instead said "Ninatako nchi ya America." They got a good laugh out of it and insisted that they would help me practice. I guess I need it!

In the afternoon, we had 2 hours of Country Analysis. The professor today focused on pre-colonialism because he said that most people forget that Kenya had a proud history and political system before the Europeans colonized.

After class several of us walked over to the MSID office to pick up textbooks and check e-mail. While we were there a huge storm started and the office lost power. 5 of us walked to YaYa Center in the rain to pick up some things and check e-mail. Internet at YaYa was three times more than what we paid for internet in downtown Nairobi because it is a very ritzy mall where a lot of the rich white people shop. I once again helped some of the girls navigate the roads and find their homes. We all once again were soaked to the bone and covered in mud. My host family claims that it really doesn't rain this much and that it must be the curse of the U.S. students.

Life in Nairobi

2008-09-09T22:25:00.003+03:00

I returned to Nairobi on Saturday after a week in Lake Nakuru National Park. My host mom and brother picked me up at the African Nazarene University in Nairobi. My brother's name is Joshua (JJ) and he is 8 years old. He helped carry one of my big bags which everyone in the program thought was so cute. I received a quick tour of my new home in Kilimani (just southwest of Nairobi - check it out on Google Maps). For those of you who are worried about my safety and security in Kenya - my home is part of an apartment complex with a large security gate and a 24 hour watchman.

I brought with me 3 soccer balls, so I pumped up one of them and gave it to my host brother. He ran outside to tell his friends and before I knew it, I was playing soccer in the parking lot with 6 young boys. They use the security gate as the goal and there are signs of frequent soccer playing in dirty soccer ball marks all over the surrounding walls and the security gate. We played soccer (football) for about 2 hours and I think it was a great way for me to connect with the young boys in the apartment complex. The next day at church, I saw one of them and he was very excited to see me.

On Sunday I went to my family's church service at the Community of Christ church. The church had about 35 people at the service and was held under a large event tent. At one point in the service, the congregation split into two groups to study a chapter in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. My host father led my group's discussion. We talked about how Paul had to go before a judge and that the judge wanted a bribe from Paul. We each had to go around and talk about an example in our own lives where we have seen someone try to extort a bribe or an example of corruption. It was a great exercise and really brought the reading to life as many Kenyans live a life where "give me something small" is a way to get things done.

On Monday, I started classes. My family has a driver and he walked me to school my first day. I walk about 2.5 miles to class every day. We had a quick introduction to the faculty. I will be taking a Swahili course, a course on Country Analysis of Kenya, and International Development with a focus in Public Health.

After an hour of class, we caught a bus to downtown Nairobi and bought our cell phones. I bought the cheapest cell phone they had because students often lose or have their phones stolen. The women in the store tried to rip a lot of us off. They would try to charge people an extra 100 KSH connection fee if they weren't vigilent. 100 KSH is only about a $1.42 US but the idea is that people associate white people with wealth and try to take advantage of it at all times.

We went to lunch in downtown Nairobi and the 4 of us at my table all ordered cheeseburgers. When it came time to pay, we were once again met with someone trying to rip us off. After the bill came and we paid we stayed around as other tables finished their meals. After about 10 minutes the waitress came back to our table and picked up a receipt that she had left on the table and tried accusing us that one of us did not pay for our meal. The waitress then also tried claiming that two of the girls ordered their meals differently and ordered the cheesburger, fries and Coke each separately therefore adding up to 20 KSH more than the Combo that came with the same 3 items. We even had one of our Kenyan staff members come over to the table and discuss with the waitress and she finally agreed that we didn't have to pay more than we already did.

After lunch we went to the immigration office to get multi-entry visas and our Alien Registration Cards. The whole process was quite lengthy especially since we overwhelmed the office by bringing in 32 people at one time. I had to wait in 3 different lines, fill out a lot of different forms and have each of my fingers fingerprinted.

After we were done with all of our errands, 4 of us grabbed a bus that dropped us off at YaYa Center which is a large shopping center about 5 minutes from my home. By this time it was raining heavily so the roads that were dirt in the morning were now very muddy with many puddles/lakes. The 3 of us who live on Kayahwe Road made it back to our homes and the 4th girl thought she lived near us. We asked the watchman at my complex to point her in the right direction and he said that it was past YaYa Center which we had just walked from. She didn't want to walk home by herself, so all 4 of us walked about 2 miles in the driving rain and muddy roads to drop her off. Even though our shoes were caked in mud and we were all filthy, it really helped us learn the roads around us and helped us gain confidence.

(Please note that I have tried to build-in links to websites for more information on certain topics in my entries. The link will most likely navigate you away from the blog just so you are aware)

I have arrived!

2008-09-08T22:02:00.004+03:00

Jambo from Kenya!

After a very long day of traveling, I arrived in Nairobi Monday night (Sept 1st) at around 10pm. I had to wait for about 45 minutes to find my luggage but several people from the group had either one or both of their bags lost. We all piled into a large bus provided by the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya (WCK) and drove about 30 minutes to the WCK Nairobi site. When we arrived, we all had tea and then went to bed. All of the guys in my room had trouble sleeping and I ended up purifying my water at 3am because I couldn't sleep. I think I got about 2 hours of sleep before we were woken up at 6am for breakfast. When we woke up there were over a dozen baboons running around the compound. At the time we were all pretty excited about them, but after being in Kenya for over a week now, I basically view them as if they were squirrels in America. Oh how quickly one can become an animal elitist!

We drove into Nairobi to pick up some things that people forgot. I made sure to purchase some toilet paper because I found out quickly upon my arrival that much of Kenya is a bring-your-own-toilet-paper kind of place. We had to go to the Immigration Office for our visas. As of Tuesday, I am officially a resident of Kenya.

We left Nairobi and drove about 3 hours to Lake Nakuru National Park. We stopped once at a look-out point over the Great Rift Valley. The view was pretty incredible! The stop was also a tourist trap so we white people were bombarded with people trying to sell all kinds of crafts and sculptures. When we arrived at the national park, we learned first-hand just how Kenyan officials ask for bribes as we were bounced around between offices for over an hour before we were finally allowed into the park.

Orientation went well. Each morning we would wake up and have breakfast as a group and then have orientation sessions. We would usually break for tea at least 3 times a day. The staff spent a lot of time on health, safety and security which I think worried a lot of the students. When we walk around town as a group - 32 white people certainly attract a lot of attention. One passerby in the town of Nakuru even said, "wow, that's a lot of white people!"

Three nights in a row we went on a "game drive" around the park. We saw just about every animal there is in Kenya - water buffalo, hyena, rhino, giraffe, water buck, impala, baboon, spider monkey and many more. I will try to post pictures when I can but the internet is very slow here and goes out frequently.

I started classes at the Nazrene University today. I will try to write about this soon.

Peace,
Dan

Leaving Today!

2008-08-31T21:53:00.002+03:00

Well, after many months of planning, the day has finally arrived. I applied to this program back in October. In late December, violence broke out all over Kenya after the disputed election. When the dust settled in late January, over 1,000 people had been killed. For many months, there were talks that my program would be canceled. As I write this, I am finishing my last minute packing and will leave for the airport in 30 minutes.

I will be leaving O'Hare today at 5:30pm. Thankfully it's a nice, clear day so hopefully there won't be any delays. I have a 7 hour flight to London and then a 3 hour layover. I should arrive in Nairobi mid-afternoon Chicago time. Kenya is 8 hours ahead so it should be evening there. When I arrive I'll be taking a bus 3 hours to Lake Nakuru National Park for our week-long orientation. I will try to write as soon as I can but I am anticipating that it will be at least a week.

Thank you to everyone for your support. I know that I am bringing with me all of your thoughts and prayers.

P.S. If there are any topics/subjects that you would like to know about (ex. food, culture, music, etc), please feel free to send me an e-mail or comment on one of the blog entries.

Peace,
Dan

Kenya Video

2008-07-05T22:01:00.004+03:00

Because many people have brought this video to my attention I figured that I better post it. I apologize for the addictive nature of this video. Also, since I'm sure someone is bound to point it out - no Kenya does not have tigers.
Only in Kenya Video

Where I'm Going

2008-06-20T00:05:00.006+03:00

I will be studying abroad in Kenya in East Africa from September 1st - April 25 through the Minnesota Studies in International Development (MSID) program through the University of Minnesota. I will be taking classes through the University of Nairobi for 7 weeks. I will be taking courses in International Development, Swahili language, Country Analysis and Applied Field Methods. The entire second semester I will be conducting research through my internship culminating in a research paper.

Following the classroom phase, I will be interning with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in a rural part of the country for 5 months. My internship will be focusing on Public Health, primarily health promotion and health education. I hope to be doing community outreach based out of rural health clinics.

To orient you: Kenya is located in East Central Africa . Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia (to the north), Somalia (east), the Sudan (northwest), Uganda (west), Tanzania (south), Lake Victoria (west) and the Indian Ocean (east). The Equator runs directly through the middle of the country.