Wow, quite a week. I'm back in town today after a whirl-wind tour including a party and an agricultural trade show in Kakamega, a visit to see volunteers in Eldoret, and several meetings in Nairobi. Friday night was a going away/birthday party for Melanie, the Canadian volunteer I have become friends with in Kakamega. Melanie is a friend of a Dutch volunteer living in town who has a Kenyan boyfriend that owns a clubhouse he offered for the event. It was a great place for a party. All of Melanie's Kenyan work colleagues came, and everyone had a good time. There was great food and I made a lot of connections with volunteers and their Kenyan counterparts working throughout the area. Several of the people I met at the party came here for volunteer projects by themselves. It's impressive to see people who found their way to Kenya without all the nice perks (language and cultural training, health insurance, a network of friends around the country to visit) offered through the Peace Corps. Most of these volunteers are here for much shorter amounts of time though, and the longer I'm here the more I realize that at least a year is needed to really experience this place.
The two-year Peace Corps term is seems about perfect. One girl who I met from Alaska (and all this time I thought the only people from Alaska were grizzly alcoholic men with flannel shirts) is only here as a volunteer for two months and she is really disappointed to be going home so soon. Once you actually live with the people in a place like this as opposed to just staying on the tourist routes, two months, to me, seems like barely scratching the surface.
So the party went great, there was plenty of dancing and drinks, and by about one o’clock I was really wiped out. For some reason roasting in the Kenyan sun all day takes a lot out of me. I retired with the early crown while a few people left to go dancing at clubs until six in the morning. At the request of Melanie one of her work friends brought chang’a, which is the Kenyan version of moonshine. It's made from corn husks and has got to be the most vile tasting substance on the planet. I had a very small sip just to say I’ve tried it but there’s no way it’s a safe beverage. Since it was about as refreshing as nail polish remover I won’t be drinking it again.
So at 9 the next day I went to town for the agricultural trade show. It was mildly interesting for awhile, but there is only so long that I can focus attentively to people talking in detail about cow medications and hybrid seed maize. We did manage to finalize a deal with a seed fertilizer company to buy their products in bulk though, so it was productive nonetheless. The intention is to sell the seed and fertilizer to the farmers in small quantities at the bulk pricing we paid for it.
After the trade show I made my way to Eldoret to catch up with a few Peace Corps friends and to discuss a project with AIDS education through an organization in Kisumu. We had yet another Small Business Development Volunteer ET (Early Termination, or go back to the states early) and she left behind a good potential project. Actually, the only volunteers to go home from our group so far have been business volunteers, and with eight of them gone that means about half of us have left early. From what I gather this is not routine and I’m hoping the remaining people from my group will stay for the two-year term. I’ve had a recurring dream where I’m one of the people who decide to leave early and I’m back in the states with an office job, a house payment, etc. In it I always regret not staying in Kenya and I’m trying to find a way to come back, but it’s too late. Sometimes I’ll wake up and it won’t register that I’m still in Kenya until the pitch black night, lack of any sounds except insects and bats, and the mosquito net wrapped around my bed remind me where I am. I wonder if any of the ET volunteers are living my dream and regret their decision to leave.
So back to my week: Adrienne, my volunteer friend living near Eldoret, is living in with Nuns on a compound near a Catholic girl’s secondary school. The nuns have it nice, with a beautiful compound and plenty of amenities most Kenyans live without (good food, electricity, running water, etc.) They are great people and fed us the entire weekend I was there. When I got to Adrienne’s site I ended up finding her with two other volunteers playing sports with the girls from the secondary school. Soon I ended up on their handball team, and being both a mzungu and the only male on the compound the girls found it amusing. I really enjoyed it though. The sport is a cross between soccer and basketball, where the ball is thrown from person to person, dribbled, then thrown through a guarded soccer-style goal. It was a lot of fun to try to get the ball past the goalie, who on the opposing team was bigger than me and pretty much blocked every shot I threw. Afterwards I watched a field hockey game. The goalies don’t have any padding and the field hockey puck is about as hard as a billiard ball and is slapped at high velocity towards the unprotected goalie. Needless to say, they have been through many goalies and the person protecting the goal is either extremely brave or insane.
Adrienne and her friends left to prepare dinner (pizza!) and I stayed to play volleyball with a group of guys hanging around nearby. They were using a soccer ball that Adrienne had loaned them, since a volleyball was nonexistent. It was a lot of fun and there was plenty of arguing over whether missed shots were in (ndani!) or out (nje!). A soccer ball makes a painful volleyball though and by the time the game was over my forearms were red and raw.
So that evening the girls were having choir practice, and we snuck into the back of the room to watch. There are hundreds of girls and they were all singing church songs for the service in the morning. Afterwards they wanted us to visit the study hall classrooms and dancing/drumming practice, and I was basically dragged from classroom to classroom to introduce myself and talk about where I’m from and what I’m doing in Kenya.
The next morning we went to the church service and watched the girls dance and sing the music they had been practicing the night before. The service was extremely long and hard to follow and even though the singing was nice it was all I could do not to doze off since I’d stayed up late the previous evening watching movies on Adrienne’s laptop. The rest of the day was better. We had breakfast with the French teachers from the school and I had a chance to catch up on sleep with a nap afterwards. Later we went to the weekly HIV/AIDS meeting held by the girls in the secondary school. It is led by a girl who is HIV positive and currently on ARV’s (antiretroviral drugs). HIV/AIDS has a stigma in Kenya of being something that is not discussed and it was inspiring to hear her talk so candidly and honestly about it to her classmates. Later the girls asked us a few questions and Adrienne decided to start working with the girls on a weekly basis as a secondary project. As terrible as this is, the girls say they have received no formal HIV or AIDS education from teachers in the classroom.
Speaking of which, I never did get to the part about the secondary project in Kisumu. There is a secondary school in Kisumu that consists of nearly 1,000 girls, and 700 of them are orphans. That is about the perfect target demographic for AIDS education, and I have decided to work with Adrienne in Kisumu about once a month to discuss HIV and AIDS with the girls. I still haven’t formalized anything but there is a large supply of reading material available through the Peace Corps on AIDS education and a volunteer friend of mine in Kakamega has been doing AIDS education for six months now. She has offered props, books, and advice on the best way to present the material.
Now back to the week again, this is going to be a long blog entry… After the HIV/AIDS club I went for a bike ride through Adrienne’s village. I was really having a good time showing off by zipping up and down hills and jumping ledges, and if you know me it should now be apparent where this story is going; I went up on a ridge that had a deceptive three foot drop on the other side that was a little beyond the skill level of my bike riding ability. I took a nosedive, and for the first time (ok, maybe not the first time) wearing a helmet really came in handy. I tore up my shoulder and knee pretty good but managed to take most of the blow to my helmet and walked it off. It was about at that time that the rains came in and drenched me, and crazy as it sounds I had a great time. Being muddy, soaked in rain, tired, and bloody (but not to the point a hospital visit is required) is for me the sign of a successful bike ride. I think any of my biking friends from home who are reading this will agree. Plus the occasional minor accident helps keep me in check with where my limitations are.
So the next day I left for Nairobi to visit my wheelchair contact. The Peace Corps actually paid for my hotel. It was surprisingly nice and included a continental breakfast free of charge. That meant I had money to spend at Java House, which provides break from Kenyan cuisine with American style food. While in Nairobi I had vegetable lasagna, a big salad, a double expresso milkshake two times, and a real hamburger with fries and Heinz ketchup. I also went to a movie and watched “Munich” (I’d give it two and a half stars) and the next night I watched “Oliver Twist” (two thumbs down, terrible movie. However, it was free popcorn and hotdog night, which made it worth it).
Nairobi is a different world compared to the rest of Kenya and it really felt like being back in the states again. I need to try to avoid spending too much time there though because honestly I just lack the self control to avoid spending large sums money (well, not really compared to any given weekend back home but it really puts a significant dent in my Peace Corps stipend). Plus I get a bit of a guilt complex spending the equivalent of $7 on a meal or $4 on a movie when I know almost everyone back in my village is getting by on less than a dollar a day. I know part of it is the way I was raised and what I’m used to but while I’m here I feel like I should be willing to get by on less.
Oh, the other great thing about Nairobi: Not that I would do this because I’m sure it breaking copyright laws but there are so many great DVD’s for sale at Kiosks on the side of the road. How about 8 Jonny Depp movies on one DVD for $3.00? Or entire seasons of the Simpsons for the same price? Or what about a “best of 2006” movie collection that has 9 different movies, some of them not even released to the theater yet? Plus I have several friends in the Peace Corps that have DVD players on their computers. Anyway, just something interesting about Kenya I thought I would point out.
So I need to get going and I still have a ton to write. The wheelchair contact is named Benson and he is an incredible person. He is the chairman of an organisation (I’m using British English without noticing now) called the Kenya Programme (there is it again) for Disabled Persons (KPDP). Once the Chief Executive of a multimillion dollar insurance firm in Kenya, Benson was in a car accident that shattered his spine in three places and left him paralyzed from the waist down. After this he put his life into rights for the disabled in Kenya, which has been an uphill struggle to say the least. Nothing is done to help the disabled here, which is obvious even by going to Benson’s office. On any given day in Nairobi you will pass dozens of disabled people crawling on the ground, or missing legs, or basically immobile and miserable as they sit in place and hope someone will be kind enough to toss a shilling into their money jar. Benson has send in proposal after proposal with extremely limited success through the Kenyan government, and he feels the anything relating to the assistance of the disabled is put at the bottom of the pile and forgotten about. One success story Benson has, however, is getting the first Kenyan disabilities act put into place through his connection with the Vice President in 2003. However, the results of this initiative have been lacking. An example: the wheelchairs available through free wheelchair mission have been delivered to the port of Mombassa, which is as far as the organisation has agreed to ship them free of charge. There is about an additional $4500 for clearing costs and shipping to get them to Nairobi where the crate of 550 can be distributed to the disabled. Benson has had no success getting this money through the government, and is currently working with Free Wheelchair Mission to see if they can cover additional expenses, although it is not looking positive. Meanwhile, the wheelchairs are accruing additional storage expenses as they site in storage in Mombasa. I have spoken to the Peace Corps Country Director and Assistant Director about this and hope that through some of the leads I have been given I may be able to get the grant money together to assist. However, this is a lengthy process and may take to long to be a feasible option. Basically Benson has unlimited access to as many wheelchairs as he wants up to Mombasa but cannot find the funding from there. I cannot understand why there is not help from the government on this.
(Author's note: I am reading this much later as an older, wiser individual and have learned many bitter realities about Kenyan development work. Benson stole a $5,000 donation that was given to him to retrieve the wheelchairs from Mombasa. The wheelchairs were never distributed and through this incident testimonials from others it became clear that Benson's motives as a disabled individual are only to benefit himself. If anybody wants to assist the disabled in Kenya please go through the APDK, the Association for Disabled People in Kenya. This has proven to be an honest and transparent organization)
So also in Nairobi I visited the KACE headquarters, where I learned of potential markets for fresh produce in Eldoret and Kisumu. I will be scheduling meetings next week to discuss this with the branch offices in these locations. Finally, I went to the FAO office and discussed some of the work I have been doing in the network. The FAO is wanting me to begin conducting “Farming-as-a-business” seminars throughout Kenya, which means I may be getting some all expensed paid trips to the coast! Luckily the volunteer before me left plenty of good training material, and I also plan to go through this over the following week.
So I’ve got a lot to do now and I’m feeling good about it. I think I’ll stop now and send my congrats to anyone who made it this far.
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