Coming Home

Hi All,
I'm getting ready to come home. I began packing this morning although I don't leave until Monday. Tomorrow is a busy day, we are having a kids fun day for the children of the WEEP ladies. We are taking 150 people to the Giraffe Center. It will be a zoo! And after church on Sunday we are going to a mall, we will have a display to raise awareness for HEART's Freedom for Girls program.
Packing is going well, I have considerably more room in my suitcase. I'm leaving a lot of my skirts here in Kenya and I ate most of my protein bars (I don't want to eat another Cliff bar for a really, really long time).
I will miss many of the HEART staff members and I've also become close with my fellow interns. We have lived and worked together for the last two months, it will be strange to not see them everyday.
I will also miss Kenya. Random things like the smell of burning trash, or oddly named businesses. (Butcheries have the strangest names, some of my favorites include: "Fresh and Fleshly Butchery", "Welcome Hotel, Butchery, and Cafe", and "Answered Prayer Butchery"). I will also miss the rhythm of being on the Equator. The sun rises and sets at roughly the same time everyday, there is a calm in that. I imagine I will also have difficulty in adjusting to American time. Kenyan time runs about an hour behind schedule. For example we told the WEEP women to get to the Giraffe Center at 8:30 so we can count on most of them being there by 10:30.
I might make a post about the kids fun day at the giraffe center or tabling at Westgate Mall depending on whether I have time. Otherwise I wish you all the best.
Love,
Margaret

Safari

I just got back from safari, it was beautiful! The landscape itself was breathtaking. A vast expanse of land untouched by man. Mountains in the distance, and miles and miles of scrub brush alternating with stretches of brown grass. We saw the sunrise and the sunsets every day on our game drives.
We saw a fair number of animals: a leopard, two lions, tons of zebras, elephants, dik diks, baboons, giraffes, impalas, birds, warthogs, water bucks, and spring bucks. Eventually we saw so many zebras, giraffes, elephants, and baboons that we didn't even pause to take pictures when we came across them.
On our second drive we encountered somewhere around 100 elephants. William, our driver, joked that we arrived at the elephant conference. The road ran right through their 'gathering'. Ultimately we turned around, we didn't want to risk driving through their herd. Elephants can be dangerous, especially when they have their young with them. Our giant green vehicle would be no match for an angry elephant.
Our best sighting was a leopard though. Not only did we see a leopard but he was less than three feet away! He was just hanging out by the side of the road, and he hung around long enough for us to get some pictures. On our last drive we saw two lions, although they were fairly far away. Luckily they stood up, because it would have been impossible to spot them if they had been lying in the grass.
On one of the game drives we hired a guide. He was a wealth of information, we learned what the various groups of animals are all called. A coalition of baboons, a pride of lions, a sounder of warthogs, a raft of rhinos, a journey of giraffes, a clan of hyenas, a school of hippos, a harem of impalas, and a herd of zebras. My personal favorite is the coalition of baboons, they aren't strong enough to form a single party government; they require a coalition! (parliamentary politics joke). We also learned about various animals.
The dik diks might be my favorite (the picture of the dik dik is the little rabbit like thing in the road). They are tiny little creatures, about twice the size of squirrels. They bound along, nibbling on grass and seeds. The dik diks are endearing, aside from the fact that they are incredibly cute, they mate for life. If its mate dies a dik dik becomes despondent and dies shortly thereafter. This is in sharp contrast to the impala. Impalas travel in one of two groups, either harems or bachelor herds; and that is exactly what they are. Either groups of single males or one buck surrounded by a harem of females. Young males from the bachelor herds occasionally challenge the buck from the harem to unseat him as the head of the herd. Once a buck is unseated as the head of the harem he does not go back to the bachelor herd, he is forced to live a solitary life (and once he doesn't have a herd it is a short life, he is easy prey).
Seeing impalas, of course, reminded us of the song "Wanna be a Balla". We rapped "Wanna be a balla, shot calla/ 20 inch rims on the impala" as we bounced along the dusty roads. It was fantastic, and let me tell you, we can rap!
Today I am going to Kibera for the last time, I am sad to say goodbye but I am looking forward to coming home. I'll post any interesting tidbits from my time in Kibera.
Best,
Margaret

Graduation

On the twenty first twelve of the WEEP women graduated. WEEP (Women's Equality Empowerment Project) is designed to empower HIV positive women to support themselves and their families. It is an orphan prevention program.
HEART has several WEEP centers throughout Kenya, most of them are in and around Nairobi and there is one in Mombasa. The women come to work at the centers during the day, they do not live there. When they first come to the center HEART helps them get on their feet, they pay their back rent, feed them, and pay their children's school fees. Soon after wards the women learn to sew. Some centers specialize in sewing mosquito nets, others in school uniforms. Eventually the women support themselves through the income they earn from the pieces they sew. HEART buys the uniforms for its Kids for School Program and a donor from Massachusetts buys the nets to donate throughout Africa (to help prevent malaria).
The graduation was a major event for the women. They were so proud. Most of them have never had a graduation or a ceremony of any kind in their honor. And it was a proper graduation ceremony. We put up big white tents on the lawn, the women received diplomas with seals, and the head of USAID in Kenya gave a speech. (US AID, through PETFAR funds a large chunk of the WEEP program).
I missed most of the speeches, I looked after the children. It was really important for the children to be there, to see their moms as successful, important, and healthy women. Although the children did not sit through all of the speeches, they saw their mother's process in and receive their diplomas. We had a bouncy castle, games, and snacks for the children. The local rotor actors came to help with the children. I love the rotor actors! It was wonderful to hang out with a group of Kenyans who are my age and in my stage of life. And we could not have managed the children without them. They knew all the best Kenyan games, we played tribal chanting games, football (soccer), jump rope, and of course, we bounced.
The graduation is a significant transition for the women. They have to either find jobs or start their own businesses to support themselves, they can no longer count on income from the center.
Every woman intends to start her own business, jobs are very difficult to find. In order to help them start their new lives HEART is providing each women with capital to start a business. I helped some of the women put together business plans for their new ventures, I hope they work out. There is always a danger that the woman will just spend the money, especially since HEART is giving the money in the form of a gift rather than a loan. It is always difficult to instill a measure of financial savvy especially if someone has lived hand to mouth their whole lives. When they have money they spend it, when they don't, they don't. It is difficult to impress upon them the idea of investing. (Although a handful of the women are natural businesswomen and have already started investing the income they earned through the WEEP program). We take for granted the basic life skills that we learn from our parents, if you don't observe certain practices as a child it is hard to learn them as an adult.
Overall the graduation was a success. The ceremony went well and the women are well launched into their new lives. Of course there is risk that their new ventures won't work out, but they are healthy and inspiring women. They are survivors.
I just got back from safari, I'll post pictures tomorrow.
Best,
Margaret

This is another video from Oldonyonyokie. It is a traditional dance, typically performed by youths. I love the sound of their voices, it reminds me a little of a sea shanty. It certainly isn't melodic.

Oldoyonyokie Dance

This is from my trip to Oldonyonyokie. The dance is mostly a traditional Massai dance although they added a few contemporary aspects. I loved the singing and dancing! The video captured some of their spirit, I hope you enjoy it. Unfortunately they did not wear their traditional clothing, or jump (the Massai are famous for jumping).
Today is the WEEP graduation, I'll post photos.
Best,
Margaret

Expanded Vocbulary

Even my vocabulary has expanded over the course of this trip. Aside from the limited Swahili I have learned, my English vocabulary has changed. I find myself talking about stati. As in, "when did you learn your status" or "what is your status?". Status refers to HIV, whether someone is negative or positive. I have also talked more about 'sanitary towels' and 'monthly cycles' than I ever care to again. It is strange to casually remark over dinner that we just got another donation of 230 packets of sanitary towels. We discuss feminine hygiene products like you would the weather! I have also never talked so much about abandonment, rape, and hunger as I have on this trip. It is amazing how commonplace these phenomena are. Everywhere you turn there is another orphanage, overflowing with children who barely have enough to eat and who might or might not have the opportunity to go to school. I also think about water differently. Many places we have gone deal with constant water shortages, most parts of Kenya face perpetual droughts. In Oldonyonyokie we didn't even carry our water bottles around with us, we had to go to the car to drink, to carry around that much water would be garish.
Tomorrow is another office day, we are finalizing plans for the WEEP graduation and I will finish the business plans (huzzah!). I will keep you posted,
Margaret

Photos and Random Thoughts

Here are some random photos from my trip. All of these photos are actually all from my trip to Taita. The first picture is me with "the jean man" (his actual name is Issiah) . He wore jean from head to toe! I really enjoyed hanging out with him, he was so calm and sweet. At one point he walked up to me and gestured for me to pick him up. This is fairly rare; most of the time young children are afraid of muzungus (white people). This is especially true of children from rural areas, they rarely, if ever, interact with white people. Children will dash up to you and touch you but they usually don't want prolonged physical contact. The last picture shows children from an orphanage dancing to the bananas song. At the time I didn't think they liked the Bananas song too much, but looking at the photos I can tell they really enjoyed it. Apparently I was too into the song to really pay attention to their expressions! When you really 'go bananas' it is difficult to notice what is going on around you. The middle picture is mist surrounding the hills of Taita, it reminded me of the mist that comes out of the canyon at home.
Best,
Margaret

Business in the Slums

I have been helping the women of the WEEP program write business plans; it is an enlightening experience. I struggled at first, it was difficult to write plans for businesses I know nothing about in a market I am completely unfamiliar with. I am writing plans for businesses in the slums, the the economy in the slums is radically different from any western market. Business in downtown Nairobi operates in much the same way business in San Francisco or Chicago operates. There are malls, supermarkets, stores, banks, restaurants, and factories.
Business in the slums, however, is very different. There are no stores, people have stalls where they sell the most random hodge podge of goods. It is not uncommon to see a women selling packages of underwear, dried fish, and toothbrushes from a stall. Stalls are trees branches nailed together, they aren't even made from proper boards. Four branches serve as posts and another four branches are attached horizontally to re enforce the posts and to hang goods off of. And stalls are luxuries, the majority of people just sit by the side of the road. In the slums people buy consumer goods in medium sized quantities and then sell tiny portions to consumers. It is not uncommon for a person to buy a bag of charcoal and then sell one or two pieces to consumers. Needless to say it is horribly inefficient; but people don't have enough money to buy a whole bag of charcoal at once so they buy pieces.
Another reality of business in the slums is constant negotiation. There are no fixed prices, you haggle over everything. This has made it difficult to construct realistic business plans. A typical conversation goes like this:
Me: "How much are you going to charge for that?"
WEEP Woman: "It depends"
Me: "It depends on what?"
Weep Woman: "How much the person is willing to pay"
Me: "Is there a range of prices?"
WEEP Woman: "Maybe 50 to 100 shillings"
I have given up trying to formulate break even analysis for their businesses, I just have to trust that they know how much they need to sell an item for in order to make money. And they are certainly interested in making money; they have to survive. I have tried to remind them that they have to not only cover the cost of the good they are selling but they also need to factor in their overhead costs.
Another reality of business in the slums is that every person has to have at least two businesses. Most of the WEEP women plan to, in addition to their main business, tailor and sell vegetables on the side. So far I have written plans for tailoring, fish, tomato, school uniform, banana, milk, and grain businesses.
Many of the women I have been working with plan to enter the fish business. This is mainly because one of the WEEP women, Jane Akini, has been very successful in the fish business. Jane is inspiring, she owns two 'homes' (freestanding rooms) in Kibera. She lives in one and rents the other out. Jane self identifies as a business women. She started selling small dried omena fish by the side of the road, now she sells from a stall and plans to expand her business to sell fish wholesale.
Overall I have been impressed with the WEEP women. They have certainly taught me more than I have taught them. I now have a vague understanding of how business operates in the slums.
The WEEP graduation is on Saturday and I leave for safari on Sunday. I will keep you posted,
Margaret

Taita

I just got back from a trip upcountry to Taita. Taita is beautiful, large rocky hills dominate the landscape. It is an impoverished area and it has one of the highest instances of HIV in Kenya. Nearly every home has a grave in the yard and there are an overwhelming number of orphans. We stayed with Pastor Laurence, he is a remarkable man. The pastor and his wife, Mary, look after eighteen children. They have seven children of their own and they also care for their nieces and nephews. Both of Pastor Laurence's brothers died, he did not say of what, but I assume AIDS.
On our second night we had an impromptu party with the children, it was my favorite experience in Kenya so far. As we were heading to bed I mentioned to Jemima how much I had enjoyed her singing at the class presentations that day, this comment was changed in translation, they thought I was asking her to sing. Soon we were all standing around a gas lamp in a dirt courtyard singing to God. One of the younger boys drummed on a plastic water container and the rest of us sang acapella. One of the songs that they sang was "Melody in My Heart". One part of the song says "I am overwhelmed by the joy of the Lord." They did not simply sing about joy, they manifested it in their lives, they beamed. Here was a group of children, most of them orphans, with almost no material possessions and limited opportunities to improve their lives, but they were joyful, truly joyful.
Soon the singing progressed to singing and dancing, they tried to teach us various African dance moves. Dancing is not my strong suit, one of the boys pointed to the other two interns and exclaimed "they can move", he did not see fit to include me in his remark. It was fun all the same.
It is truly a blessing to be able to stay in people's homes. There are certainly downsides, no running water, you have to eat the food that they serve you (you end up eating entirely more than you want and occasionally it can gross you out) but it was a blessing to be included in their lives.
This week is busy, we are preparing for the WEEP graduation and are going to a luncheon. I will keep you posted.
Best,
Margaret

Election

On August 4th Kenya held a referendum on a new constitution. The new constitution passed overwhelmingly. The constitution seeks to address the structural issues that plague Kenya. The constitution institutes a measure of federalism, limits the power of the president, and has land reform measures. Although I have read the new constitution I don't have an opinion about it, well, that's not entirely true. I have an opinion, it just isn't a terribly informed one. I don't know the context that the constitution fits in, and I haven't read the old constitution.
The election itself went well, this was a huge victory for Kenya. By all accounts the election was fair and the NO vote took their defeat with grace. The last election did not go smoothly, the election was not fair and there was significant violence following the vote. Many people died, one of our drivers actually saw people burned alive in the Kibera slum. Much of the violence centered around tribal tensions; many people were approached and asked to speak in their mother tongue, depending on the language they responded in they would be killed. In addition to the thousand who were killed, a hundred thousand were displaced from their homes. I hope that this new constitution sets the foundation for a stable and properous Kenya; it is certainly encouraging that the vote went so well.
I am going to rural Thaita tomorrw. We are doing health teaching, HIV testing, and a 'kids fun day'. It will be busy! I will teach the children health education and then play games. We will play soccor, or football as they call it, jump rope, and sing songs. They especially love it when I teach them American songs or attempt to sing Swahili songs. My Swahili is improving though, so they probably won't find my attempts as entertaining.
Best,
Margaret

Daily Life at HEART

I have had a few request to describe my daily life; this is for you Uncle Tom! I spend most of my time in Nairobi, I am staying at the HEART lodge. HEART is a charity group but it runs a lodge to generate income. The HEART lodge is a compound, there are offices for the staff, rooms for some of the Kenyan staff who have to stay late at night, a condo for Vickie, a house for the interns and permanent guests, a dining room, and a number of guest rooms. The lodge can sleep up to twenty five, not including the staff rooms or the intern's house. We live very comfortably. We have hot showers, comfortable beds, and good food. Breakfast is served every morning at 8 and dinner is served at 6:45. Bacon, cereal, toast, and fruit are mainstays at breakfast (I have become absolutely addicted to mangoes) . In addition we have chapati pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or porridge. Dinner is almost always western food, we rarely eat Kenyan food at the lodge. There is always a meat, at least one starch, a vegetable, and dessert.
Many missionary groups stay at HEART, it is a God centered place. There is a constant stream of new people coming through HEART. Right now there is a team from Southern California, and a mission group from Seattle just left. We have devotions every morning at 7:45, the staff, guests, and interns take turns leading devotions.
My days vary considerably. We frequently travel around to different schools to do health education and distribute sanitary towels, we go to different WEEP centers, we travel around with missionary teams, we have meetings with HEART supporters or potential supporters, and we go to different community events (Rotary meetings, teas held by NGOs etc. ). We spend a considerable amount of time in the car, Nairobi traffic can be brutal! It is not uncommon to spend an hour and a half driving someplace, and then of course you have to come back. We have many long days, frequently we are gone for ten hours traveling around, meeting people, teaching, or attending an event.
There are also opportunities to relax. Nairobi is a modern city, there are malls and western restaurants. The other night we went out to pizza and then bowling (I bowled a 99, so sad I didn't break 100). We go to the Village Market a few times a week (mostly to go to the Nakumatt, the large Safeway like grocery store). The Village Market is not a village market, it has jewelry stores, a movie theater, a pool hall, a Woolworths, a grocery store, and a number of restaurants.
My days are challenging, busy, stimulating, and fun, although I do look forward to coming home. Tomorrow is another busy day and we are getting ready to go upcountry on Thursday. I will keep you posted,
Margaret

Kibera

Today I went to the Kibera WEEP center. Normally we don't walk around the slum but today we went on home visits so we walked all around Kibera. Kibera is an interesting place, it looks like a shanty town. The shacks are made of mud with metal sheeting for roofs. Trash and human waste run through the ditches, combined with water it makes a murky sludge. The roads are hardened red clay, you have to look alive to avoid the waste. Kibera started as a military encampment, after World War I Nubian soldiers were given plots of land in that area. The settlement has grown into one of the largest slums in the world. It is estimated that 1.5 million people live in Kibera, although the area is not very large. None of the homes have running water or ventilated cooking stoves, it is not very sanitary. The vast majority of the people who live in Kibera are extremely poor, most live on less than $1 a day. Although the bulk of the people are very poor, some professionals do live in Kibera. The woman who runs the Kibera WEEP center, for example, lives in Kibera and she is a nurse. Another woman who works in the HEART project office lives in Kibera. The living conditions seem extreme to westerners, but for many they are just a way of life.
I also got an opportunity to speak to a WEEP lady one on one. I went to Rhoda's home to do a family evaluation. Her home was clean and beautiful, it was a single room divided by a curtain. The room was probably twelve by eight feet, and five people live there! Rhoda's home is spacious in comparison to most houses in Kibera, the other WEEP women who accompanied us kept commenting on how large it was. Rhoda also has access to a more private choo, the landlord built a choo for all the houses on the block. Choos are latrines, most people in Kibera use public choos. You have to pay three to five shillings (around six cents) to use the choo. Most people are so poor that they will only use the choo once a day, the rest of the time they will go to the bathroom in a bucket.
I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Rhoda and her family. She has three beautiful daughters, Rhoda supports them entirely on her own. Her husband abandoned her after he found out her status. Rhoda's daughter are all HIV negative, generally healthy, and in school. Overall the visit was very uplifting, it was wonderful to hear how far Rhoda has come and that her children have the opportunity to go to school. Rhoda did mention, almost nonchalantly, that her middle daughter was raped in 2007. Curity, 9 at the time, was attacked on her way to school. She was found beaten and raped. Curity was lucky, Rhoda made sure she went to the hospital right away and also insisted that she get counseling. Curity seemed like a happy and healthy young girl, I hope that is the case.
Rape is not uncommon in Kenya, and it is often family members who rape young girls. A principal at an orphanage we went to mentioned that she expected that most of the girls at the orphanage had been raped at one time or another.
Tomorrow is an office day, we are working around the HEART compound but we head upcountry on Thursday. I'll post more accounts of my adventures.
Best,
Margaret

Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Center

Yesterday we went to an elephant orphanage and a giraffe center! The baby elephants were adorable. The orphanage takes in babies for up to three years, they integrate them into herds and then release them into the wild. Most of the elephants were orphaned as a result of poaching, many of them were found standing by their mother's carcasses. Both poaching and selling ivory are against the law in Kenya, punishable by years in jail. Elephant's tusks do not begin to show until they are older so baby elephants are not targeted by poachers. The elephants which were not orphaned as a result of poaching were orphaned as a result of the drought. Last year there was a severe drought in Kenya, people, livestock, and wild animals all died.
Elephants are truly amazing creatures, they are social and intelligent. An elephant will always recognize its trainer, even after years in the wild. The orphanage does not tag the elephants, partly for funding reasons and partly because elephants live so long. The chips implanted in the elephants would die before the elephant (at least that is what the guide said). However, if the elephant comes back to the orphanage (which they do frequently) it will recognize its trainer and respond to its name. It was sweet to see the bond between the trainers and the elephants, the trainers sleep on a bunk in the elephant's stall, they spend literally 24 hours a day together.
After the elephant orphanage we went to the giraffe center. The giraffe center is just that, a place to hang out with giraffes. I petted a giraffe I nicknamed Leonard, it seemed like a lanky sort of name. You can feed the giraffes pellets so they come up to you and you can interact with them at their level from a balcony. There are even opportunities to kiss giraffes, you hold a pellet between your lips and the giraffe eats it from your mouth. I did not kiss a giraffe, Leonard and I kept the relationship strictly platonic.
Tomorrow I am going to the Kibera WEEP center and I think I will have an opportunity to travel to some of the women's homes.
Best,
Margaret

WEEP

I have been spending a significant amount of time working with the women of WEEP (Women's Equality Empowerment Program) , their journey's are incredible. These women have all literally come back to life. Jane, a woman from the Kibera WEEP center told me her story. When she first came to the center she was so weak she couldn't walk, and she couldn't eat because of thrashing. Jane traveled to the clinic several times to figure out why she was so sick. The doctors knew that she was HIV positive but they would not tell her, they told her husband instead. Her husband abandoned her and her children shortly thereafter. It took Jane two more trips to the clinic to get the doctors to tell her that she was HIV positive, finally Jane had to demand that she "wanted to know what was going on even if she was dying". At that time AIDS was a death sentence, it took unimaginable courage to face up to her reality. Jane is a powerful woman, she frequently wears a bright orange t- shirt that reads "I'm Positive" and on the back it says "Do You Know Your Status?" Jane is a leader at the WEEP center, she has several successful side businesses and owns her own home. Jane is one of many inspiring, dynamic women that the WEEP program has helped empower.

WEEP is an orphan prevention program, it seeks to empower mothers, like Jane, who have AIDS so that they can take care of their own children. HEART has a number of WEEP centers throughout Kenya, several in and around Nairobi and one in Mombasa. Each WEEP center has between six and fifteen members, the women stay in the program for a number of years. When the women first arrive at the centers most of them are near death. Through the WEEP program the women are given food, receive psychological support, and are taught to sew. Once the women are healthy they begin to sew either school uniforms or mosquito nets depending on the center. The women receive income for each net or uniform that they make. After a period of years the women graduate from the program. We are preparing for the first WEEP graduation, it will be held on August 21st. The women who are graduating will receive a sewing machine and $500 to start their own businesses. I am working with the women to finalize their business plans and think through the logistics of their businesses.
I apologize for neglecting to write blog posts regularly, I promise to write more frequently in the future.
Best,
Margaret