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…