Hi again,
Okay continuing with the update on what I did in Kuria that I started earlier.
I did a visit for one of the OVC's that we sponsor in Kuria. That was very interesting and fun. Since I got to meet her and talk with her about her life and how things are going. It felt a little bit like detective work trying to listen to her speak through the coordinator as a translator and gauge what was going on with her.
I had a really nice time with my hose family in Kuira. Florence, my host mom, is a really wonderful women, and Fiona (my five year old host sister) was a lot of fun to hangout with, especially this time around when she was much more comfortable with me.
I came back to Nairobi on Thursday and immediately started working on proposals. I spent all day on Friday working on them. It was hectic and stressful, but also fun to be working so closely with Edward and Marion on a project. I can't remember if I have mentioned them yet so I will give a quick background because I don't think I have and they have both been very important parts of my trip here. Edward is the Programme (yes spelled that way) Manager of SOTENI Kenya. He runs SOTENI the NGO and oversees all of the programs that go on on the ground here. Marion is the business manager of SK and keeps track of all of the money that gets sent around the country. She just graduated with a degree in accounting (I think but it might be in somthing else, I'll have to double check with her). Her unspoken title is to keep Edward organized (which she is very good at). The two of them are great bosses and besides that great people they make sure that we stay safe while we are in Kenya, and also help us understand what is going on here (which can be hard to do sometimes).
On Friday night I decided to try and find the shul in Nairobi. I thought this would be difficult only to discover that in fact I had been walking by it everyday on my way from the hostel to the office. It is a really beautiful walled compound with a large garden, a hall for events, and a beautiful sanctuary with stained glass windows. It was a michitzah davening, mostly and ex-patriot Israeli crowd. They had more than ten men, but not a minyan because apparently some of the men were just Kenyans interested in Judaism not really Jewish. I found this really intersting. I went back again this morning, it was nice to do something Jewish for a couple of hours.
After shabbat services I went back to the office to catch up on some stuff. Then went with Pat and Steph (Pat's girlfriend who is working in Nairobi if I haven't mentioned her yet) to the massai market. This is a crafts market in Nairobi on Tuesdays and Saturdays that sells traditional crafts. Some nice stuff and some crap also, you have to sort through carefully. Also the prices are ridiculous and bartering is required. I got three wooden bowls I paid about $20 but I probably should have only paid $15 thats about a 500 ksh difference which is a lot, but only a $5 difference, which isn't too bad, and they are nice bowls. Plus, as Marion told me I have to pay extra for my skin color.
Okay its getting late here. I feel like this was a very cursory update, but I was trying to fit two weeks into two posts. Sorry that there are not more details I'll try to write as a go and post when I get to Nairobi so that the updates have more detail.
On an informational note, my parents are arriving here on the 29th very late at night. So they will be here on the 30th and are staying until the 6th. I come home on the 10th. That might seem a long way away to you back in the states, but to me here it really feels like my trip is wrapping up. I will be done with my research (this phase, the fun exciting phase) on Wednesday. That in and of itself is hard to believe. I guess I have almost three more weeks in Kenya, but it seems very very short from my perspective at the moment.
I really feel like I have learned a lot about the world these last six weeks. I also have learned how much more I still have left to learn about the world, which is probably an even more valuable lesson. I just feel incredibly lucky on so many levels and in so many different ways.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Time Flies!
Habari ya'jioni (how are you this evening?)
I feel really bad that so much time has gone by since my last post (almost two weeks). The first week after I last posted I felt like nothing happened, then I moved to a village where the place I stay has no power and suddenly many things were happening but I did not a chance to post. I'll give an outline of where I have been and what I have done, and try to fill in details along the way.
July 13-17th (ish) I was back in Ugenya (the village I started in) staying at the nice hotel there. It was actually a very fun week because Pat and I were also with Grace and Filipo (the two other SOTENI interns) so we were a big group. The week in Ugenya was the one that felt slightly uneventful. We visited all of the schools that we needed to and collected data. We also worked on some applications for grant money that SOTENI is applying for and other SOTENI work. We had one fun day when we went to the market and saw stuff that people were selling there.
Then we made the move to Kuria, which actually takes a full day of travel. We stop over in Kisumu which is a big city in the western part of the country. We didn't get to Kuria until very late. Our week in Kuria was actually very eventful. We only got to visit two of the three schools (one was in the middle of exams and decided to decline to participate in this section of the study for that reason), but it still felt really busy. We were working on the proposals SOTENI is submitting.
We did some fun "touristy" stuff. Kuria is right on the boarder of Tanzania, so one day we crossed the boarder and went to the town on the other side. This area of Kenya has lots of the classic African print fabric (kitanke or kanga depending on the quality) and it is mostly made in Tanzania, so its cheaper there (also the Tanzaniana shilling is much weaker than the Kenyan shilling so stuff is cheaper in general). I bought a bunch of fabric. I had one piece made into a skirt and matching top (the top was forced on me, i dont think i will ever really wear it) getting both made cost 800 ksh (10.25 usd) I think I am going to make some more of it into skirts when in the next village I go to. (its pretty crazy that you can get a made to fit item of clothing for $5). Other than that Tanzania looks pretty much just like Kenya. We did see one of the big truck stops that have been known as hot spots of HIV spreading in general, so it was an epedimiologically intersting trip.
Funny story: the guy who sold me all of the fabric that I bought told me that he wanted me to meet his son, and that he would negotiate a good dowry with my father. In general I have been told that my father can get twice as many cows for me since I have "brown" skin. So, Dad, if you are interested you could make a killing selling me for cows. I was also told that if cows are not involved in a marriage it "can't be permanent" I also got marriage proposals from a couple of the truck drivers.
I also got into a big discussion about religion that day, with a friend of Mathias's wife who came with us to help me get the right price for the fabric. She concluded after a long discussion that since she was a seventh day adventist she and I were practically the same religion. Though she did spend I bit of time trying to convince me differnt things about Jesus rising based on the placement of stones it didn't have the fire and brim stone feeling that you get in the US.
Back in Kuria, I found a group of boys to give the soccer ball that Jeff and his friend Toby gave me to bring over here. They were a big group playing next to my host mother's house. They had been playing with a ball of plastic held together with string and the ball made them all so happy, it was great.
I'm leaving the office right now, and heading back to my hotel. I'll post more later tonight.
I feel really bad that so much time has gone by since my last post (almost two weeks). The first week after I last posted I felt like nothing happened, then I moved to a village where the place I stay has no power and suddenly many things were happening but I did not a chance to post. I'll give an outline of where I have been and what I have done, and try to fill in details along the way.
July 13-17th (ish) I was back in Ugenya (the village I started in) staying at the nice hotel there. It was actually a very fun week because Pat and I were also with Grace and Filipo (the two other SOTENI interns) so we were a big group. The week in Ugenya was the one that felt slightly uneventful. We visited all of the schools that we needed to and collected data. We also worked on some applications for grant money that SOTENI is applying for and other SOTENI work. We had one fun day when we went to the market and saw stuff that people were selling there.
Then we made the move to Kuria, which actually takes a full day of travel. We stop over in Kisumu which is a big city in the western part of the country. We didn't get to Kuria until very late. Our week in Kuria was actually very eventful. We only got to visit two of the three schools (one was in the middle of exams and decided to decline to participate in this section of the study for that reason), but it still felt really busy. We were working on the proposals SOTENI is submitting.
We did some fun "touristy" stuff. Kuria is right on the boarder of Tanzania, so one day we crossed the boarder and went to the town on the other side. This area of Kenya has lots of the classic African print fabric (kitanke or kanga depending on the quality) and it is mostly made in Tanzania, so its cheaper there (also the Tanzaniana shilling is much weaker than the Kenyan shilling so stuff is cheaper in general). I bought a bunch of fabric. I had one piece made into a skirt and matching top (the top was forced on me, i dont think i will ever really wear it) getting both made cost 800 ksh (10.25 usd) I think I am going to make some more of it into skirts when in the next village I go to. (its pretty crazy that you can get a made to fit item of clothing for $5). Other than that Tanzania looks pretty much just like Kenya. We did see one of the big truck stops that have been known as hot spots of HIV spreading in general, so it was an epedimiologically intersting trip.
Funny story: the guy who sold me all of the fabric that I bought told me that he wanted me to meet his son, and that he would negotiate a good dowry with my father. In general I have been told that my father can get twice as many cows for me since I have "brown" skin. So, Dad, if you are interested you could make a killing selling me for cows. I was also told that if cows are not involved in a marriage it "can't be permanent" I also got marriage proposals from a couple of the truck drivers.
I also got into a big discussion about religion that day, with a friend of Mathias's wife who came with us to help me get the right price for the fabric. She concluded after a long discussion that since she was a seventh day adventist she and I were practically the same religion. Though she did spend I bit of time trying to convince me differnt things about Jesus rising based on the placement of stones it didn't have the fire and brim stone feeling that you get in the US.
Back in Kuria, I found a group of boys to give the soccer ball that Jeff and his friend Toby gave me to bring over here. They were a big group playing next to my host mother's house. They had been playing with a ball of plastic held together with string and the ball made them all so happy, it was great.
I'm leaving the office right now, and heading back to my hotel. I'll post more later tonight.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Mituntu
Habari Ysabui (Good Morning. Its noon here but 5am on the east coast so I guess I can still get away with good morning). I’m back in Nairobi again after a week in SVH Mituntu. I had good access to electricity there but the internet modem was not cooperative at all, so I wasn’t able to update. The blog. SVH Mituntu is actually in the Tigania West Constituency. The way areas are divided up here is very confusing, so I won’t try to explain it, but if you wanted to find it on a map you would look for Meru, the nearest big town/small city about 18 km from where I was staying. I was again doing a home stay. My host father, Barnibus, is a principal of a secondary school and chairman of the SVH committee. He is very involved in several community initiatives, and is also getting a masters degree in project management. My host mother, Anne, is a deputy principal at secondary school. They have two children, one at boarding school and one in standard 1 (first grade) who still lives at home, Barnibus’ youngest sister who is in form 2 and a “house girl” also live with them. Their home was very large, and nicer than any Kenyan home that I have visited in a rural area yet. They had a large kitchen with tables to work on (as apposed to just the ground), and a refrigerator (which meant we had cold juice), something I had not seen in a home before. They also had a television, so I got to see news daily and watch part of Michael Jackson’s Funeral when it was shown on KTN (Kenya Television Network). I was actually pretty surprised that it was playing on the Kenyan channels, talk about globalization. The big news stories here lately have been about Kofi Annan pushing the Kenyan government to try the perpetrators of post election violence at the Hague. I don’t understand all of the details and admittedly have not been paying very close attention, but the jist of it seems to be that Annan handed a list of suspects names over the ICC. The reason the ICC is even getting involved is that many Kenyans fear that if the criminals are tried in the Kenyan justice system they will bribe judges and prosecutors into not guilty verdicts and lenient sentences. In general, Kenyans have very little trust for their government, and since some of the perpetrators are actually high ranking government officials, their fears seem justified. I don’t quite have a sense over how people feel about this, I know that Barnibus supported it, but that’s just one persons opinion. I guess Parliament is pretty divided over the issue. I just think it’s surprising to see a country turn the Hauge to supplement its justice system. Coming from the United States, where the ICC is mostly ignored on a good day, it’s refreshing to see the body taken so seriously. Before this stuff with the Hauge came up last week, there was a lot of talk about Somalia, and what Kenya should be doing about the situation there, if they should send troops ect. Anyway, Tigania is a very interesting area. It’s North of Nairobi, in the Eastern province and very different from the western areas of Nyanza Province that I had been in. First of all Nyanza, especially Kuria near the Tanzanian boarder, has plenty of rain. Crops flourished, the maize harvest looked plentiful, and people didn’t seem too concerned with not having enough to eat. But right now, there is a drought in Tigania, and in many parts of eastern Kenya. The maize harvest is not good there for the third year in a row. Most people rely on their Shambas (personal farms) for food and whatever small income they can make from selling the surplus, when there is no rain and no harvest people really hurt. Looking at the fields and shambas in this area it was obvious that this was not going to be a good year for most of those families. Because it has been so dry, everything is very dusty. The dirt is a brick red color and it sticks to everything. I wore sneakers for the first time, just because it felt like my feet would get so dirty in sandals.
Besides being dry Tigania is also the first area I have been in that is mountainous. There were beutiful veiws all around of the hills, and on a coupel fo the days we had a chance to see mount Kenya (the second tallest mountain in Africa). Getting around Tigania is usually a bit harder than the other villages. Public transportation is more limited and there aren't many boda boda's (byciles for higher). But most of the schools we were going to where just off of the main road. One was very far into the interior (about 7 km), so we had to higher a car to take us there).
One of the things that I found really interesting was that this area is actually much more "modern" than the areas in Nyanza where we spent time. By modern I mean that many women where pants, and some where tight pants and genes. The secondary school girls are alowed to keep their hair long (in Nyanza they all have to keep it cut short), and the skirts for thier uniforms are just below the knee instead of mid calf. Also, people here eat with spoons and forks much more often then they do in Nyanza, where almost everyone just eats with their hands.
Barnibus' home is just a few hundered meters from the main tarmak road and a town called Godone. He owns just 1/4 of an acre there, only enough for his house and a few fruit trees. His shambas are else where. He chose to make a house on a small peice of land in order to be close to the town and the road. We went into town with him a few times and met many of the local officers. We also met a butcher who can smoke a cigarette through his mouth, but make the smoke come out of his ears (after showing us the man asked if anyone would sponsor him to go to the US and show his talent their, if anyone is intersted let me know and I will pass the workd along).
Barnibus also brougt us to his school. He is principal at a school called St. Mary's, which is in one of the most interior areas I have been too. It was a 2o-30 minute drive from the tarmac road in the mountains. Unlike the rest of Kenya (where people think that it is cold when its 68 degrees) this area was actually chilly and very very windy. We spoke to the students there about different types of learners (auditory, visual, and kenestetic) and the best study strategies for each. Then we answered questions about anything. They mostly asked us about America and what we are studying.
One morning a friend of our host fathers invited us to his home to see his area and visit the school he is the chairman of. It was only about 5 km into the interior, but it felt much more ioslated than that. The roads are bumpy and up fairly steep inclines. I want to say taht they are the worst that we have seen, but I'm nots sure if that is because of the conditions themselves or because we were also going up hill. When we got there we walked around the area near his home, and saw the various parcels of land that he owns. We also briefly visited some homes in the area that have been affected by HIV. Other universal problems in this area were poor harvest, and also lack of land. People's shambas were not big enough to support them even if the maize harvest were good, or to support them with other crops, and they are too poor to buy their own food.
Now that I am finished in Mituntu I am done with the whole phase I of my research project (first survey, HIV talk, second survey). Now I am going back around to the villages to do the third evaluation.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Address
Before I left a couple of people asked me about sending postcards or notes to me in Kenya. I didn't think it was possible, but it turns out I was wrong. You can send stuff to the SOTENI PO box in Nairobi, and it will reach me. Keep in mind it takes about two weeks for mail to get here from the States, and I'm leaving on August 10th.
Marla Spivack
c/o SOTENI Kenya
P.O. Box 26412-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Marla Spivack
c/o SOTENI Kenya
P.O. Box 26412-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Kuira part II -- A Fourth of July Thought
Salama (another way that Kenyans say hello that points to the Arabic that floats through kii-swahili)
Quick administrative note: I heard that people were having trouble commenting on the blog and investigated. I had it set so that you could only comment with a user name, but I changed it earlier today so that now you can post anonymous comments. This should make it easier to post comments. If you're still having trouble email me at my gmail account (mhspivack@gmail.com) and I'll play around with the settings again. If you do make anonymous comments tell me who you are!
I'm back in Nairobi tonight staying at the ever friendly Ufungamano House. I have to say after being out in the rural area and living in someones home it really nice to just have my own room and a sink and a shower. Where I was staying in Kuira had no running water, so I was "showering" (that's what they call it but I don't agree with the term" by pouring water from a tub over myself. They use very hot water so it was refreshing, but I don't think I was getting clean. I think I could have done a better job at the washing from the tub thing, I'll work on improving this week when I go back out to the rural.
I haven't spent a lot of time talking about nature, but it is worth mentioning. I'm going to upload photos tonight and then I'll try to see if I can post them tomorrow. The strange thing about Kenya is that (as Edward, my boss from SOTENI told me today) it is a land of contrasts. Terrible poverty in the midst of natural beauty is one of the many contrasts of this country. I have seen so many different types of butterflies here. I haven't managed to get a picture of any of them, but it is really interesting, they are every where. Seeing a butterfly at home is pretty uncommon, but I saw them all of the time in Kuria. Also, the nights there are unbelievable. After finishing dinner (usually around nine) I would go outside to brush my teeth and not need a flash light, because the moon was so bright. It was so bright that you could see things clearly, if shadowy, so bright that you had a shadow, a prominent shadow. I have never seen anything like it (again I think Florence and Josephine thought I was a little nuts because of my fascination with the moon). But really, I have read poems and heard songs that talk about "moonlight" but I realized last week that we don't really have moonlight at home, not they way that the do when the moon is between half full and full in Kuira.
Kuira is a very fertile area (Edward calls it poverty in the midst of plenty) and unlike Ugenya I don't get the sense that people or children are hungry, there is just not a lot of opportunity and very little money circulating in the economy. The farms there are very productive. The SOTENI coordinator, Mathias took us to his shaba (small farm) and showed us the cassava, millet, maize, mango, and avocado he grows. He also keeps bees. he has three acres of land that could easily feed his family, and he also rents another two acres where he grows more cassava, just to sell for profit. I was talking to him about his little agri-business and he told me that land in Kuria is cheap and fertile (he can rent and acre of land for two years for ksh4,000 (about $50), labor is also relatively cheap, he can pay men ksh200 (about $2.50) to work for him for the day. And he predicts that he will turn a profit of about ksh150,000 (about $1970) on the land that he rented (that includes all of the labor, seed, and other input costs). He said that anyone can turn this kind of profit on land that they own or lease in Kuria, but as he said, they need to be able to plan. I also pointed out that they need the capital upfront to pay for the seeds workers and other inputs, since the cash won't come in until after the harvest. He said that that's true, but that it is all part of the planning process. Almost everyone in Kuria has a shamba (small personal farm) but I don't get the sense that they are as business savvy as Mathias is. If people in Kuria could get better at planning, and if they could organize in collectives to sell their crops to more distant markets (food prices are relatively low in their fertile region, in other parts of Kenya and the world food prices are rising, but many of the farmers in the area aren't benefiting from higher world prices) they should be able to lift themselves out of poverty. (sorry for all the economics, I just find this issue really interesting.)
Part of what makes the poverty in the rural areas so sad is that there are definitely natural resources available to improve everyone's' quality of life, but the system is broken in so many ways on so many levels that its really hard to harness what already exists. Some seemingly crazy things go on in these areas but when I think about it its just everyone trying to get by, trying to pursue their best interests within the given system.
Every system (political, economic, and social) in every country has flaws. I know I used to be (and still am, though to a lesser degree) a major critic of the US governments actions in the past and the present. I also know that many of us are still very critical of the US government. We vocally criticize flaws in the health care system, the education system, and the way our government operates. Obviously we have the right to complain, but this Fourth of July looking back home from Kenya I see more to celebrate in the US than ever before.
In the United States we complain that health care is too expensive, but when there is a major accident or emergency we have a network of ambulances and helicopters to get the person to the best possible facility in the shortest amount of time. We complain that we are becoming an unhealthy nation, but the average American will live to be 78, more than twenty years longer than the average Kenyan whose life expectancy at birth is 56 (www.nationmaster.com). We complain that our education system is broken and that children in economically disadvantaged areas are being cheated out of an decent education, but we have 100% FREE education for every single child for thirteen years. In Kenya even the public schools charge fees that make educating children financially impossible, and that's before the cost of uniforms, books, and lunches. There is no child in the United States who does not attend school because their parents are too poor. We complain that our government is inefficient, but we have one of the most extensive systems of paved roads in the world, pot holes are rare, and when it rains the roads do not become mud puddles. In Kenya many of the roads are dirt, they are bumpy to the point of being dangerous, and they make moving goods and people around the country difficult. We complain about partisanship, but when we have an election the apposing parties don't take to the streets in violent clashes that threaten national security.
So today on the Fourth of July I am realizing, more than I ever have before, how uncommonly blessed I am to have been born in a country where health care, education and government, though imperfect are existent. The blessings that we all enjoy, simply by accident of birth, cannot be taken for granted.
Happy Birthday America. My birthday wish (I'll share it and pretend that its not bad luck) is that more countries in the world can find a their own paths towards the stability that is enjoyed by all of your citizens.
Quick administrative note: I heard that people were having trouble commenting on the blog and investigated. I had it set so that you could only comment with a user name, but I changed it earlier today so that now you can post anonymous comments. This should make it easier to post comments. If you're still having trouble email me at my gmail account (mhspivack@gmail.com) and I'll play around with the settings again. If you do make anonymous comments tell me who you are!
I'm back in Nairobi tonight staying at the ever friendly Ufungamano House. I have to say after being out in the rural area and living in someones home it really nice to just have my own room and a sink and a shower. Where I was staying in Kuira had no running water, so I was "showering" (that's what they call it but I don't agree with the term" by pouring water from a tub over myself. They use very hot water so it was refreshing, but I don't think I was getting clean. I think I could have done a better job at the washing from the tub thing, I'll work on improving this week when I go back out to the rural.
I haven't spent a lot of time talking about nature, but it is worth mentioning. I'm going to upload photos tonight and then I'll try to see if I can post them tomorrow. The strange thing about Kenya is that (as Edward, my boss from SOTENI told me today) it is a land of contrasts. Terrible poverty in the midst of natural beauty is one of the many contrasts of this country. I have seen so many different types of butterflies here. I haven't managed to get a picture of any of them, but it is really interesting, they are every where. Seeing a butterfly at home is pretty uncommon, but I saw them all of the time in Kuria. Also, the nights there are unbelievable. After finishing dinner (usually around nine) I would go outside to brush my teeth and not need a flash light, because the moon was so bright. It was so bright that you could see things clearly, if shadowy, so bright that you had a shadow, a prominent shadow. I have never seen anything like it (again I think Florence and Josephine thought I was a little nuts because of my fascination with the moon). But really, I have read poems and heard songs that talk about "moonlight" but I realized last week that we don't really have moonlight at home, not they way that the do when the moon is between half full and full in Kuira.
Kuira is a very fertile area (Edward calls it poverty in the midst of plenty) and unlike Ugenya I don't get the sense that people or children are hungry, there is just not a lot of opportunity and very little money circulating in the economy. The farms there are very productive. The SOTENI coordinator, Mathias took us to his shaba (small farm) and showed us the cassava, millet, maize, mango, and avocado he grows. He also keeps bees. he has three acres of land that could easily feed his family, and he also rents another two acres where he grows more cassava, just to sell for profit. I was talking to him about his little agri-business and he told me that land in Kuria is cheap and fertile (he can rent and acre of land for two years for ksh4,000 (about $50), labor is also relatively cheap, he can pay men ksh200 (about $2.50) to work for him for the day. And he predicts that he will turn a profit of about ksh150,000 (about $1970) on the land that he rented (that includes all of the labor, seed, and other input costs). He said that anyone can turn this kind of profit on land that they own or lease in Kuria, but as he said, they need to be able to plan. I also pointed out that they need the capital upfront to pay for the seeds workers and other inputs, since the cash won't come in until after the harvest. He said that that's true, but that it is all part of the planning process. Almost everyone in Kuria has a shamba (small personal farm) but I don't get the sense that they are as business savvy as Mathias is. If people in Kuria could get better at planning, and if they could organize in collectives to sell their crops to more distant markets (food prices are relatively low in their fertile region, in other parts of Kenya and the world food prices are rising, but many of the farmers in the area aren't benefiting from higher world prices) they should be able to lift themselves out of poverty. (sorry for all the economics, I just find this issue really interesting.)
Part of what makes the poverty in the rural areas so sad is that there are definitely natural resources available to improve everyone's' quality of life, but the system is broken in so many ways on so many levels that its really hard to harness what already exists. Some seemingly crazy things go on in these areas but when I think about it its just everyone trying to get by, trying to pursue their best interests within the given system.
Every system (political, economic, and social) in every country has flaws. I know I used to be (and still am, though to a lesser degree) a major critic of the US governments actions in the past and the present. I also know that many of us are still very critical of the US government. We vocally criticize flaws in the health care system, the education system, and the way our government operates. Obviously we have the right to complain, but this Fourth of July looking back home from Kenya I see more to celebrate in the US than ever before.
In the United States we complain that health care is too expensive, but when there is a major accident or emergency we have a network of ambulances and helicopters to get the person to the best possible facility in the shortest amount of time. We complain that we are becoming an unhealthy nation, but the average American will live to be 78, more than twenty years longer than the average Kenyan whose life expectancy at birth is 56 (www.nationmaster.com). We complain that our education system is broken and that children in economically disadvantaged areas are being cheated out of an decent education, but we have 100% FREE education for every single child for thirteen years. In Kenya even the public schools charge fees that make educating children financially impossible, and that's before the cost of uniforms, books, and lunches. There is no child in the United States who does not attend school because their parents are too poor. We complain that our government is inefficient, but we have one of the most extensive systems of paved roads in the world, pot holes are rare, and when it rains the roads do not become mud puddles. In Kenya many of the roads are dirt, they are bumpy to the point of being dangerous, and they make moving goods and people around the country difficult. We complain about partisanship, but when we have an election the apposing parties don't take to the streets in violent clashes that threaten national security.
So today on the Fourth of July I am realizing, more than I ever have before, how uncommonly blessed I am to have been born in a country where health care, education and government, though imperfect are existent. The blessings that we all enjoy, simply by accident of birth, cannot be taken for granted.
Happy Birthday America. My birthday wish (I'll share it and pretend that its not bad luck) is that more countries in the world can find a their own paths towards the stability that is enjoyed by all of your citizens.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Kuira
Hishkama to which you reply Marahaba (this is a greeting in ki-kuria the local dialect here, but its only used for talking to someone older than you, as in the younger person says hishkama and the older replies marahaba)
I have been in Kuria for the since Sunday night, but I haven't been able to post anything because there is not electricity in the home where I'm staying and the internet modem that we use is a battery sucker. I was able to charge the computer in town today though and so I have about an hour of battery life to work with while I'm on the internet.
Lets see how to describe this village. Well first of all, village is not a good word to use to try to convey this area. The village that I am nearest to is a five minute walk down the dirt road from the house I am staying in and its called Kehancha, it is connected by dirt roads to several other villages in the area the other big one is Isbenia (which I'm definitely not spelling right). But there are lots of little clusters of shops along the way that are sort of villages, they have different names. Also along the roads you will have peoples homes and shabas (smallish plots of land that people work usually like no more than five acres I think but that could be wrong). So you have the main dirt and occasional tarmac road connecting these different areas. Then you have smaller rougher dirt road will take you into the "interior" but there might be little villages (collections of stores or women selling fruit and vegetables) along the interior road. The schools that we have visited (especially in Kuria) are often along one of these more interior roads.
Kuria is a very different area than Ugenya. First of all, the district is named after the tribe that lives here, Kurians. Kurians have there own language, and customs. Ugenya is a Luo area where Luo is the language spoken ect. The Luo are a very large tribe the spread over more than one district, but the Kurians are a smaller tribe in Kenya (though Kurians actually extend into Tanzania). Kurians are one of the tribes that still practice female genital mutilation (also known as female circumcision) in Kenya. You can sort of see this reflected in there attitudes towards women. Though women serve men food in Luo culture also (this is the thing that I sometimes have a hard time dealing with, after cooking a meal the women don't eat with everyone else, it drives me nuts), so at first I wasn't really clear on the difference here. But I have noticed that there are fewer girls in the mixed schools than boys, significantly fewer girls, and there are more all girls schools in general. Also, it seems that there are more young women around who are the age that they should be in school but for various reasons are not. My host mother is a primary school head mistress, and she says that attrition from the girls start to out pace attrition from boys in the fourth grade, so in general there is less value in educating girls. Also I get the sense that there are more very young mothers around, girls my age with babies, then I noticed in Ugenya. I asked a principle at a secondary school how much of the loss of girls in his school is due to pregnancy, and he said he thinks about thirty percent.
My host family here has been very warm and welcoming. I am living with a woman named Florence, her youngest daughter Fiona (who is probably about four or five) and their "house girl" Josephine who is my age. Florence was very surprised when she found out that we only have help in our house once a week, and I think she thinks our family is a little bit crazy since my father does all of the cooking (Kuira men "don't go in the kitchen"). They have been very accommodating to the fact that I don't eat meat, which has been great. They make lost of other things, rice, Irish potatoes, beans, various boiled leafy greens, fish, little fish (sardines), ugale (corn meal cooked in water).
The battery is dying pretty fast so I think I should post before everything dies. I'm leaving for Nairobi tomorrow, so I will have power tomorrow night. There is lots more to say about Kuria, so I will definitely post one or two more entries about it.
I have been in Kuria for the since Sunday night, but I haven't been able to post anything because there is not electricity in the home where I'm staying and the internet modem that we use is a battery sucker. I was able to charge the computer in town today though and so I have about an hour of battery life to work with while I'm on the internet.
Lets see how to describe this village. Well first of all, village is not a good word to use to try to convey this area. The village that I am nearest to is a five minute walk down the dirt road from the house I am staying in and its called Kehancha, it is connected by dirt roads to several other villages in the area the other big one is Isbenia (which I'm definitely not spelling right). But there are lots of little clusters of shops along the way that are sort of villages, they have different names. Also along the roads you will have peoples homes and shabas (smallish plots of land that people work usually like no more than five acres I think but that could be wrong). So you have the main dirt and occasional tarmac road connecting these different areas. Then you have smaller rougher dirt road will take you into the "interior" but there might be little villages (collections of stores or women selling fruit and vegetables) along the interior road. The schools that we have visited (especially in Kuria) are often along one of these more interior roads.
Kuria is a very different area than Ugenya. First of all, the district is named after the tribe that lives here, Kurians. Kurians have there own language, and customs. Ugenya is a Luo area where Luo is the language spoken ect. The Luo are a very large tribe the spread over more than one district, but the Kurians are a smaller tribe in Kenya (though Kurians actually extend into Tanzania). Kurians are one of the tribes that still practice female genital mutilation (also known as female circumcision) in Kenya. You can sort of see this reflected in there attitudes towards women. Though women serve men food in Luo culture also (this is the thing that I sometimes have a hard time dealing with, after cooking a meal the women don't eat with everyone else, it drives me nuts), so at first I wasn't really clear on the difference here. But I have noticed that there are fewer girls in the mixed schools than boys, significantly fewer girls, and there are more all girls schools in general. Also, it seems that there are more young women around who are the age that they should be in school but for various reasons are not. My host mother is a primary school head mistress, and she says that attrition from the girls start to out pace attrition from boys in the fourth grade, so in general there is less value in educating girls. Also I get the sense that there are more very young mothers around, girls my age with babies, then I noticed in Ugenya. I asked a principle at a secondary school how much of the loss of girls in his school is due to pregnancy, and he said he thinks about thirty percent.
My host family here has been very warm and welcoming. I am living with a woman named Florence, her youngest daughter Fiona (who is probably about four or five) and their "house girl" Josephine who is my age. Florence was very surprised when she found out that we only have help in our house once a week, and I think she thinks our family is a little bit crazy since my father does all of the cooking (Kuira men "don't go in the kitchen"). They have been very accommodating to the fact that I don't eat meat, which has been great. They make lost of other things, rice, Irish potatoes, beans, various boiled leafy greens, fish, little fish (sardines), ugale (corn meal cooked in water).
The battery is dying pretty fast so I think I should post before everything dies. I'm leaving for Nairobi tomorrow, so I will have power tomorrow night. There is lots more to say about Kuria, so I will definitely post one or two more entries about it.
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