nyumbani village

So we just got back from Kitui, which was quite the little excursion. We left Friday morning and took a bus from Nairobi to this little town in the middle of nowhere! It was an incredibly bumpy ride, but it was really pretty out there; lots of rocks and really red dirt- kind of Arizona-like. From there we rode in the back of a pick-up truck to Nyumbani Village, where we were staying.

So this village is made up entirely of kids who have been orphaned because their parents had HIV or AIDS, and about 30 grandparents (mostly grandmothers). The village consists of a school, a social hall, a goat and cattle farm, and the about 20 houses, and each grandparent has about 10 grand-kids (some of their own, and some others) living with them. They grow and raise a majority of their food in the village, as they're trying to be as sustainable as possible. Although families live, work and go to school there, the village is not intended to be a place where you would permanently reside, as families and kids will eventually go back to where ever they came from. They're also slowly expanding the village, so that hopefully, at some point, it will have almost 1,000 kids.

So we went on a tour of the village and the sand dam there, went to Environmental Day at the school where we helped clean up trash and plant trees, and then just hung out with the kids and the grandmas. (It was a much slower paced weekend than we're used to!) And we got to feel like we were roughing it a little since we had pit toilets which made our entire house smell rather like a latrine, and basically ate rice, beans and corn for four days.

It was a whole other time schedule too because it started getting dark everyday around 6:30, and since there was no electricity and we didn't have many flash lights, we were usually in bed by like nine (except for the last night when it was my friend Jessica's 21st birthday.) Then, however, going back to your house after dark was quite the experience, trying to avoid scorpions, mambas and cobras.

So we survived our weekend and enjoyed the calm of rural life, although I'm not sure how the three volunteers we met there could handle that for months! Not just the life style but they're completely isolated and there is literally no one in the village between like 19 and 55.

[I posted pictures of our rural weekend excursion on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/denisemoriba/NyumbaniVillage ]

Soo- we're finally finished with mid-terms, which is a relief because we had no idea what the expect of USIU, but they seemed to be relatively fair.

Today I didn't have classes since it is still technically mid-term week, so I was able to get a lot of errands done. I also went to this place called Amani, where my friend Chrissy from our program works. It's a program that trains women coming out of rough life situations to make clothes and jewelry and all kinds of other stuff, so that they are able to support themselves. I definitely got a lot of Christmas shopping done, but they also have a cafe and a really pretty area to sit outside, that's very peaceful and removed from the city, so it was a very relaxing afternoon.

At Sarakasi, I'm trying to finish a survey on what kinds of things the performers would be interested in for different workshops, so I can hopefully get started on my grant proposal in the near future.

Next Monday is yet another holiday, (Kenyatta Day- this time) so we have the day off from USIU and our internships and all of us in the AU program are going to stay in a rural village called Kituii for four days. I'm not exactly sure what we'll be doing there, but it supposedly has several really successful development projects in the works, so it should be pretty cool to see, and also nice to get out of Nairobi for a bit.

So I guess that's pretty much all for now. My thoughts go out to the Nadeau family; I can't imagine what you must be going through right now.

More later...

I worked at Sarakasi today, and was starting to get really frustrated. I wasn’t there for almost a week and half (since I went to the hospital one day, was gone on Safari another day, and had the Muslim holiday Idd off.) And after coming back, even though I’d been working at Sarakasi for several weeks, I still didn’t know what I was actually supposed to be doing. (On Monday, for instance, I wrote addresses on envelopes for seven hour.)

So today I went to go to one of the training centers in what is supposedly a ghetto, on the East side of Nairobi. A group of kids form the local school meet with a trainer for a couple of hours each week, to practice their acrobatics in another old cinema. And this afternoon, I finally got to sit down with the director of Sarakasi, which was incredibly helpful and definitely what I needed to get re-excited about working there.

Aside from that, we’re kind of getting into the thick of things, in terms of school work. We have midterms at USIU next week, and we’re supposed to be starting to develop ideas for our organization grant proposals and NGO sector research papers. And for our photo class, we’re supposed to have fourteen prints done by next week, even though we haven’t started developing yet, and there is one enlarger for our class of 46 (…which is not even remotely close to possible!) Our photo class continues to be a joke, but we actually got to go into the darkroom for the first time Tuesday. The smell and the feeling of not knowing whether your eyes are closed or not because it’s so dark, was so great and reminded me why I actually like photography. That in itself almost makes the whole class worth it.

So I’m thinking this weekend will include quite a bit of actually trying to be productive. Last weekend, a bunch of us went to the Mr. and Miss Kibera pagent. (Kibera is one of the biggest slums in Nairboi- with I think about 800,000 people.) My roommate Justine works for ISAA, the organization that was sponsoring it, so we were all there for pretty much the entire day, but it was definitely a good time. And the majority of the weekend, we didn’t have power, so Sunday morning, we went to get breakfast at Java House (essentially, the most American restaurant around) I got the best avocado, cheddar and bacon omelet and apple muffin I think I’ve ever eaten!

So life’s good, busy, (and I’m about a week behind on my blog because I forgot which email address and password I used—hahah.) But I was able to post some picture online on Picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/denisemoriba/MaasaiMara#5253984173417790274. There’s a bunch of safari pictures for now and more to come?

maasai mara- day 2

Sunday morning, Justine (both my roommate in Nairobi and my roommate for the weekend) and I got up at 4:40 to see an African sunrise. Unfortunately, we seemed to have had some miscommunication with the Maasai that told us the time, because it wasn’t actually light until almost 6:15. But we did get to see seven shooting stars, and were super awake for our 6:30 game drive.

We didn’t actually see the “Wildebeest Migration” (…think the Lion King) which is supposed to be one of the wonders of the world because I guess it happened earlier this year- and most of the wildebeest are already in Tanzania. But we did see a big herd of stampeding wildebeest and lots of zebra. And the most exciting thing- was that we were able to get really close to a bunch of mama and baby lions- actually eating a wildebeest!

Later in the morning, we got to visit a Maasai village, which you can pay to have a tour of. The Maasai men and women each came out and did some kind of tribal dance for us. Then they brought us into their fenced-in community- to show us how they make their fires from sticks and their huts from dung and mud. Apparently, the Maasai’s diet mainly consists of milk, blood and meat, which I guess would explain why they’re so small! We also learned that they wrap their stretched-out earlobes around the top of the ears, so that if they are running from something it won’t get caught, and that they pull out four of their teeth so that if they get tetanus and have lock jaw, they will be able to take whatever herbal remedy is prepared from them. So the Maasai Village was very cool. We got to talk to the Maasai a little bit- although there was a bit of a language barrier, as their main language is Maa and they only speak a bit of Swahili and English. But the Maasai guys came up with a nick-named for me- Longashu- which I later found out means many cows.

On our afternoon game drive we were on a mission to find a cheetah, which we amazingly did actually spot. We also saw buffalo, which means that we saw four of the “Big Five” (leopards, buffalo, lions, and hippos but no rhinos.) Then at night, the big excitement was that it was Lindsey’s (one of my other roommate’s) 21st birthday. So after dinner, we had a cake and then this troop of Maasai comes in to where we were eating to do one of their Masaai warrior dances. It was very cool because some of the Masaai we had met who worked at the lodge, (including the chef in his chef hat) were all part of the dance.

So today, we sadly had to go back home to Nairobi--- back to school and work and other equally exciting things.

maasai mara- day 1

Well- I don’t even know where to start about Maasai Mara. It was probably the most amazing weekend I’ve ever had, and we packed soo much in but it still went by way to fast! We left in two vans early Saturday morning and drove an incredibly bumpy six hours through part of the Rift Valley and to the Mara. On the way there, even though it wasn’t officially a game drive, we saw monkeys and warthogs and giraffes and antelope, just on the side of the road. We also saw tons of Maasai out in the fields with their herds of cattle and goats, and lots of little Maasai villages. (The Maasai are the nomadic tribe that live in Kenya and Tanzania- and usually dress in lots of red and beads- kind of the Totem tribe that you always see pictures of in books or whatever.)

So we decided the luxury camp we were staying at was probably the nicest place any of us have or will ever stay. Every “tent” (and you could really only call it that because of the zipper to get in and the cloth walls) were basically like honeymoon suites. Also the food was amazing! We had three course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner that were soo good!

So on our afternoon game drive in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve we got to see impalas, hippos, elephants, hyenas and a leopard. We saw the sunset from the van on the way back, and then upon arriving back at the camp, our driver told us that we were supposed to report to main area for our sadona. We weren’t exactly sure what the entailed, but some of the Maasai led us down into this dried up river bed, behind the camp, where they had made us a camp fire, and had a little bar set up to make us “Crocodile Tears”. (The Maasai working there were fully decked out in their traditional attire and escorted us around at night, because although it’s really not unsafe or at all, you can actually hear lions in the distance.)

After dinner, we sat out by the fire again to look at the stars, which are truly indescribable. Nairobi is so smoggy and polluted that just being away from the city for the weekend was incredibly refreshing. I don’t think I’d seen stars the whole time I’d been in Kenya, and I’m not sure how or why- maybe something to do with being on the equator- but the sky seems sooo much bigger here.

day with the clowns

I spent this morning at Kenyatta Hospital, this gigantic concrete complex that is apparently the largest hospital in East Africa. Sarakasi has a program there where they bring in performers and clowns to sing songs, perform, and play with the kids in the pediatric wards. Many of the kids staying in the wards have been there for months or even years, and hardly ever get a chance to go outside or interact with anyone other than their families and the hospital staff. And many of their families stay at the hospitals with them, so there are rooms and rooms packed with 20 beds and tons of kids and family members.

The kids were absolutely adorable- especially this tiny girl named Suzie, who followed me around all morning. A guy named Steve and I, went around to the different rooms of the kids who couldn’t get out of bed, with puppets, but most of the other kids could come down to the playroom to watch the clowns perform and color and run around. But being there was also definitely the hardest thing I’ve done here so far. There were kids with malaria and AIDS, and in one of the wards we visited, all of the kids had cancer. Lots of them had so much energy, it was hard to believe they were sick, but some of them would sit there and cry and cry. The other terrible thing was there was a whole room of children who had been abandoned at the hospital. The nurses feed and care for them, but with only a few nurses for hundreds of kids, they really don’t get much attention at all.

That particular program through Sarakasi is running low on funding, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be back in the next couple of weeks, but I was really glad to actually get to go out and see it for myself.

Then this afternoon, I had my class on Development of Culture in Kenya class, which is pretty exciting to be done with- since it’s three hours long and the last thing we have to do on a Friday afternoon. And this weekend we’re all looking forward to even more than usual because we’re going on a Safari at Masai Mara. (It’s supposed to be a really great time to go because right now is the middle of the wildebeest migration, and I literally cannot wait!) Our bus comes and picks us up at 6:30 tomorrow morning, and then we drive 6 hours, through the Rift Valley, to where we’re staying. I think we get to go on three or four game drives and we’re staying at the lodge there for two nights. I’m definitely planning on taking a lot of pictures (and I promise I’ll figure out someway to actually post them!)

Today was day number three of my internship and I still have no idea what I’m actually going to be doing at Sarakasi. I’ve gotten to watch the acrobats and dancers (who are truly amazing) and meet most of the trainers and staff. I worked on creating a donor list- and sending out the monthly newsletters today, but I think this it still part of my “orientation” to the organization. I’m still hoping to go see the program where they bring performers to a local hospital, see some of their community training centers, and see the “Ghetto Radio” run out of Sarakasi. I have to say though, although I’m still kind of floating around in terms of what I’m doing, I’m working with a really great, energetic team of people, and the building itself that we’re working in is amazing. It used to be this old, abandoned cinema that was just renovated within the past year, so there’s a huge stage where practices and performances are held. There is a huge spiral staircase that goes up three stories to where the offices are, and if you go up on the roof, there’s a great view of the city.

Some of the other girls have really cool internships as well. My roommate Justine is working with youth in Kibera, an informal settlement or slum in Nairobi, at the Initiative for Sports and Social Arts, and Sophie, another girl in my apartment is working at Umande Trust, where they’re helping communities to create these bio-toilets, where waste is turned into fuel for local schools. But really- all of the internships that everyone has are super interesting, and very different. Definitely lends to some interesting dinner conversation, and I think we might be able to work together with some of our organizations on certain projects.

I just have to add that as I write this, I am being serenaded by the Imam in the mosque down the street. This is actually a very Indian neighborhood, but it is Ramadan after all. I’m amazed on a nightly basis at how well a voice can carry through closed windows and be heard over the Al Jazeera playing in the background as we do our work. Mornings can be pretty loud too. We have a gorgeous view out of our apartment, but there are some homeless people who occasionally throw rocks at their tin shack before the crack of dawn, and some stray dogs who also don’t hesitate to make their presence known. The rest of the time though, Njema Court is actually surprisingly quiet.

(the picture is not actually from anything related to Sarakasi- but we saw these amazing kid acrobats performing at a street festival the other day)