Shujaa - Week 3, Nairobi, Kenya

               Today is the Saturday after my third week in Nairobi, and I’m currently sitting in a coffee shop called Java at a mall called YaYa. I love the name of this place and I’m so glad there’s a coffee shop about a ten minute walk away from Fridah’s apartment. It’s kind of nice being in here though because it’s known for being a place a lot of foreigners come to since the food is very similar to back home, and in Munich. I just ordered a banana chocolate milkshake :). That will make writing this blog so much more enjoyable (than it already is.)

                This week the program I worked with is called ‘Shujaa’ or ‘Hero’ in Swahili. They work to create a higher awareness of HIV throughout Kenya in different regions and DISCs (Drop-In Service Centers), or places they’ve set up their services. They mainly work with sex workers, who are generally women between the ages of 18-20 and some being as young as 16, truckers who overnight on the roads where sex workers work, and the general population. They have VCT centers (HIV, Counseling, and Testing) where people can come to get tested to find out if they’re positive, and then be told what their best options are if they are living a ‘positive’ life. Outside of Counseling they can also participate in Health Education classes, which teaches them about the overall and side effects of HIV, what condoms are and how to use them properly (condoms are a really weird concept to Kenyans because it’s ‘not natural’), and really just how to live their lives as safely as possible.  

Monday and Tuesday were days spent in the office, and Wednesday was the day we took our six hour trip to Eldoret, which is north of Nairobi and about two to four hours away from the Uganda border. Every quarter, the people in charge of Shujaa in the Nairobi office take certain trips to different DISCs in different cities to check up on them, see how everything is going, see how their target numbers are and whether they’re meeting them, etc. Basically that they’re providing something for the community that has been efficient and beneficial. The one in Eldoret is really young, and we also traveled two hours north of Eldoret to Kapenguria, which had just started in January of this year.

  When they told me the trip was going to be six hours my mouth dropped open—I’d had no idea it would take so long. But it may have been one of the fastest six hour car rides I’ve ever had. The scenery on the way to Eldoret is absolutely gorgeous, and I found myself taking more pictures of the scenery on the way there and back than I did throughout the whole trip at Eldoret. Every time you look out the window, there’s the gorgeous Rift Valley, gigantic saltwater lakes and ponds, animals of every kind (there were even zebras on the side of the road!!), small shacks that people live in, huts, and even mud houses the closer you got to Eldoret, which is a lot smaller than Nairobi and more rural. However, it is growing a lot, and I actually find it better than Nairobi. It’s quieter and calmer, with a lot of beautiful scenery. A lot in Nairobi is go-go-go, with different building projects, the roads always under construction, and I always feel like I’m on my toes. 

 

When driving into Eldoret, there’s a huge white wall saying ‘Welcome to Eldoret, the City of Champions’ and then it has the painted pictures and dates of all of the Olympic Champions from their town. I had completely forgotten about when Zeller always used to talk about how fast Kenyans were in high school! He’d always told us to run like gazelles or run like Kenyans, and the old memory made me smile. I asked whether the most champions came out of Eldoret because it appeared that most years were from this specific town. Catherine, who is the director of Shujaa, told me that there were two particular tribes who are actually known for dominating in track. She said in the 800m and faster Kenyans generally dominate the world, and have for years, and I think one girl from Kenya recently won a big race, but it wasn’t Olympic. The news on TV in Nairobi was showing it as ‘another win’ for Kenyans. I think it’s extremely interesting how these tribes, for whatever reason, just have a very specific gene for running so fast. They train every day their entire youth and young adult lives, win a gold medal, and can retire before they’re thirty. To me that’s amazing considering the amount of poverty you see in Kenya. One talent with one sport can completely change your life in a country that really struggles at times to support themselves.

The first place we drove to was one of the Shujaa Discs in the city, and they made us tea and had a general meeting to see how the Eldoret region is doing with the community so far for this quarter. PS Kenyans are obsessed with tea. Germans are obsessed with coffee. And now I’m being made into an addict of both worlds. Also when Kenyans drink tea, they don’t just put a tea bad in hot water, which is what I’m used to. They make really hot whole milk, put it in a large thermos, and then put tea bags in mugs and pour the milk from the thermos. My body is not used to the thickness and creaminess of the milk at all, and it has made me unbelievably sick on many occasions, so I have to stick to regular hot water. But they’re always incredibly surprised when I tell them I can’t drink the milk. 

Anyway, the meeting lasted for a couple of hours, and then after Catherine showed me around their facilities, which were so interesting. I’m always so curious to see how various places in general are set up, whether it be an office like Shujaa, a restaurant, a hotel, mall etc. Sometimes it looks like regular places like home and other times it looks like old, torn down-ish buildings on the outside, but fixed up nicely on the inside. I kinda like it. It’s really all you need. 

After the time at the Disc, we went to church at the Eldoret Church of Christ, which is also a sister church of Nairobi, Munich, and Clemson. I had no idea one existed in such a small town, but it was really encouraging because instead of being overwhelmed by many people, there was maybe around sixty and you could see they were all really close with one another. It reminded me a lot of Clemson. Their church gathering was in an old school building near a large field overlooking a few tall buildings from the city center. The sun was setting and streaming through the trees, while some of the school kids played soccer out in the large field. I tried taking a picture, but I feel like a picture just never gives such beautiful sites the justice they deserve.

After church we went downtown to find food to eat, and specifically that my body wouldn’t reject, which took a little bit since it was getting dark and the night life was picking up. As soon as I got out of the truck, a child came up to me asking how I was, telling me their name, and that they wanted to go to school. Then a couple more kids ran up to me and starting saying the same things, and Catherine, Rosaline, and Boogwa pulled me away from them and said to keep walking. 

Apparently there are a lot of street kids in Eldoret due to the elections from 2007. I didn’t know this beforehand, but apparently around that time they had a new election and after their current president was elected, riots broke out everywhere and people kind of lost their minds. There were killings, bombings, fires, and all kinds of devastation. Many kids lost their parents and homes, making street children a lot bigger problem than they’d ever previously been. That was really scary, and sad, because these kids out of desperation and hunger are turning into people that they shouldn’t be forced to be.

After we ate, we went to our hotel called Pacifica, which was just recently built and on the outside of town, and quieter. This hotel was SO NICE. I was absolutely shocked due to the fact that the room they gave me was bigger than Fridah’s room and my StuSta room combined times three. And they gave me two beds, there was a balcony, and I had a gigantic bathroom and wireless. I haven’t had wireless at night outside of the office since I’ve been to Nairobi, so I was extremely excited. (Unfortunately, however, it did cause me to lose more sleep than necessary.) The first night I was also having issues with the plug. I have an American plug, a European converter, and nothing to fit in the wall. So the staff downstairs took almost twenty minutes looking for an adaptor for me while I watched ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ in the lobby with Zac Efron. An American movie in English in a foreign country on TV was a beautiful thing. Although I think hearing Zac Efron in German or Swahili would have been highly entertaining as well.

My hotel room!

Thursday was another traveling day further north from Eldoret. We had breakfast at the hotel breakfast buffet (and they had normal food!!!) and then drove to the building they’re thinking of utilizing as a Disc for Eldoret. It’s a truck stop road a little ways out from the city center, and a really excellent location. You can always tell when a highway generally has a lot of large trucks because the trucks are usually so weighed down with what they’re hauling, that it leaves deep gauges in the road from the tires. The weight from the trucks literally changes the shape of the roads, making it miserable to drive on at times. The building they want to use is located directly in front of a lodge for truckers, which actually works really well for the program because one of the lodge rooms is going to be permanently turned into an HIV testing room, allowing truckers to privately come in and test at will.

After seeing the office (and stopping a market with houses made out of mud!), we drove two hours north to Kitengela, which is where they’ve just started the January Shujaa program. We met the Kitengela Shujaa coordinator at a restaurant and then they showed us their ‘possible VCT/Discs buildings’ and any implementation ideas. Katherine and Rosaline had a meeting to attend, so Boogwa and I went to the Kapenguria Museum. I had no idea what to expect at first since it was such a small town, but I very quickly learned about Kenya’s famous ‘Kapenguria Six’ that were imprisoned in this small town. The cells they were locked in were behind a sign labeled ‘The Heroes Cells’, and each cell had the name of where each person stayed. Biographies were placed in the cells of each person, along with their portrait. One cell was ‘dressed up’ to look like it had when they’d stayed there, which consisted of a weaved carpet and big tin bucket for waste.

The story of the “Kapenguria Six” is really long, but really interesting, so here’s a link to them on Wikipedia. Kenyans adore these men, and they’re famous in Africa. Seriously, educate yourselves!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapenguria_Six

 

There was a lady who gave us a tour and she was very sweet. We went in and through each part of the museums they had, which basically displayed various tribes from their region and how they used to look like, dress, the tools they used, and houses they lived in. She took us to an area behind the buildings that had four mud houses! I got so excited because I’ve always wanted to see what they look like on the inside. There was a house for the ‘first wife’, the ‘second wife’, the ‘first boy’, the ‘livestock’ for nighttime and a large pen area for during the day. We took lots of pictures and at one point the lady asked me if my head was burning (because I’m white), and got really excited when we took a picture together inside a mud house. She liked me because I’m a Musungu haha. 

After the museum we picked Katherine and Rosaline up and went to get lunch before heading back to Eldoret. Boogwa wanted to stop and get fish for dinner, so we waited in the car and devoured mangos. Mangos are so popular here and Kenyans eat them like champs. I eat them like a child, with it all over my face and clothes, and they serious have no such problems. Then Catherine went to meet a friend in the city while Rosaline and I got tea and food, and talked for a while. 

Thursday night I also had an epiphany about my life and freaked out looking up ten million things on the internet as far as jobs, internships, and volunteer stuff with CDC, DSW (a German company has a partnership with HOPE in Kenya, and they even have an office here!), and then graduate programs involving public health (HIV) and the Master’s International programs. Master’s Internationals are graduate programs partnered with Peace Corps, where the first two years of graduate are done at the university, and the last two are done at the country you’re assigned to or have chosen. The problem for me is that they don’t have partnerships with medical schools, so I’m looking at having to choose between graduate school and medical school. CDC offers a specific fellowship for medical students in their third year (clinical year) where they’re allowed to practice in a foreign country, but only if their interested in doing international work. And it looks very competitive.

I think part of me is really trying to push away the idea of medical school just because of the stigma that comes with American medical schools. I’m just really not interested in going back into the dog-eat-dog approach to school like being pre-med produces. I know a lot of other programs are hardcore too, but there’s something about medicine that’s just unbelievably cut-throat and aggressive, and I don't like the idea of being pushed into that personality type just to succeed in medical school. I just want to be like Patch Adams and build my own hospital and play with kids all day. Is that really too much to ask? I still have time though, so thank goodness I don’t have to choose between MCATs and GREs just yet. I find standardized testing unbelievably irritating by the way. I felt like that opinion was important to include in this blog.

Friday I woke up early to meet for breakfast and head to another meeting at a clinic called AMPATH. They wanted to meet with Shujaa basically because both programs are fighting to help the community in the same ways, and they’re afraid of reporting the same numbers and making it seem as if more people are being helped than actually are. I actually found the meeting very entertaining because the two groups were forced into agreeing to a partnership, but you could see from both sides that neither was budging, and neither was going to pack up and leave Eldoret. So it turned into this very polite form of ‘we refuse to leave’ game. It took three hours for them to decide to partner and find specific actions to move forward. However, It was an overall encouraging meeting for both sides because now they can work to make a lot of progress in the community together.

This coming week I will start working with Fridah and her Blood Safety department, and then continue with them next week since, on Wednesday, I’M GOING ON A THREE DAY SAFARI TRIP to Masai Mara!!!! I’m so excited. I’m going as a single in a group of seven other people I don’t know, but I’m okay with that because it’s a safari and I’ll be taking tons of pictures anyway. And they’ll probably be tourists like me from other countries, which is always something interesting to look forward to.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I can’t wait to write about working with Fridah and the safari trip!

Until next week, Jessica

PS: Here's a link from the HOPE Worldwide website about the 'Sleeping Children around the World' day in Mukuru. Enjoy! 

http://hopewwkenya.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=330:sleeping-children-around-the-world-scaw-visits-mukuru&catid=45:care-a-support-information&Itemid=263

Orphans and Vulnerable Children - Week 2, Nairobi, Kenya

                  I am now sitting at my desk at HOPE’s office finishing up my second week in Nairobi. I can’t believe two weeks have passed already! The time here is going way too fast. This week has actually been a very eventful, emotional week. I’ve had a mixture of culture shock, homesickness (for US and Germany), extreme problems adjusting to the food here (I literally recognize nothing I eat), and learning how the people and children of Mukuru really live, which I will explain a little later. Not to mention, adjusting to the city of Nairobi has actually been pretty hard for me due to the fact that the driving here is terrifying, the Matatu’s make me really uncomfortable (which is what we take at least three times a day), everyone gawks at me when I walk by, dust is everywhere which has been taking a toll on my eyes, and Swahili is everywhere, which can make me feel a little isolated at times. Hopefully that doesn’t sound like I’m complaining, but if anyone ever plans to travel to Nairobi, those are definite things to look out and prepare for. I’ve loved my time here though, and I’m so glad I’ve actually gotten to see a place that isn’t ‘perfectly put together’. You really have to know this city to make it without help.

                This week I worked with a program called “Orphans and Vulnerable Children” (OVC). This is the program that I originally said I wanted to work with while here, but I’ve changed my schedule since then to have a broader understanding of the programs here. For example, instead of working with OVC again next week, I’ll be working with Shuuja and traveling with them to the western part of Kenya. At least this way I can try to get a feel for what I might enjoy/connect with the most.

OVC is the smallest program at HOPE, but they’re working on trying to expand it. They currently have one director, George, and one employed staff, Makena. Everyone else contributing to OVC is volunteers, which consist mostly of people who actually live in Mukuru. Some live in the actual slums, and others live right near it. The program has found that residents of the slum are willing to be more cooperative and comfortable when they have “neighbors” working with them. They also have “caregivers”, who are people from the slum community that work with OVC staff to help the overall effectiveness and efficiency of each program carried out in the community.

For example, on Thursday Makena and I sat with a group of women (caregivers) and discussed the bathrooms (which are basically home-made port-o-potties) that are being installed throughout the community. OVC is going to pay for 20-30 percent of the costs to install, and the community has to work together to pay the remaining percentage. This method gives the community the chance to take pride in what they have, and work together to become more responsible and appreciative of their surroundings.

The overall goal of OVC is to improve the well-being and protection of orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya by building the capacity of families and communities to cope and respond to the needs within their households and communities. The also work to increase comprehensive and integrated care and support for OVC, increase the capacity of affected families to care for and support OVC, and increase the capacity of key community stakeholders like schools, faith-based organizations, and civic and youth groups to identify and support OVC. Qualifications for the children to be accepted in the program are that they must have at least one deceased parent, an HIV+ parent, a chronically ill parent, or no parents.

Monday Makena and I stayed in the HOPE office, and Tuesday was our first day out in the field. Their method of keeping records of the children is very far behind, and every now and then they have to go through the hundreds of hard-copies and do random house checks to make sure each child is still in Mukuru, that they are doing well, and that their parents are still with them. If a child cannot be found, the parents are sought after. If the parents can’t be found, the child is assumed to have moved and is dropped from the program in order to allow new kids in.

Tuesday was literally spent going through every single record, and trying to get them organized. It took them over three days to finish it all. Toward the end of the day, a volunteer from Mukuru named Purity showed me all of the different programs HOPE has just in their fenced-off area. They have a VTC building (HIV Testing and Counseling), a hair-dressing studio, sowing and knitting studio, and two computer rooms for the kids to learn all of the functions of computers and even play video games. However, all of the video games are created to encourage learning and positive decision-making.

There was one part of the day though, that really got to me emotionally. As I mentioned, bathrooms are being installed in certain locations where the homes are. George, Jacinta, Makena, and I traveled to those areas to check out how big they were and how realistic it would be to install stalls there. For whatever reason, up until that point, I hadn’t realized that I hadn’t seen the actual homes of the people there. I spent time with the children the first day in the HOPE area, and we always drive past the market stands they set up….but I never saw the actual homes until Tuesday. On the way there, so many kids got excited about a “Musungu” being in their community and they would run up to me, smile, stick out the hand to shake mine, and run away giggling. It feels weird when that happens, but I also love it because it helps me in meeting more of the children.

I didn’t take any pictures of the homes, and I don’t plan to because there is no picture or video or words that can justify the actual experience of being right there. And me taking pictures of their conditions seems intrusive and insensitive. I have never seen the conditions that they live in, and I honestly didn’t know how to respond, and still don’t. There is a small stream running through the area that should have been used for fresh drinking water, but over the years it’s been turned into a sewer and bathroom for the residents. Those who don’t use the stream, generally use a small trash bag, and throw it in a self-made dump they have off to the side of their houses. It’s literally mounds and mounds of trash in that area. There is trash everywhere, and the smell is hard to take at times. Children walk everywhere in dirty clothes, no shoes, and if they’re not playing, they’re sitting on the dirty ground watching their parents or people passing by. The houses are made of cardboard, metal, and wood scraps. Some places do have electricity and lighting, but that’s only in the newer section of the homes.

We went to two locations that are planned to have bathrooms installed, and at the second one, there was two girls who looked my age and a small girl around 1 or 2 sitting outside on the ground. The group I was with was discussing the bathroom plans in Swahili, so I stood off to the side so I wouldn’t be in the way. The little girl was holding on to one of the girl’s legs and staring at me, with a completely confused and curious look on her face. She literally had one of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen. I squatted down to her level so I wouldn’t look so intimidating, and she slowly sat up and walked to me. She stood a few feet back and stared, so I smiled and held out my hand to her. She slowly walked forward, looking timid, and eventually placed her hand in mine. I asked her what her name was, even though I sadly knew it was no use since she was too young to have started learning English. One of the girls said her name was Dianna. Still holding her hand, I asked her if that was her name. As soon as she heard her name her face lit up with a radiant smile, and she nodded and pointed to herself. And before I knew it I had started crying. I still have no idea why exactly, but for whatever reason, this small girl, in a green, ripped sweater, and a faded, dirty pink dress, was the breaking point for everything I was seeing around me in Mukuru. She pulled her hand from mine, and went to grab a green comb from one of the girl’s hair and brought it to me, looking so proud. I told her how much I liked it, and smiled a lot to let her know I thought it was just as special as she did. She grabbed my hand again, and kept smiling. Not long after, the group I was with was ready to go, and so I had to say goodbye to Dianna. I quietly cried the whole walk back, still having no idea how to process everything I’d just seen.

Wednesday was a shorter day, and I spent a lot of time in the HOPE office at Mukuru organizing the computer data on the children. A lot of it was out of order and I spent about four hours in Excel trying to get everything organized for the home-checks we’d be doing on Thursday. We had to leave early that day because Makena had a test in the city and it takes a really long time to travel there.

That night we also had Midweek at the YMCA building. Last week we started doing a really interesting study on what the Bible says about the difference between a person’s soul, spirit, heart, mind, body, how they are different levels, and what influences outside the body affects/alters each level. I think one of the most incredible points was that we all were given five senses to fully engage with the world around us. Our influences from different experiences in life make us who we are. And it’s almost as if without those five senses, we wouldn’t be able to change, grow, learn, and find the steps necessary in becoming who we are or who we can be.

Thursday was a very exhausting day. We did home visits on these days, along with more hard-copy filing before heading out to the homes. We visited three different homes, which is only 1/7^th of all the homes that still need to be checked. Each home check serves the purpose of examining each child and their conditions, and basically seeing whether OVC is making a positive difference in their home-life. The first home consisted of a young boy, his younger sister, a father who’d recently lost his wife, and the grandmother. They were very sweet and very hospitable, even offering to make us tea and stay longer. They seemed to be in good spirits, considering.

The second home was the sad one for all of us. The mother was sitting on a stool when we walked in, just gazing out the window while her neighbor’s child slept on the bed behind her. She has two young boys, and just recently lost her husband. She’s been refusing HIV testing, but it’s written all over her body, face, and eyes that she’s infected. She won’t take the HIV medicine and had to be classified as ‘in denial’, and in dire need of receiving counseling. Otherwise she will die within the next year, leaving her two young boys without any parents.

Her youngest boy came in from school halfway through our talk with her, and stared wildly at me for a minute or so. George, who speaks English wonderfully, smiled and asked him if he could tell us about himself and school day in English. The little boy smiled shyly in response and sat down beside his mother on a small, plastic chair. He proceeded to tell us his name, age, what grade he was in, what he wanted to be when he grew up, and read a small piece of paper for us, which unfortunately stated that in order for him to continue with his schooling, his family needs to pay 1,040 Kenyan schillings, or thirteen dollars. For them, that’s a lot more money than they actually have. Many kids have to stop schooling once they get to his age because they don’t have the money to move on high school. Primary school here is free though.

The third home was actually very nice on the inside. She even had electricity, a small TV, DVD player, and nice decorations on the wall.  Her littlest girl was also fast asleep on the floor face down, and half under the bed the mother was sitting on. They talked in Swahili for a long time, and then she turned to me, with everything in perfect English, saything that she lost her husband last year and she now has to sell fish outside of their house to support her three children. I was caught completely off-guard and had no idea how to respond. All I could say was that I was sorry, and felt my face turning red. It’s one thing for them to translate the Swahili conversation to English for me, but when it actually comes from the person who’s living through it, your heart literally breaks for them.

That day I had also learned that my cubicle buddy at the HOPE office, Gibson, actually comes from the slums, which completely shocked me. While we were waiting to do the home-visits, he asked if I wanted to go for a small walk around the HOPE area. He then proceeded to share his story with me of how his dad left his family when he and his siblings were young, forcing his mother to move them to the Mukuru slums. He is the oldest of his siblings, making him ‘head of the household’. He earned very good marks in primary school, but when it came time for his to move to high school, his family didn’t have the money. He said he decided to contact his father, who has a lot of money apparently, and ask him to support his schooling. However, his father refused and Gibson was left having no idea how to move forward academically. By the way, he was only around twelve years old at this time.

Eventually he was told that he would be sponsored to move on to high school (which is not common at all), and he continued his education, still earning high marks. He started a club at his high school, which allowed them to travel to the US and do an exchange with a few schools, which eventually led to a family that he’d met in the States sponsoring his education for college (also doesn’t happen often). He earned his degree and got a job offer from HOPEww Kenya, where he’s been now working for the last five years. I also learned that he only moved out of Mukuru two years ago, and that he has supported his two younger sisters in getting out of Mukuru and continuing their educations and starting businesses. He said half of his friends he grew up with died when they were younger due to just basically losing hope that they could have something better. But he actually made it out. And he’s one of the few who have.

 Thursday night I actually got really sick from all of this Kenyan food, and decided to go to the office on Friday instead of taking the 2.5 hour complicated ride out to Mukuru. I was able to help Makena prepare for a presentation she has for OVC, and relax from everything I’d experienced this week. I also got to talk to my parents on Skype, which always makes me feel better. Friday night Malinda (American) and her husband from Ethiopia hosted a Bible talk night, and we all made dinner together. While the adults talked after, I watched Spongebog Squarepants with the kids! I seriously haven’t watched an American kid show since I left the States and it felt soo nice. We also watched Kung Fu Panda J. Little pieces of home are the best, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

Today is Saturday and Fridah and I are relaxing this morning in her apartment and then going into the city to grocery shop and get her hair done. We promised each other we would relax today, since the latest we’ve gotten up since I’ve been here is 7 am. We slept in until 8:15 am today. It was glorious. Tomorrow we have church at the big church with all the Nairobi members, consisting of over 1,600 people. And then after service there’s going to be another wedding! I’m so serious, literally everyone is getting married, engaged, or pregnant right now. It’s crazy.

Well, this is going to be the end of Week 2 in Kenya. I look forward to writing about new experiences next week with the Shuuja program. Until then, I wish you all a great week and many thanks for taking the time to keep up with my adventures! It really helps me in not having to repeat my life 20+ times.

Alles Liebe, Jessica

Kenyan Wedding: Kiki and Amos, March 3, 2012

               On Saturday the 3^rd of March, I had the amazing privilege of attending the wedding of a young couple in the Nairobi Christian Church, a sister church of my church in Munich, Clemson, and Greenville. The couple’s names are Kiki and Amos, both in their mid-twenties. They worked together for a while, and Amos eventually asked her out to church. She started coming and eventually they started dating, and got engaged. The wedding was held at the church’s very large building (they have over 1,500 members), along with the reception. I was so excited to be able to attend my first wedding in the church, and an African wedding. When some of the people that I work with learned I would be attending the wedding, they all commented on what an incredible experience that would be for me. And let me tell you, African weddings are the best weddings.

                Fridah, my ‘African Mom’ and roommate, did the make-up for Kiki, so we had to wake up especially early and meet Kiki, her family, and bridesmaids at the pastor (John) of the church’s house because his wife was feeding everyone and Kiki lives right next door to them. There were so many people in such a small space! It was a little overwhelming, especially with all of the Swahili around me, not to mention, I’m still having a really hard time understanding their English because of how strong their accents are. Kenyans have amazingly good English, however they have phrases that are so different from American English, so that when I do understand what they’re saying…I still don’t understand what they’re saying. I did learn that when a little boy or man looks handsome, they say they look ‘smart’ instead. And instead of ‘my friend gave me a ride’, they say ‘my friend dropped me’. And the most confusing one for me at first was instead of ‘I’m eating this’, they say ‘I’m taking this’. I always want to be a smart-aleck and ask where they’re taking it, but I refrain. I love it though. I love that they’ve made English into their own thing. 

                The wedding ceremony was supposed to start at 11 am, and the bride was two hours late. But apparently ‘it’s Africa’ and ‘it always happens’, according to Fridah. But when the bride and bridesmaids arrived, they were absolutely gorgeous. The bridesmaids came down one by one, and each of the groomsmen stuck their arms out halfway, and walked them the rest of the way. They each had nine attendants. The bride’s parents both walked her down the aisle and gave her away. I really liked that idea, instead of it just being the father. That makes more sense to me to have both parents walk their daughter down the aisle.  I took so many videos because it was so beautiful, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to add them to Facebook until I get back to Munich, because so far no videos have been working. 

                The service started with a prayer, worship songs including “How Great is Our God” and two African songs in Swahili that sounded amazing with so many people. After that John gave a message on Amos 3:3 (“Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?”), Jeremiah 29:11, and Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”). I was honestly so grateful to not have heard “Love is patient, love is kind…”.  That is an excellent scripture, but it’s overused for weddings. I just thought it was really encouraging that they took the time to explain marriage from a biblical perspective of love rather than the cheesy emotional part that sometimes doesn’t have the depth needed to make a marriage last. I hope that doesn’t sound rude or judgmental because I honestly don't understand what that kind of commitment really is or means yet, but as I grow older I certainly want to keep learning.

                They then said their vows, and “I Do’s”, and went on stage to sign their marriage certificate. After they came back down, a group of their guy friends performed for them, and then a young girl sang a song from Luther Vandross, all of which sounded amazing. They finished the ceremony by playing fun African music really loud and the bride and groom dancing together back up the aisle, followed by their bridesmaids and groomsmen. Even the kids were dancing behind them. I took a video of it because it made me smile so much.

                The bride and groom went to take picture while the rest of us ate lunch, and enjoyed the entertainment. The food was beef, rice, and vegetables, which is generally what they eat. It tasted good, but it’s always in such large proportions that I can’t ever finish all of it, which I think feels rude. And to drink they had cases and cases of many flavored Fantas. I don’t think I’ve ever even drank a Fanta before, and that’s seriously seems to be one of the most popular drinks they serve here. They even had a pineapple flavor. 

                After eating, the entertainers, who were four tall, nice guys dressed in black sweaters with green, red, and yellow-shaped diamonds going down the front called all of the ladies forward to begin dancing. He said that the ladies were to keep dancing until the wedding couple arrived. Apparently when they have an early wedding here instead of a night wedding, the bride and groom’s “first dance” is being welcomed in by the guests rather than them dancing alone to ‘their song’ in the middle. Fridah told me to get up so that she could teach me how to dance. I smiled at her, got up, and jumped right in with all of the ladies dancing, and she was like “Hoo ahh yoh?” in her strong African accent. It was so awkward because I was the only white person out of seriously over five hundred people. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. And I’ve also never heard the word “Musungu” (white person) more in my life. It’s so funny because if we said anything like that about another race in the states, we’d be in so much trouble. 

                We probably danced for a couple of hours out in the hot sun, but despite the heat I thoroughly enjoyed it. After all of the dancing, we sat down while the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and other friends and family shared about the newlyweds. Then people lined up in front of them to give them their gifts. An envelope was also passed around to donate money to the couple. So different! Then they cut the cake and handed out really small square pieces to everyone. Some of the small pieces were even wrapped up in plastic and tied with string that matched the color scheme of the wedding. And then after that, we all said our goodbyes and the couple left for their honeymoon.

         

       This event literally lasted the whole day, but I’m extremely glad I was able to participate in such a monumental event, and especially to see it from a different culture’s perspective!

I will post Week 2 Blog soon, even though I haven’t started it…

I hope everyone has had a great week. Love from Nairobi.

Jess

Karibu Nairobi, Kenya! Week 1

               Right now I am sitting on my bed that’s in the room I will be living in for the next five weeks. I am officially in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. I still cannot believe that I am here, and waking up at 5:30 this morning made me so groggy and completely confused. It took me a minute or two to realize I wasn’t in Munich, which in hindsight is improvement from waking up in Germany and thinking I was in America. After not sleeping the day/night before (I can’t sleep on airplanes), the five hours of sleep I got just did not feel like enough. But that’s okay because I’m sure I’ll be getting a lot of sleep tonight.

                I left from Munich on the 27^th at 7:10 am, had a connection in London, and then arrived in Nairobi at 10 pm. One of the ladies, Sarah Josiah, who works with HOPE Worldwide, the organization I’m working with, picked me up from the airport with her 9-year-old daughter Aisha. It was so weird because I had to withdraw Kenyan money due to the fact that all I had were Euros and American money. By the way, the currency here is Kenyan Shillings, and so different from Euros and Dollars. When the options were given to me on the ATM screen asking how much to withdraw, it ranged from 1,000 KS to 10,000 KS. My mouth literally dropped open because my mind immediately thinks in Dollars or Euros now. However, one US dollar is equal to 80 Kenyan Shillings. So once you do the math, it’s not really that big of a deal. It’s even kind of fun spending 100 KS and it only equals $1.20.

                Sarah, Aisha, and I drove to where I’m living for the next five weeks, which is with a lady who is a part of the church and works with HOPE. Her name is Fridah (it reminds me of zufrieden in German, and that makes me happy), she’s twice my age and extremely sweet and hospitable. Her room is just a little bigger than mine in Studentenstadt and she’s sharing it with me for over a month. If any of you know how small my room is in Stusta, than you absolutely understand that it’s not made for more than one person, and how much she is sacrificing by letting me stay there.   

By the way, the weather here is INCREDIBLE. I was and have so much been looking forward to the warmth after having been frozen to death for the last three months or so. I haven’t worn a jacket at all since I’ve been here J. And on my first day on our trip out to one of the slums HOPE works with, Mukuru, the weather still did not disappoint. I was sweating only after an hour of being there. And I think for maybe the first time in my life, I was not complaining about hot weather. Before going there, Fridah and I walked to a hotel where a volunteer group from Canada was staying at, and they were going to Mukuru with us to distribute everything their program collected for the kids. They work with program called “Sleeping Children around the World”, and I’m pretty sure it’s not in the United States. Here’s the link though, if you are interested in checking it out: http://www.scaw.org/about/index.html.

They were the nicest group of people, two older married couples, and a younger engaged couple in their late twenties. They were cracking up together the entire time and made everything extremely light-hearted and fun. Plus they are all very well-traveled and had some amazing stories to tell about their adventures. We drove from the hotel to the slums, and OH MY GOSH, the driving here is insane. First off, they drive on the opposite side of the road (when there is a road), and second off, there are no lines dividing the two sides of the road. And no one really follows the driving rules here, everyone drives all over the place (Mom, don’t freak out). And then by the time we got to Mukuru, the road started to get extremely bumpy and eroded, which reminded me a lot of the roads we drove through in Panama three years ago. On the way to the HOPE section in Mukuru, many shacks were set up with people selling the most random things. Things ranged from shoes, to food, to hair dressers, to furniture shops, to auto-mechanic repair, to even a mini store selling Apple products. It was so odd to see these places that are so normal in everyday life, minimalized into a shack, with no windows, and broken doors. It looked so out of place, and confusing because I couldn’t understand how these people could sell these products when they couldn’t afford a home, or a safe building to sell them in. 

                The slums of Mukuru are home to over 600,000 people. Most of these people have left their rural homes because of poverty and came to the city in the hope of finding work. Some are successful but the majority, being unskilled and uneducated, remain jobless. They live in very poor shacks made from cardboard or plastic material while those who are a little better off have houses made from corrugated iron sheets. The one-roomed houses are approximately ten by ten feet and have no sanitation or running water. There is no waste collection and most of the waste, household and other, goes directly into a nearby river. About 60% of Nairobi’s population lives in slum conditions. Slum dwellers pay rent for their shacks to landlords who ‘own’ the land. The amount varies from US $12-25 per month depending on the location of the house. There is no space for children to play. There are no recreation facilities for adults or children with the exception of bars, video shops, pool tables. Many turn to local brew, drugs and crime.

We spent the majority of the day giving over 700 kids living  in Mukuru pajamas and bed sets from the program in Canada. However, it took a very long time for a job that shouldn’t have taken the whole day. The problem is that some kids were not eligible to receive the pjs and bed sets because they were not as ‘needy’ as other kids in Mukuru. So those kids and their parents sat outside of the barred wires all day, looking in and watching, with some of the kids even crying. The sad part is that children had to be given their beds one by one, and marked with a black marker on their thumbs after getting them in order to make sure the kids who weren’t eligible for beds didn’t sneak in and steal a kid’s who was eligible, or the same kid trying to take a second bed that wasn’t theirs. Apparently things like that happen a lot there, and it’s usually because the parents of the kids are encouraging their kids to do it. I think that’s the saddest part of all.

My job for the day was to take pictures of the children, which I was extremely happy to do. I ended taking 345 pictures only having been there for a day. Almost every single picture is of the kids. I was told constantly to just go up to the kids and take pictures of them, but I felt like I was invading their personal spaces. But then I quickly found out why they said that—the kids LOVE taking pictures, cameras, and seeing themselves in the pictures. They were absolutely adorable, posing, laughing, showing peace signs, ‘modeling’ for me, and some were even trying to teach me some Swahili. There were two younger girls who at one point asked me to come sit with them under the white tent in some chairs. I was really confused and followed to be polite. They looked really shy at first, and then they started singing to me! It was so precious; they sang “Stand By Me” and sounded so good! And while they sang, other girls played with my hair (my favoriteeee) and asked how I got my hair so soft haha. The kids of Mukuru are really delightful, and I’m so excited to continue working with them for the next five weeks.

After Mukuru, Fridah and I went to the grocery store, and I was incredibly impressed by their selection. I guess my only previous view of Africa was like slums, tribes, safaris…very stereotypical stuff, and it’s weird to me that there’s a semblance of normalcy here, like in Germany or America. They do have little weird things though—the city bus is really sketchy, looks broken down, and has no indication that it is the city bus, but it only costs about 20 Ksh per ride. They also have these super sketchy vans called 'Matatu’s, which are vans that people literally just buy and ride all over the city, charging people however much they want and driving like crazies. My first experience with a Matatu was the door man (they have door mans because of how fast they go, you literally have to run into the van before they start back up again and shut the door in your face) sticking up his middle finger up at me, and the second time a lady fell out from the side and almost landed on her head on the ground. Needless to say, they’re not my most favorite contraption in the world.

                Wednesday was my first day at the HOPE Worldwide office and I finally was able to access the internet since I’ve been here! It was so nice because it always helps me in feeling some connection with both of my homes. I received some emails from Clemson, some in German, and a few from Africa as well. I’m literally at the point where I’m living three lives and spreading myself across three countries. I find it very exhausting at times. Even at Midweek (they’re called the Nairobi Christian Church) I was introduced as Jessica Kirkus from Munich, Germany, and then at the end of the message I was Jessica from South Carolina. Everyone was extremely confused, and had no idea whether I was German or American. Ha, welcome to my life. It was cute though because they kept asking me how to say things in German at first because they thought I was a real German. That made me really happy. Not because I’m trying to prove myself as a German, but just because it helps me feel a stronger connection with Germany as my current home. I won’t be able to call it home much longer and any chance to meet new people while I’m living there is just really exciting. Not to mention, I was really glad to not just be another American showing up that only knows the English language.

                I was supposed to have my orientation at the HOPE office on Wednesday, but I got an email from my research professor saying I needed to get my research paper in as soon as possible so that Clemson will release my scholarship money for second semester. So I literally spent most of the day writing my research paper and getting situated with little things like paperwork, meeting the staff, finishing my Paris blog, and uploading the photos I took from the first day in Mukuru. I even got to skype my mom twice, and David and Patrick once. And then I went with one of the lady’s there (about half of the employees at HOPE are a part of the church) to Midweek.

                I had no idea what to expect for church here. I didn’t know what language anything would be in, how everyone would respond to me being there, if they had anyone my age, how big they were, and I felt myself getting extremely shy like I first did when I got to Munich. The Nairobi church has around 1,500 people, which is the biggest I’ve ever been a part of. They were really sweet and welcoming, with half of the songs in English and the other ones in Swahili. Although I had no idea what the Swahili ones were saying, they were my favorites out of the songs played. When they switched to those songs, they didn’t just sing and sway back and forth, instead they shouted, they laughed, they danced, they played these huge bongo drums, and they just had soul. It sounded incredibly amazing and I caught myself smiling the entire time. The message was in English (thank God) as well. And at the end one couples announced their engagement, and another couple I had just met is getting married on Saturday and invited me to their wedding. Apparently in Africa, everyone is invited to the wedding, and I think that’s really cool, and encouraging. It will be the first wedding in the church that I’ve been to since being baptized J. I’m so, so excited.

Thursday and Friday consisted of much information concerning Orientation. There are many different sectors, jobs, and roles in HOPE, all of which are very interesting. The more I learn about what they do, the more I feel like I could want to be a part of something like this one day. They work together as a team to really build their community. They have this passion that I really haven’t seen in a work area before. True, my experiences are limited, but if there’s ever a chance in the future where I could be a part of something like this, I don’t know if I could say no to it. I found out today that I will be working with three different programs while I’m here. For my first week, starting on Monday, I will be working with ‘Orphans and Vulnerable Children’ (OVC), the second week I’m working with Shuuja, which is Swahili for ‘hero’, and then with the Blood department, which I’m not entirely sure entails, I just know there’s a huge blood shortage in Nairobi and Kenya. I will be sure to write out in detail what each program is about in my next blogs, but for now I’m going to end this one.

My first week has been really exciting, tiring, nerve-wracking, but super beneficial in helping me figure out what my passion is so that I can follow that passion down whatever road I want to take in life. I don’t ever want to pursue something I don’t truly have a passion for because I know myself well enough to be sure that I will never  be able to force myself to have enough patience for it. But so far, this feels like the right direction. I’m not sure whether I’ll have internet next week, but if I do, I’ll do my best to post a Week 2 blog then. The internet here is really slow, so I’m going to wait until I get back to Munich to post pictures. Until then I hope you all enjoy my ridiculously longs blogs!

Love, Jessica 

Links to photos on Facebook:

Sleeping Children Around the World:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151381371380235.829331.654390234&type=1

Random:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151381350015235.829321.654390234&type=3