7/6/06

Its been a tough couple of weeks in Kenya. I’m not even sure if the date I wrote is correct. Anyway, I guess no long term trip to equatorial Africa is totally complete without a case of malaria. Apparently it is peak season for malaria here and many people are sick. The Kenyans of course are quite accustomed to having malaria and treat it pretty much like we do flu season. Apparently, the anti malarial medicine we take when we come here is just designed to kill the malaria plasmodium that is delivered when you are bitten by a mosquito. The only real defense from getting malaria is to not get bit and to hope like hell that your anti malaria medicine is working effectively. When the Kenyans sense they are getting another spell they are prescribed other types of malaria medicine and antibiotics that fights the bronchitis that almost always accompanies it. Anyway, for the Kenyans the spells usually last only a few days, but of course for us muzungus, it is a different story.

I got sick with malaria really quickly. The worst symptoms are the aches in the joints and the headache that makes you want to shoot yourself. I went to our best rural hospital for treatment and have only hazy memories of the 2 days I was there. I remember being admitted to the hospital and laying in the waiting room burning up with fever and watching two young girls fill out every line of several forms that took about an hour. The initial treatment was an iv of quinine which is a really potent medication. The iv holder hung on a nail on the wall. I don’t think the toilet worked and at one point, something very big and hairy darted out from behind the toilet and ran up the wall. Once in a while I would have two very young serious looking doctors standing at my bedside. They looked like mutt and jeff and didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. I was really sick for those two days and was only getting the doses of quinine and no intervenous fluids so I could tell I was getting dangerously dehydrated. Thanks to my wonderful husband advocating for me from 12000 miles away, I finally arranged a taxi to take me to the much bigger Aga Kahn hospital in the nearby city of Kisumu. It is a totally modern and technologically equipped hospital and when I arrived there the nurse said “don’t worry, you are in safe hand now” anyway, I got wonderful care there during the four days I was there but it was so odd being in such a place. I felt so isolated from the world that I could have been on the space station. So, now I am back in kakamega and reminded of the old saying “that which does not kill you makes you stronger” Bob is arriving in Kakamega on Thursday. It was hard for him to be the one so many miles away and helpless to do anything. He is going to stay with me in Kakamega for about 6 weeks and then we are heading home together. I am disappointed like crazy that I have to cut my stay short here, but I totally understand Bob’s desire to have me safe and sound in Chico again and I know I would feel exactly the same if it had been me at home. While Bob is here we are going to live in a small apartment in a compound just outside of kakamega. It is pretty darn nice by Kenyan standards, even has mostly running water and a sit down pot. The only real drawback I can see is the three cows that live in the courtyard and contribute a lot of cow poopy to the yard. However, owning cows in Kenya is a sign of great wealth so as they say, cow poopy really smells like money.

However, I am still working hard for the next six weeks to find a way again to help the clients we are serving. I vacillate between feeling like there maybe a way for all these programs to help Kenya fight the AIDs and poverty that is the standard of life here and then I am overcome by the truly helpless feeling knowing that these are such big problems that our only option is to put bandages here and there as best we can. I can’t imagine that all of us that are here from the west don’t wonder each and everyday how in the hell were we so lucky to been born into such a prosperous and promising society when so much of the rest of the world are simply about survival. The other 10 college age interns have arrived in Kakamega, full of the desire to make a difference. It is really wonderful getting to know these kids, they are pretty much highly ambitious kids from top colleges in the US. Watching them take the risks at assimilating themselves into this totally different culture is very interesting. I’m certain that after a couple of months here in Kenya the way they look at their own world will be greatly changed. I hope that like a stone thrown into a lake, what they take home with them will ripple out to the people that they associate with so those of us who do live in such fortunate circumstances will continue to be aware of the state of the world and to care about it.

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%.

5/25/06

The matatu adventure continues. On Wednesday, I rode with my co-worker several miles outside of town to visit two watatonos(groups of borrowers) Once you get out of town a ways, the matatus become pretty scarce. On our way back, we started out riding in one very dilapidated matatu and we hadn’t gone very far when the word on the road was that the police were patrolling the matatus. So, because this particular van wasn’t compliant, the driver drove off the road behind some buildings where we had to get out and go back to the road to find another matatu. By the time we got to the road there were at least 30 people waiting for the next matatu to come along. Finally an empty one arrived and everyone pushed forward fighting for the 8 available seats. Bernard and I muscled our way in, thankfully, because Bernard said in that area you could wait for up to an 2 hours for a matatu to come by. So once again we set off for town. We hadn’t gone very far when the matatu died. The driver spent several minutes trying to start it unsuccessfully while all the passengers made suggestions. Finally, the men in the matatu got out and pushed to he could jump start it. We went a few more miles when it quit again, and again the men pushed to get it started. That happened twice more until we finally reached town. It really pays to not be in a hurry here in Kenya.

Every morning I take a matatu to work which is about a 10 or 15 minute drive, depending on if which driver I get. Sometimes they go unbelievably fast and I’m just praying that I make it through one more matatu trip. I’m really relieved when we reach the speed bumps on the outskirts of Kakamega, but that relief is tempered by the fact that if I sit in the back seat, every time we charge over a speed bump I hit my head on the roof of the matatu.

I apologize if my English is getting a little weird. The Kenyans speak British English mixed with a unique translation from Kiswahili to English and in order to communicate in English I have had to adapt my English to their style. Everyone who has gone to school through at least the 8th grade speaks passable English, but just like me when I speak Kiswahili, they have such a heavy accent that it’s like trying to understand yet another foreign language. Then to top it off, the people in this district switch back and forth among English, Kiswahili and Kiluhya which is the local language of the tribe that lives in this part of Kenya. So sometimes I’m not sure if I’m not understanding the Kiswahili or if people are speaking Kiluhya The older people and people who haven’t gone to school don’t speak any English so I have learned just a few words of Kiluhya to be polite. I don’t think I am really up to learning two languages at once. Another interesting thing is that all three men at my office are from different tribes and can’t understand each other’s language, so they have to speak either Kiswahili or English. By the way, I didn’t know until I got here that the language is called Kiswahili and the people who live in the coastal region are the Swahili people. I am slowly getting a few more words and everyone claims that in another month I will be fluent. I think they are just being nice.

All right, nobody will be surprised but I am getting an F in Kenyan cooking. Tonight I was relegated to plucking leaves off a plant that Violet will cook for dinner. We are having two vegetables that I have never seen before and no one knows the English name for. However, I sat out back with a neighbor lady while I plucked leaves and we were able to exchange a few words of Kiswahili. The hard part about Kenya is that every tribe(there are 42 tribes in Kenya) speaks it’s own language and can’t understand each other. I think all of the people in Kakamega are members of the Luhya tribe and speak Kiluhya as well as British English and Kiswahili. And because they talk with their mouths closed likes the British and speak very softly, even understanding English is challenging. They laugh a lot when I speak Kiswahili, but it’s all good-natured. I can’t believe that even after a week I am starting to understand some and able to reply in basic sentences. The little girls are helping me learn a lot of vocabulary and don’t seem to mind helping me.

My colleague at K-Rep is Bernard Chege. He is a young man of about 30 who has a master’s degree in Economics. He is working for an NGO like K-Rep because there are few professional jobs available and many qualified people apply for every job. He is from a much more prosperous town and went to the university in Nairobi, so moving to Kakamega is a big change for him. He told me that Kakamega is not as modern as other large Kenyan towns.

Because I am working with AIDS victims, I am learning a great deal about the disease, which they refer to as a pandemic here. The national rate of infection is about 7% but the rate in Kakamega is considerable higher, about 10%. People in the groups I am working with die quite often and it is hard for the group members to maintain morale when they are starkly reminded of their own impending death. Death is so prevalent here, in fact, that you commonly see a display of coffins for sale alongside the road.

The focus in Kenya for battling aids is to raise awareness of the disease, minimize the stigma associated with it and through education, change people’s behavior. Apparently, the prevailing attitude is when someone learns that they are infected with HIV, their response is anger and they want to seek revenge by deliberately spreading the disease. That, coupled with the denial of people who are at risk to be tested or to accept the results of the test, make fighting AIDS an uphill battle.

The little girl Fiona is still sick and her parents have been very worried. They say she has malaria but she has been sick for a while so they took her back to the doctor. While there she was tested for typhoid, which tested negative thankfully, so the doctor gave her a different antibiotic. I imagine with a wide variety of diseases here that this is a prime place for bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. In any event, they have seemed very worried about her, and I think because there is a greater chance of death here than we are used to and that thought must always loom in their mind.

5/15/06

Hello everbody,

sorry it has taken me so long to get stuff on my blog. the computers here are very very very slow and i am working most of the day. but here is some stuff i have written in the past few days that i hope gives you an idea about life here in kenya. it really is a different world!

My Kakamega host family is Patrick and Violet Makanga and their two daughters, Sylvia and Fiona. Actually, all Kenyans have 3 names, including their African name which is used among family members. The Makangas are from what I have so far observed a typical middle class family in Kakamega. They live in a neighborhood a couple of miles from the town of Kakamega called Ilesi. They live in a nice house which Patrick built himself on a about an acre of land. The house has three bedrooms, 2 “kind of bathrooms”, a big living room and dining room and a very small kitchen. Currently the water line is broken so there is no running water so water is carried in from the spigot outside. When we bathe, we heat up water in the kitchen and then take a bath in the shower. Patrick has a friend in Switzerland so I think his house has some untypical Kenyan touches, like a decorative hardwood ceiling and a built in entertainment center at one end of the living room. There is an outside kitchen where a young boy helper sleeps and a barn where Violet has 4 cows and 2 calves. She milks the cows daily and we drink the fresh milk in chai tea, which is a mixture of half tea, half milk. She sells milk by the cup to young children from around the neighborhood who line up at the back door every night. She charges about 15 cents for a cup. She also has a garden where she grows the vegetables that we eat.

Patrick is an accountant at the provincial government offices and Violet works at Tele-Com. The girls are in school each day from 8:00 to 5:00. The Makangas belong to the Luhya tribe which is the third largest tribe in Kenya. Patrick and Violet speak Luhya and English, while the girls speak English and Swahili, which they are learning at school. Patrick, like many Africans, also runs various other enterprises such as very small farms and 2 guesthouses, which aren’t doing too well currently as the economy is Kenya is really suffering.

African food is very simple. Breakfast is bread and jam and chai. I eat out for lunch for about $1. When we come home for work, we have tea time, with chai and bread. Dinner is served around 9:00 and consists every night of ugali, meat and cooked kale. Ugali is a mixture of cornmeal and water that is boiled and is like a very doughy dumpling. You eat with you hands and pull a piece of ugali off the serving, roll it into a ball and use is to pick up kale and meat and then eat it. It doesn’t take much to fill me up. It seems that the whole purpose of food in Africa is to fill you up without costing very much. In spite of the high carbohydrate diet, everyone but me, is rail thin.

When I arrived, the littlest girl was having a bout of malaria. I didn’t realize that pretty much all Africans have malaria and just cope with the occurrences when they occur. Apparently there is some effective medication to treat the symptoms so they are usually only sick for one or two days. We do sleep with mosquito nets at night, but during the rainy season, which is right now, there are lots of mosquitos. I was just wondering why we don’t have malaria carrying mosquitos in the U.S.

5/18/06

Today I am recording a few random interesting observations and things that I have learned in the last week about Kenya. May though July is considered winter in Kakamega and considered the rainy season. Although this might be an unusual year, since I have been here the weather has not been unpleasant. It is almost always sunny with scattered clouds in the morning and fairly warm, probably about 70 degrees. Many days it clouds up in the afternoon or evening and thunders, lightening and rains very heavily but only for about 3 hours. The soil is claylike, what they call colleche in Texas so the rain stands around in puddles and doesn’t sink very quickly so things quickly get muddy. I’ve seen lots of cars and trucks stuck in the mud with lots of people working to get them unstuck. Everyone here seems prepared for the rain, most with umbrellas but those without use a variety of things to cover their heads. I have seen shower caps, plastic bags, washrags, scarves and such. But with this much rainfall, the country surrounding Kakamega is really lush. Numerous trees and a variety of things growing, all of which have been planted either to eat or feed the animals.

The women in town dress very stylishly and wear bright cheerful colors, but not wild or garish. Many women wear skirts with blouses and jackets but the most common thing is a skirt with a top that comes down over the hips and is about thigh length. I brought very plain clothes with me and feel somewhat dowdy so Violet is going to show me the clothing shops on the weekend and I’ll see if I can buy some African clothes that I feel comfortable in but don’t feel like I am trying to somehow “go native”. The men dress very formally for work, always with a coat and tie. The school children all wear brightly colored uniforms with sweaters over the top. All the different schools have distinctively different colors. In Kenya, parents must buy the uniforms and shoes to be able to send the kids to school and there are many people who simply can’t afford it. In spite of the challenging surroundings, everyone is very clean and well groomed and take a lot of pride in their appearance.

Today, Bernard and I rode to a group meeting on boda bodas and they were too tall for me to get on gracefully so I had to hop up and the boda boda drivers found that really funny. Bernard told me it was funny because I am an older woman and jumping is very unusual for women here in Kenya. When you use public transportation you literally are taking you own life into your hands. Thee boda boda drivers go very fast and weave in and out of traffic just barely missing cars and people. The other day my driver passed too close to a little girl and I hit her and spun her around. I haven’t seen a boda boda fall over yet and I imagine they are pretty careful because it would be bad for business if they injured or killed someone. All the streets and roads are in terrible shape. Potholes are everywhere and so are speed bumps, even on the boda boda paths. I like riding the boda boda because it is such a scenic way to travel, but I have to hang on to the handle provided because it is so rough. As far as the matatu vans and private vehicles, I don’t think there are any standard rules on the roads. In Kenya, everyone drives on the left side of the road and as long as no one is coming they actually drive in the middle of the road until someone else is coming the other way. Then both drivers scoot way over to their side of the road to get past. There is no shoulder on the road, only an abrupt drop off of about 4 or 5 inches. The public vans are called matatus and cost 30 shillings, which is about 40 cents. They are supposed to take only the allowed number of passengers and everyone is supposed to wear seat belts, but the matatu drivers always cram too many people in and the conductor hangs out the door of the van. If the police stop them, they pay them a bribe to keep from getting fined. I read about a matatu fatal crash today on the highway and that wasn’t reassuring at all, but since owning a car in Kenya is a real luxury and hardly anyone can afford it there is no other choice of transportation.

i have arrived

The drive from Nairobi to my town of Kakamega was wonderful. This western part of Kenya is very beautiful, green, lush, mountainous. There were all kinds of crops growing along the way, alot of corn, kale, wheat, and in the mountains, many many acres of tea, which i have never seen growing before. It is like small bushes and they pick off the top shoots for the tea leaves. We briefly passed by Lake Victoria which is about an hours drive from my town. Needless to say, once we got outside of Nairobi, the roads were very rough and not at all maintained. The bus ride took about 9 hours although I imagine it is about only about 300 miles.

The town of Kakamega is very rural and resembles the rural African towns that you see in documentaries and movies. There is a great deal of poverty here. In fact, the people who are considered well off are similar in economic resources to those who live in poverty in the US while those in true poverty here are like nothing you could compare to in the US.

I start work tomorrow at my organization which is called K-Rep. The primary focus of this organization is to target extremely poor people who are infected or associated with someome affected with AID/HIV for very small loans that can be used in some sort of very small business, such as a roadside stall, which will provide them with enough income to feed themselves and their families.

In working here, I will definitely be learning and using exclusively Swahili so I am spending alot of time studying and will probably be in the baby talk stage for a couple of months. The Kenyans are very friendly and love helping me to learn the language as well

Welcome to my Kenya blog. I hope you enjoy my stories and photos from Kenya and I look forward to your comments. It will be wonderful to keep in touch with everyone while I'm gone. I'm gonna miss you all very much!!!!