How to Donate

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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?