Sunday, October 26, 2008

Orongo Widows and Orphans Support Group

As the title suggests, I will be interning at Orongo Widows and Orphans. They even have a website! How rare this is for a Kenyan organization. These people are on their game! I think the website explains a lot... So I will write more at a later time.

I have arrived.

After a very long bus ride, I arrived in Kisumu. Kisumu is Kenya's third largest city, but once you get past Mombasa and Nairobi, the towns become very small quite quickly. Kisumu is located on Lake Victoria, which supplies fish to the area. Unfortunately, you can't swim in it due to various diseases...

It's always very frightening to meet a new host family. Every time it has happened, I feel sooo scared and like I'm about to cry. I never actually cry, but I'm always on the verge. It was this way again. But this host family is so nice. Right away they showed me around the house and the surrounding area, which is something my Nairobi family never did. In Nairobi, I was left to figure out the way things worked, which took about a month. They also asked me right off the bat what I did and didn't eat (no liver, no intestines, prefer vegetables to meat) - again, something that has never happened in any host family I've stayed with. This relieved a lot of stress for me during meal times, knowing that I won't refuse anything. My new mama told me that if I didn't like something she wouldn't be offended and that she would even cook me something else. So nice!

The family is BIG, so let's do introductions. There is my mama, Herine. She is a nurse, although she is taking amonth or so of leave. She is strong and very direct, which I appreciate. She is married, but he lives and works somewhere else so I haven't met him yet. She has in total six children, four of which are at home. The oldest is Velma, who is 22. She is an occupational therapist and very nice! I think we will be good friends. The second is Winnie, who is 18. She is waiting to go to college (arranging it usually takes quite a bit of time here) so now she just works in the home. Then there is Alan, who is 14. He is in school pretty much all the time. The youngest is Fidel, who is 11. He's very playful and I think with time we will develop a friendship.

Now there is another family entirely of animals. Four sheep, a goat family with twins, countless chickens, two full grown dogs, a puppy, and a kitten. The kitten is my favorite. They all hate it but I love him! They gave me the great honor of naming him, and I named him Odo, after a Star Trek character I like a lot. Shut up, you non-trekkies!

The home is about a ten minute matatu ride from Kisumu town. It's build in the traditional Luo style, where there are multiple buildings. There's a certain order and rhyme to why they're built, but I don't understand that yet. Anyway there is a main building with the sitting room, dining table, and then my and my mama's bedrooms. There is a small building for the kitchen. Then another for the children. Last but not least is the hole in the ground for going potty and another small stall for the bucket bath that I have become such a pro at. These buildings are actually quite high-quality for the area; they are concrete with tin rooves and concrete floors. They are open air though, so it's sort of like camping. There is no running water or electricity.

I'm quite happy with this placement and I think it will work quite well! I will post again later today (after lunch and a bathroom break) about my internship - that's an entire essay all by itself.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

From Lamu to Kisumu: across the country

Wow. I don't know where to begin!

Last Thursday morning, I decided that I wanted to travel about 16 hours to the tropical island of Lamu, off Kenya's northern coast. David decided to accompany me. (No, we're not dating.) So on Thursday night, we found a night bus and hopped on! The trek is long and difficult. One can fly, but why do that when you can get there for less than $20 (1500Ksh to be exact). Ten hours by bus to Mombasa, 2 hours by matatu to Malinda, 4.5 very bumpy hours to the end of the continent, 30 minutes by ferry to the island: we arrived Friday at 4pm.

Lamu is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, second only to the area surrounding my family's cabin in Northern Wisconsin (the north woods will always be my favorite). Lamu is technically a number of small islands, but we spent most of our time on the main island. It is a traditional Swahili community, although there is a lot of Arabic and Indian (or Asian as it is called here) influences. Many white people (wazungu) visit but it isn't touristy per se, because there is an actual community there. The community is mostly Muslim, and all the women were in bui-bui's, or hijab, about half the time with only their eyes showing. Five times a day you can hear the Muslim call to prayer from numerous mosques throughout the city. It's beautiful, to say the least. The architecture and city structure is traditional Swahili, similar (but much better) to Mombasa's old town. The streets weave in and out with beautiful carved doors and built in sewers. It was ungodly hot, and their hot season is just beginning! There is a constant sea breeze, which is the only thing making the climate tolerable.

We mostly just relaxed. We spent a lot of time on the beach, where you can see the ridiculous sunburn I got (I was not very thorough with my sunscreen, 2 degrees from the equator). We also took a dhow ride, which is a sail boat that'll take you around the islands. Ours took us to another island, made us a delicious lunch, and let us fish/snorkel. Quite enjoyable! David and I met a Canadian couple who were very fun to chat with - I have to admit, I enjoy talking to other white people outside the MSID program who are in Kenya. I like to know how they survive, what they're doing, etc.

Eventually though, we made the long trek home. We had a "layover" in Mombasa for an afternoon, so I got to walk around the area and familiarize myself a little bit for when I go back, either with my mom or to visit friends. We arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday morning: I was in bad shape. Very very tired from the nightbus, and my feet and ankles were extremely swollen, not to mention the sunburn! But I did an entire day of school.

On Sunday, I found out that we're going out to our internships a day early, on Thursday. Which is tomorrow. I have a lot to do in a very short amount of time. In 24 hours I will have a new host family in a new city, with a new full-time internship coming on Friday. A lot of changes in a very short period of time. Wish me luck!

I don't know how internet access will be, although I'm sure I'll be able to get to internet at least once a week. It is just a matter of me living or working in Kisumu and if not, then how far away I am. Hopefully my internet addiction will continue to be fed!!!

By the way, I loaded a bunch of pictures onto Flickr. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Weather, internships, and family.

Hello friends and family!

I am currently sitting on a sunny patio at a fairly American coffee shop with my laptop. I spend way too much money here, but I love to email my mom and my friends (and eat ice cream) , so it's worth the free wireless. The calendar tells me it's October, but it feels more like July or August... Kenya is perpetually tropical, with an extra kick of heat at the same time as Wisconsin's coldest winter months. It's a little baffling for my internal seasonal clock. I feel as though time has stopped and I'm on some never-ending, very challenging summer vacation. I can only imagine how it will feel to spend Christmas on the beach this year with my mom.

It has been a rough few days here. Lillian and Gloria, my mama's sister and her 3 y/o daughter, unexpectedly (and with a lot of drama) moved out. I have learned to love Gloria and to see Lillian as a friend and peer (she's not even two years older than I), so to see them go has been sad and unfortunate. In addition, there have been small skirmishes and tension between MSID students as we get on each others nerves: we spend about six hours a day together in class, so it's no wonder, in addition to the normal stresses of ex-pat life. And I have to admit, I've been irritable towards people myself. But shortly, we'll be heading out to our internships!

I have received a number of questions surrounding internships, so I will finally address them. I will leave for my internship on October 24th. I will be in Kisumu, as I think I've mentioned, working with widows and orphans with a Kenyan NGO. Students from this program have interned here before, which bodes well for me. I am very excited! I'm also nervous though. I'll be living with a new host family (who have also hosted before) in a much more rural setting: no running water, no electricity. I've been quite lucky with my first host family, so I'm really hoping that I get along well with this family as well.

It took a long time to get comfortable with my current host family. My mama has always been very good to me, and told me to just help myself and to feel at home. It took a long time to know HOW to help myself though. For instance, we have running water about half the time. It often just stops for no good reason. When we do have running water, I'm able to take a decent shower. But at first, the water was always cold. I just dealt with it, because hot water is certainly a luxury here. However, I also knew that hot water was possible, because I'd see the steam seeping out from under the door whenever my siblings showered. One day I finally said, off hand, "why can't I ever get hot water?" And they gave me a funny look and explained to me that there was a switch you had to flip in order to turn it on. Well duh. My host-mama giggled every time I showered for a week.

My siblings also took a while to be comfortable around me. At first they were constantly calm and well-behaved, as Kenyan children usually are when I'm around. I wondered if they ever got silly, or what they talked about when it was just them. With time, they've grown crazier and more talkative. Now they will tell me a little bit about their day, play games with me, and let me go with them on errands.

I really feel like part of the family. I help with dishes now, and I have even served the male guests like a true Kenyan woman (even though it pained me to do so). They worry about me when I get a cold, and they know what I like to eat and what I don't. For instance, last night we had intestines for dinner. Mama knows I don't eat any meat other than "regular" meat, so she made me eggs, without me even asking. That she went to that extra length (which also cost them extra money that I don't think they have) meant a lot.

We are SO culturally different but we have made inroads that are globally important. The lesson is that it takes a long time to even begin to truly know someone, especially from a different culture. Sometimes I say, "oh my gosh, it's like we're from different planets." Sometimes I say, "oh my gosh, we're all just human beings."

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Hot doctors.

Nairobi Hospital has some of the cutest, nicest doctors I've ever seen! How did I find this out? By going to the hospital today, of course!

Don't worry. It's nothing serious. For the past two weeks I've been having, on and off, extreme stomach pain. Sometimes, but not always, there would be what Kenyans call a "running stomach." (The Swahili verb for this is the same as to drive/to ride or kuendelesha.) You can imagine what I'm talking about. Anyway, it went away for a few days so I didn't worry. But this week it is back and it is really bad. So the stomach combined with the fleas (?) combined with the swollen scorpion bite means hospital.

This morning I embarked for the hospital at about 8:30. We arrived, and I had to pay about $12 just to be seen. A nurse asked me questions, then I waited again. Then I got called back, where a (cute) doctor talked to me about more specific symptoms, and ordered a stool sample. Crapping on demand is impossible, so I went to a coffee shop to down some espresso in hopes of helping things along. Sample obtained, I headed the long trek back to the hospital to drop off the sample. And wait. Another hour and a half and I was called back, to give the sample to the doctors. Wait again. Finally the doctor called me back, and explained the results. I have a version of salmonella, a cousin of typhoid but nothing terrible. He gave me a strong antibiotic and something for the stomach pain.

As for the fleas - who knows. The first doctor said they were fleas, but the second doctor told me it was a food allergy, probably from eating too much meat. Interestingly, my host family refuses to believe it is fleas. I guess we'll see; if in a week after cutting down my meat consumption I'm still the itchy mess I am today, I'll try to get all my clothes and bedding washed, which will be a labor-intensive job.

The scorpion bite is all swollen and red, but apparently that's normal.

Impressions on the Nairobi Hospital: Well, first of all, this is a private hospital. The public hospitals here are a mess. But none the less, the whole thing cost me about $80. By Kenyan standards, that's ridiculously expensive and thus, only affordable to the richest people here (many of them foreigners). By American standards though, it's a steal. The doctors were patient and very friendly, and I met a total of three. Hopefully I won't have to be going again anytime soon, but if I do, I won't be afraid!

Photos and another post.

I just uploaded some pictures, finally, onto Flickr.
Also, read David's latest blog post: very accurate, funny, and entertaining!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

One Month

I celebrated my one-month anniversary of being in Kenya on the first of October. I was able to look back at the time I have spent here so far, how I felt at the beginning of the trip, how I feel now, and what I expect to experience before I leave.

I remember when I arrived that I felt amazed and helpless. First of all amazed because of all the little things that were different. The unpaved roads and sidewalks, the goats, the chickens, the stray dogs, the fruit/veggie markets, the traditional clothing, baboons, etc. It was amazing and I was in sensory overload. During orientation especially I felt ecstatic at being in Kenya, and I was looking forward to my home stays, the internship, and learning more about Kenya.

But I also felt incredibly helpless. I couldn’t even buy something in a store by myself! I couldn’t walk down the street alone, I couldn’t catch a bus, couldn't do anything. The program did a good job of scaring the shit out of us, telling us that everyone was out to get us. While Nairobi is dangerous and you have to be careful, Kenyans are generally incredibly generous and helpful. I was so afraid because of what people had told me.

However, with time I adjusted. All in all, I adjusted very well! There were little ups and downs, and there definitely still are. There were days when I’d wake up grumpy, or when the cultural confusion (which is perpetual) was too much to handle. But most days I was able to go with the flow and not be too homesick. So far I’ve had maybe one really bad day but it has passed, and now I know that all of those bad days will pass and that I will feel good again about being here and about what I’m doing.

So now, I feel much less helpless. I can take a bus downtown, I can walk alone when it’s light out, and I can even do some weak bargaining for the things that I need around town. While I am still constantly confused and have plenty of cultural bang-ups to keep the American laughing, I feel more in control of my surroundings and myself. I am still amazed sometimes at this country and these people. Sometimes I’ll just laugh and say to myself, “I’m in AFRICA!” It just sounds so silly. So far I can say I’ve been stung by a scorpion, mountain biked with zebras, ridden a camel, and made significant cultural connections. I’m happy! Of course, I am looking forward to my rural home stay and to the internship portion of this program. That’s really why we came, to be challenged and to be in a very different location, and the rural areas will certain satisfy both of those desires!

As for Kenya itself, I am just beginning to understand the diversity that is this country. On one hand you have the Westernized cities, with running water and electricity. There are a few shopping malls and even pizza (no McDonald’s and no Wal-Mart, thank goodness) to satisfy those American urges we have. There are cars and nice homes and people who understand where you come from.

But within those same cities are the slums where people don’t necessarily have running water or electricity. They, in many cases, have 8 people in a small tin shack smaller than a typical dorm room. You can imagine where they go to the bathroom, and what they’re eating. Without any city planning, the shacks are very close together and there are no planned streets. Someone unfamiliar with them can be dangerously lost because the shacks quickly become dense and complicated. The police cannot search for or chase someone in the slums because of how complicated the area is. The lack of urban planning leads to more infrastructure and safety problems than I can imagine.

Outside of the cities are the traditional people living in small houses made of organic material, or again, some sort of metal shack. These areas are a fascinating mix of Western and traditional (those are the best words I can think of), where nearly everyone has a cell phone and a watch. However, these areas are also underdeveloped in that they do not have hospitals or resources in that area. Kenya has pooled its resources into the cities, leaving behind a number of people who could share some of those resources.

And I have only been in a small area of Kenya! I haven't been to Western Kenya, or to the coast. So much to learn! This is an exciting and a complicated place that has been influenced by colonialism, capitalism, traditional values, tribal conflict, and other factors I haven't delved into yet. So much to learn!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Scorpians, goats, and other Kenyan adventures...

My mom told me that people were asking about me since I hadn't updated for a while! I am doing quite well, but haven't thought of anything too interesting to say... But thank goodness, I had an interesting weekend so there is something to write.

On Saturday, David, Sarah and I went out to a traditional Masai village. The Masai used to be a pastoral cattle-keeping tribe, but now they keep cattle in certain areas of the country. In Kenya, they are the tribe that has stayed the most traditional. They are easily recognizable because they stretch their ears to huge sizes, particularly the women. They wear colorful jewelry and clothes, especially with the color red.

David knows an American at the University of Minnesota that had lived in this village, and so we went out without knowing what to expect. The village was in the Rift Valley, only about two hours from Nairobi. Greetings are very important in Kenya but especially with the Masai, so when we arrived I literally shook about fifty hands in a row. Most people couldn't speak Kiswahili or English, so communication was very limited. But everyone was so generous! We were fed well and we stayed in a mud hut, which is the way a lot of Kenyans live, without electricity or running water. The homes are built (and this differs by tribe) with sticks and mud, with no windows, just little ventilation holes. The women cook all their food over a fire and the pot sits on three stones, which makes the huts extremely smoky. When the wife was cooking, I couldn't even stand to be in the hut because my eyes just watered all over my face!

That day, we just walked around and chatted with our host before bed, but sleeping was very interesting. At one point I woke up and a goat was staring at me. Some cat kept jumping in the window too, and it was really freaking me out! But I eventually slept decently. In the morning, we went for a hike in the hills of the Rift Valley. Our host's children showed us around, telling us about the plants and the bugs and just generally being silly.

When we got back into the hut for the first of three lunches, I sat on the bed and took of my shoes. All of a sudden I felt a sharp, scary pain in my leg and I screamed and brushed something black off my leg. It hurt so badly that I immediately started sweating and had trouble breathing normally. The wife ran over and told our host that I had been stung by a scorpian! It wasn't poisonous, just incredibly painful. It hurt more than any tattoo or piercing I have gotten. It got very red and swollen and continued to hurt for a short while. Within hours though, the swelling was gone and I was fine!

The children in the village are fascinated by white people. I'm told it is a combination of being unfamiliar with us but also that we are always willing to play with them, whereas the adults of the village do not play with them and are very busy either in the home or with their cattle. They would play with my hair because white hair here is the beauty standard. Most of the women here relax their hair and try to make it soft and limp like white hair. And then, the children would touch my arm hair because most Africans don't have any body hair. The kids would touch my face, hold my hand, and crawl all over me. It was kind of cute! We played games with them, including some weird version of catch/soccor/football with a big rubber O-ring.

We had a good time and it was amazing to see such a different way of living. While the people do need and deserve running water and electricity, they are very happy. Water and electricity would help their health significantly, seeing as their life expectancy is approximately fifty years old. But more on this later... In the next couple of days I will post some awesome pictures from this weekend, and I want to share some general thoughts on Kenya thus far.