Cross Sector and Independence Day
Last week was “Cross Sector”, which consisted of two days of language training for the first year volunteers followed by three days of training with everyone discussing what other volunteers in my region are doing with their projects. Language training was a lot of fun and something I’ve been missing out on lately. Henry, a hilarious guy and a great teacher, was one of the language trainers, and he told me he’ll be spending some time in his home town near Kakamega soon and I should be able to get some more language lessons soon.
Something I’ve learned about language: I now feel very comfortable with basic “survival” Swahili and can carry on simple conversations without a problem. However, it seems that the more I learn about a language the more difficult it becomes, and without a teacher I’ve hit a wall with Swahili. There are so many different noun classes that change the structure of the word or sentence in different ways, plus the many assorted prefixes, tenses, infixes, and suffixes that can be placed within a single verb. It really becomes a bit overwhelming. However, here are a few tidbits from my latest language training:
Mwafaka…pronounced phonetically with a soft “aa”, it means “proper” or “correct” and is a lot of fun to say, especially since the accent is placed on the second syllable, e.g. “Unajua Kiswahili Mwafaka?” (Do you speak proper Swahili?)
And here’s a Swahili tongue twister: “Wale watu wa Liwala wala wali wa Liwala wao” (Those people of Liwala eat their rice of Liwala)
So language was fun. Our Cross Sector was in Webuye, which features a very stinky paper mill and an equally smelly water treatment plant. I was skeptical about staying there for a week but the hotel was great. It had a very cold swimming pool (because it’s rainy Kenyan wintertime at a fairly high elevation) but we spent a lot of time in the water regardless. Plus the food was great and I stuffed myself three times a day, so it will be an adjustment going back to site. Also, the World Cup is in full swing right now and even though I would have cared less about it back in the States I’m really into it here. I’ve realized Soccer is a great sport to watch because it goes for 45 straight minutes without timeouts and commercial breaks, plus everyone (outside of the US of course) is completely into it. The bar in our hotel was packed for the Ghana/Brazil game, where unfortunately Ghana was beaten 3-0, much to the disappointment of Kenyans supporting their home continent, but then Brazil unexpectedly lost to France so they got what they deserved and won’t be playing in the semi finals.
For our site visit the Business PCV’s were supposed to visit a village bank, but then the manager of the Bank informed our Coordinator that unless we knew Jesus and proclaimed that we were saved we would not get to see his project. Therefore, at the last minute my site was chosen and I worked with Habakkuk to set up meetings in the field with some of our groups. We had all kinds of great sweet potato products for lunch, plus lots of the usual singing and dancing, and also John Amisi, the guy who is in change of the Moringa tree project, came by for a visit, so all in all things went really well.
Speaking of knowing Jesus, there were signs all over Webuye for “Compel Crusade for Christ” which is an evangelical group preaching at various churches throughout Western Kenya. They turned out to consist of a large number of Southern Baptists from Louisiana who were staying in the same Hotel as the PCV’s. I sometimes wonder exactly how these people are helping, since so many previous missionaries have done such a phenomenal job in changing Kenya to a Christian nation. After living here I’m honestly not sure who is left to convert, and as far as I could tell that was the only reason they are here. Also, why is it that Western Nations have the monopoly on evangelical mission work? In most of the countries missionaries go to the people, in general, have much stronger religious beliefs than the countries that the evangelists are coming from. It seems like Africans and Latin Americans should be going to Europe and the US to evangelize as well, since so many people in developed countries seem to have lost their faith and spirituality. I’m not saying evangelical mission work is bad, there are a lot of missionaries that have done fantastic things, it’s just that so many groups come here to stay in fancy hotels, go on Safari, and briefly venture out into the village just long enough to brag about how many souls they have saved, while not actually doing anything to demonstrate what it means, in my opinion, to be a Christian. Between that kind of mentality and the NGO’s that throw large amounts of handout money around without regard to self-sustainability, it becomes easy to grow skeptical about how effective most aid work really is, but I’ll save going into this any further for another day.
After our Cross Sector we had a fantastic 4th of July party over the weekend of the 1st. It was held at the amazingly nice International school in Nairobi and the roughly 5,000 Americans living in Kenya were invited. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, apple pie, cold beer on tap, a chili cookoff, and tons of great prizes in a raffle. Plus, for the first time ever, a Peace Corps team beat the Marines in Tug of War!! I was on the winning Peace Corps team, which is undoubtedly why we won. I also had a chance to visit with the newest group of volunteers that have arrived in country, and one of them, Jessica, is living with my host family. We had a good time talking about Mama Veronica, Junior, and Jackie. Jessica is enjoying Kitui, but much like me and everyone else who has ever stayed there she is ready to get out. After the party at the International school we had an after party at a bar in Westlands, and all in all is was a fantastic time. I had a chance to plan several collaborative projects with other PCV’s, including meeting up with one of the volunteers on the coast. He is working on an FAO project as well and I plan to schedule a visit to his site in August. Who knows? Maybe after learning a bit about what he’s doing I’ll lay on the beach for a few days or get SCUBA certified.
Jessica, the new Peace Corps volunteer staying at my old host family, told them I would be at the 4th of July party in Nairobi so they called to let me know they would be in town that weekend as well. On Sunday I met with them for lunch and Mama Veronica brought me a shirt she made. Mama Veronica is amazing and it was great to see them again. Now I’m waiting to take my first Kenyan train ride back to Kisumu tonight and then I’m back to Kakamega in the morning. That’s all for now but I’ll write more soon, enjoy the fireworks back home!
Something I’ve learned about language: I now feel very comfortable with basic “survival” Swahili and can carry on simple conversations without a problem. However, it seems that the more I learn about a language the more difficult it becomes, and without a teacher I’ve hit a wall with Swahili. There are so many different noun classes that change the structure of the word or sentence in different ways, plus the many assorted prefixes, tenses, infixes, and suffixes that can be placed within a single verb. It really becomes a bit overwhelming. However, here are a few tidbits from my latest language training:
Mwafaka…pronounced phonetically with a soft “aa”, it means “proper” or “correct” and is a lot of fun to say, especially since the accent is placed on the second syllable, e.g. “Unajua Kiswahili Mwafaka?” (Do you speak proper Swahili?)
And here’s a Swahili tongue twister: “Wale watu wa Liwala wala wali wa Liwala wao” (Those people of Liwala eat their rice of Liwala)
So language was fun. Our Cross Sector was in Webuye, which features a very stinky paper mill and an equally smelly water treatment plant. I was skeptical about staying there for a week but the hotel was great. It had a very cold swimming pool (because it’s rainy Kenyan wintertime at a fairly high elevation) but we spent a lot of time in the water regardless. Plus the food was great and I stuffed myself three times a day, so it will be an adjustment going back to site. Also, the World Cup is in full swing right now and even though I would have cared less about it back in the States I’m really into it here. I’ve realized Soccer is a great sport to watch because it goes for 45 straight minutes without timeouts and commercial breaks, plus everyone (outside of the US of course) is completely into it. The bar in our hotel was packed for the Ghana/Brazil game, where unfortunately Ghana was beaten 3-0, much to the disappointment of Kenyans supporting their home continent, but then Brazil unexpectedly lost to France so they got what they deserved and won’t be playing in the semi finals.
For our site visit the Business PCV’s were supposed to visit a village bank, but then the manager of the Bank informed our Coordinator that unless we knew Jesus and proclaimed that we were saved we would not get to see his project. Therefore, at the last minute my site was chosen and I worked with Habakkuk to set up meetings in the field with some of our groups. We had all kinds of great sweet potato products for lunch, plus lots of the usual singing and dancing, and also John Amisi, the guy who is in change of the Moringa tree project, came by for a visit, so all in all things went really well.
Speaking of knowing Jesus, there were signs all over Webuye for “Compel Crusade for Christ” which is an evangelical group preaching at various churches throughout Western Kenya. They turned out to consist of a large number of Southern Baptists from Louisiana who were staying in the same Hotel as the PCV’s. I sometimes wonder exactly how these people are helping, since so many previous missionaries have done such a phenomenal job in changing Kenya to a Christian nation. After living here I’m honestly not sure who is left to convert, and as far as I could tell that was the only reason they are here. Also, why is it that Western Nations have the monopoly on evangelical mission work? In most of the countries missionaries go to the people, in general, have much stronger religious beliefs than the countries that the evangelists are coming from. It seems like Africans and Latin Americans should be going to Europe and the US to evangelize as well, since so many people in developed countries seem to have lost their faith and spirituality. I’m not saying evangelical mission work is bad, there are a lot of missionaries that have done fantastic things, it’s just that so many groups come here to stay in fancy hotels, go on Safari, and briefly venture out into the village just long enough to brag about how many souls they have saved, while not actually doing anything to demonstrate what it means, in my opinion, to be a Christian. Between that kind of mentality and the NGO’s that throw large amounts of handout money around without regard to self-sustainability, it becomes easy to grow skeptical about how effective most aid work really is, but I’ll save going into this any further for another day.
After our Cross Sector we had a fantastic 4th of July party over the weekend of the 1st. It was held at the amazingly nice International school in Nairobi and the roughly 5,000 Americans living in Kenya were invited. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, apple pie, cold beer on tap, a chili cookoff, and tons of great prizes in a raffle. Plus, for the first time ever, a Peace Corps team beat the Marines in Tug of War!! I was on the winning Peace Corps team, which is undoubtedly why we won. I also had a chance to visit with the newest group of volunteers that have arrived in country, and one of them, Jessica, is living with my host family. We had a good time talking about Mama Veronica, Junior, and Jackie. Jessica is enjoying Kitui, but much like me and everyone else who has ever stayed there she is ready to get out. After the party at the International school we had an after party at a bar in Westlands, and all in all is was a fantastic time. I had a chance to plan several collaborative projects with other PCV’s, including meeting up with one of the volunteers on the coast. He is working on an FAO project as well and I plan to schedule a visit to his site in August. Who knows? Maybe after learning a bit about what he’s doing I’ll lay on the beach for a few days or get SCUBA certified.
Jessica, the new Peace Corps volunteer staying at my old host family, told them I would be at the 4th of July party in Nairobi so they called to let me know they would be in town that weekend as well. On Sunday I met with them for lunch and Mama Veronica brought me a shirt she made. Mama Veronica is amazing and it was great to see them again. Now I’m waiting to take my first Kenyan train ride back to Kisumu tonight and then I’m back to Kakamega in the morning. That’s all for now but I’ll write more soon, enjoy the fireworks back home!
posted by KenyaJoe at 7:14 AM
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