Making Progress

As of today, I am three weeks into this great experiment of a summer, and I feel like I’m making progress on many fronts. It’s been over a week since my last minor meltdown – I feel like a recovering drug addict saying that but seriously, everyday without frustration here is a day to be celebrated. Just yesterday I managed to stay calm, cool, and collected despite the fact that a scheduled meeting started 4.5 hours late. Not only did I not lose my patience, but, like a true African, I simply took a nap and decided that I would get up if and when the meeting-goers should arrive at our apartment. Hakuna Matata.

On the work front, things have been moving ahead full steam and I am actually quite proud of the work that Jamee and I have completed thus far. As I just told my father on the phone, if I had to leave tomorrow, I could leave feeling satisfied with my contribution to Lisha Mtoto. Over the past week, Jamee and I have successfully written an NGO constitution, helped come up with an annual budget for the organization, and organized and ran a meeting of Lisha Mtoto’s members during which they elected a Board of Directors. It may sound like a bunch of trivial administrative work on paper, but considering neither of us have any experiencing building an NGO from the ground up, we’re proud of the fact that we figured it all out. It took a couple days of research and some meetings with knowledgeable individuals, but we did it, and now Lisha Mtoto is on its way to being a registered NGO in Kenya! I can also say that I feel the organization will be in good hands after yesterdays meeting. We elected four members to serve as Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer, and all of them seem to match Eric in passion and responsibility.

Now that the administrative stuff is mostly out of the way, its time to turn our attention to building a website and getting this sponsorship program off the ground. In case you’re wondering: NO I do not know how to build a website. But in the spirit of our recent resourcefulness, I am confident we can figure it out. In terms of the sponsorship program, we will be doing home visits with each of the Lisha Mtoto kids starting at the end of this week, and I’m actually really looking forward to it. If you google “Kibera” you can get a sense of some of living conditions inside the slum. It’s pretty abysmal, and I predict that we’re going to hear some interesting life stories from the parents/grandparents of some of these kids. I’m also really looking forward to spending some one-on-one time with the kids in order to get to know them better. They tend to be pretty shy as a group. Hopefully we will have our website up and running soon so that you all will be able to read the kids bios and see pictures!

So what else is going on in Kenya? I guess one of the not so positive experiences from the past week was witnessing a traffic fatality. In case I haven’t hit this home hard enough, the matatus are INSANE. They defy all logic. I’m still trying to understand how, in a country where no one is in a rush to do anything (take yesterdays meeting for example), the matatus drive like the world is going to end at any second. Kenyan’s are slow about everything; they walk slowly, they eat slowly, they have no concept of time and no qualms about being hours late. There is absolutely no sense of urgency if you’re Kenyan… UNLESS you drive a matatu. I am constantly wondering where it is these matatus are going in such a hurry when the entire country is hours behind schedule. I have spent so much time trying to figure out this disparity between matatus and the Kenyan lifestyle that I could probably write a thesis on the subject. Anyway, back to my original story… as Jamee and I were returning home from work last Friday we witnessed a matatu hitting, and quite possibly killing, a pedestrian. From the Death Seat (where we were very hesitantly seated), we saw the entire thing unfold, and it’s still something that I can’t quite get out of my head. Rather than STOP traffic and rush to help this man who was lying unconscious on the ground, the traffic just started to drive around him. Finally a crowd had gathered and moved him to the side of the road, where I presume they took him to the hospital. Had we not been child locked inside the Death Seat, I would have gotten out myself. The entire thing just seemed surreal at the moment, and still kind of does. Apparently this happens often here – often enough for the UN to undertake a “decade for road safety” initiative in Kenya. I’ve since started strategically putting at least 30 people between myself and oncoming traffic when I cross the road here. It’s definitely safer in groups – they can’t hit us all, right?  

Aside from this tragic incident, there are a few daily happenings in Kenya that have been thoroughly amusing and which need to be shared, if only so that I remember them later. One of them is my morning caller. My morning caller is this man who walks down our road everyday, around 9:00 am, calling my name. I’m actually not sure what Swahili word he is saying, but I can assure you that it comes out sounding exactly like “Ali”. The first day we heard my morning caller, we thought that it was a goat (because we have those on our street too) as it’s a very throaty version of Allllliiiiiiii. But no, it’s just a man, hawking some type of good/service that sounds an awful lot like my name. My morning caller has become a constant fixture in our early mornings here in Kenya, and I think I might have to have Frank pick this up when I return to the states.

In addition to my morning caller, the majority of my daily musings come from none other than Eric Mutiso himself. Emily had warned us that Eric tends to tell funny, embellished stories (ok, she said it slightly more bluntly: he lies), and I am so grateful that we’ve gotten to hear some of these gems of late. My personal favorite was when he told us, with a straight face, that a man in rural Kenya has already cured AIDS… with a wild passion fruit. He has also told us that he is going to live to be 300 years old, and that next month we can expect it to be hotter at night than during the day. The weather is a particularly funny subject with Eric as I’m pretty convinced he has NO idea, despite living in Kenya his entire life, what the seasons are here. Per his advice, I should be preparing for snow and drought at the same time next month. Eric also does a pretty hilarious impression of a Texan that includes walking with bow legs and calling himself Blake. I wish you all could meet this special man J In the end though, despite his sometimes unbelievable stories, he is fast becoming a lifelong friend. Eric’s passion for what he is doing is palpable. I’m not sure he has all the logistics figured out, but he strikes me as the kind of person who will make things happen on his faith alone.

Alright, I think it’s time to get ready for bed here. We have a long day of networking and finances tomorrow – how fun! Hope everyone at home is having a wonderful Memorial Day.

Heaven is a shopping mall.

This weekend Jamee and I found a little piece of heaven right here in Nairobi. It’s called the Westlands, and it’s the ex-pat community to the west of City Center. Having read all about this magical place in our guidebook, the two of us set out Saturday morning to see if it lived up to its hype (which, rest assured, it did). There are three malls in the Westlands, the newest of which is known as the Westgate Mall and which is comparable, if not nicer, than some American malls I’ve seen. It was at Westgate Mall that we found a lovely little American-style restaurant called Art Café, which was chock full of wealthy foreigners. The menu was simple – mostly pizza, salads, and sandwiches, but all of it sounded delicious after two weeks of Kenyan food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Jamee and I treated ourselves to some wine, hamburgers, and salads, which were delicious and filling! While it was no Tessaro’s hamburger, it was nonetheless a welcome change. I honestly could have been content sitting in Art Café with a glass of wine or a coffee all day – it was so nice to be away from the slums and the loud, dirty streets of Nairobi. To make it even better, lunch cost less than $12 USD! After lunch, we wandered around the mall and did some shopping. There are tons of stores in Westgate and nearby Sarit Center that sell beautiful African art, jewelry, and clothing – a far cry from the second hand crap you find at the markets. I already started buying some gifts for everyone at home. Overall, our visit to the Westland’s proved to be a delightful respite and it’s definitely going to be our Saturday go-to from now on – we’re already counting down the days until this weekend!

I will say that I think part of what made Saturday great was getting out of the house by ourselves. It felt good to navigate the city on our own. The matatu system really isn’t as complicated as it appears at times, as long as you know the name of the area you’re headed to. All of our matatu conductors were incredibly helpful and friendly, and overall the experience was positive. I know Eric has been extra cautious with all of us for the past few weeks, but I think we proved to him on Saturday that we’re ok on our own during the day. I’m confident that he enjoyed having some time and space to himself on Saturday as well - this apartment can be stifling at times.

Oh! I forgot to mention the meeting we had last Friday. As I alluded to in my previous post, we met with a representative from Vision-Africa on Friday, a woman named Kirsty. Kirsty, who has been living in Nairobi for the past 3 years, is the social media director for Vision-Africa, which is a medium-sized NGO working on about 14 different projects in Nairobi and Kibera. She shared with us some Vision-Africa’s experience with networking and fundraising in Kenya. A lot of it was pretty straightforward, but she did mention some things I never would have really thought about. For example, I think thus far we’ve been really focused on getting the sponsorship program off the ground with the help of international donors. Something Kirsty made clear was that there are plenty of Kenyan’s who have the financial resources to help as well. Moreover, she warned us about possible NGO dependency – she said that often times, the big NGO’s come in and do their work without really involving the community. Because of this, the beneficiaries tend to see these projects as just a means to an end. She encouraged us to involve the community in our work. This means asking community members beyond the child beneficiaries (particularly the PARENTS) to participate in various ways. This could be anything from having parents sew school uniforms, to tasking some of them with coaching an extracurricular activity or teaching a music/art class. In doing this, the hope is to foster a sense of community involvement and responsibility for the success of the project.

We talked with Kirsty for about an hour on Friday, and she agreed to put us in touch with two of Vision-Africa’s Kibera-specific projects, one of which is a school/feeding program much like the one Eric is trying to get off the ground. Hopefully we will be able to visit these projects sometime this week to get an even better idea of how things are running on the ground. Overall though, I thought the meeting with Kirsty was really important, and I really appreciate that she took the time to chat with us. Networking really is as big here as it is in the U.S., and I think she was the perfect place to start! She also told us that much of the NGO community in Nairobi networks via Twitter, which I thought was ironic considering how spotty the internet is here. We’ve been in touch with other projects as well and will likely try to visit as many of them as we can while we’re here. This sort of resource building will be imperative for Eric in the long term.

Aside from the networking, which will be an ongoing process this summer, this week is going to be dedicated to a lot of administrative work. As of now, Lisha Mtoto Initiative is registered as a Community Based Organization (CBO). In order to apply for NGO status, we have to provide a Constitution (complete with mission and vision statements, organization structure and roles, governance information, etc), an annual budget, and meeting minutes. We also have to have a number of forms filled out by various Board members, and we have to open a separate bank account for Lisha Mtoto. It seems like a lot of busy work, but it’s actually really critical that we get it all done before we can do anything else. Today we banged out the mission and vision statements, and started coming up with an organizational structure. The issue of a Board of Director’s is a little muddled at this point, as Eric has a separate Board that has been running the microsavings program (the greenhouse) and just doesn’t generally have too many expert resources to pool. Overall, this sort of clerical work is more for the sake of the organization than the officials who will grant us NGO status. It’s hard to work out of the apartment where there is no constant internet, so we are going to try to find a coffee shop with free wi-fi tomorrow where we can pow-wow for the majority of the day and hopefully get most of this stuff done.

So that’s where we are in terms of work. Progress will likely be slow, as none of us really have any hands-on experience with building an organization from the ground up, which is essentially what we’re doing.  I definitely think I’m going to learn a lot through this process! Hopefully we’ll all have a leg up as we complete our GSPIA coursework and look for jobs in the next year.

Overall, things have been looking up lately. We’ve only had one matatu incident this week (a strike, which caused a 2+ hour delay as Jamee and I were sitting on a matatu trying to go home yesterday), so in general the good has outweighed the bad. My birthday ending up being very enjoyable. We all got a little drunk and talked late into the evening, which is rare here as we’re usually very tired by 9 pm. I’m really looking forward to Max and Elliot’s arrival in a few weeks! I think they will bring some much needed humor to the sometimes frustrating days here. I am also looking forward to watching them struggle a bit, as it’s kind of an initiation at this point J I’m also looking forward to planning some travel with them and Jamee for later this summer – we’re thinking safari at Masai Mara, a visit to Mt. Kilimanjaro, and then a few days on the beach in Mombasa. Sounds pretty perfect right about now!       

Laundry, work, and birthdays, oh my!

Well, I have officially survived 10 days in Kenya. Only 74 more days to go- but who’s counting? It seems to me that for every up here there’s also a down; for every good day, there’s a bad one just waiting in the midst. The past week has been a perfect example – so let me fill you in on what’s been going on.

I will start with the most amusing thing we’ve done since we’ve been here: LAUNDRY. After Sunday’s laundry adventure, I can honestly say that I’d rather be filthy for the rest of the summer than wash my clothes again. The laundry process was totally defeating. Jamee and I really didn’t even have that many clothes to wash, but per Lydia’s advice, we decided we should learn while the dirty clothes pile was still small, so on Sunday we took to the porch with our basins, ready to give it our all. With three basins set up (one for scrubbing with soap, two for rinsing), we watched in amazement as Lillian demonstrated the art of hand washing. I don’t really understand this process, but I can tell you that it involves scrubbing the article of clothing with a bar of soap and then furiously rubbing the clothing against itself and your hands. Somehow, this gets things clean. It also requires you to have Amazon-like strength, which Lillian does. She wrung out my sopping wet bath towel like it was a Kleenex. Anyway, after Lillian’s demonstration (during which she washed like 19 pieces of our clothing), it was our turn to try. Within five seconds of my own attempt, Lillian just looked at me and said NO. I’m not sure what exactly was wrong with my technique, but Lillian was highly amused. After washing a  couple shirts, my arms were burning, I was sweating like an animal, and I was completely unconcerned with getting any of my clothes clean. Jamee and I were pretty much just soaping the clothes and then throwing them in the rinse basin, at which point Lillian realized we were hopeless and went back inside. She conveniently reappeared during the sock portion of our show and took all of the socks we had washed out of the rinse basin and washed them again. I didn’t know how to explain to her that I simply didn’t care if my socks were dirty, I was TIRED. What had been a small pile of clothes felt like a mountain when it was all said and done, and the entire process ended in exhaustion and shame – the only obvious remedy being a nap.

After our harrowing laundry experience, we spent Sunday night discussing our goals and priorities for this summer in terms of getting Lisha Mtoto off the ground. It’s clear that Eric has a lot of long term goals for the organization. Eventually he would like to move the kids out of Kibera altogether, which would mean buying land and building an orphanage/school facility somewhere else. He also wants to initiate some sort of HIV/AIDS outreach amongst some of the older youth in Kibera, and provide counseling/psychological resources for those who have been orphaned, abused, and raped. All of these long term goals, however, depend on money, and the money that Eric has coming in as of now is solely the result of the sponsorship program. With only two kids currently sponsored, he has dipped into his own pockets to keep the school running and the feedings regular. Clearly then, our priority for this summer is to expand the sponsorship program and to generate other sources of income where we can find them. In order to expand the sponsorship program, we’ve decided on the following as our priorities while we’re here:

1. Set up a Lisha Mtoto website
2. Visit each individual family in Kibera to collect extensive biographies and pictures of each child (to be used on the website – so potential donors will actually get to read about each child)
3. Look into the possibility of doing skype calls or web conferences, in addition to detailed monthly updates and receipts of items purchased, between donors and their sponsored child in order to ensure absolute transparency

On top of doing these things, we are also pursuing other avenues of funding, in the form of grants and partnerships. We spent about 3 hours on Monday at an internet café downtown doing some preliminary research on other NGO’s operating in Kibera. We sent out several emails inquiring about possible meetings in order to further network. I’ve already heard back from one NGO, Vision-Africa,  and we have scheduled a meeting with one of their development coordinators for Friday morning. I think it will be really useful to hear about the fundraising/partnership experience of a more well established NGO – hopefully we can use some of their advice and ideas to get started on our own work in this area. Overall, it felt really good to get started with actual Lisha Mtoto work, as it really is the reason we’re all here. Although I want to see everything I can while I’m here and do all the touristy things, I don’t want to forget what our real mission is. Ultimately we are here to help Eric bring some legitimacy to this project. I’m sure we will run into frustrations along the way (the spotty internet in the apartment being a perfect example), but I feel confident that we all feel a closeness to this cause now that we’ve met the children and seen how they live.

So those are some of the highs of the past week. I should also mention that with each passing day I feel generally more comfortable in Nairobi. I don’t know which parent blessed me with my sense of direction, but I am glad for it. Today the girls and I made it all the way to the grocery store and back without getting lost or bothered. I think with time I might even be able to figure out this insane matatu system, but I’m not holding my breath.

Like I said though, each high comes with a low, and Tuesday was a BIG low. First of all, none of us were feeling well. We ate lunch at a restaurant while we were downtown on Monday and I don’t think the meal sat well with any of us. Poor Erin was throwing up all night. So although we were originally all going to travel with Eric to visit his sister in rural Kenya on Tuesday, it was only Jamee and I who ended up going. Because of the length of the trip (which seemed to vary every time we asked Eric), we had to get up at 5:30 am in order to leave by 6. I forgot to mention earlier that my gift for sleeping has returned to me – so getting up at 5:30 was about as painful as it would have been at home. I was really excited for the trip however, as any chance to get out of loud, smelly Nairobi is welcomed. So after leaving around 6:30 (how African of us), we arrived downtown by 7 and found a bus that would take us to Machakos (the “county” where Eric’s oldest sister, Angelie, lives). Of course, we got on the bus at 7 expecting it to leave momentarily and instead sat there for over an hour. When it finally did start moving this man stood up and began preaching in Swahili at the top of his lungs, thus disturbing the peace and quiet of the bus that both Jamee and I had been looking forward too. When he was done preaching another man got up for his turn – it was bizarre. Finally though, the preaching ended and the bus driver put some awesome African music on which made the ride a lot better. The scenery as we drove to Machakos was gorgeous… just hills and rolling green plains, and a blue sky to top it off. I was glued to the window the entire ride there. The only downside was the fact that the ride was incredibly bumpy… might have something to do with the fact that the roads (a somewhat necessary part of a smooth ride) DON’T EXIST. Side note - I’m actually rather shocked by the lack of infrastructure throughout Kenya, as I had expected it to be far more developed in this area than it actually is. Anyway, the lack of roads made this trip, which really should have taken about 2 hours TOPS, a 6 hour journey. 6 HOURS to go maybe 80 miles. 6 HOURS and three buses, mind you. When we finally got to this little town, in the middle of no where, we were promptly shuffled onto the back of a truck with about 18 people over the age of 90. If you were wondering where all the old people in Kenya are, they’re in Machakos. That fun little ride took us to the actual village where Angelie lived, but from there we still had a 35 minute walk to get to her actual house.

By the time we actually got to Angelie’s house it was already 12:30 pm. We chatted for a bit and ate lunch (roasted chicken this time, no goat, thank god), and then it was time to leave! We had decided earlier that we needed to leave by 2 pm in order to get back before dark (this is our new rule, following last week’s nighttime matatu fiasco) and so just as soon as we arrived we were leaving. I felt kind of bad coming and going so quickly but I also did not want to be arriving in downtown Nairobi after dark, plain and simple. So off we went again, trekking back to the village. This time, instead of taking a truck back to town to catch a big bus, we caught a matatu straight from Angelie’s village – one that said it was going all the way back to Nairobi. The matatu driver neglected to mention that we were going back to Machokos town first and that we would then sit there for 2 hours on the side of the road for NO APPARENT REASON. I could write a novel about how infuriating those two hours were, but I’m trying to let it go. I will say that those two hours really turned what had been a good day into a miserable experience. Obviously, I still have work to do on the whole patience thing. Ultimately, we made it home at 9 pm… making my Tuesday 15 hours in length,  13 of which were spent in transit.. I was so cranky by the time we got back that I just climbed into bed and called it a night – a solution that was probably best for everyone.

It’s definitely going to take some time for me to accept the rhythm of life here, the constant highs and lows, but I hope to get there before summers end. I woke up again feeling refreshed and positive and I guess that counts for something. Tomorrow is my 25^th birthday, and though I’d much rather be at home with my family and friends, I am thankful for the new friends I’ve made here and for the experience to celebrate with them tomorrow. We plan on having American style pasta (we found tomato sauce today in the grocery store!) and beer, which sounds pretty damn good right about now. Hopefully there are no secret Kenyan birthday traditions involving matatus or goat meat…

Patience is a virtue... and I don't have it.

 I wrote this blog post a few days ago but haven’t been able to post it because the blogger service was down. Reading it now it seems somewhat ironic, as the past two days have been really good days by comparison. I suppose this is the way life is going to go in Kenya. We finally got our phones fixed, our light working, and I even found diet coke! Also, we’re headed to Nairobi National Park today to see some animals, so I’m pretty satisfied at the moment.

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Self realization number 1 this summer: I have ZERO patience. In the battle between myself and Kenya, she is the victor thus far; everything about this place is a challenge to me. I never really considered myself to be one of those overly stressed American’s but the past four days have proven to me how tightly wound I am, especially compared to Kenyan’s. I knew this summer was going to be an eye opening experience in terms of the work I’ll be doing and the things I’d be seeing on a daily basis, but I don’t think I ever realized how much living here for three months is going to affect the very core of my personality.

Take yesterday for instance. I think Wednesday May 11, 2011 will officially go down as one of the longest, most frustrating days in my adult life. After going to bed around 11:00 pm the night before, I woke up at 5:00 am yesterday and could not go back to sleep for the life of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE sleep, so being unable to doze off again was incredibly frustrating. With no light in our room, my options at 5 am were rather limited, so I literally just sat in bed and stared at the ceiling for 2 hours. Eventually we all got up and ready, as the predetermined plan for yesterday was to go to Lydia’s house to work in the greenhouse. Lydia, her husband Salacious, and Eric have built a greenhouse on Lydia’s property which they are using to grow tomatoes. The tomatoes are being sold to help raise money for Lisha Mtoto, and are also taken to Kibera weekly for the kids to eat. The plan this summer is to spend at least two days a week at the greenhouse, as it is going to be an integral part of Lisha Mtoto’s financial resources and because Lydia could use all the help she can get with the physical labor required to run such an initiative.

Anyway, as we were getting ready to leave for Lydia’s yesterday morning it started to downpour. Because the streets here are almost all made out of dirt, rain means MUD, and lots of it. Our tennis shoes from the day before had been washed and were too wet to wear, so Jamee and I had no choice but to wear sandals for the day’s travels, which proved to be incredibly frustrating as we slipped and struggled the entire way to the bus stop. The matatu ride to Lydia’s was about 30 minutes long, and though it was slightly more comfortable than those the day before, it was still terrifying. There are no real traffic laws here. Like Calcutta, the roads are pretty much a free for all. For instance, people will drive on the proper side of the road for a bit, but if there are no cars oncoming they will just use the entire road for themselves. This results in a lot of swerving back and forth to get out of the way when oncoming traffic comes into site again. Also – the money collector on the matutu often just hangs out of the open door while it’s moving and really has no qualms about putting far too many people in the vehicle despite the fact that we’re already smushed like sardines. Overall, it’s just a terrifying experience. It was hard to even enjoy the somewhat more scenic drive to the greenhouse because from my window seat I was constantly watching as we nearly got smashed to pieces by other cars. I don’t understand how there are not thousands of traffic accidents a day here.

Once we got off the matutu, we had about a 2 mile walk to get to Lydia’s house. Luckily, she lives in a very quiet, peaceful area, so the walk was really enjoyable and we got to see a lot more greenery than we do here in Umoja. Lydia’s house is really lovely. She and her husband built it themselves three years ago, and even though its only really four rooms, she has nicely furnished and decorated it and it felt very cozy. The greenhouse is also an incredibly impressive structure. I can’t believe they built it themselves. They also have a really impressive irrigation system inside of it and the tomatoes seem to be growing at a rapid rate. Lydia told us that the hope is to build another green house to be used for other vegetables. We spent most of the day helping her weed the area around the green house, and then just chatted, ate, and played with her sons when they got home from school. Eric had left Jamee and I there for the day, as he had to get the other room ready for Erin and Matt’s arrival today. He vowed to us that he would be back to collect us at 5 pm. By 3 pm, Jamee and I were exhausted. I’m not sure if it was the jet lag finally catching up with us, or whether it was the physical labor (which, lets be serious, is not my forte), but either way we could barely keep our eyes open and were definitely ready to get back to the apartment and get some sleep. Well, as Emily had warned us, time means very little to African’s. Though Eric said he would be back at 5 to get us and take us home, he didn’t end up getting there until 7:30, at which point it was dark and we were beyond exhausted. I really did enjoy myself during the day and cannot even begin to explain the kindness and generosity that Lydia shows us when we are around, but I’ll be honest in saying that the easy going nature of everyone around here can be very frustrating when you’re exhausted and just want to go home. That said, I was feeling a little annoyed and stressed by the time we left Lydia’s house, as it was hours later than expected.

Also, I was a little concerned about it being dark out, as I’ve heard that the matutus aren’t very safe at night, but we had no choice in terms of getting home. When we finally got on a matatu, after waiting for some time, it was incredibly crowded – Jamee had to sit on my lap and we were both situated directly next to the sliding door that often stays OPEN, so please imagine my terror as we took off flying down the road. Less than a mile into our return trip however, we come to a dead stop. The traffic looked like something you’d see on the parkway when there is a 9 car pile up. I asked Eric what was going on and he said it was a traffic jam. YES, a literal traffic JAM. No accident, no police cars… traffic was literally JAMMED because people do not drive where they are supposed to. Our matutu driver attempted to be clever and take a back route but we ended up sitting at a dead stop in the middle of dozens of cars who were just all facing each other and not moving. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wish I had had my camera. Though its amusing now, at the time I wanted to scream. Here we are, two little mzungu’s sitting right at the open door of the matutu while hundreds of people just walk around staring at the cars that are stuck in this jam. It was the first time I felt unsafe since we arrived, although maybe I shouldn’t have because in reality nothing happened. After about 45 minutes some of the cars had managed to back up or move so that traffic could start to flow again, but by that point I had honestly lost all patience with everything. All I wanted to do was get home, call Frank as I had told him I would, and go to bed.

We finally made it back to the apartment around 9:30 and I was incredibly relieved and ready to call it a night, but apparently Kenya was not done with me. As I went to skype Frank, I realized that the modem I had bought yesterday was gone. I’m not one to lose things, but I have searched every inch of this place (which is not a lot of inches) and I cannot find it anywhere. Add to that the fact that I was looking in the dark because we have no electricity, and the fact that my cell phone still doesn’t work so there was no way to even call Frank from my phone.  I have no idea if the modem was stolen or just misplaced, and to be honest I’m not that concerned about it now, but in the heat of the moment last night this was enough to just set me over the edge and the tears just started flowing. Eric was really concerned about helping me find my modem, but I decided the best thing for me at that moment was to just go to bed (wise advice I’ve received from my mother when I’ve been overwhelmed in the past). It only took a few minutes to cry myself to sleep. I think my tears were tears of frustration at the entire day and also tears of anger that I allowed any of this to upset me so much. Eric and his family have showed me nothing but kindness since the moment I have gotten here, and I was extremely mad at myself for feeling annoyed and angry with how the day had gone. I think my tears were also just tears of fear… realizing that this is going to be a very long summer, that it’s not going to be fun, and that I’m going to face challenges like this every single day I am here is incredibly overwhelming.

I woke up this morning feeling well rested, but also feeling foolish and selfish for allowing myself to get so frustrated yesterday. All I can say is that I am human, and everything I am experiencing here is new to me. I think its going to take some time for me to accept this relaxed way of life that Kenyan’s live, and to stop worrying about whether or not someone is on time or whether or not everything goes as planned. Clearly, not everything is going to go as planned here, and it will be a challenge for me to let go of some of my OCD tendencies and just go with the flow – this is something I am just not used to doing. Anyway, I am feeling much better as I write this today and am prepared to just take each day as it comes. I feel very blessed to have Eric and his family around. I am amazed by their ability to find the positive in everything and to be so generous and kind to virtual strangers. I clearly have a lot to learn from them, and that is one challenge that I gladly accept.

Finally here!

Well, I’m alive and well in Kenya. After 48 hours of traveling, we arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport at about 7:30 am yesterday (so 12:30 am US time – we’re 7 hours ahead here). We were met at the airport by Eric, his brother-in-law, and his sister-in-law, Lydia, all of whom greeted us with huge hugs and smiles. Their kindness and genuine excitement was so endearing and really put me at ease immediately. After exchanging hellos, we all piled into the brother-in-laws car (also fun to note – they drive on the opposite side of the road as us, so being in cars here feels very odd) and headed toward our apartment. On the way, we stopped for breakfast, where we had our choice of chicken pie or beef pie. I went with the chicken, and what I got was a sort of pastry filled with chicken meat. It was somewhat reminiscent of pot pie…somewhat being the operative word here. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad, and we had delicious Kenyan tea to go along with it, which Eric and his family boasted is the best tea in Africa. I think its just black tea, as it comes in bags just like our tea in the US, but instead of adding it to boiling water, they drink it with hot milk. The result is a sort of café-latte like drink that is really delicious.

Anyway, the conversation during breakfast was lovely. We talked a lot about the difference between a calling and a profession. Both Eric and Lydia are heavily involved in community development work, and consider their work to be more of a calling than a profession. Their passion for what they do was really incredible… made me very happy to be here and have the opportunity to work with them. Technically, Lydia works for another organization, but she spoke of Lisha Mtoto and “the kids” as if she were as heavily involved as Eric. It’s obvious that the entire family supports Eric’s vision for the program.

After breakfast, we made our way through Nairobi and to our “apartment.” We are living in what is known as Eastland, a suburb just east of the city center. Our neighborhood is called Umoja, which, fittingly, means unity or togetherness. I say fittingly because there will be 7 of us living in our three room apartment this summer. By rooms, I mean actual ROOMS, not bedrooms. There are two bedrooms, technically. Jamee and I are in bunk beds in one of them, and then the other small bedroom also has bunk beds. A third set of bunks will be going in the living room area and then Eric will sleep on the couch. It’s INSANELY small and we might all kill each other before the summer is over, but this is what we’ve got so we have to work with it. Umoja is considered a lower middle class neighborhood, but is very safe compared to a lot of others. Our apartment is on the fourth floor of a concrete building, and we have an awesome balcony out front that’s great for people watching. It’s a lot quieter than I thought it would be, but that might be because we’re not actually in the city. When we arrived, Eric’s nephews were here getting the place together. The floors were filthy and the furniture they bought (our beds included) was not put together. I’m already starting to realize that Africans don’t have a real sense of urgency about anything… we sat around for about 5 hours while people came and went, sometimes cleaning, sometimes chatting. Eventually everything got put together and the place is now a cozy little home. The electricity does randomly go off at times, and the water is also sporadic, but as Eric says, “hakuna matata,” no worries. It’s definitely not what I expected, but the accommodations will do, and I’m glad that Eric is staying with us, for safety reasons but also just because he’s just an incredibly interesting person to talk to and I’m looking forward to getting to know him better.  By the way – we have running water (when it chooses to work) but no shower, so we have to “wash” using a basin. We took our first “wash,” or hand bath this morning, and it was difficult, to say the least. The washroom, which is also where the toilet is, is TINY. Like barely enough room to turn around tiny, so imagine attempting to shave your legs or rinse shampoo out of your hair… NOT AN EASY FEAT. It was nice to feel clean after the bath but the process was exhausting and we were filthy again in an hour, so I’m thinking that washing might be a bi-weekly event and not an everyday thing. Don’t judge me.

During all the cleaning and visiting yesterday, Lydia prepared us our first real Kenyan meal of choma and ugali. Choma is roasted meat – in this case, GOAT. Ugali is some sort of weird, almost dough-like mixture of maize flour and water (I think).It looks like raw bread dough, and basically tastes like nothing. I was extremely unsure of trying such intense foods right off the bat, but I didn’t want to insult our cook either, so Jamee and I both indulged in both the choma and ugali. The goat was really tough, but overall didn’t taste terrible, though I did have to politely refuse when Lydia handed me a goat kidney and told me to eat it. She said the kidneys and gizzards are her favorite, but honestly, I knew that I couldn’t stomach that and the thought of puking over our very primitive toilet makes me want to NEVER get sick here. For dinner last night Lydia and Eric’s friend Monica cooked again – this time with some sort of kerosene heating pot which literally filled the entire apartment with this insane smoke that made our eyes burn and water. For about an hour it felt like we were locked in a kitchen with one million people cutting onions. This meal consisted of pasta, some sort of greenbeen/carrot/tomato sauté, and avocados and was much easier on my stomach than lunch. Monica served Jamee and me enormous helpings though, and we both felt bad when we couldn’t finish. Both ladies said that we should gain 10 lbs while we’re here… that wasn’t quite on my to-do list, so we’ll have to see what happens.

After dinner, we sat around and talked to Eric for a while about Lisha Mtoto and his hopes for this summer. He seems so excited to have us here. We have already talked about getting some pictures of the kids within the next week and hopefully being able to put them up on a website. We’d all really like to see all of the kids get sponsors. For $25 a month, the kids would receive food three times a weekly, daily school lessons, monthly medical visits, and clothing. As of now only two of the children are sponsored for the next year, so I know I’d personally like to see that number go up.

By 10:00 pm last night we were exhausted and called it a night… I slept pretty well, although I don’t have a pillow so my neck kind of hurts today. I woke up at 5:30 am for no good reason and just sort of sat in bed listening to the neighborhood wake up. At about 7, I got out of bed and took my “bath” and then we proceeded to get dressed for a trip to meet Lisha Mtoto’s kid beneficiaries.

Just for information’s sake – Lisha Mtoto runs the feeding program/schooling out of Kibera, which is the second largest slum in Africa. This is where we went today… and to be honest, I’m still not sure what to make of the things I saw. I don’t think I have internalized everything yet, but I’ll try to describe the experience as it unfolded today. First, we had to walk a lot and take two matatus (bus like vans that hold about 15 people – they are TERRIFYING, but so are all cars/buses/taxes in Nairobi) to get to Kibera. It was a little chilly when we woke up this morning but as soon as we started walking it got HOT – probably 85 degrees. I sweated like crazy pretty much all day. When we got to Kibera, the first thing I noticed was the stench and the mud. The paths are completely made of dirt, and because of the recent rains, it’s literally just a huge pit of mud. It was actually hard to walk it was so slippery. We walked about a mile into the slums… past little tin shacks and stores. There were dogs, goats, chickens, and cats just wandering around everywhere, and everyone stared at us. They call white people “mzungos,” so we heard that a lot today as we walked through Kibera. At one point we took a turn off the main path and were literally walking through these tiny alleys that were just lined with shacks and laundry and children. As we approached Lisha Mtotos facility (a wood shack, probably no bigger than 8 feet by 8 feet), we could hear these little voices repeating the alphabet, and Eric told us that those were our kids! When we got to the door, all you could see were 20 little faces smiling. There is no light in the school, so it was hard to see everyone until we walked in – the only light comes from the open door. Inside, all of the kids were sitting on these little wood benches and there were posters all over the walls of the alphabet, numbers, family members, animals, etc. In unison the kids welcomed us and told us how happy they were to meet us – it was adorable. Teacher Grace, who has been teaching the kids on behalf of Lisha Mtoto for about a year now, then instructed the students to repeat all their numbers, letters, etc for us. The chorus of tiny voices was amazing and you could tell that they were so excited to show us how much they had learned in English.

In general, the kids range from about 2 to 6 years old. Aside from the English they are learning from Grace, they don’t really understand much, but most of them were willing to laugh at us and high five us, which was awesome. After they recited some songs and studies for us, we had lunch, which consisted of beans and rice. Each of the kids got a pretty good helping, and many of them ate like they hadn’t eaten in a while. Jamee and I got to sit on the little benches and eat right alongside them, which was really special!  Oh another thing - most of them have American names… Tom, Pauline, Marcy, Anne... Obama is my favorite though. They all just melted my heart. It’s crazy that they are so happy and positive given the absolute destitution they live every day. Just to give you an idea of the poverty in Kibera, after lunch, they kids went to the bathroom outside in the alley. There are no toilets close to the school building and allowing them to wander is unsafe, so they just go right outside the shack. Grace also said that the school room has been broken into several times, despite the fact that the door is locked everyday when they leave. She said that intruders have taken most of the meager school supplies the kids have.

After we ate lunch, the kids went back to their homes, which are just nearby shacks. Grace, who has two children of her own and who is expecting a third, invited us to see her house. It was literally one room with two beds, and it was beyond startling to picture a family of four living there. From what I saw, this is how almost everyone in Kibera lives and the slum is HUGE. You can see shanty houses for miles in every direction.

Not surprisingly, we were a little emotionally drained when we left Kibera. On our way back to the apartment we were able to stop and buy cell phones and wireless modems, though we’ve had some trouble getting everything to work. I suppose this is how it’s going to be this summer – never know when things are going to work or not. Overall, the past two days have been exhausting and overwhelming. This is certainly not going to be a glamorous or even enjoyable summer, but I think that it’s important for me to be here.

Alright – I think its time to end this for tonight. got a TV for the house – slightly ironic considering we don’t even have electricity in our room currently, but I guess these sort of odd dichotomies are what Africa is all about. Anyway, time to watch some Kenyan TV and relax. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog again soon…

OH! One more thing. I can't add pictures here and I don't have the patience to get start a new picasa picture site, so I will upload photos of the apartment and neighborhood on Facebook now - be sure to check them out. 

On my way...

Well, I'm off to Africa tomorrow... I can't believe that this day is finally upon me! Between finishing this crazy semester, salvaging every second I could to spend with family and friends, and then attempting to mentally and logistically prepare for a summer in Kenya, I feel like this trip has been a year in the making. One of the benefits (or disadvantages?) of running a million miles an hour is that I avoided really internalizing the reality of this trip until very recently. As the craziness has subsided over the last few days, my nerves and emotions have literally robbed me of sleep. I'm decidedly less terrified than I was when I led the City of Joy trip to India, but I'm definitely feeling an intense amount of anxiety about what to expect for the next three months. It's actually somewhat comical how little I know about what I'm about to get into...

Just to share with you what I do know, I'll be working for an organization called Lisha Mtoto in Nairobi, Kenya this summer. Lisha Mtoto, which means "feed the children," is a relatively new NGO that's dedicated to child and community welfare and development. The overall goal of the organization is to provide Kenyan youth with the tools and resources they need to break the cycle of poverty, AIDS, and violence that has been so crippling to previous generations. As it stands, the organization's founders, Eric and Saidah, are running a child sponsorship program, the funds from which are used to provide basic education and food to Nairobi's street children. Most of the kids that Lisha Mtoto works with have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS or have parents who simply cannot afford to take care of them. Eric and Saidah, both native Kenyans, have invited six interns over for the summer to help them expand their current operations and to possibly add additional programs to the organization's repertoire (HIV/AIDS outreach, microfinance, child empowerment, etc).

While the newness of the program and the uncertainty of my daily routine are definitely adding to my anxiety, they are also responsible for fueling my excitement. As a student of international development, I am especially drawn to Lisha Mtoto for its grassroots, bottom-up approach to development, and I am beyond enthused to have the opportunity to be a part of that process. Does that mean that I think I'm going to change the world in one summer? No, but I believe in what Eric and Saidah are doing, and I believe in my own humanitarian spirit. I feel strongly that I have more to offer the children of Kenya than just my sympathy. Thus, I go into this experience ready to work and serve in any capacity I can to make at least one person's life better for a period of time.

Without getting too sappy in my very first blog post, I just want to thank the family and friends who sustain me. Your blessings and support mean more to me than you will ever know, and I could not utter enough thank-you's to truly express my appreciation. I plan to blog as regularly as possible, and I hope that you all follow me along for the ride...