6/16/06

In the street below my office, I heard a big crash followed by a wave of human commotion. When I looked down on the street, I could see that a car had hit a boda boda driver. This is hardly surprising, given the facts that cars have the supreme right of way over everything that is in the road and they drive extremely fast as well. A large crowd of boda boda drivers and other concerned onlookers gathered very quickly around the errant driver’s car. Many of the men were outraged and were simultaneously shouting accusations at the driver. The driver looked very nervous, and at one point started to drive away, but several of the men stood in front of the car, blocking his escape path. He finally got up the nerve to get out of the car, and when he emerged, there was some halfhearted pushing, shoving, and a lot of finger pointing by the boda boda supporters. Shortly, a helmeted, uniformed policeman drove slowly up on his small motorcycle. The men all took a quick break to admire the policeman’s piki piki, which obviously endowed him with a lot of status. I could see the policeman was a very young man as he slowly got off his piki piki and walked somewhat reluctantly toward the rowdy crowd. His demeanor didn’t convey a sense that he was about to take charge of the situation. Once he got to the crowd he paused to listen while several people shouted explanations at him all at the same time. The driver of the car didn’t have any obvious supporters present, but the policeman did question him apparently in an attempt to get his side of the story. Once that was accomplished, the policeman joined the crowd, which aimlessly milled around, all the while shouting out their opinion of what had transpired. Finally the policeman broke away from the crowd and went to choose an appropriate stone which he used some how mark the position of the car on the pavement. From my vantage point, I could not see that any marks were made at all by the stone. Then the guy strolled over and looked at the position of the boda boda lying on the ground. People were still shouting feverishly and I could not really tell at this point who the boda boda victim was. Finally, the policeman waved the driver of the car away, mounted his motorcylcle and left what apparently was a situation successfully resolved. I thought what a perfect solution since no one was really hurt and no damage was sustained. Just let everybody shout for a while and then call it good.

the big trip to Eldoret-on the edge of the Rift Valley

I wanted to share some stories about my trip to Eldoret with you..

This weekend I visited Eldoret with my colleague from work, Bernard Chegge.

On the way to Eldoret, as we approached the Ugandan border there were several police checkpoints I guess patrolling for drugs being smuggled in. in any event, one of the hotshot young police guys stopped our matatu and requested to see my passport which I didn’t have with me because we were only going 100 kilometres from Kakamega. Everyone in the van was very quiet while I was talking to the guy and after apologizing and swearing I wouldn’t leave it at home again, he let us go. I think it was all a farce and an attempt to get some money from me but for a second I was visualizing myself in some kenayn prison.

After we arrived, I spent pretty much all of Saturday meeting my colleagues huge family, including all of his brothers and sisters, cousins, in laws and what have you. They were all very welcoming but there was a family crisis. One of Bernard’s sisters and her husband were having serious marital problems and in Kenya the whole family is involved in the problem, listening to the couple and giving advice and most importantly, lobbying to keep the couple together. The presevation of marriage is a family affair here because in Kenya, when a couple gets married there is a symbolic payment of a dowry which is given to actually validate the bond that must be formed between each person’s clan. In fact, it appears that the formation of this bond is actually more important than the wedding preparations and especially more important that the happiness of the marriage. As a result of all this family pressure, you can imagine that the divorce rate in Kenya is pretty low but on the other hand, infidelity for both partners is common. Once again, another reason that AIDS is continuing to spread in Africa. It was quite a learning experience to watch all of this taking place as an outsider and it was hard to imagine all of it taking place in the US.

The town of Eldoret is considerably more modern than Kakamega and by visiting I was really able to understand how small and remoteI am here. First of all, there were lots of women of all ages wearing pants in Eldoret. Only women who are loose or doing commercial sex work wear pants in Kakamega. On Sunday there were lots of couples and parents with their kids doing things in the town. You never see a man and a woman walking togethe or doing any sort of activity together here. So, as a result of Kakamega being so rural, the norms are very conservative and there people are very concerned about what others may say about them.

The Rift Valley is very breathtaking. It is a lush green narrow valley with farms sprinkled throughout. And of course, there are bluffs on either side of it with lots of small rock faces and huge boulders. The Rift Valley separates Western and Eastern Kenya and of course is believed to be where human civilization began. Now, there is a great deal of civilization. There is a beautiful resort type place on one of the bluffs where the Kenyan running team stay and train. I am not sure what the elevation is but it is apparently high enough to be a good training spot. I actually got to eat a pizza when I visited Eldoret and it was good. It was bacon, mushroom and pineapple. After having been in Kenya for a month, it sure tasted good.

After we returned to Kakamega on Sunday evening, I don’t know if it was the full moon or what. But as I was walking past an area where all the boda boda guys wait for business, there was a big group of guys beating up a couple of other guys who must have infringed on their territory. Then, when I got into the matatu to go to my house, there were six older people sitting behind me screaming at the conductor about how they were overcharged. They continued to shout at him for about 5 minutes, it was not very relaxing in the least. It was a relief to get back to my house and when I did, the little girls came running to the door to see me saying they had missed me all weekend.

One other comment on the mitumba used clothes that everyone wears here;

Because a majority of the clothes come from the US, I have seen t-shirts and jackets with all kinds of sports teams names on them, including high school, college and pro sports from all over the US. I saw some college’s lacross jersey today. Seeing the t-shirts is a daily reminder of the fact that life is continuing as usual back in the US even though I am living here in such a different culture and environment.

6/2/06

Hi everybody. here is the latest edition. i haven't been able to get photos on the blog. i think all of these computers have a 286 processor and have the tiniest dial up phone line in the entire world. i guess i will have to bore you with the photos when i get home.

I faced one of my fears today . After work, I walked around a little more of Kakamega’s off the beaten path streets without being accompanied by anyone. All Kenyans seem to feel like they are vulnerable to theft. I am constantly warned to be careful with my bag, in all the small stores the merchandise is kept behind a counter that is lined with steel bars, and everyone locks everthing they have with huge heavy duty locks. In a country this poor, people who don’t have anything will take big risks to find a way to eat.

The main streets of Kakamega which I call streets 1, 2, and 3 are fairly prosperous. Once in the back lanes however, you can really see the poverty that exists here. All of the buildings and little houses are in really bad condition and everywhere there are little children playing in the doors and lanes, wearing ragged clothes. They all stare at me intently and are very shy when I say hello to them.

On my stroll, I walked past 10 or 15 women selling a variety of things along the road. I greeted them all in Kiluhya and they just thought that was so funny and wonderful. the older women don’t speak much Kiswahili and are really pleased if you can speak the tiniest bit of Kiluhya.

I would say that there are two things that Kenyans are obsessed with and that is soccer and politics. As far as soccer goes, all the local teams are very popular and the match scores are reported on the nightly news. However, the English premier league is the real focus and it seems like everyone is in some way proclaiming their loyalty to Arsenal. In addition to Arsenal stickers, all the matatus are named and the majority of them also are covered with Christian slogans. I would say that these crazy drivers definitely need god watching over them while they careen down the road.

The missionaries have been very effective in Kakamega. There are an overwhelming number of churches and mosques here. The religions represented are primarily catholic and Quaker, but there are other sects like the Anglican Church, some evangelical churches, and other types of protestant churches. When traveling in the rural areas outside of Kakamega, there are churches and schools approximately every 5 miles. The other impact that Christianity has had on the Kenyans, which I am sure that the missionaries didn’t anticipate, was in people naming their businesses. There are many small shops in and around Kakamega and many have names like Christian guest house, faith clothing shop, hope supermarket, and trinity bike repair. Since the Kenyans have struggled so long for freedom and against extreme poverty, they have developed a deep faith and belief that it is God who will help to miraculously help to improve their condition. Over the last 40 years the majority of Kenyans have all come to rely almost solely on foreign aid and grants from western countries. They have no faith in their government and leaders to take a strong role in helping develop the infrastructure and economies in rural Kenya where the poverty exists. As a result, the widespread attitude shared by many poor Kenyans is there are no opportunities for them to help themselves to improve their lives. so they rely on God to help them survive and cope with their difficult circumstances.

I enjoy regularly reading the Nation, one of Kenya’s two national newspapers. The government controls the news here but there are still stories about the current political scandals balanced with stories reporting on the positive outcomes of newly implemented government legislation and programs. This weekend, the front-page story published a list of the top 25 corrupt bribe taking government agencies. The 5 top agencies were the police, state corporations, local authorities, the teacher’s service commission, and the Kenya prison system. The highest average bribes were paid to public colleges for admissions. The bribe paid was equivalent to about $2000 US .The police were the second highest with a likelihood of bribes being 82%.