From the net

My work here is wrapped up; as are Alex and I who are currently in two twin beds under one mosquito net. We are spending our final night in Kenya relaxing at Bamburi Beach just outside of Mombasa. The past week was filled with meetings and, from those, came many decisions that I think will continue to carry the EAC in a positive direction. We discussed staff and teacher salaries, job descriptions, and budgeting for next year. I have a better understanding of the day-to-day operations and the current challenges and needs. I couldn't feel better about the work I was able to do in this short of a time. I happily surprised that I was scrambling at the very end to do one-hundred last minute things.

Personally, I am torn in many ways. Torn between being in love with life there and being aggravated with it, feeling comfortable and, at other times, confused and out-of-place, the desire to stay and readiness to get home to New York...all these feelings and more have been washing over me. I'm letting them do just that, but through them all, am pretty sure I want to come back sooner rather than later and stay for a few months to do some serious work partnering with other NGOs, the government, and corporations within Kenya to ensure the organization's sustainability. The thought of doing that excites and inspires me.

I spent the last night there at Aisha's house with Maryam and Do. The food and company were comforting. It felt like home. Toward the end of a long day and evening, I started to sneeze a lot. Aisha was worried. When she tucked me in, literally because she has to tuck me in to the mosquito net that fits so tightly around the bed, she got me some medicine. As she went to leave, she told me that she would check in on me during the night, just like I begged my parents to do every night when I was a kid, “Come check on me!”. The gesture didn't go unnoticed and I slept like a baby.

Last night, Salemu, a boy who I knew before and is now a young man (ish), came by to see me and was limping as he approached the house. He had hurt himself playing football. His barefoot looked broken. I told him to meet me there this morning at 8am and we could go to the clinic. Just like 3 years ago, he injured his foot the day before I left. So again we went my final morning in Takaungu on a motorcycle to the EAC clinic where the ever impressive Valerian fixed him up.

These incidences had the same impression on me; having someone to care about you, to care about your joys and your pain, and having people who will take care of you, is what we all want and deserve. It's health and education. It's hearing and listening. It's caring and community. It felt so good to know Aisha cares about me enough to check in on me at night to make sure I am sleeping and feeling well, and I could see in Salemu that same feeling when I rubbed his back while Valerian pulled and pushed on his injured foot causing him a great deal of pain.

When a nurse says to me that his favorite part of his job is that he feels that he is listened to and that he has ownership over the clinic I know we are doing something good there. When the groundskeeper excitedly explains to me how we can save money building a new latrine that the kids need, or a health worker states the case for keeping at least some services in Takaungu after we move the clinic to Mauveni, I can see we have individual people who care for this community and take pride in their work. This community knows they have somewhere to go, someone to rely on, and someone who cares.

We also are closer everyday to transferring to a sustainable, local model. The next most important step is to hire a solid School Manager that can work with Head Teacher Catherine, to run the school. This will happen by April. Also, to get the Community Health Unit of 50 Community Health Workers functioning as they should and as they do in most of Kenya. One step at a time.

We leave tomorrow night. I'll be home the next morning. Can't wait to see Shawn and after a weekend with him, I am looking forward to Occupying. Just got my tent and sleeping bag from Burning Man. Perfect timing, thanks Dad and Denise!

Hope you enjoy the pictures! Check out the official EAC blog if you want to keep updated and join the mailing list.

Love you all, thanks for listening.

Day 13

The rain has let up and just in time. We really needed to be able to get around and finish the projects we had in mind. Alex has been getting so much done! She is doing water-color painting projects with each of the grades, some of which will be brought home to New York and mailed out to sponsors. Check your mail boxes in November student sponsors!

She is painting the logos for the funders of the farm project on the base of the well stand and going to paint an abstract mural on wall at the Primary School. It's so great that she is here, personally and professionally. Having a talented creative type to bounce ideas off of has been an asset to Kate and my logistical mindsets.

We visited the health clinic in Maveuni yesterday and it is in need of some construction and a fresh coat of paint for sure, but looks good and is in a beautiful, rural area. We found out that the Community Development Fund (CDF) was just out visiting the site to pick up the project! The CDF is an office of the government whose charge is to conduct community projects. This was great news, but we wondered when they would actually start and complete the work.

We found out that they will finish bringing the building up to code by the end of the year. That would have been the most expensive part for us. So then, they will pass it over to us, we will furnish it and then we will pass to the government and it will open.

Today was the a huge meeting with all of the parents present to receive their students' final exam scores for the term and to discuss whatever issues are on hand. Today was the day where I presented the US / fundraising side of things. Alex (awesome Alex) made a poster board with pie charts and tables that was posted next to me during the talk.

The whole thing was trying, but also truly amazing. I think we reached our goal in informing people fully of our work on the US end and taking one more step toward local ownership. We hope the newly created parent's advisory committee will begin reviewing budgets and proposing decisions in January.

After that, we had a staff meeting where each of the staff members discussed the challenges to their jobs and requested support for the work they do. There are many needs from shoes, to fences, to spotlights, to trainings, to loans for further education, to water taps, etc. etc. My mind is still reeling from the number of things that are needed. Everyone wants big salary increases because the inflation here is such a HUGE problem.

Much to be done.

Day 6: Public-Private partnerships and all that jazz

The rain has not stopped. It's shaping everything here and dictating my days. It isn't even the rainy season. For the first few days, I thought, this is good for the farmers. There has been a terrible food shortage here and the government has been providing hand outs, but barely meeting 70% of the basic food needs. The rains were welcomed. Now, after a full week of pounding rain, it seems the farms may be flooded. It may be too much. I really hope it will let up today so I can get to the village without being covered in mud.

I am beyond impressed, if I do say so myself, with the progress that we have made here in the past three years since I was last here. We have grown. There are more classrooms, more teachers, a beautiful and working farm!, a bigger school kitchen, a nearly complete basketball court. We have developed. The classrooms are covered in paint, posters, and are stocked with XO laptops and more teaching materials, the teachers are diverse and well educated, our farm hosts all kinds of greens, a huge water well and water tank, and 750 pole pine tree seedlings that will grow to provide wood for new construction or future profits for the school when sold. Our Clinic is bustling. There wasn't a moment when the Nurse or his assistants weren't helping a new patient, even in this rain. The Community Health Workers are independent, meeting together to figure out monitoring and evaluation for their community unit outreaches.

In a place where change happens slowly, we have made major advances and are headed in the direction we need to be.

Yesterday morning, Kate, our Head Nurse Valerian, and I met with the Minister of Health of the area to discuss our working together to open a new clinic in Mavueni. Mavueni is a “town” between Takaungu and Kilifi whose residents when sick, must make their way to Takungu for treatment. It is a two hour walk. In the rain, impossible. Can you imagine if you or your child are sick and you have to walk two hours to and from a clinic for treatment? Until now, we have addressed the needs of this far reaching community by ensuring that our Community Health Workers travel to this area every week. However, they are not nurses and are not able to treat every issue.

Three years ago, the Local Authority Fund, which as far as I can tell is like some sort of local group that is non-government but supports the government in various ways, raised the money to build a new clinic in Mavueni. They made arrangements with the Ministry of Health (MOH) that if they built and outfitted the clinic, they would hand it over to the MOH who would staff and supply in with medicine, opening it's doors as an operational clinic. For three years it has sat unfinished.

In the past three years, the Takaungu Dispensery (the local public clinic) has opened and been operating. It is serving many of the needs in Takaungu. Besides it's distant location by the beach, there are usually long waits, not always because of lines, but of the pace of operations, but it is still a fine and functioning clinic. Since it has opened, we have talked about closing or scaling down our clinic.

It is one of our goals, not to create parallel services to those of the government, but instead, to fill the gaps in this far reaching area until the government provides services there. Thus, in line with our goal of supporting the government and ensuring more access to health in this remote area, we have decided to complete what was started at the clinic in Maveuni. We hope to have the building up to code and fully furnished by March so that the clinic, fully paid for and operated by the MOH, can open in the spring.

Over half of our patients will use this clinic and the rest can use the Takaungu Dispensery. We will continue to use the clinic we have now as base for the local Community Health Unit.

I like the Minister of Health. He is a genuine man who has the interests of his district's health in mind. He spoke fondly of the partnership and even seemed excited that this clinic was finally going to be operational. We stressed our concern that we would put in this work and shift our operations there and the doors wouldn't open right away, leaving a gap in services and he assured us this wouldn't happen.

So, we are collecting the inspections and the list of needs for furniture for the clinic. We will visit it next week and then meet with the Local group who first laid the foundation and began construction on the building to get them to hand over the project to us. Then we can get moving!

The MOH will pick up our staff and run the clinic, saving us money and moving us toward more locally owned and more sustainable programs and services. I am glad we will still have an influence there, but the MOH in Kenya is possibly their best Ministry, very functional and less corrupt, so we are comfortable with supporting them in this way.

The Ministry of Education is a whole other story and is why it is going to be a greater challenge to continue to create a sustainable, locally run, junior school. Raising the money to cover those costs without any support from the government is our next hurdle. We are brainstorming ways to make it more sustainable. The farm will provide food for the students and teachers each day saving $5,000 a year. We hope to be done building classrooms and offices and adding any staff after 2013, but will still have to find a way to ensure their salaries can be paid and the school can be maintained. There is a too great a need for quality education in the area and there is no potential for a meaningful public option on the horizon.

Today, I will be at the school, meeting with all the teachers to discuss the school, this issue of sustainability and to ask the question I am getting to ask all our staff, “What are the challenges to your work? How can we support you in your work.” So far on my list are educational posters with graphics, a microscope so clinic staff can identify malaria, bicycles, and trainings. Everyone wants training.

Day 1: New York - Paris - Mombasa

The plastic bats made it! JustinJustin Toca donated the bats along with balls, Frisbees and a couple of jump ropes. They were strapped with duct tape to the outside of one of my bags and they made it. In fact, getting here went perfectly. We barely had time to eat in each airport on the way and got in only 30 minutes late. It was the best travel you could hope for such a long way.

Alex and I are settled in our Guesthouse. It is run by a sweet and smart lady name Sipirina. She grew up in Kisumu, where Barack's family is from she reminded us, and lived in Germany for 14 years as a maid or cook. She is back here now because times got tough there and she could no longer afford to live. Now she is making her way here, with this guesthouse, relying on the trickle of foreigners that the EAC or her other foreign contacts send her way. It's a wonderful place and she is proud of it, as she should be.

Our driver last night explained that he grew up, lived and worked in Nairobi until 4 years ago when the German company he was an engineer for re-located to South Africa. He has a degree and now has to drive taxi. He wishes he could be back in Nairobi. Davies. He brought us in late last night and while we were stopped waiting for Alex to use an ATM, there was a young gay man soliciting himself to the men in a truck parked by the side of the road in front of us. Davies said this was more common in just the past two years since they changed the laws about homosexuality, protecting them from crimes. He said they had the guts now to come out so obviously and prostitute the way women do there and have in large numbers for a long time. It's still very dangerous for them, but they are there. In Western Kenya, there are still many incidences of hate crimes, often leading to death. The Coast is less dangerous in many ways. Gay men would not act so in the West. No chance.

Those are all the stories I have for now. I'm soaking in every detail. I really can't wait to get to the village which is about 10 miles from where I am staying. I will have to wait two days though. Kate is coming to pick us up tonight for dinner, then tomorrow resting, then Monday to the village. I have been thinking about ways to pursue local partnerships with bigger companies here. We already gain support from Mombasa Maize Millers and should pursue other large corporations, like the two big cement companies here, for contributions.

I have thought about the protests happening in the States now quite a bit and was very obsessed before I left. Without any easy way to get online the past two days, it has been impossible to find out and if the media is really reporting it in the US, I doubt any substantial news has spread to the streets of Mombasa. I am so inspired and hopeful about this movement. Maybe me and Alex will pop-a-squat in Kilifi's center and occupy that space. If the homeless man who covered himself in a hundred plastic bags is still there huffing glue, however, I may just wait to occupy until I am home.

I will be typing these updates at home, saving them on a drive which I will take the computer lab to upload so I don't have to spend much time there. I still am unsure of how I will be accessing internet so I can't tell you how often to expect me, but please do email me or comment here on the blog. I have updated my phone on the right side of this blog, so you can text or call through Skype if you need to.

Thanks again to everyone who got supplies to me to bring over! An entire 50lb suitcase and half of another are all donations from you guys and I am so pleased to be giving all this to the teachers and staff next week. Along with all the new XO activities for the laptops and the tuna Kate requested, everyone is going to be very happy!

Annie V – we already strolled through the garment district in Mombasa... a little different from Spandex City in Midtown, but a garment district nonetheless.

Lucky – I was able to fit 10 or so various balls. We are going to ship the rest here with the next batch and are talking about ways to spread them around Kenya. Will post pictures asap!

Here I go again

I can't believe how long it has been since I have been to Kenya! Judging by how much has changed, I should have known, but I honestly thought I was just there last year.

Thursday night I will be leaving from JFK with my new dear friend, Alessandra, for Kenya. Because of the generosity of some great friends, we will each have in tow an extra suitcase full of basketballs, soccer balls, crayons, jackets, and art supplies. I feel so fortunate to be able to deliver these and will post photos here while I am gone and even more when I return.

So, what all has changed since I have been to Kenya? I moved from Communications Intern, to Board Member, to Board President, to US Program Director by June of 2009 and have been operating as the Director since then. Obama, whose election we were all so excited about, has proven a let down, in most regards, and we are forever changed due to a hard hitting economic crisis.

Speaking of the crisis, another change since I last wrote here, is that I now work with Professor Richard Wolff on a social movement project we call Democracy at Work that we hope will provide positive and possible solutions to these issues. Tomorrow I will spend the afternoon and evening at the Wall Street Occupation which excites and interests me to no end. He is speaking at a teach-in there tomorrow and I will be on hand to photograph. I truly feel these demonstrations are a chance to make a difference and I am honored to be a part of them.

While in Kenya, I will be working with our Kenya Director, Kate Crowley and our on the ground staff and beneficiaries to map out the next 2 and 5 year plans. Our goal for the past couple of years has been to move toward sustainable programs that could be managed by local employees and would be less reliable on foreign support.

We have moved toward this goal in many ways; applying for and being granted our first in-country grant, securing local and foreign funding for a water well and the completion of a farm that will provide food for our lunch program at school, transitioning our Community Health Worker program to be in line with that of the government, partnering with the Ministry of Adult Education who provide us with teachers for our adult education program and with the Ministry of Health for much of our medicine, and gaining the support of our Parent's Association through their own local fundraising events. Now we are ready to take even larger steps.

We impress even ourselves with how much we are able to do with a budget of $120,000 a year. We are also in a state of constant anxiety about how we will survive due to the current challenges to fundraising. Every year at this time around October, we are at our lowest amount in the bank and every year we hope to hold some event or receive some grant that will enable us a cushion.

So it is with this pressure that I head to Kenya. Hoping to be inspired with a new idea that will translate to the funds we need to see us through until we can secure constant funding with less work and have in place more sustainable programs.

I plan to use this blog to honestly express my thoughts on these issues while I travel to Kenya. Thank you for following and please feel free to comment or ask questions.