This is the countryside around Kakamega. It is much greener and more pastoral than I expected to find in Kenya
Friday, October 20, 2006
final chapter in kakamega
I left Kakamega on Friday, October 6th. The six weeks that I stayed in Kakamega this time went so darn quickly. I stayed really focused on work while I was here. For me, the work was incredibly rewarding and I felt like I was really doing valuable work and making a positive contribution. Working on a volunteer basis for no pay is a wonderful experience because I was no longer relying on how much money I was making to determine the worth of my efforts. Instead, my connection to the people I was working with and their feedback were all that I needed to feel happy about working. I managed to video about 8 clients and their businesses for my training DVD project and both Bob and I are really looking forward to the challenge of creating it now. I also was able to complete the framework for the training manuals and I arranged to set up a classroom as planned in the Kakamega office. Both the program director and the managing director in Nairobi were very happy to add these tools to their program and I think we all feel that implementing an effective training program for our clients will not only give them the direction the need to make their businesses successful, but also to add to the quality of their life with education as well. Anyway, time will tell if that is true or just a hopeful fantasy!
By interviewing clients for this video, one of the bonuses was getting to know them so much better. One of the women who started from absolutely zero and now owns several successful businesses was very inspiring. She has publicly acknowledged that she is HIV positive which is a rare and brave action. She told me that she choose to go public because in reality most people around her already knew and everyone spent quite a bit of time whispering about it, so by acknowledging it, she stole the gossip back from them. Now, she calls herself an ambassador for hope for people with HIV. Her story about HIV is so typical of many of the women I got to know in Kenya. She and her husband were living in Nairobi, he died and she found out that she was HIV positive. As a widow and HIV victim, she lost everything, even the support of her family, even though being positive was not her fault. So, with one child, she moved back to Kakamega and started participating in the FAHIDA micro credit program and really empowered herself. Another women with a similar story invited me to her home for tea one evening. She and her 9 year old daughter live in one room about 10 feet by 20 feet. There is a curtain hanging accross the middle of the room to separate the bed from the living area. She was so welcoming to me, we had chai, boiled yams and boiled sweet potatoes which we ate by latern light. I know that everyone in Kenya struggles in the same way, but I was always so touched at how people made the absolute best of their situation and seemed to be happy in spite of it. That is a story that I witnessed time after time in Kakamega and it has made me think so hard about our lives here in the US. But that is a whole nother blog entry!
One of the final highlights of stay before I left was that I gave a small party for 56 of the neighborhood children. The children who lived on my lane and in my neighborhood gave me so much happiness. When I came home after work and walked down the lane to my house, all the little kids waited by their houses to come out and greet me every night. One of them would see me coming and shout for all the other kids to come say hi to the muzungu. I was teaching them to say howdy and give me five. It literally took me 30 minutes to walk home since I stopped so many times to say hi. My favortie group of kids lived near me and I have already put their picture on the blog. Their names were junior, faith and cecilia. They all wanted to be picked up and hugged when I came by, and sometimes they were pretty dirty and without any pants, so i just hoped mommie had wiped their bottoms good when I picked them up. Anyway, one Friday night, Andrew Lutomia and I visited all the houses in the neighborhood and invited the kids to come, which they did precisely at 10:00 the next morning, all dressed in their best clothes. We had balloons and dance contests first. They also did some reciting while we took video. Then, we gave out little boxes of crayons and books so they could color. and finally little packs of cookies and juice. I think they all had a great time, Andrew assured me that they had and that undoubtedly not one of them had ever been to a party or gotten free gifts before and that they would probably remember this party for the rest of their lives. It seemed so little compared to what we shower our children with on holidays and birthdays. I really loved having all those kids around. For a few days on the lane, some of the older mamas would stop me and tell me how happy the kids had been at the party.
Here are some of the things I will miss about my Kakamega. I will miss my boda boda driver named Francis who has a degree in Philosophy and tutored me in Kiswahili while we rode to work. I will miss my Muslim friend reading the morning paper on the corner by my work who went out of his way to greet me every morning. I will miss my work partner at K REP, Benard who shared so many insights with me about Kenyan people and the culture. I will miss a little taking a bath in 3 inches of water in a plastic basin and the lizards that lived in my bathroom. I will miss paying 5 cents for a huge avacado. I will not miss ugali and kale. I will miss speaking Kiswahili and having the old mamas laugh when I spoke Kiluhya to them. I will miss the all the dogs in the neighborhood howling at the moon at night. I will not miss the unbelievably horrid bumpy, potholey roads. I mostly will miss the simplicity of life and the contentment that comes with knowing that your only choice is to find a way to cope with everything and the true realization that ultimately, none of us really control anything.
By interviewing clients for this video, one of the bonuses was getting to know them so much better. One of the women who started from absolutely zero and now owns several successful businesses was very inspiring. She has publicly acknowledged that she is HIV positive which is a rare and brave action. She told me that she choose to go public because in reality most people around her already knew and everyone spent quite a bit of time whispering about it, so by acknowledging it, she stole the gossip back from them. Now, she calls herself an ambassador for hope for people with HIV. Her story about HIV is so typical of many of the women I got to know in Kenya. She and her husband were living in Nairobi, he died and she found out that she was HIV positive. As a widow and HIV victim, she lost everything, even the support of her family, even though being positive was not her fault. So, with one child, she moved back to Kakamega and started participating in the FAHIDA micro credit program and really empowered herself. Another women with a similar story invited me to her home for tea one evening. She and her 9 year old daughter live in one room about 10 feet by 20 feet. There is a curtain hanging accross the middle of the room to separate the bed from the living area. She was so welcoming to me, we had chai, boiled yams and boiled sweet potatoes which we ate by latern light. I know that everyone in Kenya struggles in the same way, but I was always so touched at how people made the absolute best of their situation and seemed to be happy in spite of it. That is a story that I witnessed time after time in Kakamega and it has made me think so hard about our lives here in the US. But that is a whole nother blog entry!
One of the final highlights of stay before I left was that I gave a small party for 56 of the neighborhood children. The children who lived on my lane and in my neighborhood gave me so much happiness. When I came home after work and walked down the lane to my house, all the little kids waited by their houses to come out and greet me every night. One of them would see me coming and shout for all the other kids to come say hi to the muzungu. I was teaching them to say howdy and give me five. It literally took me 30 minutes to walk home since I stopped so many times to say hi. My favortie group of kids lived near me and I have already put their picture on the blog. Their names were junior, faith and cecilia. They all wanted to be picked up and hugged when I came by, and sometimes they were pretty dirty and without any pants, so i just hoped mommie had wiped their bottoms good when I picked them up. Anyway, one Friday night, Andrew Lutomia and I visited all the houses in the neighborhood and invited the kids to come, which they did precisely at 10:00 the next morning, all dressed in their best clothes. We had balloons and dance contests first. They also did some reciting while we took video. Then, we gave out little boxes of crayons and books so they could color. and finally little packs of cookies and juice. I think they all had a great time, Andrew assured me that they had and that undoubtedly not one of them had ever been to a party or gotten free gifts before and that they would probably remember this party for the rest of their lives. It seemed so little compared to what we shower our children with on holidays and birthdays. I really loved having all those kids around. For a few days on the lane, some of the older mamas would stop me and tell me how happy the kids had been at the party.
Here are some of the things I will miss about my Kakamega. I will miss my boda boda driver named Francis who has a degree in Philosophy and tutored me in Kiswahili while we rode to work. I will miss my Muslim friend reading the morning paper on the corner by my work who went out of his way to greet me every morning. I will miss my work partner at K REP, Benard who shared so many insights with me about Kenyan people and the culture. I will miss a little taking a bath in 3 inches of water in a plastic basin and the lizards that lived in my bathroom. I will miss paying 5 cents for a huge avacado. I will not miss ugali and kale. I will miss speaking Kiswahili and having the old mamas laugh when I spoke Kiluhya to them. I will miss the all the dogs in the neighborhood howling at the moon at night. I will not miss the unbelievably horrid bumpy, potholey roads. I mostly will miss the simplicity of life and the contentment that comes with knowing that your only choice is to find a way to cope with everything and the true realization that ultimately, none of us really control anything.
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