This is gonna be a long one...
I have now been back in central province for a number of days after spending 4 nights further west in kakamega and bondo. Wow. Nime choka (I am tired). I picked up a cold or the flu or something (probably riding on over crowded matatus with kids coughing down my throat) so the past few days have been a bit rough what with the coughing and feverish night sweats! Only I could manage to come to sub Saharan Africa and get a friggen cold! Classic! (Actually it is the cold and rainy season now so i guess it makes sense.)
It was quite the process arriving in kakamega last Sunday night. I had heard rumours that the road between Nakuru and kisumu had improved, and parts of it were better, but I'd say the majority of it was actually worse which I didn't think was possible! The roads in kenya are worse than anything you could imagine-Think pot holes the size of rhinos! When i Finally arrived in kisumu, I got into another matatu to kakamega which ended up being the matatu ride from hell. Now, most foreigners in Kenya would say that every matatu ride is hellish, but having ridden on thousands and thousands of them I can confidently say that some are way better than others (I'm on one right now and think it might be bad-there is a really offensive smell happening, more so than just the usual body odor smell, and my window won't open-arg!)
The matatu tout in kisumu kept trying to pile more and more people in the vehicle even though we were stuffed to the gills and he kept stopping to talk to people on the side of the road. This is when I switched gears into mzungu mogoroki mode and was screaming at him that this wasn't a tea time social and he was wasting all of our times! Then, when we were half way to kakamega, he announced that the vehicle was now going to eldoret so I had to get off and start the whole process over again! It took 2 hours to get to kakamega when it only takes 40 minutes in a car and it cost 200 shilling when it used to cost 80! The petrol prices here have become outrageous and are only getting worse!
It was dark by the time I arrived in kakamega town and I was exhausted but thankfully my good friend Susan and her friend Kennedy came to pick me up in his truck and we went back to this god awful bar where they were watching the last games of English premier league footy which is pretty much the religion around here. Almost every matatu you ride has either man u or arsenal written on the side of it. Kenyan bars are so incredible in terms of tackiness and their ability to give you a pounding headache. They blare 90s rnb music so loud that it becomes distorted and you can't even tell what KC and jojo are singing about!
Seeing Susan, even though it was a short visit, was great. She lives in Whitehorse for half the year and in Kenya the other half running a training program for fish farmers. She does really great work and has helped a lot of people in the kakamega area. Check out her website to learn more:
www.fish4kenya.com
Susan and i met each other in 2007/2008 at ACCES and she's probably the only reason that I didn't murder my corrupt evil boss when he locked me out of the gated compound of our work while there was gun fire behind me during the civil conflict. I went to visit her in the Yukon in the summer of 2008 and it was amazing! I hope I can make it back there again sometime. At Susan's apartment I managed to cook my first meal since i was in new Zealand and take my first hot shower in over two and a half months which was beyond glorious! I wish that our visit had been longer, but she was headed back to Canada last Wednesday.
I also went to ACCES to visit some of my former coworkers and get an update on the changes they've made to the organization since I left. Things seem to be a lot better than when I was there. The insane and awful executive director in Canada, Rick, was asked to leave shortly after I left and so was Enock, the disgusting corrupt program director in Kenya. The new ED fired most people and put my friend Lucy in charge. They disbanded LIFA (literacy for all) the part of acces that I worked for and fired Joseph, the weasel that was in charge of the nfe schools. In response, he destroyed all the paperwork and tried to shut down the schools. Imagine how petty and awful a person you have to be in order to want to destroy free schools for the most disadvantaged children in the area just because you lost your job?!? What a pathetic man. Anyway, Lucy managed to save the schools and they are still running and doing well which makes me so happy and relieved because those kids at the non formal schools were my heart and soul when I was living here.
I also got to see Harriet who was my closest friend in kakamega. Last time we saw each other, she was five months pregnant. Now, her daughter Blessing is turning 3! And boy oh boy is Blessing cheeky! I showed her pictures of Spike and she loved him. Later on in the night we were watching a nature program on tv and saw a leopard. Blessing pointed at it and said Spike. It was so cute. And because she found my name hard to say we decided to just call me Mama spike (in Kenya, women are often called by the name of their oldest child). All of my old coworkers know that Spike is like my baby and they think it's so funny. When I tell them he sleeps on my bed they laugh and laugh because nothing is more absurd here then letting an animal come in your house.
After staying with Harriet, i headed back into kisumu so that I could get a matatu out to a town called bondo where my very good friend James lives with his family. The ride into kisumu is always interesting as I think it is the only place in the world where you can buy caskets and tombstones on the side of the road. The matatu park in kisumu is pretty legendary as well on account of the street vendors and hawkers trying to sell you everything and anything. And I really mean anything- mens undershirts (singlets), kitchen knives, combs, r n b compilation CDs etc.
The ride out to bondo was crazy as expected and for most of the ride I had a big fat mama sitting on me. Getting there and seeing James though was amazing! Me and James worked together everyday at LIFA and would go out into the field together and visit the schools and laugh and dance and talk shit about enock and Joseph. It was great.
I got to bondo too late in the day to visit James' school where he teaches, so he and I, his coworker Philip and his wife headed back to his house to have dinner. James and his wife have an adorable 4 year old son who is very shy. When I met him when he was 1, he was terrified of me, and I can say that three years later, not much has changed! Not even the chocolate bar I brought him greased the wheels! Although he did cry when I left, but maybe that was out of relief! Its funny that in India i felt like a freak and here sometimes i feel like a monster! Anyway dinner was great and talking with James was even better. We always have such interesting conversations. He is always interested in knowing more about Canada and how it compares to Kenya. I also told him lots about India which was an interesting conversation to say the least.
The next morning I went to James' school with him to say hi to all the students. He teaches at a small secondary school that is still growing. There are only 200 students. It was fun being in a Kenyan school again and greeting all the students. James told all the female students that I could act as a role model for them for being so young and very educated. It was really sweet!
Saying goodbye was sad. I wish that I had stayed in bondo longer to hang with James but I'm still rocking this cold/flu whatever it is so I felt like I should get back to the Nakuru area. It was a long day heading back on the matatus. A word of advice for the future: don't listen to Ray Lamontange on repeat when you're overtired and have been traveling alone for 4 months and are on a matatu unless you want to convince yourself you're going to die alone!
Am now back in kirengero and trying to help Anne with household duties because she sprained her ankle and can't get around too well. Her and her girls like laughing at me trying to do domestic things because they think that I don't know how to do anything and that I have machines do everything for me which is only half true. Me doing my laundry in a basin outside the other day was a laugh riot. I abandoned the chore half way through and decided to just leave the clothes out in the rain and let them get clean that way!
Both Anne and Peter are trying to fatten me up which I am trying to resist but with the fatty food they eat here it's becoming hard. The running joke is that I'm going to go on the Kenyan tv show called "slimpossible" which is the Kenyan version of the biggest loser. Ugh, there is nothing worse than leaving Africa fatter than you arrived and trying to explain that to people. Trust me, I've done it.
Being in this village is the closest thing I'll ever know to being a celebrity or rock star. Everyone is so happy to see me and greet me. Little kids are beside themselves when I say hi to them. It's so funny to me because something like this would never happen in Canada. But if it makes people happy that I am here, then that makes me happy too.
The other day I went into Nakuru and to the hospital to visit one of the kids who used to live at the orphanage, Eliud. He was hit by a motorbike and broke his leg and needed surgery in order to put a metal rod into his calf. He's been in the hospital for over three weeks, not because his injury was so severe but because they wanted to be sure he had enough money to pay for the operation before they did it. He hasn't been able to leave the hospital yet because he still owes money so they won't discharge him. I met with his guardian yesterday to help her with the rest of the fees but it turns out its a lot more than i thought it would be so we're going to have to do some brainstorming. The hospital was a really sad experience. It's a government hospital which means it's cheaper than most, and it was packed with really sick people. Usually I try to keep my emotions in check when I'm here, because if you don't you get too overwhelmed with the amount of sadness around you, and that's what happened to me at the hospital. So many people dying of AIDS and nothing you can do to help. It's shocking how much more devastating it is when it's right in front of you.
Two days ago, I went to visit the wife of a friend of mine, Wilson, who died of AIDS almost two years ago. Wilson was an exceptional person who despite his situation was one of the most positive people I've ever met. He encouraged people living with AIDS to come out to their families and communities and to join support groups, which is beyond brave because the disease is still so stigmatized here. He's also the person I dedicated my dare for the Stephen Lewis foundation for (I raised $1000 by giving up swearing for 1 week-it was hard!) Seeing his wife and two of his kids was so nice. They are doing okay despite their circumstances (she is also HIV positive) and she is working hard to be positive and live each day for her kids. I will try and visit her again before I leave.
Yesterday I went to Peters school, Kieni primary, and taught a grade 8 math class. I am both happy and depressed to say that the students did better than most of the kids I taught at college in Toronto. Simple interest and complex fractions were a breeze! It's so nice being in the schools here and seeing how much the kids want to learn. They are desperate and hungry for education. This I think is part of the reason I quit my teaching job in Canada. I just don't have the patience for the kids I was teaching who've graduated high school without learning anything or working hard and who let their parents pay for them to come to college and do the same. If only they could all spend a year, or a month, or even a week here, realizing what a gift education is. Our society would be much better for it.
I saw two of the kids from the old home at kieni, another Eliud and John. They are helping out at the school waiting to get enough money so they can go on to college courses. I really wish I had the money to send everyone I know here to school. But you can only do as much a your bank account allows and unfortunately after 4 months on the road, I don't have much left.
I also stopped by the secondary school to pull a few students out of class to give them big hugs! Mary Norman is one of my favourite girls ever and I had actually ran into her grandmother the other day in the village. I guess her grandmother told her that she saw me, but Mary didn't believe her. Not until I dragged her out of history class that is! I also got to see Hannah, Boneface, Naomi, Murugi, and Peter who we used to call fupi (it means short) on account of him being so short. He is now about a foot taller than I am so calling him fupi has a nice ironic spin on it now.
So, 2 and a half weeks left in Kenya and then 2 weeks in Turkey and then ten days in London and Reykjavik with my mum before heading back to Canada. As amazing as all this traveling has been, I am looking forward to being home and seeing spike (and others too!)
Until next time...think of me freezing my ass off in Africa! I'd be better off being in the Canadian spring!
I have now been back in central province for a number of days after spending 4 nights further west in kakamega and bondo. Wow. Nime choka (I am tired). I picked up a cold or the flu or something (probably riding on over crowded matatus with kids coughing down my throat) so the past few days have been a bit rough what with the coughing and feverish night sweats! Only I could manage to come to sub Saharan Africa and get a friggen cold! Classic! (Actually it is the cold and rainy season now so i guess it makes sense.)
It was quite the process arriving in kakamega last Sunday night. I had heard rumours that the road between Nakuru and kisumu had improved, and parts of it were better, but I'd say the majority of it was actually worse which I didn't think was possible! The roads in kenya are worse than anything you could imagine-Think pot holes the size of rhinos! When i Finally arrived in kisumu, I got into another matatu to kakamega which ended up being the matatu ride from hell. Now, most foreigners in Kenya would say that every matatu ride is hellish, but having ridden on thousands and thousands of them I can confidently say that some are way better than others (I'm on one right now and think it might be bad-there is a really offensive smell happening, more so than just the usual body odor smell, and my window won't open-arg!)
The matatu tout in kisumu kept trying to pile more and more people in the vehicle even though we were stuffed to the gills and he kept stopping to talk to people on the side of the road. This is when I switched gears into mzungu mogoroki mode and was screaming at him that this wasn't a tea time social and he was wasting all of our times! Then, when we were half way to kakamega, he announced that the vehicle was now going to eldoret so I had to get off and start the whole process over again! It took 2 hours to get to kakamega when it only takes 40 minutes in a car and it cost 200 shilling when it used to cost 80! The petrol prices here have become outrageous and are only getting worse!
It was dark by the time I arrived in kakamega town and I was exhausted but thankfully my good friend Susan and her friend Kennedy came to pick me up in his truck and we went back to this god awful bar where they were watching the last games of English premier league footy which is pretty much the religion around here. Almost every matatu you ride has either man u or arsenal written on the side of it. Kenyan bars are so incredible in terms of tackiness and their ability to give you a pounding headache. They blare 90s rnb music so loud that it becomes distorted and you can't even tell what KC and jojo are singing about!
Seeing Susan, even though it was a short visit, was great. She lives in Whitehorse for half the year and in Kenya the other half running a training program for fish farmers. She does really great work and has helped a lot of people in the kakamega area. Check out her website to learn more:
www.fish4kenya.com
Susan and i met each other in 2007/2008 at ACCES and she's probably the only reason that I didn't murder my corrupt evil boss when he locked me out of the gated compound of our work while there was gun fire behind me during the civil conflict. I went to visit her in the Yukon in the summer of 2008 and it was amazing! I hope I can make it back there again sometime. At Susan's apartment I managed to cook my first meal since i was in new Zealand and take my first hot shower in over two and a half months which was beyond glorious! I wish that our visit had been longer, but she was headed back to Canada last Wednesday.
I also went to ACCES to visit some of my former coworkers and get an update on the changes they've made to the organization since I left. Things seem to be a lot better than when I was there. The insane and awful executive director in Canada, Rick, was asked to leave shortly after I left and so was Enock, the disgusting corrupt program director in Kenya. The new ED fired most people and put my friend Lucy in charge. They disbanded LIFA (literacy for all) the part of acces that I worked for and fired Joseph, the weasel that was in charge of the nfe schools. In response, he destroyed all the paperwork and tried to shut down the schools. Imagine how petty and awful a person you have to be in order to want to destroy free schools for the most disadvantaged children in the area just because you lost your job?!? What a pathetic man. Anyway, Lucy managed to save the schools and they are still running and doing well which makes me so happy and relieved because those kids at the non formal schools were my heart and soul when I was living here.
I also got to see Harriet who was my closest friend in kakamega. Last time we saw each other, she was five months pregnant. Now, her daughter Blessing is turning 3! And boy oh boy is Blessing cheeky! I showed her pictures of Spike and she loved him. Later on in the night we were watching a nature program on tv and saw a leopard. Blessing pointed at it and said Spike. It was so cute. And because she found my name hard to say we decided to just call me Mama spike (in Kenya, women are often called by the name of their oldest child). All of my old coworkers know that Spike is like my baby and they think it's so funny. When I tell them he sleeps on my bed they laugh and laugh because nothing is more absurd here then letting an animal come in your house.
After staying with Harriet, i headed back into kisumu so that I could get a matatu out to a town called bondo where my very good friend James lives with his family. The ride into kisumu is always interesting as I think it is the only place in the world where you can buy caskets and tombstones on the side of the road. The matatu park in kisumu is pretty legendary as well on account of the street vendors and hawkers trying to sell you everything and anything. And I really mean anything- mens undershirts (singlets), kitchen knives, combs, r n b compilation CDs etc.
The ride out to bondo was crazy as expected and for most of the ride I had a big fat mama sitting on me. Getting there and seeing James though was amazing! Me and James worked together everyday at LIFA and would go out into the field together and visit the schools and laugh and dance and talk shit about enock and Joseph. It was great.
I got to bondo too late in the day to visit James' school where he teaches, so he and I, his coworker Philip and his wife headed back to his house to have dinner. James and his wife have an adorable 4 year old son who is very shy. When I met him when he was 1, he was terrified of me, and I can say that three years later, not much has changed! Not even the chocolate bar I brought him greased the wheels! Although he did cry when I left, but maybe that was out of relief! Its funny that in India i felt like a freak and here sometimes i feel like a monster! Anyway dinner was great and talking with James was even better. We always have such interesting conversations. He is always interested in knowing more about Canada and how it compares to Kenya. I also told him lots about India which was an interesting conversation to say the least.
The next morning I went to James' school with him to say hi to all the students. He teaches at a small secondary school that is still growing. There are only 200 students. It was fun being in a Kenyan school again and greeting all the students. James told all the female students that I could act as a role model for them for being so young and very educated. It was really sweet!
Saying goodbye was sad. I wish that I had stayed in bondo longer to hang with James but I'm still rocking this cold/flu whatever it is so I felt like I should get back to the Nakuru area. It was a long day heading back on the matatus. A word of advice for the future: don't listen to Ray Lamontange on repeat when you're overtired and have been traveling alone for 4 months and are on a matatu unless you want to convince yourself you're going to die alone!
Am now back in kirengero and trying to help Anne with household duties because she sprained her ankle and can't get around too well. Her and her girls like laughing at me trying to do domestic things because they think that I don't know how to do anything and that I have machines do everything for me which is only half true. Me doing my laundry in a basin outside the other day was a laugh riot. I abandoned the chore half way through and decided to just leave the clothes out in the rain and let them get clean that way!
Both Anne and Peter are trying to fatten me up which I am trying to resist but with the fatty food they eat here it's becoming hard. The running joke is that I'm going to go on the Kenyan tv show called "slimpossible" which is the Kenyan version of the biggest loser. Ugh, there is nothing worse than leaving Africa fatter than you arrived and trying to explain that to people. Trust me, I've done it.
Being in this village is the closest thing I'll ever know to being a celebrity or rock star. Everyone is so happy to see me and greet me. Little kids are beside themselves when I say hi to them. It's so funny to me because something like this would never happen in Canada. But if it makes people happy that I am here, then that makes me happy too.
The other day I went into Nakuru and to the hospital to visit one of the kids who used to live at the orphanage, Eliud. He was hit by a motorbike and broke his leg and needed surgery in order to put a metal rod into his calf. He's been in the hospital for over three weeks, not because his injury was so severe but because they wanted to be sure he had enough money to pay for the operation before they did it. He hasn't been able to leave the hospital yet because he still owes money so they won't discharge him. I met with his guardian yesterday to help her with the rest of the fees but it turns out its a lot more than i thought it would be so we're going to have to do some brainstorming. The hospital was a really sad experience. It's a government hospital which means it's cheaper than most, and it was packed with really sick people. Usually I try to keep my emotions in check when I'm here, because if you don't you get too overwhelmed with the amount of sadness around you, and that's what happened to me at the hospital. So many people dying of AIDS and nothing you can do to help. It's shocking how much more devastating it is when it's right in front of you.
Two days ago, I went to visit the wife of a friend of mine, Wilson, who died of AIDS almost two years ago. Wilson was an exceptional person who despite his situation was one of the most positive people I've ever met. He encouraged people living with AIDS to come out to their families and communities and to join support groups, which is beyond brave because the disease is still so stigmatized here. He's also the person I dedicated my dare for the Stephen Lewis foundation for (I raised $1000 by giving up swearing for 1 week-it was hard!) Seeing his wife and two of his kids was so nice. They are doing okay despite their circumstances (she is also HIV positive) and she is working hard to be positive and live each day for her kids. I will try and visit her again before I leave.
Yesterday I went to Peters school, Kieni primary, and taught a grade 8 math class. I am both happy and depressed to say that the students did better than most of the kids I taught at college in Toronto. Simple interest and complex fractions were a breeze! It's so nice being in the schools here and seeing how much the kids want to learn. They are desperate and hungry for education. This I think is part of the reason I quit my teaching job in Canada. I just don't have the patience for the kids I was teaching who've graduated high school without learning anything or working hard and who let their parents pay for them to come to college and do the same. If only they could all spend a year, or a month, or even a week here, realizing what a gift education is. Our society would be much better for it.
I saw two of the kids from the old home at kieni, another Eliud and John. They are helping out at the school waiting to get enough money so they can go on to college courses. I really wish I had the money to send everyone I know here to school. But you can only do as much a your bank account allows and unfortunately after 4 months on the road, I don't have much left.
I also stopped by the secondary school to pull a few students out of class to give them big hugs! Mary Norman is one of my favourite girls ever and I had actually ran into her grandmother the other day in the village. I guess her grandmother told her that she saw me, but Mary didn't believe her. Not until I dragged her out of history class that is! I also got to see Hannah, Boneface, Naomi, Murugi, and Peter who we used to call fupi (it means short) on account of him being so short. He is now about a foot taller than I am so calling him fupi has a nice ironic spin on it now.
So, 2 and a half weeks left in Kenya and then 2 weeks in Turkey and then ten days in London and Reykjavik with my mum before heading back to Canada. As amazing as all this traveling has been, I am looking forward to being home and seeing spike (and others too!)
Until next time...think of me freezing my ass off in Africa! I'd be better off being in the Canadian spring!
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