My Neighborhood

These are some pictures I took on my walk home.

There are roadside fruit stands everywhere full of amazing perfectly ripe fruit! avocados, mangoes, oranges, papaya, etc are all, at the most, KSh 30 (about $0.40).

This road marks the beginning of Toi Market.

In the heart of Toi! I am discovering that it is really dangerous for me to live in one of the largest and cheapest outdoor thrift stores in the world.... The other day I bought two skirts for KSh 100 each (about $1.30).

In addition to clothes and fruit they sell all the household staples, including beans, maize, vegetables, fish, etc

Walking home along some empty stalls... On the right hand side are many small rooms made of metal sheeting called "hotelis" which are basically just little diners where they make homemade chapati and mandazi (yumm..)

There is writting like this all over the city, especially in Kibera. Most of them say "Keep Peace" signed by a mysterious Solo 7.

This is my street!

MATHARE YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION (MYSA)

Saturday was an amazing and very busy, exhausting day. At 8:30 in the morning, we drove to the Mathare Youth Sport Association. Mathare is the second largest slum in Nairobi. MYSA is an organization that supports children and youths in Mathare (and Nairobi in general) through football (ie. soccer) and community service. In addition to hosting football matches among community teams and across kenya, they encourage community service (often times as trash clean-ups) and education about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. In order for the teams to participate in their league, they have to give 60 hours of community service a season, and they even offer school scholarships to the children who do the most community service. They also hold forum theater in different communities to encourage discussion among children about HIV/AIDS to reduce stigma and to encourage safe sex and abstinence.

(Side Note: There is a commercial campaign running in Kenya right now that says "its cool to chill" which is targeted at middle school and high school students to encourage them to abstain from sex, since there is a very high rate of teenage pregnancies.)

We arrived at one of their sites, right outside of Mathare slums to help with one of their trash clean-ups. Throughout Nairobi, especially in the slums, waste disposal and waste management is a huge problem. There is no running water and rarely electricity in any of the slums, and affording a trashcan is considered a luxury. Most of the houses, made out of cardboard and metal siding, are actually built on a foundation of dirt and trash.

Our group, along with over 100 children set off to Mathare with wheelbarrows, shovels, and rakes. Most of the children that joined us where well under 10 years old, and they were by far the most enthusiastic workers. They pushed the wheelbarrows up and down the hills, and often took tools out of our hands because 'we weren't doing it right.' In fact, there were far more people than there were tools available, and they did not allow us to pick up trash with our hands since we did not have gloves. So, I spent most of my time observing and talking with the children. All the kids I talk to here are AMAZED that I know Swahili, and often laugh and giggle when I speak it to them. Whenever I pulled my camera out of my bag, all the children clamored in front of me so that I would take their picture. And afterwards they would look at the screen and point to themselves in the picture, "mimi!! mimi!!"

It was absolutely astonishing how much trash covered the streets and paths. It seemed that no matter how much we rakes and shoveled trash into the wheelbarrows, there was still more coming out from under layers of dirt. There were so many plastic bags (which is the main way people dispose of human waste), empty containers, torn up newspapers, wrappers, you name it. In addition to all of the trash, animals roamed freely through the streets: goats, chickens, ducks, pigs, even a horse. That being said, animal and human waste was everywhere. Although it was usually not in the street, right next to the road in a ditch, or in one of the may great piles of trash. After raking as much waste as we could collect into large piles, we would then just set the piles on fire, so that they would burn. The smell was indescribable.

After we participated in the clean-up, we walked through the heart of Mathare. There were quite literally rivers and streams of trash that ran between the houses. For most of the people living in Mathare, they describe their houses as 'three in one', that is, the one room of their house served as a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and sometimes even a business center for a familiy of 3, 4, 5, or more. As we walked through the slums, most people were very friendly, waving at us or greeting us with "mambo" (the Kenyan sheng equivalent of 'whats up'). At one point, I turned a corner and made eye contact with this adorable girl, who was probably 3 or 4 years old and she ran up to me and gave me a giant hug, and continued holding me hand for a minute or two as we walked. As we walked deeper into the slum, children ran to balconies and doorways to chant "How are you. How are you. How are you…." as we all walked by. The director of MYSA who was leading us through Mathare later told us that the children start chanting anytime a white person walks through the slum. Eventually, we headed into the Muslim part of Mathare, and saw many young girls running around in purple hijabs and women walking around in burkas or long colorful hijabs.

Eventually we came to the MYSA center. This space had a library, with many children's books, a computer lab, a library with books for adults, and a study room for high school and college students who needed a quiet space to study. The MYSA headquarter also serves as a spontaneous day care. As we walked into the center, a little boy who was less than 2 years old broke out sobbing when we saw the bunch of us. After touring us through their main center, they took us to their arts center, just several meters down the road.On the short walk over, two litter boys ran up to me and grabbed hold of both of my hands. One little boy's name was Stibika, and the other was too shy to tell me his name. The three of us walked hand in hand down the road, and they even followed us through the entire tour of the MYSA arts center.

The MYSA performing and visual arts center was INCREDIBLE. First they took us to their dance studio, were there was a group of men and women dancing to live drums. They have dance classes and teach traditional African, Modern, and Hip-hop dance. Next we visited their music studio, where they teach music theory and allow kids to come practice and learn instruments. We met a group called Playback that was a music group for the physically and mentally disabled. In their music studio they have several keyboards, guitars, a drum set, and traditional hand drums. There were three young down syndrome women as well as some children with minor physical disabilities. The arts center also has a recording studio so that the local Mathare artists are able to record their songs. And they are trying to start a radio station called Kijiji radio ("village radio") in order to give the local Mathare artists more airtime. They also had a visual arts studio were children learned how to paint and draw. Lastly, they have a modeling and clothes design club where young men and women try to design clothes from trash and waste. The center was incredible and inspiring. They said that there are over 800 youth members who get to participate in all of these arts for free. But sadly, they told us that the building they have been using for the arts center since 1998 was just sold to some rich Somalians who plan to demolish the building within the next two months, and they are still looking for a new building.

MORE FOOTBALL

After a hearty lunch, they took us to a football game at Nairobi's international stadium. We saw a match between a Kenyan and an Egyptian team (pro, but not national teams) and it was SO MUCH FUN! We were easily the only white people in the entire stadium, and also probably the loudest. Although, ironically, the three guys of the group quickly became disinterested and began a deep conversation about capitalism while all of the girls were deeply immersed in the game. It was a surprisingly quick game, and a great end to a very eventful day.

MAMA AND BABA FRANCIS

On Sunday, I finally got to meet Francis' family! After church, Francis' mother picked me up along with a young priest. I got to meet Francis' grandmother and father too! Mama Francis told me that she was going to teach me how to eat fish like a Kenyan. So we went to their apartment (which is only a block away form my school!) and she cooked an amazing lunch. Kenyans cook fish by simply frying it whole and cooking it in sauces and spices. So I thanked god that she cut me the tail end, because I would not have know what to do with the head of the fish. Lunch was delicious and ate until I felt like I was going to pop. I had a very long conversation with the priest about development, especially non-profits in Kibera, and then we all talked about Kenyan politics while trying to digest all of the food. It was a good day :)

Also, I heard some bad news this morning. The baby giraffe that we saw two weeks ago was eaten by a leopard.

Women Fighting Against Aids in Kenya (WoFAK)

Today, we visited WoFAK, a CBO in Nairobi that helps women and families who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Today, 7.4% of Kenyans live with HIV, and 3 out of 5 of those infected are women. WoFAK was founded in 1993 by a group of women who were living with AIDS and dealing with the stigma of HIV/AIDS. They have programs that give financial and psychological support to women who are HIV positive, that help AIDS orphans (some of whom are HIV positive themselves), and outreach programs for prevention and testing. WoFAK does not distribute ARV's (Anti-Retroviral Drugs), but they recommend women to places they can obtain ARV's cheaply or for free. They do house a pharmacy where WoFAK members can have access to cheap drugs to cure common opportunistic infects and have a food basket program to help feed especially needy families. We met with some of the counselors and administrators in the WoFAK office based in the Eastlands (in Nairobi). Then, we split off into groups to visit some of their clients that lived in the Eastlands.

My group was the last to be dropped off. After driving for 15 minutes on rough, bouncing, dirty paths, we stopped outside of a single story building. Mama Mary and one of the WoFAK counselors came with us, and led us into the building. We walked down a long, narrow hallway where women were washing and hanging clothes to dry. About halfway down the hallway we turned into one of the rooms, which was the home of one of the WoFAK clients. The room was about 10 feet by 10 feet, but the bed, which was curtained off with holed fabric, took up most of the room, and had no running water. Inside we met a woman, her sister, and two young children. One was just an infant, and the other was about 2 years old. We sat down and talked to the woman about how she lives and has been affected by AIDS. She did not speak any English, so Mama Mary translated for us.

She was 40 years old, even though she looked like she was in her late 20's, and had two sons, one in the 8th grade, and the other was the infant she had with her. She had her first child out of wedlock, and her second child with her husband. About two and a half years after she married her husband (in 2008), she became very ill, and lost a lot of weight. At her worst, she weighed only 31 kilos (about 68 lbs). She was tested three times, and all three times the test said that she was HIV positive, but it was not until the third test that she accepted that she had AIDS and needed to start getting help. When she told her husband that she had AIDS, he left her along with her two children. She has tested both of her children, and they are both HIV negative, although she still worries about them and plans to get them re-tested in several years. Her husband refused to be tested.

In addition to being HIV positive, she is undergoing her second round of TB therapy. (Tuberculosis is HIV's favorite opportunistic infection.) The two months of her TB therapy included a very strong oral pill and simultaneous injections. Now, she is on a milder pill therapy. She receives her TB treatments and well as her ARV's for free from the local missionary. She currently takes a cocktail of three ARV's daily. The combination of all of these drugs is extremely hard on her body, and she needs to eat well in order to take all of these medicines. She receives a food basket Monday through Friday from WoFAK, to help support her nutrition and the nutrition of her children. Without proper nutrition, ARV's and TB treatments effectively act as poison. Even though she is able to eat well when she takes her medicines, they make her feel ill and weak for a hour or so after she takes her daily doses. But, she said that without the drugs, she feels intense pain in her joints and bones, and feels as if "her bones are dying."

Since she does not have the energy to work, her family has no income for food, rent, and water.

Since her husband left her, her brother has taken over the rent of their one-room house. The rent is only 2,500 Shillings (about $33) per month and includes electricity, but they can barely afford it, and so she is trying to find a less expensive place to live. Since they do not have running water in their room, they have to buy jerry cans of water from the local borehole, which is contaminated by the sewage and trash. So, they use water purifier (also free at the local mission) to sanitize their water.

Despite all of her hardships, she was a very strong, very kind woman and thanked us profusely for coming to visit and speak with her. She was very open about her situation and asked us to not be shy and to ask her as many questions as we wanted.

Leaving her house, I had to use all of my willpower to not burst into tears. We walked out of the house and was greeted by 10 or so children who waves and stared at us. Then we boarded the bus and began the bumpy ride to pick up the other groups.

On the bus, people shared about the different families and women that they visited. One group visited a woman who had three children, ages 2, 5, and 9. She, her husband, and all three children were HIV positive. The wife and the children were receiving ARV's, but the husband refuses to take his ARV's when he is feeling healthy, and old takes them when he is feeling sick (which only builds drug resistance). When they first discovered that their family was HIV positive, none of the neighboring children were allowed to play with their children, and so they had to move. Now that they have found a new home, they are facing eviction, and so are one again looking for a new place to live. The wife also has Tuberculosis

A third group visited a home of an older mother with two daughters. Within the month, both daughters had returned to their mother's house and told their mother that they are both HIV positive (the mother is not HIV positive). The older daughter had a 15 month old son, who was also HIV positive. This past month she became very ill, and her husband left her, saying "go to your mother's until you are better." She also has Tuberculosis. The younger daughter had know she was HIV positive for a long time, and has been on ARV's for over 5 years.

Kenyan Police

Driving around Eastlands today our matatu, Jazz, was stopped 3 different time by Kenyan police. All three times, there was no obvious violation, the police were just looking to be paid off. I guess a magenta bus full of wazungu's stands out. The first time, we were stopped by a woman policeman who searched the outside of the bus and then entered the bus to make sure that every seat had a working seatbelt (even though we never wear seatsbelts...). We were stopped two other times, the last time at the same exact corner, but by a male cop this time. Mama Mary said that they were just looking for bribes, and that the policemen bosses except police to return each day with a chunk of cash.

After all of this excitement… we returned to our school on the other side of Nairobi just in time for Swahili class...

Jazz: Our Magenta Matatu

Kwanza Wiki

ORIENTATION WEEK

A lot has happened since I last blogged. The rest of orientation week was not as exciting as our first few days, although I have learned many fun facts about Kenya. To name a few:

- Abortion is illegal in Kenya, with exceptions made for rape, incest, or if the mother's life is at risk (in which case the abortion must be approved by three different doctors). Current, the parliament in Kenya is reforming the Constitution, and there is a big push to include a definition of life beginning at conception as part of the Constitution. This is strongly opposed my many Kenyan women, but is heavily supported by the religious groups. Because abortion is illegal, many girls and women can achieve a miscarriage by popping 8-10 anti-malarial pills, which causes your body to abort the pregnancies.

- There is a new law in Nairobi that prohibits smoking anywhere in the streets except for the designated smoking 'cages'. You also can be arrested on the spot for crossing the street while talking on a cell phone.

- There is a 'slang' version of Swahili called Sheng that is spoken by most of the youth in Nairobi. Sheng is a mix of Swahili, the local languages, English, French, and other 'tourist languages'. But depending on what district you are in Nairobi, people use different sheng words, and the language evolves weekly. So most of the adults don't understand anything their kids say to one another. In Sheng "utado" means "what are you going to do" and "poa" means chilld or cool.

-Other fun phrases in Swahili: "chizi kama ndizi" = "crazy like a banana" and "lala fofofo" = "sleep like a dead person"

We have begun our classes. We have met one of our professors and 3 of our Kiswahili teachers. Donna Pido, is the wife of Odoch (one of the academic directors) and a native New Yorker. She is an anthropologist and has been living in Kenya for over 40 years. Most of her work has been with the Maasai, where she wrote her PHD thesis on Maasai beadwork and has been invited to witness their clitorectomy ceremonies (she said that she is going to draw 'diagrams' when we discuss female circumcision in our Society class….). She is hilarious and a wonderful lecturer. She is also one of the most crude and blunt people I have ever met.

On Thursday we moved from our convent in Karen to a hostel in Nairobi closer to our school. On Friday there was an epic thunderstorm! One moment the weather was warm and sunny, and the next rain was falling from the sky in sheets and the wind was blowing REALLY hard. When it rains, Nairobi's red soil turns to a heavy mud which is almost clay-like and super sticky.

HOMESTAY

My homestay family lives in Fort Jesus, a section of Kibera, and we are just several minutes from the slums. I have a homestay mother, Mama Vestina, and a father who is usually at work. I also have two sisters who are around my age and both attend the university of Nairobi. Lorraine is 23 and is finishing a degree in Environmental Studies and Ivy is turning 21 in just a couple weeks, and is studying Coastal Management. I also have a younger brother, who turned 12 yesterday. He loves to play chess and cards and likes to quiz me (and make fun of my) Swahili. My family also has a gray kitten, which they named Naughty. Both of my sisters are obsessed with anything Vampire themed, including the Twilight series and True Blood. Lorraine and I have started watching "Vampire Diaries" together.

They are of the Kamba tribe, and originally are from the coast of Tanzania. They have a lot of extended family that lives nearby. Yesterday their aunt visited with her 7 month old baby, Baraka (SO CUTE!!) and her daughter Myra, who is 5 years old. I also met their great grandmother, who is 80 years old, but loves to joke and tease all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. I greeted her in Swahili and was able to speak with her a little, which she took as a sign of fluency… So she proceeded to tell me many stories that I really didn't understand. I really love walking around the neighborhood. There are goats, chickens, and street dogs wandering around everywhere and all of boys in the neighborhood noisily play soccer in the alleys.


KILA SIKU MAISHI KATIKA KENYA
(everyday life in Kenya)

The first call to prayer wakes me up every morning around 5:30 am, broadcasted from the local Mosque. After the prayer song and chanting ends, I fall back asleep until I need to wake up at 7:00 am to get ready for school. My host mother, Mama Vestina prepares a simple yet delicious breakfast of fruit, toast and chai. Around 7:30 I walk to school with several of my classmates through the Toi Market. There are kids everywhere wearing school uniforms walking to school in groups or with their mother or an older sibling. Everywhere I go I hear kids yelling "Mazungu! Mazungu!" and pointing and smiling at me (Mazungu means white person or foreigner in Swahili). Other kids will ask me "how are you? How are you?" and then run away giggling. Around 7:30 in morning, people are still setting up their shops in Toi: Men wheel bags of fruits and grains on wooden carts through narrow, dirty alleyways and women carry baskets of vegetables and cloth on top of their heads. My path through Toi Market drops me right outside of Adams Arcade, another second-hand market right off of Ngong Road (one of the main roads leading into the city center of Nairobi). My walk to school takes 20-30 minutes. Morning classes (usually Kiswahili) go from 8:30-10:00. At 10, we get a Chai and toast break. Then we have class again until noon. At noon I usually walk back to Adam's Market to buy my lunch. Today I bought a Mango and 15 plums from a roadside stand for 80 Kenyan Shillings (which is about US$ 1). Then I usually have time to check my email, blog, or take a cat nap before classes again at 2 pm. We have lectures until 4 pm, when we get out of school and walk home. I usually help my Mama and my sisters cook dinner. Sometimes I play chess or cards with my host brother, Junior. I usually fall asleep by 10, since the combination of the 5:30 am call to prayer and my busy day makes me very tired by the evening. On other days, they take us on field trips to visit different NGO and CBO (community based organizations).

Giraffes, Kazuri and 'The Drop Off'

Today is my third official day in Kenya and I am already in love! Even though I have been here for hardly 36 hours, I feel like a week has gone by.

I arrived at the Nairobi airport Sunday at 6:30 am, and waited 7 hours to meet with the program directors. But while I was waiting I met a very nice Swedish couple who were planning a safari to Tanzania and a Sudanese man who played cards with me for 2 hours in the airport café. Eventually I met up with three girls from my program and the program directors, Bwana Jamal and Mama Mary. We took a pimped out magenta matatu (named Jazz) to a place called Karen just outside of Nairobi. We are staying in a hostel/convent/compound called Mary Ward in for the first couple days of our orientation. It is beautiful here, with hot pink and purple flowers everywhere. There also is a baby cow tied to a tree in back of the hostel that is really sweet, but loves to chew on my skirts.

Yesterday we spent our morning at The Giraffe Center, which was about a 10 minute matatu ride away from our hostel. As we arrived, one of their 9 giraffes was giving birth to a calf! We were able to hand feed and kiss and pet the giraffes. The Center is part of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife and exists to breed and protect the Rothschild species of giraffe, which is extremely rare. In addition to giraffes, they had several warthogs! After spending some time playing with the giraffes, we went on a short hike through the natural sanctuary. We followed a rough path covered in red dirt through a preserved forest area, and is the same path taken by the giraffes. Eventually we came upon their 'antisocial' giraffe named Betty, who is about 10 years old. When Betty saw us she started to approach us and our guide quickly pushed us down a rocky path telling us to "run and hurry!" away from angry Betty, because he "did not like the look in her eye."

Daisy and Jock
Giraffe Birth!
twiga!


pumba!

After we finished our tour of The Giraffe center, our matatu took us to a bead factory nearby, called Kazuri (which in swahili means something small and beautiful). Kazuri is a project that begin to help single mothers in Kenya. All of the bead-making, glazing, firing, and stringing is done by 300 single mothers. We toured the entire factory, and saw women forming the beads as well as some pottery and animal figurines from a dark gray clay and painting elaborate patterns on the dried beads. The woman who gave the tour said that they produce around 30,000 finished beads every day. Although they export most of their products around the world, there are currently over 100 women on a waitlist to work at Kazuri because they have not been having many foreign purchases recently. The necklaces and pottery is gorgeous! You can visit their website to see better pictures of their bead and pottery: www.Kazuri.com.

women painting and threading beads
painted beads before firing

This morning, we did an exercise called "The Drop Off". We were placed in groups of 3-4 people and dropped off at different locations around Nairobi for about 3 hours, and were told to find out as much as we could about the place by talking to different people.

On the matatu ride to Nairobi City Center, we drove right by Kibera, the largest slum of Nairobi and the second largest slum in all of Africa. Kibera has existed since 1918 and is a home to around 1 million Africans. It was an absolutely amazing site. We drove through forested and lush areas, with many outdoor gardens and nurseries. Then, upon rounding a corner, we the view was filled with gray and brown tin roofed huts. It was an amazing contrast. There were many people walking around, carrying a few goods to sell, and there many chickens running around.

on the road to Nairobi...
First view of Kibera

My group was dropped off near the Nairobi's Women Hospital and the Gender Violence Recovery Center (GVRC). The center was founded in 2001 to treat women and children affected by rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence. For all walk-ins to the center, they provide free PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) to prevent HIV/AIDS, emergency contraception, and counseling services. In addition, the Nairobi's women hospital provides prenatal, gynecological, and maternity services. It is a very modern facility, and the only health center in all of East Africa that specializes in women and children. This past year, the GVRC provided for 2805 individuals, 2357 of which were rape cases. We met with the public relations manager of the GVRC and NWH and received a tour of their facilities. We entered one of their recovery wards and met a women named Tilli who had suffered severe domestic violence and had been in the hospital for over 3 weeks. She was badly beaten, had burns covering 25% of her body and was in need of skin grafts. She was very quiet, but was kind enough to let us meet her and introduce ourselves.

After wondering around the area a little, we were picked up by Jazz (our magenta matatu) and shared stories. The other groups visited Jomo Kenyatta Hospital (and non-profit and the second largest hospital in all of Africa), Chuokikuu cha Nairobi (The University of Nairobi), the Nairobi train station, and the site of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy.

Today, I also learned about a really interesting thing called Mpesa. This is a program (supported by Safaricom and Zain) that allows people to hold and send money with their cell phones by simply texting it to another phone number. Next to all of the Visa ATMS you will always find a Mpesa station, where you can transfer money to your cell phone. This program started in Nairobi, and is becoming popular in other countries as well.

So far I having been having an amazing time, and love Kenya. There are only 15 students in the program, and we all come from different schools and have very different majors and interests, which makes our group discussion really interesting. I really like everyone in the program, and we have all bonded very quickly. I also love the academic directors, Jamal and Odoch.

My internet access has been very sporadic, so I will be blogging irregularly. Please check in, if just to look at the pictures!

Kwaheri!