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!