Time to rally!

Hey friends and family! I have been back in New York for a little over a month now. It has been a challenging readjustment, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I am working as an intern at African Refuge, an organization that works with Liberian refugees who were displaced to Staten Island and I have remained connected to the EAC to help with that readjustment. In fact, I might become a member of the EAC board of directors pretty soon here!

Over the past few weeks, I have created another blog for the school while they are building a new Drupal platform website. The goal of the blog is to help get each of the almost 200 students there sponsored in the next month. Today is the day that we are going live with blog, sending it to friends and family and asking them to pass it along to get the word out. Today feels monumental to me. I have been thinking about making a difference for so long, then learning about making a difference and today I finally feel like I am doing that!

The organization is going through some great changes and is headed down a path that I am excited to be a part of! We really hope to get the secondary school up and running so that we can offer elementary, junior and high school education for these kids, providing them with more opportunities and an education and experiences that they will pass down to their children. The more children who have opportunities like this, who grow up in such a healthy and challenging environment, the more individuals who will change the course of their lives, their families' lives and ultimately shape the future of the country. I know that creating educational opportunities like this is addressing the root of the challenges people there face.

Please check out the blog, become a follower of it and sponsor a student if you can! I know your money will change the life of the student you sponsor and that these kids need and deserve this opportunity. Takaungu is a special place and Vutakaka is an amazing school! I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend that time there, to have learned and experienced everything I did and to be able to continue my work for them here.

The Anita Dance

The Anita Dance from Jen Hill on Vimeo.

Performed for the students at the close of day ceremony by the interns and volunteers.

Tutuonana Baadaye

See you later!

That is what I am going to be saying to Takaungu and Kenya soon – in one week actually. I can’t believe it even though it feels like I have been here for a lifetime. I can not wait to see Bryan and all my friends and family and get so excited when I imagine making the rounds in Ohio and North Carolina, but I am going to be so heartbroken to leave this place. Leaving is going to be further frustrated by the fact that it is going to be extraordinarily difficult to get in touch with the people who I have gotten close to after I leave.

So in attempting to tie loose ends, I spent the entire day at the beach with some of the kids I have gotten close to. I got some great pics because I trained two of them to use and respect the camera and then just let them have it the whole day. I should have been doing that all along. That was my goodbye to the beach and some extra bonding time with the little ones. I am taking Saleem to Vutakaka tomorrow for what should be his last cleaning of that wound and checking on the items I have had made at the sewing cooperative. Tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday I will be finishing my projects and leaving behind my work and having dinner with various families to say farewell. Sunday some friends are playing in a big football (soccer to you) tournament and so I will check that out throughout the day. Monday I am spending the day at Mohamed Ngazi’s letting the students from the after school tuition program use the Polaroid camera I brought and getting a little more of his perspective on things. I plan on heading out of the village Tuesday morning and going on a safari for three days before I fly out on Friday. We will see if that works out.

I have certainly learned a great deal and am continuing to process it as much as I can. The divides here between Kiswahali and Girama are larger than I first thought and more detrimental to many in the area. What woman and children not having a voice or options does to a community. The types of programs that can make a difference in lives may be pretty simple and almost universal and I should have started one; gathering girls to visit people at hospitals, organizing a writing, debate or acting club with the public school kids who would really benefit from something like that, organizing more volleyball with the girls. Dang. Guess I’ll just going to have to come back….








Here are those things that I am going to miss:

Walking back from after-school tuition with the crew, laughing and playing the whole way.

The music blasting from the video theatre right next to my room, waking me with Shakira or Sean Paul and sending me to sleep with some KiSwahali or R&B tunes that I have come to love!










The waves of realization about why I am here – the constant and ever changing thought process I have gone through about development and the roles people play in programs like this.

The bucket showers! Yes, I love them and find that they center me very much somehow. They keep me present.

The silhouettes of the coconut and mango trees against the sky at night.

The piki-piki rides! And the rockin matatus!

The smells and sounds of this village even though goats are a main source of both those.

The laughter that I have come to understand as the perfect balance of laughing with me (50%) and at me (10%) and at something lame because Kenyans think things that aren’t funny at all are hilarious (40%).

The food – chapatti, cabbage and mangoes especially.

Playing volleyball after school gets out for the day amidst coconut trees, in the rain with rainbows and everything.

The kids and how they have changed me (I know, I know, I am getting a little too Whitney Houston on you here but its true).










Takaungu and the entire coast of Kenya, is going to be an important place to me for the rest of my life. Hopie – no worries, I am not going to be one of those Africa people, well maybe not. I hope to leave some impressions that aren’t bad with a few of the people here. I am setting my goals low because I realize how impossible it is to make any major impact in the span of only 10 weeks. I think I have succeeded in that and maybe will be able to work to do a little more than that. Love and miss you all! Will be home soon!!

Kwa Heri!
Jen

Peg, Anne and Floof – get that porch ready for this lady right here.

Leora – I desperately need you.

Kim – Hiya! How is the little one? She is probably dating by now. Get ready for some Jen time when I get back. I hope you are still loving life the way you do so well!

Owen – How’s the desert? Awesome. NYE is just around the corner you know…

Emerson and Dina – I am so excited to see you in NYC in a couple of weeks!!

Suz – I miss you little lamb. Told a story from Baltimore the other day, it made it to Kenya!

Brittny and Gabriel – Ahh! I hope you guys had such an amazing time in Thailand! I can’t wait to hear all about it and see all the photos!! Haha.

Hopie – puppies and rainbows, puppies and rainbows, puppies and rainbows, whew, thanks.

Bryan – no words.

Lynn – If you are reading this, fire up that grill cause I am taking the train out to see ya asap!

Elizabeth and Adam – Saleem is doing great! Took him again to Vutakaka today and he is much, much better. Spent the entire day with him and a couple of his friends and am with him now as I type this. I also got some amazing pictures of him and us at the beach. And I got the video of our dance routine – it’s amazing! I really just want to hide under a rock until I leave so I don’t have to say goodbye to anyone. I miss you guys – see you soon! Saleen says “Sema De Lonjo” and “Shak it Uh” to you guys. He still talks about you guys and calls this house yours. I hear your name in conversations with his boys. I am having dinner at his place tomorrow night I think… bringing cooking oil as a gift. I went to a movie with him and his friends last night (Species 4 – I can’t believe they made 4 of them, just grateful they did) and it was awesome!

Mambo

What's up?

Hey all! I hope the pictures below are worth a thousand words, cause I have to jet. Just in Kilifi to grab some malaria medication for my friend and former student who has malaria and then back home to the village. Also taking Saleem - photographed below - to the clinic today and tomorrow to treat a pretty bad wound he got while fishing on the coral reefs.

School is closed, so I am going to be spending more days with the kids before I leave. It's going to be sad to say goodbye to these people and this place.

Love you all very much!!
HTJ

Poa

Cool

At home

Testing Vutakaka school children's vision for physical









Kitsao's photos at the photo exhibit for the after-school tuition kids.

With one of my after-school students at photo viewing

Game day race at Vutakaka - awesome!

The drama about cheating that Liz, Adam and I wrote being performed at close of school day

Intern dance routine - performed at Vutakaka close of school day. Just call me Paula Abdoul.

Rukia shaking it at the dance competition for close of school - umm yeah - they have a dance competition!!!

Piki-piki stand across the river

Walking through the village

Liz with Saleem

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








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