Going home

I have just three whole days left in Kenya… I cannot wait to see everyone and sleep in my own bed, but I’m not sure I quite feel finished with this place. Six months is a tricky amount of time it turns out. Just enough time to know how to get the right matatu and find the best place to buy cheap DVD’s. And to become friends with people beyond the stage where everyone is friendly to you just because you’re foreign, to actually being genuinely attached to people.

It helps that I’ve stopped needing to have my leg checked at the hospital every two days and that the climate is pretty perfect (if at times a smidge cold) at the moment. There aren’t many mozzies around and there are enough sunny hours every weekend to remember you’re still in Africa. I’ve been here long enough that I’m dressing like a normal person again, rather than the volunteer/colonial look I had going on in the beginning. You very quickly realise that living in Nairobi is basically the same as living in any major city, and there is no need for linen trousers and long sleeves. Most Nairobi girls run around in heels and skinny jeans, not long skirts and sandals. In fact almost every time we’ve gone out we’ve felt pretty underdressed compared to the immaculate Kenyan twenty somethings who make us look like scruffy students.

I’m going to miss the music which five months ago sounded all the same and now we find ourselves searching for on youtube. Bus journeys at home are going to seem deathly dull compared to the bumpy tummy turning matatu rides. Although I’m pretty bored of stew, rice and beans I’m going to miss cheap fruit and vegetables and the availability of everything everywhere- stalls line nearly every street and you’re never far from whatever you need. Unless you’re in Buru Buru and happen to be needing a latte or nice sandwich. But even there we tracked down a decent pizza place.

Some things remain just as baffling as the day I arrived though. I have made a pitiful attempt at learning Swahili for which there really is no excuse, living with Kenyans who constantly talk to one another in Swahili. And apart from actual different languages, there are so many other small rules of communication in Nairobi that I can’t imagine as an outsider ever grasping. And I don’t think we have an equivalent in the UK. Sometimes tribe matters, sometimes the area of Nairobi you live in matters, sometimes where your family are from, sometimes how you dress, sometimes how good your English is, sometimes the colour of your skin, if you look Somali, if you look West African, if you know the latest slang, if you know policemen, if you have mzungu friends, if you have connections in high places, if you have friends in dangerous places… more factors than I could attempt to understand. And I'm probably wrong about most of those above. Most simply put, you have to be street wise. And being street wise is complicated, and different depending on which street you‘re standing in.

As much as we whinge about how much hassle we get being mzungus in Kenya and the attention we get, I suspect it’s probably simpler than being Kenyan in Nairobi. Most of the time for us it’s pretty simple. The majority of people ’hassling’ us just want to say hello, quite a lot of people want you to give them money or buy them something, a few want you to find them a job in your country and a handful actually want to steal from you. Sometimes it can be hard knowing the people who just want to be your friend for normal reasons. It’s not clear cut either, many people who I consider friends still ask me for things and expect me to help them more than I am able to. But even that is different here. It is normal for an average Kenyan family to receive several cards in a week from friends asking for contributions to their wedding/daughter’s university fees/father’s operation. It’s the spirit of ‘Harambee’, of people all pulling together, which helps most people live their lives. And no matter how little you have, you contribute something. Why shouldn’t they ask me too?

A couple of weeks ago I travelled back to Butere with Angelina. When we arrived we were shocked to hear that one of the students had just that day suddenly passed away. Nancy was only in her early thirties and had two small children. Her husband was unemployed and had not paid a dowry for her, as he couldn’t afford it. Unless he paid the dowry to her parents, he would not be allowed to bury her and she would have to be buried by her parents. For the funeral, a new dress for Nancy was a necessity and also new clothes for her husband and children. A coffin alone would cost a lot of money. And so the day after we arrived, we all sat around the office and decided what everyone would contribute. The tailoring teacher would buy material to make the dress Nancy would be buried in and they would buy new clothes for her family. Later we heard that everyone chipped in so that he could pay the dowry - some money and a few cows- to her parents. Elizabeth put it this way- ‘Now, no one is bothered by me. If I die? Eh! they will appreciate me…’

I am going to miss this confusing place, it would be nice to transport all of the people I met back to Scotland with me. But I know I'll come back one day, and I'll leave my safari hat at home next time.

A bit of a break

I have left it so long I don’t even know where to begin with this entry. To start with now, I am writing from a little seaside cottage south of Mombasa listening to the waves and waiting for fresh calamari to be cooked for dinner.  I haven’t seen any coastline since January so I feel like I deserve a little boast about finally being within a stone’s throw of a beach. It’s not quite the peaceful shore of Loch Etive at home where you can only hear birds, the occasional boat and the wind. On Diani beach as soon as your foot touches the sand at least four beach boys descend forcing seaside education or seashell necklaces on you. But it’s the Indian ocean and it’s low season and as soon as the tide comes in leaving just a few feet of beach, it’s practically exclusive.

Diani Beach

My mum, auntie and sister are nearing the end of their two week visit to Kenya and our beach break is very welcome after a hectic first eight days. Despite my rants about Nairobi traffic on here and elsewhere I don’t think anyone really believed how bad it is (or didn’t listen) until we spent the first 4 days largely stuck in a jam visiting various friends in different corners of the city. Apart from being a little stressful it was nice and a bit surreal having my family meet the people I’ve been spending time with over the past four months.

With my mum and my Kenyan mum!

On our last day in Nairobi we made a trip to visit the Maasai women Ibrahim’s been working with. I mentioned them a couple of posts ago, and since then I’ve accompanied Ibrahim to Ngong hills to see them twice. Both times we went we took a matatu to Kiserian which took about four times longer than it should have since they kept stopping to fill up with more passengers. Once we got to the little town at the foot of the hills, we crammed ourselves in the boot of a car, the equivalent of a matatu outside of the city. It wound its way up through Ngong hills and dropped us on the other side where some ladies were sat around a tree beading Vivienne Westwood clutch bags with the slogan ‘I LOVE CRAP’. I sat around and talked top a few of the Maasai while they worked, most of the older ladies didn’t speak English so I mainly just  sat back and watched them bead, enjoying the fresh air and green away from Nairobi. They largely ignored me, were happy to smile in photos and told me I was welcome back any time.  The first time I got lucky and shared the front seat of a car matatu with an old man on the journey back to Kiserian. As soon as I sat down he pointed to the toddler on his lap and said, ‘You mind?‘ I said I didn’t, and he plonked the little girl on my lap until her mother lifted her out of the window when we reached the town.

First visit to see Vivienne's beaders

However when I visited with my family it was quite a different story.  We got an actual driver to take us all the way from Nairobi, the visitors in the back seat and Ibrahim and I sharing the front. When we got to Kiserian we stopped and met Josephine, our main contact in the group. We watched them load five crates of soda bottles into the boot before three Maasai ladies crammed themselves in beside them! We drove through the hills further than I’ve been before. Josephine told us there was a good road the car could take into the valley so we wouldn’t have to walk so far. I don’t think the driver (Ibrahim’s unsuspecting friend) was too impressed when she pointed out said ‘road’. Even calling it a track would be taking liberties a bit as we got out of the car and walked in front of it finding the least stony, bumpy route we could through the very green and vegetated valley. Eventually we were met by about 15 Maasai ladies where we unloaded the crates from the boot and each took a side of one carrying them the last leg of the journey to where we were meeting.

Carrying crates through the valley

We arrived to the very surreal site of three sofas and a coffee table  in a clearing surrounded by around twenty more Maasai sat around beading away. When they saw us they stood and sang to welcome us. The next couple of hours flew by in a blur of singing, speeches and beads. We had a little tour around- inside a traditional manyatta (little hut with walls made of dung) and the spot where the men had slaughtered the goat they were cooking for our lunch (the head was still there). The whole time, more and more women were arriving from every direction. We were presented with a kanga each and a little beaded item before they all spread out their own work and we made our way around and bought a few bits from as many as we could (there’s only so many beaded things a person can have- bottle openers, hair clips, bracelets, keyrings…)
After we made the obligatory speeches saying how much we appreciated their hospitality we wandered back to the car, by now at the main road surrounded by several hopeful looking people who were after a lift to Kiserian. We piled in and I was handed a baby in the front seat this time (people are amazingly happy to hand their babies to strangers here). Half an hour later the baby was lifted from my arms by its mother at which point she told me he was ‘very sick’ and she was taking him to hospital. So far so good as far as catching whatever the baby had goes.

Rona receiving her kanga

Between then and now, we went on a three day Maasai Mara safari. We saw some pretty exciting sights but the best part was standing with your head above the open roof of the safari van whilst driving across huge open plains not entirely unlike a scene from The Lion King.

 

The only thing which has ever so slightly spoiled the past couple of weeks is a massive hole in my leg caused by an insect bite gone wrong. I took it to the doctor who decided the best thing would be to just cut the whole thing out. I think he got a bit carried away (he asked the nurse to please stay in the room while he did it as we wasn’t 100% sure what he was doing. Always encouraging) and I now have to go every second day to get the dressing changed and I haven’t been able to swim. It doesn’t help that every nurse/doctor I see says something different- ‘Oh, it’s healing very well, it’s very clean’, ‘It’s not healing well at all’, ‘It’s still infected’, ‘It won’t take long, maybe a week’, ‘It will take a VERY long time, you will have to cover your legs for the whole year’… At least my leg didn’t fall off/get eaten by a lion (though if anyone asks in later life, the scar on my leg is from that time a lion got me on safari in Kenya).

What I miss, what I will miss...

The other night we had a LONG power cut from 4pm until the middle of the next day. With nothing to do I was driven to make a list of things I miss about home. Instead of going on all night and depressing myself I decided to write down all of the things I might miss about Kenya when I leave. Obviously I miss people, so they're not included. Since I'm well over half way through my stay in Nairobi now I decided to post my lists!

Sea air and open space (think it's Islay)

Things I miss about home...

1. The sea
2. Not being stared at every day
3. Fresh air and open spaces
4. My piano
5. No mosquitoes
6. Driving around pretty places on (relatively) smooth roads
7. A working shower with hot water
8. British magazines and newspapers
9. Not having to be scared and super alert all the time
10. Knowing lots of people all in one place
11. Bus routes, which buses stick to
12. Clean feet and no dust and streets which have drainage instead of rivers where roads should be
13. My feather duvet
14. Coffee shops
15. Live music
16. Wearing nice clothes

Chapati making

Things I might miss about Kenya...

1. Spicy milky tea
2. Lunch for 50p
3. People being extremely honest (blunt. e.g. 'Eilidh you've grown fat'. Cheers.)
4. Hospitality
5. My time keeping being considered pretty good by African standards
6. Matatu rides and matatu music
7. Willingness of people to pass babies around to strangers in any public place
8. Idleness and 'NO IDLENESS' signs everywhere
9. Avocados
10. Staff meetings including toddlers
11. Fresh, fresh fruit and juice
12. Lack of health and safety 
13. The sun
14. Unpredictable days and hilarious things happening all the time
15. Chapatis 
16. The sense of achievement/relief/gratitude for life after getting anywhere alone and/or by matatu

Vivienne Westwood and the Jam

Back in November, before I came to Kenya, I read this article in the Guardian. I remember it as it fitted so well with my placement and I remember saying to people that I JUST need to meet Vivienne Westwood and she would sort out SMAK for me. Basically the project links up big fashion names with low income groups (mainly women) in Kenya and commissions them to do part or all of the craft work involved in their product production, paying a fair wage and helping them to work out a sustainable business plan for when the project ends.
Well, it just so happened that last week I was in Ibrahim’s bead workshop looking at some purses he was decorating for a new order he’d been working on in the Maasai Mara. I really recognized the logo on the purses and when I went off and looked up the name of the man who Ibrahim was working for, discovered that he was indeed making Vivienne Westwood purses! He had been head hunted to train a group of Maasai women in speed work, as whilst their work was good, they were too slow in completing orders. I tried to explain to Ibrahim how much of a big deal Vivienne Westwood is in the UK, but he remained cool as a cucumber about it all.
On Thursday he was due to go and visit another group of women just outside Nairobi and invited me to go with him. We went first to the GoDown art centre in Nairobi where the project is based and met Jeremy Brown and Vincent Odour, who are both mentioned in the Guardian article. The tag line of the project is ‘Not charity, just work’ and it seems to live up to it. Vincent’s job is to work with communities, mobilising women to get involved in the project and organising training and capacity building sessions with them. Having grown up in a slum, he is well suited to the job and has a lot of enthusiasm for it. So good that he is leaving it soon to set up his own consultancy firm. Unfortunately he was unable to contact the women, so Ibrahim was told to go back to his workshop rather than hanging around waiting for them. This decision reflects the very business minded way the project works. No time is wasted, orders have deadlines and the quality has to be the best. So we headed back to Ziwani for the afternoon (after lunch and a sneaky visit to the monkeys in city park).

Cheeky monkey

The monkey visit was during a somewhat rare moment of sunshine in rainy season Nairobi. For the past week and a half the city has been subject to daily downpours. And when it rains, it REALLY pours. On Tuesday, Kimberley was caught in the rain after work and after an hour in a soggy bus queue without an umbrella was forced to give up and get a taxi, which took another hour and a half to get home. On Wednesday we both came home mid-afternoon to avoid the rain and subsequent traffic jam. On Thursday we both made it home but our landlord got caught and on Friday it was my turn. The rain started at four and consistently bucketed down until six. Angelina and I left SMAK, trudged to the matatu stage at Gikomba market and waited around twenty minutes in the sludgy mud as it got dark. Angelina decided we would never get home that way so we crammed into the front of a TERRIFYING matatu into town. The driver hurtled through the streets as it started raining again, people were scattering like ants in every direction and he boarded the pavement several times to skip past queues. I squealed and Angelina found my terror hilarious. We then waited a casual hour and a half in the rainy bus queue before an hour long journey home. After leaving work at six we got home just after ten. SUCH fun.
As I write, we have just reached our Global Giving project target! In fact we have gone past it and are still making more. Thank you SO much to our family and friends for being so generous. I have spent the past two Saturdays with Angelina doing basic training sessions with the day care girls just using the few resources we already have. Already the children are happier- engaged in more activities, spending time outside playing and a daily checklist is making sure that duties are carried out thoroughly. We are really looking forward to organising sessions with the mothers now and will begin looking for an Early Childhood Development teacher soon. Thank you thank you thank you for choosing to give to SMAK!

THANK YOU 

April Showers

Rainy season has well and truly begun in Kenya. Everyone in the house mocked me so much for putting wellies on to go to the supermarket this afternoon that I was peer pressured into wearing flip flops. How wrong they were! It took twice the amount of time as usual trying to avoid mud and we came home filthy. Five year old Dan was somehow cleaner than us when we got back.

Should have worn wellies!

I escaped Nairobi downpours the other week to travel to Eldoret on a Mary’s Meals mission. It was a bit exciting/terrifying setting off on my own, but I took the ‘easycoach’ which was half empty, comfortable AND came with free biscuits. The journey was completely drama free and I arrived in Eldoret in one piece after six hours on the bus. I had a great time visiting schools with Mary’s Meals partners and got a lift back the next day with them in time for Easter weekend.

Happy with new backpacks!

Since we were quite disorganized we didn’t go away to the beach or anything exciting over the long weekend, but we had a nice relaxing time. On Saturday we travelled North of Nairobi for a morning of songs and celebration with DECEMAC- Development Centre for Marginalised Children. The children were very cute and we were given a huge free lunch after perhaps slightly too long a time being preached at by various pastors. We thought we had gotten away with not taking part until the end when we were asked to stand and make a speech. I rambled off something about how grateful we were to be there, although I think we were a bit of a let down seeing as we didn’t mention God in our speech.

Orphans at DECEMAC 

Most of Easter Sunday was spent sitting in a nice café reading the free magazines from the UK and having quiet time. On Monday we took our family's daughter Fiona, who's home for Easter holidays, to Karen to visit the giraffe center and a farm where we held some animals and had a shot on a pony.

Fiona, Kimberley and Summer the pony

A couple of weeks ago we had a great day at the National Theatre for SWAN day- Support Women Artists Now. It was arranged by Sophie and was a full day event featuring various female artists including poets, musicians and painters. It was a great, relaxed day with another free lunch and lots of singing and dancing.

We managed to avoid the dancing 

After all of these free lunches it was VERY exciting to spot a sign advertising fitness classes in Buru Buru. I’ve been stuck with finding a way to exercise since getting here so although slightly apprehensive, Kimberley and I dragged ourselves along yesterday morning to an empty dance studio with two big, fit looking male instructors. This was intimidating to begin with but we decided  this could only be a good thing as basically we now have our own personal trainers for about £1.50 an hour. By the end of an hour and a half of fairly standard aerobics we were a bit dead but feeling great. In A LOT of pain today but delighted to start reversing the effects of too many free meals!

Wild West Part 2

Waking was about as gentle as falling asleep in Sabatia. Rihanna pumped out of the house several doors down and the water pump pumped even louder from right outside our door. We emerged from our room around 7:15 to find Angelina on all fours scrubbing away at the floor before moving outside and scrubbing the area around the door. You see the saying ’Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ a lot around Kenya and they really mean it. Aggressive scrubbing of the whole house and outside happens EVERY morning. Even at the Nairobi office everyone spends the first hour cleaning. There is a lot of dust, but really…

Teacher Carole at the water pump outside our front door

 Our time in Sabatia began with meeting SMAK staff and students and hearing about their various (and many) challenges. Nearly all of the challenges have their roots in lack of finance; Girls unable to pay fees, no money for practice material, girls can’t afford lunch or transport costs and so walk long distances to class and go hungry all day, lack of child care options mean babies are brought to class or mothers have to leave early to pick up children from school… the list goes on. Despite these challenges the students are hard working and their teacher Carole tells us they are, ’So good, they are all SO good’.

On our second day we met two women’s groups in the local area.  Both times our arrival was met with singing and dancing and smiles, making us feel very welcome, and expectant faces, which made us feel more than a little inadequate. In the morning we sat sheltered by a tree in a garden and heard about Maelendeleo ya Wanwake women’s group who take it in turns to visit orphans and offer assistance where they can. They each contribute a little money every month to help people in the community and expressed a strong desire to be trained to care for the bed ridden HIV positive, to learn more about the disease and how to manage it. Hopefully at some point in the future SMAK will be able to hold workshops for affiliated groups such as these where two or three members can come for training which can then be shared with the rest of the group.

Receiving eggs from  Maelendeleo ya Wanwake   

The second meeting in the afternoon was held at the home of one of the women in Shiyiro women’s group. Again we were met outside by singing and dancing before sitting inside in the shade around a low table with around twelve group members, and Grace and Elizabeth. Most of these ladies were older and on first impressions I thought their activities would be similar to the first group, with them doing what they can for the community. What we found though, as we listened and Elizabeth translated, was that nearly all of the elderly women were the sole carers of their grandchildren, orphaned as a result of AIDS or accidental deaths. The more we heard the harder the stories of a lost generation became to listen to. Afterwards, back out in the sunshine, all I could hear was Elizabeth’s voice saying over and over ‘….but her son died… her daughter died…all of her children died leaving her with six grandchildren and no income… her children are all dead…’

Shiyiro women with one of the ladies' cows which were given by the Ministry of Agriculture to help the women sustain an income

Shiyiro women support one another and their families through necessity. They either help to provide for their orphaned grandchildren or the young widows in the group. When a woman’s husband dies, often the brother of the husband will ‘inherit’ her, her children and her home. Either that or the family of the husband will just take the house, leaving her with nothing. The group then assists the woman and her children in building a new home. By and large, the women discourage widows from allowing themselves to be inherited, as often they end up caring for their new husbands’ other children as well as their own. It is common for men in this area to have several wives. In fact the house we were visiting was next door to the home of the husband’s second wife. When I asked  don’t the men feel guilty about taking so much and contributing so little, I was met with hoots of laughter and looks of disbelief.

The rest of our time in the West was spent being introduced to everyone everyone knew. We were plonked in front of a school to tell them about our country (questions included, ‘What is your cash crop? Who was the first president of Scotland? How often do you have elections?’ we got stuck at some of the hard ones) We visited Grace’s family farm by way of motorbike (piki piki); Angelina and I shared one and we definitely struggled uphill… And we were taken to a local polytechnic and CDF office.

Up in the hills near Grace's farm

Before heading back to Nairobi, we spend one night with Angelina’s 93 year old mother in her rural home with no electricity, a huge, productive garden, a cow and a roof so full of honey from her bees that it was seeping through the ceiling. Before it got dark and we were forced to an early bed, we had a nice relax in her garden soaking up the fresh air and admiring the photos of her 15 children and huge extended family bordering her living room. The walls were also covered with her own certificates. She seems to have done every course she’s ever come across and apparently STILL attends various training sessions even today. A bit of an incredible woman.

Outside Angelina's mother's house

A change from traffic jams in Nairobi

A 5am start the next morning and half hour walk to the bus in the pitch black along the dirt road brought our time in the wild west to an end. We gladly returned home to Ruth and her chapattis and tea on Friday evening laden with fresh fruit and vegetables given to us by each group we had visited in the West and brought back to keep us going for at least a week.

Wild Western - Part 1

On the evening of Saturday 12th March, four grenades were thrown out of a car window towards Machakos Country Bus Station in Nairobi, around an hour and a half after we had driven past the station on our way home from town. At least six people were killed and many injured. The next morning we got up unnaturally early for a Sunday and went to catch a bus to Western Kenya from the scene of the attack. Machakos is a busy, chaotic bus station and even at 6am on Sunday morning it was hectic and intimidating, with men rushing to carry our bags to the bus for a payment. Angelina let a couple of guys help us and we noticed one had a bandaged finger, which he told us was injured as a result of the blast the previous night. She questioned him about it for a while in Swahili before loudly shouting at them in English, ‘No! You can’t afford them! My girls are TOO EXPENSIVE FOR YOU!!’ At which point the men got off the bus laughing. Thanks Angie…

So after seven weeks in Nairobi and given the events of the previous night, I was very excited to be getting out of the city. This made around the first hour of the eight hour bus journey bearable. The heat didn’t help and we were NOT amused when after three hours the bus pulled up at a lay by in the middle of nowhere and Angelina informed us this was the toilet stop. We thought she was kidding until everyone started piling off the bus with men going in one direction and women and children the other, heading off into the bushes. At some point in the middle of the journey a man got on, stood at the front of the bus and loudly tried to sell some dodgy health supplements to everyone on board and wouldn’t get off for MILES. The last few hours were the worst as the road surface deteriorated, it was HOT and people kept getting on and sitting next to us with their flapping, clucking chickens.

Anyway, after all of this we finally arrived in Sabatia, a tiny market town in Western Kenya. SMAK has a tailoring project there which was begun at the start of this year and we were staying in a room behind the workshop, in a row of other small homes. We quickly realised it was going to be a week fully free of luxury. Kimberley and I topped and tailed a single bed and Angelina slept on a sofa in the living room. Water was from the pump outside, the toilet was drop style and the shower was a bucket of cold water. All cooking was done on a little jiko outside. We were made to feel very welcome by Grace, the Project Manager, Carol, the young tailoring teacher and Elizabeth who volunteers and helps with the project. So on Sunday evening we ate, had a little explore, chatted and went off to our cosy sleeping arrangement to the rural sounds of loud thumping music played by all of our neighbours.

Carole, tailoring teacher

Elizabeth

Grace, Manager

International Women's Day

I wasn’t going to post again until after our trip next week but I don’t want to forget to mention today! We really weren’t looking forward to Women’s Day that much as we didn’t actually start planning until Monday, sent invitations on Tuesday and came up with the programme yesterday afternoon without being sure if anyone (including entertainment) would actually show up. To top it off, seeing as Kimberley and I were the ones to insist we serve some kinds of refreshments we ended up being responsible for preparing snacks for anything between 5 - 150 people.
As a result, we bought ingredients on the way home from work last night, got stuck in a traffic jam, arrived home at seven and Ruth informed us we needed charcoal as mandazis are cooked outside on a jiko, went to buy charcoal and sat outside until almost midnight frying mandazis over a smoky jiko. Poor Ruth had to help us, seeing as we clearly had no idea what to do and would have been there all night. We didn’t count but we DEFINITELY made over 500. And ate roughly 30 each during the process…

Late night mandazi cooking

So this morning when we left the house just after seven with our mandazi’s and juice we were not feeling awfully optimistic. The event was advertised as starting at 8:30am so that people would come and we could begin by 9.00am. At 10:15am only one speaker had arrived and none of the entertainment, and Angelina the director had gone off to be interviewed by a local radio station. Thankfully DECEMAC (Development Centre for Marginalised Children) arrived and sang some songs to keep those who had come on time entertained, and somehow the rest of the event ran almost smoothly!

Boys from the dance group

Children from DECEMAC performed songs, various women spoke about their work with women and families and other issues (a lot of it was in Swahili) and a couple of boys from SMAK’s Chipukizi talent group danced. Hopefully at a later date I will be able to post a poem written and performed by a girl called Phranter, from DECEMAC about what it is to be a girl and for life to be hard but to still believe that you are great. She performed it so well and I really hope she’ll come back to talk to us and show us the poem written down.

Phranter performing her poem

The other stand out performance was by the Gender Based Violence group who performed a drama which I think they only prepared yesterday! It was on the issue of husband beating, which has been all over the news in Kenya in the past few weeks. One of the ladies played the part of the man. It was all in Swahili but I think the general gist was that the man came home to his wife drunk, hanging around with another woman, and then there was a hilarious fight scene which involved the ladies actually rolling around the dusty ground hitting each other.

Fight scene in the Gender Based Group's drama!

After the programme finished various people took turns to speak and then right at the end Angelina arrived just in time to say a vote of thanks before everyone enjoyed our mandezi and juice (at least there wasn’t any remaining when the guests left). I think everyone enjoyed  the day- various women from the Ministry of Agriculture who had visited before to demonstrate juice/yogurt making etc came back to join in and new connections were made with various local groups.

Angelina speaking to the group

To top it off we were allowed to leave early and so walked into town on our own for late lunch without getting lost or mugged despite everyone warning us as we were walking out the gate, ‘BE CAREFUL IT’S VERY DANGEROUS PEOPLE WILL SLASH YOUR BAGS AND SLICE YOUR ARMS OFF TAKE YOUR NECKLACE OFF SOMEONE WILL STEAL IT DON’T GET RUN OVER’ etc.
Successful day in Nairobi.

Chapattis

The disadvantage of being on my own in Nairobi is that it’s not that safe to travel around on my own, especially at night. So up until now I haven’t really done an awful lot (anything) past dark because it’s such a hassle getting home. Which is why this week has been a big improvement with the arrival of another volunteer. Kimberley arrived on Monday and is staying in the same house and working at SMAK too. So the past few days I haven’t been relying on other people chaperoning me around the place. I’ve supposedly been chaperoning Kimberley. Hmm. The first day we got a matatu by ourselves it changed route and I got off at the wrong stop. The second day it stopped for a long time while the driver fixed something. The third day it started making a crazy noise and the driver lifted up the front seats to reveal the engine making a racket sounding very dodgy indeed. We eventually had to get out and waited over half an hour for another matatu. Usually the journey is uneventful and if anything out of sorts happens Sophy demands to know what’s going on and sorts things out. But we got home safe on our own each time regardless!

My Nairobi social life has come on leaps and bounds in a short time and I spent neither Friday nor Saturday evening sat at home in Buruburu for a change. We had dinner in town on Friday and on Saturday met up with some other volunteers and spend the afternoon and evening with them. At the last minute we found ourselves at the French Cultural Centre (Alliance Francais) for a concert by an Italian singer who was born in Mogadishu, has an Ethiopian mother and an Italian father. She was a bit like an older, African, not-as-good Shakira. And she talked a bit much. But it was fun to see some live music! Afterwards we went for some Ethiopian food, which was very good. And we met some new people. Successful Saturday! (Although we were still home before midnight)

Today we were VERY good girls and stayed at home and made a billion chapattis. Ruth offered to show us how to make them and taught us how to roll up the dough and divide the mixture and fry them. We then discovered she’d made more dough than usual and went off to do other chores while we sat in the kitchen for HOURS rolling out and cooking a total of around 60 chapattis on a little charcoal jiko cooker on the floor. Afterwards we went outside to catch the sunshine but realised we’d missed the whole afternoon flipping African pancakes inside. Oh well, now we’re chapatti experts so it all balances out.

Enthusiasm for learning

Getting a bit tired 30 chapattis in

 Amongst other bits and pieces I’ve been working on I’ve made a couple of blog sites for SMAK. One for SMAK itself and the other for Ibrahim, resident bead expert. (Click here and here to have a look) They’re both a work in progress. Last week we also went to the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) open forum meeting. There were a lot of people present from a wide range of organisations working in various ways to support those affected by HIV/AIDS. The meeting was long. Not helped by the introduction which involved EVERY single person in the room introducing themselves to the room, including us. And there were well over 100 people there. The aim of the meeting was to involve some of the participants in planning the next few years of action against AIDS in Kenya, so hopefully something good will come of it.

Next weekend we are finally leaving Nairobi to visit some girls in a small Eastern town and then we are off to the rural West for a few days straight after. So I should have something interesting to say in the next post!

Kenyan Hospitality

I went on holiday to a different Kenya last weekend. There were a lot of white people and open spaces. I was staying with my friend Kirsty who I went to  uni with at her grandparents house in Karen. We had a delightful time eating nice things and catching up and visiting the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage and on Sunday the giraffe centre. SUCH fun and such a lovely time which felt like an actual holiday. Then it was also nice to find that after a weekend full of treats I was happy to come home on Sunday evening to Ruth and Alex, and the first Kenya I met.

After the weekend it was back to reality, although it has been a varied week! On Tuesday Angelina, Judy (VCT counsellor) and I attended a Safaricom event. Safaricom are the leading mobile phone company in Kenya, I think owned by Vodafone. I was unimpressed with them to begin with as they took a long time to sort my internet out and faffed around a lot. But this event was to launch their World of Difference program, where by they encourage their staff to apply to take a secondment to work with a charity and share their skills where they are needed the most. It was a very positive event and the staff and management seemed passionate about the whole corporate responsibility side of Safaricom. They also provided a very good lunch including a chocolate fountain. Not bad for Valentines Day. And we basically went home straight afterwards so I came home and baked treats for Alex and Ruth which they were very polite about…

On Wednesday I finally made it to the other side of the city with Sophie (I don’t think I’ve mentioned her yet, but Sophie is the director Angelina’s daughter and she has basically been looking after me, shepherding me about and laughing at me since I arrived). We were going to visit a friend of a friend who has even been to Scotland and even Bonawe and even my house! Sophy lives by Kibera with her son and beautiful baby daughter and it was so nice to meet her again. She put on a HUGE spread of food and insisted other Sophie and I ate as much as we could.

Sophie and I and Sophy's baby 

She had some friends round who were all arty and musical and interesting (her words, ‘everyone here is abnormal! No-one is normal in this room!!’) And they promptly recruited Sophie as a singer for their band and had a big sing song with a little drum and guitar. They’re getting ready for SWAN day- Support Women Artists Now- which is happening at the end of March. Very passionate women AND men, working towards equality and recognition for women not just in the arts, but in every area.

Finally, this morning was totally bizarre. All Angelina knew about this meeting we were attending was that everyone invited had something to do with vulnerable children. So we turned up to this very posh hotel with many other local organizations to be met by an extremely enthusiastic American lady. It turned out to be the David C Cook organization, and they were here to present their Sunday School curriculum for ages 7 - 11. I was VERY sceptical of this from the beginning due to the extreme enthusiasm of the American lady and the obvious religious focus of the session.

It was a surreal morning. We split into groups of five (they split up Angelina and I) and the crazy lady taught us some of the curriculum before handing out lessons for us to work through in our groups. Although it was very preachy the lessons themselves were pretty good and imaginative and were aimed towards children from developing countries, covering issues such as malaria, HIV and even rape. And in fact everyone seemed pretty impressed with the content and the fact that they were giving away their entire curriculum for free (it’s funded through other David C Cook divisions such as sales from music books). It was also good just to gather so many organizations together who all work with children in some capacity and lots of details were swapped.

I have particularly enjoying Skype this week and seeing pals. It really doesn’t feel like you’re that far away when you see the faces you know right in front of your nose.

Forestry and football

Well, I did say I’d use this to show off about the weather so I had it coming. At the end of last week the heat proved too much, made me sick and as a result I had a three day weekend of mainly flopping around the house feeling pathetic. Everyone was very nice and worried and offered to take me to the hospital, which I resisted. I did manage to haul myself outside on Saturday afternoon to go and meet three other volunteers to visit Karura Forest though, which is just inside Nairobi.

It was actually so nice to be surrounded by green and fresh (still dusty) air and see some space not swimming with faces for a change. Everywhere in Nairobi is so full of people that to see so few all of a sudden is a bit of a shock. I especially wanted to go because I just finished reading Wangari Maathai’s autobiography. Maathai was a Kenyan woman (she died last year) who spent her life campaigning and working for the people and environment she grew up with. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her environmental work founding and growing the Green Belt Movement which you can read more about here. She also led the campaign in the 90’s against public land grabbing in Karura Forest, which is why I was interested to see the land which was saved from more housing development.  So it was interesting for those reasons, plus we also saw a couple of monkeys and lots of butterflies.

Every day I discover something else branching out from SMAK. Today, I learnt about the Umeme Sports Club. As I understand it, they were started in 1972 by Angelina's brother to provide a local club for the Ziwani area. The club has in the past had hugely successful sports teams of both sexes, including handball and basketball, at the national and international level. For now though, they focus on football.

Umeme have a wider focus than sport. Their key priorities are sport (obvs), education and health. Built into the core values of the club are the importance of working hard at both football and a second passion. It isn't important what the second thing is, but Umeme feel it is important for the boys to focus on a second goal and work towards both equally. They have often assisted members in obtaining scholarships for further study  and seen former players go as far as the US to continue their education. Health is the third factor, and in particular Umeme encourages team members to use the Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) service provided free by SMAK. 

I've started building a picture of what SMAK is all about, although I haven't seen any of the rural projects yet. Single Mothers Association of Kenya really doesn't cover it. SMAK works with all members of the local community, male and female, young and old. There are so many offshoots from SMAK, all doing different work with various groups, but they all have in common the same non-judgmental and welcoming atmosphere which hopefully will continue to attract those who can really benefit from such an environment. SMAK don't give hand outs or freebies, they build relationships and work with the community to raise aspirations and the chance to build positive futures.

Today I also took photos of all the staff for the upcoming SMAK site. I attempted to take photos of the toddlers in the child care center but they were not amused by me or my camera so I think I'll have to go back a few times to train them to smile :) 

Mango juice and motorways

This entry in quick succession from the last, just to catch up!

My favourite thing to have happened yet was meeting a lady who introduced herself to me as Ruth, before adding, ‘But people call me Double ‘M’, for ‘Mama Made of Fire’’.

I was on my own in Angelina’s office and she came in, sat down, and talked at me until Angelina came back. She was telling me what all of Kenya’s problems are (corruption, poverty, corruption, alcohol, corruption, laziness) and how (what I got from it anyway) she is a one woman force set out to change all that. Quite the eye opener listening to some of her stories.

I’ve had a couple of interesting journeys, still without leaving this side of Nairobi. The first was on Wednesday when Nandwa took a different route to the office to avoid a traffic jam. We drove past an area where there was empty ground on both sides of the road. It looked like a rubbish tip had just been cleared the day before. Then we drove past a couple of armed soldiers, then a plane flew right over our heads. Angelina told me that this was the site of the Moi Air Base, and that because of  terrorism threats from al-Shabaab the government had cleared the slums immediately next to it. No idea where all the people who lived there went, but they’re not there anymore.

Then on Thursday we went to the electricity board on the way to work to complain about the flickering power supply, and to get there we drove on a new highway being built by the Chinese. When I say being built, it began where about four dusty dirt tracks joined together onto a smooth, wide highway which must have had at least  three lanes, none of which were marked, with traffic weaving in and out and all over the place and men working on either side of the road. We then took a slip road off to the left and drove along for about half a mile before it just ENDED, no sign or anything. So we had to turn around and start again. It was, in a word, mental. The new highway stopped, abruptly, where all the previously weaving, overtaking traffic braked into a big dusty confusion of dirt roads splitting off in every direction. Mental.

On Friday I had an interesting day with the Gender Based Violence Group who use SMAK as a meeting place (this support group formed following the violence which broke out in Kenya after the 2007 elections, when results were accused of being manipulated and targeted ethnic violence ensued. Women and girls were unfairly the target of much of this violence) They had a visit from some people from the Ministry of Agriculture who were showing the ladies how to make fresh juice, yogurt and soap. I was allowed to join in, and whilst almost the whole thing was in Swahili, somehow I managed to follow the demonstration of getting juice from a mango… They also had a talk about keeping poultry, which is one of the projects the women had been interested in starting last year.

The ministry are currently running these workshops with women’s groups to encourage them to start their own small business ventures in their local area. They also spoke to them about the importance of good nutrition and hygiene. The women all took part enthusiastically, and hopefully will follow up the workshop with some income generating activity.

In other news, HUGE progress was made over the weekend. First, I went to the supermarket by myself. Then on Sunday after getting a taxi into the centre of Nairobi to meet another volunteer, I got the bus home. All by myself. And worked out where to get off. And it only cost 50 kSw which is about 40 pence compared to the taxi which was about £8.

The centre of Nairobi isn’t particularly exciting, we had a walk around the Maasai market which was extremely stressful.  People on either side are constantly called ‘madam! madam!’, ‘my friend, my friend, look! look!’ and pulling you towards their stalls and trying to start conversations which you know can only ever end in them trying to sell you a wooden giraffe or flip flops. There does seem to be quite a lot going on though in terms of music, cinema, theatre, shopping etc so hopefully I’ll have opportunities to give Nairobi a chance soon!

A few photos

The Oyolo's house (mine) from the back

The pre-school day care at SMAK

The door to Angelina's office!

Children's storytelling hut

Cyber cafe and computer classroom donated by AWDF, and my desk in the door at the right

As Kenyan as could be

I was meant to post this over a week ago, but only just got internet access. I arrived in Nairobi on Monday 22nd January and wrote this on Tuesday evening. Apologies and prepare for several entries in quick succession!

Well, at the time of writing I’ve been here less than 48 hours and have ticked off more African experiences than I expected to cope with in such a short time. I’ve had chai (tea) and mandezi (like a doughnut) for breakfast, ugali for lunch, a mango off of a nearby tree, a LOT of rice and beans and I’ve even travelled on an over capacity matatu screeching along the streets (and pavements) with the doors wide open. All fairly positive experiences although ugali I would describe as an acquired taste which I cannot imagine acquiring to at all. Ever. It is like hard porridge which you slice and eat with everything. I really tried and I’m not fussy but I literally couldn’t swallow it. I will maybe persevere but then I might not bother and just have rice instead. Every day. We’ll see how that goes.

I was picked up at the airport on Monday morning by Angelina (the director of SMAK), her husband Nandwa, who has a car, and my landlord, Alex Oyolo. Since my flight got in so early, when I stepped outside the airport it was just a lovely pleasant temperature which by noon had, along with the dust (Nairobi is very dusty and dry), reduced me to a flop.

Everyone has been really kind so far and eager for me to make myself at home. In return I’ve been saying thank you a lot and smiling far too much in case I let my face relax and offend anyone with my natural frowny face. We have laughed a lot but I think mainly at each other rather than with…seeing as it seems to be working both ways I’d say that’s ok?? My landlord is Angelina’s brother and their families spend a lot of time in one another’s houses, they just stroll in from time to time and sit for a while and drink tea.

Tea.

Everyone so far drinks a lot a lot of tea. Either that or because I said I liked tea they thought they better serve it to me at every occasion, I’m not sure. They drink it super milky with a lot of sugar, or black. I quite like the milky sugary stuff but I’m thinking I better just hold back a bit on that particular healthy treat.

Today I went to the office and met all of the volunteers. SMAK owns quite a large compound with several buildings on Ziwani estate. Apparently the area used to be very good with a mix of incomes, but it‘s recently become overpopulated and there is a lot of unemployment, teenage pregnancies and spread of HIV. So, SMAK has large grounds which they used to run a school from, however when the Kenyan government introduced free primary education for every child several years ago, they had to close their school as parents didn’t see why they should pay for something they can get for free elsewhere.

This means there are a lot of vacant buildings with a lot of potential. They have a cyber café which they also use for computer lessons, a beading and textile room, a pre-school day care centre, an HIV testing clinic and counselling service and a workshop for young boys to learn metal work skills, run by Angelina’s husband. Despite all of this activity there is yet more space for expansion. In March they hope to start a three month course for young women to become trained ‘house girls’. This doesn’t sound like much but I am told there is a great demand for house girls in Kenya, to assist with the running of homes, and also that a lot of girls do not care about their work and steal from their employers. If SMAK runs this course the girl will get a certificate at the end,  will therefore have more chance of being employed and the employer knows that the girl can be trusted. Additionally, as part of the girls’ catering training they will help to run a small café on site, which will boost SMAK’s income, making them more sustainable in the long run.

So I learnt all about this today, had rice for lunch, played with some babies in the day care centre and flew home on a matatu (a tiny overcrowded, generally mental minibus).

And had rice for dinner. Then some more tea.

SUCH fun!

Nearly time to go!

So today is Thursday and on Sunday I am flying from Glasgow to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam to Nairobi overnight. Then I'm coming home.
Well, in August.
For those who don't know (and those that didn't pay attention when I told them first time) I'm popping off to Kenya for six months to volunteer for a small Kenyan organisation called Single Mothers Association Kenya (yes, that's SMAK for short).


SMAK was established in 1991 to work with disadvantaged youth (focusing on young girls) and provide them with education, vocational training and development counselling. The aim of the organisation is to empower girls and women and enable them to find a job or start their own business to support themselves and their families.
Their main areas of work are:

• HIV/AIDS awareness
• Skills training: vocational training, computer classes
• Home care for people living with HIV/AIDS
• Children's care: during their training the children of low income mothers are looked after by SMAK's carers
• Mentoring: support groups for vulnerable people, life skills projects and human rights awareness

I will be working with SMAK to develop their project in Western Kenya, which is currently very small (their main project is in Nairobi). To do this I will be working from Nairobi most of the time, as their rural office is slightly lacking in facilities (i.e. they don't actually have electricity or internet access). I'll not go into the details of what i'll be doing yet as they are likely to change/I'm not entirely sure yet(!!)

I'll use this blog to keep everyone at home up to date with how I'm doing and to show off about the weather. When I say show off, I probably mean complain about not coping very well in the heat. I'll try and add some snaps too. 

The aim is to try not to let this blog get too cheesy and gap yaah in Africa cliched, but needless to say I will stray. There is a Kenyan writer called Binyaganva Wainaina who wrote an article called 'How to write about Africa' which basically lists all the cliched ways Western writers tend to write about African countries. My aim is not to tick too many off his list. I've just noticed I've already crossed one off by having Africa in the title of this page, but I think that that is fair enough and am going to leave it at that for now.

Fingers crossed the next post will be from actual Kenya!