Pole raficki yango

Sorry my friends!

I am sorry it has taken so long to write - have been away from computers for a while. I am as happy as ever and still truly enjoying every moment. Work is progressing nicely and I am feeling like a part of this small village. (right - downtown Tak when school lets out)

The sponsor communication packet for the students of Vutakaka is coming along and will be a great thing that I can leave behind. I am working with two girls from Holland who are studying medicine to evaluate all of the students' health. This basic evaluation will be included in their file and they will leave behind a system for regular check ups and records to be kept. (below - Vutakaka* students)

Liz, Adam, and I have been meeting with our favorite person here - Mohammed Ngazi. He is the teacher of the after-school program that we have been working with. He is an amazing man who has devoted the later half of his life to helping to educate students in Takaungu and the surrounding area that are too poor to afford school. He built his own school near his home where he teaches students for free and then he runs the after school program. He watches out for the children as if they were his own and has been a major influence in so many of their lives here. We meet with him and talk about his life, poverty, politics, religion, the horrible state of education in Takaungu and what can be done. He is a true inspiration.

We are going to leave him with an English and Math curriculum that will enable others to help him teach the after school program when people are willing to volunteer. We are also creating a system of evaluating the progress of the students who attend the classes after school so that the EAC can prove that it is a valuable program and get more funding for it. Upon returning to New York, I am going to apply for grants for the program and possibly sponsor one of his students so that they can attend Vutakaka.
(right - some of the after-school kids)

Since I have been here, I have realized the importance of games for youth. Not only does it keep them from being idle and build confidence, etc., it also gives them a space to be young. Here they have many adult responsibilities. Fathers are often gone working in Mombasa or another city, if at all. Kids pick up the slack and have much work to do. They face sickness and death in their family and have experienced a harshness in life that children should be protected from. I try to play with them as much as possible and have been enjoying playing volleyball so much!! We are also getting together a team of adult players made up of volunteers, teachers, motorcycle drivers and older students from the public school.

Finally, the drama club will be performing the two 'skits' that Liz, Adam, and I wrote for them next Wednesday at the close of school day. I am also choreographing a dance routine for the volunteers to perform for the students on this day. The kids will really love seeing us all make fools out of ourselves for them.

It has been hard for me to process the issues here with poverty and development. Each day I learn more and see more and realize I know so little. It is like I am taking it all in and just holding it, waiting for the right time to really work through it and situate myself within these issues; what can I do? What kind of influence do I want to be and what is possible? One of the most major problems is with education. The public schools are horrible and students aren't even given the opportunity to get an education that would allow them to attend college. They see that they are stuck in a cycle and have no way to pull themselves out. With the help of some of the Vutakaka teachers and Mr. Ngazi, I am hoping to understand the depth of these problems better, maybe find a way to help out even just a little. We will see.

This weekend I walked out to Vuma, another village nearby and sat at the rocky coast line there - it is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and I can't believe it is right here! It is going to be my new spot and I will get some pictures up here asap. I also took my groups of kids to the Takaungu beach and treasure my time with them. Saturday night we laid out a sleeping bag and watched the stars fall.

* I don't know if I have explained this yet or not but the East African Center (EAC) has two major programs in Takaungu. One is a health clinic and another a school - Vutakaka. About 185 students go to school at Vutakaka. The school is a private one and $300 covers their fees for the year including their uniform and lunchs. The students who go there are sponsored by donors, usually from the States and wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise. Right now, the classes are only Kindergarden through Primary levels and then they have to go to public secondary school, but the EAC is planning on offering another level of school each year until they can take students through all of their schooling. Vutakaka is the best chance kids in Takaungu have at ever attending college.

showing a little knee. Sarah left and Elizabeth on the right.

At the Tak beach with Wyclif (a kid who had to quit school and move back to the Rift Valley because his drunken brother who is a teacher at the public school was showing up drunk to school and might have been involved in an attempt to set fire to the building was transferred. Not fired mind you, just transferred.) Jacob(a teacher at Vutakaka) and Adam (Elizabeth's really funny boyfriend)

Me stuffing my face at a volunteer party the other weekend









Me at South Coast Beach Diani in Mombasa a couple of weeks ago








There is a new post below - check it out

A little something from the diary

19 July 2008

I learned how to get my feet clean! Sounds like something simple right? - Nope, it's huge! Since I have been here the bottoms of my feet have been black, covered in a crust that proved to be impenetrable, that is, until the other night. At the same time, two seemingly unrelated occurances have confounded me. 1. That every man, woman and child here has amazingly clean soles. Even those, and there are many of all ages, who go without shoes all day. 2. The huge damp areas outside my bathroom and shower each evening.

The other night, I was talking and laughing with Aisha (my Kenyan mom) right inside the door after returning home. Do (my niece) was in the choo (bathroom) and when she came out she had the cup in her hand. She smiled that brilliant smile up at me, got to a spot in front of the shower and started pouring the water over one of her feet, stopping after it was well soaked and then proceeded to drag her foot across the uneven part in the concrete there. Eureka! I stopped mid-sentence and started pointing and clapping. This even more so than most anything I do, was very entertaining to the two of them. I explained why I was so happy, lifting up my foot for them to see the dirt caked soles that I am sure they were well aware of. When Do was done furiously scraping the soles of her feet at every angle against the rough slab, she stood in front of the bathroom door, put both sandals on and gave her feet a rinse, stomping in the sandals. It was my turn and Do ran in to grab Maryam (my sister) and Dea (my niece) out of bed to watch. My feet are clean!

I can't stop talking about it either! I've been here 5 weeks and have been wondering. Why didn't I ask? I was embarrassed to have such dirty feet and thought I should know the answer. What else do you discover/learn the longer you stay here? What else do I think I should know, but don't and need to ask about? How many other phases of feelings and perception about the hustle would I go through if I lived here a year, two years? How is it possible to make decisions about a community or a country from a distance, or ever as an outsider?

I feel grateful to have caught a glimpse of this place and uncovered a first level of meaning behind things, but regret that what I know about this place will be so limited. Maybe after another 5 weeks I will know more, but I don't have much hope beyond being able to tell the difference when people are laughing at me or with me.

Photos!

Vutakaka Secondary School building

Math class


The scene at Vutakaka for World Population Day


Me dancing at the World Pop Day - awesome!

Acrobats at World Pop Day


Found this on the path to school

My bedroom

My kitchen

Shower left - bathroom right



Me at home


Fatma and Uschi - my friends and team mates


P.S. I know I need more pictures of me so you all know that I am alive and well. I will get some from Liz and Adam and post asap. Mom - can you find a way to post those photos I emailed you that I wasn't able to post here in a comment? Not sure it that is possible, but would be cool. Thanks ma!

Lala vizuri!

Sleep well!

Hello to all! I am here in Kilifi again, trying to email, mail some letters, post some photos and pick up a few things from the store. I think I am going to get some bananas today for the family.

Friday of last week was World Population Day and the Vutakaka site was chosen as one to have a celebration and to offer free medical services to the community. We set up early in the morning for the festivities, assigning rooms for general care, family planning, HIV testing and counseling and a pharmacy. The local chiefs came and made a big fuss over themselves, rearranging the chairs in their area in order of color, requesting flowers and a rake to move the grass around that they were sitting on in their special area. A number of people showed up from the central Takaungu area and the surrounding villages for medical care. I learned a lot about the way things work in Kenya on this day - worse than a trip to the DMV in the States. Numbers were passed out with no clear meaning and were sometimes recognized and at other times ignored. Lines were crowds instead and only the 'important' people got water and food. All and all, a large number of people received care and medicine and were tested for HIV while the EAC and another organization performed skits, read poems, danced and sang. It was a fun day! There was even a dance competition! I spent the day helping to set up, running around taking photos, trying to create lines, talking my local friends into getting tested and watching the events. I was tested and am happy to say I am HIV negative!

The past week has been another great one! Last weekend I went to another disco on Friday night in Takaungu. They have a 'disco' the night before and of a wedding. It is super tame, but fun, especially since we have a solid core of friends now. Saturday I took about 10 kids that I hang with to the beach after they got out of Madrhasa school. My sister Maryam and nieces Do and Dea and their friends Uschi, Fatma, Habib, Ali, Mani, Alisha and another whose name I forget. It was awesome! We played tag and other games in the water and then explored the reef exposed by the receding tide. We searched for fish and crabs.

Sunday Liz, Adam, Sarah, Jakob, Wyclif and I went to the beach early in the morning and stayed until lunch. We played in the water and frisbee on the beach. That afternoon I played an awesome rugby match with the girls near downtown. They were fierce and I fell twice diving for the ball! My team won, but Fatma was kind of injured so it didn't really count.

During spare time on the weekend Liz, Adam and I wrote a skit for the Vutakaka drama club to perform at their close of school celebration on August 6th. We met with the drama club teacher on Monday to pitch it and then presented it to the drama club yesterday. Tomorrow, we will perform it for them so they can see how it will work and then we start practicing.

At the after school program on Monday, the regular teacher wasn't there and so I taught the older group of students by myself! It was great! I really enjoyed doing it and think I am getting better at it every time. I tried to teach when to use 'since' or 'for' and 'remember when/who or where'. It is particularly tough because the students range in age from 9-16 and their English comprehension level from non-existent to where it should be for the grade they are in. Also, as you can tell by the many mistakes in this blog, most of which I will blame on the keyboards here that are so tough they cripple my fingers and from being in a hurry because the power can does go out at any minute, I don't have the best spelling or grammar skills. These combine to make teaching a challenge, but we work through it somehow.

Another issue that has come up lately has been the realization of some of the ways people here perceive me (any whitie). In particular as an opportunity for personal gain. I am not able to go into the depth about the ways in which this realization has unfolded over the past couple of weeks and know that it will continue to be an issue here. I am learning a lot about myself and what the great divide between the haves and haves not looks like when you are here and what I must look like from the other side. I have come here wanting to make a difference and when I was faced with the great need, I wanted to make a difference quickly, something I could see. Now I realize that in trying to do that, many of 'us' get hustled. I'm taking a step back and reevaluating what making a difference means, my motives in this endeavor and the best possible actions I can take while I am here. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I am still working through it all, but thought I would share.

Oh and I spent two mornings taking individual photographs of the students for their files. That was awesome! I am still working on the system for communication between donors and the children they sponsor.

Hopie - I can not believe I don't have an email from you in my inbox. Precedent is being set as I type from this slow internet room that is very hot and stinky where I have to sit and watch this sand glass slowly move while I read a book just to get a simple message to you.

Siku Njema

Good day!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I had a wonderful weekend in Mombasa. Liz, Adam, Sarah and I met Nat and Sonjya there. Nat and Sonjya are working for the IRC in Nairobi. We ate Italian and Chinese, walked to Old Town stopping at Fort Jesus on the way, and had great coffee! I of course fit in 5 hours or so of dancing at a great outdoor club and then we hit the beach on Sunday. It was a great escape and I happy to be back in Takaungu where everyone knows your name.

Yesterday morning I walked with a community health worker to conduct some surveys. As always, it was an interesting experience. At the first house we found, back through a sugar cane and banana farm, I sat on a piece of wood that worked well as a chair across from the woman we were interviewing. She did not have any idea how old she was (which is relatively common) and sat breastfeeding one of her 8 children. Baby chickens ran under my legs while we spoke. We ask questions about malaria, HIV, family planning, diabetes and the types of medical care they seek. When the health worker asked if they used mosquito nets in the house, the woman laughed and pointed behind her as she answered the question. I put together some of what she was saying and seeing the mosquito nets there pulled tights between panels of wire used to keep the chickens in, I figured that she had used them for a short time, but then decided to use them for a livestock fence instead. The community health worker stopped laughing along with her and explained that the nets were talking to her and she was afriad, so she couldn't sleep under them anymore. I couldn't believe that what was she was saying, but she repeated it, and it was. We all shared in the laugh.

Later, I was talking to a teacher here at the school who speaks very good English. When I explained the story, he said it was true, that 3 years back the news reported that some people who lived out in the country in Kenya thought the treated nets were haunted and were speaking to them. Many people became afraid of them and wouldn't sleep under them. At the next place, a baby goat was headbutting my leg.

The program manager here who I was working on marketing things with was arrested and fired for stealing from the organization. That was a pretty big bummer since he had been working for them for over a year and was essentially stealing from these kids.

I am still teaching at the after school program most Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This Thursday and Friday is World Population Day and the EAC center has been choosen as a celebration site. I am going to be helping out and taking pictures though I am not sure what all we are doing. I think there will be health plays, sports and live music.

The young girls that play volleyball and sometimes rugby or basketball, have another match I think this Friday so I will be cheering for them. This weekend I will be here in Takaungu at the beach, relaxing. Jealous huh? :)

I am the only one who hasn't gotten sick (Hopie I know you are knocking like crazy on something for me right now) and I have read several books. "What is What" has been my favorite and I seriously recommend that everyone who reads this blog reads that - it is amazing!!! Last week I went to the movie theatre next to my house downtown. This is a room the size of my bedroom (or smaller) in Brooklyn. There is a TV in the front and bleachers made out of 2X4s on the side. It is blasting videos and movies all day and night. Sometimes they play Bob Marley music videos and other times Tupac. Most of the movies are from Africa, but this night was Resident Evil Extinction - I loved it! Oh and they are playing an Arnold Swarcheneger (sp?) movie next week - of course right?

I hope all is well with everyone at home! Thank you all for staying in touch!